The 20th Annual IM Resident Research Day celebrates another year of resident accomplishments

For more than a decade, the J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency Program has hosted this annual event to showcase our residents’ research achievements and celebrate the collaboration between residents and dedicated faculty. The Resident Research Day Grand Rounds started with the keynote speech, “From Khartoum to Atlanta: a non-traditional path to implementation research and global health equity”, from Saria Hassan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, associate vice chair of research for the Division of General Internal Medicine.

The event also included resident oral and poster presentations. Please see below for this year’s Resident Research Day winners. Congratulations to all of our presenters on their extraordinary work!

Resident Oral Presenters

Research

• Anamaria Dragan (PGY-2) – The role of cardiac lymphatics in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy and dysfunction in transplanted hearts
• John Menchaca (PGY-2) – Novel large language artificial intelligence model accurately diagnoses clinical case vignettes despite not being designed for medical care

Clinical Vignette

• Chidiebele Enunwa and Maya Bierrmann (PGY-2s) – Syphilitic Hepatitis: Unmasking “The Great Masquerader”

Poster Presentations

There were 93 poster entries for Resident Research Day, including 52 original research projects and 41 clinical vignettes. The following winners were selected by faculty judge reviewers:

Original Research Poster Winners

• 1st place: Margaret To, “Clearing the Fog on COVID-Brain Fog”
• 2nd place: Alexander Razavi, “Very-High-Risk Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Status Among Patients with CAC >1000: Implications for Intensive Lipid-Lowering Therapies”
• 3rd Place: Alexander Matelski, “Microbiological Culture of Non-Sterile Ultrasound Gel and Ultrasound Equipment at Grady Memorial Hospital, February 2023”

Honorable Mention, Original Research

• Jingwen Huang, “Impact of RV Pacing Burden among Patients with Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloid”
• Daniel Resnick, “Interventions to Increase HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Prescribing in US Primary Care: A Scoping Review of Intervention Targets”
• Tony Zhuang, “Real-World Evaluation of Prolonged and Delayed Cytopenias after Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy: A Comparison of BCMA and CD19 Based Outcomes”

Clinical Vignette Poster Winners

• 1st place: Maya Biermann, “The Great Masquerader: Whipple’s Disease Presenting as Sarcoid-Like Granulomas”
• 2nd place: Tyler Kristoff, “Sezary Syndrome and The Gut Microbiota: A Case of Low-Grade Disease Following Fecal Microbiota Transplantation”
• 3rd Place: Joseph Nalbone, “A Case of Recalcitrant Oropharyngeal Pain Treated with Stellate Ganglion Block”

Honorable Mention, Clinical Vignettes

• Darlington Pobee, “A Beri Rare Case of Nutritional Cardiomyopathy and Polyneuropathy”
• Youssef Saklawi, “A Case of Pulmonary Monkeypox Transmitted by Cigarette”
• Shalini Vemuru (presented by medical student Benoit Niclou), “A Surprise Occult Malignancy”
  

We send our gratitude to the numerous faculty who participated in the abstract review and poster judging, as well as the faculty mentorship behind each of these resident research and clinical vignette projects. Special thanks to Dustin Smith, Kemi Fatade, and Thedis Carries for their organization and execution of this wonderful event!