November/December 2008

Message from Dean Richardson: Our research mission

Against the steady drumbeat of recent economic news, it could be easy to lose focus on the importance of our missions, and the importance of maintaining their excellence, no matter what. Over the next several months, I will be meeting with all departments and faculty in the School of Medicine to discuss the issues we face and to hear your views on how we will not only get through this economic downturn but come out stronger.

In the meantime, I want to consciously return our attention to the subject of our missions. This month, I am emphasizing the research mission. Discovery – of all types – is pivotal to the identity of the School of Medicine and is one of the top reasons most of us chose a career in academic medicine. Not only do we conduct the research that drives the innovation needed to improve health and health care, we train the nation’s next generation of biomedical researchers and clinician-scientists.

Currently, and looking broadly, there is unease in the research community. After more than a decade of significant growth in biomedical research funding, new investment has begun to level off and, in some cases, decline. This reversal, combined with shifting NIH priorities, has left some well-established programs and investigators struggling to survive. Further, we are all concerned by what appears to be a growing lack of understanding among some public sectors about research – and its pivotal role in advancing human health and longevity. For instance, during the last political season, I would define some commentary as dangerously close to being “anti-science.”

Like you, I am concerned about the future, but if we look carefully, there are promising signs of change. At a national level, I am cautiously optimistic that some part of a stimulus package may include near-term incremental funding for NIH. According to the AAMC, our institutions are responsible, indirectly or directly, for one in 48 jobs in the nation – a strong rationale to buttress support for biomedical research as a catalyst for economic recovery. Further, the new administration has selected highly regarded scientists as advisors and has committed to increasing basic research funding over the next decade.

A near-term NIH stimulus and/or eventual increase in basic science funding will be good economic news. Well-funded NIH research at OHSU is an important revenue stream, including potential future income from patents. (As an aside, I am hopeful that with this clarity about the economic importance of the research mission, we can now put to rest the simplistic and misleading idea that was wrongly emphasized by external media last year that “research loses money.”)

Closer to home, we are all excited about the $100 million gift to the now-named Knight Cancer Institute which will, in part, support new research capacity at OHSU. This gift is an encouraging indicator as the OHSU Foundation prepares to embark on a new fund-raising initiative to support faculty. President Robertson has recently announced increased bridge funding from $500,000 to $1 million. Researchers will receive information about how to apply for this funding in 2009. OHSU is also actively exploring new and innovative ways to raise our indirect cost rate recovery from NIH.

I can and will continue to advocate for greater funding and recognition from all quarters for our research mission, but a key part of shaping the future is linked to our own planning. With the global financial crisis, the prior call for greater collaboration and an honest examination of our business practices takes on more urgency.

We are making some strides in this area. As described below, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Mary Stenzel-Poore as Associate Dean for Basic Science in the School of Medicine. One of Mary’s first undertakings will be to develop our own research “road map” in collaboration with other research units throughout the university. Basic science research at OHSU has grown substantially and has now reached a critical stage, requiring a strategic focus on existing themes and strengths to better support our outstanding scientists throughout the research mission. One goal will be to find ways to more effectively share resources and to move away from a framework in which we are to some extent, in effect, competing amongst ourselves.

We are moving forward with the project to streamline research administration (see article). This effort is designed to provide better service for investigators and may also reduce costs. I am also pleased by the strong multi-disciplinary research programs increasingly underway throughout the School of Medicine. Some of this work is described below and I will use this newsletter to highlight similar projects over the next year. I encourage faculty to reach out to colleagues in other departments to identify such collaborations.

Research is foundational to our clinical, educational and outreach missions, and challenges us all to aspire to the highest level of intellectual excellence and curiosity in everything we do. I look forward to hearing your views on ways we can work together to maintain our current excellence and to continually enhance this mission for the good of all Oregon and beyond.

Best regards,

Mark Richardson
Dean, OHSU School of Medicine

Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, appointed Associate Dean for Basic Sciences

Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, has been appointed Associate Dean for Basic Sciences in the OHSU School of Medicine, effective immediately. Dr. Stenzel-Poore is a Professor in and interim Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology.

