UConn School of Medicine

UConn Medical School 2020 Senior Awards

Posted on by

Awards ceremony program coverThe UConn School of Medicine Class of 2020 senior awards ceremony was an online affair, May 7. Following are this year’s honorees:

Student Awards

New England Pediatric Society Awards — Pediatrics
Brooke Schuman and Kristina Wagner

The Department of Pediatrics Chair Award For Innovation in Pediatric Education—Pediatrics
Rashmi Pashankar

Linda Ives Award — Pediatrics
Taylor Jackvony

The Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Community Service Award — Pediatrics
Kelly Nedorostek

Internal Medicine Award
Bryan Ferrigno

Carl F. Hinz, Jr. Award—For Excellence in Scholars in Medicine
Michelle Duong

CT Chapter—American College of Physicians Award
Sonali Rodrigues

CT Academy of Family Physicians Award — Family Medicine
Miryam Wilson

Dr. David and Arthur Schuman Award — Family Medicine
Kathryn Topalis

CT Chapter of American College of Surgeons Award
Rebecca Calafiore

Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Award
Samuel Southgate

The Ramanlal and Kanchan Bulsara Fellowship Award
Nicholas Bellas

James F.X. Egan Medical Student Award— OB/GYN Award
Jennifer Park

American Academy of Neurology Award
Stephanie Vu

Excellence in Psychiatry Award
Maschal Mohiuddin

James H. Foster, M.D. — Teaching Awards
Salem Harry-Hernandez and Jennifer Lawson

Jan Wilms, M.D. & Carol Pfeiffer, Ph.D. Awards for Excellence in Clinical Skills
Stephanie Vu and Kristina Wagner

Health Career Opportunity Programs—Bridge Mentoring Awards
Nia Harris and Aloys Nsereko

School of Medicine Awards for Excellence in a Specific Discipline
Dylan Buller for Urology and Sonny Caplash for Ophthalmology

School of Medicine Awards for Overall Academic Excellence
Emily Isch, Divya Iyer, Anzhela Moskalik and Colin Pavano

School of Medicine Professionalism Awards
Jonathan Caranfa and Alice DiFrancesco

J.E.C. Walker, M.D. Medicine and Society Awards
Agata Harabasz for Primary Care and Angela Quental for Public Health

Lyman Stowe Award — School of Medicine
Miryam Wilson

UConn’s 2020 Outstanding Senior Women Academic Achievement Awards
Antea DeMarsilis

Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award
Shyam Desai

University of Connecticut Health Center Auxiliary Award
Madeline DeWane

Student Affairs Award
Adam Bartholomeo

Dean’s Award for Overall Academic Achievement
Antea DeMarsilis

Faculty Awards

South Park Inn Clinic
Dr. Jonathan Pendleton

Kaiser-Permanente Teaching Award
Dr. Michael Baldwin

Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award
Dr. Kirsten Ek

Outstanding Outpatient Clinical Preceptor (Voted on by the Class of 2021)
Dr. Michael Baldwin

Outstanding Inpatient Clinical Preceptor (Voted on by the Class of 2021)
Dr. Sean Kandel

Outstanding Educator (Voted on by the Class of 2021)
Dr. Michael Baldwin

UConn AMA Chapter Promotes Student Wellness at Recipe Swap

Posted on by

  • Second-year medical students Alyssa Ettinger (right) and Sarah Mattessich (second from left) secured a grant from the American Medical Association to create a "Cooking Healthy on a Student Budget" event in the student lounge Nov. 13. Also pictured are classmates Yumi Kovic (left) and Evins Clauthier. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health)
If time and money weren’t factors, eating healthy meals on a consistent basis would be pretty simple.

But for many medical students, time and money are often very limited, which can sabotage healthy eating habits.

Recognizing this, second-year medical students Alyssa Ettinger and Sarah Mattessich organized “Cooking Healthy on a Student Budget,” during which they and other second-year students prepared dishes and shared samples in the student lounge Friday.

“The idea is, what can we make for a meal for under $20, that might last for a week, that’s healthy,” Mattesich says.

Along with the samples were recipe instructions, including nutrition facts and cost.

