Monthly Memo - Nov. 12, 2007

Top Prof - Lucy Carter, left, is congratulated by her nominator, Abbey Garber, a senior accounting major from Big Horn, Wyoming.

Ji Li

Monthly Memo from the Desk of Dean Robert O. Kelley

76th Edition

November 12, 2007

A Message from Dean Kelley
The School of Pharmacy (SOP) and the College of Health Sciences (CHS) have answered the needs of Wyoming's aging population and practicing health professionals. The US Department of Health and Human Services Administration has awarded a grant to establish and operate the Wyoming Geriatric Education Center (WyGEC) within the SOP. The project is scheduled for September 2007 through September 2010 and to receive $216,000 per year. Deborah Fleming, clinical professor, is the program's director/principal investigator and will coordinate the efforts of members from across the college—the SOP; the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing; the divisions of kinesiology and health, communication disorders, and social work; the Center for Rural Health Research and Education; and the Family Medicine Residency Programs in Casper and Cheyenne.

The purpose of the WyGEC is to establish a solid foundation for quality geriatric education programs by training faculty, students, and community providers in the health profession to meet the needs of Wyoming elders. Through interdisciplinary training, the WyGEC will use multiple methods to 1) strengthen UW curricula in geriatrics; 2) "package" geriatric information for dissemination across the state; 3) intensify interdisciplinary faculty training in core geriatric topics; 4) support continuing education of health professionals with an internet-based resource center, distance education, on-line certification in geriatrics, and training about dementia; and 5) provide clinical training sites with rural interdisciplinary practice approaches by using UW residency clinics and state partners.

The college is also grateful to the John P. Ellbogen Foundation for generously endowing the creation of the John P. Ellbogen Foundation Excellence Fund for Geriatric Education. The $260,000 bequest (to be doubled to $520,000 through state matching funds) will finance 1) the creation of an idea exchange at UW to address the state's challenges and opportunities regarding its aging population; 2) the development of a cadre of older volunteers (retired health professional); 3) the creation of a certificate program for nursing staff; 4) the infusion of geriatrics/gerontology themes into UW courses; and 5) strengthen faculty expertise in and awareness of geriatrics/gerontology. By furthering the training of health professionals who will care for Wyoming's growing aging population, the fund will directly improve the care of Wyoming's older citizens.

News from the Divisions
Communication Disorders
Kimberly Wilkerson, a second-year master's student from Laramie, was awarded an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) student research travel award to attend the association's convention in Boston, where she will present her thesis research. At the convention, she and Sarah Rose Beddes, another second-year master's student from Laramie, along with their thesis chair Teresa Ukrainetz, Professor, will present a poster—"An Investigation of Three Approaches to Phonemic Awareness Instruction." Kimberly and Sarah Rose are busy graduate students, but they also made time to lead a well-attended roundtable discussion at the 2007 Wyoming Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention held last month in Casper.

"Top Profs"
Congratulations are in order for Lucy Carter, Assistant Lecturer of American Sign Language; Ann Marie Hart, Assistant Professor of Nursing; Sherrie Rubio-Wallace, Assistant Lecturer of Nursing; Marci Smith, Academic Professional Lecturer of Kinesiology and Health; and David Jones, Professor of Communication Disorders, who were among Mortar Board's "Top Profs." These instructors are chosen by their students for going beyond conventional classroom expectations and having positive impacts on their lives at UW.

Pharmacy
The School of Pharmacy has received a donation of one biological safety cabinet and one laminar air flow hood estimated at $12,000 from Corem Health Care of Wyoming in Cheyenne. According to Glaucia Teixeira, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics and instructor of the sterile products course and laboratory, the equipment will basically double the laboratory facilities for use by students. The course teaches Pharm.D students the basic principles related to the preparation, dispensing, and administration of parenteral (injected and intravenous) medications in extended-care and hospital pharmacy practice. The laboratory component is a hands-on training in techniques used to prepare intravenous admixtures, total parenteral nutrition, chemotherapy, and biologics. Jeffrey Bernard, Clinical Experiential Coordinator, was instrumental in securing the donation as a result of his interaction with Corem personnel over the years.

