Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Guess what? Its fall and the leaves are changing color in New England!
Hey TDI followers,
Greetings again! Since it has been a month since our last posting, we have so much to update you on! It is a testament to how busy we have been over the last month that even with two people, our pledge to update biweekly fell to the wayside!
In our defense, in the week after our last post went up, our 10 page White Paper, a 5 page analysis, our Final Systematic Review Proposal, Poster presentation were due, on top of our usual 50 page readings, homeworks and meetings. To say we have been busy would be an understatement. And then the week after that, Finals were upon us. Dun dun dun...
So be warned ladies and gents: TDI is not for the faint at heart.
It wasn’t all work and no play, however, as there was plenty of opportunity to kick back and relax. The Wellie Formal-formerly-known-as-BEMA was a very well attended semi-formal event that gave us the chance to let off a little steam and mingle with other graduate students from the medical school and students from the Graduate Arts and Sciences. Dartmouth also hosted it’s first home game of the season (we fell to Penn, but we’ll get them next time!) and then suddenly, our first quarter was done, and we had a few days of breathing room to gear up for Late Fall Quarter.
Some highlights? Having the former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stop by to speak in our Critical Issues in Health and Health care class seriously sticks out. Members of our cohort who are in the Medical Care and the Corporation elective in Tuck had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Michael Porter, who is widely known as the ‘Father of Modern Strategy’, which was also very exciting.
This quarter, we are welcomed back into Epidemiology and Biostatistics, continue on with Inferential Methods and Systematic Review 2, and we have also added two new classes to the mix!
On to other news, it is starting to get a lot more chilly around these parts and the leaves have starting changing colors. Fall in New England is absolutely beautiful. We just got back from a Fall Break and it has been really interesting hearing where everyone visited for our 5 day vacations. Some went back to their hometowns, and others went exploring other states in New England.
We have our first TDI Student Advisory Committee meeting this week, and we will make sure to update you on the progress we make in that department soon!
As for the late fall term that is upon us...BRING IT ON!
Reppin' TDI till we die yo,
Miriam E. Ayad Miriam.E.Ayad@dartmouth.edu (President)
April P. Semilla asemilla@dartmouth.edu (Treasurer)
Greetings again! Since it has been a month since our last posting, we have so much to update you on! It is a testament to how busy we have been over the last month that even with two people, our pledge to update biweekly fell to the wayside!
In our defense, in the week after our last post went up, our 10 page White Paper, a 5 page analysis, our Final Systematic Review Proposal, Poster presentation were due, on top of our usual 50 page readings, homeworks and meetings. To say we have been busy would be an understatement. And then the week after that, Finals were upon us. Dun dun dun...
So be warned ladies and gents: TDI is not for the faint at heart.
It wasn’t all work and no play, however, as there was plenty of opportunity to kick back and relax. The Wellie Formal-formerly-known-as-BEMA was a very well attended semi-formal event that gave us the chance to let off a little steam and mingle with other graduate students from the medical school and students from the Graduate Arts and Sciences. Dartmouth also hosted it’s first home game of the season (we fell to Penn, but we’ll get them next time!) and then suddenly, our first quarter was done, and we had a few days of breathing room to gear up for Late Fall Quarter.
Some highlights? Having the former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stop by to speak in our Critical Issues in Health and Health care class seriously sticks out. Members of our cohort who are in the Medical Care and the Corporation elective in Tuck had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Michael Porter, who is widely known as the ‘Father of Modern Strategy’, which was also very exciting.
This quarter, we are welcomed back into Epidemiology and Biostatistics, continue on with Inferential Methods and Systematic Review 2, and we have also added two new classes to the mix!
On to other news, it is starting to get a lot more chilly around these parts and the leaves have starting changing colors. Fall in New England is absolutely beautiful. We just got back from a Fall Break and it has been really interesting hearing where everyone visited for our 5 day vacations. Some went back to their hometowns, and others went exploring other states in New England.
We have our first TDI Student Advisory Committee meeting this week, and we will make sure to update you on the progress we make in that department soon!
