Summer Assistantship Faculty Sponsor List Summer 2017
Summer Assistantship Faculty Sponsor List Summer 2017
Below is a list of Brown faculty who have expressed an interest in working with medical students this summer. We urge you to contact them early in your application process to discuss potential collaborations. Please note that you are not limited to faculty on this list – you may identify other faculty mentors independently. Faculty were asked if they would be able to provide funding for student work outside the Summer Assistantship process. Their answers are included below.
Name and contact info / Title and description of project / Qualifications/previous experience / Non-SA Funding availableAli Y. Adashi, MD, MS, CPE, FACOG
Professor of Medical Science
Former Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences
The Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University
My Website: https://vivo.brown.edu/display/eadashi / Multiple Health Policy Paper projects / No prior qualifications required / No
Brian Alverson, MD
Jeff Riese, MD
Brian Lee, MD / Patient satisfaction in hospitalized patients at Hasbro. Students who do this will be able to round with the hospitalists in the summer, will be involved intimately with the research team on reviewing and extracting charts from patients, and will be intimately involved in decisions regarding the questions we ask of the database.
Students will be first author on a poster at the Brown Med School poster fair, and will absolutely be an author on any publications written.
Contact Dr. Alverson at
Ghada Bourjeily, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
146 West River Street
Providence, RI 02904
Email: / Sleep disordered breathing in pregnancy
Our program of research focuses on the understanding of the impact of sleep disordered breathing on pregnancy outcomes and mechanisms by which such impact occurs. We currently have multiple large projects with a choice of smaller projects that students could choose from to include the evaluation of predictive value of subjective and objective data, the association of specific polysomnographic data with adverse outcomes in pregnancy, correlation of body composition measurements in pregnancy with sleep disordered breathing and others. Students will be learn the basics of clinical research and will be able to shadow experienced coordinators to learn various skills but will be expected to work independently on some others. / A student with some experience in clinical research would be ideal; however, our laboratory has trained many students without prior experience. / $500-$1000
Philip A. Chan, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
1125 North Main Street
Providence, RI 02906
401-644-2876 / Title: Prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases
Description: The student will be involved in clinical care and research related to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Students will have the opportunity to spend time in a sexually transmitted disease clinic. Students will also take lead on an independent research project that is expected to result in a peer-reviewed publication. The project may be part of existing work, or could be a new project developed between the student and mentor. / Ability to provide culturally-competent care to LQBTQ populations is a must. Ideal qualifications include prior experience in qualitative or quantitative research, or a background in public health. / Some, but may not be enough for the entire summer – students should apply for a summer assistantship
Yupeng Chen, PhD
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
1 Hoppin Street
Coro West 402A
Providence, RI
401-533-7561
/ RNA Therapeutics for Treatment of Arthritis
Stimulation of inflammatory mediators can cause degeneration of the cartilage matrix surrounding chondrocytes and the subsequent development of arthritis. As a Nobel-prize winning discovery, siRNA provides great therapeutic potential to specifically inhibit disease gene expression during arthritis progression. This study will develop and optimize siRNA delivery into cartilage using our innovative nanomaterial vehicle. / Previous biology or chemistry lab experience / No
Silvia S. Chiang, MD
Department of Pediatrics
Natasha Rybak, MD
/ Research project at the RISE Clinic (the TB Clinic) We are beginning a research project in adolescent TB. The primary aim of the research project is to evaluate associations between pubertal stage and cytokine response to TB-specific antigens in TB-infected pre-adolescents and adolescents. Secondary aims are to conduct focus groups with adolescents to explore adherence to TB preventive therapy, identify demographic and clinical predictors of discordant tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) results, and evaluate substance use among TB-infected adolescents. The position requires a full-time (~40 hours/week) commitment during the summer of 2017 and occasional meetings and training sessions during the spring of 2017. There is an option of continuing to work with us in the fall of 2017 (we are flexible and can work around the student's academic schedule). / The ideal candidate has a passion for improving healthcare for refugee and immigrant populations and has previous research experience (enrolling and consenting patients, collecting data, cleaning and coding data, performing literature searches).
