News Capsules 10/12/05
NEWS
“Strategy for a Well-Positioned Future,” the State of the Academic Health Center address, will be delivered by Frank Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences, on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3 p.m., in 2-470 Phillips-Wangensteen Building. Cerra’s address will follow the AHC Faculty Assembly, which begins at 2 p.m. in the same room. A live Web cast will be sent to room 165 SMed on the Duluth campus and to room 458 VMC on the St. Paul campus.
Frank Cerra has recommended John R. Finnegan, Jr., as the next dean of the School of Public Health. Finnegan has served as interim dean for the last year. “John has done an outstanding job as interim dean and I believe that he has the foresight, vision, and skill to lead the School of Public Health into the 21st century,” Cerra said. The Board of Regents is expected to take action on the recommendation at its November meeting.
Medical School researchers have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to create cancer-killing cells in the laboratory, paving the way for future treatments for various types of cancers (or tumors). The research will be published in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of Immunology. “This is the first published research to show the ability to make cells from human embryonic stem cells that are able to treat and fight cancer, especially leukemias and lymphomas,” said Dan Kaufman, lead author of the study, who is an assistant professor of medicine in the Stem Cell Institute and Department of Medicine. For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/stemcells101105.
A study by Medical School researchers demonstrates that concerts damage hearing but wearing ear plugs can help, if people are convinced to wear them. The study was led by Medical School resident David Opperman. For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/earplugs92905. Listen to Opperman on the University of Minnesota Moment radio segment at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/urelate/radio/. Look under Oct. 11, 2005.
The Medical School’s Donald P. Connelly will lead a project to enhance communication among area health care organizations and promote safe, high-quality care for patients as they move between health care providers. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded $1.5 million for the project, which will go to Fairview Health Services, Allina Hospitals and Clinics, HealthPartners, and the University of Minnesota. Connelly is the director of the Division of Health Informatics in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. For more, go to http://www.fairview.org/About_Fairview/Newsroom/c_180962.asp.
A third team of University health professionals were deployed this week to Louisiana, as part of Operation Minnesota LifeLine, to provide health care for hurricane survivors. For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/outreach/epp/relief.
Six of the seven nursing faculty who traveled to assist hurricane victims in Louisiana shared their experiences Monday with about 30 faculty, staff, and students. Kevin Smith recognized “The Moment”--his moment to respond--when he heard the phone call from Ruth Lindquist asking for volunteers. Andra Fjone, Roseanne Eschle, Nancy Grimsrud, Mary Benbenek, and Wendy Looman described the extraordinary support from colleagues, as other nursing faculty volunteered to take on teaching responsibilities during their absence. A DVD is available of nursing volunteers telling their stories. For more information, contact Monica Colberg at mailto:colbe002@umn.edu.
Dean Deborah Powell, Medical School, welcomed the medical profession’s newest members, future physicians in their first year of medical school, during the White Coat ceremony Oct. 1 on the Twin Cities campus. They will encounter, she said, “society’s expectations of service: service to patients, services to our communities, and service to our society as a whole.” Keynote speaker Kristin Stinar, a television reporter, told her story of having ovarian cancer. On the Duluth campus of the Medical School, the White Coat ceremony begins at 2 p.m., Oct. 15, in Weber Music Hall. Powell and Regent Anthony Baraga will join Richard Ziegler, dean of the Duluth campus program, at the celebration of medical professionalism.
Smart. Safe. Secure. Beginning the week of Oct. 24, the University of Minnesota Privacy and Security Office will launch a four-week event to raise awareness on the importance of wearing employee identification badges. Badge “spotters” will be on the lookout for badge-wearing AHC, Boynton, and Duluth Health Services employees on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses. Randomly selected badge wearers will have their names entered into a weekly prize drawing. More information will arrive through campus mail next week and also is available at http://www.privacysecurity.umn.edu.
Meeting Maker will continue to be the primary calendaring system in the Academic Health Center. The University’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has introduced UMCal, a new calendaring system, for many units at the University. The AHC Office of Information Systems is working with OIT to evaluate UMCal as a possible replacement for Meeting Maker. In the meantime, Meeting Maker will continue to be available to the AHC community and supported by AHC-IS. The AHC is the largest user of Meeting Maker at the University and has an agreement for ongoing support and software upgrades from the vendor.
