NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan Hosts Annual Resident Research Day

Three Residents Were Chosen Out of a Eecord-Setting 51 Abstracts Submitted to Present Their Research

April 20, 2022
Award dinner at Met Residency Research Day in front of podium with their awards

Residents in the NYMC-sponsored residency programs at NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan (MET) held their annual Resident Research Day on April 6, when three residents were chosen out of a record-setting 51 abstracts submitted to present their research. Adrianne Basa, M.D., medicine resident, presented on a wellness project conducted to reduce burnout among residents; Jaspreet Singh, M.D., emergency medicine resident, presented research findings from a project to assess the use of bedside ultrasound in evaluating patients with kidney stones; and anesthesiology resident Bianca Woodruff, M.D., presented on a patient safety and quality improvement project to improve anesthesia care for patients who had been victims of sexual violence. The event concluded with the awards presentation with Dr. Singh receiving the first-place award, Dr. Basa receiving the second-place award and Dr. Woodruff placing third.

While addressing the attendees at the event, Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer of NYMC, recounted the story of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s premature son dying of hyalin membrane disease in 1963, a “death that today would have been 100 percent preventable,” and that subsequently resulted in enormous funding of neonatology research by the U.S. government.

“The point of my story this morning is that research matters. The best way to predict the future of medicine is to invent it ourselves,” said Dr. Halperin. “The best way to make sure that the health care of our children and grandchildren is better than the healthcare we've gotten is through research like we have seen this morning.  What you are engaged in today is the essence of making tomorrow better and I am very proud that MET and the SOM have been partners for 147 years—the longest partnership between a city hospital and a private medical college in the history of the United States.”

Continuing the historical theme, Jerry Nadler, M.D., dean of the SOM, recalled Rachmiel Levine, M.D., chair of medicine at NYMC’s Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals in the 1960s, “who discovered before any of the analytical techniques we have now that insulin causes glucose transport into cells, the major action of insulin that we know today, and why he is known as the father of modern diabetes research.”

“Over the past three decades, there's been a significant increase in the opportunities for residents to participate in research,” said John Pellicone, M.D., senior associate site dean for NYMC and chief medical officer at MET. “Studies have shown that residents exposed to research had more positive attitudes to research… and residents who receive dedicated research time and who successfully publish are more likely to select careers in academic medicine. Although I'm many decades out of training, I can still appreciate the rigors of serving as a resident. As a pulmonary fellow on the Bellevue Chest Service, I had an opportunity to perform transplantable biopsies. As you know, the results weren't nearly as important as the experience of designing the project, perfecting the methodology and learning the art of creating a publishable article. Your efforts to combine both patient care and research are to be lauded.”