News Capsules 12/13/06

December 13 , 2006

NEWS CAPSULES is a biweekly newsletter for faculty, staff, and students of the Academic Health Center. Please send submissions to Jennifer La Forgia, lafor016@umn.edu.

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Many of us look forward to the end of the year as a time to slow down – a period for reflection. This year, as I speak with faculty and staff and hear the drive to continue moving forward, I’m encouraged that the path we’ve set for ourselves and the University is the right one. The Academic Health Center has a particular mission – to truly prepare the next generation of health professionals who will care for our families and communities, and also learn to discover, and then deliver new treatments and cures. And to do that, we need to draw on the strengths of each other.

Early in the New Year, the AHC’s Faculty Consultative Committee plans to do just that in their first all-faculty forum to discover the value of the professional community. (See item in “Professional Meetings” below.) Personally, I deeply value the professional community of colleagues we share in the health sciences, and hope you’ll join me for what could be a vibrant discussion of how our individual professions are strengthened by our AHC community.

– Frank B. Cerra

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AHC researchers have shown that more than 90 percent of children and young adults who survive five years or longer after diagnosis and treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are alive 20 years later and leading productive lives. These are the main findings of the first comprehensive study to analyze 20 years of follow-up data on survivors who were diagnosed and treated for AML as children and young adults. Daniel Mulrooney, Medical School and Cancer Center, led the research team that reported the study at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Orlando.

The Medical School’s Department of Emergency Medicine has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke , part of the National Institutes of Health, to serve as a hub site for the Neurological Emergency Treatment Trials (NETT) Network.

Faculty Research Development Grants have been awarded to six interdisciplinary AHC faculty teams, chosen from 33 applicants. The awards were selected by a committee of 18 faculty members from the six health professional schools. To view the posting of the grant recipients and their projects go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/research/funding/devgrant2006/grantrecipients/home.html

School of Nursing students swept the National Alaska Native American Indian Nurses Association scholarship awards. All three outstanding recipients of the 2006 NANAINA Merit Scholarship were from the University’s School of Nursing. Congratulations to Annette James, Charletta Lewis and Misty Wilkie-Condiff. NANAINA is an organization designed to serve the professional needs of Alaska Native and American Indian nurses. 

The AHC Center for Spirituality & Healing, in collaboration with Life Science Foundation, has created an interactive Web site that provides tools and resources to help consumers make informed health care choices.  The site, Taking Charge of Your Health, educates consumers on integrating conventional care with therapies that address their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs.  Found at www.csh.umn.edu, Taking Charge of Your Health is written in easy-to-understand language by top University of Minnesota and community experts.  The site covers complementary therapies, navigating the health care system, and creating healthy lifestyles.

AHC faculty and students are invited to join health organizations and businesses from throughout Minnesota to make 2007 the year the Minnesota legislature passes a statewide smoking ban. People from throughout Minnesota will converge on the Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 30, to meet with their legislators and staffers to advocate for a statewide smoking ban. This Smoke Free Day at the Capitol is the kickoff for the campaign. School of Public Health Dean John Finnegan, Ph.D., is leading the AHC’s efforts to register faculty and students to participate. To learn more about Smoke Free Day at the Capitol and to register, visit www.smokefreeminnesota.com. The event is free and registration is encouraged by early January.

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William Toscano, School of Public Health, was named a fellow of the 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Toscano was one of five faculty members chosen for this honor, which means the U of M had more faculty members elected to the AAAS this year than any other public research university except University of California-Berkeley.

Kathy Berlin has joined the AHC Office of Emergency Response (OER) as the new Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator. Berlin is a public health nurse and the former MRC Coordinator in Carver County.

Melissa Geller, Medical SchoolDepartment of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, initiated production of a patient information video that has garnered a gold Aster Award and was chosen as a finalist for the 2006 International Health and Medical Media Awards. The video, Living with Ovarian Cancer, features four women battling ovarian cancer and the advice of health care providers.

Lester Drewes , Medical School-Duluth campus, was named the first president of the newly formed International Brain Barriers Society. Drewes and 75 researchers from Europe, Asia and the Americas formed the society to promote blood-brain barrier research, improve communication between researchers and offer more education to those interested in blood-brain barrier research.

Kumar Belani , Medical School, Department of Anesthesiology, was recently recognized for his global activities in India by the Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangalore, India. Belani has served on the advisory council of the International Medical Education and Research Office of the Medical School.He was also instrumental in helping establish a clinical program in bone marrow transplantation established in Bangalore.

Ashok Saluja, Medical School, was recently elected to the American Pancreatic Association (APA) as secretary-treasurer for the next five years. He has been on the governing board of the association for the last six years, and last year served as president.

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CAMPUS UPDATES —

A memorial service for Regents’ Professor Emeritus Robert J. Gorlin will be held Saturday, Dec. 16, from 3–6 p.m. at the Campus Club. The internationally acclaimed clinician, researcher and scholar died in August at age 83.

PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS —

The AHC Faculty Consultative Committee invites all faculty and professional staff to its first forum, Discovering the Value of Professional Community in the AHC, on Jan. 5, 2007, at McNamara Center, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The forum’s purpose is to facilitate interprofessional collaboration in the AHC and to design a plan to move us toward the University's goal of being a top-three public research university. Bill Tierney, director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California, will give the keynote address, “Creating an Academic Culture of Excellence.” There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Please watch your email for an invitation and for registration information. A continental breakfast and buffet lunch will be served.

LECTURES —

The Clinical Research Conference will be Dec. 18 in 1-450G Moos Tower from 8-9 a.m. Kamakshi Lakshminarayan, assistant professor of neurology in the Medical School, will speak on "Algorithms for Identification of Acute Stroke Cases in Medicare Data."

OPPORTUNITIES —

The Bio-Medical Library will offer a class on WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders), a system designed to assist first responders in hazardous-material incidents. It will be Dec. 14, 9–10 a.m. in Diehl Hall (AHC Learning Commons). For more information on this and other classes, go to http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/

The AHC Multicultural Society, part of the Center for Health Interprofessional Programs (CHIP), will host HARAMBE (Swahili for “Let’s all get together”) Jan. 12 in the Coffman Memorial Union. The gathering will include art, music, dance and spoken-word presentations.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announces a national competition for the appointment of 15 outstanding physician-scientists as new HHMI investigators. Physician-scientists who hold a tenured or tenure-track faculty position are eligible. The deadline for this HHMI investigator competition in patient-oriented research is Jan. 18. For details go to http://www.hhmi.org/investigator_por

The Institute on the Environment is accepting nominations for 12 founding fellows to help conceptualize and create the new Institute. The fellows, working with Interim Director Deborah Swackhamer, School of Public Health and CFANS, will help determine the initial research themes of the Institute and the role of an external advisory board. The application deadline is Dec. 20. For more information, go to http://www.academic.umn.edu/provost/interdisc/environment/index.html

AHC News Capsules is a biweekly newsletter for faculty, staff, and students of the Academic Health Center.  Please send submissions to Jennifer La Forgia at lafor016@umn.edu.