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North Dakota Governor's Newsletter October 2018


Neville M. Alberto, MD, FACP, ACP Governor
Governor's Message
Dear Colleagues,
It is my privilege to keep you posted on the college activities:
The ACP North Dakota Chapter held a successful ACP week October 3-5, 2018 and included activities in Fargo (Doctors Dilemma, Poster Competition) & Bismarck (Scientific Meeting).
This live activity helped attendees to include medical students, residents, early career physicians, ACP members, Fellows and faculty gain insight into recent medical advances, discuss local and national issues affecting the practice and teaching of Internal Medicine, greet old / make new friends and develop a collegial network in our area and workplace.
Chapter Meeting Highlights
Doctor's Dilemma Competition
The Chapter invited Dr Nestor Sosa (ACP Governor, Central America Chapter) and Dr Giselle Rodriguez to conduct this activity and benefitted from their experience as they have helped conduct this competition at the Nationals and at many other ACP chapter activities for well over 7 yrs.
Two Teams of resident Physicians competed for the honors.
Team 1: Kevin Moran, Riley Clark, Erik Heitkamp, Daniel Brunnhoelzl
Team 2: Minnu Monu, Ben Eidenschink, Afrah Samreen, Stephanie Melquist
Team 1 won the competition and the 3 Internal Medicine residents on the winning team have the opportunity to compete at the National ACP Doctor's Dilemma® Competition to be held at the ACP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia April 11-13.

Poster Competition
The Chapter received 35 posters for this competition and given the overwhelming response divided the same into 3 categories. A pair of Judges judged each category.
Resident Clinical Vignette (Judges: Fadel Nammour, MD & Mayank Singhal, MD)
Winner: Dr. Minnu Monu, #30 - Spontaneous HIT following Total knee arthroplasty- a rare but life threatening syndrome.

Runner-up: Dr. Erik Heitkamp, #34 - Familial Partial Lipodystrophy Type 3: A Rare Case Report

Medical Student Clinical Vignette (Judges: Laura Nichols, MD & Mohammed Zia Khan, MD)
Winner: Michael Storandt, MS2, #9 - Prosthetic Joint Infection: An Extremely Rare Complication of Intra-vesicular BCG Therapy

Runner-up: Ellen Kronzer, MS3, #2 - Disseminated Mycobacterium Chelonae Infection with Tenosynovitis and Osteomyelitis in an Immunocompromised Host

Medical Student Research (Judges: Dubert Guerrero, MD & Gautam Phadke, MD)
Winner: Leigh Moyer, MS4 and Eric Torkelson, MS4, #21 - Impact of Distance on the Presentation, Treatment, and Outcomes of Lung Cancer Patients in the Northern Plains
Runner-up: Houda Abdelrahman, MS4, #22 - Lack of Association between Contraceptive Methods Use and Cervical Cancer Screening

All first place winners/first authors are eligible to present at the National ACP Competition in Philadelphia, April 2019.
Scientific Meeting
This activity was in collaboration with NDMA and was held at the Bismarck Event Center, 315 S 5th Street, Bismarck, ND on October 5th, 2018 from 7:30 am – 4:00 pm.

Neville Alberto, MD, FACP, Fadel Nammour, MD, FACP and Josh Ranum, MD, FACP were the moderators for this educational activity, which included eleven distinguished Faculty who presented on a wide range of topics relevant to the practice of medicine and the learning and work environment. Jack Ende, MD, MACP, the Immediate Past President of ACP was our guest speaker. He shared about the importance of Clinical Guidelines and an update on what ACP offers members.


The Chapter received the ACP Chapter Excellence Award for 2017. The award recognizes chapters which successfully meet the standards for managing a chapter. In order to achieve the Chapter Excellence Award, chapters must meet all basic criteria and ten optional criteria. Criteria include such activities as formulating an effective Governor's Council and committees, communicating frequently with membership, providing educational opportunities, recruiting and advancing members and celebrating membership through local awards.
My term as the ACP ND Chapter Governor is ending and this was my last Chapter Meeting as your Governor of the College.
Fadel Nammour, MD, FACP – Governor Elect will be your Governor following the ACP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 2019.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank and be grateful for all the support the Chapter and the College has received from the community and the membership.
As the soon to be the immediate past Governor of the College, I pledge to remain active in the College activities and continue my commitment to Internal Medicine, our patients and the American College of Physicians.