Blog

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine Students and Faculty Present Research at the Society of General Internal Medicine 2026 Annual Meeting

Written by: Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

From left: Shaheer Arif, Mohamed Messouak, James Townley, Ayrton Quiroz, Cooper Erickson, Gavin Miller, Sarah Assem, Adam Soltani, Arshdeep Gill, Abhishek Deshpande

Students and faculty represented AWSOM at the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) 2026 Annual Meeting

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine had five scientific abstracts accepted to the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) 2026 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., involving ten first-year students. Eight students Adam Soltani, Ayrton Quiroz, Cooper Erickson, Gavin Miller, Arshdeep Gill, James Townley, Mohamed Messouak, and Shaheer Arif traveled to the conference and presented scientific posters.

The students were accompanied by Director, Medical Student Research Projects Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD, FIDSA, and Assistant Dean, Clinical Education Sarah Assem, MD, who provided mentorship across the student research projects.

“Early participation in national scientific meetings provides an important foundation for developing research skills. It was rewarding and encouraging to see our first-year students engage early in the research process and present their work on a national stage, addressing clinically meaningful questions,” said Dr. Deshpande.

Townley and Miller were selected for the Distinguished Professor of Hospital Medicine (DPHM) Poster Walk & Talk, a curated session highlighting top-scoring hospital medicine abstracts.

Townley presents at the DPHM Poster Walk & Talk.

Miller presents at the DPHM Poster Walk & Talk.

In this session, they presented alongside residents, fellows, and faculty from other academic medical centers, and responded to questions from the Distinguished Professor of Hospital Medicine (Ryan Greysen, MD, MHS, SFHM, University of Pennsylvania) and a panel of judges.

Dr. Deshpande

Dr. Deshpande was selected as one of four speakers for the Top Scientific Abstract Oral Presentations in Hospital Medicine, where he presented his research “Prevalence and Impact of MRSA Nasal PCR Screening on Antibiotic Utilization and Clinical Outcomes in Community-Acquired Pneumonia.”

Read the full list of AWSOM’s SGIM 2026 Scientific Abstracts (student authors) below:

Shaheer A. Arif, Gavin Miller, Gobind Singh, Zhengxi Chen, Abhishek Deshpande, “Clostridioides difficile infection in hospitalized leukemia patients: a propensity-matched analysis of risk factors and outcomes.”
Adam Soltani, Arshdeep S. Gill, Mohamed L. Messouak, Zhengxi Chen, Patrick Brooks, Abhishek Deshpande. “Surgical technique, timing, and predictors of mortality in fulminant Clostridioides difficile infection: a comparative effectiveness study.”
Gavin Miller, Zhengxi Chen, Abhishek Deshpande. “Trends, clinical outcomes, and healthcare utilization related to Clostridioides difficile infection among hospitalized patients with cirrhosis: a propensity-matched study.”
James Townley, Timothy Chandler, Ayrton Quiroz, Zhengxi Chen, Sarah Assem, Abhishek Deshpande. “Impact of invasive aspergillosis on clinical outcomes and healthcare resource utilization in high-risk hospitalized adults.”
Sarah Assem, Cooper Erickson, Ashby Plant, Eric Shattuck, Joe Alcock, Michael Wilson, Daniel Rossie, Joseph Houpt, Anastasia Makhanova. “Disengagement stemming from burnout associated with negative patient attitudes.”