email : Webview : The Catalyst: April MIDP Newsletter

Exciting End of the Year for 4th Year Students

Each year, the MiDP is excited to watch the careers and residency matches of the 4th year class. This year's graduates, Dr. Adam Hetzler, Dr. Hunter Sceats and Dr. Emily Thomas filled their year with remarkable professional and academic accomplishments. While finishing their fourth year of medical school, these students combined away rotations with a busy I-Corp schedule and hundreds of residency interviews. Taking their business model, Expected Value, through I-Corp, Dr. Hetzler, Dr. Thomas and Dr. Sceats led the cohort each week in customer discovery interviews. All team members have plans to pursue their AI work in their medical fields.

Applying for residencies, after writing and re-writing personal statements, our 4th year students are headed to exciting new endeavors. Dr. Adam Hetzler matched with Geisinger Health System PA. He will be entering a dermatology residency and moving to Danville, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hunter Sceats is headed to Stanford Medical Center to complete at interim year in surgery/prelim in Palo Alto, California. Emily Thomas will complete her residency at Indiana University SOM in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in Indianapolis, Indiana. We are so excited for our students and look forward to their journey.

MIDP Program Changes for the Upcoming Year

We are excited to share with our VUSM community some upcoming changes for our Medical Innovators Development Program (MiDP) in the 2022-2023 academic year.

MiDP will now accept applications from any incoming MD VUSM students (no longer limited to those with PhDs) who want to incorporate healthcare innovation into their medical career, with the goal of orienting 5 students this upcoming year. Competitive applicants will have deep background experience, interests, and skills in fields including but not limited to: Engineering and other applied sciences, basic and theoretical sciences, business and entrepreneurship, social and behavioral sciences, arts and humanities, web development and/or programming.

The MiDP's goal remains the same: to train people to enter the field of medicine fully equipped to tackle problems seen in the clinical setting. The 4-year MiDP curriculum runs in parallel to MD training, replacing some elements of VUSM’s Curriculum 2.0 with analogous training in human centered design, health systems innovation, and entrepreneurship. MiDP participants will learn to identify and analyze problems during clinical clerkships, brainstorm and prototype potential innovative solutions, develop internal initiatives, and/or form a non-profit or for-profit start-up. The MiDP has successfully placed MD students in residency programs and industry experiences and has positioned them to win pitch contests and I-Corp grants with revolutionary healthcare products. Forum speakers have included industry leaders as well as healthcare revolutionaries.

We look forward to the next chapter of our program and welcome any questions

Dr. Kyla Terhune Speaks About Mentorship

It is always highly anticipated and heavily attended when Kyla Terhune comes to speak. Her forthright nature and ability to give pointed advice about how to find people that can advise you in specific parts of your career are a valuable resource to our medical school students. Her forum focused on asking specialized questions of would-be mentors and acknowleding that there is no ONE mentor. There will be many different people who advise you about different parts of your career. When looking for a mentor, she noted that it is important to think of the part of your career you are asking to have mentored and to target your questions towards that part of your career so that you receive the best information for your growth. Dr. Terhune speaks for the MiDP each year and every time she inspires confidence and new ways of thinking to our students.

Photography by Dr. Trent Rosenbloom

Associate Director of the MIDP, Dr. Trent Rosenbloom, traveled to Tennessee's Cumberland Mountain for the amazing shot in our header.

This month's footer photograph is a picture take by Dr. Rosenbloom in Edwin Warner Park, just a few miles from Vanderbilt University. This bridge takes you into a trail system of unbelievable greenery.