“We want to show them it’s pretty easy if you know what to do with fresh foods,” Ettinger says. “Just showing a variety of ways to use ingredients for multiple different recipes, and even ways that you can make portions and freeze it for later, but at least the original food was fresher because you made it and you know what’s in it.”

Funding from the American Medical Association Section Involvement Grant program made Friday’s healthy cooking event possible.

“We are really proud of our students for applying for and attaining a grant to support this event,” says Dr. Suzanne Rose, UConn School of Medicine senior associate dean for education. “This initiative is part of our very important efforts to promote student wellness. We applaud our students’ initiative, creativity and their leadership in enhancing our school and fostering a warm, caring, and healthy environment.”

Ettinger and Mattesich are among the 10 second-year students who make up the UConn School of Medicine’s AMA chapter board.

“Our chapter is extremely active,” says Mattesich, who, as treasurer of the UConn AMA chapter, handles much of the grant writing. “We sponsor a lot of schoolwide activities that are really well attended. We’re one of the largest groups on our campus.”

Both students are also part of AMA’s Integrative Medicine Group, with Ettinger serving as student leader. They also are on the medical school’s newly formed student wellness committee.

“The wellness aspect of this event is a great way for our AMA chapter to contribute to UConn’s Student Wellness Initiative,” says Ettinger, whose role on the board is recruitment chair. “This also is an opportunity to have students learn more about the AMA, all the resources it gives and all the ways it contributes to student development.”

Veteran’s Day Observance Kicks off ‘40 Days of Thanks’

Posted on by

  • Robin Frank (right) gives opening remarks at the Student Services Center's Veteran's Day observance on November 10, 2015. (Chris DeFrancesco/UConn Health Photo)
Several dozen students, faculty and staff took time out Tuesday for a Veteran’s Day observance at the Student Services Center.

It was the start of Student Services’ “40 Days of Thanks” campaign, which also includes holiday cards people can sign and send to a member of the military.

“We also are accepting donations for South Park Inn, and we also have a Wall of Thanks,” says Alison Valone Suhocki, assistant registrar and one of the organizers. “Students, faculty, staff can come over and sign on the wall and say what they’re thankful for. It’s really some things to really home in on being thankful for where we are in our lives and for those who have served, and to support those who are serving.”

The celebration included cupcakes—260 of them frosted red, white and blue, arranged to resemble an American flag.

Among the veterans on hand was Suzanne Zimmerman, a receptionist in the UConn School of Dental Medicine, who provided administrative support for a military intelligence unit while stationed in West Germany during the Cold War. She says today’s service members face a different world.

“We’re out there, and this is a time when I wouldn’t want to be out there,” Zimmerman says. “I wouldn’t want my son to be out there, but I give these women and men a lot of credit to be out there.”

Gregory de Gruchy spent four years on active duty with the Marines, including tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, before finishing his undergraduate studies at UConn. Now in his first year at the UConn School of Medicine, he says his experience helped steer him toward a career in medicine.

“When I was in the military I really realized I wanted to work in health care,” de Gruchy says. “I was involved in my unit in some of the aspects of the stress of deployments. We were a very high-deployment unit and we had to deal with a lot of the issues that come up with that pace of operations.”

UConn Health Welcomes New Physicians

Posted on by

Meet some of the clinicians who recently joined the UConn Health faculty.

Dr. Matthew Imperioli, neurologist
Dr. Matthew Imperioli, neurologist
 Dr. Matthew Imperioli is a neurologist seeing patients in the UConn Health Outpatient Pavilion. He specializes in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography, and treats variety of neuromuscular disorders and diseases of the peripheral nervous system, including myopathy, myasthenia gravis, and autonomic disorders. Imperioli completed his neurology residency at UConn Health and a fellowship in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography at the University of Michigan Medical Center. His M.D. is from St. George’s University, Grenada.

