March 2009

Message from Dean Richardson: Education – our common denominator

The end of the school year is near, hooding and commencement are approaching, and I am freshly reminded of the importance of our educational mission. Frankly, we don’t highlight our education mission enough, nor is the education mission rewarded in ways commensurate with its importance.

The latter has to do with historical funding models and the dependence of the educational mission on state support. We are working to improve that situation, but that change won’t happen overnight.

Highlighting the importance of the educational mission, however, is something we can all do, and must do. One of my top priorities is to make sure that everyone – at OHSU and throughout Oregon – understands that education is our foundation. It is what connects us all. During March, I was privileged to take part in two events that vividly brought this point home: Match Day and the graduation ceremony of the first cohort of the Education Leadership Initiative.

For those of you who have participated in an annual Match Day, you know it is remarkable. On this one day, our graduating MD degree seniors, along with thousands of other seniors across the country, find out at the exact same time where they will spend the next several years doing their internship, residency or fellowship.

This year, our seniors gathered in the BICC Gallery with their friends, parents, partners, babies, toddlers, grandparents and more. Walking around the room, talking to the students and others during this exciting and emotional day was a testament not just to four years of hard work by our students, but also to the commitment and talent of our faculty who taught these students during the past four years.

The second event was the graduation of the first cohort of the Education Leadership Initiative. ELI was established last year based on the recommendation of a faculty strategic planning committee. Since then, nine faculty members have committed their time and intellectual energy to collaboratively learn new educational theories and models. Now, they will share this knowledge with faculty colleagues throughout the School and across all educational programs. Over time, as more faculty members participate in this initiative, it will provide a framework for continuous improvement of our educational mission. These graduates will become the teachers-of-the-teachers.

You’ll find details about Match Day and the ELI graduation in articles below, along with other articles – including a Q&A about the new Clinician-Educator academic rank series – highlighting just a small part of the many tremendous things occurring every day at the School of Medicine.

The School of Medicine is a large, complex institution; sometimes we don’t hear enough about the great happenings inside our own labs, classrooms or clinics. Please share your news with us. And thanks for everything you do to make OHSU a great institution.

Best regards,

Mark Richardson
Dean, OHSU School of Medicine
President, Faculty Practice Plan

P.S. Reminder:the School of Medicine hooding ceremony is Thursday, June 4. See article below for instructions on how to order regalia.

School of Medicine adopts new Clinician-Educator academic rank series

The School of Medicine has adopted a new Clinician-Educator series – a faculty promotional pathway that emphasizes clinical and teaching excellence. Robert Shangraw, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, answers questions about the new series below. Dr. Shangraw is the Chair of the School of Medicine’s Promotion & Tenure Committee.

Q: What is the new Clinician-Educator series? The Clinical prefix to Professor or Associate Professor may be used for primary faculty who are principally engaged in clinical service activities and fulfill a major role in the OHSU clinical enterprise. Promotion in the Clinician-Educator series depends upon benchmark achievement in teaching and service (administrative and/or clinical) but does not assess scholarship other than within the context of teaching or service. It is a non-tenured track.

Q: What are the advantages? The Clinician-Educator series is designed as an alternative pathway to recognize contributions of clinical faculty in the School of Medicine, which accounts for different professional environments for our faculty. The new series is in line with the School’s goal to provide a professional environment that broadens support for our faculty members’ career goals. It recognizes a professional path focused predominantly on clinical activity, and acknowledges that, as members of a teaching hospital and university, these faculty members play an essential role in medical education. Advancement through the Clinician-Educator series in lieu of the Traditional series is elective; that is, individual faculty members, in consultation with their department chair, choose whether it is the right pathway for them. It is flexible to address the possibility that a faculty member’s focus might change over time. One can change either way between the Traditional and the Clinician-Educator series once, as long as the change occurs at the time of proposed promotion in rank. While the new series is not for everyone, I think its availability is a step forward for the School of Medicine.

Q: Are there disadvantages? Not that I see. Some people were worried that this series might create a two-tier faculty ranking system. I don’t see that being the case at all. Rather, it simply recognizes that people are different and have different career preferences.

Q: Is there precedent for the new series? Yes. We already have a precedent for a prefixed series – our existing research series has been available for many years. The research series is designed for primary faculty members who elect to focus their effort on extramurally-funded research activity. As such, the only criterion for promotion in the research series is scholarship. Teaching and service are not directly reviewed, other than in the context of scholarship, by the Promotion & Tenure Committee for advancement through the Research series. The Clinician-Educator series is based on teaching and service, and scholarship is not directly reviewed other than in the context of teaching or service. The standards for teaching and service required for promotion do not differ from those in the Traditional series. The Research series is also untenured. The overall goal is to provide opportunities for faculty members to succeed and be recognized based on their career choices. Choice of the right series through which to seek academic advancement is an individual prerogative.