Among the responsibilities of the Associate Dean for Basic Sciences are: advising the Dean and Senior Associate Dean for Research on basic science issues; promoting programmatic research funding and collaborative partnerships; participating in university-wide strategic planning, including space planning; and aligning basic sciences with Vision 2020 goals.

“With federal funding declines, the national economic crisis and the increased focus on collaboration – including the reorganization this requires – Mary is stepping into this position at a challenging time,” said Dean Mark Richardson. “I am confident Mary is the right person and I am grateful for the enthusiasm and vision she brings to the task.”

“The future of medical research calls for new ways of scientific inquiry that require multi-disciplinary collaboration and integration among basic scientists and pre-clinical and clinical scientists to solve challenging biomedical problems,” said Dr. Stenzel-Poore. “Developing a collaborative road map to guide us in this direction will be one of my earliest undertakings. Our success moving forward requires well-informed, global planning for clinical and basic science research which will lead ultimately to critical investments in faculty, resources, technology and research infrastructure for the basic sciences throughout the School and greater OHSU community.”

Dr. Stenzel-Poore’s scientific career began at OHSU over 20 years ago as a graduate student. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute in San Diego, she returned to OHSU as an Assistant Professor. She trained both in immunology and neuroscience, and had been consistently funded by NIH for her work on neuroimmunology, specifically, the role of inflammation in injury and protection of the central nervous system.

Dr. Stenzel-Poore is on the scientific advisory board for the Oregon Translational Research and Drug Discovery Institute, is a permanent chair of NIH’s Special Neuroscience Research Program for Under-represented Minorities and serves on several scientific peer-review panels.

“In addition to nationally-recognized scientific expertise, Mary’s long association with the OHSU School of Medicine provides her with a breadth of institutional knowledge that will serve our research mission well. Please join me in congratulating Mary and welcoming her to this leadership role,” said Dean Richardson.

Internal "research administration process improvement" project makes progress

Since January 2008, an OHSU Steering Committee has been examining the business processes involved in research administration, with a special focus on pre- and post-award processes. Formed under the auspices of Dean Richardson and Dan Dorsa, PhD, Vice President for Research and Senior Associate Dean for Research, the group has been analyzing the workflow of the administration process with the goal of creating seamless service for investigators. The Committee is comprised of research representatives, finance managers and department administrators from across OHSU.

The project has four phases; the first is complete. In April 2008, the group hired a consultant, AKT LLP, to prepare a comprehensive workflow analysis of existing sponsored grants administration processes from “cradle to grave.” This investigator-centered analysis was designed to track the actual experience of a PI, including comparing how different units managed research administration.

Using the Phase 1 baseline, in August 2008, the Steering Committee initiated Phase 2. An outside review panel with representatives from Duke University and the University of Maryland evaluated OHSU research administration processes and made recommendations for process improvement. The review panel was asked to identify strengths and weaknesses of the existing structure and recommend changes. The following month, the Steering Committee invited Geoff Grant to OHSU to conduct workshops for pre- and post-award staff and their departmental counterparts. Grant is a nationally-recognized leader in research administration who has worked with other academic institutions and with NIH on similar streamlining initiatives.

Phase 2 is now almost finished with a final report expected in January 2009. The third and fourth phases are implementation and evaluation. Their timeline will be developed after the final report is delivered.

For additional information on the project, please contact Elaine Rowzee, Finance Director, Office of the Dean, School of Medicine.

Discovery Spotlight: Charles Springer, PhD, and colleagues show that MRI can prevent unnecessary breast biopsies

Charles Springer, PhD, and multi-disciplinary collaborators are developing a new breast cancer screening method that can reduce or eliminate unnecessary biopsy surgeries. Their findings were published in the November 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research effort uses a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique and the researchers’ newly developed analysis software – called the “shutter-speed” model – to discriminate vascular properties of malignant and benign breast tumors in vivo.

“While standard mammography is effective, it also results in a very significant fraction of false-positive results,” said Dr. Springer, director of the OHSU Advanced Imaging Research Center. Dr. Springer also is Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, and of Biomedical Engineering, and a member of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

Other OHSU researchers contributing to the project are: Wei Huang, PhD, Xin Li, PhD, Alina Tudorica, PhD, Ian Tagge, BS, William Rooney, PhD, and Jingang Xu, MS.

