This Week@WesternU, Feb. 10-14, 2014

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Kudos on accomplishments

Robyn Dreibelbis, DO, Vice Chair of Family Medicine at COMP-Northwest, was appointed to the Oregon Healthcare Workforce Committee, which is a sub-committee of the Oregon Health Authority. This committee will be working to increase the number of family medicine and other primary care residencies in Oregon.

COMP-Northwest will hold a Graduate Medical Education (GME) expansion retreat from 1-5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. The retreat will focus on innovative approaches to the expansion of family medicine GME in Oregon.

COMP-Northwest Assistant Professor Derrick Sorweide was appointed by the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) to the Preceptorship Committee and the Committee on Inspection & New Program Application, which is a subcommittee of the CEE (Committee on Education and Evaluation).

Matt Wedel, PhD, of COMP and CPM, appeared on the George Tech Library radio show, “Lost in the Stacks,” to talk about open-access publishing and dinosaurs, in between sets of rock-and-roll songs about dinosaurs. The full programme, with links to listen to or download the show as a podcast, is here: http://svpow.com/2014/02/01/sv-pow-featured-on-the-lost-in-the-stacks-podcast/

Several COMP faculty members presented at Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California (OPSC) 53rd Annual Convention and Exhibition Feb. 5-9 in San Diego. The following faculty members presented at the conference:

Diabetes Pharmacotherapy – Airani Sathananthan, MD

The Kidney and Diabetes: AKA ‘Diabetic Kidney Disease’ – Edward Barnes, MD

Hypertension: Just What Are the Guidelines – Edward Barnes, MD

Hypertension in Pregnancy: Recommendations for the ACOG Task Force – Lony Castro, MD

EMR Security for Physicians – Scott Helf, DO, MSIT

Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis: Issues with the Elderly – Emmanuel Katsaros, DO, FACR

Update on Child and Adolescent Immunizations – Lisa Warren, DO

Osteopathic Treatment of the Elderly – Jesus Sanchez Jr., DO

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) – What’s in a Name? – Joseph Gambone, DO, MPH

From the College of Dental Medicine:

Give Kids A Smile

Western University of Health Sciences dental medicine students eliminated lots of sugar buggies as part of Give Kids A Smile on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. WesternU’s College of Dental Medicine took part in 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.

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Steven Friedrichsen was an invited presenter and panelist at the Conference on Interprofessional Education and Practice – Creating a Vision for the Dentist of the Future. The Conference was co-sponsored by the California Dental Association and the American Dental Education Association and was held Feb. 3-4, 2014 in San Francisco. Dr. Friedrichsen’s presentation was on “Innovations in Interprofessional Education” and the panel was titled “Transforming Professional Education – Parallel Changes in Medicine and Dentistry.”

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Department of Physical Therapy Education News

Associate Professor/Recruitment and Alumni Liaison Georgeanne Vlad, PT, MA, was an invited speaker for the Medical and Pre-Health Student Society (MAPSS) at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) with an admissions panel followed by two presentations on “Physical Therapy as a Career Choice.” This is the second annual, all-day Pre-Medical & Pre-Health Conference which targets underrepresented students from all colleges and universities in Southern California who are interested in pursuing a career in the health care professions, and it was recently held on the CSUSB campus.

From the College of Pharmacy:

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius received a grant as a co-investigator: Drs. Louise Pilote ,Vidal Essebag (co-PIs) and Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius. Population level evaluation of ablation therapies in atrial fibrillation. Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Funding of $189,344 over two years.

Dr. David Pham served as a speaker liaison and member of the planning committee at the 27th Annual American Diabetes Association Family Retreat at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead Jan. 24-26. There were 40-plus families that had a child (17 or younger) recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Hyma Gogineni was an invited speaker at the Specialty Therapies Summit, held Jan. 30-31, 2014 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nev. The title of her talk was: “Leverage Oral, Interferon-Free Therapies to Optimize Hepatitis C Treatment and Ensure Patient Adherence.”

Dr. Thomas Kleyn published the following: Kleyn TJ, Liedtke MD, Harrison DL, et al. Incidence of transmitted antiretroviral drug resistance in treatment-naive HIV-1-infected persons in a large South Central United States clinic. Ann Pharmacother 2014 Jan 28 [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1177/1060028013519246

Click here to view the article. This paper was an epidemiologic evaluation of the incidence of transmitted antiretroviral drug resistance in the South Central United States, which revealed that the frequency of drug resistance mutations among antiretroviral-naive patients was similar to nationally reported rates which have not included data from this region.

Congratulations to Fadi Khasawneh, PhD, Gollapudi S. Shankar, PharmD, MSPS Alumus Olivia Lin, MSPS Student Hari Priya Vemana, Research Assistant Professor Zubair Karim, and Former Post-Doctoral Fellow Enma Veronica Espinoa on their recent publication: Lin O, Karim, ZA, Vemana HP, Espinosa EV, Khasawneh FT. The antidepressant 5-HT2A receptor antagonists pizotifen and cyproheptadine inhibit serotonin-enhanced platelet function. PLoS One. 9(1):e87026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087026. PMID: 24466319 Link to Article

From University Advancement:

The first Towne & Gown Scholarship will be awarded on Honors Day. Two $1,000 scholarships will be given to two WesternU students who have demonstrated a strong background in community service.

The Towne & Gown Golf Classic is entering its fourth year on Monday, June 16, 2014. The third annual tournament, held June 10, 2013 at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga, attracted 100 golfers and raised more than $34,000.

Click here for the full story and a slideshow. T.F. Chen, DDS, underwrote the golf tournament.

Alumni news

On Feb. 5, the WesternU Alumni Association held a reception in Las Vegas during the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting. Nearly 100 alumni, students, faculty and staff enjoyed complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a hosted bar.

On Feb. 6, the WesternU Alumni Association held a 30-Year Reunion for the COMP Class of 1984 in San Diego during the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California’s Annual Convention. Ten class members were joined there by COMP Dean Paula Crone, DO ’92, Janet Dyer, former Dean of Alumni Affairs, and other guests.

From the Pumerantz Library:

Beginning March 10 and running until April 19, the Pumerantz Library is showcasing Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine. Read the blog for more details.

Dr. Wedel talk and book signing

The Pumerantz library is sponsoring a talk and book signing of Dr. Vicki Wedel’s new book “Broken Bones: Anthropological analysis of blunt force trauma,” to be held 4-6 p.m. March 13 in HEC Classroom A. For details please read the blog.

DDx Resources

A recording of this library workshop is now available on the blog.

For updates and news please read the Pumerantz Library’s News and Events Blog.

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