August SOM News

SOM Welcomes 2006 Entering Medical Class

The 2006 matriculants to the OHSU medical program started classes on Monday, August 21, with the annual White Coat Ceremony for entering students being held on Friday, August 25.

The Class of 2010 profile for the 119 new medical students, selected from more than 4,000 applicants, includes the following:
63 females / 56 males
Mean age: 26
Mean GPA: Total 3.63; Science: 3.57
Highest degree at entry: Baccalaureate 103; Masters 14; Doctorate 2
Residence: Oregon 84; Non-resident 35
Race/Ethnicity: White 88; Asian or Asian Indian 15; Under-represented minorities 7; other 2; No response 7.

SOM New Faculty Orientation

OHSU School of Medicine New Faculty Orientation will be held on Wednesday, September 27, from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., in UHS 8B60 (University Hospital, 8th floor). New Faculty Orientation offers an excellent opportunity to learn more about OHSU and specifically about available resources and career advancement opportunities in research, teaching, and clinical service. All SOM faculty are welcome. To view the flyer, click here.

Training a Safety Net Physician Workforce

OHSU and Central City Concern (CCC) have joined forces in an innovative partnership that places volunteer SOM resident physicians in safety net clinics where they are trained by CCC staff to meet the medical needs of people who are homeless or recovering from addictions. The School of Medicine's Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics is leading the partnership.

Founded in 1979, CCC is a nonprofit agency serving adults and families in Portland who are impacted by homelessness, poverty and addictions. As part of the partnership, OHSU will support a medical director for CCC's Old Town Clinic as a joint OHSU/CCC faculty appointment. The two organizations will work together to identify grant and/or research opportunities in the areas of health care disparities, integrated care models and improved access for the underserved.

"Social and economic conditions profoundly affect health, disease and the practice of medicine. This partnership provides new avenues for OHSU providers to become involved with community health care needs," said Rachel Solotaroff, M.D., General Medicine fellow at OHSU. Solotaroff was recently appointed to the new medical director position for the Old Town Clinic created by the partnership.

"The partnership gives CCC access to the knowledge base and resources of an academic health center and OHSU is gaining access to our unique integrated model of services to end homelessness and to care for the underserved members of our community," said Ted Amann, R.N., Director of Health Care and Improvement at CCC.

The program requires medical residents to ride in the CHIERS (Central City Concern Hooper Inebriate Emergency Response) Van, to volunteer in the Hooper Detox Center, and to provide primary care services at the Old Town Clinic as well as alcohol and drug treatment at the Portland Alternative Health Center. Medical residents also accompany CCC providers on intensive care site visits.

Jessica Gregg, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Judith Bowen, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Section Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, were also instrumental in the program development, in collaboration with Amann and Ed Blackburn, Director of Health and Recovery Services at CCC.

Bariatric Surgery Designated Center of Excellence

OHSU's Surgical Weight Reduction Program is the first and only bariatric surgery program in Oregon to be certified by the American College of Surgeons (ACS).

Clifford Deveney, M.D., program director and head of general surgery, OHSU School of Medicine, is one of three nationally recognized bariatric surgeons at OHSU. The bariatric surgery team, which includes anesthesiologists, nurse practitioners or nurses, and nutrition and mental health experts, surgically treats about 200 morbidly obese patients a year. The NIH defines morbid obesity as 50 percent to 100 percent, or 100 pounds, above a patient's ideal body weight.

To earn accreditation, the program underwent a thorough and rigorous review in which its bariatric surgery team demonstrated a history of high-quality surgical care and outcomes. As a center of excellence, OHSU's Surgical Weight Reduction Program will continue to employ the highest standards of care, document outcomes, and participate in periodic ACS reviews and verifications.

In February 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a national mandate that all covered bariatric surgical procedures for the treatment of diseases and conditions associated with morbid obesity be conducted at facilities certified either by the ACS or the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Presently, OHSU is one of only 10 bariatric surgery programs nationwide to have received "full approval" from the ACS's accreditation program. Hundreds of other centers are awaiting certification and are therefore unable to perform covered bariatric surgical procedures on Medicare patients.

