Richard Vaughan, M.D., has been named Chair of the Department of Surgery at the WVU School of Medicine. Rick earned
both his undergraduate and medical degrees at WVU and served as chief resident in the Department of Surgery. He has been a faculty member since 1984 and has held many leadership positions, including WVU Hospitals’ chief of staff and chair of UHA’s Board of Directors.

John E. Prescott M.D., Dean of the School of Medicine, is pleased to announce that the Dean’s Excellence/Distinguished Teacher Awards Ceremony will be held
on Tuesday, April 22 at 5pm in the HSC main auditorium. A reception will follow in the Learning Center Lobby. Connectivity to the Charleston and Eastern Divisions will be provided. Please put this event on your calendars and join us in honoring this year’s awardees.

Last month WVU participated in the American Heart Association’s newest campaign called “Go Red for Women” which raises awareness about heart disease in women. For more information on this campaign click here.

If you are a smoker and would like some help quitting, there are one-time, 3-hour sessions available to help you. The sessions are conducted by trained smoking cessation facilitators and are available on March 17, April 21, and May 19 from 10:30am-1:30pm and are free to all HSC, WVUH, and UHA faculty and staff, and students on the HSC campus. To register or learn more about this program click here.

The 23^rd Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center Gala will be held on April 25 and 26 at The Greenbrier located in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The gala is held annually at The Greenbrier and is the Cancer Center’s biggest fundraising event of the year. For more information on the Gala click here.

Quad/Graphics has donated $1 million to create an endowment to help recruit leaders in internal medicine and expand programs at WVU’s Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center Eastern Division. For more information on this donation click here.

Medical Students will be collecting recycling bins on Tuesdays at the HSC. Contact Elliot Palmer at epalmer1@mix.wvu.edu for more information.

Run for Cover 5K, which benefits the Bartlett House, will be held on March 16 at 2:00pm at the Star City Park on The Rail Trail. To register for this race or find out more information click here or send an e-mail to runforcover5kwvu@gmail.com.

The WVU Relay for Life will be held on April 11-12 from 6pm-6am and will be located at the WVU track. The M.D. degree class of 2011 has a team and if you would like to join them or find out more information on Relay for Life click here or e-mail Carl Seynnaeve cseynnae@mix.wvu.edu or Adam Ross aross4@mix.wvu.edu.

On May 10th from 9am-3:30pm the M.D. degree class of 2011 will be working with Habitat for Humanity to build a house. For more information on this event contact Eric High ehigh1@mix.wvu.edu .

COMING

James Thomas, D.P.M., has joined the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Orthopaedics as an Associate Professor. Dr. Thomas specializes in foot and ankle surgery.

GOING

Sanjay Gupta, M.D., and James Longhi, D.O., are leaving the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Surgery.

Thaddeus Herzog, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center were recently awarded $1.1 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to establish a new smoking cessation model. Dr. Herzog will be investigating the various levels of motivation people have to quit smoking and how best to classify that motivation. To read more about this grant click here.

Ray Raylman, Ph.D., Vice Chair of Radiology Research at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, in conjunction with the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
and the University of Maryland has developed a better way to help detect breast cancer. This new technology will help doctors detect breast cancer earlier and perform biopsies faster than before. For more information click here.

Anthony Realini, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, was recently awarded a K23 grant for his research on the variation of eye pressure over time in both normal and glaucomatous eyes. This is a Mentored Career Development Award in Patient Oriented Research grant for five years with a total direct value of $1.2 million.

Jing Jie Yu, M.D., Research Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, is studying how to block particular proteins in the body that can cause resistance to platinum drugs. These drugs are used to treat cancers, such as ovarian, lung, testicular, colorectal and melanoma. Click here for more information on this research.

The WVU Eye Institute recently received a $100,000 grant from the West Virginia Lions Sight Conservation Foundation, the largest donation in the history of the organization. The money will be used to purchase new research equipment that will help the Eye Institute develop vision saving treatments for West Virginians. Click here for more information on this donation.

