Med students named to prestigious Gold Fellowship

Two UNMC medical students are among 13 nationally who were selected as Arnold P. Gold Foundation 2023 Gold Student Summer Fellows.

The students, Safwan Elkhatib, PhD, an M4, and William Miklavcic, an M2, in collaboration with fourth-year pharmacy student Austin Johnson, have launched an interdisciplinary HIV-prevention program at the UNMC SHARING Clinics, with an emphasis on reaching marginalized and underserved populations.

The Gold fellows are chosen to spearhead summer projects that they’ve designed — involving direct interaction with patients and community members — that amplify humanistic health care and help address health inequities

Under the guidance of Jim Medder, MD, past president of the SHARING Clinics board, the program, which launched June 5 at the RESPECT Clinic, aims to reduce barriers to accessing Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) medications regimens for eligible patients in the Omaha area. The medicines reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV.

“The program matches patients with dedicated student-care teams that will follow the patients longitudinally over time, ensuring that all lab draws, medications and appointments will be covered by private insurance, a federally subsidized program and the RESPECT clinic itself,” Miklavcic said. “Patients pay nothing.”

The fellowship will fund an online advertising campaign to recruit patients to the clinic, running for five months.

With HIV disproportionately affecting traditionally marginalized communities, Dr. Elkhatib had been discussing launching a PrEP clinic with Dr. Medder as early as 2019, but the UNMC RESPECT clinic was temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The clinic was relaunched in 2021, resulting in recurring efforts to rebuild its patient base.

Miklavcic was tapped to design social media advertising to promote the reopened clinic, and he was folded into the PrEP program when Drs. Medder and Elkhatib and Johnson began discussing a new launch date for the program. 

“Through this fellowship, we hope to expand community awareness about the resources provided by the RESPECT Clinic’s PrEP Program, thereby reducing barriers people in the Omaha community face when trying to access important medications like PrEP,” Miklavcic said.

Bradley Britigan, MD, dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, offered his congratulations to Dr. Elkhatib and Miklavcic.

“This is a highly competitive fellowship,” Dr. Britigan said. “The entire college can be proud of Dr. Elkhatib and Mr. Miklavcic, and we are excited to see the results of their efforts this summer.” 

The Gold Foundation offers the fellowships annually to provide opportunities for medical students to deepen their understanding of health inequities, advance culturally responsive care and direct attention toward community health needs.