The ACS has four separate levels of accreditation based on the breadth and depth of each individual program. The OHSU Surgical Weight Reduction Program has earned Level 1 status, which indicates it has a proven record of providing the highest-quality care for "the most challenging and complex bariatric patients with optimal opportunity for safe and effective outcomes." Level 1 programs also must agree to enroll in the ACS's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program as a means of measuring their surgical outcomes.

Trigeminal Neuralgia Association Conference

OHSU Neurological Surgery is co-sponsoring the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association Conference 2006 on September 14 - 16, 2006, at Portland's Doubletree Hotel, Lloyd Center.

OHSU is sponsoring a continuing education course, "Understanding Trigeminal Neuralgia and Other Facial Pains," on Saturday morning, September 16. (A registration fee applies to receive 4.5 hours of Category 1 credit: $80 for physicians and dentists; $40 for allied health care professionals.) For more information about the conference, click here.

NIH to Limit Reimbursements to Universities for Recipients of Training Grants

The National Institutes of Health has issued a final proposal to cap its reimbursements to colleges for tuition and other costs for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers supported by the agency's training grants. The decision shifts training costs from the NIH to institutions.
The final version, published this month by the NIH, is almost identical to a draft released in May following a public-comment period (The Chronicle, May 8).
The agency said the caps were necessary because reimbursements requested by universities had increased by at least 7 percent annually in recent years while the agency's budget growth has been nearly flat. The change will avoid the alternative of cutting the number of trainees, the NIH said. Under the new policy, the agency will pay for 60 percent of tuition and fees up to $16,000 annually for predoctoral students. Current payments are not capped.

Harold D. Paxton International Professorship in Neurological Surgery Education

The OHSU Department of Neurological Surgery is hosting Professor Yucel Kanpolat, Department of Neurosurgery, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey, as the first Harold D. Paxton International Professor. Dr. Kanpolat will be at OHSU September 2-12, 2006.

The Harold D. Paxton International Professorship in Neurological Surgery Education was created by the OHSU Department of Neurological Surgery to honor Dr. Paxton's dedication to international neurosurgical education. In keeping with Dr. Paxton's philosophy and approach to neurological surgery education, this endowed professorship supports the implementation, development and advancement of the academic training program of the OHSU Department of Neurological Surgery. On a yearly basis, an academic neurological surgeon with an international reputation for education, innovation and use of state-of-the art approaches to neurosurgical teaching techniques will be invited to fill this unique professorship.

For more information, contact Joanie Mastrandrea at click here or 503-494-6207.

OHSU's Health Care Reform Blog

OHSU's health care reform blog is approaching the "10,000 hits" mark since the site was launched a few months ago. Several new essays are now on the OHSU-facilitated blog: 1) Dr. Peter Kohler writes about the role of outcomes transparency in health care reform; 2) Jim Holman proposes a health care model that "socializes" the opportunity for health insurance while retaining private funding and choice; 3) Andrew Gioia calls for a more values-driven health care system; 4) Nicole Ramsay, blog technical editor, asks "Are we too stuffy?" and 5) Dr. Angela Heider writes about "retiring" from medicine at age 32 due to the unwieldy complexity of the health care system.

All members of the OHSU community are invited join the discussion and to visit the blog at click here. To comment on posts, click the "comments" link.

AAMC Task Force Calls for End to Research 'Bottleneck'

A new AAMC report makes strong recommendations about ways in which medical schools and teaching hospitals can enhance their ability to increase the number of U.S. physician scientists engaged in clinical and translational research so that new methods of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease can be developed more quickly and effectively.

The report, created by the AAMC's Task Force II on Clinical Research and titled "Promoting Translational and Clinical Science: The Critical Role of Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals," calls on academic medicine to establish a stronger foundation for training in and support of clinical and translational research, including requirements for better mentoring, accelerated programs that shorten the time to scientific independence, improved recognition of individual contributions in team science by restructuring grant tracking systems and publication practices, and increasing resources for support of translational and clinical science, among other goals.

Data examined by the task force show that the number of new physicians pursuing research careers has not changed appreciably in the past 40 years, despite extraordinary advancements in scientific understanding and a historic increase in opportunities for translating scientific discoveries into improvements in medicine and public health. The uncertainty in obtaining research funding and the increasing length of time to become an independent investigator are perhaps two of the prime factors deterring young physicians. The average age of investigators receiving their first NIH R01 grants is now 42 for Ph.D.s, and 43 for M.D.s. Evaluation of NIH training programs for clinical investigators revealed that fewer than half subsequently obtain independent NIH research funding.

