This Week@WesternU, Nov. 20-22, 2017
WesternU serves the community at Care Harbor Los Angeles
Care Harbor LA, which ran Nov. 17-19, 2017 at The Reef in downtown Los Angeles, provided free medical, dental, vision and preventative care to an estimated 1,000 patients per day. Several Western University of Health Sciences faculty, staff and students volunteered their time to help provide this care.
Click here to read the full story and to view a slideshow.
16th Annual Trends in Autism Education Forum
“FACE-ing Autism with Animal Therapies & Inclusion” will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 on the first floor of WesternU’s Health Education Center, 701 E. Second St., Pomona.
World-renowned author and psychologist Dr. Aubrey H. Fine will talk about the human-animal bond. He specializes in treating children with learning disabilities and developmental disorders. There will be a panel of speakers discussing animal therapies, a resource fair, holiday arts and crafts and photo opportunities with Santa Claus. To RSVP, email face@westernu.edu or call 909-646-0855. Click here to view a flier.
From the College of Optometry:
WesternU, Sight Savers America to provide assistive devices to children with severe visual impairment
Western University of Health Sciences and Sight Savers America are partnering to provide eight children with Freedom Scientific Onyx HD Electronic Video Magnifiers (EVMs) to help them complete schoolwork, see their loved one’s faces and keep up with the academic demands of their fully-sighted peers at school.
The recipients are between the ages of 7 and 16 and live in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Ventura counties. They will receive their EVMs and learn how to use them from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, November 30, 2017 at WesternU’s new Century City Eye Care Institute at 2080 Century Park East Suite 800, Los Angeles, California, 90067.
Click here to read the full story and to watch a video.
From the College of Allied Health Professions:
Kudos on accomplishments
College of Allied Health Professions Dean Stephanie Bowlin, EdD, PA, volunteered at Care Harbor LA this past weekend. She also provided guidance for some first-year PA students who volunteered at the event. Department of PA Education Professor Elizabeth Maugh, MS, PA-C, provided her PA expertise at the event as well as providing guidance to additional first-year PA students.
CAHP alumna Amy Gouley, MSPA ’03, was selected as one of the National Commission on the Certification of PA’s (NCCPA) top 50 PAs. Gouley is involved in Project Happy Face, which is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to treating disadvantaged teenagers. To see more about Project Happy Face visit the website www.projecthappyface.org.
From the College of Pharmacy:
PharmDay
PharmDay took place on Saturday, Nov. 11 and it was a total success. We had 26 students from nine local high schools in attendance. The day began with a general introduction to the field of pharmacy, led by WesternU student pharmacist Marvin Ortiz. The high school students were split into small groups to learn the fundamentals of taking blood pressure and they mastered this exercise. WesternU student pharmacists Mary Abramyan, Aya Alwahib, Natasha Strother, and Roland Davoudie enabled these activities. Then, the high school students went into the pharmacy compounding lab to create flavored lip balms, an activity facilitated by WesternU’s very own Dr. Rudy Mireles. Special thanks to Michael Sacoto and Ben Machado from the Inland Health Professions Coalition for recruiting these wonderful high school students and sponsoring our event lunch. Click here to view a gallery on Facebook.
Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Hyma Gogineni received an intramural seed grant of $5,000 to support her study on “California pharmacists knowledge and attitudes towards electronic cigarettes.”
Our visiting scholar, Dr. Craig Cheetham, was co-author on a publication: Alan S. Go, Daniel E. Singer, Sengwee Toh, T. Craig Cheetham et al. Outcomes of Dabigatran and Warfarin for Atrial Fibrillation in Contemporary Practice: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med. doi:10.7326/M16-1157.
Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius has a list of activities from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions held earlier this week:
She presented a late-breaking clinical trial: Choudhry NK, Isaac T, Lauffenburger JC, Gopalakrishnan C, Khan NF, Lee M, Vachon A, Iliadis TL, Hollands W, Doheny S, Elman S, Kraft JM, Naseem S, Gagne JJ, Jackevicius CA, Fischer MA, Solomon DH, Sequist TD. Study of a Tele-Pharmacy Intervention for Chronic diseases to Improve Treatment adherence (STIC2IT): A cluster randomized pragmatic trial.
This trial showed that while adherence to medications improved outcomes did not. The primary author is a national expert on adherence who Dr. Jackevicius mentored during his time in medical school.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aha/69328
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1FaoRCuFb4
Dr. Jackevicius also presented a poster: Atzema CL, Yu B, Schull MJ, Jackevicius CA, Ivers NM, Lee DS, Rochon P, Austin PC. The long-term impact of follow-up care on hospitalization and death in patients with atrial fibrillation who receive emergency care.
And an invited oral presentation: The Most Important Outcomes Research Studies in Prevention From the Past Year.
Finally, she participated in two Editorial Board meetings in her role as Associate Editor for all Circulation journals including Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Under Dr. Emmanuelle Schwartzman’s mentorship, the Gamma Sigma Chapter of Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society has received the project proposal award for their proposal titled, “The Art of Prescribing Hormonal Contraception.” This award comes with a $500 check and an engraved plaque.
Dr. Sheryl Chow served as co-chair of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) Comprehensive Review for Physicians, NPs, PAs, and Pharmacists specializing in HF Oct 12-15 in Scottsdale, Ariz. as a prep for the multidisciplinary heart failure certification boards. She played several roles including speaker, panel expert, moderator and case leader for a variety of heart failure based topics.
