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WesternU Medical Student Publishes Hepatitis C Research, is Honored With Award

by Rodney Tanaka

November 29, 1999

Read 2 mins

Los Angeles resident Jose Nieto, a fourth-year osteopathic medical student

at Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU), was recently

recognized with the President’s Choice Award for research he presented at

the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver

Diseases.

The award was given to approximately the top 10 percent of the more than

1,300 abstracts selected for presentation at the meeting, which was held

November 5-9 in Dallas. Poster presentations that received the President’s

Choice Award were distinguished with a ribbon and notation in the program.

The selection was made based on the research involved in the presentation.

“”I am extremely happy to have received the award,”” said Nieto. “”Working on

this research project gave me exposure to cutting edge research in the

field that I want to go into, which will help me a lot.””

In his research, Nieto examined a regimen for Hepatitis C chronic patients

in which 16 out of 69 patients were cured. The treatment is typically

given to a patient for one year, but Nieto determined that results can

instead be studied at the three-month mark, and at that time if the

patient is not responding to the therapy then in 97 percent of the cases

it’s not going to be effective.

“”It’s important research because the treatment is very harsh and has a lot

of side effects, and now we can save the patient nine months of treatment

if it isn’t going to work,”” Nieto said.

His research was published in Hepatology, the official journal of the

American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

L. J. DeGuzman, a clinical preceptor at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

(ARMC) in Colton, assisted Nieto with the research.

Nieto is currently doing a rotation in the ER department of the ARMC.

However, his goal is to specialize in gastroenterology with subspecialties

in hepatology and liver transplant.

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