Q: How was the decision to adopt this new series made? Dean Richardson solicited a significant amount of faculty involvement in this decision. It started over a year ago with a mock debate on the topic at the annual all-faculty meeting. After that, an informal online poll of all primary faculty members in the School was conducted. The Dean asked the Promotion & Tenure Committee to assemble a set of guidelines to convert an abstract concept into a potential operational phase. Last summer and fall, School of Medicine department chairs and the faculty council, in sequence, were presented with these putative guidelines, and each body voted to adopt the new series.

Q: What’s the timing and process for applying for this new track? It is ready to go. The Clinician-Educator series has been approved by Dean Richardson and revisions to the Promotion & Tenure guidelines have been approved by the School of Medicine faculty council. The Promotion & Tenure Committee will review applications for this new series in the next academic cycle (2009-10) – the schedule is the same as it is every year for all applications, in every series. I predict there may be pent-up demand from our clinicians for this new track and anticipate a fairly large number of applications but the Promotion & Tenure Committee is ready for that.

Q: Where can I get more information? I encourage you to connect with the chair of your department’s Promotion & Tenure Committee for more information, including information about your department’s timetable for promotion. I will also be holding up to three brown-bag informational sessions in the spring and summer. To review the revised Promotion & Tenure guidelines and supporting information: click here.

Match Day Part 1: our graduating seniors

According to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), this was the largest Match in history: 29,890 applicants participated - 1,153 more than last year and 4,500 more than participated five years ago. More than half the participants in this year’s Match were U.S. medical school seniors (15,638), 400 more than in 2008.

Conducted annually by the NRMP, the Match uses a computer algorithm designed to produce favorable results for applicants that align the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs in order to fill the thousands of training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.

Here at home, the results of the Match are in: 32 OHSU School of Medicine graduates will remain at OHSU and eight others will remain in Oregon. Forty-four students will enter residency programs in other western states and the remaining 36 students will enter residency programs in Northeast, Midwest/Central and Southern states.

OHSU graduates continue to choose primary care residencies more frequently than their national counterparts. Forty-three percent of the class entered primary care residencies (medicine, family medicine and pediatrics), compared with a national average of 34.5 percent for those specialties.

One new trend – nationally and at OHSU – is the increasing number of couples. Altogether there were 788 couples in the national Match this year, an all-time high. Participants who enter the Match as a couple agree to have their rank order lists of preferred residency programs linked to each other to ensure that they match to programs within the same geographic area, for instance. This year, 706 of these couples both matched to their respective residency program preferences.

“The Match was a culmination of four years of hard work and determination combined with some luck,” said graduating OHSU senior Vincent Lew, who participated in a partner Match. “The Match process worked well for me, not only because I'm ecstatic about training in the Bay Area, but also because I couples-matched with my partner successfully.” Both will move to San Francisco.

Photo: Roundup from Match Day at OHSU. For more photos, check out the SoM Facebook Page: click here.

Match Day Part 2: our incoming residents

Match Day in March is also an exciting time for Graduate Medical Education (GME) in the School of Medicine. For 2009, all 20 OHSU programs participating in the Match filled their open slots for a total of about 150 new incoming residents. Each program commonly has a significant number of applicants. Pediatrics, for example, had 650 applicants and interviewed 131 for 13 positions. Internal Medicine had 1,482 applicants and interviewed 286 for 31 positions, while Surgery had 860 applicants and interviewed 134 for 17 positions.

Within days, many of these seniors eager to start the next step in their career were contacting the Dean’s office to gather information about housing, the city and the hiring process. The majority of new residents and fellows will arrive sometime in June for institutional and programmatic orientations and will begin training at the end of June. Approximately 80 additional residents and fellows will come to OHSU through programs not participating in the Match.

Photo: Michelle Burke hugs her husband-to-be, North Noelck, upon learning they both matched at OHSU in the NRMP partners match. Both are seniors at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

ARCS Chapter announces new graduate studies scholarships

The Portland Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation announced eight new scholarships for students pursuing graduate research work in the School of Medicine. The awards, which are three-year commitments of $6,000 each year, will be presented at the Chapter’s Scholar Awards Luncheon on October 20.

Making the announcement at a Chapter meeting on OHSU’s Marquam Hill campus in March, Chapter President Leslie Workman said that the new awards brought the Portland ARCS Foundation’s total scholarship contribution to OHSU to $794,000 since the Chapter’s founding in June, 2004. “This is a wonderful figure,” said Ms. Workman. “Now more than ever these students need our support and Chapter members continue to make this a priority, even in these challenging times.”

