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This Week@WesternU, Jan. 19-22, 2016

by Rodney Tanaka

January 19, 2016

Read 3 mins

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Tavis Smiley show
COMP Assistant Dean of Longitudinal & Experiential Learning and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine Edward Barnes, MD, FACP, is featured on PBS’s Tavis Smiley show, talking about health disparities in the African American community. Click here to watch the show: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/covenant-week-health-robert-f-kennedy-jr-keith-wailoo/

Kudos on accomplishments
First-year COMP-Northwest students Fardis Tavangary, Petter Overton-harris, Sachi Patel, Elizabeth Richardson, Josh Nelson, Wesley Tang and Masters Biomedical Engineering student Ian Blandford had medical research projects that were accepted for presentation at the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. Each student will individually present their project. The research included students using the novel Sonivate ultrasound finger probe and Fukuda-Denshi linear probes. This research focused on students identifying fractures of the skull region using ultrasound and integrating this skill into a Basic Science Curriculum, under the mentorship of Brion Benninger, MD, MSc, Professor of Medical Innovation, Technology & Research and the Executive Director of the Medical Anatomy Center.

 

From the College of Graduate Nursing:

National rankings
The College of Graduate Nursing ranked No. 60 in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs, released Jan. 12, 2016. For the 2016, U.S. News ranked schools using five categories. Click here to read more. http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/nursing-methodology

CGN ranked No. 5 in Faculty Credentials and Training and No. 4 in Student Engagement. Click here to see the full rankings.

 

From the College of Pharmacy:

Smoking cessation
The January 2016 edition of the American Pharmacists Association’s Pharmacy Today features College of Pharmacy alumni Vacharee Oberbeck, PharmD ’08, and Corey Edwards, PharmD ’15, in a story about a smoking cessation program at Ralphs Pharmacy.

Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Quang Le recently had a single-author publication in Medical Decision Making (IF = 3.240), “Structural Uncertainty of Markov Models for Advanced Breast Cancer: A Simulation Study of Lapatinib. “Click here to view the paper.

In short, in economic modeling studies, methodological and parameter uncertainties are often addressed by using a “reference case” and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (i.e. estimating the 95% CI), respectively. However, structural uncertainty has received relatively little attention, even though it is often a very important source of uncertainty in decision modeling. The current simulation study examined structural uncertainty of Markov models for advanced breast cancer (ABC) in the context of combination therapy with lapatinib. It shows that modeling ABC with different Markov model structures yielded a wide range of cost-effectiveness results, suggesting the need to investigate structural uncertainty in health economic evaluation.

 

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

WesternU Pet Health Center Grand Opening
The WesternU Pet Health Center, 611 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif., will hold a grand opening from noon to 2:30 p.m. Friday, January 29, 2016, featuring tours, raffle and lunch. Click here to visit the WesternU Pet Health Center website and learn more.

Kudos on accomplishments
CVM Assistant Professor Jijun Hao and College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Yun Luo recently published a paper, “Development of New Therapeutic Agents for Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive,” in Current Molecular Medicine, 2016, 16)1): 4-11.

CVM Professor of Poultry Medicine and Food Safety Teresa Y. Morishita was invited to serve as a subject matter expert consultant for StateSafeFoods.Com, a leading national provider of high quality, online, audiovisual and interactive food safety and alcohol server/seller training and environmental health solutions for regulatory agencies, the food service industry, food managers and food handlers.

 

From the College of Dental Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments
U.S. Navy Lt. Michael Saade, DMD ’13, a member of the College of Dental Medicine’s first graduating class, is profiled in the Orange County Register. Click here to read the story. Dr. Saade oversees dental care aboard the USS Rushmore.

 

From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:

Kudos on accomplishments
GCBS Associate Professor Fanglong Dong, PhD, recently had a paper accepted for publication. Locke E, Dong F, Stiles S, Kellerman R, Ablah E. “The Influence of Loan Repayment and Scholarship Programs on Healthcare Provider Retention in Underserved Kansas.” Kansas Journal of Medicine (In Press).

The purpose of this study was to provide insight into the relationship between financial incentive programs and provider retention in Kansas. The major findings were nearly half of all participants had remained at their sites even after their obligation period ended, with family satisfaction with the community appearing to be the strongest predictor for retention among those who had stayed. Efforts to match a provider’s family with the community successfully and to support the family through networking may improve future provider retention.

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