Departmental Updates
July 2009
Dear Frogs,
Unbelievably, another academic year has passed and we find ourselves in the early days of the 2009-2010 year. The interns beginning during this milestone year will comprise the first resident class in over 4 decades to not receive any training in WCH!
The new hospital is up and running smoothly. All academic offices have been moved to the second and fifth floor of the “Interns and Residents Dorm” (IRD), but all phone numbers remain the same (Department Main number 323 226-3416). We encourage all FROGS to come view the new facilities and participate in Friday Morning Conference, held in room C2J104-A on the second floor (but the floor you walk in on) of the new Inpatient Tower from 7:00–10:30am. Please check the FROGs website for monthly grand rounds schedule (www.uscfrogs.org)
We would like to officially congratulate our 10 graduating senior residents as they undergo metamorphosis from tadpoles to FROGs. Here are their immediate plans for the future:
UMA Chandavarkar - Fellowship Gyn Onc USC
Lauren Rubal - Fellowship REI USC
Brendan Grubbs - Fellowship MFM USC
Elizabeth Felix-Trunelle -Private practice in Southern California
Linda Fraga- Private practice in Southern California
Dorothy Hong- Private practice in Southern California
Christina Jahncke- Military service OB/GYN in Japan
PETER FANTI- Hospital based practice in Southern California (California Hosp.)
AARON EPSTEIN- General Faculty USC
JENNY JAQUE- General Faculty USC
Also, we acknowledge the graduating FROG fellows:
MARC KALAN (2006): will join the private practice of Michael Vermesh in Tarzana (Dr. Vermesh is not a FROG, but did his REI Fellowship at Women’s)
EMILIANO CHAVIRA (aka: Milo) (2005): will join the MFM team at Kaiser Sunset.
Further, we welcome the newest future FROGs who come to us from the following programs:
FARNAZ AGHIDEH- Rosalind Franklin University / Chicago Medical School
INGRID HERNANDEZ- University of California Los Angeles/David Geffen SOM
KATHRYN JONES- Drexel University College of Medicine
JENNIFER KING- University of Miami School of Medicine
HANNAH MOON - University of California San Francisco
AVITA PAHWA - UCLA/Drew Medical Education Program
MICHELLE SANCHEZ - Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California
ANGELA VALLE - Albany Medical College
In other FROG related departmental news:
FROG Begum Ozel (2002) has accepted the position of Acting Chief of Gynecology. Another FROG, David Miller (1992) is now the MFM Division Chief. Joseph Ouzounian (1994) has been appointed as the MFM Fellowship Director at USC and Richard Lee (2003) is the Assistant MFM Fellowship Director here as well. Congratulations to all.
This year we are again funding textbooks for the interns and awarding a personalized chair to each of the graduating seniors.
Resident research day on May 15, 2009 was a great success. FROG Raquel Arias (1986) served as moderator and $300.00 awards went to VANESSA SUN for her research project titled “The Effects of Estrogen on Cytokine Secretion Patterns in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells”
as well as to CAREY WATSON for her project “Immediate Post Abortion Insertion of Intrauterine Contraceptives (IUC) Among Urban Latina, African American, and Asian Women.” Congratulations to Carey and Vanessa!
The annual FROG reception at the ACM in Chicago this year was a well-attended success, considering how far Chicago is from Southern California. Next year in San Francisco we anticipate a much bigger reception and look forward to seeing you all there!
We have such a strong FROG community both in Southern California and the rest of the country. With that in mind, we are setting up a website to facilitate job placement for our upcoming senior class. It will allow FROGs to post any available positions at their respective practices. USC residents can then check the website and contact the desired listings. In this way, we can both assist the senior residents and guarantee USC-trained physicians in the community. If you have a job opening at your practice and would like to advertise it, please email Jim Dowden (jdowden@prodigy.net) so that he can post it on the FROGs website.
We will continue to distribute the newsletter and would love to hear about what you are up to… Please contact Lauren Rubal (laurenrubal@gmail.com) with any updates in your life and job, or even reminiscences of stats and residency at County. We will publish your statements in the next newsletter.
Our treasury report shows that we are stable because of your generous annual donations. Since we are a 501 C3 nonprofit organization, dedicated to the education of our Ob/Gyn residents, your donations are tax deductable. Please return the form below with your annual membership dues.
Please accept my enclosed tax-deductable donation to the FROGS:
Emerald Green FROG $250
Forrest Green FROG $100
Light Green FROG $50
Thank You,
Your FROG Board
Jim Macer (1983)
Robert Wallace (1983)
Marc Kalan (2006)
Heather Macdonald (2003)
Lauren Rubal (2009)
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