Intersection of Innovation and Healthcare Subject of NYMedTalks
The Conference is Planned Annually by First Year Medical Students
The dynamic intersection of innovation and healthcare was the focus of this year’s NYMedTalks conference on March 7. Since 1986, the interdisciplinary conference has been hosted annually by first-year medical students on the Student Senate to expose fellow students to topics beyond the traditional academic curriculum.
“This year’s theme was selected through surveying the interests of the Class of 2027. The event serves to celebrate the commitment to transforming lives through new technology and to inspire prospective physicians to redefine the future of health care,” said Dorothy Liu, SOM Class of 2027, who helped organize the conference, along with fellow first-year students Amber Zhao, Jared Sasaki, Nadia Briones, and Noura Gouda.
“I think this is a fantastic theme because, in medicine, there are so many amazing innovations that take place that have an enormous impact on people’s lives that we come to take for granted,” said Neil Schluger, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, who during his opening remarks shared as an example the heart-lung machine that takes over the function of the heart and/or the lungs during open heart surgery. “I urge you throughout your career, to take a step back every once in a while to think about the innovations taking place that you are witnessing firsthand that 20 years from now you too will take for granted.”
Throughout the day-long conference, several speakers spoke of innovations in their fields, including Rachelle Lodescar, M.D. ’13, a critical care and burn surgeon at Westchester Medical Center (WMC); Austin Chang, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer of Medtronic GI; Prem Premsrirut, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Mirimus; and Suguru Ohira, M.D., Ph.D., clinical associate professor of surgery at New York Medical College and surgical director of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support and director of thoracic aortic disease research at WMC.