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This Week@WesternU, Feb. 8-12, 2016

by Rodney Tanaka

February 8, 2016

Read 6 mins

From the College of Dental Medicine:

WesternU helps Give Kids A Smile in La Puente
Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Dental Medicine students, faculty and staff helped give free oral screenings to 150 children in kindergarten through third grade at Hurley Elementary School in La Puente, California Feb. 5, 2016.

The College of Dental Medicine joined Chinese American Dental Society of Southern California volunteers for Give Kids A Smile, an annual one-day volunteer initiative to provide free educational and preventative oral health services to children.

Click here to read the full story and to view a slideshow

WesternU and We Care Dental expand dental services for developmentally disabled and low-income patients
Western University of Health Sciences and We Care Dental are working together to expand dental health services to the developmentally disabled in the Coachella Valley.

The two entities, through an expanded affiliation, have moved We Care Dental’s operations to a new facility at 71-949 Highway 111, Suite 100-B, in Rancho Mirage, California. The new site has 11 dental chairs, nearly tripling the size of We Care Dental’s previous facility.

Click here to read the full story.

 

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

WesternU celebrates legacy of osteopathic pioneer Viola Frymann, DO
Western University of Health Sciences celebrated the life of Viola Frymann, DO, FAAO, FCA, a pioneer and legend of osteopathic medicine and founding board member of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.

COMP held a memorial service on Feb. 4, 2016 for Frymann, who died Jan. 23, 2016 at age 94. WesternU President Emeritus Philip Pumerantz, PhD, said Frymann inspired him to become president of COMP.

Click here to read the full story and to view a slideshow.

Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Vicki Wedel of COMP/CDM gave a motivational speech and career workshop on forensic anthropology to 500 eighth-grade girls at the East San Gabriel chapter of the American Association of University Women’s annual STEM conference at Citrus College.

On behalf of the Department of Psychiatry, congratulations to the following COMP students for their scholarly work and publication in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry, “Knowledge of Dementia Among Vietnamese American Immigrants.” Natalie Nguyen, Kelly Vo, Sophia Phuong Ho, Peter Tu Nguyen, and Jan Nguyen. Click here to read the article.

Second-year COMP student Jonathan Yaghoubian won the Student Specialty award for his research on two new genes involved with lipid metabolism at the 2016 Western Regional Research meeting in Carmel, California.

The Rheumatology Clinical Joint Anatomy Workshop was held Feb. 6 at WesternU. This event was sponsored and led by Dr. Karina Torralba, Rheumatology Chair and Program Director at Loma Linda University, and attended by leading experts and fellows from USC, Loma Linda University, A.B.C. Hospital in Mexico City and the Hospital General de Tijuana. Dr. Mike Katsaros, COMP Department Chair of Internal Medicine, welcomed our guests for a day of learning and insight.

Pictures can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/COMPPomona/

 

Culinary Educational Weekend
The COMP-Northwest Longitudinal Track for Lifestyle Medicine held a Culinary Educational Weekend Jan. 29-31 at Linn-Benton Community College’s culinary arts kitchen. The goal of the Lifestyle Medicine Longitudinal Track culinary medicine experiential program is to prepare future doctors to motivate and teach their patients to cook and eat healthy foods that will help them prevent disease and reverse chronic disease. Students learn everyday skills in how to cook, what to cook and why. Click here to read the full story. Click here to view a photo gallery.

 

From the College of Podiatric Medicine:

Inaugural CPM Dean’s Lecture will encourage ‘blooming’
The College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM) has named UC Davis’ Julie A. Freischlag, MD, as keynote speaker for its inaugural Dean Lawrence B. Harkless Distinguished Lecture, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, 2016.

Freischlag, Vice Chancellor for Human Health Sciences and Dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, will present “Bloom Where You Are Planted.” Click here to read the full story.

 

From the College of Pharmacy:

Kudos on accomplishments
Associate Dean for Experiential and Professional Affairs James D. Scott, PharmD, MEd, FCCP, FASHP, FCSHP, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Founded in 1962, CSHP is a nonprofit professional association established to serve the needs of hospital and health-system pharmacists. Dr. Scott has been a valuable member of CSHP and has served as the president of the San Fernando Valley chapter.

Congratulations to Pharmaceutical Sciences Department faculty Lyna (Yun) Luo, PhD, and her colleagues, on their most recent publication: Luo Y, Rossi Angelo R, Harris Andrew L. Computational Studies of Molecular Permeation through Connexin26 Channels. Biophysical Journal. 2016;110(3):584-99.Click here to read the article.

PPAD faculty along with a previous Health Outcomes Research Fellow, Dr. Bik-Wai Tai, published the following: Bik-Wai Bilvick Tai, Sonya B. Frausto, Micah Hata and Anandi V. Law. Prediction of pharmacist intention to provide medication disposal education using the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 2016. DOI: 10.1111/jep.12511. Click here to read the article.

