The Department of Medicine FAME (Fostering the Academic Mission in the Emory DOM) grant program is designed to provide support for clinical faculty to dedicate up to 20 percent of their professional time to scholarly activity including research, education, mentoring, and quality improvement projects.
Get to know one of the recipients of the 2021 FAME grant, Marcos Coutinho Schechter, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
What is your professional background?
I am from Brazil, where I attended medical school at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. I completed my internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins and came to Emory for the infectious diseases fellowship and joined faculty in 2017. I came to Emory to work in tuberculosis and currently serve as an associate medical consultant for the Georgia State tuberculosis program. I developed a passion for diabetic foot disease over the last three years and care for many patients with diabetic foot infections in the Grady General Infectious Diseases Clinic.
In what division do you work, and who is your mentor?
I am in the Division of Infectious Diseases and enjoy having many mentors. Susan Ray is my clinical mentor and teaches me a lot about patient care and service. Russell Kempker had been my main research mentor over the last seven years. Ravi Rajani (Vascular Surgery) and Mohammed Ali (SPH) have been key to my diabetic foot research and are co-mentors for the FAME grant.
Tell us about your FAME grant project, why it is important, and what it means to you to receive funding?
Diabetic foot ulcers are a huge public health problem in the US with more than 100,000 amputations occurring per year and it is no different at Grady, where more than 250 patients are admitted with a foot ulcer per year and many progress to limb loss. This FAME project aims to assess the impact of mobile clinics and patient navigators, singly or together, on post-hospital discharge diabetic foot ulcer care at Grady. Our goal is to generate key data to seek external funding for a clinical trial of mobile clinics and patient navigation for diabetic foot ulcer care at Grady. This funding opportunity is very important for my goal of becoming an independent physician-scientist. My visa status bars me from most NIH K grants and I am grateful for FAME providing me with this needed protected time.
What do you like most about Emory?
Working at Grady.
What is your favorite movie or TV show?
“The Wire” (I lived in Baltimore) and “Hatufim” (also known as “Prisoners of War”) are my favorite TV series.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I ride my bike as much as possible. Keep three feet from bikes while driving, all!
What is a fun fact about you?
Between my girlfriend and I, nine bikes inhabit our house and have their own room.
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