This Week@WesternU, July 9-13, 2018
From the College of Veterinary Medicine:
Kudos on accomplishments
CVM alum Kim Calloway, DVM ’18, has started an internship in Paris at the Organisational Internacional de Epirootics.
Several WesternU CVM faculty members presented during the combined Primary Care Veterinary Educations Symposium and the Veterinary Educator Collaborative Symposium with the theme, “Laying the Building Blocks for a Lifetime of Clinical Excellence,” held recently in Ithaca, New York:
Dr. Beth Boynton was part of a development team of Primary Care Veterinary Educators presenting on their production of new teaching modules for colleges of veterinary medicine in preventative health care.
Drs. Ana Alcaraz and Jose Peralta presented two sessions. Facilitator Support Group: “What Does it Mean” about providing support and training while providing a vehicle for sharing experiences and solutions. And, including co-author, Dr. Dean Smylie, “The Use of OneNote to support learning in Problem Based Learning.” A blinded review of first year students’ OneNote files was analyzed to determine use of this technology in supporting peer interaction and involvement.
Dr. Peggy Barr (co-author Dr. Jennifer Buur) presented “Defining Criteria for Validation of Teaching Case Authorship as a Scholarly Activity” to define what qualities characterize an effective teaching case and develop validations for case authorship.
Drs. Peggy Barr, Paul Gordon-Ross, Suzie Kovacs, and Beth Boynton presented a workshop, “TLC for Students: An Educator Development Program for Teaching and Learning in the Clinical Setting.” Topics: Needs assessment; Lessons learned; Overview of Program, Creating culturally inclusive learning environment, and Providing feedback.
Posters were presented by Drs. Gagandeep Kaur and Paul Gordon-Ross on “Engaging students in curricular improvement and renewal: A mixed methods approach” and by Drs. Paul Gordon-Ross, Peggy Schmidt and Nicole Chavary on “An exploratory mixed-methods approach for identification of a faculty development program for veterinary educators.”
From the College of Optometry:
WesternU College of Optometry team recommends standardized luminance for visual acuity systems
A team from the College of Optometry at Western University of Health Sciences conducted research on display screen luminance that could improve the accuracy of visual assessment and standardize various testing measures used medically.
“If the measured visual acuity is wrong, it may lead to errors in clinical decisions like considerations of cataract surgery, treatment with injections for macular degeneration, or the need for retinal surgery that are based on the level of visual acuity measured,” said College of Optometry Professor and Director of Research Pinakin Davey, PhD, OD, FAAO, who led the study.
The team includes first-year College of Optometry student Kaydee McCray, MS, second-year College of Optometry student Michelle M. Hammond, and David Evans, PhD, of Guardion Health Sciences (VectorVision Inc). They presented a poster, “Luminance and visual acuity: 20/20 may not always mean 20/20!” at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Honolulu, Hawaii April 29-May 4, 2018.
Click here to read the full story.
WesternU tests Macular Pigment Reflectometer prototype
More than 10 million Americans are affected by age-related macular degeneration, a condition that robs older adults of their central vision and affects their quality of life.
Western University of Health Sciences is testing the commercial prototype of a device that could provide more accurate, objective calculations of macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and lutein and zeaxanthin optical densities (L-OD, Z-OD).
A WesternU team led by College of Optometry Professor and Director of Research Pinakin Davey, PhD, OD, FAAO, is working closely with ZeaVision to develop clinical protocols for ZeaVision’s Macular Pigment Reflectometer (MPR).
Click here to read the full story.
From the Southern California Medical Museum:
Iron lung on display at the Southern California Medical Museum
The Southern California Medical Museum invites you to travel back in time to when polio patients were encased in 500-pound iron lungs to survive – a time before vaccines eradicated many preventable diseases.
The museum, housed in Western University of Health Sciences’ Nursing Science Center, acquired an iron lung through the generosity of Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey, California. The Drinker-Collins iron lung was used in the 1950s for treating adolescents and, later, was rented out for television and movies, said museum Director Bert “Hans” Davidson, MD, PhD.
Click here to read the full story.