The AAMC's Task Force II on Clinical Research first convened in February 2005 in response to persisting concerns in the academic medical community over the reluctance of young physicians to prepare for and enter careers in clinical research, the high attrition rate among accomplished clinical investigators within academic medical centers, and the perceived inadequacy of research environments to recruit, nurture, and retain promising clinical scientists.

Task Force II members pointed to several highlights in this latest report, including recommendations that "every future physician should receive a thorough education in the basic principles of translational and clinical research, both in medical school and during residency training," and that "the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) should add education in translational and clinical research to the requirements for medical school accreditation, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) should embed understanding of translational and clinical research within its required core competencies." These recommendations are aimed at emphasizing that clinical research is part of the core mission of medical schools and teaching hospitals.

The report's other recommendations for medical schools and teaching hospitals include increasing recognition of translational and clinical scientists who engage in collaborative research, sufficiently supporting new junior translational and clinical investigator faculty to maximize their probability of success, enhancing certain relevant NIH awards to add to their value in supporting clinical and translational research training and mentoring, and establishing clinical research collaborations with community health care providers and practice-based research networks.

To download the report, click here.

(From an article by Scott Harris in the AAMC Reporter, July 2006)

OHSU Family Medicine Scappoose Moves and Expands Services

OHSU Family Medicine at Scappoose opened for business at their new expanded location, 51377 Old Portland Road, Scappoose, on June 5. The decision to move to this larger facility in Crossroads Plaza was made due to the center's growing patient population and the continued growth of the area.

By the end of September, the family medicine center will be staffed with three family physicians, two physician assistants, two nurse practitioners and a licensed clinical social worker, and center hours will be expanded. Also in September, the center will be implementing its electronic medical record system and anticipate a greater level of workflow efficiency to better serve a growing patient population.

The clinic has grown from serving 600 patients monthly in December 2004 to almost 1,100 patients a month in December 2005. After receiving a federal designation as a Rural Health Clinic almost two years ago, OHSU Family Medicine at Scappoose has enhanced its mission to serve a broad patient base by accepting new patients with Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance. The clinicians provide health care for the entire family, including maternity care and a full range of adult and child health care services. The practice's clinical social worker provides behavioral health counseling. The center offers several patient education classes on such topics as childbirth education, diabetes management, pain, depression management, diabetes self-management as well as a class geared to overall good health and well-being.

"Our growth is our commitment to serve area residents. Due to the limited number of available medical practitioners, Columbia County continues to be medically underserved. For this reason, we will continue to accept new patients with Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurance," said Scappoose Medical Director Bruin Rugge, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of family medicine, OHSU School of Medicine.

The Center is planning an open house for early October.

Tram Update

The Portland Aerial Tram consists of four track ropes and one circulating haul rope. Each rope must be strung along the alignment before the tramcars can be installed. Each track rope will be strung from the lower station in South Waterfront to the upper station terminal located on the OHSU campus. Once the track ropes have been installed, Doppelmayr crews will begin lifting and tensioning them into their final position before installing the haul rope.

The tram is more than 70 percent complete. The 75-foot, 75,000 pound steel truss sky bridge linking the upper tram terminal to the Kohler Pavilion was lifted into place on August 19. It was one of the last large sections of structural steel still to be erected as the Marquam Hill tram station rapidly neared completion. The cantilevered supporting slabs, the elevator-stair core tower and the interior electrical and control room floors all are finished and installation of the terminal's roof has begun.

The intermediate tower on Macadam Avenue is finished and the saddles that will carry the ropeway have been installed at the top. The structural steel work at the lower terminal also is complete and work on the control room is progressing. The mechanical and hydraulic components have been completed. The tram cabins have been fabricated in Switzerland and are undergoing final inspections by Portland Department of Transportation officials before being shipped.

Starting the week of August 28, Dopplemayr-CTEC, Inc., crews will begin building a track rope bridge over I-5 that will permit them to begin installing the cables for the tram. The tram system consists of four track ropes and one circulating haul rope. Each rope must be strung along the alignment before the tramcars can be installed. Temporary support towers have been built at intersections along the tram alignment on S.W. Gibbs Street to keep the ropes off the street below. Installation of the cables is expected to begin in the first week of September and to be finished by mid-October. The process – known as "rope pulling" – consists of stringing the ropes and then tensioning them into their final position.

