This Week@WesternU, Nov. 7-11, 2011
A Tribute to Caring
WesternU will honor AmerisourceBergen Corporation with the 2011 A Tribute to Caring Corporate Humanitarian Award on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011 at the Disneyland Hotel. The annual gala raises money for student scholarships.
For more information about ATC, please click here.
Pumerantz Lecture
The future of American health care will rely on coordinated programs that bring a range of health sciences to bear for each patient and that focus more on the quality and humanity of care delivered than on its volume. That was the message delivered Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011, at Western University of Health Sciences by Robert Margolis, MD, Managing Partner and CEO of HealthCare Partners, who was the featured speaker for the 3rd annual Dr. Philip Pumerantz Distinguished Lectureship. Click here to read the full story.
From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:
Lebanon Health Career Ladder
COMP-Northwest launched the first of six Lebanon Health Career Ladder sixth grade career workshops on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Forty students from the Lebanon community, mostly sixth-graders, participated in the first “Introduction to Health Careers” workshop on the Lebanon campus. Approximately 30 COMP-Northwest, OSU, Lebanon Fire District and community volunteers helped make this a successful Career Ladder debut. Click here to view a slideshow.
Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Vicki Wedel of COMP/CDM and Dr. Jerry Minsky of CDM attended Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team (DMORT) training this weekend at the Orange County Sheriff Coroner’s Office. Highlights of the weekend included first responder considerations in homicide bombings, Dr. Wedel’s participation in a panel discussion on the Haiti Earthquake 2010 response and Dr. Minsky sharing his tai chi, yoga, and self-defense skills.
Dr. Donald Walters spent Oct. 27-29 in Chicago working for the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners.
From the College of Allied Health Professions:
Department of Physical Therapy Education News
Six DPT students volunteered their time at a sled hockey clinic in Riverside for persons who were born with or have suffered a permanent physical injury. Jennifer Shire (DPT 2012), Erin Casselle and Stacey May (DPT 2013), and Joel Kim, Sharon Malek, and Heidi Stahlberg (DPT 2014) helped put sleds together, fitted each participant with gear, and pushed some of the almost 80 participants around on the ice. The clinic was funded both by USA Hockey and PossAbilities which is a community outreach program developed by Loma Linda University Medical Center to provide activities to individuals with a disability.
Department of Health Sciences Education News
Dr. Tina Meyer, Department Chair, teamed with Mr. Tracey Doxzon, PA-C, to present Disability Issues for the Primary Care Specialist in the College of Podiatric Medicine on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Dr. Meyer has more than 35 years of experience in disability issues. Mr. Doxzon is a long-time preceptor of both PA and DO students, and has practiced family medicine for 30 years. Mr. Doxzon sustained an incomplete spinal cord injury four years ago. Upon completion of rehabilitation at Loma Linda he returned to clinic practice and is again precepting WesternU students. Together, Dr. Meyer and Mr. Doxzon challenge students to think about the needs of persons with disability in light of recent research concerning the effects of aging with a disability. Dr. Meyer and Mr. Doxzon will be addressing DO students in April, and look forward to other opportunities to inform others of these important issues.
Third Annual Leadership Symposium
“Celebrating Leadership,” 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, Lecture Hall West, Health Science Center.
Join us for an interactive panel discussion with leaders from the university and the community. This is a unique and informative opportunity to learn from prominent leaders who live and work among us.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Gregory P. McQueen
Panelists: Dr. Elizabeth Andrews, Dr. Duc Q. Pham, Rosa Mendieta, Dr. Lawrence Geraty and Anna Matsuishi Pattison, RDH, MS. Seating is limited. This event is open to the public. Please RSVP to Jacque Mosco at jmosco@westernu.edu or (909) 469-5397.
From the College of Pharmacy:
Kudos on accomplishments
Congratulations to Drs. Jeffrey Wang, Sunil Prabhu and Ying Huang on their 36-page chapter titled “Evidence-based Materia Medica for Cancer Chemoprevention” in a Springer book Materia Medica for Various Cancers, edited by William CS Cho, MD, of Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty Dr. Jeffrey Wang, together with Dr. Tobias Schatton of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Duxin Sun of University of Michigan School of Pharmacy, co-moderated three sessions at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, Oct. 20-24, 2011, in Washington, D.C.: Cancer Stem Cells – Do They Represent Cancer’s Protean Achilles Heel for Targeted Drug Delivery Approaches?; siRNA and miRNA: the Basics and Pharmaceutical Delivery; and State of the Art in Peptide and Protein Delivery. He also made a podium presentation, “Lipidizing peptides and proteins to increase their druggability.”
