2024 Upper Peninsula Medical Conference

Zakia Alavi, MD 

Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Human Development

Session Title: Youth suicide - What can we do?

Time: Friday, October 18, 7 pm

Affiliation: College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University 

Biography: Zakia Alavi, MD is a child and adult psychiatrist, a Diplomate American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Alavi is currently serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, College of Human Medicine, MSU, where her primary role is cross-discipline teaching for primary care pediatrics. Her clinical work is based in the community mental health system in Jackson Michigan. 

Caleb Bupp, MD, FACMG

Medical geneticist and Division Chief

Session Title: Update on Genomics in Healthcare

Time: Saturday, October 19, 1:15 pm

Affiliation: Corewell Health West and Helen DeVos Children's Hospital

Biography: Caleb is a pediatrics-trained, board-certified medical geneticist with Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He serves as the Division Chief of Medical Genetics and Genomics.  He is also an assistant professor at Michigan State University.  

He co-discovered a treatable genetic syndrome caused by ODC1 mutations now termed Bachmann-Bupp syndrome and is the clinical director of the International Center for Polyamine Disorders.  This was recently recognized by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association as their ‘Inventor of the Year’ for his patent related to this condition.  He helped create and run Project Baby Deer, a statewide initiative to provide access to rapid whole genome sequencing which resulted in Michigan Medicaid being the first to create an approval and carve-out payment policy.  Dr. Bupp helped form the Rare Disease Network which provides support and education throughout Michigan. 

Dr. Bupp received his Bachelor of Science in molecular biology from Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania and his medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine in Ohio.  He completed pediatrics residency at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and his medical genetics training at the Greenwood Genetic Center in South Carolina.

David G Cable, MD

Session Title: Mr. Roboto – Robotic lung surgery in the UP

Affiliation: UP Health System – Marquette

Time: Saturday, October 19, 3:30 pm

Biography: Dr. Cable was exposed to heart surgery early in life, having a close cousin born with a heart birth defect. He saw firsthand how surgery allowed his cousin to have a normal life despite the congenital heart defect.

During medical school, he was drawn to both cardiology and surgery, making cardiovascular surgery seem a natural goal. He participated in basic science research under an American Heart Association Medical Student Fellowship from 1991-1992, publishing three papers and presenting eight abstracts. Dr Cable was at the Mayo Clinic – Rochester from 1993-2003, training in surgery and cardiovascular surgery. He spent two years performing basic science research, focusing on making bypass grafts better with gene therapy. He received numerous honors and awards, and was asked to give two invited international talks. Dr Cable remains the only person at the Mayo Clinic to receive both the Nygaard Travel Award for Basic Science Research as well as Nygaard Travel Award for Clinical Research. After the Mayo Clinic, Dr Cable then entered private practice. He continued to serve as an invited editor for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. To date, he continues to participate in research trials. His practice focused on both cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. As endovascular stents became available, he became quite involved in endovascular treatment of aneurysms and dissections. Dr Cable has a patent for a novel endovascular stent for the treatment of ascending thoracic aortic dissections, and is actively attempting to bring the device to market. Dr Cable enjoys the art and science of surgery, and enjoys helping patients and families get better. He has been active in open heart surgery, minimally invasive valve surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), atrial fibrillation surgery, Robotic cardiac surgery, and endovascular stents (EVAR/TEVAR).

Guy Hembroff, PhD

Associate Professor, Applied Computing

Session Title: Advancing Mental Health and Wellness through Generative AI

Time: Saturday, October 19, 9 am

Affiliation: College of Computing, Michigan Technological University

Biography: Dr. Guy Hembroff is an associate professor in the College of Computing, director of the Computational Science & Engineering (CS&E) PhD program and the founding director of the Health Informatics graduate program at Michigan Technological University. Dr. Hembroff’s research focuses on developing cutting-edge models and applications using responsible AI to facilitate translational clinical research with a focus on medical image analysis and mental health and wellness. The impact of his work extends beyond academia; he has collaborated with clinicians from Henry Ford Health, Upper Peninsula Health Care Network, the Mayo Clinic, and Santa Izabel Hospital in Salvador, Brazil to develop and deploy clinical decision support systems and mobile applications with the aim of improving health outcomes and user experiences.

Matthew Karulf, MD

Session Title: Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer through Screening and Robotic Bronchoscopy.

Time: Saturday, October 19, 2:15 pm

Affiliation: UPHS-Marquette Pulmonary Medicine

Biography: Matthew Karulf, MD is a board certified pulmonary and critical care physician serving the Upper Peninsula community in Marquette, MI.  He has held an interest in the health of rural communities since medical school, working in rural clinics in small Colorado towns as a student.

He was educated at the University of Colorado Medical School.  He completed both Internal Medicine and a Chief year of Residency at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He completed Fellowship training at Oregon Health and Sciences University and the VA Medical Center in Portland, Oregon.  

Dr. Karulf worked at Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon as a pulmonary and critical care physician.  This involved care of both urban and suburban populations. He was the physician lead on implementing a navigational bronchoscopy program. He and his family then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to work and live nearer to extended family.  

While at Spectrum Health (now Corewell Health) in Grand Rapids,  Dr. Karulf helped expand the multi-specialty lung cancer/nodule program and advanced bronchoscopy services.  He was a member of the cardiothoracic critical care unit, and supported the growth of the lung and cardiac transplant center with work in the post-transplant ICU and ECMO teams.  In addition to patient care he served as the Grand Rapids Director of the Advanced Medicine Clerkship within the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.  He has prioritized the education of student, resident and fellow trainees in every stage and place of his career.

Dr. Karulf has focused on lung cancer screening and diagnosis because it has historically been overlooked and affects so many people and their families.  A lung cancer screening program coupled with a minimally invasive diagnostic strategy supporting the groundbreaking work of the medical oncology, radiation oncology, and thoracic surgical teams has the potential to be one of the most significant advances in lung cancer treatment in decades. 

Evan Loukusa, MD

Session Title: Group Visits: The Whys and the Hows

Time: Saturday, October 19, 11:15 am

Affiliation: BCMH Physician Group 

Biography: Dr. Loukusa completed his medical school training at the University of Minnesota and family medicine residency in Marquette. A strong believer in the power of lifestyle medicine to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and improve patient satisfaction, Dr. Loukusa explores innovative care delivery models such as shared medical appointments (also known as group visits) in a primary care practice in L'anse, Michigan. 

Kelley Mahar, MD

Session Title: The Collaborative Care Model: Bringing Psychiatric Expertise to Rural Primary Care

Time: Saturday, October 19, 10 am

Affiliation: Associate Program Director, MSU Psychiatry Residency Rural Track / Community Psychiatrist

Biography: Kelley Mahar is a community psychiatrist in Marquette.  She arrived in the UP in 1999 to fulfill a 4-year service obligation to the National Health Service Corps and never left.  Drawn more and more to integrated care and the need for improved access to mental health care in the UP, she left the CMH system in 2019 and has been working on a variety of projects to build behavioral health infrastructure and capacity in the region.  She is the Associate Program Director of the (relatively) new MSU Psychiatry Residency Rural Track through MiDOCs, provides consulting psychiatry for the Collaborative Care Model for a number of UP primary care practices, and works with a coalition of health care providers and administrators on developing a robust continuum of behavioral health care for the region.