In this issue:
MATCH DAY 2024: Congratulations to MS4s!
New ‘About MSSI’ Flyer
Latest MSSI Events & Happenings
Save the date: Next MSSI Advisor Meeting
Call for Volunteers: Narrative Medicine Workshop
The Latest from Social Media
Match Day 2024
Congratulations to these incredible graduates and MSSI alumni!
Dr. Mikayla Ambarian
Family Medicine, Lawrence Family Medicine Residency
I am graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia. Outside of medicine, I love playing field hockey, finding great breakfast sandwiches and iced coffee, and listening to Noah Kahan, all of which I plan to keep doing in residency. Connecting with other students passionate about size inclusive care through MSSI has made me more confident in my own advocacy efforts, and I’m excited to continue to share my interest with my new co-residents.
Dr. Christopher Joshi
Internal Medicine/Primary Care, BIDMC
In medical school, I have been focused on advocacy for my patients, both in the clinical setting via efforts to promote advance care planning and in the community level via my school’s Antiracism Action Subcommittee. Joining MSSI has opened my eyes to the harm of weight stigma and has given me a new way to advocate for my future patients as a primary care doctor.
Dr. Margot Lurie
General Surgery, Albany Medical College
Dr. Kristina Rofail
OBGYN, Einstein Health Center – Philadelphia
As I enter a field that over-utilizes “obesity” as a diagnosis and indication for differing standards of care, I will continue to advocate for equal treatment and language change, especially in pregnancy and surgical settings. I aim to be a HAES physician, and ultimately provide an emotionally safe primary care contact in underserved areas of medicine where patients are facing multiple biases against them.
Dr. Caroline Bandurska
Social Pediatrics, Montefiore, New York City
Originally from Pennsylvania, Caroline graduated from Wellesley College and went on to attend Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. She is passionate about advocacy and social justice and is committed to raising awareness of eating disorders and weight bias within the field of pediatrics. She hopes to help children and adolescents foster healthy, meaningful relationships with their bodies.
New ‘About MSSI’ Flyer
We have a new flyer in case it is useful to anyone, particularly those starting chapters or student groups. Feel free to use it when discussing MSSI with your colleagues.
Latest MSSI Events
MSSI at Tufts University School of Medicine hosted their chapter kickoff on Wednesday, March 6th 2024.
45 students (almost 1/4 of the first year class!) joined the chapter leaders for an interactive session where they discussed the meaning of weight discrimination, were introduced to the concept of size inclusive healthcare, and discussed a clip from the Maintenance Phase bonus episode “Mike & Aubrey Go To The Doctor.” Chapter leaders introduced and assessed student interest in opportunities to get involved, including curricular review and reform, research, and state/national level advocacy.
We were thrilled to see the level of interest and openness from students to learn about and improve the experience of fat patients in health care!
Save the date: Next MSSI Advisor Meeting
MSSI Spring Advisory Council Meeting: Mon, May 6th 2024 at 8pm EST
Meeting link and agenda to come!
Time Conversion:
Mon, May 6, 2024 7:00 pm Central Time
Mon, May 6, 2024 6:00 pm Mountain Time, & Alberta
Mon, May 6, 2024 5:00 pm AZ, Pacific Time, Vancouver
Tues, May 7, 2024 at 10:00 am AEST Brisbane, Australia
If you are not a current MSSI member or advisor but would like to attend to get a better sense of what our organization is up to, please email us!
Call for Volunteers/Student Advisors
My name is Hannah Ramsey, and I am a rising fourth-year student at Barnard College studying Neuroscience and Narrative Medicine. As a fellow in Barnard’s Laidlaw Leadership and Scholarship Program, I will be spending this summer developing a narrative medicine workshop specifically designed around themes of body image, body dysmorphia, and size discrimination.
I wanted to reach out to inquire if MSSI/individual members of MSSI would be willing to meet to discuss this workshop—given the insights members have likely gained from their experiences advocating for anti-size-discrimination policy and practice as medical students—and help identify avenues for promoting workshop registration to pre-medical/pre-health students.
My intention with this workshop is to begin the process of building a strong coalition of undergraduates who are knowledgeable about size/weight discrimination and primed to enact a size-inclusive model of healthcare. It would be invaluable to have someone who has lived experience advocating for size diversity and inclusivity in medical education/clinical practice as an advisor on the project!
Email: hkb2118@barnard.edu
Find us on social media!
Instagram post by @sizeinclusivemedicine