From the College of Graduate Nursing:
The Fletcher Jones Foundation Endowed Chair for Nursing Quality and Safety
The College of Graduate Nursing is poised to become a leader in quality and safety education as the result of a $500,000 grant from The Fletcher Jones Foundation.
The grant will fund The Fletcher Jones Foundation Endowed Chair for Nursing Quality and Safety, which will be held by Jan Boller, PhD, RN, College of Graduate Nursing (CGN) Director, DNP Program, Health Systems Leadership, Associate Professor. Click here to read the full story.
From the College of Veterinary Medicine:
Kudos on accomplishments
Veterinary Assistant Professor of virology Dr. Yvonne Drechsler contributed equally with veterinary internist Dr. Pedro Diniz along with Dr. Ana Alcaraz, Dr. Frank Bossong and Dr. Ellen Collisson from the College of Veterinary Medicine to author a review titled “Feline Coronavirus in Multi-cat Environments.” This article has been published in the November 2011 issues of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice. The complete citation is: Drechsler Y, Alcaraz A, Bossong FJ, Collisson EW, Diniz PPVP. “Feline Coronavirus in Multicat Environments” Vet Clin Small Anim 41 (2011) 1133–1169 doi:10.1016/j.cvsm.2011.08.004doi:10.1016/j.cvsm.2011.08.004)
Veterinary Anesthesiologist and Associate Professor Dr. Lyon Lee collaborated with colleagues at Seoul National University on research that has resulted in two scientific publications recently. These collaborations have also resulted in stronger ties between WesternU and the South Korean institutions. Two of the collaborators (Dr. D. Ryu and Dr. S. Kang) have made arrangements as Visiting Scientists to our campus.
The complete citations are: Young K. Kim, Scott S. Lee, Euy H. Suh, Lyon Lee, Hee C. Lee, Hyo J. Lee, and Seong C. Yeon. ”Minimum Anesthetic Concentration and Cardiovascular Dose–Response Relationship of Isoflurane in Cinereous Vultures (Aegypius monachus)” Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Volume 42, Issue 3 pp.499-503 (September 2011)
Kim S, Lee SH, Kang S, Lee L, Park JD, Ryu DY. “Involvement of c-Met- and Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Dependent Pathways in Arsenite-Induced Downregulation of Catalase in Hepatoma Cells”. Biol Pharm Bull. Vol 34 issue 11 pp 1748-52. 2011.
Veterinary virologists Dr. Yvonne Drechsler and Dr. Ellen Collisson collaborated with Cal Poly Pomona scientists and students in the 2011 showcase of the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI). The showcase of the ARI is hosted on the Pomona campus each year involving four universities in the Cal State system (Fresno, Pomona, Chico and San Luis Obispo). All of these schools are important sites for the education of pre-professional students who pursue their professional education at WesternU. CVM benefits particularly from the graduates of their agriculture programs.
Dr. Drechsler and Dr. Collisson have collaborated with Cal Poly faculty and students to conduct a student research project that was reported in this annual showcase event this year. Other CVM faculty members were in attendance and also participate in other programs at Cal Poly. We anticipate expansion of our collaborations in the coming months and years. The title of the presentation resulting from this collaboration was:
“Vaccine Strategies for Protecting Poultry Against Avian Influenza Infection: Liposomal M2e and NP Plasmid Vaccines” by Angela Beal, Chris Petro, Yvonne Drechsler, Ellen Collisson and Jill Adler-Moore.
Veterinary Professor of Pathology Dr. Tracey McNamara continues to draw international attention to WesternU for her interests and experience in biosurveillance strategies for zoonotic (animal to human) diseases. In recent weeks Dr. McNamara, who first discovered the West Nile virus at the Bronx Zoo in 1999, was: Invited to speak on West Nile virus at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine and College of Veterinary Medicine on Oct. 4-5, 2011.
Served the U.S. at the “Expert Meeting on One Health Governance and Global Network” (Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2011). At this invitation-only meeting at the CDC participants defined actionable steps for a way forward. Senior representatives of the World Bank, WHO, FAO, OIE, and the EU were in attendance.
Delivered a keynote address on emerging viruses and conducted a two-day workshop at the WAVES (Wild Animals Vigilance Euro-Mediterranean Society) VIIth International Symposia on Wild Fauna at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The workshop was on Necropsy Techniques in Wildlife and was held at the Royal (Dick) College of Veterinary Studies.
