GCSOM students present MPH capstone projects at Thomas Jefferson University

These students took a gap year between their third and fourth years to pursue their MPH, an opportunity provided to them thanks to GCSOM’s partnership with Jefferson. A fifth GCSOM student presented his capstone project in March. All are members of GCSOM’s MD Class of 2021.

“My capstone project revolved around foster care. I worked with a Philadelphia foster care agency to analyze the feedback and needs of foster parents, in order to ultimately develop a standardized foster parent training curriculum,” said participant Vanessa Thiel. “Through this project and through my participation in the program, I've learned so much. Not only have I learned about different public health issues, but I've gained the tools to help assess and tackle the issues --from a more in-depth look at biostatistics, to learning about health literacy, to learning how to develop effective policy. I've learned how to be a more effective patient advocate and I've learned how to look at issues from a different lens.”

Student Nathan Hoff described his project Philip Gehrman, PhD at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Sleep Neurobiology and Psychopathology Lab, “My project is an offshoot of a larger study that Dr. Gehrman and his group are conducting to understand the antidepressant mechanism behind acute sleep deprivation therapy. I performed data analysis on a subset of the research participants to look at what characteristics might increase the odds of someone responding to this treatment. I really enjoyed my time at Jefferson. Also, getting an MPH in the midst of a pandemic where Public Health has suddenly jumped into the limelight was very serendipitous. The biggest takeaways of the program for me were a stronger foundation and understanding of epidemiology, data analysis and statistical skills I learned in Dr. Brandon George’s course, and developing a more robust toolkit for approaching healthcare quality and safety.”

The dual degree students were engaged in a number of research and practice endeavors related to their capstone projects:

• Sahil Pandya presented his project, Caring for Older Adults During COVID: A Rapid Review. He worked with a team from TJU’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College on a project exploring telemedicine.• Cynthia Ciccotelli’s presentation, The REACH Study: Measuring Usability and Outcomes of the Merckengage Internet Diabetes Education Tool, explored the utility of an internet-based Type2 diabetes education tool. She worked with TJU faculty on the project.
• Nathan Hoff presented Predicting Response to Acute Sleep Deprivation Therapy for the Treatment of Depression. He worked with TJU colleagues at Penn on a project looking at sleep deprivation as treatment of depression.
• Vanessa Thiel completed her capstone, Fostering Feedback: Using Focus Groups to Develop a Standardized Foster Parent Training Curriculum, working with Rosemary (Rosie) Frasso, PhD, CPH, associate professor and Public Health Program director, and Steve DiDonato, PhD, a faculty member in the Department of Counseling and Behavioral Health. The project focused on improving the care for foster children.

Sean Farrell’s project, completed in partnership with a TJU medical student and mentors from the HepB Foundation, explored the needs of patients with HepB and HepD. He delivered it in March. Entitled, Challenges, Barriers, and Needs of Life with Hepatitis B: A Qualitative Study, it was completed with Rosemary Frasso, PhD  and Catherine Freeland, MPH.

"We love having these students in our program and look forward to future collaborations,” Dr. Frasso said “We believe their public health training will be an asset to them and others as they return to GCSOM and move into residency.”

“The past year at TJU was truly amazing and I'm so excited to begin my pediatric career with this additional education,” Thiel said.