Phyllis Dennery, MD
Sylvia Kay Hassenfeld Professor of Pediatrics
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Professor of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Pediatrician-in-Chief, Rhode Island Hospital
Medical Director, Hasbro Children’s Hospital
593 Eddy Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
401-444-5648 - phone
401-444-6378 – fax
/ Understanding the Role of Metabolism in Neonatal Hyperoxic Lung Injury
Premature babies are at risk of injury from lifesaving therapies used in the NICU. My laboratory is interested in understanding the impact of metabolism on neonatal lung injury. The work would involve animal experimentation (exposure to hyperoxia, dissecting lungs, preparing samples for analysis), and performing biochemical assays to determine mitochondrial metabolism, substrate utilization and measurement of oxidative stress.
This project should lead to a presentation at a regional and/or national meeting and contribution to a manuscript. / Some bench laboratory experience (pipetting, making buffers, handling specimens) animal and cell culture experience is a plus. / Yes
Daniel Dickstein, MD FAAP
Director, PediMIND Program
Associate Director of Research
Bradley Hospital
1011 Veterans Memorial Parkway
East Providence RI 02915 / Brain changes associated with neuropsychiatric illness
The summer medical student would work in my Pediatric Mood, Imaging, & NeuroDevelopment (PediMIND) Program ( involving combination of (a) specific project using either structural/functional MRI data or behavioral task data to advance our understanding of psychiatric illness in children (b) chance to work as part of our team with child participants in our ongoing studies (c) shadowing when I see clinical patients. / Ideal student is eager to learn, hardworking, and has some familiarity with any (but not necessarily all) of these programs: SPSS, Excel, Eprime, or Matlab. / No
David Egilman, MD, MPH
Clinical Professor Family Medicine
Alpert School of Medicine
Brown University
8 North Main Street
Suite 404
Attleboro, Massachusetts 02703
Phone 508-472-2809
Fax 425-699-7033
/ Corporate corruption of pharmaceutical and medical device studies and marketing
You would do research on pharmaceutical company corruption of science and/or misuse of science in marketing
The work involves deconstruction of patient level data, analysis of manipulation of data, manipulation of data analysis, ghostwriting ghost authorship and other unethical standard practices.
You may be able to participate in preparation of materials for published papers or court presentations. / Knowledge of epidemiology is an asset but the key skill set is critical thinking and systems thinking / Yes
1-3 students
Adam Eltorai MD/PhD ‘19 / We are developing a PPD screening tool using a smartphone. We are planning to complete our pilot study this spring-summer with patients at the Miriam. We have received IRB approval and are looking for a student to join our clinical research team. This will be a great summer assistantship project--clinical, innovative, and finite with the plan to submit for publication by the end of summer. For more information, please contact Adam Eltorai MD/PhD'19 at .
Jun Feng, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Lab.