Dr. Bernardo Rodrigues, neurologist
Dr. Bernardo Rodrigues, neurologist
 Dr. Bernardo Rodrigues is a neurologist with expertise in movement disorders who offers treatment including botulinum toxin (Botox) injections and deep brain stimulation. He also sees patients in the Outpatient Pavilion. Rodrigues is a graduate of the UConn School of Medicine Neurology Residence Program. Before returning to UConn Health, he completed a fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He is board certified in neurology and speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Dr. Jose Montes-Rivera, neurologist
Dr. Jose Montes-Rivera, neurologist
 Dr. Jose Montes-Rivera is another recent addition to UConn Health’s neurology faculty and is seeing patients in the Outpatient Pavilion. He specializes in general neurology and epilepsy. Montes-Rivera completed a fellowship in neurophysiology and electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretation, as well as his neurology residency, at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He’s a graduate of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University.

Dr. Houman Rezaizadeh, gastroenterologist
Dr. Houman Rezaizadeh, gastroenterologist
 Dr. Houman Rezaizadeh is a gastroenterologist seeing patients in the Outpatient Pavilion. His expertise is in Barrett’s esophagus and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Rezaizadeh is specially trained in Barrett’s ablation. He remains at UConn Health, where he completed gastroenterology fellowship following his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Rezaizadeh earned his M.D. at New Jersey Medical School. He is board certified in internal medicine and board eligible in gastroenterology.

Dr. Mona Shahriari, dermatologist
Dr. Mona Shahriari, dermatologist
 Dr. Mona Shahriari is a UConn-trained dermatologist who sees patients in Farmington, at 21 South Road, and the UConn Health office in Canton, 117 Albany Turnpike. She practices general dermatology and has specialized interests in pediatric dermatology and pigmented lesions. Shahriari earned her M.D. at the UConn School of Medicine and completed a residency in dermatology at UConn Health, including as chief resident her final year. She also completed an internal medicine internship at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Shahriari is board certified in dermatology, and speaks English and Farsi. She also is associate director of clinical trials at UConn Health.

Dr. Glenn Konopaske, psychiatrist
Dr. Glenn Konopaske, psychiatrist
 Dr. Glenn Konopaske is a psychiatrist with expertise in a variety of psychiatric disorders, especially bipolar disorder. He sees patients in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and in the Huntington’s Disease Program, where he’s medical director. He also is medical director of UConn Health’s Partial Hospital and Intensive Outpatient Program. Konopaske graduated from the UConn School of Medicine and from the UConn Health/Institute of Living Adult Psychiatry Residency program, then completed a fellowship in translational neuroscience at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh.Konopaske rejoins UConn Health from MacLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., where, as a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, he saw patients in the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Program and the Clinical Evaluation Center, and conducted NIH-funded research of the biology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He is board certified in psychiatry.

Photos by Janine Gelineau/UConn Health

UConn Observes National Primary Care Week (Updated)

Posted on by

  • UConn medical student Jeanne Rolle and UConn dental student Lauren Dulieu staff the welcome station at the Mansfield Senior and Wellness Center during a National Primary Care Week community fair. (Nicole Davoren for UConn Health)
Interprofessionality—patient care from a team representing several disciplines working together—is the emphasis of UConn’s observance of National Primary Care Week.

The annual celebration of the contributions of primary care to community health this week included lunch-and-learn sessions, workshops, and community health fairs.

This year provided more than 1,250 student-hours of educational programming. During Wednesday’s community health fairs, 145 students and faculty members served nearly 400 patients.

UConn medical, dental, nursing, and pharmacy students, along with Quinnipiac University physician assistant students, staff the health fairs, offered free blood pressure and blood glucose screenings and providing health education materials covering topics such as oral health, nutrition, medication interaction, heart health and diabetes prevention.

Primary Care Week aims to introduce health professions students to the importance of community-responsive primary care, encourage their collaboration as members of future primary health care teams, and work to reduce problems in health care access experienced by underserved populations.

