EARN UP TO 12 CME CREDITS OVER PASSOVER
Enjoy a relaxed Passover getaway experience at either the Casa Conde Beach Front Resort or the adjacent El Mangroove Marriott Autograph Collection Resort in beautiful Guanacaste, Costa Rica. You will receive all the benefits of our regular Passover program in addition to our free CME conference option entitled:
Navigating Medicine and the Health Care Field: Updates Impacting Patients and Providers
About This Conference:
By attending the conference, participants will gain a better understanding of cutting-edge medical challenges and applications that intersect multiple medical and health care disciplines. With our blue ribbon and experienced faculty, the program is designed to train health professionals and interested lay individuals, using an evidence-based approach, in a variety of current applicable topics. These will include areas pertaining to stress management, pain extraction techniques with the specific integration of martial arts philosophies, understanding and responding to nonverbal cues, brief therapy, recognizing implicit bias, pediatric neuropsychiatric and behavioral disease recognition, approaches to new drug development and delivery systems, pregnancy-related controversies, end of life decision-making, and the intersection of modern medical dilemmas and special population considerations. Techniques learned, and tools offered, will be directly applicable to improving patient care and for health provider self-improvement.
Who Should Attend:
Participation is open to anyone, including health professionals, families and all interested parties. The CME credits are free of charge (a $1000 value) and based on lecture attendance. Individuals must register for the CME program. If requested, documentation of attendance and estimates for single person hotel occupancy costs can be supplied to the participant for later use related to home institution reimbursement and tax purposes. These latter issues are at the discretion and responsibility of the participant.
Time & Location:
The CME conference will be held at the El Mangroove Marriott and the Casa Conde Beach Front Hotel from April 23-30, 2024. A detailed schedule will be generated with additional instructions at the start of the conference. The conference will not conflict with any of the scheduled religious services, meals or other programming to allow for full participation in the entire Costa Rica Kosher Adventures Pesach experience.
Please note that all food services will be held at the Casa Conde Resort dining hall.
Accreditation:
Meharry Medical College is accredited by the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education (CME) for physicians.
Credit Designation:
Meharry Medical College designates this educational activity for a maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.TM Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Bernard Gonik, M.D. (course co-director and lecturer)
Dr. Bernard Gonik is currently a tenured Professor and the Fann Srere Endowed Chair of Perinatal Medicine in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is the past Interim Specialist-in-Chief for the Obstetrics and Gynecology service line at the Detroit Medical Center and Medical Director of...
the Fetal Care Center at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. He holds adjunct professorships at the Meharry Medical College and the Central Michigan University School of Medicine. Dr. Gonik completed his undergraduate studies with honors at the University of Michigan and received his M.D. degree at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship training in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He has received numerous honors throughout his career, including the Berlex International Research Award which allowed him to spend a year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a Lady Davis Fellow and more recently he was awarded a Jefferson Science Fellowship through the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine to serve as a Senior Scientific Advisor in the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the United States Agency for International Development. In 2021 he was awarded both the national ACOG Distinguished Service Award and the ACOG Mentor of the Year Award. In 2022 he was honored by his department with the WSU/DMC Excellence in Teaching Aawrd. He has been a Castle and Connolly Top Doc for the last 25 years. Dr. Gonik is an internationally recognized academician and author of numerous scientific articles, book chapters and textbooks. He has had research funding through the NIH, professional medical societies, private foundations, and industry. He has served as a consultant to the WHO, CDC, FDA, ACOG, public health agencies, medical societies, and industry. His research interests include infectious diseases in obstetrics and gynecology, adult and maternal vaccination, high risk obstetric management, and labor force dynamics. This latter interest began as a third-year resident when he and his colleagues first described the universally recognized and utilized McRoberts Maneuver for a shoulder dystocia event. He is a fellow in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a member of numerous professional societies including the Infectious Disease Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society, Society for Reproductive Investigation, and Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, DD (co-director and lecturer)
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg is the Founder and Global Director of Kids Kicking Cancer. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Rabbi Goldberg received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University, where he graduated summa cum laude....
