The 2006 scholarship reciepients are an ambitious bunch, plugged in to just about every type of activity imaginable.  We asked our 2006 scholarship recipients to update us on what they've been doing the past year.

Sekine Ryuichi:

I will be finishing my fellowship training in pain and palliative care at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center at the end of this December.

After that, I am planning to return to Japan and will be working in the department of general internal medicine as well as in palliative care service at Kameda Medical Center, Kamogawa City, Chiba. I am excited to take a new step in my life soon in Japan, bringing back what I learned in the US and applying it to patiant care as well as education to students, residents and other staff.

Linday Kuroiki:

My second year at Brown Medical School has been flying by so quickly. I love the newly-designed, integrated, organ-based curriculum.  Presently I am the student leader of the OBGYN interest group and co-running an elective for first and second year students called M.O.M.S. (Medical students Outreach to MotherS-to-be and their newborns).  Also, I have been elected to serve on Brown Medical School's Teaching Academy, where I work individually with first year students coaching them on their clinical skills.

This past summer as a recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, I spent 2 months in Missouri at Washington University of St. Louis.  There I  participated in the T32 PICRT (Preclinical Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Training) program.  I worked closely with faculty in the OBGYN department and performed a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, looking at the long-term predictors of unplanned pregnancies.  My relationship with my mentors, Dr. Peipert and Dr. Allsworth, has extended into my academic year.  I am currently collaborating with them on another project, analyzing the research methodology and statistical reporting of published articles in several medical journal

Amy Turitz:

I currently am mid-way through the first semester of my second year at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In addition to a heavy workload of classes, I have been busy with a number of school-related extracurricular activities, specifically the two student groups Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA) and Prenatal Partnership, and of course, the JMSA.

APAMSA: I am Chair of Internal Affairs for this organization, and we are making an effort to revitalize the organization. For the first time in several years, a group of Asian American medical students from Mt. Sinai traveled to the APAMSA National Conference, which was held this year in Bethesda, Maryland. Hosted by the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, the conference’s theme was “Medicine: A Call to Service.”

In addition to human simulator and mass casualty triage exercises, we attended lectures about the United States military medical mission trips, including post-Tsunami activities and public health programs in Southeast Asia.

Additional APAMSA programs I have been working on include a Hepatitis B and Bone Marrow Drive, which is scheduled for Spring, 2007. These two health issues are particularly relevant to Asian Americans, and it is among our goals to increase awareness of these challenges.

To expand APAMSA’s mission beyond medical parameters, we have also hosted a Dim Sum excursion into Chinatown, Sake Night, and a movie night featuring the Chinese film Infernal Affairs, on which the recent hit movie, The Departed, was based.

Prenatal Partnership: The goal of Prenatal Partnership is to pair expectant mothers who need extra support during their pregnancy with first- and second-year medical students from Mt. Sinai. Many of these mothers do not speak English, are teenagers, do not have a partner or supportive family member to come with them, or have partners who are unable to attend appointments during the day. Either the mothers identify themselves as needing help (“self-identify’) or are recommended to the program by a someone in the health care arena (for example, a social worker, nurse, physician or midwife).

The medical students act as support systems for these mothers, attending prenatal appointments and eventually accompanying them to their labor and delivery.

Over the summer, we started a publicity campaign to increase awareness of the program among health care providers who can recommend expectant mothers to the program. Thus far, it appears that our efforts have been successful, as Mt Sinai already has had more partnerings this year than we did all of last year.

JMSA activities: The project that I have been working on as part of my 2006 Honjo scholarship is the creation of a “triage tree of health care resources” that are available to elderly Japanese and Japanese-Americans. The goal of this project is to facilitate their access to health care. The project is a collaborative undertaking between the JMSA and nearly twenty other Japanese-American organizations in the tri-state area, including the Japanese American Association (JAA), and is sponsored by the Japanese Consulate.

To help launch the project, I have been compiling professional information about health care providers in the area – including services offered, insurance accepted, travel directions, and providers offering geriatrics services. Currently I am working with Jay Starkey, a third year medical student at UCSF and JMSA’s web-coordinator, to link this information to the JMSA website.

Note:

Amy asks that anyone who has not received a form from her in connection with the Triage Tree project and practices in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area to please contact her. She may be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank you.

Masataka Kawana:

After completing all the class-room lectures and spending the summer studying for Step 1, I finally started my 3rd-year at Brown Medical School in July, 2006.  So far I have completed radiology and psychiatry, and I am currently in the midst of medicine clerkship.  It has been such a steep learning curve, and each day seems like a special day for my learning experience.  For the 2nd half of academic year, I will be rotating Family Medicine, Surgery, Cardiology, GI, and Sub-Internship in Medicine.