The lunch-and-learn sessions are now available via Mediasite:

Oct. 27:
http://mediasite.uchc.edu/mediasite41/Play/2834123cd0da404a9ce29a5b7c44dd431d

Oct. 29:
http://mediasite.uchc.edu/mediasite41/Play/34025cc9538a484ca0720c16db1775681d

UConn Primary Care Week Schedule

Saturday, Oct. 24

Retreat in the Berkshires
Presentation: “Revitalizing Underserved Communities: Principles in the Promise Zones” by Gina Federico Muslim, Community Solutions, NE Hartford

Monday, Oct. 26

Primary Care Dinner
Presentation: “The Future of Primary Care is Interprofessional” by Dr. Luis Padilla, Health Resources and National Health Service Corps

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Lunch & Learn Cross-campus Video Session
Presentation: “Interprofessional Team in Action: Suboxone Clinic” with Dr. Marwin Haddad and Interprofessional Provider Team, Community Health Center

Family Medicine Interest Group
Dermatology Hands-on Night at UConn Health

Wednesday, Oct. 28

Community Health Fairs

  • South End Senior Wellness Center, Hartford
  • Hispanic Senior Center, Hartford
  • North End Senior Center, Hartford
  • Community Health Services, Hartford
  • Hartford Public Library
  • New Britain Police Department
  • Mansfield Senior & Wellness Center
  • Mansfield Parks and Recreation
  • Dixwell-Newhallville Senior Center, New Haven
  • United Community & Family Services, Norwich

Thursday, Oct. 29

Lunch & Learn Cross-campus Video Session
Presentation: “Primary Care Practice 2025: A Mad Max World?” with Dr. Robert Zavoski, Connecticut Department of Social Services

Friday, Oct. 30

Interprofessional Educational Deans’ Afternoon

UConn a National Leader in Pain Education

Posted on by

UConn is now a Center of Excellence in Pain Education, as designated by the National Institutes of Health.

The NIH Pain Consortium, which is tasked with developing an agenda for, identifying key opportunities in, and increasing the visibility of pain research, has awarded funding to 11 health professional institutions as Centers of Excellence in Pain Education. UConn and Harvard are the only ones in New England.

“This topic is very important for medical education and for our interprofessional partners in health education,” says Dr. Suzanne Rose, UConn School of Medicine senior associate dean for education. “Being a Center of Excellence in this area is an outstanding accomplishment and will provide many opportunities for our learners and benefits our patients.”

The 11 centers are to serve as hubs for the development, evaluation and distribution of pain management curriculum resources for medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and other schools. The objective is to enhance and improve how health care professionals are taught about pain and its treatment.

Renee Manworren of the UConn Schools of Medicine and Nursing is principal investigator in a grant that makes UConn one of 11 NIH Pain Consortium Centers of Excellence in Pain Education. (Photo provided by Renee Manworren)
Renee Manworren of the UConn Schools of Medicine and Nursing is principal investigator in a grant that makes UConn one of 11 NIH Pain Consortium Centers of Excellence in Pain Education. (Photo provided by Renee Manworren)

The principal investigator for the UConn is Renee Manworren, nurse scientist, assistant professor of pediatrics at the UConn School of Medicine, and assistant professor at the UConn School of Nursing.

“Over 100 million Americans suffer everyday with pain; and our current prescription pain medication abuse epidemic is an unintended consequence of poorly coordinated efforts to treat their pain,” Manworren says. “We’ve known for a long time that the best treatment approach for relieving pain is multimodal and multidisciplinary; but we’ve been training our health care professionals in separate schools.

“In recent years we’ve shifted our thinking: We should be providing interprofessional training—engaging and educating medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy, psychiatry and physical therapy students—as a team so we can do a better job partnering with patients to manage their pain and build our pain research expertise.”

Manworren, a nurse practitioner who also holds a doctorate in clinical research, is part of the UConn School of Nursing’s Center for Advancement in Managing Pain and a member of a medical school curriculum redesign task force that focuses on interprofessional education.

“We’ve leveraged the redesign of our curriculum to offer training in new, better, and interactive ways to educate future physicians coming from UConn,” Manworren says.

The initial NIH award to UConn is nearly $78,000, with the potential for up to four annual renewals.

“We are committed to developing and testing interprofessional pain educational methods and modules that will lead to better pain management education across the nation and ultimately, better patient outcomes,” Manworren says.

 

Med Students Hold Leadership Week, With AMA Support

Posted on by
Members of the UConn American Medical Association chapter's executive board.
Members of the UConn American Medical Association chapter’s executive board. Left to right, back: Alyssa Ettinger, Jonathan Lis, Chris Hampton, and Andrew Glick. Front: Elise Mester, Sarah Mattessich, and Christina Klecker. Not pictured: Victoria Greenwood. (Eric Swanson/UConn Health Photo)

It’s Leadership Week at the UConn School of Medicine, a series of events to provide a chance for students who envision themselves as leaders in medicine to share ideas with those who already are—in this case, members of the UConn Health faculty.

