James E. Brick, M.D., has been appointed interim dean of the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Dr. Brick earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from WVU. He did specialty training at WVU and the University of Missouri. He has been a faculty member at WVU since 1984. Click here for more information on Dr. Brick’s appointment.

The WVU School of Medicine has earned the American Academy of Family Physicians “Top Ten Award”. This award recognizes LCME accredited medical schools that are recognized for their high performance in graduating students into first-year positions in family medicine residency programs over a three year average period.

WVU now has a new Open MRI unit which is ideal for pediatric patients as well as those who are claustrophobic or larger-bodied. The Open MRI is located on the first floor of the Physician Office Center on the WVU Health Sciences campus. Click here for more information on the new Open MRI.

WVU’s Urgent Care hit a milestone last month. After opening its doors in September, the office has seen over 10,000 patients.

If you are a smoker and would like to quit, there are one-time, 3-hour sessions available to help you. The sessions are conducted by trained smoking cessation facilitators. The next one is available on May 19 from 10:30am-1:30pm, 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.

Last month the WVU Children’s Hospital’s Kids Fair was held. The Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center encouraged kids to ride bikes with their helmets, the Clark Sleeth Family Medicine Center tested children for color blindness, the Community Medicine Student Association showed them different ways to recycle, and the Division of Occupational Therapy showed children and their parents different screening tools and therapy. For more information on the Kids Fair click here.

The Center for Respiratory Biology and Lung Disease is now offering CME credits. If you would like more information, contact Brenda Moran at bmoran@hsc.wvu.edu or go to their website.

The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, in collaboration with the National Family Caregivers Association, has offered a free workshop for individuals and health care professionals who are cancer survivors. To learn more about this program click here.

The Department of Pediatrics and the School of Physical Education are teaming up to create a camp called NEW You. This camp focuses on increased physical activity and good nutrition for 11-14 year olds. The camp takes place in Morgantown, WV from July 13-26. For more information on this camp click here.

The WVU School of Medicine’s ALS Clinic is now an ALS Association Certified Center. This is the only clinic in the State, and is one of two in our region. Laurie Gutmann, M.D., Professor, Department of Neurology is the Director of the ALS Clinic.

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

On May 10th, from 9am-3:30pm, the M.D. degree class of 2011 will be working with Habitat for Humanity in the construction of a house for the less fortunate. For more information on participating, contact Eric High.

MUSHROOM is looking for volunteers to help with street rounds every other Tuesday evening beginning at 6:45 pm. The next street rounds will take place on May 13th. To sign up, click here.  If for any reason you cannot attend after signing up, please contact Holly Turner at turnerho@wvuh.com.

June 15-June 21 are the dates for a muscular dystrophy camp. If you would like more information, you can contact Nurse Jeannie Brick at 304-216-5190 or pick up an application in the School of Medicine Student Services office or call 304-293-2408.

GOING

Kyril Choumarov, M.D., Tarun Kumar, M.D., and Jamshed Zuberi, M.D. are leaving the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Surgery.

Todd Gudausky, M.D. and Angela Stefan, M.D. are leaving the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

Staci Stewart, M.D. is leaving the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Stephany Swart, M.D. is leaving the Morgantown Division of the School of Medicine in the Department of Radiology.

Tony Realini, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, has been awarded a $1.29 million research training grant from the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health. This is a five year training grant that will allow Dr. Realini to obtain a masters in public health and continue his research study at the WVU Eye Institute designed to determine the best way to measure the effectiveness of glaucoma medications in lowering eye pressure. For more information on this training grant click here.

The Department of Otolaryngology is one of three institutions from the 105 residency programs that will be participating in the Academic Bowl on September 21, 2008. Tanya Fancy, M.D., Sohrab Shahab, M.D., and Jamey Cost, M.D. will be representing WVU.

Salwan Almashat, M.D. Degree class of 2009, Eastern Division, is a recent recipient of a student grant to attend the AGS Conference in Washington, DC.

Mike Petrosky, M.D. Degree class of 2009, presented a poster at the National Society for General Internal Medicine meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, in April. It is a clinical vignette titled 'My wife has pet goats’ and was co-authored by Joshua Dower, M.D., Chief Medicine-Pediatrics Resident, Josephine Reece, M.D. Degree class of 2008, and Laura Davisson, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine.

