This Week@WesternU, Sept. 16-20, 2013

WesternU holds Sept. 11 memorial

Western University of Health Sciences held its annual Sept. 11 memorial ceremony to honor those who died and those who continue to serve in the military, as first responders and as healers. Click here to read the full story and to view a slideshow.

From the College of Optometry:

The College of Optometry presents “Total Rehab,” a continuing education symposium designed for clinicians and individuals interested in learning about sports-related concussions, sports vision therapy, rehabilitation of special populations/autism, body awareness and rehabilitation, management of fall risks, and multidisciplinary low vision.

The symposium will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013 in WesternU’s Health Education Center, Classroom E, 701 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Hays-Haine Family Scholarship.

Click here to read the full story, including a list of guest speakers. Click here to register. Click here to view a flier.

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Associate Professors Casey Chaney, PT, PhD, CSCS, OCS, and Georgeanne Vlad, PT, MA, as elected representatives of the San Gabriel Valley District of the California Physical Therapy Association, will be attending the statewide Assembly of Representatives meeting to be held in Pasadena on Sept. 19, along with WesternU student representative Tamra Campbell, DPT 2014.

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine Assistant Professor Jijun Hao, PhD, discovered a novel compound that may offer leads for cancer therapy.

The findings are reported in a research paper titled “Selective Small Molecule Targeting ß-Catenin Function Discovered by In Vivo Chemical Genetic Screen,” published Sept. 5, 2013 in the prestigious Cell Press Journal Cell Reports, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2013.07.047.

Click here to read the full story.

From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a continuing grant to the collaborating labs of WesternU Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences Assistant Professor Manal Swairjo, PhD, and Professor Dirk Iwata-Reuyl from Portland State University (PSU) for the project, “Mechanism and Structure in an Enzyme Superfamily.” The funding amount to WesternU is $137,401. The award is effective July 15, 2013 and continues for three years. This is a continuing grant which has been approved on scientific/technical merit. Click here to read the full story.

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Doug Ethell of GCBS and COMP and Dr. Joshua Cameron of the College of Optometry published “Amyloid-ß and APP Deficiencies Cause Severe Cerebrovascular Defects: Important work for an old villain” in PLOS ONE. The article is available online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075052.

From the College of Pharmacy:

Dr. Kabir Lutfy and his collaborators published the following articles:

Marquez, P., Hamid, A., & Lutfy, K. (2013). The role of NOP receptors in psychomotor stimulation and locomotor sensitization induced by cocaine and amphetamine in mice. European Journal of Pharmacology, 707(1–3), 41-45. doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2013.03.021

Du H, Liu L, Wang Y, Nakagawa Y, Lyzlov A, Lutfy K, Friedman TC, Peng X, Liu Y. (2013). Specific reduction of glucose-6-phosphate transporter may contribute to down-regulation of hepatic 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase Type 1 in diabetic mice. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, 20(2), 167-178. doi: 10.1530/JME-12-0223 Click here to view the article.

Dr. Emmanuelle Schwartzman and Dr. Olivia Phung practice at the PCC and WDI, where they conduct an Insulin Titration clinic and Diabetes Education classes; and co-precept students and their own post-docs. Their past AE student Robert Allen, PharmD ’12, served as primary author on the following article: Allen RW, Schwartzman E, Baker WL, Coleman CI, Phung OJ. Cinnamon use in type 2 diabetes: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Fam Med. 2013;11:452-9. http://www.annfammed.org/content/11/5/452.full.

This paper was a systematic review examining the effect of cinnamon on glycemia and lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes. It resulted from a project led by senior author Dr. Phung, who focuses her scholarly activity on systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Dr. David Pham has been busy with several professional service activities in keeping with his focus on diabetes. He practices at the Hoag’s Mary & Dick Allen Diabetes Center as a Diabetes Pharmacist and also educates patients at an ADA educational center; he precepts students at both sites.

He has been invited to serve on the Speakers Bureau for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Orange County Chapter. The goals are to conduct at least 30 classes related to diabetes to the general public and to train at least 25 new Speakers Bureau members.

He has been invited back to serve for one year as the Speakers Liaison for the Annual American Diabetes Association Family Retreat in Lake Arrowhead.

He has also been appointed to the Orange County Mission Delivery Committee for the ADA for a two-year term.

Dr. Quang Le published a paper in a very reputed journal in the field, Quality of Life Research. This paper focuses on mapping two types of health preference measures: quality of life (SF-12) which is a profile of the patient’s health state in different domains and utility (EQ-5D), which is a single index measure. Dr. Le compared various mapping approaches using a sample from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and showed that the probabilistic approach was better in predictive performance.

Le QA. Probabilistic mapping of the health status measure SF-12 onto the health utility measure EQ-5D using the US-population-based scoring models. Qual Life Res 2013 [Epub ahead of print]. Full version and supplements are here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11136-013-0517-3 or Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24026631.

From the College of Graduate Nursing:

Dr. Donna M. Emanuele is one of eleven individuals selected to the 2013-14 (20th class) Health Policy Fellowship through Ohio University, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is the first Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and Doctor of Nursing Practice to join an impressive group of physicians and individuals from a competitive pool of applicants. The purpose of the Health Policy Fellowship is to prepare individuals for leadership roles in the osteopathic and health professions, and positions of influence in health policy. Dr. Emanuele’s Health Policy Fellowship commenced this August and will continue throughout the year working with fellow colleagues from across the country to make an impact in the health policy arena and across the health professions. Click here for more information.

From the College of Dental Medicine:

Dr. Jerry Minsky was selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Office of Emergency Management (OEM) National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team Program Development Branch (PDB) to be a presenter at their National Training in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Aug. 28, 2013 for DMORT Fundamental Training on forensic dental pathology.

From University Advancement:

The Office of University Advancement was pleased to host Tony Kang, president and CEO of Votem, Tommy Lee, U.S. liaison for Votem, and Brad Rumph, president of Vetland Medical Sales & Services LLC, for a campus visit and tour last week. Votem, based in Korea and specializing in human and veterinary patient monitoring systems, donated six monitors valued at more than $25,000 to the College of Veterinary Medicine. Vetland Medical Sales & Services specializes in anesthesia systems and the College uses several of their systems on its Veterinary Ambulatory Community Service (VACS) vehicles.

From the Patient Care Center:

As children head back to school after the summer break, the Eye Care Center (ECC) at Western University of Health Sciences reminds parents that good vision is critical to learning.

The ECC is giving away a limited number of backpacks filled with school supplies as an incentive to bring your child in for a comprehensive eye examination. August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month.

Click here for more information.

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