This Week@WesternU, March 30-April 3, 2020
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Update
Please visit WesternU’s COVID-19 resources web page for the latest information:
https://www.westernu.edu/health/health-news/
WesternU medical students unify to make and provide masks to the health care workforce amidst COVID-19 pandemic
WesternU students have mobilized efforts to make masks from fabric and collect or buy N95 masks in the wake of a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second-year College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific student Arjun “Corey” Bakshi, a former EMT and ER/trauma tech before starting medical school, began the mask-making project because he saw how bad conditions were getting for protecting health care workers.
Bakshi started a Facebook group called “Masks for Healthcare Workers” to recruit students and community members from across California. There are currently more than 60 members sewing, cutting fabrics, sharing tips and trick for making masks and providing logistics.
For more information, please go to the “Masks for Healthcare” Facebook page. To donate to the GoFundMe website, please click here. Their fundraising goal is $3,000.
Click here to read the full story.
WesternU hires first Chief Communications Officer
Western University of Health Sciences has appointed Barbara O’Malley, MBA, as its first Chief Communications Officer (CCO) to lead its brand building, website strategy and digital marketing as the University continues to grow.
The CCO is charged with building and managing a high-performing marketing and communications team equipped to meet the needs of a truly unique, diverse and growing university – brand building, website strategy, advertising, social media, and digital marketing. In addition to leading the marketing and communications team, the CCO will provide strategic direction and partner with academic and administrative units to coordinate marketing and communications initiatives.
“It’s a great honor to serve WesternU and support its noble mission here in California and in Oregon,” O’Malley said. “Our work in the health sciences with its focus on scientific excellence and a humanistic approach to health care is needed now more than ever, and I’m looking forward to building awareness of WesternU on a regional, national and international level.”
Click here to read the full story.
From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:
WesternU COMP students celebrate Match Day
Western University of Health Sciences created a virtual online party to celebrate Class of 2020 fourth-year medical students in Pomona, California and Lebanon, Oregon as they learned where they would go for their residencies.
With both WesternU campuses moving to online classes and social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) held an online celebration via Zoom and YouTube on Friday, March 20, 2020.
COMP Dean Paula Crone, DO ’92, celebrated the class for its accomplishments.
“Your generation will be shaping the future for all of us,” she said. “Take good care, please, and shape it well. Your actions are going to be defining your character. I have confidence in all of you that your character is good and that our futures are in good hands. As many of you have heard me say many times over the last four years, we are counting on that, and we are counting on you.”
Click here to read the full story.
Match Day held online for WesternU COMP-Northwest student doctors
Student doctors from Western University of Health Sciences’ Oregon campus celebrated Match Day last week online to respect rules regarding social distancing across the country. This year, instead of simultaneously opening envelopes at 9 a.m., students simultaneously checked their emails on Friday, March 20, 2020, to discover where they would spend the next chapter in their medical career journey. WesternU COMP-Northwest leveraged technology, celebrating with students, their families, and faculty and staff on an innovative video conference call topping more than 100 participants.
One hundred and three students from the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest Class of 2020 placed in residency programs. Of those, 49 placed into primary care fields including family medicine (21), internal medicine (13), pediatrics (eight), and OB-GYN (seven). Students also placed into emergency medicine residency programs (17); psychiatry (three); general surgery (six); one in neurology and two in child neurology; and anesthesiology (nine); among other specialties.
Click here to read the full story.
Kudos on accomplishments
Thierra K. Nalley, PhD, of COMP, was part of an international team that recently published a paper in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The study experimentally tested the relationship between bony morphology and intervertebral ranges of motion in the cervical spine across of a sample of primate species, including humans. The results do not support a strong relationship between vertebral morphology and joint ranges of motion, which has important implications for reconstructing axial mobility in fossil specimens.
Grider‐Potter, N., Nalley, T.K., Thompson, N.E., Goto, R. and Nakano, Y., 2020. Influences of passive intervertebral range of motion on cervical vertebral form. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24044
From the College of Pharmacy:
Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Emmanuelle Schwartzman has just been installed as the new President of Rho Chi, the national pharmacy honor society. In this two-year term, Dr. Schwartzman will be tasked with building a new digital platform and increasing networking capabilities, working on the centennial event coming up in 2022, working on alumni connections, and reflecting on the changing academic landscape and how the society can meet the changing landscape to better serve the student chapters and members.
Dr. Schwartzman, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice & Administration, joined the College in 2008 and soon thereafter began co-advising the WesternU Gamma Sigma Chapter of Rho Chi. In 2012, she accepted full responsibility as chapter adviser and then took on the role of Councilor to Region VIII (Western Region), which gave her a seat on the Board of Directors. Dr. Schwartzman’s two year term as president will end in March 2022. She also serves as Director of Residency and Fellowship Programs for the College.
From the College of Graduate Nursing:
Kudos on accomplishments
CGN Professor Diana Lithgow, PhD, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, FAANP, published the following: Barron, M.L, Lithgow, D., Wade, G., & Mueller-Luckey , G. (2020) Measuring fertility health knowledge in university students: Development and testing of a survey tool. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 28(1), 43-59.
