Sneak Peek - USA Employee Shares His Story

Scott Cox, an employee at the University of South Alabama and a patient of Dr. Brad Steffler at USA, will be featured in an ad in this weekend's Press-Register. Click here to view Scott's story.

USA College of Medicine to Host 4th Annual Gumbo Chili Showdown

The fourth annual Gumbo Chili Showdown will take place March 24, 2012, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. preceding the University of South Alabama Jaguars Spring Game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

This annual event benefits the Regan Robinson Young Scholarship Fund at the USA College of Medicine. The event will feature both gumbo and chili from competing teams representing area medical practices and local businesses.

The Gumbo Chili Showdown was created in 2008 by USA medical students and continues to be a project organized by students at the USA College of Medicine.

The event supports a scholarship created in memory of Regan Robinson, a medical student at USA who was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in 2003 at the age of 23. The scholarship provides assistance to a rising senior medical student who embodies Regan’s spirit and character.

Register your team now at http://www.gumbochili.com/team-register.php.

Next Week's DSS - Dr. Brian Popko

The next Distinguished Scientist Seminar at the University of South Alabama College of Medicinewill be presented by Dr. Brian Popko, professor of the committee on genetics, genomics & systems biology in the molecular biosciences department at the University of Chicago.

His lecture, titled "Myelin Repair," will take place March 8, 2012, at 4 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Building auditorium on USA's main campus.

Dr. Popko’s research interest focuses on a molecular genetic approach to obtain a better understanding of the normal function, as well as dysfunction, of the nervous system, primarily through the use of mouse models of peripheral neuropathies.

Dr. Popko earned a B.S. degree in microbiology at Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in microbiology at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine.

For more information on Dr. Popko’s research, click here.

Mark Your Calendars: Match Day 2012

On March 16, 2012, senior medical students and residency training program directors across the United States and Canada will find out this year’s Match Day results.

The National Residency Matching Program, or Match Day, is the annual event in which future doctors simultaneously learn where they will be doing their residency training.

Locally, the University of South Alabama’s Match Day will be held at 10:30 a.m. CST, on March 16, 2012, in the Bon Secour Bay Ballroom at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel in Mobile. The Match envelopes will be handed out beginning at 10:45 a.m. and will be opened simultaneously at 11:00 a.m.

The Match works like this. After interviewing with several different residency programs - both near and far - students provide a ranking of their top-choice programs in order of preference. The training programs, in turn, rank the students who interviewed.

The NRMP matches applicants’ preferences for residency positions with program directors’ preferences for applicants. Each year, thousands of medical school seniors compete for approximately 24,000 residency positions across the United States.

To read about last year's Match Day event, click here.

RSVP Today Online - 2012 Oncology Outlook

The USA Mitchell Cancer Institute is hosting a CME Event, Oncology Outlook 2012, on March 16-17 at the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa in Point Clear, Ala.

The University of South Alabama is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of South Alabama designates this educational activity for a maximum of 5.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM.

To view the brochure and complete schedule of events, click here. To register, click here.