WASHINGTON, PA (December 2, 2021)—For Alex Keith, a senior biology major at 华盛顿 & det365app, success is apparently infectious.
A Merck-scholarship-funded clinical research intern at Pain Diagnostics and Interventional Care (PDIC), Keith spent the summer of 2021 studying the prevalence of 金黄色葡萄球菌 (S. 葡萄球菌—a bacteria that increases the risk of surgical site infections) in spinal cord stimulation patients. 现在, he’s received the President’s Choice Award from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA—the world’s largest pain medicine organization) for his abstract on that work, “普遍存在的 金黄色葡萄球菌 colonization in spinal cord stimulator patients.”
合著者:. David Provenzano, the president of PDIC, and Dr. Jason Kilgore, an associate professor of biology at W&J, 摘要揭示了, in a group of 232 patients who underwent 396 implantable pain therapy treatments, 20.2% were positive for methicillin-susceptible S. 葡萄球菌 (MSSA—a strain of the bacteria receptive to antibiotics) while only 4.3% were positive for methicillin-resistant S. 葡萄球菌 (MRSA—a strain of the bacteria non-receptive to antibiotics).
In the medical field, that can pose a serious problem.
“This is a concern because there are a lot of doctors who pre-operatively screen for MRSA, but there are not as many who screen for MSSA,基思解释道, noting that MRSA screening alone would have failed to identify 95% of S. 葡萄球菌 colonized patients who were positive for MSSA, leaving many people vulnerable to potentially life-threatening infections.
That’s why Kilgore recommended Keith for the Internships after Provenzano, who has selected W&J students to work with him for the past 11 years, contacted him for a reference.
“This work is extremely important and could save a lot of pain, grief…and money for patients whose doctors follow the recommendations from this research,基尔戈说。. “And Alex is the most disciplined student with whom I have ever worked.”
But Keith said it’s Kilgore and the college that have enabled his success.
“He is definitively above and beyond the typical advisor,基思谈到基尔戈时说, adding that Kilgore’s biological statistics course proved vital in his research. “I would not have a singular one of the connections that I have right now, had I been at a [different] school.”
Planning to pursue medical school following graduation, he said his experiences with Kilgore, 普罗文扎诺和员工, ASRA, 和W&J have him well-prepared for the future.
“很多学生, 尤其是医学预科学生, don’t have the opportunity to get their name on a paper or an abstract until they’re much older,基思说. “So to have…my research be on something that can be found in PubMed [a database for biomedical literature]…is going to set me apart.”
对华盛顿 & det365app
华盛顿 & det365app, proudly located in 华盛顿, Pa., is a historic liberal arts college founded in 1781 that values ethical leadership, 职业准备, 以及包容的社区. Our highly customized and intellectually engaging student experience develops professionals of uncommon integrity to lead in an ever-changing world. 欲了解更多关于W&J,访问 epm.lookforstudies.com 或致电888-W-AND-J.