Students shared more than 70 posters at the second annual Excellence in Medical Student Research event in November 2019.
More than 130 students, faculty members and instructors gathered in late November for the second annual Excellence in Medical Student Research event at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.
The event offers MD students the chance to celebrate and share their research in a relaxed, supportive environment, said Tracey Hillier, associate dean of undergraduate medical education. It's also a key opportunity for research groups to connect with those learners for possible future projects and for students just beginning their journey to be exposed to cutting-edge ideas.
The evening's keynote speech came from Oksana Suchowersky, co-chair of Precision Health Alberta and University of Alberta professor of medicine and medical genetics. Suchowersky shone the spotlight on precision health, an approach that attempts to predict and prevent disease using a combination of lifestyle, environment and genetic information.
"We don't have a lot of students going into medical genetics, and we know we need to get this on their radar earlier," explained Hillier. And the students in attendance got the message, she added: At least a handful approached organizers afterward, hoping to connect further with Suchowersky. "Giving them the opportunity to interact with someone of that calibre helps them see you can be a clinician and also be a scientist," added MD curriculum specialist Joanne Rodger.
Biochemistry PhD students Vineet Rathod and Brianna Greenwood were also speakers at the event. Their Bench to Bedside Student's Association provides a space where future clinicians and researchers meet and exchange ideas. "Everyone always talks about bringing everyone together," said Greenwood, "but as students, we just want to make a community from the bottom up."
Researchers and medical students together manage the organization, founded by Rathod and Greenwood in April of this year, which plans regular social events. Yes, they have fun, but there's a deeper purpose at play, said Greenwood, particularly in the association's buddy-match program, which pairs students from both areas to help demystify the work each side does.
"This kind of collaboration is going to forward our science," said Greenwood. "It's going to bring about more innovative techniques and treatments for patients."
The evening ended with the highlight of the event: a poster fair and reception, where 71 students from all four years of the MD program shared the work they've done in partnership with labs. Ryaan El-Andari attended for the second year in a row, sharing his work on immune response to tissue engineered cormatrix. El-Andari, winner of this year's UAlberta Falling Walls competition-and runner-up at the Bench to Bedside Student's Association Translational Med Talks, held just a couple of days after the MD event-can't say enough about the importance of this opportunity to connect with colleagues and share ideas.
"This is actually how I became involved with my current project," he said, "by going to this event last year and meeting a student working in a lab focused on research that I was interested in. With that connection I was able to become involved in research in a field that I am passionate about, working with Dr. Jeevan Nagendran on developing a better heart valve replacement through tissue engineering."
These connections bring a palpable buzz of excitement to the fair, said Rodger, as researchers get to explain their work without the pressure of being judged or marked.
"The calibre of work is phenomenal," she said. "Some of these students are going to go off and change the world."
Organizers have already seen growth since their inaugural event in 2018. More MD students are showing an interest in research and more researchers attended the second annual evening, said Hillier.
The trend is a welcome one for Greenwood. "You're not going to be able to have those silos anymore," she said. "You have to start bringing research and medicine together."
"This is where medicine is going."