Calm and Cool Under Pressure
The Rise of a Medical Student Superstar Dedicated to Emergency Care and Community Service
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Abigail Smurzynski, third-year medical student at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM)—Harlem, has wanted to become a doctor since she was a little girl, an aspiration she attributes to an overarching sadness after the passing of her grandfather from stomach cancer.
“Today, I don’t think he would have died from it. It’s a lot more preventable and we have a lot more understanding. But it was one of those things that shaped our family and drove me to want to help others,” she recalls.
Her college years at Brandeis University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Health: Science, Society and Policy, were filled with community service. She became certified in trauma and basic life support; a certified nursing assistant and ambulance driver; and an EMT in charge of a rescue squad. She also volunteered at a local hospital in surgical services, and became a student advocate for safe injection sites, deepening her understanding of the opioid crisis.
Helping the Underserved
TouroCOM has given her the opportunity to continue helping others. “I chose TouroCOM because I wanted to work with underserved populations and I really admired their commitment to community service and to community-based medicine,” she says.
During her rigorous preclinical training, Smurzynski found time to volunteer at the school’s community health fairs in Harlem and tutor first-year medical students in immunology and microbiology. She also taught science and medicine to Harlem high school students in TouroCOM’s award-winning MedAchieve program.
“MedAchieve has been one of the most rewarding experiences of medical school. The passion and enthusiasm the students have for medicine reignited my own love for the subject,” she says. “In the end, I saw how much we had all learned from each other.”
Called to Emergency Medicine
The summer after her first year, Smurzynski returned home to Bethesda, Maryland, to work again as an EMT. The experience convinced her to set her sights on emergency medicine.
“I [had] learned a lot about how to manage chaos and people,” she says. “Going back home and working again as an EMT—filled with all of this medical school knowledge—I wasn’t sure how the two would interact, but I loved doing emergency medicine even more.”
Her TouroCOM professors attest to her coolness and composure under duress and praise her leadership, scholarship and teaching abilities.
“She’s a top student. She’s way ahead in med sim,” says Assistant Professor and Director of Medical Simulation Dr. David Colbourne, an emergency paramedic himself. “There’s an air of calm about her even in the midst of chaos, which is a real talent and a true skill. In emergency medicine you need to be like a duck on a pond; calm and cool on the surface even though it’s challenging.”
Research on Substance Use Disorder
The past year, Smurzynski investigated factors that affect compliance with treatment for Substance Use Disorder (SUD), estimated to affect 40 million people in the U.S. She found that when doctors discuss drug and alcohol treatment with their patients, those patients are more likely to seek out and receive life-changing treatment. Yet, fewer than 10 percent of patients with SUD report ever receiving such counseling.
She attributes the low numbers to a lack of education at the medical school level. “It’s one of those topics we skip over because it’s not tested on our boards, but one in 10 people in the U.S. has an SUD. We encounter this every single day on rotations,” she says.
Smurzynski will present her research at a national conference sponsored by Stanford University on addiction health services research in the fall.
“She’s a superstar. She’s very well-rounded, believes in community care and is academically excellent,” says Dr. Jeffrey Gardere, associate professor of behavioral medicine at TouroCOM and her co-investigator. “She wants to get the message out to physicians that it’s really important to explore with patients the SUD issues and offer incentives and prodding to getting treatment, and not just asking about it and moving on through the medical exam.” As willing as her professors are to shower praise, the feeling is mutual. One of the best parts of Touro is the professors, she says.
“They’re all very passionate about teaching and care a lot about their students,” says Smurzynski. “I have been able to form meaningful relationships with them, which has really enhanced the learning experience.
