First-Year MD Student Presents at Annual Rheumatology Meeting

Amil Agarwal, a first-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), presented a poster on research into smoking and a painful skin condition during the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) annual meeting in November. The opportunity came thanks in part to a scholarship he received from the Rheumatology Research Foundation.

The Student Achievement Award is part of the Choose Rheumatology Campaign, encouraging students to explore a career in rheumatology. The award recognizes outstanding medical and graduate students for their significant work in the field and provides them with a chance to attend the meeting. To be considered the applicant must be an author or co-author of an abstract submitted to the ACR Annual Meeting and must have made a significant contribution to the work.

Agarwal had been working on the research project, “The Impact of Smoking Status on Hidradenitis Suppurativa,” with Victoria Shanmugam, MD, associate professor of medicine at SMHS. He presented the poster during the meeting.

“Our research showed past smokers had a faster time to remission than that of current smokers with the disease,” Agarwal explained. “We also observed that those who took any form of opiates during the study had a slower time to remission.”

Agarwal said he did not know much about rheumatology before beginning his work with Shanmugam, but he knew he was interested in the musculoskeletal system. 

Through the project, Agarwal said that he discovered just how close rheumatology is to the musculoskeletal system and looks forward to exploring the specialty even further.