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This Week@WesternU, Sept. 24-28, 2012

by Rodney Tanaka

September 24, 2012

Read 4 mins

50 years of service

WesternU Board of Trustees Chairman Warren Lawless celebrated several milestones at the 83rd Installation of officers and directors of the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle, held Sept. 19, 2012. He retired from the presidency after a heartwarming year and was recognized as a 50-year member of the Kiwanis Legion of Honor, which includes members with 20 years of active service and recognition for every five subsequent years.

Fall Prevention Awareness

Every 15 seconds, an older adult is seen in an emergency department for a fall-related injury. Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for those ages 65 and over. And the chances of falling and being seriously injured in a fall increase with age. As the population ages and baby boomers enter the at-risk demographic at a rate of 8,000 to 10,000 a day, we must work together to reach the Healthy People 2020 objective of reducing fall-related emergency department visits by 10 percent.

WesternU joined the National Council on Aging in celebrating Falls Prevention Awareness Day on Sept. 22, 2012.

Click here to read the full story.

From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Vicki Wedel of COMP/CDM, who is an anatomist and forensic anthropologist, and two co-authors had their paper “Identification of a 37 year-old cold case homicide using novel and collaborative methods” accepted for publication in the International Association for Identification’s Journal of Forensic Identification. The paper, which will be published in a spring 2013 issue, details our combined efforts to identify a young woman who was stabbed 65 times and dumped nearly naked in the Delta Mendota Canal in 1971. The 1971 investigation went cold and Jane Doe was buried in a pauper’s burial in a Patterson, Calif. cemetery. Dr. Wedel exhumed the young woman’s remains and used a new technique her lab is validating for use by other criminalists to determine age and season at death using just cross sections of tooth root. When the new biological profile Dr. Wedel and her co-authors was circulated, Jane Doe got identified as Mary Alice Willey, a SFSU college student who was linked to activities of the Black Panther Party.

Dr. Brion Benninger, MD, MSc, Professor/Vice Chair, Medical Anatomical Sciences, Lebanon, had an abstract accepted to the Oregon Bioscience Association conference to be held in October 2012. Dr. Benninger mentored an OMS II student, Rebecca Corbett, who will be presenting their Bioscience project on the technological development of future ultrasound probes. Dr. Benninger has recently been working on theoretical research and will be mentoring students for an upcoming conference in 2013.

Do No Harm: Building a Better Class of Health Care System

COMP-Northwest and the Program for Medical Humanities of Oregon State University are excited to present our forum series: “Do No Harm: Building a Better Class of Health Care System.”

COMP-Northwest’s first guest speaker, Dr. Courtney Campbell, led a discussion of medical ethics and end of life care on Sept. 18 at COMP-Northwest. “Do No Harm: Building a Better Class of Health Care System” is a discussion-based series designed to encourage dispassionate discourse of the vital issues facing this nation’s health care system by connecting experts, professionals and students of the medical, legal, business, ethical, pharmaceutical, political, insurance, technology, research and development, and other fields. Click here to read the full story.

From the College of Allied Health Professions:

Department of Physical Therapy Education News

DPT ’13 students Erin Casselle, Katie Francesconi, Andrea Lopez, and Stacey May, under the mentorship of Associate Professor Dayle Armstrong, PT, MS, DPT and Professor Donna Redman-Bentley, PT, PhD, recently had their abstract accepted for a poster presentation at the next Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association. Their research, “Identification of Caregiver Assistance Level in Typically Developing Children as Measured by the PEDI,” will be presented at this annual conference which typically includes more than 10,000 attendees and will be held in San Diego Jan. 21-24, 2013.

From the College of Graduate Nursing:

Kudos on accomplishments

Dr. Patricia Shakhshir, PhD, RN, CNS, participated in the Oncology Nursing Conference “Oncology Nursing: Helping Patient and Caregivers Heal” in Moscow, Russia this month by contributing her module titled “Enhancing Healing Through Music Therapy.” This important conference focused on the non-pharmacologic interventions for cancer pain and reached nurses in the major cities of Moscow, however, a generous grant from Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation enabled nurse from far reaching providences of Ufa in remote Russia to attend the conference as well. The impact of pain management education can now get carried back into the remote provinces of Russia helping cancer patients in pain in the rural areas of the country.

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments

Veterinary professor and parasitologist Dr. Malika Kachani has been selected to join a panel to review the CDC Rabies Program. In this capacity she will be helping to enhance the U.S. National Rabies program with a very small select group of experts from a huge population of experts on rabies. The global and public health significance of this appointment brings credit to the College and the University as this program has national and international ramifications. Dr. Kachani has devoted much of her career to community health, global and “one health” issues worldwide, especially where human and animal interactions are significant contributors.

Veterinary professor and equine internist Dr. Joe Bertone has recently co-authored an article titled, “What’s that leg lump?” in Equus magazine. Equus provides the latest information from the world’s top veterinarians, equine researchers, riders and trainers on understanding and influencing equine behavior, recognizing the warning signs of illness and disease, and solving riding and training problems. The complete citation is: Frank K, Bertone J. “What’s that leg lump?” Equus 421:24-31, Oct. 2012.

Animal Planet star Jackson Galaxy visits WesternU

Cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy, host of the Animal Planet show “My Cat From Hell,” gave veterinary students and community members practical advice about living with and working with cats.

The talk, held at WesternU on Sept. 19, 2012, was organized by the WesternU student chapter of the American Association of Feline Practitioners.
Click here to read the story and to view a slideshow.

From University Advancement:

Grant funding

Small Bone Innovations, Inc. has awarded a grant of $60,000 to the College of Podiatric Medicine and the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific for a post-graduate fellowship position. The fellow appointed to the position will be trained in reconstruction of the diabetic foot.

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