HCOP 2006

The objective of the OHSU Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP) is to provide in-depth experiences throughout the educational pipeline to enable disadvantaged students to progress into health care careers successfully. We offer a novel HCOP model in that our comprehensive program provides the disadvantaged population direct access to OHSU pharmacy, physician assistant and medical schools through traditional, guaranteed admission, and early acceptance pathways.

Over the last year we have enrolled 147 students in our pipeline programs ranging in education from High School through our signature Post-Baccalaureate Program. After completing HCOP programs, students have overall increased participation at every level of the process to becoming a health professional, MCAT and GRE testing, submitted applications, interviews and offers.

There are currently two HCOP scholars who are attending OHSU as first-year medical students (Class of 2010), and many more who are in the pipeline.

Ted Ruback to receive PAEA's 2006 "Master Faculty Award"

Ted J. Ruback, MS, PA-C, Associate Professor and Head of the OHSU Division of Physician Assistant Education, was selected to receive the 2006 "Master Faculty Award" presented by the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA). This prestigious national honor in PA education was established to recognize faculty who inspire, stimulate, and challenge their students and colleagues through outstanding contributions to PA education and the profession.

The PAEA selection committee chose Ted based on his long and exemplary record on behalf of PA education and the profession, and his longstanding efforts toward developing the centralized application service for physician assistants (CASPA). CASPA has been adopted as the application service utilized nationally for application to physician assistant programs. In addition, the selection committee considered Ted's outstanding contributions in teaching, administration, scholarship, and professional service, all of which have contributed greatly to the success of the OHSU program. PA program graduates have had a remarkable 100% passing rate on the national certifying examination for the past seven years, and the program has been listed in the top ten master's degree-level programs nationally by US News & World Report for the past four years. Ted will officially receive the award at the Annual PAEA meeting in Quebec City this October.

Radiation Medicine Visiting Faculty Presentation

On Friday, August 25, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. in HRC 14D03, the OHSU Department of Radiation Medicine presents "Management of Respiratory Motion in Radiotherapy." Steve B. Jiang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School, is the guest lecturer. Please call Christiane Crosby at 4-1998 if you have questions.

SOM Graduate Student Receives Heart Association Award

Sylvia Marie Nelsen, School of Medicine graduate student in the Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (PMCB) and OHSU researcher, is being awarded the 2006 Outstanding Pre-doctoral Fellowship Award from the American Heart Association Pacific/Mountain Affiliate. Sylvia received the top score of all Pre-doctoral fellowship applications submitted to this program for her proposal "Differential cleavage as a mechanism of tissue-specific regulation for BMP4in heart development." BMP4 is a signaling molecule that is required for normal development of many tissues, including the heart.

Sylvia is doing her thesis work with Jan Christian, Ph.D., Professor of Cell & Development Biology. Dr. Christian's lab has identified an upstream cleavage site in the precursor form of BMP4 that appears to be selectively cleaved in specific tissues. Cleavage of this site determines how much of the active signal is made and how far it can travel across a tissue. Sylvia is generating and studying a mouse model in which the gene for BMP4 has been altered such that the site is constitutively cleaved in all tissues. This is expected to be a gain of function mutation, and she will focus on analyzing how this affects development of the heart.

SOM Financial Affairs

Tom Flora, SOM Associate Dean of Finance, has announced Scott Rosenthal's promotion from Senior Financial Analyst to Assistant Dean for Finance. As Assistant Dean, Scott will undertake several new activities including emphasizing the accuracy of accounting activities within the Dean's Office and departments; coordinating a program to improve training and educational opportunities for SOM financial managers; and providing direct financial support to programs that cross administrative boundaries, such as our new efforts in regional education.

Kirsten Sandahl has joined the Dean's Office as an Accountant. She will be working with Scott Rosenthal on a variety of projects including overseeing daily financial transactions, preparing better reporting capability in the Dean's Office, and developing a financial database for better reporting to the departments. Kirsten is originally from Southern California and worked at the University of New Orleans before moving to Portland.