Al Lewy, MD, PhD, Richard H. Phillips Professor of Biological Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Mood Disorders Research Laboratory, continued the tradition of having an evening speaker at the Chapter’s meeting. A recipient of an MD/PhD scholarship early in his career, he acknowledged the importance of the Chapter’s role in supporting young researcher scientists.

“I’d like to thank the Portland ARCS Foundation Chapter for providing these substantial awards to our students,” said Dean Richardson, who also attended the event. “These awards make a big difference when it comes to recruiting the best graduate studies students to the School of Medicine.”

Photos: Chapter members discuss Dr. Lewy’s presentation at a reception and Chapter President Leslie Workman announces the new scholarships.

School of Medicine and OMSI partner in outreach initiative

The Office of the Dean facilitated a month-long educational outreach initiative in partnership with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in March.The outreach was conducted to complement the very successful OHSU Brain & Body Fair that was staged at OMSI in March by the OHSU Brain Institute.

OHSU clinicians, researchers and students weighed, measured, tested and educated hundreds of people in March, and demonstrated the importance of healthy eating on the brain, the impact of substance abuse on cognitive growth and development, and other topics. Some visitors allowed their participation in the activities to be collected as control group data for ongoing clinical trials.

“These are great opportunities for us to let members of the community know what is being done with NIH research dollars, and allow them to participate in and better understand the research process,” said William Cameron, PhD, Associate Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience. “Through this collaboration with OMSI, we were also able to collect some control data for our methamphetamine abuse study that would be much harder to obtain under regular circumstances.”

Photo: Jonathan Purnell, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology/Diabetes/Clinical Nutrition, explains study results to an exhibit visitor.

First cohort completes coursework of Education Leadership Initiative

A graduation reception honoring the nine faculty members who make up the first cohort of the Education Leadership Initiative program was held March 26. ELI, identified as a priority by the School of Medicine Faculty Engagement Committee in the 2007 strategic planning process, brings together faculty to discover and apply new ideas and approaches to learning. Graduates are asked to share the knowledge with their faculty colleagues and others to promote continued excellence in education across all programs and disciplines.

The graduates are: Nicole Deioro, MD, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics; Theresa Devere, MD, Assistant Professor, Dermatology; Dawn Dillman, MD, Associate Professor, Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine; Marian Fireman, MD, Associate Professor, Psychiatry; S. Humayun Gultekin, MD, Assistant Professor, Pathology; Holger Link, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics; Erica Mitchell, MD, Assistant Professor, Surgery, Vascular Surgery; Donald Rosen, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, and Lalena Yarris, MD, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine.

Addressing the ELI Scholars, Dean Richardson said, “Education is what connects us all. It is fundamental to our identity. Now, as teachers-of-the-teachers, you will help us improve how we educate students and how we all learn.” Dean Richardson thanked department chairs who had nominated and supported their faculty members during the ELI course, ELI instructors and Kris Wessel, PhD, ELI Director.

Photo: ELI Scholars at the graduation reception with Dr. Wessel

Update: federal stimulus funds

Information from the government regarding funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act continues to flow from Washington, DC. OHSU has mobilized quickly and has identified more than 50 potential funding programs in such departments as Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health & Human Services, Interior, Labor, Transportation and more. Significant opportunities are also available from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for research funding. A number of funding opportunities require institutional commitment and approval. For information about stimulus funding opportunities for research and questions about institutional commitment, please contact Associate Dean Mary Stenzel-Poore.

For regularly updated information about research opportunities: click here.

Applications for Presidential Bridge Funding – Due May 15

Applications for Presidential Bridge Funding for 2009-2010 are due by May 15, 2009. This year, changes to the application have been made in response to the funding climate. Specifically, there are two tracks for funding a component for investigators needing to retool their research (track 2), in addition to the traditional bridge funding (track 1) offered in years past. Awards will be made up to $50,000/year for one year; funds cannot be carried forward and must be spent by June 30, 2010. You may also request up to $10,000 in supplemental funds for research costs. Funding is for OHSU investigators only. For additional information: click here.

Dean Richardson discusses primary care at City Club event

Dean Richardson was one of four panelists at a recent evening roundtable sponsored by City Club of Portland. Speaking to an engaged audience of over 60, Dean Richardson was joined by J. Bart McMullan, Jr., MD, President, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon; Mark Kleinman, MD, Vice President and Associate Medical Director for Primary Care, Kaiser Permanente; and Lisa Snodderly, RN, Director, Regional Nursing Recruitment, Providence Health System.

