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News for the School of Medicine

The White Coat: Becoming a Physician

By Lauren Beezley

The White Coat Ceremony at St Matthew's University is held every semester to recognize the movement of the medical student from the preclinical sciences to the clinical sciences.

The white coat has long been known as a symbol of professionalism and representative of what a physician encompasses. The attire of medical professionals turned from black to white around the turn of the 19th century, in an era when cleanliness and purity became the core standards of the medical profession ^[1]. At the turn of the 20th century, the white coat became known as the symbol of medical authority and the tradition has continued to modern times.

The White Coat Ceremony is a relatively recent tradition, started in 1993 by Dr. Arnold Gold ^[1] as a symbol of cloaking doctors-to-be as they embark on a new career. St. Matthew's White Coat Ceremony is held during the students' second year, when they are readying themselves to begin the clinical science portion of their education. The ceremony is held in high regard, considering the students must complete all of their preclinical science coursework successfully before earning their white coat.

The recent White Coat Ceremony was held on Friday, March 7, 2008 at the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman. The summer white coat ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, June 21, 2008 and is to be held and the Westin resort in Grand Cayman. Fund-raising for these events are typically done the semester before that event is to be held. Currently, fundraising for the summer ceremony is taking place. In an effort to support the summer ceremony and promote school spirit, a website has been created from which SMU wear can be ordered. The website is www.smuwhitecoat.com and all are encouraged to visit the website to support SMU white coat in their efforts.

SMU AMSA Receives National Recognition

by Paul A. Spechler

Past AMSA Presidents Paul Spechler (left) and Brent Hebert (right) at their White Coat Ceremony

The St. Matthew's University Chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) was recently presented with the Rising Star Award. This award is given out by the National AMSA organization to chapters who have had recent success. AMSA at SMU was recognized for significantly increasing their chapter size and holding a very successful community service event last semester. The chapter recruited over 150 members last year, and is continuing to grow. The SMU chapter is now one of the largest international AMSA chapters in the world.

This award would not have been possible without the hard work of Brent Hebert and Paul Spechler. Brent served as the President of AMSA during the Summer 2007 semester. He actively recruited students from all semesters at SMU to expand the chapter. Brent made sure that each AMSA meeting offered presentations on interesting and relevant topics to entice many students to join. His hard work was followed up by Paul Spechler who took over the office of AMSA President in the Fall 2007 semester. During that semester AMSA had their most successful recruitment in history. Paul helped AMSA organize the popular "Teddy Bear Clinic" a community service event that was enjoyed by all the Cayman children and medical students who participated (see article below). This award is also thanks to the following students who served on the AMSA executive board in the past year: Kathryn Simangan, David Rosenblum, Muhammad Ahmad, Kristina Splavnyk, Larissa Hernandez, Lauren Beezley, Jaya Nair, Jelena Pejicic, John Shand, and Jacqulyn Green.

The Rising Star Award came with a check for $200 that will help AMSA continue to provide a positive experience for medical students at St. Matthew's. AMSA is very proud of this award and would also like to thank all of the St. Matthew's Administration for their continued support. We look forward to continued success in the future!

Teddy Bear Clinic Summary

by Paul A. Spechler, AMSA Chapter President

The St. Matthew's University Chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) hosted a "Teddy Bear Clinic" on November 3, 2007. We invited children from all over Grand Cayman to bring their Teddy Bear or favorite stuffed animal into a mock "clinic" for a check up. The Teddy Bear "patients" and kids were greeted by AMSA members who helped the child make up a chief complaint.

The stuffed animals were then taken to an exam area where medical students did mock exams and helped treat whatever was wrong with teddy. While doing the physical exam on the stuffed animals, the medical students explained to the children each step of the exam and taught them about the equipment used by doctors.

The children who participated had the opportunity to learn more about a trip to the doctor's office. The goal of the project was to make the children realize that a visit to the doctor is nothing to be afraid of.

The clinic also offered coloring in the waiting room, along with snacks and juice for after teddy's check up. All of the children and parents who visited the Teddy Bear Clinic had a great time. The medical students who volunteered not only had the chance to do something nice for the community but they also had the opportunity to gain experience dealing with pediatric patients.