Kristan Cleveland in Dr. Ying Huang’s lab and Nicole Hensch in Dr. Fadi Khasawneh’s lab have each won a graduate travel award to attend the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2016 in San Diego. The award includes free registration and as much as $1,000 for travel expenses. This award is presented to outstanding graduate students to enable them to present their research at one of the largest biological scientific meetings in the world. The Experimental Biology meeting is a gathering of more than 14,000 scientists from more than 65 countries representing the fields of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, nutrition, pharmacology and immunology.

 

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments
CVM Associate Professor Dr. Linda Kidd presented an invited lecture, “Emerging Rickettsioses,” at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Multidisciplinary Advanced Therapies Seminar on Infectious Disease in Napa, California, last month.

CVM Associate Professor and Avian Veterinarian Dr. Miguel D. Saggese is a contributing author for three sections of the recently published 3rd Edition of the book Avian Medicine, by Jaime Samour (Editor), Mosby, January 6 2016. The sections are: Radiology, Disorders of the Reproductive System and Disorders of the Endocrine system.

CVM Associate Professor Dr. Babak Faramarzi led a study investigating the response to acupuncture in horses suffering from laminitis, a devastating and painful disease of the horses’ foot. Using a recent state-of-the-art body-mounted inertial gyroscope and accelerometer technology, they objectively examined the lameness level, a pain indicative, before and after receiving acupuncture treatments. The study found that the lameness level significantly decreased after receiving acupuncture treatments. Results were submitted to International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture conference and two abstracts have been accepted for podium presentation. Co-authors are Dr. Dongbin Lee, Dr. Faramarzi’s Post-Doctoral research associate, Dr. Kevin May, an experienced veterinary acupuncturist and the president of the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, and Dr. Fanglong Dong from the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences. The abstracts accepted for podium presentation are: “Response to Acupuncture in Horses with Chronic Laminitis” and “Acupuncture Treatment in Horses with Chronic Laminitis: Comparing the First and Second Treatments.” The study was supported by an American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Foundation research grant.

WesternU’s Zoological Medicine Society, in conjunction with Oxbow Animal Health, co-hosted the Exotic Companion Mammal Symposium on campus recently. The event, which attracted approximately 75 attendees, mostly veterinarians from around the state, included such topics as “Emergency Medicine for Rabbits,” “Infectious Diseases of Ferrets and Guinea Pigs,” and “Backyard Poultry Medicine.” There were eight WesternU CVM students in attendance.

A collaboration between CVM and the Vector Borne Disease Section of the California Department of Public Health has resulted in a publication in Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. The article, “Detection of Rickettsia Species in Fleas Collected from Cats in Regions Endemic and Nonendemic for Flea-Borne Rickettsioses in California,” was co-authored by CVM faculty Dr. Pedro Diniz and Dr. Margaret Barr and CVM student Lindsey Jett, DVM ’16.

 

From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:

Kudos on accomplishments
Associate Professor Fanglong Dong, PhD, recently had a poster presentation at the 37th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The study focused on the perceived weight gain and chronic disease during pregnancy of the low-income rural pregnant population in Kansas.

Jacobson, L. T., Duong, J., Grainger, D. A., Farley, D., Wolfe, M., Dong, F., & Anderson, B.  Pioneer Baby – Perceptions of Periconceptional Weight among a Low-income Rural Pregnant Population in Kansas.  Accepted as a poster presentation at the 37th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Washington, D.C. March 30-April 2, 2016.

 

From University Advancement

COMP-Northwest gifts
Western University of Health Sciences received the following generous gifts, adding to student scholarship opportunities for COMP-Northwest students:

$2 million from the Heatherington Foundation for the J. Scott Heatherington, DO and Arthur O. Rott, DO scholarships

$10,000 from the Eubanks Memorial Trust for the Eubanks Memorial Trust Scholarship

$5,000 from John and Carol Dinges for the John and Carol Dinges Medical Education Award

The 2015-16 scholarship awardees will be honored at the COMP-Northwest Awards and Recognition Ceremony on May 3.

Additional generous gifts received:

$25,000 from an anonymous donor in support of the Medical Anatomy Center at COMP-Northwest

$4,300 from George S. Jennings, DO, to help support the Lebanon Health Career Ladder.

 

From Institutional Research and Effectiveness:

Kudos on accomplishments
Congratulations to Assessment Coordinator Satoko Siegel, Research Analyst Delia Padilla Kallemeyn, and Senior Assessment Analyst Neil Patel, whose abstract has been selected for a poster presentation at the 2016 Academic Resource Conference in Garden Grove, California. Their poster is titled “Humanism at Western University of Health Sciences and Its Impact on the Public Good.”

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