» Additional Student And Alumni Local Impact

of Public Health Sciences and chair of graduate programs at the Miller School of Medicine, also said that researchers at the Miller School and elsewhere have demonstrated that stress is not always an adversary.

“In fact, exposure to a mild stressor prior to inoculation with the influenza vaccine has been shown to actually enhance immunological response, potentially conferring greater protection from the flu,” he said.

The MBSR program has been studied in thousands of participants suffering from chronic high-stress levels, as well as inpatient groups living with a variety of chronic diseases. Results from these studies indicate that regular mindfulness practice results in reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, along with other benefits.

Dr. David Lee

A A. U. AMANDA NWABA

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Nwaba’s work has been related to COVID-19:

“The Student National Medical Association (SNMA) chapters at UM and FIU partnered for a project aimed at decreasing the spread of misinformation related to COVID-19 by teaching youth how to critique public health information, communicate effectively on social media, and appreciate civic engagement. Our project is sponsored by the Association of Black Cardiologists and will consist of a series of webinars for mainly Black and Latinx Miami youth to educate and empower them as they continue to navigate their role in their community, and more specifically their online social circles, during the pandemic.

Additionally, the Miller School of Medicine’s executive student government hosted a COVID Diaries event that was aimed at providing a sense of community to Miller students who wanted to discuss how COVID-19 has affected their lives. Students were invited to share how the pandemic has affected their lives, whether directly related to an experience with COVID-19 or relating to the impact of isolation and feelings of uncertainty. The hour-long session was emotional and honest, and more importantly it was a safe space for Miller students to share their frustrations, worries, and pain with one another as one community, something that far too many have been lacking since March of last year.” – Nwaba

IRENE GOO

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Goo’s work has been related to COVID-19:

When quarantine and other restrictions prevented students from taking part in their usual community work, Goo connected with the organization ContraCOVID through Instagram. This allowed her to contribute to community efforts and assist community programs in gaining a wider audience through advertisements across platforms.

Goo worked with fellow second-year students Danny Castaneda, Erin Dandes, and Nick Lee to develop a series of community resource guides. They compiled information about social assistance programs, COVID-19, health care, and unemployment and distributed these guides to Spanish- and Creole-speaking communities in Miami. The guides provided other information about bill deferrals, financial assistance, and food resources — one of the most significant issues people are experiencing during the pandemic. Goo and her team collaborated with community partners, including churches and local organizations, to ensure accessibility and a wider audience for available outreach efforts.

Program: Master of Science in Prevention Science and Community Health

How Kane’s work has been related to COVID-19:

Kane focused her master’s thesis on barriers to promotion of physical activity among children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, I was planning to focus my thesis study on schoolbased obesity prevention programs,” Kane said. “During the midst of COVID-19, I kept reading that the pandemic was expected to exacerbate the rising obesity epidemic, especially in children. Since physical activity promotion and obesity prevention are my research interests, I decided to focus my thesis on the barriers to physical activity promotion among children during COVID-19, including in schools with pandemic-related restrictions and in virtual learning environments.”

To conduct her thesis study, Kane used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, which consisted of a quantitative survey of 68 participants followed by 17 qualitative interviews.

“I collected data regarding the barriers and challenges to physical activity promotion for children from parents, elementary classroom teachers, physical education teachers, college professors, and anyone who had influence over the physical activity levels of children during COVID-19,” she said.

Based on this data, Kane created a brief animated physical education video intervention to target enhanced physical activity for children during COVID-19 and beyond. ADRIAN KINKEAD

Program: Master of Public Health

How Kinkead’s work has been related to COVID-19:

“Prior to being the Epidemic Intelligence Service Opioid Fellow, I was working with the St. Lucie County Department of Health’s COVID-19 response. I helped with contact tracing, working with outbreak data, giving guidance and helping at vaccination points of dispensing (PODs). Currently, I still help at the vaccination PODs.” – Kinkead

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Tardino’s work has been related to COVID-19:

Tardino and other members of the Miller School’s Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS) Emergency Preparedness Team helped rally more than 175 students this spring to answer calls about COVID-19 after the Florida Department of Health asked the Miami Poison Control Center, a cooperative venture between the Miller School and Jackson Memorial Hospital, to relieve the department’s call burden and staff a COVID hotline.

