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Education Activities at MCC

Health Disparities Seminar Series

The Health Disparities Seminar Series hosts outside speakers with expertise and national recognition in health disparities research are invited to present their research to the entire MCC and PHSU research faculty, staff and students. The video stream includes the ability to ask questions and all videos will be archived in our Partnership Education Online Library, established in the current funding cycle. Topics span basic, population and translational research arenas.

Health Disparities Research Course

This course is an official course in the MCC/USF Cancer Biology PhD Program curriculum offered each spring semester. The course consists of ten sessions open to PhD and non-PhD candidates. Faculty from both PHSU and MCC serve as instructors, using our proven video-conferencing infrastructure. Students enrolled in the class can participate in the joint Partnership Health Disparities seminar series, described above. Topics included span ‘Biopsychosocial
Perspective on Cancer Health Disparities’, ‘Genetics and Genomics in Cancer Disparities’ ‘Impact of Access to Care’, and sessions on Reducing Disparities through Basic, Population and Clinical Science.

Omics Experience

To address the identified challenge of variation in project potential for career enhancement, PHSU rotation students obtain skill development in “omics” technologies at MCC. The “omics” education is in parallel with their laboratory research experience. At MCC we have successfully pilot tested a similar short course in omics technology with 2nd year MCC PhD students. Student and research faculty host will clearly establish a project, timeline, and tools prior to the student’s arrival to ensure success. The Partnership Quantitative Sciences Core will provide education in experimental design and data analysis. Techniques could include RNA-seq, nano-string, or protein identification by MS. The experience will receive guidance from either Alvaro Monteiro, PhD (Director, MCC Molecular Genomics Core), John Koomen, PhD (Director, MCC Proteomics Core), and/or Jamie Teer, PhD (MCC Bioinformatics faculty). As an example, a student rotating with Dr Chellappan as part of the Partnership Full Project 1 could participate in the project’s RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, or NanoString studies. In addition, projects accessing the molecular sequence data obtained in the PRBB through ORIEN support is a rich data mining resource for the “omics” education in collaboration with the QSC. The student participating in such a project would learn basic informatics and the unique requirements of working with patient samples supporting precision medicine endeavors. The knowledge gained will enhance the students’ skill set and build additional capacity at PHSU when they return to Ponce.

Surgical Resident Rotations at MCC

The Ponce program at San Lucas Hospital (4 miles from PHSU) is approved to graduate 3 categorical general surgery residents each year. The residency has been successful in training residents to become general, community-based surgeons. However, the residents’ opportunities to compete for surgical oncology fellowships have been dampened by a lack of access to surgical oncology exposures during their residency. Surgical oncology education experiences at MCC is a component of residency at San Lucas Hospital. The surgical residents complete a 1-month practical education experience at MCC. This is open to any PHSU categorical general surgery resident desiring an advanced surgical oncology experience and will occur in their fourth year under the supervision of Julian Sanchez, MD (MCC). During the rotation, residents will meet weekly with Dr. Sanchez (or other MCC surgeons selected by Dr. Sanchez) for one-on-one education in fellowship selection, interviewing skills, and general career development. The residents have a defined curriculum and will be integrated into the MCC surgical oncology care team and supported to achieve the competency goals established for all surgical residents at MCC.

Training Core Education Library

Please click here to access the library.