As reported in PNAS, the pharmacokinetic analysis of dynamic-contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI data yields two distinct parameters that independently measure the capillary wall contrast dye molecule transfer rate. In the most common analyses of routine DCE-MRI, each of the two parameters exhibited considerable overlap for benign and malignant lesions from 22 patients with suspicious breast lesions initially ruled positive by institutional screening protocols. However, use of the shutter-speed model for the same group of 22 patients was able to distinguish between the 15 benign lesions and seven malignant lesions based on these transfer rate constants. The complete (blinded) discrimination between the lesion types was validated by comparison with subsequent gold-standard pathology analyses of biopsy tissue samples.

“Typically, 75 percent of mammographically-indicated biopsies yield negative pathology results, meaning that an intermediate step such as an MRI determination could greatly reduce the number of, if not completely eliminate, unnecessary biopsy surgeries,” said Dr. Springer.

A second paper published in the same PNAS issue provides increased detail and physicochemical principles underlying the shutter-speed model and the data analyzed by this software, which allows malignant tumors to be so well-distinguished from benign tumors. The new model correctly accounts for the speed of water molecule interchange between tissue compartments. It is a remarkable discovery, says Dr. Springer, that the latter process, though essentially identical in malignant and benign tumors, becomes influential in the analysis of data from only malignant lesions (due to increased dye vessel permeation). These basic principles are not restricted to just breast cancer, or even to just cancer.

Other collaborators on this research are Elizabeth Morris, MD, and Ya Wang, MS, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and Venkatraman Seshan, PhD, at Columbia University. This work began some years ago, when Springer, Huang, Li, Tudorica, and Rooney were at Stony Brook University (and Brookhaven National Laboratory), both on Long Island. Before coming to OHSU, Huang moved to MSKCC and Weill Cornell Medical College, with Columbia in Manhattan.

Since the PNAS papers were written, the researchers have more than tripled the size of the study population. Preliminary analyses indicate that the high discrimination is maintained. A report on this expanded investigation is being prepared for submission.

Faculty Spotlight: Retiring scientist Miles Novy, MD, looks back over four decades

Looking back, Miles Novy, MD, observes that every decade since his arrival in Oregon in 1970, “has marked a very important step forward at OHSU in building the research mission. Now, as I look into the future, I see the next big opportunity to be a concerted effort to consolidate and transform this growth and the associated knowledge accumulation into new benefits for women’s health.”

Dr. Novy holds a joint appointment as a Senior Scientist at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center and as a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine. He retired this year.

In a career that spanned both research and clinical worlds, early on, Dr. Novy embraced the idea of translational research. “My research was bi-directional,” said Dr. Novy. “Many of the lessons we learned from non-human primates were applied directly or indirectly to improvements in prenatal care while questions raised in clinical practice stimulated our research agenda.”

Dr. Novy’s work helped him and his team identify some of the underlying causes of premature birth and to identify and treat at-risk pregnancies with contraction-suppressing drugs and/or cervical cerclage procedures to prevent preterm birth. More recently, Dr. Novy’s work has focused on how hormones and the immune system interact in the onset of labor. A functional progesterone withdrawal is evident at term but uterine infections with genital mycoplasms are a common and potentially preventable cause of the earliest preterm births.

“We are seeing that infection/inflammation is a prevalent cause of prematurity before 28-30 weeks gestation and we are beginning to understand how the maternal and fetal immune systems interact.”

Together with Drs. Michael Gravett (Obstetrics & Gynecology) and Sri Nagalla (Pediatrics, Cell & Developmental Biology), Dr. Novy has shown that protein expression profiles in amniotic fluid have the unique signatures of an over-expression of certain polypeptides in women and animals with intra-amniotic infection (IAI). This infection type is commonly associated with preterm birth in humans. These protein expression signatures may have diagnostic applications in the early detection of IAI in women at risk. This work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2004.

As he retires now from active research and lab work, Dr. Novy looks forward to a coordinated push from physicians and scientists toward translating accumulated knowledge into clinical applications. “Frankly, we have not made enough of a dent in the rate of prematurity in this country. But I believe we have the knowledge base to do so now.”