Department of Surgery
CVRC, Rhode Island Hospital
Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Coro West 5th Floor, Room 5.235
1 Hoppin Street,
Providence RI 02903
Tel: 401-793-8065
Fax: 401-793-8224
/ Mitochondrial SK channels and Cardioprotection
The medical student will be participating in a pilot study entitled “Mitochondrial SK channels and Cardioprotection”. After training in lab procedures, He/she will work with assistance and mentorship from lab personnel. He/she will be provided with the space, time, lab materials and tissue samples necessary to complete the study. I will have weekly meetings with the student to discuss progress as well as provide further direction and assistance. Additionally, student will have the opportunity to read scientific articles and discuss them with myself and my colleagues. / No
Timothy Flanigan, MD
Professor of Medicine
The Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Division of Infectious Disease
The Miriam, Newport & Rhode Island Hospitals / Research projects in Ukraine:
1.Tuberculosis among children and adults including MDR TB
2.HIV among substance users and HIV among women
3.HIV among gay and bisexual men
4.Vaccine preventable diseases and low up take
If interested, contact or for more information
Mary M. Flynn, PhD, RD, LDN
Biomed – Brown University
Department of Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, 164 Summit Ave, Providence, RI 02906
401.793.4707; / The student(s) would be involved in the Food is Medicine program I have started at Lifespan Community Health Institute, 335R Prairie Ave, Providence. The program involves delivering a 4 to 6-week cooking program of plant-based, olive oil recipes to low-income patients:
Patients are from clinics at RIH and TMH who have type 2 diabetes. The student will be involved with recruitment of patients from the clinics, including phone calls and appointments to explain the program, delivering the cooking program, which includes weekly nutrition lessons designed to teach the participants how food can be used as medicine; monitoring the patients fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, and body weight on a monthly basis. The student will also be involved in educating the patients as to how the foods used in the program improve their measured risk factors. All of these activities will be done with the mentor, so there are multiple times in the week for contact. Patients who complete the program will receive groceries from a specialized food pantry at Lifespan Community Health Services to make the recipes at home. The student will be involved with taking the measures and entering the data into the patient’s EPIC chart. As part of the program, the student will learn how food can be used to improve the risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The student(s) will work with other medical students from the Albert Medical School and Salve Regina University nursing program in providing this program. / some work with low-income populations would be preferred; work experience that involved working with people; basic cooking skills
Michelle Forcier, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Pediatrics Division of Adolescent Medicine
Scholarly Concentration Leader in LGTBQI Health
Clinics at 3055 Coro West 1 Hoppin Street Adolescent Med and 245 Chapman St Medicine Pediatrics
/ Project areas and ideas may include, but are not limited, to the following:
-LGBTQI education and resource materials for providers, communities, parents and patients
-Community advocacy and outreach efforts
-Research, w over 400-500 charts available for review and data collection
-Policy and legal advocacy with health care finance, insurance reform / Ideal students would be persons interested in improving the health and wellbeing of our gender and sexual minority community. Other qualifications are dependent on the project tasks and goals. / No
Elizabeth Goldberg, MD
55 Claverick Street Room 209
Providence, RI 02903
401-444-7975
/ Fall Prevention in Older Emergency Department Adults
The student will assist the PI with programming research instruments into Qualtrics or REDCAP and enrolling patients into a randomized controlled study in the Emergency Department. There is an opportunity to continue enrolling patients throughout the school year and an opportunity for presentation of related work at conferences. The principal investigator will meet weekly to discuss study progress, concerns, and address research questions. The student is welcome to shadow the PI during adult or pediatric emergency medicine shifts and will have the opportunity to learn about clinical trial design. / Applicants should be interested in health services research or injury prevention strategies. Attention to detail and excellent communication skills will be important. Spanish language skills are strongly preferred, but not necessary.
Natalie Golova, MD
Jennifer Friedman, MD, PhD
Pediatrics, Hasbro Primary Care, 593 Eddy Street, 401 444 7449
or / This project, funded by Children’s Miracle Network, will recruit the caregivers of infants ages 2, 4 and 6 months to a brief interventional study to reduce early introduction and overall intake of sugar sweetened beverages. We will randomize parents to receive intervention or standard of care with intervention being a short video, hand out, and review/reinforcement by pediatrician. A medical student could get involved with recruitment, analysis of early cross sectional data from baseline questionnaire and later in analysis and reporting of intervention results. / Minimal experience needed. Data analytic experience would be positively considered as would Spanish speaking as we have many Spanish speaking families we will recruit.
Andrew Green, MD
Chief of Division of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
Warren Alpert Medical School
University Orthopedics
2 Dudley Street, Suite 200
Providence, RI 02905
(cc: ) / Health Utility Assessment of Shoulder Arthroplasty
Assist in planning of study, data acquisition, data analysis, manuscript preparation, weekly meetings following a curriculum focused on outcomes in Orthopaedic surgery (shoulder specific) / Experience with Microsoft Excel, basic biostatistics.