The 2008 Van Liere Memorial Convocation and Research Day will be held on April 22 and 23. Abstracts will be accepted now through March 17th at 5pm. Click here for more details about the abstracts.If you have any questions please contact Dr. Paul Gordon, Dr. Joan Olson , or Barbara Allen.

The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center is pleased to announce the first Pilot Funding Grants program to foster scientific collaborations and extramural CCSG-eligible grant submissions. The deadline is March 14, 2008. For additional information on this program click here.

Last month the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center hosted the 11th annual meeting of the Translational Research Cancer Center Consortium that brought together cancer experts from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and West Virginia. To read more about this meeting click here.

Julian Bailes, M.D., Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, was featured in CBC-TV’s findings concerning former professional wrestler Chris Beniot who killed his wife and son before taking his own life last year. To read the article click here.

Norman Ferrari, M.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics, has been chosen to speak at the WVU Department of Chemistry’s Bennett Careers for Chemists Program on April 2.

Stefan Maxwell, M.D. Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Charleston Division, director of Neonatal Intensive Care Services at CAMC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, recently released the results of his study on newborns and drugs. For more information on this study click here.

Greg Rosencrance, M.D., Chair, Internal Medicine, Charleston Division was recently named one of three fellows in the AAMC Council of Deans Fellowship program for 2008-2009.

Carl Sullivan, M.D., Professor and Vice Chair, Department
of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry recently wrote an article titled “Nicotine Addiction” that is featured on the Health in 30 website. Click here to read the article.

Several members of the Department of Community Medicine have contributed to an article titled “Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the Not On Tobacco Program for Adolescent Smoking Cessation”. To read this article click here.

Dana Tiberio, M.D., Degree Class of 2011, has been selected to present her abstract at the poster session of the 11th Annual Meeting of the Translational Research Center Consortium.

Jason Turner, M.D., Degree class of 2009 Eastern Division, was recently selected as the 2008 Gibbons Travel Award recipient for District IV of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Jason will be traveling to New Orleans in May for the ACM meeting.

The Medical School class of 2011 had their snowball last month. Click here to see photos from this event.

Last month the Medical School class of 2011 offered free blood pressure screenings to anyone in the Health Sciences Center. Click here to see photos from the event.

If you would like more information or are interested in participating in the next SAFE clinic please contact the Office of Student Services at 293-2408 or send an e-mail to MPHRSAFEClinic@gmail.com.

Last month The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured an article about Martin Gallagher, M.D., and his residency while at the WVU Department of Family Medicine. His involvement in project MUSHROOM was also highlighted. Click here to read the rest of the story.

The Not-On-Tobacco
program was recently featured in a Canadian news article because the program is helping local teens quit smoking. Click here for the rest of the story.

Since the Dance Dance Revolution study has been completed here at WVU, several school systems have added the program to their Physical Education curriculum. Click on the links to read how Colorado and New Jersey schools are adding Dance Dance Revolution to their Physical Education curriculum.

For most medical personnel, life is full of interesting challenges. The education that they received opened career doors that led to rewarding lives.

Assuring that future opportunities are available for those who want to pursue medical careers is something that anyone can help the WVU School of Medicine accomplish. One way to do that is to include a gift provision in a will or revocable trust to support the school or a department.

The legal language needed to make such a gift a part of your estate plan is “to the West Virginia University Foundation for the benefit of the School of Medicine‘s Department of ________ .

You may choose to specify that your gift will be an endowed fund (one that will last forever and yield annual income for the purpose you choose) or a discretionary gift that can be used for the greatest needs.

Many support options are available, and the Development Office (304-293-3980) can assist you to make it work.

That in 1996 the first School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony honoring the second-year medical students’ transition into their clinical portion of medical school was held. The Ceremony was named after retired Associate Dean of Student Affairs Dr. John W. Traubert in 1999 to honor his years of service to the school.

That the Occupational Therapy program started in 1996 and had its first class of 20 graduate in 1999 with a Master’s in Occupational Therapy.

Can you guess who these two faculty members are?

(Click Images to enlarge)

The answers will appear in next
month’s issue.

Last month’s faculty members were
Dr. Khakoo and Dr. Jain.