The AMSA chapter leaders and organizers of the event appeared on the Cayman Daybreak morning show, and the Teddy Bear Clinic was featured in the local paper and on the evening news. The Teddy Bear Clinic was overall very successful and AMSA looks forward to organizing this event again in the near future!

The link below will take you to a similar write up that we submitted to the official AMSA website.

http://www.amsa.org/resource/projects/projectdirectory2.cfx?id=1767

SMU AMSA Success in 2007

The American Medical Student Association is the largest independent organization of physicians in training in the US. It is made up of over 68,000 US medical students and over 3,400 international medical students. There are 44 chartered international chapters and St. Matthew's University is one of them (Charter #8070). In September of 2006 our chapter only had 29 national members! People showed up for weekly food meetings; however no one was in touch with the national organization. Things needed to change. In July of 2007 Paul A. Spechler was elected the new president of the SMU AMSA Chapter. As President, one of the first things Paul did was attend the AMSA Chapter Officers Conference (COC) in Washington, D.C. This conference is held annually and presidents of every AMSA chapter from around the world are invited. This was the first time the SMU Chapter was represented at a national AMSA conference. At the COC Paul networked with the AMSA National Leaders and attended leadership workshops to learn how to effectively run a chapter. Equipped with a better understanding of the AMSA organization Paul returned to St. Matthew's ready to make a difference.

We are proud to say that SMU AMSA had the 2nd largest recruitment of any International Chapter this year recruiting 111 new members! We are one of the fastest growing AMSA chapters in the world and with over 184 total members we are already one of the largest chapters in the Caribbean! This semester AMSA has accomplished many things. Aside from our successful recruitment we have continued to provide quality weekly meetings for our members covering an array of topics related to the future of medical students.

There is now more organization to the way AMSA is run. We wrote and enacted By-Laws for our chapter to serve as a guide for future chapter leaders. Our mission statement from those By-Laws is below:

"The primary purpose of AMSA at SMU is to enhance the medical school experience of future physicians through: education in subjects beyond their basic sciences and by offering the opportunity to participate in community service / activities that will benefit their future academic and professional careers. The secondary purpose of this organization is to help the community of Grand Cayman through volunteer work."

We also began to focus on doing more for the school and the Cayman community. One of the things we are most proud of this semester is the "Teddy Bear Clinic." Many of our members volunteered in a mock "clinic" where children from around the island could bring in their teddy bears for a check up. This was a very popular community service event for the island and everyone who participated had a great time. The project was covered on local TV and written up in the local news paper! AMSA is the largest student organization at St. Matthew's University and we are proud of the progress we are making. It takes more than just medical school to make a good physician, AMSA is a great way to enhance your medical school experience and we hope that all current and future students will join us!

Medical graduates break school records

(George Town, 7 May) - Demonstrating its growing success, St. Matthew's University School of Medicine, held its graduation ceremony on 5 May and sent more then 165 new physicians out on the road towards a new career. Since opening the doors to its Cayman Islands campus, the school has gone from strength to strength and the class of 2007 has done its part to place St Matthew's on the international medical education map.

The school has also had a positive effect on the local community, and the Minister for Health and Human Services, Honourable Anthony Eden, said it was magnificent that the Cayman Islands was home to such an outstanding institution.

The Honourable Alden McLaughlin, Minister for Education, echoed his cabinet colleague's sentiments by congratulating the school on its achievements, saying it added another level to the tertiary tree of the Cayman Islands.

"The performance of the students and the acceptance rates to US hospitals is excellent," he said.

With a 92 percent first time pass rate on USMLE Step One, (the key primary exam for would-be physicians), the students also achieved the highest ever match rate for residencies in the history of the school. Not only was the class of 2007 the largest number of graduates so far, it improved the match rate of 2006 by 100 percent, a testament to the hard work and dedication of the students.

Against those outstanding achievements students, friends, family, faculty, trustees and staff gathered with pride for the graduation at the Westin Casaurina Resort.
Inspired by the words of their faculty, the graduates were, reminded that this is just the beginning.

