West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center Development

Giving News

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Pamper Party benefits
Betty Puskar Breast Care Center

05/29/2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University teamed up with Morgantown Beauty College on Walnut Street to host a Pamper Spa Party at the school June 10 benefiting the Betty Puskar Breast Care Center.

The day of spa treatments included manicures, pedicures, haircuts, hairstyles, scalp treatments and massages. The cost varies per treatment.

All proceeds from the pamper party will be donated to the Breast Care Center.

The Betty Puskar Breast Care Center at WVU provides a comprehensive program for breast care, offering expertise, educational tools and technology aimed at the prevention and early detection of breast cancer. The Center was created through the generosity of Betty Puskar, a Morgantown philanthropist, who traveled out of state for breast cancer treatment. She wanted to establish a center where West Virginia women could receive the highest quality of care close to home.

written by HSC News Service

Cancer support group at WVU forms relay team

The Survivor's Club

05/29/2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A support group offered by the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University is branching out into community projects aimed at fighting cancer.

The Survivor’s Club, composed of cancer patients and friends or family members who care for them, organized a team to participate in the 2009 Monongalia County American Cancer Society Relay for Life June 5 and 6 at Mylan Park in Morgantown.

Calling themselves Susan’s Army, in memory of an active member who passed away last year, the group conducted a quilt raffle as a fundraiser for the Relay.

Survivor’s Club members Brenda and Benny Bunner of Fairmont and Diane Craft of Bruceton Mills organized the team. Janet Bunner, Benny’s cousin, donated a quilt she made in memory of her nephew who died of brain cancer at a young age. The quilt is called the Rainbow of Hope and features 16 colors that correspond to the colors assigned to various cancers. “It’s a unique queen-size quilt designed to create hope that one day people won’t have to deal with the disease anymore,” Benny Bunner said.

The Survivor’s Club, now in its fourth year, is a monthly support group for adults diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers. Members meet for dinner, then break into two groups – survivors and caregivers. Meetings often feature a guest speaker and free neck and shoulder massages by a WVU Hospitals massage therapist.

written by HSC News Service

Creator of breakthrough treatment for vocal cord cancer to deliver DeLynn Lecture

(Left to Right): Steven M. Zeitels, M.D. and Laurence DeLynn

05/21/2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Steven M. Zeitels, M.D., the nationally and internationally renowned surgeon whose groundbreaking approach to treating vocal cord cancer has saved some of the most famous voices in the world, is coming to West Virginia University.

Dr. Zeitels delivered the 2009 Laurence and Jean DeLynn Lecture at 1 p.m., June 5, in the Fukushima Auditorium of the Health Sciences Center.

Zeitels developed a minimally invasive approach to treating patients with vocal cord cancer. He uses a special laser called an angiolytic laser that targets the tumor’s blood supply, kills the cancer cells and leaves normal tissue intact, without cutting away tissue. Traditional treatment involves surgery or radiation, which permanently damages the voice.

Zeitels is speaking on “The Influence of Laryngology and Voice Management in Medicine, Surgery & Oncology.”

Zeitels, known as voice doctor to the stars, has used the novel treatment on Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, Cher and Julie Andrews to preserve the health of their vocal cords. All 23 patients in his five-year pilot study of early vocal cord cancer treated with the angiolytic laser are cancer-free without damage to their voices.

Zeitels is director of the Center for Laryngeal Sugery and Voice Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital and Eugene B. Casey Professor of Larnygeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

“We are extremely honored to welcome Dr. Zeitels to our campus,” said Scot C. Remick, M.D., director of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU. “It is a tremendous opportunity to have the creator of cutting-edge cancer treatments share his unique insights with our scientific and clinical community.”

Zeitels’ surgical innovations include more than 20 new laryngeal and pharyngeal procedures. He has received three laryngoscope patents. A graduate of Boston University School of Medicine in 1982, he received the distinguished alumnus award from the BU School of Medicine in 2007.

