Conference Gathers Latino Medical Students in Buffalo

By Dirk Hoffman

More than 300 medical students, pre-medical students, residents and clinicians attended the conference featuring guest speakers, a research symposium, two exhibitor fair sessions and 40 workshops.

The meeting provided an important educational and networking opportunity for Hispanic medical students and providers as well as those interested in better serving the Hispanic community.

Only in its fifth year, the Jacobs School chapter of LMSA successfully secured support from the school’s administration to compete to host the conference.

“We are incredibly proud to be able to host this conference. Buffalo is truly a hidden gem and bringing the conference here makes Buffalo no longer a secret,” said Bryan Carvajal, a third-year medical student at the Jacobs School and a conference co-chair.

“We let our fellow Northeast medical programs know that their students can come here to train and it is a wonderful place to raise a family and live a great life,” Carvajal added.

“Hispanics are among the fastest growing minorities in the U.S. and there’s a really large Hispanic community in Buffalo,” said Judith Alvarez, a third-year medical student at the Jacobs School and a conference co-chair.

“Having this conference here is instrumental for all of us who have this shared background, but equally important because it allows non-Hispanics to connect about how to better serve their patients. We center the conference not just around being Latino physicians but also on how we care for our community.”

Nearly 50 sponsors, including Johnson & Johnson, the National Hispanic Health Foundation, the National Marrow Donor Program, Stryker Corporation and the U.S. Air Force supported the conference.

In addition, representatives from more than 30 medical schools and residency programs including Stony Brook, SUNY Upstate, Brown, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as numerous UB programs were on hand to share information about their offerings.

“It is a magnificent networking opportunity, a chance to learn about each other’s programs,” Carvajal said, “We also have a lot of pre-medical youth coming in, so we are able to foster that curiosity and show them ‘we look similar to you and you can do the things that we are doing.’”

The conference featured 40 workshops covering topics ranging from establishing a free clinic, overcoming barriers to bone marrow donation, combining advocacy and medicine in the asylum process, building mentorships, and overcoming imposter syndrome. Clinical skills workshops focused on suturing, IV access training, orthopedics and running a code were also held.

“We were looking for workshops that are tailored to what we thought medical students and pre-medical students would benefit from in a professional development standpoint,” Alvarez said. “So, we had sessions on how to make your residency application or medical school application stand out.”

“But we also thought about other categories that would be impactful for this community in particular so we had a lot of advocacy workshops and focused on how to create community-centered care.”

“We also developed a leadership track — how to be an upstander, not a bystander,” Alvarez added.

In her opening remarks Friday night, Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, told attendees that Buffalo, known as “the City of Good Neighbors,” is a community that is very welcoming.

She said the Jacobs School’s mission is rooted in equity.

“We are committed to our community, and the new curriculum embeds our students in working with community organizations during their first year,” she said. “We have a deep belief that our institution can remove barriers.”

“Thank you for being here. We share the same passions.”

Eugenio Russi, deputy mayor of Buffalo, spent more than 30 years as a regional director for the New York State Division of Parole before working at City Hall.

“I found my calling at the Parole Division because I always wanted to help the ‘throwaways’ — the people who no one in society wanted to deal with,” he said.

A native of Puerto Rico and a U.S. Air Force veteran, Russi told a story from his days in basic training to illustrate the power of determination.

“When I got there, they told me I was going to run five miles and I thought they were crazy, thinking to myself ‘I would only run that far if the police were chasing me.’ But within three weeks I was running 10 miles with a 30-pound backpack.”

Russi told the audience that many of them would have doubts about what they could accomplish.

“You are going to be pushed to the point where you think you have reached the max, but you will have plenty more gas in that tank. All you have to do is have the heart to do it.”

Casimiro Rodriguez Sr., president of the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York, noted he could feel the “contagious energy” that was in the room.

“I am inspired to be around you,” he told the attendees. “You all fill this room with so much energy and promise.”

“This is what it is all about — helping each other succeed so that tomorrow is a better future for our children, our grandchildren and our community,” Rodriguez said. “My life’s work, like so many people in this room, has always lived at the intersection of community, equity and outreach.”

He referenced the conference’s theme of Poder, Proposito, Progreso (Power, Purpose, Progress).

“These are not just aspirations. They are deeply practical in each of our lives,” Rodriguez said. “Every generation of LMSA members has moved the needle just a little bit further. Now it is your turn.”

The conference’s keynote speaker was Willie Underwood, MD, MPH, president-elect of the American Medical Association and clinical associate professor of urology in the Jacobs School. His address was titled “Health Care Policy and Disparities and Building a Career in Health Policy.”

An expert on health care policy and health care disparities, Underwood has served as a board member and medical advisor to the Love Canal Medical Fund Inc., a past president of the Medical Society of the County of Erie, and a member of the National Medical Association Commission to End Health Care Disparities.

Underwood told the audience he considers himself a clinician-scientist and an entrepreneur, but also a social change agent — working in communities to try and figure out how to improve health — to overcome obstacles and disparities.

“For instance, if you live in Princeton, West Virginia, or live in Princeton in west New Jersey, your health outcomes are likely very different, but they should not be,” Underwood said. “We as a society need physicians who are going to be physicians not just in name, but in reality, who will help those who need the help the most.”

Underwood also stressed that “failure is a part of success.”

“No one remembers your failures, they just count the successes, as long as you take your next shot,” he said. “Those who have not failed have not tried hard enough.”

The conference concluded on Sunday morning with the convening of the House of Delegates, where chapter delegates were able to consider new proposals for amendments to the LMSA Constitution.