Dr Elizabeth Armstrong a member of the School's Board of Trustees and a Faculty member of Harvard Medical School, impressed upon them the importance of life long learning and that no school could ever prepare them fully other than to show them how to learn.

"What is new today that will help my patients, is something you should continually be addressing throughout your careers," she said explaining that even now half of what they learned may be obsolete. Because of the dynamic nature of the profession, she added that students must ensure they kept learning to stay abreast of the constant breathtaking developments in medicine.

It is clear from the school's impressive results that St Matthew's students are ready to learn.

Dr Gordon Green the Master of Ceremonies and Chief Academic Officer of the school pointed out that while the favorable accreditation of the school, the quality of the faculty, and the university's resources were all important to the institution's success, it was the student's achievements that defined its success.

"If St. Matthew's is to be judged on students, you have made it," Dr Green said.
The importance of the profession the students had chosen was highlighted by Dr Robert McAfee, General Surgeon, past President of the American Medical Association, and an instructor at St Matthew's University. He told the students that they all had the potential to be real heroes and underlined some of the things they would face over the coming years.

He spoke of the courage they would need and that their profession was based on a code of ethics that defined the relationship they would have with their patients.

Among the heartfelt and sound advice he offered Dr McAfee told the students: "If you can't cure you have a responsibility to care."

After conferring the degrees to the students present at the ceremony, John Marvin, Chancellor of St Matthew's offered his congratulations to the new physicians and applauded their commitment.

"There is an inherent dignity in commitment to a job well done," he said.
The chancellor recently spoke at the annual district Rotary Conference where he had outlined the incredible success of St. Matthew's students.

He noted that their results on the standardized exams was much higher than the average of other medical schools in the Caribbean region and compared favorably with the average rates for those in US medical schools as well. With the persistent and growing demand for high-class medical education, but increasing competition for residencies throughout the US and the UK, students at St. Matthews have made enormous strides.

Chancellor Marvin told Rotarians that St. Matthews would to continue to strive to be the school of choice.

He emphasized that the Cayman Islands campus was honored to work closely with the local community and the George Town Hospital. Estimates already suggest that the economic benefit of the school on the local community is approximately $200 million CI per year.

With a primary focus on the education of its students, and by attracting mature and dedicated students, the school has demonstrated that is can excel and compete effectively with leading medical universities across North America.

Click here for graduation photos!

St. Matthew's students push the limits in medical research.

On March 22, 2007, St. Matthew's University School of Medicine, through the office of the Dean of Research conducted its second annual research day. It was well-attended by faculty, students and invited guests. Students were selected to present on Research Day after a multi-step evaluation process, which began with the submission of research posters. This continued on to Research Day in which students gave an oral presentation of their research interests.

Those faculty and students in attendance were impressed with the level of investigative work done by our medical students. In addition, their enthusiasm, effort, intellect and confidence were apparent. The question period was quite interactive allowing for discussion amongst faculty, students and the presenters themselves.

After an intensive review, the research committee made their choices for the first, second and third prize-winners respectively, which were: Kuntal Majmudar for his research work on the iExploitation of a Mutation to Increase Survival in Lung Cancer Patients, Thanh Duy Le for: iNovel Modeling of Genomic Regulatory Networks and its application for RNAi Knockout Experiments and Elena Skoromovsky for: iThe Solved Mystery of HIV Latency. Selection of the prize-winners was a difficult task due to the many remarkable presentations. Currently, St. Matthew's University proudly displays the student's posters in our library.

The increasing standard of research day presentations will continue due to the growing quality of students deciding to begin and continue their medical studies at St. Matthew's.

Research forms an integral part of medical education and allows for the development of skills for life-long learning through an inquiry-based approach. This process of intellectual development complements the training of physicians who will extend their vision and talents in contributing further to the quality of healthcare.

With each coming year the enthusiasm of St. Matthew's students to participate and showcase their research talents is evident, a process welcomed by the teaching and research faculty and administration at SMU.

[1]

Hochberg, Mark S. "The Doctor's White Coat - an Historical Perspective." Virtual Mentor. April 2007, Volume 9, Number 4: 310-314.