WVU selects Mike Garrison as the new President.
Click here for more details.

Senator Jay Rockefeller took a tour of the progress on the Blanchette Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.
Click here for more details.

Dr. D'Alessandri will be recognized
during WVU commencement events for his contributions to WVU SoM and the University.
Click here for more details.

At the end of last month Dean John Prescott M.D. gave out the Dean’s Excellence Awards. To find out who received these awards click here.
To see past recipients click here.
To see pictures from the event click here.

There is a new grievance procedure for faculty. Please take the time to read it.

The HSC Library will be open on Friday’s and Saturday’s until 11pm and Sundays open at 10am. These new hours will be in effect until the end of the academic semester.

Congratulations to UHA! During the month of March 2007, the Clinical Departments collected $14,641 at the time of service for past monies due to UHA. $14,641 is the highest amount collected since we began capturing this data in June 2006. This amount was $8000 greater than the past month’s collections.

May 29-June 1 is GME appreciation week. The week has four days of activities (see the happening this month for what is going on each day), the resident’s research posters will be on display the entire week in the Pylons Lobby, and there will be free give aways and daily raffles. Contact Robin Altobello raltobello@hsc.wvu.edu for more information.

CAMC Institute and CAMC Wellness have again combined efforts to provide CAMC Tobacco Cessation Programs for 2007 at no charge to employees, employee spouses and the community. Nicotine replacement therapy medications will be available for a $7 service fee from Medical Center Pharmacy located in the MSOB on Memorial Hospital campus. Interested participants can call 304-345-9051 to register for the programs.

Construction update:

PRT will be closed from May 6-20 for maintenance. http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/5669/

Morgantown Campus:

Relay for Life of Mon County, June 15, 2007 at 6pm at the WVU Track Field To get a free T-shirt, sign up by April 27. For more information on this event click here.

MS2’s are collecting the recycling bins in the HSC on Tuesdays contact Elliot Palmer epalmer1@mix.wvu.edu for more information.

The Morgantown Thrift Store for Hospice Care Corporation is open Monday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturdays from 10am-2pm. They need volunteers to help them with simple tasks, if you are interested please contact Tracey Mascola at 599-4200 or at tmascola@hospicecarecorp.org for more information.

The Salvation Army has several on going projects and they need your help. Their Feeding Program operates every weekday from 4pm-5:30pm. The volunteers are needed to be there from 3pm-6pm. Their Thrift Store is open Monday through Saturday from 11am-5pm and volunteers are also need from those hours. If you are interested in either of those projects please contact Sarah Hansen at 296-3525 for more information.

Charleston Campus:

RACE FOR THE CURE: Susan G. Komen Walk/Race for Breast Cancer Research, Saturday, May 5th, 9am at the State Capital Complex. Register at www.komenwv.org

There is a summer opportunity for MSI students to do research in a field of specialty. Each student will be paired with a faculty member in the School of Medicine and do research for 6-8 week. Students may talk to faculty members and see if they are interested in working on this research project over the summer. Students get a stipend for their work on the research.

Contact Fred Minnear at fminnear@hsc.wvu.edu or Barbara Allen at ballen@hsc.wvu.edu for more details.

In 1962 the WVU School of Medicine awarded their first four-year Doctor of Medicine degrees to 15 different graduates and only one of them was a women. That is only 7% of the graduates being women and today 2007 class is 42 % (45 out of 106) women.

That in 1967 there was a fire in the University Hospital (now the Health Science Center) and it caused 325 patients to be moved into the cafeteria or the basic sciences building.

It was not until 1952 that the WVU School of Medicine Alumni Association was born.

WVU Cardiologists Diagnose and Treat ‘Hidden’ Heart Problems

Lan Guo of the Cancer Center is getting national news monitor attention for her population study concerning gene patterns and breast cancer recurrence.

A team of residents from the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at the Charleston Division, finished 11th out of 90 programs (90th percentile) in the recent Mind Games competition sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association. Congratulations!

Robert Ferguson, a senior in Exercise Physiology has been selected by the WVU Student Health Advisory Board as one of two students to represent WVU at the annual meeting of the American College Health Association in San Antonio, Texas at the end of May.

Health-related services continue to be a determinant of quality of life around the world. That fact makes the educational process ever more important.

Private support for the School of Medicine is also ever more important. Many understand this and feel that a valuable way to accomplish their own charitable goal is to include a gift provision in their will or revocable trust. It’s easy to do – providing the wording of “to the West Virginia University Foundation for the benefit of the School of Medicine [ ‘s Department of __________ ]” to your attorney is the way to make it work.

Advancing the mission of the School of Medicine is truly important. Many support options are available, and the Development Office (304-293-7086) can assist you to make it work.

Linda Shaffer is the first Morgantown Residency Coordinator to get nationally certified by TAGME. Jeir Whitten from Charleston is the national President of the TAGME.

For more information on this process go to their website: http://www.tagme.org/

Lori Brownlee, Scott Cottrell and Norman Ferrari presented at the national AAMC Group on Resident Affairs meeting in Memphis, TN in April 2007. The topic was "Educating the Educator: Developing the Skill of Program Directors and Coordinators for GME". It was the most heavily subscribed workshop at the conference.

Dr. Vince Miele, Chief Resident in Neurosurgery,
is featured in an article on Boxing Deaths in ScienCentral News
Magazine.
To read the article click here.

Dr. Roberto Kusminsky, Professor in the Department of Surgery (Charleston Division) was honored at this year’s Research Day with the prestigious Maier Award. For more information click here.

Dr. Takanori Fukushima,
a professor in the Neurosurgery Department was honored by the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust.
Click here to read more.

Dr. Rebecca Schmidt of the School of Medicine is being recognized for work to
combat kidney disease in the Mountain State and for her work with the Special Olympics. Click here to read more.

Dr. Stanley Zaslau, associate professor of urology, School of Medicine is one of the five Foundation honors for outstanding teaching. Click here for more information.

The second SAFE clinic was held last month and well. There were three students who participated and they saw three patients. The students who participated gained valuable experience in dealing with patient care on more of a one on one experience than rotations in the hospital. There three students signed up for the next clinic on May 9th at 5pm at Health Right.

If you are interested in participating in the next SAFE clinic please contact Matt Thomas at mthomas7@mix.wvu.edu or at 292-8231 ext. 126.

The first annual Run for Cover 5K sponsored by the WVU SoM raised over $4,000 to benefit the Bartlett House. The MS2’s had the highest participation with 53 class members talking part in this event. At this even there were 155 runners/walkers that participated in the event including 16 university and community organizations as well as over 15 local businesses that contributed via sponsorships and donations. The races winners were Grant Morris and Ellen Ross. Click here to see the photo gallery.

The officers of AMA and AMWA (Kristen Biggers, Rachel Gordon, Carolyn Wilhelm, Christina Julian, Sarah Hardy, Gretchen Weber, Sarah Kuhn, Mike Ruffolo, Stephanie Tyo, and Lauren Bigley) would like to thank everyone who participated and hope to make the race and even larger success next year!

 Jessica Possehn, MS3 has been accepted for a special 6 week educational experience in epidemiology at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the Zoonotic Disease Branch.

Some of the MS4’s did rotations outside of the United States. For more information on that program please contact: Dr. Fisher at mfisher@hsc.wvu.edu