Linda Gore Martin, Associate Professor of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, and Tonja M. Woods, Clinical Assistant Professor, received a grant from the State of Wyoming Aging Division to fund "Narrowing the Digital Divide: Increasing Medication, Health, and Media Literacy in Wyoming Seniors."

The School of Pharmacy welcomes Ji Li, Clinical Assistant Professor of Biomedical Physiology and Pharmacology, who received his doctoral degree from Lanzhou University in China's Gansu Province. After completing his postdoctoral training in molecular medicine, Ji was recruited as a faculty member of the Cardiovascular Medicine Section at Yale University School of Medicine where his research focused on the study of cellular and molecular mechanisms of metabolic adaptation to myocardial ischemia. He is currently setting up a research program to focus on cardiac stress signaling pathways and the biology of aging with the goal of understanding the mechanisms underlying altered adaptive response to environmental stress with aging and the basis for increased susceptibility of the elderly to stress insults. Ji's work could lead to therapeutic strategies aimed at limiting cardiac damage by environmental stressors in elderly populations.

To celebrate its three years of research excellence, the Center for Cardiovascular Research and Alternative Medicine held a mini-symposium on cardiovascular medicine on November 1st and 2nd, which featured speakers from UW, other US schools, and China.

Jun Ren, Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, will be an invited speaker at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes held in September in Amsterdam. To hear Jun's presentation—"The Role of Oxidative Stress in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy"—please visit http://www.easd-lectures.org/index.php?menu=view&id=219.

WWAMI
Wyoming WWAMI students enjoyed interacting with practicing physicians at the annual meeting of the Wyoming Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) held in Laramie October 4th-6th. The ACP leaders invited the WWAMI students to join ACP physicians for the Friday afternoon sessions and made certain to include topics having broad appeal for all levels of learners, topics such as "Algorithms and Their Problems," "Patient-physician Interactions," "EMR and Diabetes Teaching," "Efficiency in Office Practice and Teaching," and "Practicing with Malpractice in Mind." The WWAMI students also socialized with the practicing physicians at the awards dinner on Friday evening at the American Heritage Center.

Physicians in Lander, Wyoming, have applied to become a WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience) site. Jacqueline Nelson, M.D., a pediatrician at the Indian Health Service (IHS), has led the application effort and assembled a team of physicians from IHS and the Lander medical community. On October 23rd and 24th, WWAMI administrators made a site visit to Lander, and the HIS personnel were impressed with the potential of the site to offer third-year WWAMI students longitudinal clinical training experience set in the context of Native American cultures. Tonya Blakemore, M.D. (pediatrics), and Gentian Scheer, M.D. (internal medicine) former WWAMI students are among the Lander physicians who will serve as clinical educators for the site.

Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
On October 24th, Carol Macnee, Professor, had the opportunity to attend the Council for Advancement of Nursing Science meeting in Washington, DC, where a new approach to clinical science—"Problem-based Evidence" (PBE)—was discussed. PBE is considered the "flip side" of the evidence-based practice that traditionally views random clinical trials as the gold standard for evidence. Instead, PBE looks for variability rather than control, is concerned with effectiveness rather than efficacy, and emphasizes the measurement of process as well as outcomes. The approach was presented by interprofessional presenters from medicine, rehabilitation, and nursing.

Margaret Cashen, Assistant Lecturer, will present the last of this fall's Nightingale Center for Nursing Scholarship Luncheon Series on November 28th. Margaret will speak about "Evaluating e-Health Resources for Use with Low Literacy Patients." Participants are invited to bring their own lunches and listen to Margaret's talk beginning at 11:30 in Health Sciences 449.

Fall Commencement
Please plan now to attend fall commencement on December 8th at 10 a.m. in the Fine Arts Concert Hall. A reception to honor the graduates and their families and friends will be held in the Fine Arts Lobby immediately following the ceremony. Students should come to the Dean's Office (Health Sciences Center #235) to make arrangements for their caps and gowns.

Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007