He holds a First-Degree Black Belt in the Korean art of Choi Kwang Do. Kids Kicking Cancer is a nonprofit organization that teaches martial arts to children battling cancer as well as to those facing other serious challenges in their lives. The therapy techniques he has developed, using meditation, and breathing exercises, have been very successful in decreasing the pain of pediatric patients. Rabbi Goldberg began the program in 1999, nearly eighteen years after losing his first child to leukemia. The program sees patients in 126 hospitals and facilities around the world with the vision of empowering one million children to lower their pain. In 2005, Rabbi Goldberg created The Heros Circle, a global wellness and healing initiative inspired by the children of Kids Kicking Cancer. Both adults and children facing trauma are taught by very sick kids how to use the Breath Brake® regulating pain, fear, and anger. This work has lowered craving and pain in a study with adult heroin addicts and significantly helped disadvantaged urban youth defeat the trauma of abuse. This unique circle provides purpose for sick children, lowering their pain, while changing the lives of those who join the Heroes Circle. Rabbi Goldberg also conducts stress seminars at Fortune 500 companies and lectures around the world on the subjects of pediatric pain and end of life care as well as issues of spirituality and health. He served for twenty years as a pulpit rabbi and police chaplain in Southfield, Michigan. Among the many honors and commendations, Rabbi G. was awarded the 2004 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leaders Award, the nation's most prestigious honor in community public health, and in the same year he was the recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Detroit Red Wings, McCarty Cancer Foundation. In 2012 he was featured in People magazine's "Heroes Among Us" page, and in 2014 he was named a “Top Ten CNN Hero.” The Rabbi was also honored by Ford Motor Company with their “Best Picture of Hope” award and recently by the Mass General Cancer Center at their annual gala. The Rabbi has been featured on "Good Morning America", "The Today Show", "The Early Show", The Associated Press and hundreds of news stories. In 2015 Rabbi Goldberg authored A Perfect God Created an Imperfect World, Perfectly: Thirty Life Lessons From Kids Kicking Cancer.
Esther Krohner, B.S, M.S
Esther Krohner, B.S, M.S. is a licensed therapist providing counseling, training and consultation throughout the United States and internationally. She received her
undergraduate degree in Psychology at Wayne State University in 2009. She received a Master of....
Science degree in Educational Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy from California State University-East Bay in 2014. She undertook additional postgraduate studies in Brief Therapy at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California from 2013 to 2020. She has also trained as a Yoga instructor in 2009 and 2014 and applies these skills to her current activities. Esther has conducted research on the intersection between yoga and brief therapy for children and teens. She has contributed to published texts on creative therapy approaches. Esther works both as an independent provider and with a team of brief therapists providing consultation, training and therapy to many companies, universities and other organizations. Esther serves as the Associate Director of the Brief Therapy Center, promoting the problem solving model of care in a variety of settings. Her work has included the international community, with collaborations in China, Spain, Mexico and Paraguay. Over the last five years she and her team have trained thousands of medical and mental health care providers at the Shanghai Mental Health Center in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Esther believes people are best served when they are viewed as a whole with holistic systemic assessments and counseling that are tailored to their needs. Esther brings pragmatic tools, an interactional lens and hope to some of life’s most difficult problems.
Daniel Gonik, BSE, ME
Daniel Gonik, BSE, ME graduated Cum Laude from the University of Michigan College of Engineering with a BSE degree in chemical engineering and ME degree in pharmaceutical engineering. He started his career at Gilead Sciences in Foster City, California where he worked for nearly a decade as a scientist in the formulation and process development department focused...
on early to late-stage drug development. He then worked as a Principal Scientist at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego, California working in the Late Stage Product Development Division. Currently Daniel is working as an associate director at Recursion Pharmaceuticals. During his time in industry Daniel has helped bring multiple drug products to the market. He has extensive experience working with various administration routes including immediate release oral drug products, long acting injectables, and bolus intravenous routes. Some of his recent investigative work has been published in Nature Medicine. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Microencapsulation
Elizebeth Dubey, MD
Elizebeth Dubey, MD is Associate Professor and Residency Program Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree with a concentration in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Michigan in 2004 in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
She received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. She undertook postgraduate training from 2008-2012 in Emergency Medicine at the Jacobi and Montefiore Medical Centers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. She started her career as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center New York Presbyterian Hospital from 2012-2014 before moving to Detroit, Michigan and joining the Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Medical Center until the present time. She is a member of a number of major professional societies with leadership roles within those organizations. She has represented the American Academy of Women Emergency Physicians (AAWEP) as a counselor at the annual American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Council meeting. In 2019, she wrote and helped pass a resolution to advocate for implicit bias training for all Emergency Medicine physicians. . In addition, with the help of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Ethics Committee, she created a didactic session exploring the relationship between physician bias and health disparities for their annual national conference. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the Wayne State University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017-2018. In addition to her academic and clinical activities she is an active researcher with grant support from institutional, industry and governmental sources. The focus of her research is primarily on medical education. She has numerous scientific collaborations with many presented abstracts, peer-reviewed journal publications and contributions to reference textbooks and other digital publications.
Nathan Gonik, M.D.
Nathan Gonik, M.D., M.H.S.A., is Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, Michigan. He completed his undergraduate Batchelor of Science degree in Economics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2003...
