Med school student doctor presents research at national conference

Student Dr. Ainsley Forest, who is entering her third year at Campbell med school, presented her research recently at the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons Mid-Year Updates meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

Forest's case report discussed the link between vape use and the formation of blood clots.

"This was actually my first conference, and I had a lot of fun. Everyone was very welcoming toward students, and I got a lot out of the presentations," says Forest, of Leesburg, Virginia.

"I found this conference because I am interested in pursuing general surgery, and since post-operative blood clots are a risk in some types of surgery, it seemed appropriate to seek out surgery conferences to present at. I just so happened to receive a call-for-abstracts email from ACOS right around the time I was working on this case, so the timing worked out perfectly.

"They had a slot for student presentations at the end of the first day, and it was awesome to meet students from other schools and see what types of research they have been doing."

Forest said a few case studies have been done showing a link between vape use and blood clots, as well as some experiments discussing the effects of the vape juice constituents on blood vessels and the clot-formation process.

"The CDC has put forth data that show many younger individuals have taken up vaping, and the idea of vapes being safer than cigarettes has been floating around since they came on the market. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a lot of data to definitively state the effects of vape use on the body, and I wanted to present the case to contribute to the body of evidence linking vape use to clot formation."

Since no other identifiable cause of clot formation in this patient was present, the vaping drove clot development, she says about the conclusion of the case report.

"There have been other case reports that have come to similar conclusions, so this case is contributing to the larger body of evidence linking vape use to the development of blood clots.

Dr. Chris Stewart is vice chair and associate professor of Internal Medicine at the Campbell University School Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine (CUSOM). These kinds of research projects are not only good for the professional development of Campbell medical students, he said, but they also give CUSOM nationwide exposure.

"Our students and faculty are doing some great things, and attendance at state, regional and national conferences helps get the word out," Stewart said.

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