Christina Gimondo is spending the summer at UNMC as a visiting scholar from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is studying in the Nebraska Outcomes Research Laboratory and is mentored by Karsten Bartels, MD, PhD, professor, vice chair of research and Lieberman Chair in the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology.
Gimondo is here as part of the Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowships program from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. She was one of 71 students nationwide selected for the program, which matches medical students for an eight-week research experience within an academic anesthesiology department.
Gimondo also was awarded Summer Training in Anesthesia Research fellowship from the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology. The STAR fellowship program is directed by Sowmya Yelamanchili, PhD.
Gimondo’s project is studying alcohol use disorder and outcomes after spinal fusion and Laminectomy surgeries.
"We look at mortality and costs for everyone overall and then compare it to people specifically with alcohol use disorder," she said.
Gimondo has been excited to conduct research and use this special summer opportunity to go beyond her standard medical school education.
"This has been a very good experience," she said. "I also am very interested in anesthesiology, so it has definitely given me more information about the field."
Dr. Bartels said the fellowship program is a win-win, for the visiting students and the host institutions. "People get to work in different environments, and it helps with our recruiting efforts for residency," he said. "It helps make our program nationally known. So we’re really excited Christina came here from Illinois."
Dr. Bartels also noted that through the summer program Gimondo — and UNMC — have access to and take part in a national network of panel presentations and mentoring groups.
Gimondo recommends the experience of visiting another academic institution for this kind of summer program. It has not only broadened her research and clinical experience but her worldview as well.
"I think it helps you discover new places, and everywhere you go, people are researching different things," she said. UNMC students should take advantage of opportunities to do something similar at other institutions, she said.
Brittany Brown, MD, has been an impactful mentor this summer, along with Drs. Bartels and Yelamanchili, Gimondo said, adding that everyone at the Nebraska Outcomes Research Laboratory and the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology has helped her in her research and in making the personal adjustment to living and working in an unfamiliar place for a summer.