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Students receive Primary Care Week award by Heather Woolwine Public Relations MUSC students traveled to Washington, D.C. early this month to accept the national Primary Care Week Award from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA)  in honor of innovative planning for the week’s lecture series on the MUSC campus.   Many medical school in the country recognize National Primary Care Week, Oct. 16-20, by scheduling a series of lectures that students can attend. Much planning goes into the lecture series to ensure that topics are relevant, balanced and well-attended. This year’s theme was “Addressing Health Disparities: Healing the Nation.”   Planning committee co-chair Leigh Anne White said, “As the first nursing student to co-chair the week, I was thrilled to hear that our efforts were recognized by AMSA. From the beginning, we sought to involve other colleges in the program. One of our goals was to emphasize an interdisciplinary approach to health care and health disparities. In keeping with this theme, we had speakers from medicine, epidemiology, public health and nursing address issues such as civil rights, and women’s primary care needs. We also provided participants with lunches that were sponsored by various campus organizations.”   White, along with co-chairs Jonathan Stegall and Bhavarth Shukla, both of the College of Medicine, canvassed MUSC for speakers and funds from various disciplines and organizations to support the week. It was this attention to interdisciplinary detail that caught the eye of AMSA.   “Bhav, Leigh Anne and I started meeting last May to begin planning the week. We were determined to choose speakers who would hopefully give students some knowledge and advice that they would not receive elsewhere in their education,” Stegall said. “I believe we were successful. For me personally, I immediately knew that MUSC’s National Primary Care Week was something I wanted to plan. I had a great experience as an attendee at last year’s event, and was eager to help organize it this year. As a second year med student who is planning on specializing in internal medicine, I am especially interested in increasing student awareness of primary care—I believe that every student, regardless of his or her career path, can benefit from learning more about primary care. I am especially proud of our effort to include different health care disciplines in this year’s week. To truly afford patients the best care possible, it is up to everyone on the health care team to work together. What better time than now to begin doing that?”   Not only are the students happy with the results of the week as well as their recognition by AMSA, but MUSC administrators and faculty are, too. “We have such terrific students who give so much beyond what one could reasonably expect… this fits so well into our long- range goals to promote interprofessional collaboration on issues of mutual interest and societal need,” said Valerie West, Ed.D., vice president for Academic Affairs and associate provost for Education and Student Life.   Faculty advisor David Garr, M.D., associate dean for AHEC and family medicine professor, also felt the recognition well-deserved. “The focus on health care disparities, the interprofessional collaboration and the excellent planning that led to the receipt of this award were most impressive and a credit to all of [the students],” he said. “The South Carolina AHEC was honored to have collaborated with [them] on such an important and successful program.”   White said she would treasure the experience and noted that is was “one that has taught me lessons about working with other members of the health care team, networking amongst my peers and faculty, soliciting financial support and enlisting the help of colleagues to accomplish a significant goal.”     Friday, March 30, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.