| Volume 38 Number 2 | Stony Brook, NY | < August 2022 > |
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Farewell Dr. Gan
James P. Dilger, PhD
During Dr. Gan's tenure, the number of peer-reviewed publications doubled to about 50 per year. The average annual number of conference presentations increased from 50 to 70. He maintained a high level of research productivity himself with over 100 publications from 2013 to the present. He encouraged faculty and residents to publish and helped them co-author 20 peer-review articles, 6 editorials and 3 book chapters. He enthusiastically supported basic science research projects in the department so that currently, all of the eight research faculty members had external grant support. Ms. Gomes also noted that "among his many other accomplishments, he established a formal faculty mentoring program, a wellness program and a gender and under-represented minorities committee that helped to increase these populations among faculty and staff." Personally, I thank Dr. Gan for his support of our departmental newsletter SleepTalker! 
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Dr. Sergio Bergese Named Interim Chair
James P. Dilger, PhD
Dr. Bergese is a prolific academic. He has presented more than 800 lectures and grand rounds throughout the world. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, 26 book chapters, and 320 meeting abstracts. Hi research interests include Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, and Anesthetic Management of Ischemic Stroke. In 2019, Dr. Bergese was awarded the ASA/SEA Distinguished Educator in Anesthesiology Award. He holds committee appointments at local and national levels such as the ASA and the SAMBA and is a member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists. Congratulations on your appointment, Dr. Bergese! |
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STARS: STaff Appreciation and Recognition
Amit Kaushal, MD I received the following note from the family of a patient: I recently had my son on 6/15/22 at Stony Brook University Hospital. I am reaching out to share my experience with a very down to earth and kind second year anesthesiology resident Dr. Chris Seiter. My phenomenal labor and delivery nurse, Alicia Kelly, shared that Chris was matched to a competitive fellowship at Vanderbilt University. He was very approachable and informative when explaining how epidurals worked and made me feel very comfortable and educated about choosing to have one during my childbirth experience. I was very impressed with his professionalism and care. Please pass along our gratitude for his hard work, knowledge, and expertise. |
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Dr. Lifang Mao Joins Faculty
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Dr. Maria Zapantis Joins Faculty
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Education News
Joy Schabel, MD
Congratulations to all of our CA2s for passing the 2022 ABA Basic Board Exam! I am delighted to announce that Drs. Mike Hafeman, Jims Jin and Ming Zhu received special recognition from the ABA Board of Directors for their top 10% performance on the Exam. Wow! 
Photo from Instagram (missing Neil and Josh in the photo) |
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Research News
Sheed Itaman, graduate student in Dr. Grigori Enikolopov's lab, received a prestigious R36 Dissertation Award from the NIH, for using endogenous barcoding to study neural stem cells in Alzheimer's disease. Congratulations! Dr. Natalia Peunova received a SEED grant for her proposal "Evaluating Cilia Motion Coordination Using Machine Learning" with collaborator Dimitris Samaras from Computer Science. Congratulations! 
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Anesthesia Technician News
Melissa A. Day, MS, CRNA, CCRN
Please join me in welcoming Alexis Thompson to our Anesthesia Technician Team! Alexis graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Health Science with a concentration in Anesthesia Technology from Stony Brook University in May 2021. She recently completed her Anesthesia Technician internship in June 2022 and joined the Anesthesia Technician Team June 9, 2022. Please join me in welcoming Sabila Talukder to our Anesthesia Technician Team! Sabila graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Health Science with a concentration in Anesthesia Technology from Stony Brook University in May 2021. She recently completed her Anesthesia Technician internship in June 2022 and joined the Anesthesia Technician Team June 9, 2022. |
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Visiting Professor Dr. Susan Bartlett
Photo credit We welcome Susan Bartlett, DVM, DACZM, as our Visiting Professor on August 10. Dr Bartlett attended Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine and continued there as a postdoc in the aquatic animal health program. Subsequently, she was an intern at the Tuft University wildlife clinic. She returned to Cornell for a three year Zoological Medicine residency. After being on the faculty of Cornell for a year, Dr. Bartlett joined Zoo New England as the associate veterinarian. In 2010, she was awarded a diplomate from the American College of Zoological Medicine. Her publications illustrate her work with animals ranging from lobsters to elephants! She is currently Senior Veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. Dr. Bartlett will present "Anesthesia of Zoological Species" at Grand Rounds on August 10. Welcome to Stony Brook, Dr. Bartlett! |
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Visiting Professor Dr. Randall M. Schell
Photo credit Randall M. Schell, MD, MACM, Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine will be our visiting professor on August 17. Dr. Schell received his MD from Loma Linda University, School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. He remained to complete a Residency in Anesthesiology. This was followed by a Cardiac Anesthesia Fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Schell's research interests include resident and medical student education, cardiothoracic anesthesia, and transesophageal echocardiography. He is Senior Editor for the American Board of Anesthesiology/American Society of Anesthesiology In-Training Examination. He has published journal articles and book chapters in anesthesiology and medical education. He completed Crisis Resource Management Instructors training at Stanford University, Laerdal SimMan 3G instructor/user training, and is a MOCA course instructor. Dr. Schell will speak at Grand Rounds on August 17. Topic to be announced. Welcome to Stony Brook, Dr. Schell! |
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Family News
Matthew Wang, son of Joy Schabel and Edward Wang was selected to play in the World Lacrosse Championships and will be competing in Limerick, Ireland in Aug 2022. Congratulations!! |
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Farewells
Sunitha M. SIngh, MD, CPHQ
With deep appreciation and sadness, we bid farewell to Jamie Romeiser, PhD. Jamie started in the Department of Anesthesiology approximately 10 years ago working on quality improvement projects and data management. In 2017, she began the pursuit of her PhD in Population Health and Clinical Outcomes with mentorship from the department. Upon completion of her PhD in 2020, she was hired full-time as the department’s Biostatistician and Data Manager. She has contributed to several publications and presentations within the department. Jamie is joining the faculty at SUNY Upstate as an Assistant Professor. We wish her well in all her endeavors. 
