Profiles

Merging interests in medicine, public health and human rights

By Amanda Torres

Nicole Lin, a third-year MD/MPH candidate at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, won second place for her project at the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s James J. Byrnes Future of Medicine Poster Symposium. Lin presented her project “Prevalence of Physical and Psychological Trauma in an Asylum Seeking Cohort,” on Feb. 7, 2019, alongside several medical students and residents. 

The purpose of the project was to study and quantify the levels of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse and trauma experienced by an asylum-seeking cohort encountered by the Human Rights Clinic of Miami, a topic that Lin has been interested in since before beginning her journey has an MD/MPH candidate.

“The preliminary findings of the study suggested an increasing need for screening, assessment, and intervention of mental health services to advocate for the promotion of long-term health and well-being and prevent adverse outcomes in this disadvantaged group,” Lin said.

But before beginning the MD/MPH program and participating in the poster symposium in Palm Beach County, Lin studied abroad in Sweden and volunteered in Greece, opportunities that first led her to a new-found interest in human rights.

Studying abroad in Uppsala, Sweden

When she studied abroad in Sweden, it was during a time when thousands of Syrian refugees were seeking asylum in central and northern Europe. Lin recalled that after walking through a train station in Malmo, Sweden, she became aware that the media’s portrayal of the situation was unlike what she had witnessed in person.   

“They were portrayed as people in struggle, despair, and hopelessness. Yet, as I walked through the train station, I vividly remember witnessing a very different kind of refugee scene - asylum-seeking children playing with each other, adults laughing and chattering amongst themselves, and smiles, despite it all,” Lin said.  

With passions rooted in medicine and public health, this experience led Lin to a new interest in getting to know more about their experiences.

“I became passionate about documenting individual stories and understanding the multi-faceted reality of being an asylum seeker,” Lin said. “I wanted to understand their entire story – their identity and the potential they have as contributors to society." 

With a goal to humanize and destigmatize what it meant to be a refugee, Lin soon after received a grant that enabled her to travel to Samos Island, Greece as a volunteer to help document conditions in their local refugee hotspot.

Volunteering in Samos Island, Greece

Lin’s role as a volunteer in Samos Island ranged from organizing donations, setting up a school in their refugee community to living with asylum seekers. These experiences reinforced her newly-found passion for human rights.

“I heard their perspective and stories, and helped share their voice in hopes of highlighting the diversity and talent among the asylum-seeking community,” Lin said. “Each Samos volunteer received a red and white wrist band as a symbol of this experience that will forever bond us together.”

In a journal that she kept during the experience, she wrote: 

Returning to Miami

After returning to Miami, where she had lived when she was an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, she began her studies at the Miller School of Medicine. Lin decided to combine her interests in medicine, public health, and human rights.

“I like to see my dual degree pursuits as macroscopic and microscopic lenses from which I view health. Medicine allows me to give individualized care for the single tree in the forest; while public health allows me to zoom out and understand the larger landscape and population dynamics of the entire forest, which can ultimately inform interventions that make the greatest impact,” Lin said. “It is an interdisciplinary field where innovation, humanitarianism, art, science, and policy coexist, and where issues such as climate change, human rights, and sustainable development intersect.”

While at the Miller School of Medicine, she has also served as project developer at the Human Rights Clinic of Miami and project manager of the Light of the World Health Fair, led by Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Services, which provides healthcare to underserved populations in South Florida.

At the Human Rights Clinic of Miami, asylum-seeking persons and victims of abuse are assisted with obtaining medical affidavits that document evidence of physical and psychological human rights violations.

“Medical students, residents, and attending physicians dedicate their time and ability to provide impartial physical and psychiatric evaluations for asylum seekers and refugees in the U.S. In order to achieve a non-biased evaluation, the clinic does not provide direct patient care to its clients. Instead, it strives to connect clients to free or affordable healthcare when necessary,” Lin said.