As for the late fall term that is upon us...BRING IT ON!
Reppin' TDI till we die yo,
Miriam E. Ayad Miriam.E.Ayad@dartmouth.edu (President)
April P. Semilla asemilla@dartmouth.edu (Treasurer)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Welcome Class of 2011!
Hello!!!
For first post of the year, we would like to welcome the TDI class of 2011. We are aware that there has been a significant absence in up-keeping the TDI blog...but have no fear, regular blogging starts now! Our aim is to keep this up biweekly...so get excited!
Looking back at the first month of TDI, we have a lot to report! Hard to believe, but the first month of our TDI experience has blazed by, leaving a trail of homework assignments, group presentations, and readings stacked two inches deep. Congratulations, Class of 2011, for surviving your first round of midterms!
Hanover has been an interesting place so far, a lot different from California and Zambia, where we both are from! One thing we are getting used to is...a lot of trees! We have been exploring, hiking, eating (maybe a little too much), and enjoying meeting people from various backgrounds.
Upcoming events to be mindful of when you can get away from the books:
Friday September 10- North Park Wine and Cheese Mixer 6:30pm
Tuesday September 21- Convocation 11:00 am
Friday September 24-Welcome Reception 4:00 pm
Alright, we think that is all we have for now!
Peace. Love. & TDI.,
April Semilla (asemilla@dartmouth.edu)
& Miriam Ayad (Miriam.E.Ayad@dartmouth.edu)
Friday, October 23, 2009
"Go TDI, represent!"
I first apologize if an alum making a post on the TDI blog would constitute as "hijacking" but I wanted to share an experience that resulted from a TDI education that may serve as motivation for others.
This past Sunday, Emily Neely (formerly Emily Smith, congrats Emily!) and I presented our systematic review on the role of a low-carbohydrate diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients at the American Dietetic Association's Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Denver, CO. It was a pretty informal setting and it may have seemed that taking our MPH work to a dietetic conference would be a big mismatch, but our poster got some great attention, and we got some great feedback and ideas for future research related to health policy and clinical practice.
The timing seems great because the current class is well in the process of developing their own systematic reviews through Robin's ECS 102 class. I remember sitting in the same class listening to Robin talking about taking the opportunity to use our systematic reviews towards publications, presentations, and conferences. I never thought that I would take my own project and use its findings to advocate practices providers for fear of being criticized about miscalculations or lack of credentials. My perceptions were way off, and for those who have similar doubts about taking a school project and presenting it to the "real world," I would really encourage you to put those doubts aside, take a chance, and create opportunities out of your hard work. We had a great time at the conference and really enjoyed talking to everyone who stopped by our poster. We were even encouraged to publish our work, which has really motivated us to continue our work from our school days.
I do hope that all the current students are learning as much as I did in this program and that sharing my experience will encourage students to view what they learn and what they work on as efforts that can and will make an impact on health care policy and practice.
Best of luck on those systematic reviews!
Anna Chin, MPH
Class of 2oo9
This past Sunday, Emily Neely (formerly Emily Smith, congrats Emily!) and I presented our systematic review on the role of a low-carbohydrate diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients at the American Dietetic Association's Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Denver, CO. It was a pretty informal setting and it may have seemed that taking our MPH work to a dietetic conference would be a big mismatch, but our poster got some great attention, and we got some great feedback and ideas for future research related to health policy and clinical practice.
The timing seems great because the current class is well in the process of developing their own systematic reviews through Robin's ECS 102 class. I remember sitting in the same class listening to Robin talking about taking the opportunity to use our systematic reviews towards publications, presentations, and conferences. I never thought that I would take my own project and use its findings to advocate practices providers for fear of being criticized about miscalculations or lack of credentials. My perceptions were way off, and for those who have similar doubts about taking a school project and presenting it to the "real world," I would really encourage you to put those doubts aside, take a chance, and create opportunities out of your hard work. We had a great time at the conference and really enjoyed talking to everyone who stopped by our poster. We were even encouraged to publish our work, which has really motivated us to continue our work from our school days.