Notes from Nanjing: the global effort to collaborate

Dean Richardson recently visited China as an invited guest of Nanjing Medical School to present information about the history and future of OHSU School of Medicine, and to discuss opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions. His notes from the road follow:

“Imagine driving from Portland to Pendleton and seeing nothing but high rise apartment houses, large commercial buildings and cranes putting up more of the same. That was my trip from Shanghai to Nanjing. I had been invited to tell the OHSU story at the “International Friendly Exchanges,” a celebration of the opening of China to the West in 1978.

“I joined Benno Schmidt, former President of Yale, various delegations from SUNY, CUNY, Columbia University and international representatives from England, Australia, Germany, Sumatra as well as elsewhere in the world. Our task was to talk about education and opportunities for research and other collaborations between our countries. Many of the universities represented already had longstanding interchanges with Nanjing Medical University.

“My focus was biosciences. The conference participants were very interested in the Oregon experience. Over the past ten years China has experienced rapid growth, and similar problems related to clinical training, research funding and strategic direction have ensued. Existing departmental structures are not keeping pace with the delivery of scientific information and resource sharing is difficult. Silos exist everywhere.

“I spent another full day talking with leaders of the Nanjing Medical University about problems we share: an aging population, poor distribution of sophisticated medical services, and students whose goals are not the same as those of the older generation we represented.

“They are very interested in our curriculum and changes that we contemplate making, and hope to visit us next spring to understand our system. Additionally they are interested in any student exchanges we might make and research collaborations. OHSU is recognized as a leader in education and research in China and we share a focus on partnerships as a strategic plan to address our challenges. As my hosts said to me as I left Nanjing, “’Knowledge is one resource that is not depleted by use, it’s enhanced.’”

Pictured: Dean Richardson before speech and being interviewed by university students.

School of Medicine Teaching Awards honor 34 faculty, 4 students

Thirty-four faculty members and four students were honored at the annual Faculty Teaching Honors and Student Awards Luncheon, held on November 10 in the BICC Gallery.

Faculty members were nominated and selected by students for excellence in teaching in the MD and Graduate Studies programs, and as Course Directors. In addition, four MD program students were recognized by their peers for academic excellence. Finally, faculty members nominated and selected four of their peers to be recognized in the “Faculty Excellence in Education” Awards.

“I think the single most important attribute shared among the outstanding teachers in the School of Medicine is intellectual passion,” said John Brigande, PhD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology and Cell & Developmental Biology. “What binds us is this unmitigated drive to share what we know with motivated graduate students. Our job as educators is really about helping our students define their intellectual passion. We can lead by example, by showing our students what turns us on and why.”

Dr. Brigande was recognized by students in the Graduate Program for excellence in teaching.

“To be recognized by one’s peers as a leader who excels in teaching is the highest honor. I’m so appreciative of this award,” said Dawn Dillman, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology.

Dr. Dillman was recognized by her peers for her excellence in education.

Please click here here for a full list of all honorees.

Pictured: Faculty Excellence in Education Award recipients Tracy N. Bumstead, MD, Gary Ciment, PhD, Dawn Dillman, MD, and Scott Sallay, MD, with Dean Richardson.

First-year anatomy students pay tribute to donors and their families

The 9th Annual Memorial Service hosted by first-year medical, physician assistant, dental and radiation therapy students for the donors to the OHSU Body Donation Program and their families was held at the OHSU Auditorium on December 5. Attended by over 100 members of the donors’ families and about 125 student and faculty members, the memorial was a heartfelt tribute to the generous contribution of the donors to the education of future health care providers and researchers. Emily Hubbard, President of the MD Class of 2012, acted as Mistress of Ceremonies at the service.

“I was very moved by the spirit and sense of gratitude that our students conveyed during this ceremony, and Emily was exceptionally gracious in her remarks, as were all the students,” said Dean Richardson. “It is an appropriate way to honor the remarkable generosity of these donors to education and health care.”

The program included tributes in the form of songs, poems, photographs of the donors' lives, musical performances and stories. A reception followed the service where students shared information about their educational experiences with donors' family members. Below is an anonymous tribute provided to the family members written by a group of students describing their experiences and responses in the first-year anatomy lab:

“We didn’t know your name, your past, or your life. We discovered that you had undergone a radical mastectomy, and what that implied."

