(Boston)-- Simone Vais, a fourth-year medical student from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has received a Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship from the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation. The $10,000 award will help defray the costs of her medical education.
Vais is currently applying for residencies in family medicine. Her clinical interests include adult inpatient medicine, addiction and women's health.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Vais completed her undergraduate education at Barnard College in New York City. After graduating college, she spent a year teaching high school biology and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in New York before moving to Boston for medical school.
Vais is interested in health care quality improvement, with a focus on improving access to care for underserved populations. She is working on expanding the use of Uber Health--a health care branch of the Uber platform that enables providers to schedule and pay for rides on behalf of their patients. Vais was honored for this work with a Lancet Global Health Award for Best Student Poster.
In 2016, the average median debt burden for medical school graduates was $190,000. The Physicians of Tomorrow Awards provide financial assistance to medical students facing medical school debt. Since 1950, the Foundation has provided more than $60 million in financial aid to exceptional medical students across the nation.
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