I do hope that all the current students are learning as much as I did in this program and that sharing my experience will encourage students to view what they learn and what they work on as efforts that can and will make an impact on health care policy and practice.
Best of luck on those systematic reviews!
Anna Chin, MPH
Class of 2oo9
Thursday, July 23, 2009
New Year
Suffice it to say that I, David William Royal, [skateboarder, computer programmer, ex-professional tennis player, ex-neuroscientist, beach-lover, sketch artist, and NAVY brat] am experiencing culture shock - and loving every minute of it! Although it's only been a few weeks since moving from Nashville to Hanover, I've already fallen in love with my new surroundings. I've even caught myself referring to Hanover as 'home' on more than one occasion. And this is a complete surprise considering that I had had some concerns that I would find it difficult to understand 'Northerners' and their peculiar accents and traditions. For example, what's this stuff these Northerners call 'soda'? I'd swear it's what we Southerners call 'coke', but I'm too much of a Southern gentleman to correct them. Besides, "when in Rome...".
I could go on for paragraphs about how charming and wonderful Hanover and New England are, but I want to focus this blog entry on my early experiences as an applicant and a graduate student at The Dartmouth Institute (TDI). First, I can't praise TDI's faculty and staff enough for making the admissions process the most transparent and painless I've ever experienced. TDI's emphasis on the human element makes its admissions process unique among all of the public health programs I investigated. To put this opinion in context, I spent two consecutive months last year driving across America in search of the best public health programs available, visiting each one multiple times in order to find "my place". What impressed me the most about TDI's admissions process was how thoroughly it emphasized "fit" over raw statistics. My conversations with the Head Recruiter, Alex Thorngren, and the Program Administrator, Karen Tombs, made it very clear that TDI was in the business of creating a balanced class of students from a wide variety of backgrounds and skillsets, and that the professional development of its students was high on TDI's list of priorities. Based upon the résumés and profiles of my classmates, I have to say that TDI absolutely hit it out of the park in terms of their constructing a class rich in experience, character, and personality.
Second, my first weeks at TDI have been absolutely amazing! To set this up, Dartmouth just went through a changing-of-the-guard with the appointment of a new President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. For those unfamiliar with President Kim's accomplishments, he's a human dynamo who's a veritable poster-child for the term "change agent" in the realm of health care. In fact, President Kim was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2003 for his work with Partners In Health to lower the cost of treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among the poor. Suffice it to say that President Kim is now on my "Hero List", along with the likes of my Dad and Abraham Lincoln (as well as Optimus Prime, but that's a story best told over drinks). Now then, I had the privilege of joining representatives from a cross-section of Dartmouth's many graduate schools at a formal dinner hosted by President Kim. The purpose of the meeting was to share with President Kim our impressions of what makes Dartmouth great, and more importantly, where and how we feel Dartmouth can be improved in the realm of graduate education. Like most universities, Dartmouth considers itself primarily an undergraduate institution. Hearing President Kim formally declare his commitment to elevating the status and quality of graduate education at Dartmouth was profoundly satisfying.
Dinner with President Kim was certainly a thrill, and I was honored to have the opportunity. Given President Kim's passion for healthcare reform, I wasn't at all surprised when he made an unscheduled visit to TDI the next morning to share with the incoming class his long-term vision for TDI, and for the important role we students were about to play in the movement to reform healthcare. It's difficult to convey just how uncommon and unique it is for a president of a university, any university, to make time to personally thank students for joining a university's family. I can't speak for the rest of my class but for me, this was one of those rare moments in my life where I recognized, in the moment so-to-speak, that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Third, the classes have been incredibly satisfying, full of healthy discussion and engaging debate. Because Dartmouth is on a quarter system, each class is a little longer in duration (typically 4 hours), but the classes don't drag on endlessly. Each class period is organized into discrete sections that flow seamlessly together, helping create a very dynamic and exciting classroom/community experience. You can tell that the course administrators and teaching assistants have put a LOT of time and effort into creating an environment conducive to learning, and more importantly, to exploration of ideas and concepts about which each of us is passionate. While the material comes at us at a pretty good clip (again, it's a quarter system), the workload is completely manageable, and most of the work is performed in small groups to allow each student an opportunity to offer personal insight on the topic of discussion. What's more, the material is presented and organized in a way that blends theory and practice, ensuring that new information is always presented in its proper context. And this last point has been a source of great relief considering that a number of public health programs focus too heavily on theory and rote-memorization of names and dates, in my opinion. I'm angling to help reform health care, and to do that effectively I need the ability to hang ideas and concepts on a more practical framework, and TDI's professors are experts at this. Of course, I don't want to give you the impression that the work's a cakewalk. I'm now in my third week and already I've pulled 5 all-nighters, but that's mostly because I just happen to enjoy working.
