Last month the Dean’s office continued the tradition of donating items to benefit our local homeless population. Various canned goods and toiletries were collected for the Bartlett House and thermal tops, toboggans, gloves, socks, and scarves were collected for Project MUSHROOM.

The Department of Community Medicine, WVU Student Health Service, and WVU Community Medicine Association will be hosting the beach-themed ”Icebreaker Event,” which is free and open to WVU students. The welcome back beach party is on January 12 from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Mountainlair Ballroom. For more information, click on the link.

WVU Positive Health Clinic and Angelwish are encouraging people to contribute gifts to children living with HIV or AIDS through an online donation. Angelwish, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children with HIV/AIDS, was founded in 1999 and works with more than 130 HIV/AIDS care centers around the world. An estimated 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide; two million of them are children. For more information on these programs, click on the link.

January is National Cervical Health Awareness Month, and WVU health professionals are encouraging women to schedule their routine pap tests as part of the new year. Having a yearly pap test is credited with a dramatic drop in the death rate from cervical cancer, which continues to decrease by 4% a year. For more information on Cervical Health Awareness Month, click on the link.

The first graduating class of physicians from Oman Medical College was honored at commencement ceremonies on December 15 in Muscat. The college, formed in academic partnership with West Virginia University, is the Sultanate’s first private medical school. For more information click on the link.

The M.D. Degree program is hosting an Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) day with guest speaker Larry K Pickering, M.D., Class of 1970, Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The event will be held on Friday, March 27, 2009 in the Learning Center, Room 1901. A reception follows in the Learning Center Commons.

The Division of Exercise Physiology was represented last month at the 3rd annual Coaches and Sports Science College Conference, East Tennessee State University, by 25 undergraduate and graduate students under the supervision of Greg Haff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Exercise Physiology.

Medical Students are collecting the recycling bins in the HSC on Fridays. Contact Jeff Richmond jrichmo4@mix.wvu.edu for more information.

The student leaders of MUSHROOM are pleased to announce the recent involvement of Karen Fitzpatrick, M.D., and Gregory Juckett, M.D., from the Department of Family Medicine and Michael Hurst, M.D., from the Department of Otolaryngology.

Other faculty wishing to become involved with MUSHROOM are encouraged to sign up by contacting Holly Turner in the Department of Family Medicine. Further information about MUSHROOM can be found by going online to the MUSHROOM Website. Dates of future street rounds can be found by clicking on "MUSHROOM sign-up form" in the left margin.

COMING

Osama Aboul-Fettouh, M.D., has joined the Morgantown Campus of the School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Aboul-Fettouh specializes in Pediatric Anesthesiology.

Rupal Trivedi, M.D., has joined the Morgantown Campus of the School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Trivedi will be working in Student Health.

GOING

Geoffrey Graeber, M.D., is leaving the Morgantown Campus of the School of Medicine, Department of Surgery.

Ronald Mudry, M.D., is leaving the Morgantown Campus of the School of Medicine, Department of Medicine.

Ramin Javan, M.D., Transitional Year Resident, is featured in an article titled “Computer Game offers interactive Anatomical Fly Through”. To read the article, click here.

Jessica Partin, M.D., PGY-5, Chief Surgical Resident, and Hannah Hazard, M.D., Instructor, Department of Surgery, presented a poster at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Dec 10-14, 2008. The title of the poster was "Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Obesity in a Rural Appalachian Population." The article was recently published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 2008;17 3319-3324. Other faculty members in the department of surgery who collaborated on the research were Farrell Adkins, M.D., PGY-3, Linda Vona-Davis, Ph.D., David P. Rose, M.D./Ph.D, Marissa Howard-McNatt, M.D., and Gerald Hobbs, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine.

Ekta Choudhary, Doctoral Student, Public Health, is working on a six-week internship with the National Park Service’s Risk Management Program at St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Ekta was amazed to find that park officials had no sophisticated way to keep track of injuries or where visitors were taken for treatment. For more information on this project click on the link.

