This Week@WesternU, March 25-29, 2013

Trends in Autism Conference to be held at WesternU, special $20 student rate

The 11th annual Trends in Autism Conference will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, 2013 in the Health Education Center.

The conference is organized by Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation, with WesternU serving as a Community Partner. WesternU students are encouraged to attend. The conference is offering a special $20 student rate.

Click here to read the full story. Click here to register for the conference.

WesternU lecture by Sen. Hernandez to focus on health care changes

State Sen. Ed Hernandez, OD, will present “The Changing Face of Health Care in California” at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 12, 2013 at the Health Education Center. Click here to read the full story.

From the College of Pharmacy:

The College of Pharmacy will hold its inaugural Scholarship Golf Classic May 23, 2013 at Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon. Registration begins at 9 a.m., and time of play will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Shotgun-play format will include contests for low score, longest drive, closest to the pin and hole-in-one. Click here to read the full story.

Kudos and accomplishments

Congratulations to MSPS alumna Krishna Muppidi, Western Diabetes Institute Executive Director Dr. Andrew Pumerantz (COMP), Associate Dean Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences Dr. Guru Betageri and Assistant Professor Pharmaceutical Sciences Dr. Jeffery Wang on their most recent publication, which is the fourth publication stemming from Ms. Muppidi’s MSPS thesis project. Muppidi K, Pumerantz AS, Betageri G, Wang J (2013) Development and Validation of a Rapid High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method with UV Detection for the Determination of Vancomycin in Mouse Plasma. J Chromat Separation Techniq 4(1):165

Please click here to view the published article.

Dr. Jonathan Watanabe was an invited speaker at the University of Arizona Western Pharmacoeconomics Conference March 14-16. He was part of a symposium on teaching Comparative Effectiveness Research methods at pharmacy schools with representatives from the universities of Arizona, Washington, Utah, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado-Denver, and Southern California.

Ray Symposium to address obesity

The nation’s worsening obesity epidemic will be the topic of Western University of Health Sciences’ annual Ray Symposium, to be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 18, 2013 in the Health Education Center, Lecture Hall 1. Keynote speaker Dr. Patricia Crawford, RD, director of the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley, and a Cooperative Extension Nutrition Specialist, will present “Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention.” Click here to read the full story. Click here to reserve your seat.

APhA-ASP raises awareness for World Tuberculosis Day

WesternU’s American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Students (APhA-ASP) club recently took a photo to help raise awareness for World Tuberculosis Day, which was March 24, 2013. Tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people each year, mostly in developing countries. Click here to view the photo.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Father-son dermatology duo visits alma mater

College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific alumni Warren Peterson, DO ’87, and his son Michael Peterson, DO ’00, gave words of encouragement and advice to Western University of Health Sciences students interested in dermatology during a presentation on March 19, 2013. Click here to read the full story.

Faculty Candidate Research Seminar

COMP will hold its fourth faculty candidate research seminar for 2013 from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in Compatriot’s Hall, HSC. This seminar will be streamed to Lecture Hall 1, COMP- Northwest. Ok-Ho Shin, PhD, Assistant Professor with the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas, will be presenting “Mechanisms of cardiac norepinephrine release.” The COMP Candidate Seminar Series, which is open to everyone on campus, will be running from March through May.

COMP will hold its fifth faculty candidate research seminar for 2013 from 2 to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in Classroom A, HEC. This seminar will be streamed to Lecture Hall 2, COMP- Northwest. Huatao Guo, PhD, Research Scientist Laboratory of Dr. Jeff F. Miller, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the

University of California at Los Angeles, will be presenting “Diversity Generating Retroelements − Drivers of Targeted Evolution in Phages, Pathogens and the Human Microbiota.” The COMP Candidate Seminar Series, which is open to everyone on campus, will be running from March through May.

The COMP-Northwest campus will host a biochemistry candidate, Dr. Ok-Ho Shin, on March 27-28. Dr. Shin will give his teaching seminar titled “Biochemistry, metabolism, and function of thiamine” on the COMP-Northwest campus at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27 in Lecture Hall 1. The seminar will be streamed to HEC Lecture Hall 2 in Pomona.