Having said that, please understand me correctly. A TDI experience is so much more than just work; it is definitely about the personal and professional relationships formed with one's professors and classmates. Even though it may sound like we (or I?) work 24/7, we are all having a blast outside of the classroom as well. For example, although Hanover is a healthy distance from major metropolitan areas, there are plenty of adventures and activities here and nearby. Within the last week I've: 1) attended a ballet performance at Dartmouth's Hopkins Art Center by the incredible Santa Fe Company, 2) attended an open lecture by an eminent Dartmouth neuroscientist on how the human brain uses a 'physical vocabulary' to interpret music, 3) danced my shoes off at the weekly Swing lessons sponsored by Dartmouth's Student Activities Board, 4) relaxed at The Dirt Cowboy coffee shop in downtown Hanover where I had the most amazing peppermint tea ever, 5) got lost in the woods behind my house while trying to locate The Appalachian Trail, 6) got lost in Vermont while searching for a swimming hole, and 7) volunteered my time at David's House, a guest house for families living far from a primary care facility and whose children are being treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
In short, I am excited and proud to be at TDI. I can't imagine taking this journey at any other university, or in any other setting. This is shaping up to be a fantastic experience, top-to-bottom! If any readers would like to contact me for further information, please feel free to reach me using the contact information provided below.
Cheers,
David Royal, Ph.D.
MS Candidate, 2010
email: david.w.royal@dartmouth.edu
mobile: 615-294-6051
I could go on for paragraphs about how charming and wonderful Hanover and New England are, but I want to focus this blog entry on my early experiences as an applicant and a graduate student at The Dartmouth Institute (TDI). First, I can't praise TDI's faculty and staff enough for making the admissions process the most transparent and painless I've ever experienced. TDI's emphasis on the human element makes its admissions process unique among all of the public health programs I investigated. To put this opinion in context, I spent two consecutive months last year driving across America in search of the best public health programs available, visiting each one multiple times in order to find "my place". What impressed me the most about TDI's admissions process was how thoroughly it emphasized "fit" over raw statistics. My conversations with the Head Recruiter, Alex Thorngren, and the Program Administrator, Karen Tombs, made it very clear that TDI was in the business of creating a balanced class of students from a wide variety of backgrounds and skillsets, and that the professional development of its students was high on TDI's list of priorities. Based upon the résumés and profiles of my classmates, I have to say that TDI absolutely hit it out of the park in terms of their constructing a class rich in experience, character, and personality.
Second, my first weeks at TDI have been absolutely amazing! To set this up, Dartmouth just went through a changing-of-the-guard with the appointment of a new President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. For those unfamiliar with President Kim's accomplishments, he's a human dynamo who's a veritable poster-child for the term "change agent" in the realm of health care. In fact, President Kim was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2003 for his work with Partners In Health to lower the cost of treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among the poor. Suffice it to say that President Kim is now on my "Hero List", along with the likes of my Dad and Abraham Lincoln (as well as Optimus Prime, but that's a story best told over drinks). Now then, I had the privilege of joining representatives from a cross-section of Dartmouth's many graduate schools at a formal dinner hosted by President Kim. The purpose of the meeting was to share with President Kim our impressions of what makes Dartmouth great, and more importantly, where and how we feel Dartmouth can be improved in the realm of graduate education. Like most universities, Dartmouth considers itself primarily an undergraduate institution. Hearing President Kim formally declare his commitment to elevating the status and quality of graduate education at Dartmouth was profoundly satisfying.
