LUCOM’s medical students take first place for their presentation on the effects of electronic cigarettes on the unborn child »Liberty News

November 10, 2020: By Chris Breedlove – LUCOM Marketing

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) congratulates King Ampofo, VicLouis Arreola and Aubrey Jackson, second year osteopathic medicine students, on their Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (VAFP) on Saturday November 7. Together, they won first place in the oral presentation category at the first VAFP Virtual Scholar Symposium. Their research project was entitled “Development of two hatching embryonic blastocyst cells after exposure to E-Cig aerosols in an adult female starting 3 days before ovulation and continuing until the collection of 2 cells” .

“The use of electronic cigarettes has become more and more popular, often seen as a better alternative to smoking cigarettes. Investigating this topic, and more specifically how vaping affects pregnant women and their unborn babies, is a critical step in helping family physicians (and physicians in other specialties) address this issue with their patients. and make appropriate recommendations, ”Jackson said.

During the virtual event, nine residents and 14 students presented their academic work – 15 of the projects were posters and eight of the projects were oral presentations.

“This project has been in the works for several years under the leadership of Dr. R. James Swanson. Before our team inherited it in the last year of university, it was led by medical students Joe Carter and Kane Smith, now fourth year medical students. Our contribution has been to expand their research and focus on new variables in order to strengthen the overall project, ”Arreola added. “It was an interesting experience to present to a camera, but we had the opportunity to interact with our audience and answer questions about Zoom, which was nice. It seemed somewhat normal to do things virtually and I think this is in part due to LUCOM’s heavy use of WebEx for the learning activities that started last semester.

Amber Fedin, DO, FAAFP, FACOFP, Assistant Dean of Clinical Education for LUCOM, is co-chair of the VAFP Residents, Students and Faculty Committee. “The caliber of academic work presented was excellent and many attendees were impressed with the presentations. Several physicians who attended said they found the symposium very informative and indicated that they would use what they learned to help them better care for patients in their practice.

“Congratulations to LUCOM students for their hard work on great projects. I am proud of the many ways our students contribute to the quality of patient care at regional, state and national levels, ”she added.

Dr Fedin recently completed three years of service as Director of the Board of Directors of VAFP.

The following categories were presented at Saturday’s symposium: basic and biomedical sciences, clinical medicine, future of medicine and the impact of Covid-19, as well as education and preventive medicine. Acting as a judge during the symposium, a medical examiner said: “The importance of this topic for family medicine has been very well explained. The students did a good job of giving context at the start of their presentation on the importance of this topic and how it fits into a larger topic.

According to Mary Lindsay White, executive vice president of VAFP, there was a big response when the symposium was opened to include students and not just residents, in keeping with the normal routine of following the Accreditation Board’s requirements for graduate medical education (ACGME). “It worked very well virtually. Thanks to the Zoom platform, we had breakout rooms for presentations on similar topics, and all were very busy. We sent out a survey after the symposium and received almost 100% in favor of hosting another research symposium in the future.

The mission of VAFP is to enable its members to be physicians who provide high quality and accessible health care, are dedicated to the well-being of the citizens of Virginia, and are guided by the principle that the family physician remains the specialist of choice. to guide health care throughout life.