Finding a New Way to Honor RVU’s Body Donors

With the cancellation of the Donor Memorial Ceremony in early May, members of the RVU community found a new way to honor the body donors who, when the time came, donated their bodies to medicine to enrich the education of RVU’s student doctors. The Donor Memorial Committee—led by Rebekah Withers, OMS II (Chair); Melissa Henderson, PhD, Vice Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Claire Levinson, OMS II; Svetlana Morrell, OMS II; and Prakhar Singal, OMS II—chose to memorialize the donors by giving a portion of the original event’s budget to the Food Bank of the Rockies. The Committee also sent out thank you cards (pictured at right) to each of the donors’ families, conveying how much their gift had meant to the Class of 2023. A quote by Isaac Newton was chosen to reflect the sentiment of the class, which will be commemorated with a plaque.

The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Annual Conference, which was held virtually on June 13-16, showcased over 120 poster and oral presentations from osteopathic medical schools around the country. Of those presentations, the conference awarded first place to Courtney Shill Russell’s, OMS III, for her poster titled "Imposter Syndrome and Class Gender Rations in Osteopathic Medical Schools." SD Shill Russell’s co-authors—Carson Russell, OMS III; Bryan Daines, OMS III; Garrett Clement, OMS III; Jessica Carlson, OMS II (who presented on behalf of the team); Isain Zapata, PhD, Assistant Professor of Research and Statistics; and Melissa Henderson, PhD, Vice Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences—evaluated the relationship of Imposter Syndrome (IS) and medical school class gender ratios and also investigated the relationship of IS and common medical school admissions standards, such as MCAT scores.

The team’s methodology included examining responses from students belonging to a class where gender ratios are different across several universities, including RVUCOM, A.T. Still, Touro NY, and Idaho COM. Data was analyzed through a Generalized Linear model and IS was defined as present in subjects who answered yes to five or more targeted questions about self-perception among their peers. In addition, the relationship between students and their cumulative science GPA (SciGPA) and MCAT scores was incorporated into a logistic regression model. SD Shill Russell and her co-authors found that IS is more common among female osteopathic medical students, but that there is no significant relationship between class ratios and the likelihood of female students experiencing IS. There is also no significant correlation between IS, MCAT performance, and SciGPA—meaning that it is felt psychologically but does not affect student performance. For her role as the first author for the poster presentation, SD Shill Russell received a plaque, a one year membership to IAMSE, and access to one series of the IAMSE Audio Seminars.