Dinner with President Kim was certainly a thrill, and I was honored to have the opportunity. Given President Kim's passion for healthcare reform, I wasn't at all surprised when he made an unscheduled visit to TDI the next morning to share with the incoming class his long-term vision for TDI, and for the important role we students were about to play in the movement to reform healthcare. It's difficult to convey just how uncommon and unique it is for a president of a university, any university, to make time to personally thank students for joining a university's family. I can't speak for the rest of my class but for me, this was one of those rare moments in my life where I recognized, in the moment so-to-speak, that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Third, the classes have been incredibly satisfying, full of healthy discussion and engaging debate. Because Dartmouth is on a quarter system, each class is a little longer in duration (typically 4 hours), but the classes don't drag on endlessly. Each class period is organized into discrete sections that flow seamlessly together, helping create a very dynamic and exciting classroom/community experience. You can tell that the course administrators and teaching assistants have put a LOT of time and effort into creating an environment conducive to learning, and more importantly, to exploration of ideas and concepts about which each of us is passionate. While the material comes at us at a pretty good clip (again, it's a quarter system), the workload is completely manageable, and most of the work is performed in small groups to allow each student an opportunity to offer personal insight on the topic of discussion. What's more, the material is presented and organized in a way that blends theory and practice, ensuring that new information is always presented in its proper context. And this last point has been a source of great relief considering that a number of public health programs focus too heavily on theory and rote-memorization of names and dates, in my opinion. I'm angling to help reform health care, and to do that effectively I need the ability to hang ideas and concepts on a more practical framework, and TDI's professors are experts at this. Of course, I don't want to give you the impression that the work's a cakewalk. I'm now in my third week and already I've pulled 5 all-nighters, but that's mostly because I just happen to enjoy working.
Having said that, please understand me correctly. A TDI experience is so much more than just work; it is definitely about the personal and professional relationships formed with one's professors and classmates. Even though it may sound like we (or I?) work 24/7, we are all having a blast outside of the classroom as well. For example, although Hanover is a healthy distance from major metropolitan areas, there are plenty of adventures and activities here and nearby. Within the last week I've: 1) attended a ballet performance at Dartmouth's Hopkins Art Center by the incredible Santa Fe Company, 2) attended an open lecture by an eminent Dartmouth neuroscientist on how the human brain uses a 'physical vocabulary' to interpret music, 3) danced my shoes off at the weekly Swing lessons sponsored by Dartmouth's Student Activities Board, 4) relaxed at The Dirt Cowboy coffee shop in downtown Hanover where I had the most amazing peppermint tea ever, 5) got lost in the woods behind my house while trying to locate The Appalachian Trail, 6) got lost in Vermont while searching for a swimming hole, and 7) volunteered my time at David's House, a guest house for families living far from a primary care facility and whose children are being treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
In short, I am excited and proud to be at TDI. I can't imagine taking this journey at any other university, or in any other setting. This is shaping up to be a fantastic experience, top-to-bottom! If any readers would like to contact me for further information, please feel free to reach me using the contact information provided below.
Cheers,
David Royal, Ph.D.
MS Candidate, 2010
email: david.w.royal@dartmouth.edu
mobile: 615-294-6051
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thanks!
The 2009 school year is over and a new group of students will soon take over the TDI student blog. Before they do, I want to thank the students in the class of 2009 that contributed to the creation and development of this blog. In addition to publishing blog posts, these students achieved impressive goals this year.
Recent updates to Shannon’s list of career paths below include the former blogger that will enroll in Case Western’s MD/PhD program in the fall, and the TDI grad that will work as a special assistant for new Dartmouth president Jim Kim. My next few months will include continued blogging on health and health care at Justmeans.com, and starting a job with the health group at a nonprofit think tank.
The TDI staff also deserves credit for developing this blog. Karen Tombs was particularly helpful in creating this forum for students to reflect on TDI experiences and in helping us maintain a publishing schedule. Thanks to all the staff and student blog contributors, and good luck to the TDI class of 2010!
