The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine was one of 36 sites nationwide selected to host 2018 Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellows (MSARF). FAER created the MSARF program to encourage talented medical students to consider careers in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine research. The program offers medical students an eight-week anesthesia-related research experience, clinical experience, and the opportunity to present research findings at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting.
Austin Cusick is currently a second-year medical student at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. He worked with mentor Dr. James Ibinson on the project “Identification of an Imaging-based Biomarker for Pain.” This research analyzes the correlating connection between areas of the brain in response to a chronic pain patient’s acute exacerbation, as well as the emotional aspects of pain to see if pain is correlated to negative emotional affect.
Jeffrey Johnson is currently a second-year medical student at Florida State University College of Medicine. He worked with mentor Dr. James Ibinson on a project titled “Determination of the Neural Correlates of Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction.” This pilot study looks at post-operative cognitive dysfunction, a process that affects the elderly who undergo surgery and perioperative care. This process is not well studied and as such, the team set out to find markers of the dysfunction in the brain through MRI imaging. An image processing pipeline was developed for MRI scans acquired at one week before, one week after, and three months after surgery to track changes in the brain.
Both Austin and Jeff will present their work at the FAER MSARF Symposium to be held at the 2018 ASA meeting.