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Regional Competitions Associate Winners

All across the state of Texas, internal medicine residents are hard at work learning, practicing, and teaching medicine. The Texas Chapter of the ACP has the honor of allowing these young physicians to showcase their hard work locally at one of our five Associates regional competitions.

This year’s meetings followed in the successful tradition of those of the past. Competition was stiff, participation was high and all of the work was exceptional quality. An enormous amount of time and energy went into the planning of each event. Recognition for the extensive meeting preparation goes to Drs. Michael J. Morris for the Southwest region, Niraj Mehta for the Southeast region, Kenneth Nugent for the Northwest region, W. Mark Armstrong and Clark Gregg for the Northeast region, and German Hernandez for the Far Northwest region. Thank you all for your diligence and hard work.

The regional programs involved a mix of Doctor’s Dilemma, podium presentations, and research and clinical poster competitions. Congratulations go to the following regional competition winners!

SOUTHEAST

Oral Vignette Presenters:
First Place: Stephen Harder, MD (BCM),
Crystalline Man

Second Place: Lenny Chow, MD (UTMB),
Renal Aspergillosis

Clinical Posters:
First Place: Shivang Mehta, MD (UTHSC-Houston),
Hypereosinophilia in a Hispanic Immigrant: Not Always a Parasitic Infection

Second Place: Miguel Ordonez, MD (Methodist),
Chronic Diarrhea as a Presenting Feature of Clostridium difficile colitis

Third Place: Reeti Joshi, MD (UTHSC-Houston),
Is it Really CHF?

Research Posters:
First Place: Christian Assad-Kottner, MD (UTMB),
Evaluation of Humoral Immunity in Heart Failure: Plasmapheresis Potential Therapeutic Strategy

Second Place: Praveen Guturu, MD (UTMB),
A Low Risk Index for the Estimate of Fibrosis in Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): Comparison with the Mayo score & the AST Platelet Radio Index (APRI)

Third Place: Preethi Nambi, MD (BCM),
Volumetric Analysis by Non Contrast Computed Tomography is Comparable to Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography in the Follow-Up of Patients with
Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Doctor’s Dilemma:
UTHSC-Houston: Rajeev Fernando, MD; Reeti Joshi, MD; Evren Kaynak, MD; and Amit Verma, MD

SOUTHWEST

Oral Vignette Presenters:
First place: Bryant McNeil, Capt. USAF, MC (SAUSHEC),
Stress Fractures and Impotence Heralding a Case of Men 1 with Rare Associated Spinal Tumor

Second place: Divya Ratan Verma, MD (UTMB-Austin),
Premature Aging

Third place: Anisha Arora, MD (TAMHSC-S&W),
Anabolic Steroids: A Paradoxical Breakdown

Research Posters:
First place: Juan Echavarria, MD (UTHSCSA),
Dyserytrhopoiessis and Severe Malarial Anemia in Aotus Monkeys

Second place: Bermily Maldonado, MD (UTHSCSA),
Omniscan Induces Cell Proliferation in Cultured Human Foreskin Fibroblasts

Third place: Nathan Smith, MD (SAUSHEC),
Initial Use of Fluticasone/Salmeterol Adherence to National Guidelines, Persistance and Clinical Outcomes

NORTHEAST

Oral Vignette Presenters:
First place: Jenny Duewall, MD (BUMC),
“Beer” Belly: Uroperitoneum and Pseudo-Renal Failure

Second place: Rahel Alemu, MD (Texas Health Presybertian Hospital Dallas),
An Unusual Acquired Coagulapthy

Third place: Deepa Moparty, MD (Methodist-Dallas),
Dry Eye Disease as a Cause of the Deep Freeze

Clinical Posters:
First Place: Poonam S. Sharma, MD (BUMC),
A Polyuric Pregnancy

Second Place:
Yanjun Ma, MD (BUMC),
Iatrogenic Hypermagnesemia: A System Failure and Improvement

Third Place:
Qurat-ul-ain Rashid, MD (Methodist-Dallas),
“Budding” Clot and the JAK2 Mutation

NORTHWEST

Oral Vignette Presenters:
First Place: Saba Rahdi, MD (TTUHSC-Lubbock),
An Uncommon Presentation of a Rare Condition

Second Place: Aabu Thomas, MD (TTUHSC-Amarillo),
Skipped lesions a diagnostic challenge

Third Place: Ming Chen, MD (TTUHSC-Amarillo),
A Feverish Pastor

FAR NORTHWEST

Oral Vignette Presenters:
First place: Tarek Alhamad, MD (TTUHSC-El Paso),
The Silver Bean

Second place: Jennifer Pena, MD (WBAMC),
Puzzling Pee Pee

Third place: Ahmed Elsayed, MD (TTUHSC-El Paso),
Passenger X in the Subway-Lymph

The Texas Chapter supports the regional Associates’ councils with annual grants of up to $1,500 per Council to help fund their programming. Each regional clinical vignette competition winner will receive Chapter support to allow them to travel to San Antonio, November 14-15, 2009, to represent their region at the Annual Meeting. Visit the Texas chapter’s site for a complete list of winners. We hope to see you in San Antonio this November!

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