For their third-year rotations, medical students are required to study in Palm Beach County, where they experience various clinical settings. Students also participate in the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s James J. Byrnes Future of Medicine Poster Symposium, where Lin was able to pursue her project on asylum-seekers.

“The poster symposium was eye-opening. It allowed me to see the larger community of which I was temporarily part of for the year,” Lin said. “It was inspiring to see physicians who have been serving the community for many decades come together in the spirit of continuous improvement and building cohesion within the medical community.”

As Lin will soon begin her final year in Fall 2019, she has set short and long-term goals that will enable her to continue to merge her passions.  

“I hope to enter a medical specialty centered on acute care and trauma while continuing to operate in a diverse public health scope through global health, climate change, and human rights activism,” Lin said. “My short-term goals as a student are to gain the clinical knowledge essential to becoming a competent, empathetic physician as well as a public health professional.” 

Dr. Adam Carrico Participates in The Smart Ride

By Amanda Torres

The SMART Ride (Southern Most AIDS/HIV Ride), a two-day, 165-mile bike ride from Miami to Key West, took place on November 15th and 16th for its fifteenth year.

“Our goal is to raise funds to assist organizations around Florida that provide the services necessary to educate those at risk and care for those diagnosed and affected by HIV and AIDS,” said Glen Weinzimer, founder and executive director of The SMART Ride.

Dr. Adam Carrico, associate professor of public health and psychology, whose research focuses on HIV, participated for the first time in this year's ride and was a part of the Broward House Give a Shift team. 

“One of the best parts of these rides is that they raise a lot of awareness about HIV and that it’s not really a death sentence anymore, that it’s a manageable disease," Carrico said.

Carrico has been participating in AIDS rides since 2008. When he used to live in California, he recalled doing three rides from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

“Those were around 545-miles that took over six or seven days,” Carrico said. “I’m an HIV researcher, so it’s a nice way to get connected with all the real issues that matter, in terms of understanding people who live with HIV and the different medical and psychiatric comorbidities that they face.”

Since 2003, The SMART Ride has raised over $10.3 million, making it one of the largest HIV and AIDS bicycle rides in the country and is the only one to give back 100 percent of those funds to organizations. Each year, there are about 400 to 500 participants ages 18 to 73 from the state of Florida, as well as from around the country. 

"If we can mobilize as a community, we can start to work towards ending the epidemic and a big part of that is eliminating the stigma that people with HIV experience," Carrico said. "I view these rides as a great way to raise money, but they’re also a huge intervention for our community.”

To learn more about The SMART Ride, please click here.

Meet Kevin Tenorio: A Resilient UM Graduate Student

By Amanda Torres

Around this time last year, Kevin Angelo Tenorio, a two-time University of Miami graduate student and health and fitness enthusiast, was wrapping up his semester in the Master of Public Administration program at UM, working as a graduate research assistant and personal trainer, and getting ready to go on his second trip of the year to the Philippines in December.

But November and December of 2017 were different than usual for Tenorio – while he was his same active self, he developed an unusual sensation when he would consume certain foods and drinks, to which he inferred was acid reflux or heartburn. While it did not happen consistently at the time, this led him to pay urgent care a visit in December, right before his trip to the Philippines. Tenorio ideally hoped that this would solve the problem.

“When I went to the Philippines in December, I took my medication with me, but it started to get worse. Now, it started to happen every single time I ate something,” Tenorio recalled. “And then two weeks before returning back in January, I noticed that the acid reflux went from lasting seconds to two to three minutes. I knew that it wasn’t a good sign and that I needed to see someone.”

And so, he did, but before delving into the problem, it is important to note important facts on Tenorio.  

While he was born and raised in Milwaukee, Tenorio was raised with strong Filipino roots and can speak the Flipino (Tagalog) language fluently. Both of his parents, Angelito and Belinda, were born in the Philippines and migrated to the United States in 1989.