PEOPLE
Carrie Alme, a 2005 Medical School graduate, is one of two residents nationwide to be named to an advisory council of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. An internal medicine resident at Hennepin County Medical Center, Alme was chosen for exemplifying compassion, humanity, dignity, community service, and respect towards patients and their colleagues. The Gold Humanism Honor Society has chapters at 49 medical schools, including schools in Canada and Israel. For more on the society, go to http://www.humanism-in-medicine.org/
Karen Ashe, Medical School, neurology, and her research were featured in “Of Mice and Memory,” a story in the October issue of Minnesota Monthly. The story also mentioned the April 1999 break-in at Lions Research Building by the Animal Liberation Front. Several labs, including Ashe’s, were ransacked.
Al Carlson, a graduate of the Medical School, was recently named Wisconsin’s Family Doctor for 2005. He started on the Duluth campus of the Medical School in 1980.
Joycelyn Dorscher, Medical School, Duluth campus, was awarded the National Role Model Faculty Mentor award from Minority Access, Inc., for exemplary achievements in motivating, counseling, and guiding others. Dorscher leads the Center for American Indian and Minority Health.
Kendra (Moody) Hanson has been named the Densford Undergraduate Scholar. Each year through the program, an undergraduate nursing student is selected to participate in an enriched leadership experience during his or her senior year at the Katherine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership.
Alan Lifson, School of Public Health, epidemiology, was a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization and Ministry of Health in Trinidad and Tobago on establishment of AIDS treatment centers and scaling up of HIV therapy in rural and other underserved areas.
Jane Lindsay Miller, AHC, director of the Interprofessional Education and Resource Center, presented “Live and Virtual Simulation at the University of Minnesota” at the National Conference of the Association for Standardized Patient Educators in Chicago last month.
Joshua W. Pyatskowit, a graduate student in toxicology at the Medical School, Duluth campus, and Joseph R. Prohaska, Medical School, Duluth campus, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, published a manuscript about their research in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience 8: 173-181 (2005). The article was titled “L-threo 3,4-dihydroxyphenylserine treatment during mouse perinatal and rat postnatal development does not alter the impact of dietary copper deficiency.”
Roxanne Struthers, School of Nursing, has received the University of North Dakota College of Nursing Distinguished Alumni award.
Kamil Ugurbil, Medical School, was elected to 225th Class of Fellows in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on Oct. 8. Ugurbil, a professor of radiology, biochemistry, and medicine, is among 196 new Fellows and 17 new Foreign Honorary Members to be inducted. He holds the McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair of Radiology at the University of Minnesota and serves as the director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/ugurbil100605.
Three physicians have been recognized by their peers at University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview for extraordinary work to benefit patients. Henry Balfour, Mark Heller, and William Rosen won the annual Medical Staff Recognition Awards for excellence in clinical research, innovation, and care, respectively. They were honored Oct. 10 at the annual medical staff meeting. Each received a $5,000 prize. For more, go to http://www.fairview-university.fairview.org/News_and_Events/c_181288.asp.
--Balfour, laboratory medicine and pathology, founded the University of Minnesota Clinical Virology Laboratory in 1972 and identified antiviral drugs now used to combat a virus that caused serious problems for transplant patients. He is a principal investigator at the medical center, enrolling and monitoring more than 2,000 HIV-infected participants in trials of drugs to treat HIV/AIDS and its complications.
--Heller, orthopaedic surgery, was honored for his work in the development of an innovative method to perform minimally invasive total hip replacements.
--Rosen, pediatrics, led efforts to develop the highly successful neonatal nurse practitioner/neonatology program through his work with the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview, and staff and community physicians.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Military Medicine and Torture: Learning from Abu Ghraib, a talk by Steve Miles, Medical School, Center for Bioethics, will be held at noon, Oct. 14, Grace University Lutheran Church, on the corner of Harvard and Delaware Streets. This talk launches the Harvard Street Forum, a new partnership bringing together students, faculty, and community members to discuss issues of relevance and controversy. Attendees are encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch to the forum.