I have been writing articles in Japanese medical journal "Gekkan-Junior" to introduce Brown’s medical curriculum.  This journal is intended for medical students and residents in Japan, and the aim of my articles is to give some sense of how medschool life is in the US.  This is my 3rd year doing this, and I started to receive some specific requests from the readers, such as "what books I used for Step 1".  Since there is a page-limitation for each issue, I have also setup a website called "Brown SOAP (http://scutwork.seesaa.net)" to give more details of each course work.  I have been writing summaries of each lecture/clerkship, as well as some notes about what actually happened on each day to present some idea of how my days are like.  The latter is basically "a real-time progress note" (hence the title "Brown SOAP") of the clerkship and I am building this website as the year goes by. 

Aside from these writing activities, there will be a seminar scheduled with medical students and other undergraduate students at The University of Tokyo when I go home for Christmas break, and I am looking forward to having direct interaction with my junior colleagues.  Lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Honjo and JMSA for supporting my education and precious experience at Brown.  I’ve been enjoying the time in the hospital, and I hope that I can share this experience with anyone who is interested in medical education in the US. 

Jay Starkey:

Third year as a medical student at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has brought me tremendous satisfaction.  I have delivered the healthy baby boy of a woman who labored for more than 24 hours, treated a man who had a serious brain stem stroke that left his arms and legs flying wildly about when he tried to move, and diagnosed an unexplained lung colapse (spontaneous pneumothorax) in a woman who came to the family practice for difficulty breathing, among other things.  The opportunity to provide such service while continuing to learn is overwhelming at times, but in the end, well worth it. I don't miss the sleep.

Despite being busy, I fit in as much Japanese/Japan related activities as possible.  I see Japanese speaking patients at the pediatric clinic of Dr. Yasuko Fukuda who was kind enough to supervise me as part of the UCSF Longitudinal Clinical Experience (LCE).  The LCE affords students the opportunity to regularly work in a single clinic, regardless of the current rotation, and see patients many times throughout the year.  I also helped again with the VIA Exploring Health Care program which brings thirty Japanese medical students from five schools to learn about medicine in the United States.  Last month I helped at the annual San Francisco Japantown Health Fair and the San Francisco Hepatitis B Collaborative.  I continue to write articles about my medical school experience for USJapanMed.com.  Discussing Japanese health care regarding issues like physician shortages, ethics, public opinion and media portrayal of doctors in Japan fills much of my free time. Of course, I continue to be involved in the JMSA in the role of web developer/administrator.

Shihoko Kanemoto:

 I am now a senior nursing student at Goshen College and am enjoying my nursing classes very much.  I am taking community nursing right now and for the clinical, I worked at a women's shelter as an intern. I also go to an elementary school to have clinical experience as a school nurse.  I really enjoy my nursing clinicals as my eyes are opened to what is going on and what nurses can do to promote the health in their respective community.  The area I am currently living consists about 50% of whites and 50% of Hispanics.  It is very interesting to see the dynamics for each social group through my nursing classes.

Takeki Suzuki

 I am also a board member for the nursing mock convention in my college. This mock convention will be held in February 2007 and we will be debating issues related to health care, such as HPV vaccination for girls aged 10-11 years old, mandatory birth control for women using drugs, and national healthcare plan.  I am very excited and looking  forward for this convention, and anticipating that it will provide a  good opportunity to increase awareness to what is happening in our  society and to hear what other views of my fellow nursing students.

The scholarship money was very helpful (Textbooks and transportation to clinical locations) and deeply appreciated.  It reduced financial burden on me, and helped me concentrate on my studies by reducing my working hours.

I am a second-year cardiology fellow at the University of Vermont (UVM). I am surprised that it is December now. Time flies like an arrow and the year 2007 is approaching.

I have been involved in research (basic and clinical) at UVM and studying as a part-time/internet-based Master of Public Health (MPH) student at Johns Hopkins University.

My interest lies in cardiovascular diseases and I am fortunate to be involved in both basic and clinical research. In basic research, I have been investigating the functional role of myosin heavy chain. In clinical research, I have been involved in a project on the metabolic syndrome (a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors) at a community level.

Regarding the MPH program, I have finished most of the course work and plan to graduate in May 2007. My experience at Hopkins has been wonderful. I started the MPH program in June 2005 and have taken courses on site (in Baltimore) and on line. Among many interesting fields, I have enjoyed courses in epidemiology and biostatistics, both of which are essential for clinical research. Besides course work, talking with fellow students with various backgrounds from around the world has been a valuable experience.

I am starting clinical cardiology training next year. The scholarship was very helpful and greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to participating in the JMSA activities