Tenorio was raised with two brothers and a sister, Angelito, Charles, and Anbel, and had a vast education. He attended elementary and grade school at Blessed Sacrament and St. Matthias Parochial School in Milwaukee, completed further study at Lipa Montessori of Learning in Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines, and attended high school in Milwaukee at Marquette University High School.

Tenorio graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 2014 and went on to UM to complete a Master of Public Health, in which he graduated from in December 2016. Thereafter, Tenorio began the UM Master of Public Administration program. 

Given his diverse cultural and educational background, Tenorio knew that he was destined to work and serve in the public sector.

This desire strengthened during his trips to the Philippines in 2017. While it is a tropical hotspot that thrives on tourism, he recalled witnessing the hard reality in terms of health care, infrastructure, low wages, and more, while living with family and friends.

“I wanted to work two to three years in the U.S. and return to create my own foundation and work with the Filipino people to improve their quality of life,” Tenorio recalled.  

Upon his return from the Philippines in January, Tenorio hoped to keep this plan, return to school and continue living his active lifestyle. But before all of that, Tenorio’s first priority was to see a specialist to figure out the cause of the persisting acid reflux. 

After undergoing various upper endoscopies, doctors called Tenorio with the news that would change the trajectory for the rest of 2018.

“Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with Stage IV gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma,” Tenorio said. “It is cancer between the esophagus and stomach.”

So, instead of going back to Miami to resume his studies and part-time jobs, Tenorio stayed in Milwaukee with his family, where he got a port for chemotherapy placed and started his treatment plan.

During this time, Tenorio started a YouTube channel called  “I Am Kevin Angelo” to share his journey with cancer with his family, friends, and the public. The channel includes vlogs that chronicle his medical updates, the moment when he broke the news to his family and friends, as well moments spent with family and friends, and trips that he took to Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago. In the medical update vlogs, it is easy to notice that Tenorio has the ability to bring light even in the toughest of situations. His bright smile, humor, and positive nature are unmistakable.

“Cancer has this strong perception of being an impossible battle that can sometimes be seen as lonesome. It does that. But the way I’m going about it, it does not need to be,” Tenorio said. “Throughout my hashtags, comments and posts, I add #SquadUp and the reason why I do that is because one of the biggest things is that cancer does not need to be fought alone. It can be done with a whole squad of people and that’s exactly what I tend to do. To raise awareness and to tell people that cancer does not need to look or seem daunting or impossible because we’re all in this together.”

On his channel, Tenorio has 613 subscribers who have followed his journey since he first posted in February. While his most recent post was in July, Tenorio has been busy working on several projects.

Since then, Tenorio has been focused on completing his second master’s degree, the newly founded Tenorio Foundation, and continuing his cancer treatment.

In September, he decided that he would start the foundation that he envisioned he would eventually create upon returning from his trips to the Philippines.

“My foundation’s mission is to increase access to healthcare and equitable healthcare delivery. There are several institutions in the Philippines and private healthcare clinics that offer an array of services, but often times, they are either too specialized or too expensive, thus, inaccessible,” Tenorio said. “I want to be able to offer cheap, and sometimes free, general healthcare services to the Filipino people. It is well known that a cheap upfront investment now can prevent a multitude of burden in the future.”

In regards to his health, Tenorio has had to switch his treatment plan from chemotherapy to immunotherapy, as his cancer has become resistant to most forms of chemotherapy.

“I have actually regressed. I have gone through two cycles of immunotherapy and it does not feel like it has gotten worse, but I do not feel like it has gotten better,” Tenorio said. “It may be too early to tell since the oncologist says it usually takes two to three cycles to experience any progress.

While his journey with cancer is not over, family, friends, and colleagues are all rooting for him.

“In unity and in solidarity, things are just not so bad anymore,” Tenorio said.

On Dec. 13, Tenorio graduated with a Master’s of Public Administration and in the coming months, he will continue focusing on his treatment and working on his foundation.