News Capsules 06/22/05

June 22, 2005

AHC NEWS

The McGuire Translational Research Facility opened June 14. In a ceremony that honored William and Nadine McGuire for their foundation’s contribution of $10 million, Gov. Tim Pawlenty praised the importance of the facility in providing innovative space for researchers to conduct health breakthroughs. Located next to the Lions Research Building, the facility is devoted to research that bridges the gap between basic science research and breakthrough therapies and will facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers. To read more about the McGuire building, please go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/trf061405/home.html.

Leaders from the University of Minnesota and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) signed an affiliation agreement on June 16 to develop joint and collaborating stem cell institutes. The agreement will allow for research and academic collaboration between the two institutions, including exchange of faculty and students, joint research projects, and conferences. “For researchers to realize the full promise of stem cells and this science, nothing is more important than the global relationship we are building,” said Frank B. Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences. Earlier this year, University officials announced that Minnesota’s Stem Cell Institute Director Catherine Verfaillie, Medical School, would be returning to her home country to lead the Stem Cell Institute in Leuven, Belgium (SCIL). Verfaillie will remain on the University of Minnesota faculty during the next two years, as she works to build the connections between the two institutions. Later this year, the University of Minnesota will begin a search process to fill the director position in Minnesota. For more information, please go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/leuven061605/home.html.

The AHC announces seed grant awards for 2005. Chosen from 51 applications, 13 AHC faculty have been awarded seed grants, designed to support faculty who want to initiate a substantially new direction in their research or to help develop innovative projects that will allow faculty to expand into new research areas. Awardees are, from the Medical School, Vivek Kapur, Christine Karim, Ameeta Kelekar, Alexander Khoruts, Nobuaki Kikyo, Kamakshi Lakshminarayan, Jizhen Lin, Linda McLoon, Claudia Schmidt-Dannert, Jasvinder Singh, and Kylie Walter; as well as Mark Rutherford, Veterinary Medicine; and Wayne Shier, Pharmacy. For more information, please go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/research/funding/seedgrants/awards.

The College of Veterinary Medicine and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hosted a roundtable discussion on “The Safety of North American Beef and the Economic Effect of BSE on the U.S. Beef Industry,” June 9. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns presented data illustrating the success of USDA’s enhanced BSE surveillance program as part of the discussion on the safety of North American beef and the changing infrastructure of the industry. The St. Paul campus event brought together USDA experts, producers, packers, other industry groups and academia to discuss the science of BSE and the economic impacts on the U.S. beef industry.

Faculty research development grants with an average award of $200,000 are available through the Academic Health Center. It is anticipated that six projects will be funded in the next round. The application deadline is Sept. 16 and grants will be awarded through a competitive peer review process. The program is designed to support new or expanding interdisciplinary and interscholastic research that is innovative and has a high potential for return. Awards will be announced in December 2005 and funding will begin Jan. 1, 2006. Funds can be applied to a one- to three-year project. For more information, please go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/research/funding/devgrants.

An interprofessional team of students from the University of Minnesota made an impressive presentation on the results of a quality improvement process to a national forum in Boston last week. The team, composed of medical residents Jeffrey Nace, Benjamin Phillips, and Emily Borman-Shoap, advanced students from the School of Nursing Lori Anderson and Maggie Scheid, College of Pharmacy students Lori Kaminski and Karen Kottschade, and health-care administration fellow Heather Swenson, studied how to make the process of placing peripherally inserted central catheters safer for child patients and more efficient from the standpoint of University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. “Our student group took a perplexing systems problem and used many methods to analyze the problem, working together so that interdisciplinary perspectives led to the best solution,” said Linda Lindeke, School of Nursing faculty member. “They then presented their proposal to the Fairview leadership group and steps are now being taken to implement systems change in a timely manner.” The University of Minnesota team was one of a dozen nationwide funded by the Achieving Competence Today program, a part of Partnerships for Quality Education, which is a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its partners the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. They worked under co-principal investigators Kathleen Watson, Medical School senior associate dean for education, and Susan Noaker, Patient Safety and Performance Improvement for the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

PEOPLE

Jim Neaton, School of Public Health, was elected president of the Society for Clinical Trials. He will serve as president-elect until May 2006 and then as president until May 2007. The Society for Clinical Trials, established in 1978, grew out of a need for professionals working on clinical trials to exchange information about the design, implementation, and analysis of clinical trials. The society holds an annual meeting and sponsors a journal, Clinical Trials. Neaton served as editor of the journal from 1999 to 2003.

Staff members from the AHC Office of Education recently presented at the following conferences and events:

• Barbara Brandt, Ph.D., 2005 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Institute, May 25, 2005, “Addressing Student Learning Issues in Interprofessional Education,” Lansdowne, Virginia.
• Barbara Brandt, Ph.D., and Jeny Stumpf Kertz, M.P.P., International Legislators Forum, June 2, 2005, “Minnesota’s Health Professions Leaders: Preparing the Next Generation,” Winnipeg.
• Jane Miller, Ph.D., American Association of Colleges of Nursing conference, May 2, 2005, on advancing the nurse faculty role. “What Works: Teaching to Maximize Student Learning and Teacher Satisfaction.” 

Margaret Moss, School of Nursing, will represent the state of Minnesota at the 2005 White House Conference on Aging in Washington, D.C., Dec. 11-14. One of 1,200 delegates from around the country (15 from Minnesota) will vote on resolutions and develop implementation strategies to help President Bush and Congress shape aging policies for current and future generations of aging adults.

Kristine Talley, School of Nursing doctoral student, has been selected for the 2005-2006 AARP Scholars Program. One of 30 graduate students selected from 170 applicants for this program, Talley will receive a $10,000 scholarship and participate in a leadership seminar and recognition event at AARP in Washington, D.C., March 30-31, 2006.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Bio-Medical Library is offering the following classes to hone research and presentation skills: Keeping Current on June 29; Ovid Medline on July 6; and images.MD and PowerPoint: the basics, both on July 14. For more information and to register, please go to http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/lc.html.

Robert Petzel, Medical School, will present “My Health e Vet,” describing the V.A.’s personal health record system, 8 a.m., June 30, at the Learning Commons, 535 Diehl Hall. Through My Health e Vet, veterans can build their own Personal Health Record by entering information on medications, medical visits, medical events, and military health history. At 9 a.m., Jill Jemison, from the University of Vermont College of Medicine, will present information about COMET, an integrated teaching and learning environment that fosters the productivity and growth of world-class medical students, graduates, and faculty. Presentations are open to all.

The Faculty Summer Camp Program for July through September will include the following sessions: evidence-based practice on July 7; teaching and assessing with cases on July 21; maximizing student learning and teacher satisfaction on Aug. 4; knowledge management tools on Aug. 18; and active learning sampler on Sept. 1. Session will be held from 7:30-9:00 a.m., in the Learning Commons, 535 Diehl Hall. To register, please go to http://learningcommons.umn.edu.

Michael J. Offerman will present “E-learning at Capella,” 8:30-9:30 a.m., July 7, at 2-520 Moos. President and C.E.O. of Capella University, Offerman will present the educational vision that drives the technology at Capella. The presentation is open to all.

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CLINICAL RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

For information on other clinical research opportunities, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/campusnews/trials.