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This Week@WesternU, Dec. 7-11, 2015

by Rodney Tanaka

December 7, 2015

Read 5 mins

Ethan Allen, DO, shares his wisdom
As the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) curriculum became more enriched with a full spectrum of osteopathic techniques, WesternU Founding Board Member Dr. Ethan Allen began teaching a small group of students high velocity osteopathic manipulative techniques on a Saturday mornings.

The 92-year-old has continued these workshops for 30 years helping students succeed in the profession he so dearly loves.

Click here to view a video showcasing Dr. Allen leading the workshops, which features COMP students getting hands-on lessons from this legend.

 

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

COMP-Northwest medical students honor ‘first patient’
Eighty-six donor-patients were remembered with tears, jokes, and laughter as their family members, and students and faculty from COMP-Northwest, celebrated their lives on Friday, December 4, 2015.

The fifth annual donor memorial service at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest was the most heavily attended to date, with approximately 100 family members and 100 first-year medical students in the crowd.

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

WesternU faculty and students send message of support to Paris
Western University of Health Sciences has a message of solidarity for Paris: “Je suis Paris.” I am Paris.

The College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific’s Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine/Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (NMM/OMM) Department created a video message to express love and support to their colleagues in Paris, France.

NMM/OMM faculty and fellows have traveled to Paris to teach students at Ecole Superieure d’Osteopathie-Paris. The video is a response to the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks on Paris that killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more.

Click here to read the full story and to watch the video.

2015 Monterey Park Health Fair
On Saturday, November 14, 2015, the Asian American Health Profession Student Association (AAHPSA) participated in the Monterey Park Health Fair at Monterey Park City Hall. AAHPSA provides all health professions students opportunities to further develop their clinical skills in a real-life setting. This Monterey Park Health Fair was in collaboration with the undergraduate-run Asian Pacific Health Corps (APHC) from the University of California, Los Angeles. AAPHSA provided several free health services including glucose screening, cholesterol screening, osteopathic physical evaluations, and flu shots to the Asian-American underserved population that day.  We owe these invaluable experiences to Drs. David Redding, Anna Yeung, and Steven Lam. We also recognize the efforts of our OMM Fellows: Dickran Altounian, Vanessa Chan, Christle Guevarra and Julia Kim, who assisted the 44 WesternU pre-clinical COMP students.

Kudos on accomplishments
John T. Pham, DO, was recently invited to become a member of the National Faculty for the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME). He will serve as a member for the clinical department of family medicine.

Congratulations to the Military Medical Students from COMP-Northwest who were commended for their innovative clinical anatomy research projects and professional presentations at the recent American Military Surgeons of the United States. Eric Vinceslio, Kurtis Webster, Zach Kamla, Stephanie Eonta, Kyler Kozacek and Ian Blandford presented research that integrated the technology of Sectre visualization table, Google Glass, SonicEye finger probe, Fukuda-Denshi ultrasound system, 7D computer software and Black Hawk helicoptors. They were mentored by Dr. Brion Benninger, Military Club Advisor and Executive Director of the MAC. This is an impressive international conference, which enables our students to interact with U.S. Military Medical Program Directors and researchers globally. Several technology companies approached Dr. Benninger to apply his disruptive innovation ideology to their equipment and incorporate into his research conducted in the MAC by students at WesternU.

 

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

PA Department’s 25th Anniversary
Thanks to everyone who shared in the Department of PA Education’s 25th Anniversary celebration last week. We hope that you enjoyed the food, entertainment, décor and camaraderie. Thank you all for your past and ongoing support of the PA program and PA profession. This is one example of how WesternU makes an impact in today’s medicine.

 

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Teresa Y. Morishita was recently interviewed for the “Living the Country Life” radio program, the largest rural radio network in the nation with affiliates from Wyoming to Alabama. Dr. Morishita provided information on Preventive Medicine for Backyard Chickens, a topic of growing interest due to the increase in numbers of backyard chicken flocks in the United States.

The December 1, 2015 issue of JAVMA carried a manuscript by Drs. Ohad Levi, CVM Associate Professor, Philip H. Kass, UC Davis Professor, Lyon Y. Lee, CVM Professor, Valerie M. Cantrell, DVM 2013, David E. Clark, CVM Associate Professor, and Dominique J. Griffon, CVM Professor and Associate Dean for Research, titled “Comparison of the ability of veterinary medical students to perform laparoscopic versus conventional open ovariectomy on live dogs.” To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study to document the ability of veterinary students to perform laparoscopic ovariectomy on live dogs at a level similar to that achieved by students performing open ovariectomy. The results of this study were the basis for the establishment of the “introduction to basic laparoscopy skills lab” to WesternU’s CVM second year curriculum within the clinical skills course.

 

From the College of Dental Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments
CDM Assistant Professor Robert D. Stevenson, DDS, published an article in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of the California Dental Association. The issue deals with volunteerism in dentistry. His article, “Ethical Considerations in Volunteer Dental Care,” is on page 735 here: http://www.cda.org/member-resources/journal.

 

From University Advancement:

CVM Faculty and Staff Endowed Scholarship hits milestone
We are pleased to announce that due to the generous and ongoing support of the faculty and staff of the College of Veterinary Medicine, the CVM Faculty and Staff Endowed Scholarship has now hit the $50,000 mark. Student debt continues to be one of the major issues facing health care graduates and helping to mitigate that is one of the major focuses of the Dean and College. Many CVM faculty and staff continue to give every pay period through ongoing payroll deduction gifts, which helps this fund continue to grow and will provide meaningful and increasing amounts of student scholarship support for generations to come. We look forward to letting you know when the fund reaches the $100,000 mark and encourage and challenge you to build funds in each and every college.

#GivingTuesday
Thank you to all those who participated in this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign on December 1, from liking and sharing our posts to giving the Gift of Education. Your support is significant toward building a strong foundation for the health care professionals of the future. #GivingTuesday may have passed, but the Season of Giving is still here!

Alumni news
On Monday, Nov. 30, the Office of Alumni Relations hosted a lunch in HEC for the DPM 2016 class that was back on campus last week. The students enjoyed catching up with one another over pizza and cookies after being apart for a few months.

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