The annual tradition of UConn’s American Medical Association student section runs through Thursday. Among the participating faculty are Dr. Bruce Liang, medical school dean, as well as Drs. Paul Dworkin, Anton Alerte, Jane Grant-Kels and Rob Fuller.

“Leadership Week promotes AMA’s core value of leadership by providing an interactive forum for physicians and medical students to discuss pathways to leadership roles and professional development,” says Sarah Mattessich, one of the student organizers. “Last year this event was extremely successful. We had 80 students attend, and we are expecting similar numbers this year.”

Mattessich, a second-year medical student, serves as treasurer of the UConn chapter of the AMA. In that capacity she was able to secure a Section Involvement Grant from the AMA to help offset the costs of holding Leadership Week.

“Our grant will allow us to provide food for our series of events: one dinner and two lunch-and-learns,” Mattessich says. “Success of this event has been possible through the efforts of our entire executive board of second-year medical students. Jonathan Lis and Andrew Glick, the co-chairs of our AMA chapter, have been instrumental in executing this event, including recruiting physician speakers and advertising among the student body.”

Psychiatry professor Mary Casey Jacob, the chapter’s academic adviser, praises Mattessich for her efforts to coordinate this year’s event, by working closely with Lis and Glick and by obtaining the grant.

“This tells us Sarah wishes to provide this important service to her peers, that she is highly organized, and that she know she wants to be a leader within medicine,” Jacob says. “UConn is proud of students like Sarah, who will not only be excellent doctors but also people who nurture their roles within communities as leaders.”

Last year, the UConn chapter hosted the regional student AMA meeting. The year before, UConn’s was a finalist for Chapter of the Year.

“This is a very active and accomplished group,” Jacob says. “That they manage to achieve so much on top of medical studies is quite an achievement.”

Raising Sickle Cell Disease Awareness

Posted on by
buffalosoldiers2
The Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club of Hartford and New England Sickle Cell Institute faculty and staff pose for a photo at the First Annual Ride for Sickle Cell Research. (Wanita Thorpe/UConn Health)

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder that can cause severe pain and permanent damage to the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, bones and spleen. SCD is most common in Africans and African-Americans, however, it is also found in other ethnic and racial groups, including people from South and Central America, the Caribbean, Mediterranean countries, and India.

Individuals who have SCD need multidisciplinary care throughout their lives to treat and prevent complications from the disease and manage their pain. Most institutions provide only pediatric sickle cell treatment. At UConn Health, Dr. Biree Andemariam, assistant professor of medicine, is among a small number of physician-scientists nationally who specialize in caring for adults living with SCD. She leads the only comprehensive adult sickle cell program in northern Connecticut. The team-based approach includes a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, social workers, and community-based patient navigators working together.

Mary Samson in infusion room #0037
The New England Sickle Cell Institute welcomes its newest staff member, nurse practitioner Mary Samson. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health)

The New England Sickle Cell Institute (NESCI) attracts patients and families from across Connecticut and beyond. NESCI is also home to basic, translational, and clinical research aimed at elucidating basic mechanisms of the disease and developing novel therapeutic options for this orphan disease. NESCI’s success rests in its unique, heartfelt dedication of it’s staff: nurse coordinator Nayre Greene, social worker Teresa Works, infusion nurse Ruby Faye Noviasky, medical assistant Iris Reyes, clinical research assistant Sasia Jones, in addition to its newest member, nurse practitioner Mary Samson.

“The New England Sickle Cell Institute provides a full range of comprehensive care that focuses on prevention as well as acute care,” says Andemariam. “We are the only site in the region to offer erythrocytapheresis, a procedure commonly used to remove red blood cells in patients experiencing sickle cell crisis,” added Andemariam. “The support of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, John Dempsey Hospital and UConn School of Medicine has been instrumental in our ability to provide desperately needed care for a long-neglected subset of our community. This is evidenced by newly designated space to provide dedicated acute and chronic disease management. With this support, the future of adults living with sickle cell disease is bright.”

