News & Events

Yale Class of 2011 Commencement with US Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, MD - December 12, 2011

Thirty-five PA graduates and their families and guests were inspired by Dr. Regina Benjamin's commencement address at Woolsey Hall. In her address, Dr. Benjamin stressed the importance of physician assistants to the health care system, and the need for our graduates to continue to provide high quality healthcare to their patients as well as to lead and volunteer in their communities. See photos here.

Yale PA Students publish in PA professional blogs

CO 2011 Benjamin Olmedo recently published his blog article, "Crossing Borders: Opportunity for the indigenous may be no better on the other side" in JAAPA, the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants".  Ben is a member of the AAPA Health Disparities Workgroup as a part of his duties as the Student Academy Director of Outreach.
CO 2012 Harrison Reed, published his blog regarding "Yale PA Program's PA Week 5K Race" in the PA Pro Now page of the AAPA News web page. 

Capacity-building for Non-communicable diseases in Uganda:  Funding for Mid-level officer Training Awarded

New Haven, Conn.—While the world has focused on HIV/AIDS assistance to African nations, doctors and government officials in Sub-Saharan Africa are becoming increasingly concerned at the growing incidence of non-communicable diseases. In Uganda, the number of people with diabetes is now thought to have passed a million, yet there were only 254 people with a diagnosis of diabetes by 1972. The region has one of the world’s highest rates of a mental illness. The meager resources available have been consumed by the war against HIV/AIDS and political turmoil.

Gerald Kayingo ‘97, PhD, PA-C, plans to help alleviate this training gap in Uganda by implementing a “train the “trainer” program in Uganda. Dr. Kayingo has received a $10,000 grant from the Physician Assistant Foundation to conduct a two-day workshop, “Capacity Building in Non-Communicable Diseases”, for mid-level practitioners (known as clinical officers) in Uganda. The workshop, to be held September 27 – 29, 2011 in Kampala, Uganda, will be conducted by Dr. Kayingo, Mary Warner, MMSc, PA-C, Faculty Member of the  Yale PA Program, and medical practitioners and government officials in Uganda.Yale Physician Associate students and medical students on clinical rotations in Uganda will also participate in the hands-on workshop sessions.

Since August 2006, the Yale University School of Medicine has been involved in a capacity building program, training Ugandan physicians to train their own specialists and subspecialists. However, little training opportunities are available to mid level practitioners (also known as clinical officers in Uganda). A needs assessment study undertaken by the Yale PA faculty in 2009 revealed that the Ugandan clinical officers were in desperate need of academic advancement.

“We are specifically targeting the mid-level practitioners because they are the ones that see a vast majority of patients in the communities. We hope that by training trainers, the program will have a great impact in building a sustainable capacity in dealing with the worsening burden of chronic diseases” cites Kayingo. The overall goal of the training is to improve the quality of health care services through education of providers and policy makers within the context of limited resources.

Lindsay Fellowship awarded to Laura Cronin, PA Class of 2012

Lauren Cronin, PA Class of 2012 and a dual PA/MPH student, has received a Lindsay Fellowship to support her Downs Fellows’ Project Winter 2011 research project in Africa. The Lindsay Fellowship is offered through the Yale Council on African Studies and supports research projects of graduate students with research focusing on issues in Africa.

Her project, Detecting the presence of antibodies against a novel service protein of Trypanosoma brucei in domestic reservoirs of Human African Trypanosomiasis, aims to determine if domestic animal reservoirs of Human African Trypansomiasis (HAT) have naturally circulating antibodies against a T.brucei surface protein of interest. 

The hope is that the information will improve our understanding about pervasiveness of T. brucei exposure in livestock of Uganda and will highlight livestock associated risk factors for infection in HAT endemic regions.  The domestic reservoir species of interest include cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. Cronin developed the project under the guidance of Dr. Serap Aksoy and Dr. Amy Savage of Yale University and Dr. Barbara Nerima of the National Livestock Research Resource Institute of Uganda.  Cronin will be working in the districts of Pallisa and Tororo, Uganda in the winter of 2012.

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a deadly and devastating disease endemic to much of sub-saharan Africa.  Trypanosoma brucei infections are transmitted through the bite of an infected tsetse fly and causes severe illness in humans and livestock.  In the absence of treatment in humans, the parasite invades the cerebrospinal fluid causing mental deterioration and ultimately death. Disease in cattle is characterized by extreme malnutrition, leading to reductions in calving rates, lower milk yields, and higher rates of calf mortality. The health, social, and economic burden associated with African trypanosome infections are principally imposed upon impoverished rural villages in endemic areas. Livestock are important reservoirs of human disease and the market movements of cattle have been implicated in the spread of human disease to previously uninfected areas.

Wilbur Downs Fellowships awarded to two members of the Class of 2011

Kathleen Boyle and Benjamin Olmedo, both from the Class of 2011, have been awarded the 2010 Wilbur Downs Fellowship for Global Health Research. 

Ms. Boyle will be traveling to Tanzania to work on her research project, which is entitled The Effect of Educational Intervention on Sex and Drug Risk Behavior of Tanzanian Methadone Maintenance Patients.  Her advisor is Dr. R. Douglas Bruce, Assistant Professor of Medicine. 

Mr. Olmedo's research project, entitled Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor: Preventing Post Partum Hemorrhage in the Peruvian Andes, will be carried out in Peru.  Dr. Edmund Funai, Professor and Section Chief of Ob/Gyn, is the advisor.

Laura Cronin, Class of 2012, also received the Wilbur Downs Fellowship, and will conduct her reseach in Tororo, Uganda, on Detecting the presence of antibodies against novel metacyclic specific surface protein of Trypanosoma brucei in domestic animal reservoirs of human Africa Trypanosomiasis.

Anna Doering, PA-S II, was the recipient of the 2009 Fellowship.  Ms. Doering traveled to Kenya to study the impact of support groups on antiretroviral therapy adherence in HIV infected women.  The project was conducted at The Comprehensive Care Center, Maseno, Kenya.  Lynn E. Sullivan, MD, Assistant Professor in the Section of Internal Medicine, is the project advisor.

In the News

The Yale School of Medicine Physician Associate Program is mentioned in an article that appears in U.S. News & World Report:Why Physician Assistant School May be Right for You.