Kudos and accomplishments

Brion Benninger, MD, MSc, would like to thank Dr. Paul Aversano and Dr. Mike Jaczko, the coordinators of didactic week, for inviting the Medical Anatomical Sciences department to teach third-year COMP-Northwest track students. Student-doctors Adam Mina, Stephanie Duckett and Rebecca Corbett assisted in teaching a four-hour workshop, which integrated cadaver dissection, CT and MRI scan tutorials with live ultrasound experience.

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

CVM will hold its eighth annual Open House from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 6, 2013 along the campus’ Esplanade.

Click here to read the full story

From the College of Optometry:

NORA News

The Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA) Club will have a special guest on campus Monday, April 8, 2013 for two separate lectures. Special guest Leonid Skorin Jr., DO, OD, is senior staff ophthalmologist at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and is an assistant professor of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. He also is the Chair of the Institutional Review Board at the Albert Lea facility.

From noon to 1 p.m. in HEC Classroom E, Dr. Skorin will speak on “Eye Disease by the Numbers.” Skorin will provide current information on the prevalence and treatment strategies of various ocular diseases. Those considering a future in Ophthalmology and Optometry are encouraged to attend.

From 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. in HEC Lecture Hall 1, Dr. Skorin will speak on “Interprofessionalism in a healthcare setting.” Skorin will share his unique perspective on the importance of interprofessionalism in healthcare.

Both events are open to everyone.

From the College of Allied Health:

Associate Professor Georgeanne Vlad, PT, MA, recently taught a two-day Clinical Instructor Education and Credentialing Program from the American Physical Therapy Association. The course was held March 23-24 for more than 60 participants at Presbyterian Intercommunity Medical Center in Whittier with Dorcas Tominaga, PT, DPT ’06, serving as the course co-instructor.

From the Pumerantz Library:

Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War Exhibition

The perspectives of surgeons, physicians, and nurses are richly documented in the history of Civil War medicine, which highlights the heroism and brutality of battlefield operations and the challenges of caring for the wounded during wartime. Yet the experiences of injured soldiers during the conflict and in the years afterwards are less well known. Life and Limb: The Toll of the Civil War focuses on disabled veterans and their role as symbols of the fractured nation.

The Harriet K. & Philip Pumerantz Library will be hosting the “Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War” traveling exhibition created by the National Library of Medicine from April 15 to May 18, 2013. Please join the library for the opening reception from 2 to 4 p.m. on April 15. Light refreshments will be served. Please contact the library at 909-469-5323 for more information. Click here to view the announcement.

From University Advancement:

WesternU Alumni Association Scholarship recipients

Chad Colby Gage, DMD ’13, and Tyler Phan, OD ’14, have been selected out of more than 30 applicants as the 2013 WesternU Alumni Association Scholarship recipients. These scholarships are awarded annually to two humanistic, caring, and dependable Western University of Health Sciences students who both excel academically and exemplify the qualities of an engaged alumnus or alumna through their extracurricular involvement. They will each be recognized as part of their respective college’s Honors Day ceremony in April with a plaque and $1,000. Congratulations!

Alumni News

The WesternU Alumni Association hosted an evening reception on Friday, March 22 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas during the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians’ Annual Convention. More than 60 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and guests joined Interim Dean Paula Crone, DO ’92, to enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a hosted bar.

The WesternU Alumni Association hosted a dinner on Saturday, March 23 at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Monterey during the California Association for Nurse Practitioners’ Annual Conference. Nearly two dozen alumni, students, faculty, staff, and guests joined Assistant Dean Diana Lithgow to enjoy a complimentary dinner and a hosted bar.

From the Toastmasters Club:

Kudos and accomplishments

First-year COMP student Eric Kim, DO ’16, represented Toast of the Towne Toastmasters Club in the area A5 speech contest. He was the runner-up in International Speech, and won the Table Topics contest. Congratulations Eric for a fantastic achievement. Interested in improving your speaking and leadership skills? Join the Toastmasters club here on campus. For more information email clarkl@westernu.edu

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