-Sam W.
Recent updates to Shannon’s list of career paths below include the former blogger that will enroll in Case Western’s MD/PhD program in the fall, and the TDI grad that will work as a special assistant for new Dartmouth president Jim Kim. My next few months will include continued blogging on health and health care at Justmeans.com, and starting a job with the health group at a nonprofit think tank.
The TDI staff also deserves credit for developing this blog. Karen Tombs was particularly helpful in creating this forum for students to reflect on TDI experiences and in helping us maintain a publishing schedule. Thanks to all the staff and student blog contributors, and good luck to the TDI class of 2010!
-Sam W.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Internships and Graduation
Now that the year has closed, and we're getting ready for a new one, I thought I would reflect on some of my past experiences and one I did not get to comment on thus far: my internship.
My internship was with the Global Health Council, (they have an office in White River Junction, VT-- http://www.globalhealth.org/) and they hold the premiere conference in global health at the end of May in Washington, DC. Helping plan the conference was awesome, but attending it was even more so. I met Hans Rosling of Gapminder Inc. (www.gapminder.org) who not only gave a wonderful talk, but was a lovely funny man to meet... when my boss told him I spoke of him often, he said, "I talk about you too," simply hilarious. I got to hear Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director of the U.S. National Security Council, speak, watch Professor Sir Andy Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine win the million dollar Gates Award for Global Health, and meet the new President/CEO of GHC, Jeff Sturchio. In addition, I got to watch wonderful films, witness excellent workshops, and have breakfast with a legend, Bill Foege, who is a Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saved millions of lives by controlling smallpox in Africa and is one of the best speakers I've ever heard! The opportunity The Dartmouth Institute gave me to work at The Global Health Council lead me to more opportunities as the conference that I will never forget.
After departing DC, I flew to Chicago to attend Digestive Disease Week, one of the biggest medical conferences in the U.S. at McCormick Place. Two fellow TDI-ers and myself presented a poster on access to care for Crohn's Disease patients in the DHMC hospital referral region and it was great to see the interest in our poster due to the increased interest in quality and the maps we made using GIS.
Since returning from the conferences, I've graduated along with my classmates and heard the wonderful things many of them will be doing from working at consulting companies, the CDC, and hospitals to going to medical school in Boston, Washington, North Dakota and Arizona, just to name a few. This place really is amazing and so much can come from it, if you want it to.
My internship was with the Global Health Council, (they have an office in White River Junction, VT-- http://www.globalhealth.org/) and they hold the premiere conference in global health at the end of May in Washington, DC. Helping plan the conference was awesome, but attending it was even more so. I met Hans Rosling of Gapminder Inc. (www.gapminder.org) who not only gave a wonderful talk, but was a lovely funny man to meet... when my boss told him I spoke of him often, he said, "I talk about you too," simply hilarious. I got to hear Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director of the U.S. National Security Council, speak, watch Professor Sir Andy Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine win the million dollar Gates Award for Global Health, and meet the new President/CEO of GHC, Jeff Sturchio. In addition, I got to watch wonderful films, witness excellent workshops, and have breakfast with a legend, Bill Foege, who is a Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saved millions of lives by controlling smallpox in Africa and is one of the best speakers I've ever heard! The opportunity The Dartmouth Institute gave me to work at The Global Health Council lead me to more opportunities as the conference that I will never forget.
After departing DC, I flew to Chicago to attend Digestive Disease Week, one of the biggest medical conferences in the U.S. at McCormick Place. Two fellow TDI-ers and myself presented a poster on access to care for Crohn's Disease patients in the DHMC hospital referral region and it was great to see the interest in our poster due to the increased interest in quality and the maps we made using GIS.
Since returning from the conferences, I've graduated along with my classmates and heard the wonderful things many of them will be doing from working at consulting companies, the CDC, and hospitals to going to medical school in Boston, Washington, North Dakota and Arizona, just to name a few. This place really is amazing and so much can come from it, if you want it to.
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