The Council on Public Engagement presents “Place-Based Learning Strategies,” a series of public forums exploring the intersection of learning and the place in which it happens. The first in this year-long series of interdisciplinary forums presented by diverse University departments is being offered by the Department of Art: “Educating the Creative Mavericks,” Oct. 13, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, go to http://events.umn.edu/event?occurrence=389391;event=110775.
The 12th annual Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis conference will be held Oct. 14-16 at the Holiday Inn Metrodome and Coffman Memorial Union. The conference will include symposia and poster sessions by and for researchers interested in infectious disease mechanisms of pathogenesis and interaction of bacteria with the host immune system. For more information, see http://www.microbiology.med.umn.edu/microbiology/seminars/mmpc.html
The International Symposium on Trends in Biotechnology will be held Oct. 20 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. For more information, go to http://www.bti.umn.edu/2005symposium.html.
Students, faculty, and staff are welcome to get flu shots from pharmacy and nursing students, Oct. 24, in the CHIP Student Center, 1-425 Moos Tower. The tour hours are currently being determined. For more information please contact Jenny Meslow at meslo001@umn.edu.
A conference titled Innovations in College Health: Clinical Care, Communication, and Public Health will take place Oct. 26-28 at Coffman Memorial Union, Weisman Art Museum, and Boynton Health Service. It’s the annual conference of the North Central College Health Association. Keynote speakers are Edward Creagan and Michael Osterholm. For more information, visit http://www.bhs.umn.edu/NCCHA.
The Minnesota Lions Eye Bank and the Medical School’s Department of Ophthalmology are seeking donations for their silent auction fundraiser on Oct. 29. Examples of current donation items include gift certificates, theater tickets, and artwork. Proceeds benefit all of the Lions sight programs at the University of Minnesota, including the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank, the Lions Children’s Eye Clinic, the Lions Research Program, and the Lions Macular Degeneration Center. Contributions are tax-deductible. Information about your organization will be displayed alongside of your donation. If you are interested in attending the event, or you would like to make a donation, please contact Grecia Glass at 625-6458.
The Bio-Medical Library is conducting trials of two nursing and allied health full-text databases: ProQuest Nursing Journals and EBSCO’s Nursing & Allied Health Collection Comprehensive Edition. The library is seeking input from faculty, staff, and students. For more information and to learn how to access the databases, go to http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/admn/didyouknow/dykindex.html?71.
Would you like to strengthen skills that help you in your University leadership role? The Center for Human Resource Development and the College of Continuing Education are partnering with Personnel Decisions International to deliver the Successful Manager's Leadership Program. This program offers an excellent opportunity to interact with a group of U of M peers and learn best practices. The course is tailored to provide critical leadership training within the context of the University culture and community. The five-day program is slated to be offered in the fall and spring; the first session begins on Nov. 10 and 11, and Dec. 13, 14, and 15. For more information or to register, go to http://www.umn.edu/ohr/chrd or contact Tim Delmont, CHRD, at 612-624-4307, or send an e-mail to mailto:t-delm@umn.edu.
The Center for Spirituality and Healing presents the Inner Life of Healers retreat series, designed to reconnect health care professionals with the inner strengths that allow them to effectively and differently transform their lives and work. The first retreat weekend will be held at the Intelligent Nutrients Retreat Center in Osceola, Wis., Nov. 4 to 6. For more information, go to http://www.csh.umn.edu/csh/programs/inner_life/seasonal.html.
Want to learn more about myU, the online learning and teaching tool? Attend one of the upcoming myU portal training and information sessions:
Portal Content Provider Training
Oct. 27, Diehl Hall 535/545
9:30-10:15 HTML Basics Review
10:30-12:00 Content Provider Training
Portal Orientation
Oct. 13, 10 to 11 a.m., Diehl Hall 535/545
Nov. 4, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Eddy Hall
Portal Staff and Faculty Workshop
Oct 19, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Diehl Hall 535/545
You can register online and find more information at http://uttc.umn.edu/training/resources/portal.
CLINICAL RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
For information on clinical research opportunities, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/campusnews/trials.
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