Mentoring Gives Future Neuroscientist a Head Start

By Melissa Campbell

Sussan Salas took a philosophical approach to becoming a doctor, literally. Even though she knew she wanted to practice medicine from a very young age, Salas studied philosophy as an undergraduate at Duke University because she wished to be a well-rounded physician. This seemingly practical approach to her career belies the passion Salas demonstrates for medicine and her chosen specialty - neurosurgery - but it is this combination of planning and passion that led to her nomination as an American Medical Association Minority Scholar for 2005.

One of just 10 medical students selected nationwide, Salas is the second student at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark , NJ to win this prestigious award. Each of the country's 125 medical schools can nominate up to two students for the distinction, which includes a $10,000 award.

When Salas began her medical education in 2003 at New Jersey Medical School , she brought with her a solid grounding in medical science, thanks to a two-year post baccalaureate program she took at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh from 2000 to 2002, as well as substantial research and clinical experience.

While an undergraduate, Salas devoted time to clinical activities with the Wake (NC) County Public Health Department, running an evening health clinic for migrant farm workers. On the research front, she studied the effects of drugs on the sense of taste at Duke's Taste and Smell Laboratory. In 2002-2003, she worked as a biochemistry laboratory assistant at the UCLA School of Medicine, where she studied prostate cancer gene expression in mice. Parlaying her fluency in Spanish - Salas is a native of Peru - she volunteered as a translator in several Los Angeles emergency rooms and on a medical mission to Peru .

But it was a class in neuroscience at Duquesne that defined her ultimate career goals.

"The brain is a fascinating part of the human body," she states. "Trying to figure its inner workings is both challenging and exciting." Salas forgets everything else when she is in the operating room observing a procedure. "Twelve hours go by in a flash," she admits.

The ability to make a difference also resonates with Salas. "A doctor's intent is to help but a neurosurgeon does this in a big way. You can enable a child to walk again. You can bring someone back from a comatose state to rejoin their families. Talk about making a difference in people's lives!"

Her passion for the field inspired her to join the NJMS Student Interest Group in Neurology/Neurosurgery (SIGN) as a first-year student in 2003. That year, she won a Medical Student Scholarship from the American Academy of Neurology to attend the group's annual meeting. She returned with many new ideas that she implemented as SIGN's president the next year. The accomplishment of which she is most proud is the creation of a mentorship program which provides students with shadowing opportunities with neurologists or neurosurgeons as early as their first year. The program also offers students early exposure to the field which is helpful in making an informed decision about residency programs.

Her own mentor, Michael Schulder, MD, professor and vice chair of the New Jersey Medical School 's Department of Neurological Surgery, shares the same passion for the field.

He says, "During medical school I was interested in the brain and thought surgery was great. Neurosurgery combined them both. To me, clearly, this was the best job anyone could do."

Schulder learned well from his own mentor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Peter Carmel, MD, who now chairs the Department of Neurological Surgery at New Jersey Medical School .

Schulder's passion for advancing the field led him to a new concept, the idea of performing surgery guided by real-time MRI scans. He introduced the PoleStar MRI system to the University Hospital OR in 2000. This device is built around a movable magnet that can be used during surgery to pinpoint positions in the brain.

"It is a well-known phenomenon that the brain shifts during surgery making pre-operative MRI scans inaccurate," says Schulder. "Using the Polestar N-20 helps us to be more precise in removing tumors of the brain and skull base, performing biopsies and managing hydrocephalus."

Bringing this new technology to the school was a no-brainer, he says, half joking. "Once there is technology that can improve our ability to help people, it is absolutely incumbent upon us to use it," he explains. UMDNJ-University Hospital was the first hospital in the Western Hemisphere , and only the second in the world, to acquire the machine. Today approximately 35 machines are in use, 25 of them in the U.S.

The opportunity to learn about such cutting edge technology fascinated Salas and she worked with Schulder during the 2004 Cancer Summer Student Research Program on a project titled "Stereotactic Accuracy of a Compact Interoperative MRI System." The research findings, which won first place in the summer program, were also accepted for publication in the Journal of Neurosurgery , the discipline's premier journal; Salas is the second author.

Maria Soto-Greene, MD, Vice Dean for New Jersey Medical School and the director of the school's Hispanic Center of Excellence, is especially pleased with Salas' success. "When Sussan's candidacy for medical school was brought to my attention, I recognized that she was a person who would thrive here. Our hope is to provide students like Sussan with the opportunities to stretch beyond their boundaries."

Soto-Greene also notes Salas is also well-poised to pursue a dual career as a clinician and an educator. "The number of Hispanic faculty in the nation's medical schools is quite low," says Soto-Greene. "Within the field of Neurology/Neurosurgery, that number is even lower."

On the prospect of teaching, Salas says, "I am certainly considering it. I have had great mentors at New Jersey Medical School and would like to give the same opportunity to someone." But first, she needs to focus on her clinical rotations and then a seven-year residency program.

Despite her many medical achievements, Salas doesn't seem to have strayed too far from her undergraduate grounding in philosophy when she sums up her own outlook on life. "You only live once so you better do what you love. Otherwise life will pass along and you'll wonder where it went."