Congrats ASM Residents!

June 01, 2010

Congratulations to the UTMB residents for winning 2010 RAM Bowl Championship (Sponsored by the American Society of Aerospace Medicine Specialists) at the May national meeting. The team this year also included residents in the MPH program from the U.S. Air Force and Army/Navy program. Those on the UTMB team were Greg Shaskan, Ronak Shah, Dan Murray, Kathleen Samsey, and Chuck Mathers. The other UTMB and military MPH residents helped prepare the team during practice. To win the championship, the UTMB team had to top five other teams from the Air Force, Army/Navy, and Wright State. This year's event was conducted in front of a standing room only, energetic, cheering, and jeering crowd and was part of the official Aerospace Medicine Association scientific CME program. The purpose of the RAM bowl is education, competency development, friendly competion between programs, and entertainment. It is very gratifying that UTMB residents have won for 3 years in a row.

            


In addition to the RAM Bowl Championship, Chuck Mathers won second runner-up for outstanding young investigator for his presentation "Measurement of Head Acceleration and Angular Rate in Rough Stock Riders: A model for examining non-impact related head injuries in extreme environments." This was quite an accomplishment since there were 92 papers competing for this award.

Leigh Lewis also gave an excellent presentation titled "Measurement of Head Acceleration and Angular Rate Experienced by Aerobatic Pilots." This presentation was done before a very large audience and was well received.

Greg Shaskan and Ronak Shah each presented cases at Aerospace Medicine Grand Rounds. Ronak presented on vertebrobasilar insufficency due to cervical disc disease, and Greg presented on musculoskeletal injury in an astronaut during EVA training. Grand Rounds is one of the largest sessions at the annual meeting and is always a highlight of the assembly.

Chuck Mathers won the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons "Space Medicine Recognition Award" which included a $250 cash award. Congrats to Chuck for this honor.

Congratulations also to Dr. Kal Purohit for winning the Jeffrey R. Davis Endowed Scholarship for 2010 to help with travel costs to the Aerospace Medicine Association conference.