On Friday, Nov. 17, the BME Department hosted the second Diabetes Awareness Day event at the Modesto Maidique Campus with support from StartUp FIU, the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. This event was a chance to interact with experts in diabetes research and visit student posters and exhibits.
Following welcome remarks from Dr. Andres Gil, Senior Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School, the event welcomed keynote speaker Dr. Viral Shah, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics from the University of Colorado, who spoke about currently FDA-approved diabetes and provided an overview on when and how to initiate these devices to improve diabetes outcomes. The featured panelists for this year were Dr. Frederick Anderson from the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Dr. Charlie P. Buscemi and Dr. Trudy Gaillard from the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, and Dr. Tania Rivera from the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work.
BME Ph.D. student Daniela Leizaola won the award of Best Poster Presentation for her work, “Classifying skin color to improve accuracy in tissue oxygenation images of diabetic foot ulcers.” FIU student Jose Cabas won the award of Best Poster Presentation Runner-Up for his work “Challenges in Management due to Social Determinants of Health: A Case of T1DM in an Uninsured and Low-Income Child.”
To close the evening, Dr. Juan Cendan, Dean of the College of Medicine; and Dr. Ines Triay, CEC Interim Dean, gave their closing remarks.