Student must have interest in pursuing residency and career in Orthopaedic surgery. / No
Julie Leviter, MD
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
593 Eddy St, Providence, RI, 02903
516-840-0073
/ Ultrasound Guided Assessment of Gastric Volume in Patients in the Pediatric Emergency Department- Assistants will use the ultrasound machine to visualize each participant’s stomach in order to estimate the volume of its contents. This is important because a patient who is awaiting a procedure is required to fast in order to allow their gastric volume to decrease so as to reduce the risk of aspiration. Ultrasound can help determine readiness for a procedure. This would be a fantastic, hands-on exposure to the fields of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Radiology as this project combines elements of all of the above. / This requires no previous experience, but a willingness and enthusiasm to learn, and master, gastric ultrasound. / No
Melanie Lippmann, MD
Otis Warren, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine, Alpert Medical School
UEMF, 55 Claverick Street, Providence, RI 02903
502-235-1716 / Website Developer for National Sobering Collaborative website:
Assist with development and improvements to the newly created website for the National Sobering Collaborative- a coalition we founded that aims to better care for homeless patients with alcohol dependence though the establishment of sobering centers nationally. Help develop the site as a tool kit for cites looking to establish sobering centers in their communities. Develop the website as a data repository to better study the effects of existing sobering centers, and to compare various sobering center models. Ideal for a student with web experience, who has an interest in addiction medicine, public health, primary care, emergency medicine, psychiatry, EMS, or health policy. / Web design experience. Familiarity with following software: Business Catalyst by Adobe / No
Elizabeth Lowenhaupt, MD, FAAP
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics (Adolescent Medicine)
Rhode Island Hospital, POB-122
593 Eddy Street, Providence RI 02903
(401) 444-3743
/ The Rhode Island Training School serves all of the incarcerated youth (both detained and adjudicated) in the state of Rhode Island, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Our team provides medical, psychiatric, dental, and mental health services to the patients there, as well as consultation to the facility. There are a wide range of clinical, program development/quality improvement, and advocacy projects that could be developed in this setting. / Interested students should ideally have a background and/or interest in working with adolescents, in an educational or correctional setting, and/or in an advocacy capacity. / No
Jeffrey Hunt, MD
Alysha Thompson, PhD
Elizabeth Frasier, PhD
Jennifer Wolff, PhD
Contact info: ,
or 401-432-1173 (Missy Tatum) / Bradley Hospital Adolescent Program Summer Medical Student Elective
This elective provides experience and training for the interested first or second medical student on acute care child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) programs. The student will learn about and help to implement empirically-supported assessments and treatments of severe mood, psychotic and anxiety disorders in inpatient, partial hospital, and intensive outpatient settings. The multidisciplinary team is comprised of child and adolescent psychiatry attending and residents, staff psychologists and psychology residents, as well as social workers, nurses, and milieu staff. On the adolescent inpatient unit (AIU), trainees will have opportunities to assess adolescents with depressive symptoms who present with a range of co-occurring issues (including suicidality, non-suicidal self-injury, substance use, and behavior problems). Students will be trained to for conduct an initial structured diagnostic assessments and will become an integral part of the treatment team. The initial assessment that is completed is then used to develop a case conceptualization and that informs the selection of specific Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills to deliver in short-term treatment on the AIU. Students will be assigned several cases over the summer to work with under close supervision of faculty. Students will also help lead skills groups on the unit based in CBT and Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills. Students will be able to work with 3-4 patients per day that are seen 3 times per week during their 1-2 week stay on the AIU. Participating in family meetings with supervisors will also be possible periodically. Students will attend morning rounds and case conferences. Students will receive individual supervision by the medical director of the program as well as staff psychologists. The student will also be invited to participate in group supervision and didactics led by staff psychologists which include psychology and psychiatry residents. Supervision includes didactics, live supervision, discussion of empirical articles, and treatment planning. Hospital orientation at Bradley with SafetyCare course will be required.