Becoming a medical student, from any walk of life, is an unprecedented change. There is a need to understand the particular culture of medical school, and a need for an individual to help students with that task.

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine prides itself in educating future physicians and scientists with the goal of providing innovative research and excellent patient care to the Commonwealth. Meeting that goal requires the acknowledgement that diverse perspectives provide better outcomes.

More than 4,800 women die each year from heart disease in Kentucky. Across the United States, women are dying every 80 seconds from cardiovascular disease and stroke, which they are less likely to survive than men. 

These staggering statistics are what keep two University of Kentucky faculty members pushing for more research and funding in the field of women’s heart health.

Dr. Sam Tyagi, a member of the Vascular Surgery faculty in the UK Department of Surgery, was named the recipient of the 2020 Early Career Faculty Research Award from the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society (VESS) on February 1.

Dr. Tyagi’s research proposal, “The Effect of Phosphodiasterase Inhibitors on BAPN-Induced Aortic Dissection,” was recognized for its potential to “understand the influence of various medication effects on changes in the pathology of [aortic] aneurysms.”

A position is available in the Department of Physiology. The position is to assist with tissue culture, electrophysiology, molecular biology and biochemistry techniques. S/he will be responsible for performing many of the proposed experiments. The applicant will need to isolate different types of mouse cardiomyocytes (nodal, atrial, ventricular) to perform single cell electrophysiology. The electrophysiology experiments include acquisition and analysis of voltage and current clamp data.

Jan Mock, Administrator of the Plastic Surgery Residency program at the University of Kentucky, was selected as the Outstanding Program Administrator Award of 2020 from the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons (ACAPS). Mock is the second recipient of the annual award.

UK Department of Surgery colon and rectal surgeon, Dr. Avinash Bhakta, performed the first robotic-assisted Trans-Anal Minimally Invasive Surgery (R-TAMIS) at UK HealthCare in January to treat a patient with early onset of rectal cancer.

TAMIS, which is usually performed endoscopically, is a relatively common minimally invasive surgical procedure to remove T-1 polyps in the lower rectum that show no high-risk cancerous features. TAMIS is especially effective in reaching endoscopically unresectable polyps in the middle and lower rectum, Bhakta commented.

Three administrators from the UK Department of Surgery’s graduate and undergraduate medical education staff have been invited to make presentations during Surgical Education Week 2020 in Seattle, Washington this spring.

The Association of Residency Administrators in Surgery (ARAS) notified Sara Brown and Robin Riley, Graduate Medical Education program coordinators for the Division of General Surgery, that abstracts they submitted last fall were accepted for presentation.