For more than two decades WVU has welcomed prominent and prestigious speakers such as Zeitels to lecture on campus thanks to the generosity of the DeLynn family. The list also includes ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson, former White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan and Michael Phelps, the inventor of PET scanning technology.

Jean and Laurence DeLynn established the DeLynn Lecture Series in 1992 with an endowed gift to the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. The series provides educational and informational presentations in the area of cancer research, treatment, education, and prevention.

written by HSC News Service

WVU wins Penny Wars

Campaign raises $12,000 to help cancer patients

05/14/09

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University has beaten the University of Cincinnati hands down in the Penny Wars, a friendly competition to see which school would collect more loose change for its cancer center. WVU raised more than $12,000 during the campaign compared with its rival’s $1,000.

“We owe the success of this campaign to the extraordinary generosity of our many friends and partners in the community,” said Jame Abraham, M.D., chief of hematology/oncology at WVU and medical director of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. “In spite of tough economic times they were determined to help cancer patients, and I cannot thank them enough for their overwhelming support.”

WVU’s collection will go to the Comfort Fund at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. The fund provides patients being treated at the Cancer Center with temporary, short-term financial assistance until they can be linked with appropriate community, state or national resources. Each dollar received goes directly to helping meet cancer patients’ needs.

The $1,000 raised at UC will be used for patient care at the UC Barrett Cancer Institute at University Hospital in Cincinnati. “Our total was a little disappointing, but we had a lot of fun and learned an effective method for raising money,” said Jenny Dilbert, coordinator for the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium. “We raised the bulk of our donations in one day when our Bearcat mascot greeted passersby in front of the downtown Huntington Bank.”

The fundraising campaign ran for 30 days during February and March. Coin collection bins were placed around the two schools and at area businesses including the Boston Beanery’s two Morgantown restaurants, Bead Monster, Cool Ridge Collections, the Book Exchange and the Barnes & Noble WVU Bookstore. The Beanery restaurants also sponsored a “Belly Up For Comfort” event that raised more than $3,000 in one night.

Student groups at WVU and local public school students – including those at South Middle School, Suncrest Primary, and Cheat Lake, Mountainview, and Easton Elementary Schools – supported Penny Wars through their own fundraising efforts. Additional support came from Huntington Bank and Sugar Grove Church.

West Virginia University beat the University of Pittsburgh last year, the first year of the Penny Wars. The campaign has raised about $30,000 to benefit cancer patients at WVU over the past two years.

written by HSC News Service

Nursing seniors help Morgantown’s homeless as they earn their degrees

They propose homeless outreach be part of School of Nursing curriculum

05/14/09

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — To earn their degrees, West Virginia University School of Nursing students Macy Miller and Bill Grieb shared their skills with a population that not every nursing student sees. They spent nearly 20 hours each on the streets of Morgantown working with homeless people.

“Before my experience with the homeless, regretfully, I stereotyped this population as unmotivated with poor hygiene, but you have to realize they’re just normal people who are struggling,” Miller said.

As part of their capstone project, Miller and Grieb took clothes and food to the homeless and also conducted health screenings including checks of blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

But the pair took the process a step further. They also recommended to their teachers that outreach to the homeless be made a part of the baccalaureate curriculum. They introduced the idea to the WVU School of Nursing undergraduate faculty in April.

Their project was titled “The Value of Including Homeless Outreach Service Learning in Nursing School Curricula.”

“Our goal is to have the School of Nursing establish a screening clinic at Bartlett House (the homeless shelter in Morgantown),” Grieb said. “The homeless rarely have contact with the healthcare system. The idea is to initiate that contact and to maintain that continuity.”

At least one of their instructors thought it was a good idea.

“I think it is important for students to be required to spend time working with homeless outreach as a part of the curriculum because I believe that those firsthand experiences expose students to realities that they might not otherwise encounter,” Susan Pinto, M.S.N., clinical instructor in the School of Nursing, said.