As a supervisor, Tardino worked alongside the poison specialists, residents, and pharmacy and nursing students who also volunteered. She took part in daily conference calls with the Department of Health.

“It was exciting,” Tardino said. “There were new developments every day — new changes, new CDC guidelines, new information. It was also a little intimidating because we didn’t know that much. We often didn’t have many answers to give callers, but I like to think we stopped some of the spread, helped ease some people’s worries, and provided some public health education.”

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Rose’s work has been related to COVID-19:

Rose spent the month of April 2020 enrolling study participants in the Surveillance Program Assessing Risk and Knowledge of Coronavirus (SPARK-C) initiative. This past spring, as COVID-19 surged in the U.S., Miami-Dade County reached out and asked Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., the UM’s vice provost for research, to implement a testing program to show how prevalent the disease was in the county. The SPARK initiative, an alternative to symptom-based testing, provided a more representative view of the coronavirus in the community.

“At the time, it was the closest thing we could get to a random sample,” Rose said. “If you test people who are sick, that doesn’t give you the same information as if you were to take people out of the population randomly.”

The other SPARK-C captains were students Tomas Delgado, Heather Herman, Maya Lubarsky, Maria Lugo, Brianna Mussman, Varsha Prabhakar, Apoorva Rangan, and Nicole Vecin.

JARED SILBERLUST

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Silberlust’s work has been related to COVID-19:

After his clinical rotations were canceled in March 2020, Silberlust looked for alternative ways to care for patients, and he learned that other schools were offering telemedicine opportunities. Silberlust recognized the many complications that could arise from virtual patient care and reached out to Gauri G. Agarwal, M.D., associate dean for clinical curriculum on the Regional Medical Campus, to ask how Miller School students can learn more about telemedicine.

“I wanted the tools to be a better doctor,” Silberlust said.

Silberlust worked on condensing telemedicine resources that Dr. Agarwal shared with him, and he created a presentation and recorded himself giving the lecture.

“Basically, the lecture was ‘Telemedicine 101’ — how to use telemedicine, what the implications are, why medical students should care how to do a remote physical exam, and what website manner is versus bedside manner,” Silberlust said. “These are things that I know I wouldn’t have necessarily thought of if I hadn’t specifically looked into it.” Silberlust’s lecture was assigned to all third-year students. More than 400 have viewed it, and more than 100 were paired with physicians to gain more telemedicine experience.

“Our results were extremely successful,” he said. “Everyone improved in every single competency we tested, including overall ability, note writing ability, physical exam ability, and communication skills. Now, because it was successful, parts of that curriculum are being incorporated into the clerkship.”

ALLISON KUMNICK

Degree: M.D./M.P.H.

How Kumnick’s work has been related to COVID-19:

While studying for exams during Spring 2020, Kumnick was also recording podcasts for Regional Medical Campus (RMC) students preparing to begin their third-year rotations. She listens to podcasts often and used the format because of the long commutes to some rotation sites for RMC students.

Kumnick aimed to provide future students with information to help them prepare for rotations, and encourage them to prioritize their well-being and take time to reflect during challenging times.

patient dies, which is a hard thing during your third year,” Kumnick said. “One of my friends and I were in the same patient group, and one of our patients died early — like in our first four weeks of third year. So, we talked a little bit about that and how to reflect.”

The podcast episodes also have information that’s especially helpful for students in RMC rotations and not generally found in orientation guides, such as what students should keep in their pockets during the day and what a typical day might look like. The series consists of an hour-long podcast, in which Kumnick discusses wellness, and six, 10- to 15-minute episodes that offer advice from her classmates on rotations for specific specialties. “It was fun interviewing people because I hadn’t seen my friends in two months,” she said. “And every time I finished an interview, we ended up talking for 30 minutes because everyone was socially deprived.”

ALLISON DRAPER LEEN HAMMAM KATHLEEN KELLY

Program: M.D./M.P.H.

How Draper, Hamman, and Kelly’s work has been related to COVID-19:

“Our capstone project is working with Dr. Shirin Shafazand to characterize the long-term outcomes of individuals who have tested positive with COVID-19,” they noted. “We are investigating the medical, socio-economic, and psychological complications of COVID-19 within the University of Miami community. In characterizing these outcomes, we aim to inform future investigations and interventions to improve quality of life, medical needs, and socio-economic needs after COVID-19 infection.”