“We didn’t know your thoughts, or favorite memories. We examined your brain and learned that you likely suffered from dementia."

“We didn’t know your first words to your children, but we knew you underwent a hysterectomy."

“Although we didn’t know you, we understand that you overcame your physical limitation by having the last word and donating your body. Whether cancer overcame your life, dementia consumed your memories, or menopause caused you grief, we can only speculate."

"We can, however, identify these illnesses and begin to think about new ways of treatment. While your spirit now rests, the knowledge gained from your anatomy lives on to fight these diseases."

Outreach by the Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center at OHSU

During November, the Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center made two high-profile inroads into its mission of educating a statewide public about the challenges of the diabetes epidemic. The 2008 Pacific Northwest Diabetes Health Summit, sponsored by the Center and held in Portland on November 7, brought together 200 health care providers, researchers and leaders from communities across Oregon to hear about and discuss the current state of diabetes and diabetes care in the state.

Center Director Andrew Ahmann, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, further contributed to the public dialogue about diabetes in an appearance at the City Club of Portland on November 14 – World Diabetes Day. In remarks broadcast statewide via OPB, Dr. Ahmann emphasized that, “diabetes affects you even if you do not have it yourself. There are human, social and economic burdens to this disease, and your health insurance premiums, your taxes and the productivity of the society around you are all impacted by this worldwide pandemic. OHSU’s mission directs us to address these issues by providing holistic care in the Center, and by promoting and supporting community programs run by our stakeholders and collaborators.”

For more information about OHSU’s Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center click here.

Photo: Dr. Andrew Ahmann presenting at City Club of Portland.

Donald Girard, MD, elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians

Donald Girard, MD, Associate Dean for Continuing and Graduate Medical Education, the J.S. “Dutch” Reinschmidt Professor for Medical Education, and Professor of Medicine has been elected to Mastership in the American College of Physicians.

The ACP Board of Regents reserves this Mastership level recognition for internists who demonstrate outstanding contributions to medicine, the ACP, and the community-at-large, noting that Dr. Girard was selected from a “very distinguished roster of candidates.” Generally, only 40 to 50 Masterships are awarded nationwide each year, regardless of the number of nominees. The Mastership award will be presented to Dr. Girard at the Convocation Ceremony at the ACP annual meeting in April.

Summer research student receives McNair Scholar Award

Ann Oluloro says that participating in the School of Medicine’s Equity Summer Research Program was a factor in her selection as a McNair Scholar at University of Oregon. She wrote, “The Equity program certainly helped me by equipping me with skills that I will be able to use as a McNair Scholar.” The Equity program offers eight- to ten-week funded research internships to undergraduate students who have experienced significant economic, cultural, family or other disadvantage during their educational career. The program is designed for those considering graduate school; students develop relationships with mentors that can provide support beyond the program. Robert Hitzemann, PhD, Chair, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, was Ann’s mentor and provided a letter of recommendation for her McNair application.

Applications are being accepted for the Summer Equity program: click here.

David Sahn, MD, awarded top honor by NIH Center for Scientific Review

The NIH Center for Scientific Review today awarded its top honor for extraordinary commitment to peer review to veteran reviewer David J. Sahn, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Diagnostic Radiology. The Marcy Speer Outstanding Reviewer Award highlights the vital contributions of the 16,000 CSR reviewers who evaluate NIH grant applications.

“Dr. David Sahn’s enduring commitment and willingness to give much more with little notice are astounding,” said CSR Director Toni Scarpa. “He personifies all that’s great about our reviewers, who make countless sacrifices to advance science and health here and around the world.”

The award recognizes scientists who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to CSR peer review groups making it possible for NIH to fund the best applications, and, ultimately, improve public health. The award’s namesake exemplified this commitment by continuing to review grants during her treatment for breast cancer, and extending her term as a regular member of one of CSR’s genetics review panels to make up for meetings she missed during chemotherapy. She died Aug. 4, 2007. For more NIH information on Dr. Sahn and the Marcy Speer Award click here.

