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College Hosts 22nd Academic Excellence Day
Academic Excellence Day is an opportunity to focus on the magnitude and variety of clinical and bench research being done by residents, fellows, medical students, graduate students, clinical allied health staff and physician staff.
“Academic Excellence is probably one of the most important things we do as an institution,” said Guy Reed, MD, MS, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. “We pay a lot of attention to humanism, emotion and compassion in our medical student and residency training, but our discipline of medicine is built on a foundation of science.”
The daylong program included an exhibit of 86 poster presentations and 20 oral presentations. Participating hospitals included Abrazo Central Campus, Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, HonorHealth, Maricopa Integrated Health System, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center and the College of Medicine – Phoenix.
“It’s really an honor and wonderful to see so much impressive scholarly activity from all of our learners,” said Brigham Willis, MD, associate professor in the Department of Child Health. “This is one of my favorite days of the year to see our young residents and fellows and all of the amazing work they are doing.”
Dr. Willis, who helped moderate the event, said Michael Grossman, MD, MACP, professor emeritus at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, was a driving force behind Academic Excellence Day.
Dr. Grossman, former associate dean of Graduate Medical Education for the Colleges of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix, founded Academic Excellence Day. He said the event allows residents and fellows to compete by presenting posters or full oral presentations in a relative low stress way to familiarize them with the process.
During his keynote presentation, Dean Reed discussed his own research journey. Dean Reed is known for his research on the mechanism of blood clots and vascular disease. Through grant support from the National Institutes of Health, he translated his laboratory research findings into an innovative, clot-dissolving therapy to treat patients with strokes and heart attacks, which is now in Phase II clinical trials.
“Research all comes back to our patients and mission as a medical school, which is really to cure disease and improve health,” he said.
| Award | Winner | |
|---|---|---|
| Oral Presentation | Resident | Fellow |
| Clinical Research, 1st Place: $325 | Byron Holloway, HonorHealth | Peter Nguyen, College of Medicine – Phoenix |
| Clinical Research, 2nd Place: $225 | Dawid Rechul, Abrazo | Melissa Chambers, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
| Clinical Research, 3rd Place: $175 | Ashley Carter Powell, MIHS | Andrew Muth, College of Medicine – Phoenix |
| Case Report/Series, 1st Place: $225 | Jeff Burow, College of Medicine – Phoenix | |
| Poster Presentation | Resident | Fellow |
| Clinical Research, 1st Place: $325 | Alex Moreira, Phoenix Children’s Hospital | Maria Ahmad, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
| Clinical Research, 2nd Place: $225 | Paul Broker, Phoenix Children’s Hospital | Jun Zhao, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
| Clinical Research, 3rd Place: $175 | Michelle Hamilton, College of Medicine – Phoenix | Erin Garvey, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
| Case Report/Series, 1st Place: $125 | Yahya Nomaan, Phoenix Children’s Hospital | Robert Gonsalves, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
| Case Report/Series, 22nd Place: $100 | Stephanie Bollenbach, MIHS | Arun Sood, Phoenix Children’s Hospital |
*Academic Excellence Day was sponsored by the Mutual Insurance Company of Arizona.
About the College
Founded in 2007, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix inspires and trains exemplary physicians, scientists and leaders to advance its core missions in education, research, clinical care and service to communities across Arizona. The college’s strength lies in our collaborations and partnerships with clinical affiliates, community organizations and industry sponsors. With our primary affiliate, Banner Health, we are recognized as the premier academic medical center in Phoenix. As an anchor institution of the Phoenix Bioscience Core, the college is home to signature research programs in neurosciences, cardiopulmonary diseases, immunology, informatics and metabolism. These focus areas uniquely position us to drive biomedical research and bolster economic development in the region.
As an urban institution with strong roots in rural and tribal health, the college has graduated more than 1,000 physicians and matriculates 130 students each year. Greater than 60% of matriculating students are from Arizona and many continue training at our GME sponsored residency programs, ultimately pursuing local academic and community-based opportunities. While our traditional four-year program continues to thrive, we will launch our recently approved accelerated three-year medical student curriculum with exclusive focus on primary care. This program is designed to further enhance workforce retention needs across Arizona.
The college has embarked on our strategic plan for 2025 to 2030. Learn more.