Jillian Rogers, M.D. Degree class of 2011, has been awarded a 2008 AOA Carolyn L. Kuchein Research Fellowship. Her research is on Developing a Gene Expression-Based Prognostic Model of Breast Cancer Recurrence. She will present the results at the national AOA meeting once her research is complete.

The Charleston Division celebrated research day last month. To find out the names of the winners and their fields of research click on the link.

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.

Douglas Shaffer, M.D., Class of 1993, was recently named a ‘Hometown Hero’ by the Cumberland Times-News. For more information on Dr. Shaffer’s ‘Hometown Hero’ designation click here.

James Helmkamp, Ph.D., Research Professor, Department of Community Medicine, has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. This award has been presented annually for the past 58 years to alumni who have made a significant contribution to the field of public health. Dr. Helmkamp also gave an update on ATV deaths in the state of West Virginia. Click here for the article.

Matthew Page Jones, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Eastern Division is providing a monthly oncology clinic. This project is sponsored by WVU and is in conjunction with Grant Memorial Hospital. For more information click on the link.

John Linton, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, Charleston Division, recently began a two-year term as president of the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers. This group represents psychologists in all of the medical schools and other academic health centers in the US and Canada.

Alvin Moss, M.D., Professor, Department of Medicine, is this year’s recipient of the Heebink Award for Distinguished State Service. Dr. Moss has also co-authored a study about the legal barriers to the national implementation of the end-of-life program. To find out more information on this study click here.

James Shumway, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Medical Education, has been selected as a nominee for the 2008 Career Educator Award by the Southern Group of Educational Affairs. Dr. Shumway received this nomination because of his accomplishments as chair of the SGEA and national chair of the Undergraduate Medical Education section of the AAMC's Group on Educational Affairs.

Stephen Sondike, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Charleston Division, has been invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on West Virginia's childhood obesity prevention efforts, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) new Childhood Overweight and Obesity Prevention Initiative: “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future”

Stanley Zaslau, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, has co-edited a textbook with former department chairman, David McFadden, M.D., and written by WVU general surgeons, specialty surgeons, and surgical residents entitled: “Step-Up to Surgery”. This book will be used in the curriculum for all three campuses in addition to other books in surgery rotation.

Congratulations to Kymberly Gyure, M.D., Program Director, and the Department of Pathology on earning a 5 year re-accreditation from the ACGME for their residency program.

ACGME granted initial accreditation to the Hematopathology fellowship in the Department of Pathology. James Coad, M.D. will serve as Program Director and Linda Tomago will serve as Program Coordinator. This is the only Hematopathology fellowship in the state. The School of Medicine now sponsors 43 different ACGME accredited programs.

We know that life is better for many people because of the daily care provided at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center and its related operations around the state. The devotion of the staff to help improve patients' health is well-known.

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 by including a gift in your will or revocable trust "to the West Virginia University Foundation for the benefit of the School of Medicine ['s Department of ________].

Many support options are available, and the Development Office (304-293-3980) can assist you in making this possible.

In Memoriam:

Hartwell Greene Thompson M.D., the founder of the Department of Neurology at the WVU and its first chairman, died April 19, 2008. He joined the faculty of the new four-year medical school in 1964. He was one of the first neurologists in the state and introduced modern day neurology to the citizens of West Virginia.

By the time he left Morgantown in 1969 to become associate dean of the Charleston Division of the School of Medicine, he had built a strong department that included James Martin, Lud Gutmann, Gwen Hogan (WVU’s first child neurologist) and Sam Chou (WVU’s first neuropathologist). He was responsible for the initiation of the ACGME approved neurology residency training program.

Although he spent the past several decades of his career at the University of Connecticut, his influence on neurology in West Virginia remains. Many of the neurologists practicing in the state and current members of the WVU neurology faculty are graduates of the residency program that he began.

The School of Medicine has the largest number of residency/fellow programs in the state with 43 different residency and fellow programs-most of which are the only program of its kind in the state. The school with the second most residency/fellow programs has 12.

The Department of Exercise Physiology has the only certification program in the United States in Aquatic 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. James Brick and Dr. John Brick.