Mollie McCartney, M.D. Degree Class of 2012, has been selected to serve in a national leadership position with the Rural Medical Education Student Caucus of the National Rural Health Association.

Michelle Moinari, Undergraduate Exercise Physiology Intern, presented part of the data she has been working on in collaboration with two other universities. Michelle’s poster, presented at the Coaches and Sports Science College Conference, was: "A comparison of daily undulating with traditional periodization in collegiate track and field athletes”. She was recognized for "Outstanding Student Poster", even though she was the only undergraduate student presenting at the conference.

Ryan Ruben, Exercise Physiology Graduate Student, won the award for the Best Sports Science Poster for his work: "A pilot study on the effects of heavy loaded squats on performance during plyometric jumps”, presented at the Coaches and Sports Science College Conference. Ryan was assisted on this project by students in the undergraduate honors course in Exercise Physiology.

Last month, the M.D. Degree program had a graduation ceremony for the four December graduates. To see photos from graduation, click here.

WVU School of Medicine study finds high rural-versus-urban injury rate

Last month WVU was approved for a local chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, a society that promotes humanism and professionalism throughout the continuum of physician education from the first day in medical school until retirement from medical practice. For more information on the honor society and the names of the founding faculty members, click on this link. To see national website for this organization click on this link.

As a medical professional, you’ve likely worked hard throughout your career helping countless others along the way. What you have earned along the way should work hard for you, too.

A charitable gift that pays a retirement income can do just that – both for you and for the School of Medicine. Coming in various forms to meet individual needs, one may help you convert low-yield assets into an enhanced income stream, and create very desirable tax savings as well! Finally, it will create a special gift to further the School’s work, creating your own legacy for medicine’s future.

There are lots of possibilities, and the Development Office is ready to assist you in exploring them. Call 304-293-3980 to learn more.

James Arbogast, M.D., Chair, Department of Family Medicine, is quoted in an article concerning a potential shortage in primary care physicians in years to come. To read the article click here.

Jeffery P. Hogg, M.D., Professor, Department of Radiology, was invited by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) educational exhibit chair to moderate the RSNA 2008 Neuroradiology case of the day program. Dr. Hogg and five radiology residents presented five cases at the conference. The case studies can be found at this link.

Konrad Nau, M.D., Chair, Department of Family Medicine, Eastern Campus, talks about the family medicine residency program at Harpers Ferry and the third and fourth year rotations that the WVU medical students complete on that campus. For more information click on the link.

William A. Neal, M.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics, received the No Greater Legacy Hova Underwood Award in Charleston at the Fourth Annual Conference on Child Health and Development. This award is granted by the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Family Coalition, and recognizes those who have contributed to the quality of child health in West Virginia. For more information on this award, click on the link.

Jan Palmer, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, and Director of Student Health Service, was elected president of the Mid-Atlantic College Health Association (MACHA) at the annual meeting in Baltimore, MD., in November. For more information on this appointment click on the link.

Arif Sarwari, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Disease, talks about how the angelwish.org program helps children’s spirits, especially at this time of year. For more information, click on the link.

Rolly Sullivan, M.D., Professor, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, is making sure that West Virginians learn about what causes insomnia and how it is treated. Click here for more information.

Magesh Sundaram, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, has been elected to the Commission on Cancer, which is a consortium of organizations dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research and education. For more information on this appointment, click on the link.

That in 2002 the MedSTEP program started in partnership with the Eastern Campus and Shepherd University as a way for several high school students to be admitted into WVU Medical School right out of high school (provided they meet all the guidelines for medical school admissions).

That in 2007 the MedBound program was started in partnership with the WVU honors college as a way to admit WVU freshmen majoring in a science, who want to attend the WVU School of Medicine. The program provides mentoring to the students involved in admission to medical school once their undergraduate degree has been earned, provided they continue to meet the requirements for the program.

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
Steven Bush, M.D., and Martin Kommor, M.D.