Campus Connection

During Ethan Bassett's first year in medical school, he discovered that even the best professors are relatively inaccessible. The only way to speak with a faculty member face to face was to catch them before he or she left from a lecture and even then one could only expect a 5-minute conversation. And for some faculty, we'd only see them once in the classroom. There are several opportunities to meet faculty out of the classroom, but these events yielded the same result. Interest group meetings for different specialties are often conducted as a lecture or formal talk to a large group of students. For Bassett, professors and physicians seemed to be too busy to offer more than a few pithy words about their profession, and students were far too stressed with studying or anxious about making the first call to set up meetings. Bassett decided that there had to be a more efficient way to link students to physicians in a more private setting.

In November of 2007, Bassett joined up with a few others in his med school class - Class of 2011 President Chris Lemon, Kristen Angster, Lauren Wooley and Jeremy Pollock - to develop a model for this network. With the help of several faculty members at the medical school - notably Dr. Bruce Jarrell, Mr. Larry Pitrof (president of the Medical Alumni Association), Dr. Gina Perez, Dr. Donna Parker, Dr. Linda Lewin, and Ms. Trish Danielewicz - this network was inaugurated in January 2009 as Link Maryland, or LinkMD.

Bassett says he hopes the network will become a means to build "a strong community...promote a sense of solidarity, and to build a sense of pride at the University of Maryland in Baltimore." The program, inspired by similar programs at Hopkins and Yale, is run by a board of students who arrange private meetings of a maximum of 4-5 students with physicians, residents, or professors, either at a restaurant or at the professional's home. The events are open to all medical students and students can sign up for any event they like. These lunches or dinners are meant to be informal events where students and professionals can really get to know each other without the usual time constraint of work or school obligations. Since January , LinkMD has held 9 events with 12 more dinners available to students throughout the rest of the year.

In addition to generally positive experiences, some students found a means to start their own groups. For example, Dr. Rhamin Ligon, assistant professor in the Emergency Department and the Chief of Emergency Medicine at Maryland General Hospital, had hosted a small group at Iggie's Pizza. From that dinner, the idea for the first Women of Color in Medicine Interest Group arose, for which Dr. Ligon will be the faculty advisor. LinkMD is not only a valuable asset for students meet physicians but also to discover their own interests and passions.

Since LinkMD is so new, it is still a work in progress. Individual responsibilities and "officer" positions are still being finalized and recruited for. Currently only the five aforementioned students contact physicians and set up events, typically through email. LinkMD also depends heavily on its website as a central hub for communication and information. Though the current board members will stay involved into their clinical years, they are looking for a few members of the Class of 2012 to take on positions for next year. Should students have questions or want to get involved for next year, email linkmaryland@gmail.com or visit web.me.com/linkmaryland.

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