This Week@WesternU May 13-17, 2013

Commencement 2013

The 32nd Annual Commencement Exercises for Western University of Health Sciences will be held May 15-17, 2013 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena, Calif. Here are some important reminders to graduates regarding commencement. Please forward to friends and family as appropriate.

Inaugural Ceremony for:

College of Dental Medicine

College of Podiatric Medicine

Wednesday, May 15, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Edward James Olmos

Actor, producer and humanitarian

College of Pharmacy

Wednesday, May 15, 3 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jenelle L. Sobotka, PharmD, FAPhA

Professor, Endowed Chair of Pharmacy Practice, Ohio Northern University Raabe College of Pharmacy

College of Allied Health Professions

College of Graduate Nursing

Thursday, May 16, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jason Hwang, MD, MBA

Physician and author

College of Veterinary Medicine

Thursday, May 16, 3 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald

Veterinarian, actor and comedian

College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific

Friday, May 17, 9:30 a.m.

Keynote Speaker: Jason Hwang, MD, MBA

Physician and author

Graduate Reminders

Commencement website: The commencement website at http://www.westernu.edu/commencement/ has all kinds of useful information, including parking maps, directions, and instructions. Please pull all necessary information from the site before heading to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Live webcast: We are pleased to announce that the commencement ceremonies will be webcast live at http://www.westernu.edu/commencement/cs_webcast.php. Please let those who are not attending know, so they can watch you online.

Guest Reminders

Doors Close Early: The front doors will close at 9:20 a.m. for morning ceremonies and 2:50 p.m. for afternoon ceremonies, and will re-open after the processional, invocation and national anthem. It’s essential that all of your guests be seated in the auditorium prior to the doors closing. If your friends/relatives tend to be late … you might tell them it starts 30 minutes earlier.

General Admission Tickets: Tickets are required for all ceremonies except College of Pharmacy and College of Veterinary Medicine.

Box Top Drive continues

Week 3 of the Box Tops Drive for Madison Elementary in Pomona brought 346 Box Tops and 49 Labels for Education points. That brought the totals to 674 Box Tops and 142 Labels for Education points. COMP is in the lead with 265 Box Tops. The Box Tops drive continues until Friday, May 17. For university staff and faculty, there is a collection bin in the University Student Affairs office. For College staff, faculty, and students, there are collection bins in your admin offices. Thank you everyone for your support. If you have any questions, please email Izzy Pines at epines@westernu.edu

From the College of Pharmacy:

Scholarship Golf Classic

The College of Pharmacy will hold its inaugural Scholarship Golf Classic on May 23 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

Third-year student Lusineh Keshishian, PharmD ’14, was chosen to be a Schweitzer Fellow for 2013-14. This program encourages health care professional students to engage in projects that address health care disparities in their communities. Keshishian will be working on a project to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine awareness and vaccination rates among high school teens in the Pomona area.

Kudos and accomplishments

Dr. Sheryl Chow and co-authors recently published a paper that speaks to an expanding pharmacist’s roles on multidisciplinary team and seeks “to outline potential roles for clinical pharmacists in a multidisciplinary HF team, to document outcomes associated with interventions by clinical pharmacists, to recommend minimum training for clinical pharmacists engaged in HF care, and to suggest financial strategies to support clinical pharmacy services within a multidisciplinary team.” It was published concurrently in two leading journals.

Milfred-LaForest, SK, Chow, SL, DiDomenico, RJ, Dracup K, Ensor CR, Gattis-Stough W, Heywood, JT, Lindenfeld J, Page RL, Patterson JH, Vardeny O, Massie, BM. Clinical Pharmacy Services in Heart Failure: An Opinion Paper from the Heart Failure Society of America and American College of Clinical Pharmacy Cardiology Practice and Research Network. Journal of Cardiac Failure, Vol 19, Issue 5, May 2013 and Pharmacotherapy 2013;33(5):529–548). Click here to read the paper.

Kudos and accomplishments

Dr. Janice Hoffman presented the following during the Annual California Long Term Care Medicine (CALTCM) meeting April 26-27, 2013 at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. Podium: Hoffman, J. “Antipsychotics in the Management of Nursing Home Patients with Dementia” and Posters: Mahajan SA, Hoffman J. “Gradual Dose Reduction or Discontinuation of Antipsychotics in Patients after 3-Months Using new CDPH and CMS Guidelines “ (Dr. Sonal Mahajan, PharmD ‘12, is a PGY1 resident precepted by Dr. Shankar) Ayrapetyan AA, Hoffman J. “Comparison of Elderly Patients: Metabolic Triad with Dementia vs. Metabolic Triad without Dementia” (Armanei Ayrapetyan, is PharmD ‘13 candidate and Dr. Hoffman’s AE student).

