Congratulations to the team of Hebah Hussain, M.P.H., and Harini Prabhakaran on winning a second- place award for research in the category of Quality Improvement at the 37th annual Association of Indian Physicians of Northern Ohio (AIPNO) Gala, held virtually Dec. 5.
The two second-year students from the College of Medicine were honored for their research, which was featured at the gala in the eighth annual AIPNO Research Showcase. This year, approximately 70 project abstracts were accepted to compete in three project categories: Clinical Research, Quality Improvement, and Basic Science.
Hussain and Prabhakaran worked with Amy Lee, M.D., M.P.H., professor of family and community medicine and the program director for the Consortium of Eastern Ohio Master of Public Health program, on the winning research, which they presented in a poster titled “Evaluating the Social Media Boosted Poll for Surveying Older Adults in Northeast Ohio.”
NEOMED was represented in several ways at the Dec. 5 AIPNO event: President Langell served as the keynote speaker and highlighted the contributions to the community that students make through their research. Fayez Safadi, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology and the director of the Musculoskeletal Research Group, served on the research judging panel. (Note: Each judge was assigned presentations and was recused from evaluating students from their own institution.)
Rupesh Raina, M.D., the president of AIPNO, is an associate professor of internal medicine at NEOMED. Rama Safadi, a senior at Bio-Med Science Academy (the STEM+M high school on the NEOMED campus) also presented her work with Dr. Raina.
Writing about the experience, Hebah Hussain told The Pulse, “We decided to submit our abstract to the AIPNO Research Showcase as an opportunity to get our work out, and to learn about the different topics and kinds of projects that our peers from different institutions were working on. Luckily, our abstract was accepted, and we got a chance to make a poster and present it! We were already so happy just after presenting our project, and then to find out that we won second place for our quality improvement project was one of the best experiences ever!
I am so blessed to be a student at NEOMED where I have professors and advisors that will help me reach and surpass my goals and where I have peers that are there to support and encourage one another on our paths to success!”
Read reflections by Harini Prabhakaran and Hebah Hussain about their research experiences.
Cleveland 19 News featured AIPNO on a recent broadcast. Learn more about AIPNO and its work in Northern Ohio.