“Poverty and poor health outcomes are closely linked,” she said. “Homelessness is absolute poverty, and nurses are likely to work with individuals who are facing the challenges of poverty and homelessness.”

Miller and Grieb didn’t go out on the streets alone. They joined with MUSHROOM (Multidisciplinary Unsheltered Homeless Relief Outreach of Morgantown) volunteers.

The MUSHROOM Project was established in 2005 and is administered by medical students. The project brings together volunteers from medical, nursing, social services, journalism, occupational therapy, community medicine, pharmacy, political science and ministerial fields.

Every other Thursday, MUSHROOM Project volunteers visit areas in Morgantown such as riverbanks, downtown streets and the Bartlett House. Volunteers provide food, hygiene products, clothing and healthcare. The project serves an average of 28 clients during the biweekly rounds.

Grieb also volunteered with Milan Puskar Health Right in January as part of his community health rotation. Although his rotation was complete in March, he continues to volunteer his time and works four hours a week at the Homeless Care Clinic.

Miller initiated a clothing drive in her hometown, Romney, W.Va., and donated almost 30 bags of clothes to the MUSHROOM Project in Morgantown. Her parents also donated a $500 check to the project for food and supplies.

“The way the economy is, more and more people are being put in this situation, and we need to stop stereotyping and actually go out and help them because one day it could possibly be you,” Miller said.

Miller and Grieb are expecting to graduate at the end of the summer.

Grieb, of Morgantown, hopes to work in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at WVU Hospitals. He would eventually like to become a nurse practitioner specializing in acute or family practice.

Miller plans to attend graduate school at WVU to become a pediatric nurse practitioner. She is also interested in doing missionary work in other countries.

For information about the MUSHROOM Project or to make a donation see www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/mushroom.asp.

written by HSC News Service

WVU Children’s Hospital to benefit from
Books-A-Million book drive

Event to be held Friday and Saturday

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Book enthusiasts had the opportunity to help the patients at West Virginia University Children’s Hospital while they shop at the Books-A-Million store at the Glenmark Centre in Morgantown.

Friday and Saturday (May 8 and 9), Books-A-Million held a book drive for WVU Children’s Hospital. Customers bought children’s books at a 20-percent discount. The books were delivered to the hospital Monday (May 11).

The donated books are for a book cart so patients will be able to choose a book to take home with them.

Each year, WVU Children’s Hospital provides care to more than 7,000 newborns, children and women, who come from every county in West Virginia and also from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio. On average, 1,600 babies are born annually at WVU Children’s Hospital. Almost three-quarters of the deliveries are high-risk. WVU Children’s Hospital physicians provide care for children at the hospital in Morgantown and at clinics throughout the state.

written by HSC News Service

WVU School of Medicine receives
$100,000 Gates Foundation grant

Heimo Riedel’s global health research judged ‘innovative’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University School of Medicine has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Heimo Riedel, Ph.D., titled “Molecular scissors to specifically disrupt a pathogen genome.”

Riedel is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at WVU. His work is aimed at creating new tools for physicians to fight infectious diseases.

Riedel’s project is one of 81 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the second funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 17 countries on six continents.

To receive funding, Riedel showed how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving more than 3,000 proposals in this round.

Currently, major weapons to fight infectious diseases are limited to vaccines and antibiotics, Riedel explained. He said his project will apply newly described zinc finger nucleases as molecular scissors to directly disrupt the genome of human papillomavirus, the cause of many cervical cancers. Once validated, this approach could also be applied to fight other infectious diseases including malaria, pneumonia and tuberculosis.

“Basically, the research could lead to a new way of fighting infectious diseases and certain types of cancer,” Riedel said. “As we can see by the headlines in any newspaper, health concerns are at the center of attention. This work can help address some of those concerns.”

“The winners of these grants are doing truly exciting and innovative work,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “I’m optimistic that some of these exploratory projects will lead to life-saving breakthroughs for people in the world’s poorest countries.”

written by HSC News Service

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