April 11, 2017 — Three UF College of Medicine graduates were honored during the UF Alumni Association 2017 Outstanding Young Alumni Awards on April 7. Roshan Prabhu, M.D., M.Sc., Patrick Tighe, M.D., M.S., and Krystal Tomei, M.D., M.P.H., were selected for their exemplary achievements and positive reflection of The Gator Nation.

These alumni have made a significant impact on their industry and community and are leaders at the state, national and international level. We congratulate their achievements.

Roshan Prabhu, M.D. ’08, M.Sc., is a radiation oncologist in Charlotte, North Carolina. After graduating from the UF College of Medicine, he attended Emory University for residency, which he completed in 2013. There, he became a leader in neuro-oncology with novel research in various methods to limit and measure neurotoxicity for patients with brain tumors receiving therapy for cancer.

He is recognized for research efforts with an RTOG/ACR research fellowship, NIH grant funding to complete a master’s degree in clinical research and the RSNA 2013 Roentgen resident research award. He also wrote and managed multiple prospective research protocols during his residency that were successfully grant funded.

Dr. Prabhu’s research recently culminated in a 2014 Journal of Clinical Oncology article concerning the neurocognitive effects of PCV chemotherapy in addition to radiation therapy for low-grade glioma. This research helped to change the standard of care for the treatment of low-grade glioma in showing no neurocognitive detriment for the more intensive treatment, which has been subsequently shown to also have an improvement in overall survival.

Dr. Prabhu has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles and multiple book chapters. He is currently developing a national cooperative group trial investigating preoperative versus postoperative radiosurgery for patients with brain metastases.

Patrick Tighe, M.D. ’05, M.S. ’11, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology for the UF College of Medicine division of acute pain medicine. He is also the director of the Perioperative Analytics Group. This team applies advanced analytical techniques in an operational clinical environment to improve perioperative data utilization.

Dr. Tighe’s research examines how machine learning algorithms, stochastic process modeling, social network analyses and computer vision can improve processes related to acute postoperative pain and perioperative patient safety. His work is currently supported by a K23 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, and he was recently awarded an R01 (five-year, $2.5 million grant) which began in July 2015 to examine the temporal dynamics of postoperative pain. Dr. Tighe collaborates with an array of researchers from the UF colleges of engineering, business, dentistry and liberal arts and sciences.

Dr. Tighe serves as section co-editor for the Acute and Perioperative Section of the journal Pain Medicine, has collaborated on 16 publications and is active in the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Acute Pain Medicine Special Interest Group.

The American Academy of Pain Medicine awarded Dr. Tighe with a presidential commendation for leading the academy’s work in acute pain medicine through the establishment of the Acute Pain Medicine Shared Interest Group and the State of Acute Pain Medicine Initiative, which is looking at ways to advance research and education in acute pain.

Krystal Tomei, M.D. ’06, M.P.H., is a pediatric neurosurgeon at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. She is also an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Tomei’s interests include congenital spinal disorders and spina bifida, craniosynostosis, pediatric brain tumors, traumatic brain injury in children and Chiari malformations.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with honors and a doctorate in medicine from the University of Florida. She also received a Master’s of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her residency in neurosurgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – New Jersey Medical School and a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at The Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

She has co-authored more than a dozen papers and editorials in medical journals and contributed to two textbook chapters.

Dr. Tomei’s professional memberships include the American Medical Association, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons and American College of Surgeons.