This Week@WesternU April 3-7, 2017
East West Scholarship Dinner
The East West Scholarship Dinner raises money to provide scholarships each year to WesternU students in graduate nursing, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant, optometry, podiatric medicine, dental medicine and veterinary medicine. Applicants from all ethnic backgrounds are selected based on academic excellence, community service and financial need.
The dinner will take place at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8, 2017 at Hilton San Gabriel, 225 West Valley Blvd. San Gabriel, Calif. 91776.
Click here to visit the East West Scholarship Dinner web page.
Click here to read more on Facebook.
From the College of Podiatric Medicine:
Dean’s Distinguished Lecture
Higher education and the health sciences share several key traits – including societal good, truth, and honesty – that make them comfortable bedfellows in American culture, The Ohio State University’s president told a WesternU audience Thursday, March 30, 2017.
Michael V. Drake, MD, who assumed Ohio State’s presidency in 2014 after nine years as chancellor at the University of California, Irvine, was the featured speaker at the second annual College of Podiatric Medicine’s Dean’s Distinguished Lecture. Drake, whose medical specialty is ophthalmology, had “Higher Education, Health Care, and the Future of America” as his theme. Click here to read the full story and view a slideshow.
From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:
Kudos on accomplishments
Eight Master of Science in Medical Sciences students, accompanied by GCBS faculty member Christina Goode, PhD, attended the LMSA Western Regional Conference at UCSF March 24-25. Two graduating LMSA Western Regional DO students from COMP were recognized (Ruben Mora-Roman Jr. and Thomas Parisi) and a third, Miguel Amezuca, was elected to a position on the regional board. Funding for the MSMS students to attend was provided by a grant from the LMSA national organization.
The MSMS students are Edward Ng, Evelyn Herrera, Robert Camarillo, Michael Jaso, Nici Odeluga, Myra Gutierrez, Brent Pino and Alex Hurtado.
Drs. Christina Goode (Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, GCBS) and Colleen Talbot, Professor, COMP and GCBS, had a paper published in The Journal of Best Practices in Health Professions Diversity (Volume 9(2) Fall 2016) titled “A Special Master’s Program as a Pipeline to Increase Diversity at an Osteopathic Medical College.” The paper describes the success of the MSMS program housed in the GCBS.
Spring Symposium
The Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences is sponsoring a Spring Symposium, “Translational Research: Success Stories,” from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 8, 2017 in the Health Professions Center, Amphitheater II. Click here to view a flier.
From the College of Pharmacy:
Kudos on accomplishments
MSPS student Shane Anderson in Dr. Brad Andresen’s laboratory has received a travel award to attend the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Annual Meeting in Chicago next month.
MSPS student Jaaziel Castro won a travel scholarship to attend the 12th Keele Meeting on Aluminum March 4-8, 2017, where he gave a platform presentation titled “Cell-specific response to particulate matter: Potential role of metals such as aluminum, copper, and iron.” Castro presented his own research results based on his first semester experiments in Dr. Campbell’s laboratory.
Ray Symposium
The College of Pharmacy will hold the 2017 Ray Symposium at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2017 in HEC Lecture Hall I. Keynote speaker Dana Goldman, PhD, Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy, Public Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California, will talk about “Re-Thinking Value in an Era of Health Reform.” Click here for more information and to register.
From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:
WesternU COMP Professor helps organize international tuberculosis meningitis workshop
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One third of the world’s population is infected with TB. In 2015, 10.4 million people around the world became sick with TB disease, and 1.8 million TB-related deaths were recorded worldwide.
Collaboration and research is vital in addressing this issue, and Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Associate Professor Vishwanath Venketaraman, PhD, is on the forefront of these efforts. He is helping to organize the Tuberculosis Meningitis: Advancing Immunopathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment workshop May 22-23, 2017 in Rockville, Maryland by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Click here to read the full story.
Medical Anatomy Center news
Dr. Benninger is introducing a new procedure in the COMP-Northwest anatomy lab using fiber optics in a ductoscope he helped develop, which was patented in 2010. The fiber optics provides visualization (not paralleled from any other scopes) of the breast ducts where the majority of breast cancer is identified. Currently, once the pathology is identified with the fiber optic ductoscope, a separate instrument is introduced into another site of the breast to biopsy the pathology under fiber optic ductoscope visualization. Dr. Benninger and his colleague Dr. Mukherjee have developed a biopsy instrument that can be placed down the fiber optic ductoscope preventing a separate invasive procedure for a biopsy instrument and skin scarring while providing greater certainty of biopsy collection. He plans on hosting a CME course with world experts introducing the technology at COMP-Northwest.
From the College of Allied Health Professions:
20th anniversary celebration
The College of Allied Health Professions will hold its 20th anniversary celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 19 in the Health Sciences Center Foyer.
From the College of Veterinary Medicine:
Kudos on accomplishments
Click here to read the latest news from the College of Veterinary Medicine.
From LEAD:
Kudos on accomplishments
On March 23, 2017, Dr. Hector Arroyo presented a session titled “Creating an Interprofessional Summer Prep Program” at the National Academic Advising Association Region 9 Conference in Reno, Nevada. The session explained the importance of having an interprofessional program and described best practices for creating an interprofessional summer prep program. The session ended with an audience discussion and question and answer. The presentation stemmed from LEAD’s annual Summer Preparedness and Readiness Course (SPaRC) for incoming WesternU students.
From University Advancement:
Alumni news
Brooke Alexander, DO ’96, and Diem Pham, DO ’97, both returned to campus last week to speak with WesternU students. On March 27, Dr. Pham spoke to students interested in a career in dermatology during a lunchtime lecture; and on March 29, Dr. Alexander participated in a COMP Alumni Roundtable live web broadcast about her career, including what led her to WesternU and her experiences at and since WesternU. Alumni Director Russel Heskin attended both talks to present each alumna with a thank you gift on behalf of the Alumni Association.