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 860-679-2100.

Ceremony Marks Academic Building Addition and Renovation Project

Posted on by

https://youtu.be/eYgTsx55B4A

A groundbreaking ceremony on Monday marked an educational milestone for the UConn School of Medicine, UConn School of Dental Medicine, and the UConn Graduate School. The Academic Building Addition and Renovation Project will consist of a nearly 18,000-square-foot addition and several smaller renovations to UConn Health’s existing Academic and L Buildings located in Farmington.

The ceremony coincided with the start of the academic careers of 98 medical and 42 dental students who will benefit from the project.

“Today we mark an inspirational milestone in the history of UConn Health with the creation of a new academic addition for all of our schools. Welcome to our future,” said Dr. Suzanne Rose, senior associate dean for education for the UConn School of Medicine. “What will take place in this building in the years to come will impact the patients and lives of our communities in Connecticut and beyond for decades to come, and in immeasurable ways as young women and men learn to become scientists, dentists, and physicians,” added Rose.

Ground-breaking-Academic-Entrance
Dr. Steven Lepowsky, Chad Floyd, Dr. Suzanne Rose, Dr. R. Lamont MacNeil, Dr. Bruce Liang, Francis Archambault, Dr. Barbara Kream, and Dr. David Gregorio. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Photo)

The Academic Building Addition and Renovation Project is a component of Bioscience Connecticut that was championed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and approved by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2011. “Our sincere gratitude to the governor for his vision and effort for Bioscience Connecticut which this is a part of,” said Dr. Bruce Liang, dean of the UConn School of Medicine. In addition to various building projects, Bioscience Connecticut calls for a 30 percent increase in the UConn Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine class sizes.

Dr. Steven Lepowsky, senior associate dean for the UConn School of Dental Medicine, concluded the ceremony by addressing the new medical and dental school students who attended the event by saying, “This project is all about you. This is all about ensuring that we provide our students with state-of-the-art facilities to get the best possible education.”

Cruising Cross-country to Combat Leukemia

Posted on by
Seattle
The 2015 Coast to Coast for a Cure team keeps with tradition by starting the ride from the Pacific shore, this year in Seattle. (Photo from coast2coastforacure.wordpress.com)
leukemia survivor Apgar Village, Montana
David Lam (left) and Alex Blanchette meet a leukemia survivor and his dog in Apgar Village, Montana. (Photo from coast2coastforacure.wordpress.com)

Five UConn medical students who are pedaling their way back home from Seattle this summer are in the Eastern Time Zone, having covered nearly 2,800 miles.

Through six weeks, Erin Gombos, Carolyn Tusa, Alex Blanchette, David Lam and Tom Presti were in Clare, Mich. They update their progress daily on their blog.

They and a sixth student, Alex Tansey, all going into their second year, make up the 2015 UConn School of Medicine team of riders for the 10th annual Coast to Coast for a Cure cross-country bicycle trek, which has raised more than $250,000 for the Hartford nonprofit Lea’s Foundation for Leukemia Research.

Tansey, who had to withdraw from the trip because of injury, joined Gombos and Lam on a radio interview that aired June 7 as part of the team’s pre-trip awareness and fundraising efforts.

On road in Michigan
David Lam (red helmet), Tom Presti (dark grey helmet), Alex Blanchette (yellow), Erin Gombos (light grey) and Carolyn Tusa make their way through Michigan six weeks into the 2015 Coast to Coast for a Cure. (Photo from coast2coastforacure.wordpress.com)

Five weeks in, Blanchette checked in with a radio update from the road in Michigan, between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

For medical students, the summer between year one and year two generally is regarded as their last free summer, as the typical medical school schedule does not include a summer break after years two and three.

Michigan campsite
A campsite on the Coast to Coast for a Cure trail in Michigan. (Photo from https://coast2coastforacure.wordpress.com/)

Proceeds from Coast to Coast for a Cure go toward assisting patients and their families, and help support clinical trials for leukemia patients. To make a pledge for this year’s ride, visit leasfoundation.org.

To follow the students’ day-to-day progress and see photos from their journey, visit coast2coastforacure.wordpress.com.

Follow UConn Health on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and SoundCloud.