He matriculated with a Master of Health Science Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2005. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2009. Dr. Gonik completed his residency training in Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Hospital in New York, New York in 2014. He completed a fellowship in Pediatric Otolaryngology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine/Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2015. He has membership in numerous professional societies including the American Academy of Otolaryngology, the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology and the American Academy of Pediatrics-Section of Head and Neck Surgery (AAOHNS). For this latter organization, he has several leadership roles, including Committee Chair of the CIM Committee. His list of honors include membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Society, the DMC Otolaryngology Residency Teaching Award, the AAOHNS Committee Service Excellence Award and the Hour Detroit Top Doc Award. He is an active researcher and collaborator, with grant support from local and national organizations and societies. He is an international lecturer, and has in excess of 30 peered reviewed abstract, journal and textbook publications in nationally recognized scientific forums.
Ilana R. Gonik, Ph.D.
Ilana Gonik, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago Illinois. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan earning an honors Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She completed a Master’s of Science degree at...
Columbia University in New York in Developmental Psychology. Later she earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her internship in Clinical Pediatric Psychology was at the University of Chicago. Dr. Gonik received advanced fellowship training in Pediatric Neuropsychology at Loyola University Medical Center. She is a practicing Pediatric Neuropsychologist combining clinical practice, teaching and other academic pursuits.
Tentative Schedule of Lecture Topics with Objectives 2024
Tuesday, April 23
The Ontology of Oncology
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
- Relate neuroscience evidence to meditative techniques.
- Understand and explain the therapeutic power of “purpose” for patients.
- Apply martial arts mindfulness using concrete real life health care examples
Wednesday, April 24
Reining in the Adrenal Glands
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
- Apply unique methodologies to lower personal and professional stress.
- Explain the polyvagal response to rechanneling stress states.
- Understand allostatic load and its positive manipulation through martial arts mindfulness.
Historical Perspectives in Obstetrics and Implications to Modern Practice
Bernard Gonik, M.D.
- Identify key historical sources for ancient views of infant survivability and how these persisted to modern times.
- Describe implications of these views on modern obstetrics.
- Articulate expert explanations that countermand these antiquated views.
Thursday, April 25
Implicit Bias in Health Care
Elizebeth Dubey, M.D.
- Define implicit bias and how it manifests in the field of medicine
- Articulate how implicit bias affects working relationships between medical professionals
- Assess implicit bias in themselves and their workplaces and define methods to improve equity in the medical workforce
Friday, April 26
From Pharm to Table: How New Drugs Get Created
Daniel Gonik, B.S.E, M.E
- Articulate the process in which a drug goes from animal studies (pre-clinical) to human studies (Phase 1-3 clinical studies) to a commercial product.
- Describe some of the complications drug makers experience and the associated dropout rate preventing most drugs from making it to market.
- Explain the engineering aspect of manufacturing a drug product and what is required to manufacture at a commercial scale.
Saturday, April 27
Pain Extraction Versus Distraction
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
- Be able to explain and apply the Ronald Melaka model of the “neuromatrix of pain”.
- Create a community of support for addressing pain management.
- Utilize meditative techniques for tyrpanaphobia and emesis.
Potential Barriers to the Use of Biologic Surgical Implants
Nathan Gonik, M.D.
- Participants will be able to identify different surgical implants derived from biologic sources.
- Participants will understand how different religions view the use of biologic implants
- Participants will understand modern religious Jewish perspective on the use of these implants during routine and life-threatening surgeries.
Sunday, April 28
Is My Child OK? Pediatric Neuropsychiatric Testing
Ilana Gonik, Ph.D.
- Define the degree of the problem in a pediatric population
- Identify standard testing modalities for diagnostic accuracy
- Establish algorithms for management and follow up in this vulnerable population
Monday, April 29
Integrative Therapies in Pain Management to Reduce Opioid Related Adverse Reactions
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
- Be able to identify the interaction between psychogenic and nociceptive pain.
- Apply non-traditional mechanisms to lower craving and pain in SUD patients.
- Define “duration extinction” as an extension of pain matrix understanding
End of Life Decisions at the Beginning of Life
Bernard Gonik, M.D.
- Describe current gestational age cutoffs for newborn presumed viability.
- List possible obstetric and pediatric interventions applicable to the peri-viable gestation and how they may influence outcomes.
- Develop an algorithm and resources for patient counseling of a peri-viable birth.
Tuesday, April 30
Nonverbal Cues: How to Relate to Them
Esther Krohner, LMFT
- Establish a working definition of nonverbal cues.
- Identify the role nonverbal cues play in creative and receptive communication.
- Teach tools for responding to common nonverbal cues productively.
Hearing Loss: New Approaches the Therapy
Nathan Gonik, M.D.
- List common causes and approaches to diagnosis
- Discuss implications of needed therapies in selected populations.
- Describe social and other barriers to corrective actions