Robert Schelonka, MD, named Division Head of Neonatology

Robert Schelonka, MD, will become next Division Head of Neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Schelonka is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “Bob has a strong track record as a clinician, educator and investigator, and I believe he will be an outstanding Division Head. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the Division of Neonatology to the Department and to our efforts to provide high quality health care to the children of Oregon and southwest Washington,” said Stacey Nicholson, MD, MPH, FAAP, Chair, Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Schelonka will join OHSU at the beginning of the next academic year.

Mike Powers, MD, named Division Head of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine

Mike Powers, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, has been named the Division Head for Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, effective January 1, 2009. Before joining the School of Medicine faculty in 1991, Dr. Powers completed his MD degree, Pediatric Residency and Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship at OHSU. “Dr. Powers’ accomplishments in all areas of our mission made him the obvious choice for this key leadership position. I look forward to working with Mike to build this Division, ensuring a high level of care for Doernbecher patients, and enhanced programs in teaching, research and advocacy as well. Please join me in offering Mike our congratulations and support in this new role,” said Stacey Nicholson, MD, MPH, FAAP, Chair, Department of Pediatrics.

Four Vertex Scholars announced for grad studies program

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Allison Fryer, PhD, has announced four 2009 Vertex Scholars. Vertex Pharmaceuticals funds the stipend and fees for these students for one year.

Clayton Winkler is in Neuroscience, working with Larry Sherman, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology. He is studying the ability of hyaluronan oligosaccharides (a polymer of sugar molecules that is found in connective tissue including membranes, joints and skin) to impair movement of T-cells cells into the central nervous system during inflammatory disease.

Julia Maxson is in Cell & Developmental Biology, working with Caroline Enns, PhD, Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology. She is studying how trafficking and processing of hemojuvelin, a protein important in iron metabolism that is mutated in juvenile hemochromatosis, an iron overload disorder, affects its function.

Tara White-Adams is in Science & Engineering/Biomedical Engineering, working with Owen McCarty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Science & Engineering, and Cell & Developmental Biology. Her research focuses on understanding the intricate interplay between blood platelets and coagulation factors in the dynamic environment of the cardiovascular system. In particular, her research investigates the ability of the historically pro-coagulant platelet surface to recruit anti-coagulant blood components and thus limit clot growth.

Chang Liu is in Cell & Developmental Biology, working with Phil Stork, MD, Assistant Professor, Cell & Developmental Biology. He is examining what mechanisms control the cellular location and activation of a protein called Rap1, which plays an important role in many cell functions including proliferation, differentiation and adhesion.

Ted Ruback elected president of PA national association

Ted Ruback, MS, PA-C, Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Physician Assistant (PA) Education, became the president-elect of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) at its recent forum in Savannah, Georgia. In January 2009, Ruback will begin a three-year term that includes a year each as president-elect, president, and past-president. Ruback was instrumental in the design and implementation of the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA) and chair of the CASPA Advisory Committee from 2001–2007. During his tenure, nearly 95 PA programs – about two-thirds of the accredited PA programs near the end of his term – had joined the application service. The data collected through the centralized process continues to inform the PA profession about its national applicant pool. Ruback was the recipient of PAEA’s Master Faculty Award in 2006.

Sharon Anderson, MD, is President-Elect of the American Society of Nephrology

Sharon Anderson, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Chief, Medical Service, Portland VA Medical Center, is the President-Elect of the American Society of Nephrology. ASN is a not-for-profit organization of 11,000 physicians and scientists dedicated to the study of nephrology and committed to providing a forum for the promulgation of information regarding the latest research and clinical findings on kidney diseases. ASN publishes the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), CJASN, and the Nephrology Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP). ASN formally announced Dr. Anderson’s election during the 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition November 4 -9 in Philadelphia.

Medical informatics online course crosses languages

The “10 x 10” program pioneered by the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology (DMICE) has recently found a new voice – in Spanish-speaking Buenos Aires. The program’s goals are to train 10,000 US health care professionals in applied health and biomedical informatics by the year 2010. While the online course has been taken by students across the globe, until now all students have taken the course in English. William Hersh, MD, DMICE Professor and Chairman, teamed up with Dr. Paula Otero of the Hospital Italiano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to translate the course into Spanish. The Spanish version has already been delivered to over 300 health care professionals in Latin America.

Welcome new faculty

A warm welcome to our newest faculty members. Please click here for newest faculty members, listed in alphabetical order.