Medical Education Week 2025: Bright Lights and Bright Ideas at HMSOM

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine hosted its third annual Medical Education Week from May 12 to 16, bringing together a huge array of ideas and voices from across the school and Hackensack Meridian Health network - and beyond.

“Med Ed Week” was bigger than ever before.

More than 550 faculty, staff, students, and benefactors took part in the events over the course of the week, which included workshops, discussions, poster sessions, awards for outstanding work, and a two plenary sessions.

“From the beginning we began with our vision, with our goal of improving health outcomes,” said Miriam Hoffman, M.D., vice dean for Academic Affairs at the school. “We believe deeply that medical education is a powerful force for change, and you can see this well reflected in the breadth and depth of activities and presentations taking place during this year’s Medical Education Week.”

“Med Ed Week” focuses on the latest and most-proven curriculum developments in teaching doctors across the continuum- from the medical-school level to graduate medical education (residency training) to faculty development, and more. All of it culminates in the goal of advancing health professions education to make patients and communities healthier.

A welcome session and “Med Ed Journal Club” kicked off the week. It featured a discussion of a recent academic paper about competency-based medical education, along with the analysis of a podcast episode on the same theme. The session was facilitated by Vice Dean Hoffman and Jennifer Zepf, D.O., the course director of The Developing Human and an associate professor of Medical Sciences.

Four concurrent workshops were held on Tuesday afternoon. Topics spanned generative artificial intelligence (AI), environmental health in curricula, GME-individualized medical education remediation, and the power of accountability.

The plenary speaker on Tuesday was Monica Lypson, M.D., vice dean for Education, and the Rolf H. Scholdager professor at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center. She talked to the audience about “Building an Educator’s Career in Medicine” - which included years of personal experience and lessons learned.

More than 40 medical education research and innovation abstracts were featured in two poster sessions, along with an awards ceremony and reception, to round out Tuesday.

Human Dimension Capstone Scholarship Day was presented by benefactors Jonathan and Lizzie Tisch. The proceedings on Wednesday included three poster sessions in which all third-year students presented their required scholarly projects. Each one was based on a clinical experience during their clerkship year, and students selected a specific challenge connected to one determinant of health for which they explored, analyzed, and proposed systems-level solutions. The capacity crowd in the amphitheater was welcomed by Carmela Rocchetti, M.D., assistant dean of Community Engaged Medical Education and director of the Human Dimension, and Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., president and dean of the school. Included among the observers: businessman and philanthropist Jonathan Tisch; Tatiana and Peter Cancro, the founder of the Jersey Mike’s restaurant chain; Jeffrey Stewart, manager and co-founder of Walnut Hill Advisors; Hackensack Meridian Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Garrett, and others.

The Capstone Day keynote was delivered by Elizabeth A. Cerceo, M.D., FACP, FHM, an associate professor of Medicine and the director of Climate Health at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.

Also during Capstone Day: a wide array of student awards:

• Katherine Leopold was presented with the United States Public Health Services 2025 Excellence in Public Health Award.
• Nicholas Lozano earned the Quest for Community Wellness Award for “Evaluating Community Interactions with Law Enforcement and Healthcare Services: Insights from People Who Use Drugs.”
• Determinants of Health Awards went to:
  • Devin Beckmann/ Access to Healthcare for work in pediatric diabetic retinopathy telescreening;
  • Melika Behrooz and Andrew Brofsky/ Environmental for wheelchair accessibility and health challenges explored through interactive storytelling;
  • Reibert Riesler / Behavioral for increasing screening for pathologic gambling disorder in outpatient psychiatric settings;
  • Edgward Kazarian / Biologic/ Genetic for universal H. pylori screening for a high-risk immigrant population;
  • Charley Oscanoa / Social Determinants of Health for work supporting parents of children with autism;
  • and runner-ups Sidharth Anand and Avi Slavin’s work on the Hospital for Elder Life Program (HELP), and Zavia Kin for “Health Literacy in the Digital Age - A Guide for Future Physicians.”
  • Luna Kim won an HMH Quality Improvement Award for research into improving stethoscope hygiene rates, and runer-ups Aazam Parvez and Chandler Sparks were commended for work for optimizing post-operative rehab for shoulder arthroplasty and emergency department utilization for pregnancy tests across New Jersey, respectively.
  • Priya Bhave won the inaugural HMH Bear’s Den Challenge Innovation Award for “Bridging Primary Care and Endocrinology: Streamlining Type 1 Diabetes Screening and Prevention.”

  Four rounds of more than 150 posters showed all the Capstone Scholarly Projects - aimed at addressing social, economic, and environmental factors impacting health, over the course of the students’ education.

  “Med Ed Week” wrapped up with Library Day featuring Thursday afternoon workshops on developing research presence, and unlocking research with open-access publishing.