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This Week@WesternU, Feb. 4-8, 2013

by Rodney Tanaka

February 4, 2013

Read 4 mins

College of Pharmacy receives eight-year accreditation

The College of Pharmacy is proud to announce that its accreditation has been extended eight years, through June 2021. Eight years is the maximum term for an accreditation cycle. WesternU’s Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (www.acpe-accredit.org). Click here to read the full story.

PetSmart Charities® grants $300,000 to College of Veterinary Medicine

The College of Veterinary Medicine received a $300,000 grant from PetSmart Charities® (www.petsmartcharities.org) to acquire, equip and operate a high-volume mobile spay/neuter vehicle.

“This is a significant contribution to our academic program that doubles the College’s mobile capacity to address community needs in the Inland Empire and the LA basin,” said College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Phillip Nelson, DVM, PhD. “The support of the VACS II by PetSmart Charities, and the contribution of personnel and medical supplies by WesternU College of Veterinary Medicine, will result in a partnership designed to provide a measurable impact on the population of unowned/unwanted animals in local communities, while providing valuable learning experiences for our students.”

Click here to read the full story.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Kudos on accomplishments

COMP Professor, Founding Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease and Director of the Heart and Vascular Center Radha J. Sarma, MD, FACC, FACP, FAHA, FASE, traveled to Visakhapatnam, India in December for a class reunion of Andhra Medical College students, where she graduated with an MBBS degree in 1966. She was a distinguished lecturer on “Heart and Diabetes to the Dentist” at GITAM Dental College & Hospital Jan. 3, 2013. She also provided ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) training to 40 postgraduate students at Andhra Medical College with American Heart Association Certification.

Fourth-year COMP student Jennifer Nguyen recently received a $50,000 UniHealth Foundation scholarship. The scholarship, one of six provided to medical students in Southern California annually, goes toward medical school expenses for the 2012-13 academic year. Click here to read the full story.

COMP student Julia Liu had a letter titled “Older Adults are Less Accurate than Younger Adults at Identifying Cardiovascular Disease as a Cause of Dementia in the Chinese American Community” accepted for publication in a future edition of International Psychogeriatrics.

Dr. Brion Benninger, MD MSc, COMP-Northwest Professor/Vice Chair, Medical Anatomical Sciences, mentored an OMS II and a pre-med post-graduate student on an original and novel project in the cadaver lab simultaneously involving ultrasonography, intubation and CPR. This work could have a significant impact on the monitoring of resuscitation.

The Medical Anatomical Sciences department based in Lebanon conducted two ultrasound teaching sessions using donor-cadaver-patients and live subjects in the McDaniel Anatomy Lab.

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Department of Physical Therapy Education News

Many faculty and almost 50 students participated in the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) which was recently held in San Diego. The four-day CSM focuses on programming designed by all 18 of APTA’s specialty sections. The conference is held annually and this year was attended by more than 10,000 physical therapy professionals from across the country. WesternU was well represented by faculty members Drs. Dayle Armstrong, Laurie Boulware, Casey Chaney, Mary Hudson-McKinney, Janet Konecne, David Selkowitz, and Professor Georgeanne Vlad in attendance. Professor Selkowitz PT, PhD, OCS, DAAPM, was an invited speaker for an educational session on “Teaching, Learning, and Practicing Electrotherapy” and another session on “To Stim or Not to Stim: the Role of Electrical Stimulation in the Treatment of Muscle Denervation.” Adjunct faculty member Rose Hamm, PT, DPT, CWS, FACCWS, was an invited speaker for an educational session on “Dressings: From Basics to Biologicals” and on “Pressure Ulcers: Diagnosis, Staging and Treatment.”

DPT ’13 students Erin Casselle, Katie Francesconi, Andrea Lopez, and Stacey May had a poster presentation on their research, “Identification of Caregiver Assistance Level in Typically Developing Children as Measured by the PEDI.” Drs. Dayle Armstrong and Donna Redman-Bentley mentored the students’ project and were listed as co-investigators. The Women’s Infant and Children (WIC) program in Pomona was also recognized for their cooperation and support of this study. Many conference participants stopped by to discuss the study with the students.

From the College of Pharmacy:

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Micah Hata and Professor Roger Klotz have been awarded $1,000 to support their efforts in upcoming health fairs by the Million Hearts/NACDS Foundation “Heart to Heart Community Health Fairs.” Their proposal was rated the top of all applicants and came with a commendation on their work.

The Million Hearts is an initiative from the Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose is to take measures to prevent a million heart attacks and strokes over the next five years.

Congratulations to Dr. Fadi Khasawneh and members of his lab on their most recent publication. The first author is MSPS alumnus John Murad with co-authors Olivia Lin, current MSPS student, and Dr. Enma (Veronica) Espinosa, Research Assistant Professor.

Murad JP, Lin OA, Espinosa EV, Khasawneh FT. Current and experimental antibody-based therapeutics: insights, breakthroughs, setbacks and future directions. Curr Mol Med. 2013 Jan 1;13(1):165-78. Link to PubMed citation

From University Advancement:

Endowed Scholarship

Dr. Lawrence Harkless, Founding Dean, Western University of Health Sciences College of Podiatric Medicine, recently announced a generous $20,000 gift from BAKO Pathology Services for a fully-endowed scholarship.

“The profession of Podiatric Medicine can only be as great as the students that it attracts, and the quality of the education that they receive. As a partner of the podiatric profession, we feel that we must do our part to ensure that we have the brightest and best educated students advancing into our profession.” said Bradley W. Bakotic, DPM, DO, dermatopathologist and BAKO principle partner. Click here to read the full story.

Kudos on accomplishments

WesternU’s Graphics and Branding team was honored with two awards in the CASE District VII 2012 Awards of Excellence contest. Both awards were in the category of Communications and Marketing Programs — Institutional Relations Publications– Annual Magazines.

WesternU earned a Gold Award for Humanism in the Health Sciences, which was designed by Debra Nelson.

WesternU also earned a Bronze Award for the College of Graduate Nursing’s Excellence in Nursing magazine, which was designed by Paul Gettler.

Director of Annual Giving Susan Terrazas has been selected to facilitate a roundtable discussion on annual giving at the graduate school level at the CASE District VII conference Feb. 28-March 2 in San Francisco.

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