National Science Foundation Awards

School of Medicine graduate student Eric Stoffregen has received a 2006 Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Eric, who is completing his first year in the Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (PMCB), will begin his fellowship in fall term.

Five other SOM graduate students received Honorable Mentions from NSF for their applications this year: Kristine Alexander (PMCB), Melanie Laederich (PMCB), Julia Maxson (PMCB), Kalmia Smith (PMCB) and Melissa Hernandez (Neuroscience Graduate Program).

SOM New Faculty

A warm welcome to the following faculty members who have joined the School of Medicine between July 1 and July 31, 2006:

Matthew Giegengack, M.D., Instructor, Ophthalmology; Daniel J. Guillane, M.D., Assistant Professor, Neurological Surgery; Corey D. Judd, M.D., Instructor, Diagnostic Radiology; Ines P. Koerner, M.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; Steven A. Larsen, M.D., Instructor, Diagnostic Radiology; David S. Lee, M.D., Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine; Paul L. Leong, M.D., Instructor, Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery; James K. Liu, M.D., Instructor, Neurological Surgery; Lisa D. Madison, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Endocrinology; Garth D. Meckler, M.D., Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine; Shrinath K. Nadig, M.D., Instructor, Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery; Bonnie J. Nagel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; David M. Poetker, M.D., Instructor, Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery; Amar Y. Purandare, M.D., Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Radiology; Diana B. Rinkevich, M.D., Adjunct Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine; Sarah "Betsy" Rodriguez, M.D., Instructor, Gastroenterology; Donn H. Spight, M.D.; Instructor, General Surgery; Corey E. VanHove, M.D., Instructor, General Surgery; Tamara Wagner, M.D., Instructor, General Pediatrics; Beau Weill, M.D., Instructor, General Pediatrics; Andrea Willey, M.D., Instructor, Dermatology; Michael E. Yetter, M.P.A., PA-C, Instructor, Family Medicine; Eduardo daSilveira, M.D., Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology; Feridum Acar, M.D., Ph.D., Instructor, Neurological Surgery; Lynne M. Strasfeld, M.D., Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases; Susan T. Fee, M.N., N.P., Instructor, Surgery; Leah S. Bernard, M.D., Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology; Maurizio Buscarini, M.D., Instructor, Surgery, Urology; Brian P. Davidson, M.D., Instructor, General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics; Charlotte E. Moulton, M.S., CRNA, Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; Oleg I. Reznik, M.D., Instructor, Family Medicine; Ahmed F. Alshaarawi, M.S., CRNA, Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; Erin J. Anderson, M.S.N., P.N.P., Instructor, Surgery, Urology; Albert E. Ullman, D.O., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; J. Renee Segura, M.D., Instructor, General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics; Diane T. Angeluzzi, M.S.N., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; David S. Larsen, M.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; Joshua S. White, M.A., L.P.C., Instructor, Psychiatry; Anthony S. Cull, M.D., Assistant Professor, Psychiatry; Alexander C. Ching, M.D., Instructor, Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation; Scott J. Hein, M.D., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine; Jana Hulan, B.S.N., R.N., Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology; Michelle M. Isley, M.D., Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology; Pritham Y. Raj, M.D., Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics; Anne N. Tucker, Au.D., M.S., Instructor, Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery; Susan I. VanGorder, M.S., Instructor, Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine.

David Gonzales is "Author in the Room"

David H. Gonzales, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate in the Smoking Cessation Program, is lead author of "Varenicline, an α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, vs sustained-release bupropion and placebo for smoking cessation: a randomized controlled trial." The article was the lead article in the July 5th issue of JAMA.

The article was selected by the editor-in-chief of JAMA to be presented on a one-hour teleconference in a format similar to a radio call-in program. Steve Rennard, M.D. (2nd author) and Dr. Gonzales offered a summary presentation of the article, followed by call-in questions from the audience logged into the teleconference. The program was sponsored by JAMA and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and had the largest number of callers of any of the "Author in the Room" programs to date.

The citation is for the article follows: Gonzales D, Rennard SI, Nides M, Oncken C, Azoulay S, Billng CB, Watsky EJ, Gong J, Williams KE, Reeves KR, for the Varenicline Phase 3 Study Group. Varenicline, an α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, vs sustained-release bupropion and placebo for smoking cessation: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2006;206:47-55.