Kudos and accomplishments

Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius has been invited back to teach at the McMaster University Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) workshop as senior tutor.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Dr. Brian Kraatz recently published a new genus and species of rodent discovered during his work in the United Arab Emirates. The paper is published in the journal Naturwissenschaften (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-013-1043-4). More information about the study and overall project can be found here: http://fossilsofarabia.wordpress.com

COMP Faculty Candidate Seminar Series

COMP will hold a faculty candidate research seminar from 2 to 3 p.m., Tuesday, May 14, in Compatriots Hall, HSC. This seminar will be streamed to Eastmoreland, COMP-Northwest. Emmanuel S. Onaivi, BPharm, MSc, PhD, Professor Department of Biology, William Paterson University, Wayne, N.J., will be presenting “Molecular Basis of Central Nervous System Effects of CB2 Cannabinoid Receptors.” The COMP Candidate Seminar Series is open to everyone on campus.

COMP Seminar Series

COMP will hold its monthly seminar from noon to 1 p.m., Friday, May 24, 2013 in Compatriots Hall, HSC. This seminar will be streamed to Eastmoreland, COMP-Northwest. Paul H. Patterson, PhD, Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., will be presenting “Gut-Brain-Immune Connections in Autism and Schizophrenia.” The COMP Seminar Series, which is open to everyone on campus, runs once a month from September to May. Lunch will be provided with RSVP by noon, Wednesday, May 22 to kking@westernu.edu (Pomona) or spotter@westernu.edu (COMP-Northwest).

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Department of Physical Therapy Education News

Assistant Professor Janet Konecne, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, was recently named as the Public Relations Chair on the Board of the Private Practice Group of California, a special interest group of the California Physical Therapy Association.

From the College of Podiatric Medicine:

Much of the time we take for granted the ability to walk, pain-free, in decent shoes. But the patients screened and treated by teams of faculty members and students from the College of Podiatric Medicine over the weekend don’t have that luxury. The teams of students and podiatric faculty members were out in the community, actively exhibiting the “Caring, Science, Humanism” attitude of WesternU.

Fifteen student volunteers and three faculty members participated in the Los Angeles American Diabetes Association event on Saturday and on Sunday another five students, and Dr. Diane Koshimune, headed to Santa Monica to perform minor procedures on homeless patients at UCLA’s Happy Feet event.

Dr. Rebecca Moellmer heads the very active Community Outreach program at CPM. Coming up next is a May 18 foot-screening event in Hawthorne that will take a faculty member and ten students into the community to provide service.

From the College of Dental Medicine:

Faculty members Joel Laudenbach, Jerry Minsky, and Vicki Wedel traveled to Sacramento to give continuing education symposia to dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants of the Northern California Indian Health Service. Dr. Laudenbach spoke on temporimandibular joint disorder, Dr. Minsky on dental patients requiring hospital anesthesia, and Dr. V. Wedel on the role of dentistry in medicolegal investigations of death.

From University Advancement:

WesternU invites the public to an exciting day of golf to benefit student scholarships.

The Towne & Gown Golf Classic, benefiting the University Scholarship Fund, will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 at Red Hill Country Club, 8358 Red Hill Country Club Dr., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

Registration and lunch starts at 11 a.m. followed by a noon shotgun start. The Hole-in-One prize is a 2013 Cadillac, sponsored by Symes Cadillac of Pasadena. Reception dinner and awards ceremony will follow the event.

Cost is $200 per golfer or $800 per foursome. Dinner for a non-golfing guest is available for a fee of $50. Proceeds will benefit the University Scholarship Fund thanks to the generosity of T.F. Chen, DDS. Deadline to enter is June 3, 2013.

For more information or to sign up for the Towne & Gown Golf Classic, please contact Susan Terrazas at 909-706-3476, email sterrazas@westernu.edu, or Austin Braunwalder at 909-469-8495, email abraunwalder@westernu.edu. To view the website go to www.westernu.edu/golf.

Helicopter Drop

Everyone is invited to join the Towne & Gown Golf Classic Helicopter Drop, whether you’re at the golf course or not. The helicopter team will dump numbered golf balls over a designated hole, and the owner of the ball that lands in the hole (or closest to the pin) will win the 50-50 cash prize. Contact Austin Braunwalder (909) 469-8495; abraunwalder@westernu.edu for more information. Click here to view the flier.

Novadaq gift

Novadaq Technologies has provided a very generous gift of their LUNA™ Fluorescence Angiography System to the College of Podiatric Medicine. This critical piece of equipment and other considerations provides real-time imaging and clinically relevant information to clinicians, enabling visual assessment of tissue perfusion in diabetic foot ulcers and non-healing wounds. The value of this gift is $326,000.

Follow us on Twitter at @WesternUNews

Find us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/WesternUniversityofHealthSciences

Western University of Health Sciences, 309 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif. 91766

909-623-6116