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Gurkiran Singh, Jacob Brock, Daniel Pastel, Anna Cherian and Varun Gopinath

Students Attend Family Medicine Conference

My fellow Northeast Ohio Medical University Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group officers and I are all passionate about using lifestyle interventions in the treatment and management of diseases, so we were excited to attend the 2019 Family Medicine Education Consortium annual meeting, November 1-3, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

It did not disappoint! I loved that the conference focused on all aspects of wellness, such as nutrition, exercise, burnout and non-pharmacological management of chronic diseases.

My fellow second-year College of Medicine classmates – Varun Gopinath, Jacob Brock, Daniel Pastel and Gurkiran Singh — and I also had the opportunity to present our poster: City Fresh: A community supported agriculture (CSA) model addressing health disparities through produce access in Cleveland.

City Fresh, a program of the New Agrarian Center (a Cleveland non-profit), seeks to improve access of healthy foods in urban communities in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties, through a community-supported agriculture (CSA) model. We analyzed trends of food access by utilizing City Fresh data on users of the program. The poster session also gave us insight into the amazing research that is happening across the nation from various medical schools.

Each day of the conference had a variety of workshops and seminars that students, residents, and physicians alike could all attend. For example, a few presentations we attended were Transgender Medicine, Traumatic Stress in Latino Immigrant Adolescents, and Dealing with Patients Whose Behavior is Racist: Creating a Training Module for a Family Medicine Residency.

Gurkiran and I also had the opportunity to attend our first CrossFit class!

We enjoyed spending time with NEOMED Department of Family and Community Medicine faculty, including John Boltri, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine; David Sperling, M.D. (’85), associate professor of family and community medicine; and Michael Appleman, director of primary care education integration.

We all left the conference energized and excited about the field we are pursuing. Being surrounded by many motivated, talented individuals who are working every day to continuously improve the care and well-being of their patients was truly inspiring!

After leaving NEOMED for the conference immediately after our first Principles of Medical Science exam. It is safe to say we came back rejuvenated and ready for what’s to come!

—Anna Cherian, a second-year College of Medicine student, contributed this reflection.

Photo L to R: Gurkiran Singh, Jacob Brock, Daniel Pastel, Anna Cherian and Varun Gopinath