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18th Annual SARAS Completed
Srinivas Pentyala, PhD
The 18th annual SARAS (Science and Research Awareness Series) program has come to a successful close! For three weeks (July 11-29, 2022), 110 high school and undergraduate students met at our medical center to interact with more than 60 faculty and staff members from our Medical School. We organized the program under strict safety guidelines which was appreciated by the students and their parents. SARAS would not have been possible without the incredible support from administration faculty colleagues and staff. Details of the program, along with photos, videos, and feedback can be found at the SARAS webpage. Click here to view photos and videos from this year's program. 
 
Excerpts of the feedback from students:
“My head is still spinning from all that I learned in the SARAS program about the field of biomedical science. I'm a "science geek" who wants to pursue a career in medicine, and I had no idea just how many different options there are out there to combine these two passions. The speakers were all so dynamic, and I appreciated that they spoke to us quite candidly about the many challenges that exist in the field today -- from gender bias and discrimination to disinformation to political interference, among others”.
“SARAS was an amazing program and I wish it was even longer! The speakers taught me so much and I am looking forward to my future in medicine. The speakers immersed us in so much and truly solidified my goal of becoming an anesthesiologist! Looking forward to being part of the research world”. Excerpts of the feedback from parents:
“We feel the SARAS program was an invaluable learning experience and opened up a world of opportunities and perspective that will stay with our daughter as she pursues her journey into the field of medicine”.
“There are not enough words in the dictionary to thank all the speakers and program staff in the SARAS program for helping our son deepen his passion for the field of medicine. This morning at breakfast (Kevin was sleeping late!), my husband and I were discussing the many ways in which Kevin benefitted from being in the SARAS program. He is an excellent student but is, by nature, a real introvert. So, it was wonderful for us to see how excited he was every day when we picked him up from SARAS. Teenage boys don't always like to share information with their parents, especially about what they learned in school that day, but Kevin was always so enthusiastic. He was fascinated by the topics that were presented and also loved how many new people he was meeting. My husband joked that thanks to the SARAS program we now have "Kevin Version 2.0!"”. |
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New Publications
Figure from Mena et al 2022 |
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Where on Campus is That?
James P. Dilger, PhD 
Visit the Where on Campus is That? webpage! |
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Monthly Muscle Chillaxant
Murad Elias, MD; photos courtesy of Mingxi Zhu, MD
On July 14, 2022, there was an anesthesia resident barbecue to kick off the new academic year. Aria Shafai, one of our chief residents, kindly hosted everyone at his place in Patchogue. We ate great food and enjoyed the company of our co-residents outside of the hospital. Thank you, Aria, for hosting everyone and thank you to the rest of the chief residents for helping organize this event as well as grilling up some delicious food! 
Two of our chief residents, Jack (left) and Chris (right) at the grill. When not fulfilling their duties as chief residents, they also grill up mean burgers, hot dogs, and steaks.
We celebrated those who have birthdays in summertime! |
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SleepTalker, the Stony Brook Anesthesiology Newsletter is published by the Department of Anesthesiology
Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, NY Sergio D. Bergese, MD, CBA, FASA, Interim Chairman Editorial Board: James P. Dilger, PhD; Stephen A. Vitkun, MD, MBA, PhD; Marisa Barone-Citrano, MA; Murad Elias, MD |
