HJNO Mar/Apr 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAR / APR 2020 35 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalNO.com this year, presented its 2019 graduating class dur- ing the program’s culmination ceremony on Nov. 23 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Conven- tion Center in New Orleans. The 113 graduating students successfully com- pleted medical education through a unique four-year training, academic, and clinical expe- rience across two continents. Students com- pleted two years of medical school curriculum in Brisbane, Australia at UQ, which is recognized as one of the top universities in the world and ranked 42nd worldwide on the 2020 US News Best Global Universities list. The final two years of clinical study were completed with Ochsner Health System – one of the largest independent academic medical centers in the United States – at UQ's Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans. “We began the UQ-Ochsner partnership 10 years ago with the goal of graduating physicians with a unique global perspective. Since our inau- gural class, students who have completed their medical studies through the UQ Ochsner Clini- cal School have gone on to successful careers in nearly every field of medicine. I’m pleased to say some have stayed here in Louisiana, serving local communities across the state,” said Leon- ardo Seoane, MD, Chief Academic Officer, Och- sner Health System. “We are incredibly proud of everything the members of this year’s graduating class have accomplished and cannot wait to see where the future takes them next.” William W. Pinsky, M.D., FAAP, FACC, deliv- ered the keynote address. Pinsky is currently president and chief executive officer of the Edu- cational Commission for Foreign Medical Gradu- ates (ECFMG) and chair of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Advancement of Interna- tional Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). Prior to this role, Pinsky served as executive vice president and chief academic officer of Ochsner Health System, among numerous other roles at Ochsner. He retains an honorary professor title from UQ. During the culmination ceremony several UQ Ochsner Clinical School faculty and residents were recognized with awards of excellence in clinical teaching. The highest individual award of excellence – the Teacher of the Year award – was bestowed upon Michael Blanchard, MD, Psy- chiatry. Blanchard has been on staff at Ochsner for more than four years. He holds a doctor of medicine degree from Louisiana State University Health and Sciences Center at New Orleans and completed a psychiatry residency at Louisiana State University where he served as a chief resi- dent for over two years. Blanchard is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the Louisiana Psychiatric Medical Association. The following teachers were nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award: • Suma Jain, MD – Pulmonology • Sam Langberg, MD – Emergency Medicine • Mehul Sheth, MD – Primary Care • Russell Steele, MD – Pediatric Infectious Disease • Juan Carlos Velez, MD – Nephrology • Vu Vuong, MD – Ob/Gyn • Rajasekharan Warrier, MD – Pediatric Hematology/Oncology University of Queensland Ochsner Clinical School 2019 Graduates