APSA Newsletter - Phi Psi, 2008 Winter, Volume 2, No. 3

From the Editors

Kofi Mensah and Kim Gannon, APSA Newsletter Co-editors and APSA Public Relations Committee Members

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Welcome to the latest edition of Phi-Psi, the newsletter for APSA. Inside, you'll find two articles on the first ever APSA regional meetings, which were held on November 17th 2007 at Caltech in Pasadena and at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC. Over 100 people attended each meeting, and 40+ institutions were represented, including undergraduates looking to learn more about a physicianscientist career. Speakers included a former NIH director and leaders from academia and industry. There was even a chocolate fondue fountain at one meeting!

Our feature article this edition is about finding a collective voice within your institution via an MD-PhD student council. The article offers insight and suggestions on how to form a student council, or, if you've already got one, you may get some new ideas for improvement. This article will no doubt be a springboard for conversation among the institutional reps at the upcoming annual meeting. From the Policy Committee, we have an article on an issue of importance to us all: the preliminary results of the recent APSA survey on the proposed changes to the USMLE are in. Find out what the 7,200+ students who participated had to say.

From the President

Freddy T. Nguyen, APSA President (2007-2008)

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Since the last installment of the APSA newsletter, there has been a fury of activities within APSA, some readily apparent and some more behind the scenes which you will get to hear in more detail throughout this newsletter. November proved to be a busy travel month for many members of our leadership as we organized and attended regional meetings in California and New York which; both of which were very successful. The rise of the APSA regional meetings has been moving at quite a rapid pace as we started with our first regional meeting in Texas in 2006 . Based on the current feedback, there are tentative plans in place to plan for three regional meetings in 2008 to be held in California, New York, and Texas. These are being planned for late October - early November, so be on the lookout for future announcements on these meetings. If you are interested in helping plan these meetings, please contact us at apsa@physicianscientists.org and we can put you in touch with the right leaders.

A Voice of Our Own: The Birth of a Student Council

Debbie Dao, Institutional Representative (2007-08), University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

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In 2002, second-year MD/PhD student Marlene Mathews decided that it was time that the MD/PhD program at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (URSMD) had its own student council. She was struck by the fact that the MD/PhD program is "fragmented by its very nature," particularly in graduate training when students separate into their respective departments and have little chance to interact with other students in the program. Marlene notes, "the medical and graduate schools [had] always had student councils, but this was lacking for MD/PhD students," who have unique needs. It was time to "take initiative in building a [more cohesive] community."

The pursuit to become the next generation of physician-scientists: APSA provides an opportunity to get connected in California

Shwayta Kukreti, Ph.D., APSA Vice President, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California at Irvine

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This year the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) held the first ever California Regional Conference in Pasadena, California. On Saturday November 17, 2007, nearly 100 members and guests attended the meeting at the Beckman Institute at the California Institute for Technology. The attendants included students from across California including UC-San Diego, UCLA, UCIrvine, UC-Riverside, UC-San Francisco, USC, Cal-Tech, Pomona College, and Loma Linda University. Furthermore, parents, faculty, and program administrators also attended.

APSA NYC Regional Meeting in Review

Zachary Dezman, Institutional Representative, Albany Medical College

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David Braun opens the symposiumThe New York symposium took place at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. 140 students from 40 different institutions attended. APSA president Freddy Nguyen and David Braun, the Organizing Chair, kick off the day with a welcome and opening remarks.

Dr. Harold Varmus, the first speaker, shared his experience along his long road towards medicine and science, emphasizing the importance of a prolonged adolescence - a "walkabout" - in his personal and professional development. Dr. Varmus continued by relating the history of cancer genetics and clinical oncology, and how they were once two separate circles on a Venn diagram. As he described his career in both fields, he detailed how new knowledge and new innovations have forced the two fields to come together, as shown by today's genetically targeted cancer treatments. Dr. Varmus concluded by addressing the need for a Human Cancer Genome Project, which would sequence the 50 most common cancers, and the need for the free dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Changes to the USMLE?

Eric Schauberger, Chair, APSA Policy Committee

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As many students are aware, there have been several tentatively proposed changes to the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). The two main proposals include combining the Step 1 and Step 2 exams into a single exam and a move to cease use of a numerical score in favor of a pass/fail.

As a student organization that is dedicated to the training of physician scientists, APSA members and leaders became concerned about how the changes might impact basic science education and, also how these changes could affect student physician scientists, who often take one year or more off in their training to perform research. Therefore, the Policy Committee was charged with addressing the (rather large) issue. At the time, it appeared that the largest source of student input regarding the proposed changes was chiefly from student panel discussions. Although several student organizations were aware or concerned about the proposed changes, it appeared that little was being done to find out what students actually felt about the changes. Therefore, APSA stepped into a role of leading the national student response to the proposed changes.

Lighter Reading: A Review of "Intuition" by Allegra Goodman

Zachary Dezman, Albany Medical College Institutional Representative

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Intuition is a story about the competitive world of medical research. It focuses on the Philpott Institute, a once-prestigious laboratory which is now a shadow of its former self. All of the familiar players are there, like graduate researchers, frustrated with their lack of progress and doubting whether their thesis projects will ever be completed. In this book, an affluent physician brings his clinical expertise to the lab and makes all of the students' work seem impressive, yet somehow... just doesn't seem to get what they do (see "Nine types of Principal Investigators" below). Then there's also the exacting lab director who's struggling to keep it all running. As the book opens, the Institute is beginning to run out of funding. In the midst of these pressures and personalities, one student, Cliff Bannaker, begins to see amazing results. His girlfriend, Robin Decker, watches as Cliff becomes the star of the lab, as his findings may turn the fortunes of the Institute. Torn by jealousy, she begins to doubt the validity of his work. Alas, the fate of love in the lab.

Intuition is an accurate portrayal of the personalities and pressures faced by many graduate students in the medical sciences. Any graduate student will be able to read this book and sympathize with the characters and the issues they face; after all it's good for us to enjoy something other than science books... dare I say 'leisure reading,' for a change!