“Primary care is the frontline of our health care system,” said Dean Richardson in his opening remarks. “Yet 60% of physicians say that they would not recommend medicine as a career to young people, and the same percentage of the students in the School of Medicine says that their educational debt is going to influence their choice of specialty.”

“Primary care is a calling, but the calling is being drowned out by competing interests,” agreed Dr. Kleinman.

Responding to questions from the audience about the need to expand the number of medical school graduates, Dean Richardson noted a constraining factor was actually the number of GME slots available in Oregon. “We have to link an increase in MD class size with a similar increase in the number of available residencies,” he said. “Otherwise we are just exporting our students to other states.”

All panelists agreed with Dr. McMullan on the need for an economic solution to the shortage and mal-distribution of primary care physicians, and the need to reward and stimulate primary care physicians to enter the profession.

Photo: Dean Richardson at the City Club-sponsored event, upper left with Dr. McMullan.

WAM works for child care at OHSU

The Childcare Advisory Council to OHSU Human Resources recently reported on the possibility of putting a child care center in vacant space at the South Waterfront. Startup funds would derive from an insurance settlement that OHSU is required to use "for the benefit and well-being of employees," not from the current OHSU budget.

Two faculty members from the OHSU Women in Academic Medicine (WAM) Committee have been involved in this process: Karen Eden, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology, and John Ng, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology. “Both Karen and John have been very engaged in this process and our Council has benefited from their perspectives,” said Lisa Carter, Communications Specialist for Human Resources.

Dr. Ng noted that he serves on the WAM Committee and is involved with issues related to campus child care due to his long-standing commitment to furthering the equality of women and men in as many areas as possible.

Currently, two child care organizations provide a discount to OHSU employees:click here. Additionally, benefit-eligible employees can participate in the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, which allows you to pay for qualifying child care expenses on a before-tax basis. For program details, see the online Program Selection Guide (p. 62): click here.

Discovery Spotlight: Kent Thornburg and David Barker

Research shows link between fetal environment and adult disease

It’s been shown that women who develop preeclampsia are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, and that their babies have higher blood pressure during childhood. What hasn’t been known are the long-term health risks for these children. A recent study by Kent Thornburg, PhD, and David Barker, MD, PhD, found these children are at increased risk for stroke later in life.

Dr. Thornburg is a Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, and Director of the OHSU Heart Research Institute. Dr Barker is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine.

“The most important message from these studies is that adversities in pregnancy, like high blood pressure in the mother, can lead to compromises in the fetus whereby vascular structures are in adequately formed in the womb. In addition, the expression of genes that regulate the integrity of vascular structure and function in the brain may be permanently altered by epigenetic mechanisms,” said Dr. Thornburg (pictured).

The study is currently published online and will be in the April edition of Stroke. The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation, and several Finnish medical societies and foundations. To read more:click here.

Education Spotlight: Ten years after graduation, a PA continues to “live the mission”

Ten years ago, Sheridan Tarnasky, PA-C, was finishing up her degree in Physician Assistant studies at the OHSU School of Medicine. But Tarnasky was nowhere near Portland as she headed toward graduation.

“I was in Bend, Corvallis, Albany, Depoe Bay, Hermiston…I can’t even remember where else. We had five-week rotations all over the state,” Tarnasky recalled. “You got such a variety, because everyone has their own way of practicing. By going to different communities and seeing what they had there, I learned how to practice in several different situations.”

Tarnasky, along with all members of the School’s Physician Assistant Program, embarked on a 14-month stretch of rotations in rural communities. The Physician Assistant Program was designed this way to achieve its mission: “to prepare physician assistants to provide primary care services to the medically underserved in rural and urban Oregon.” This mission is grounded in the 1992 origins of the program when the Oregon Legislature provided start-up funding.

Ted Ruback, Director of the PA program, developed a curriculum which differed from many other programs across the country. “We wanted to train our PAs to provide care to the medically underserved, including in rural and urban locations,” he said.

The 26-month PA program was (and still is) divided into two parts: the first 12 months spent primarily in lectures and laboratories at the Marquam Hill campus and the following 14 months in five-week clinical rotations. Tarnasky, 59, left her home in Heppner, Ore., to begin classes in Portland as a member of OHSU’s second class of physician assistants. Today, Tarnasky, a former ER nurse, is a practicing physician assistant in Heppner. “She is living the mission,” said Ruback. “Our students are doing their part in addressing the workforce needs of Oregon.”

In my view: “The trouble with the future is that it just ain’t what it used to be!”

Donald Girard, MD, J.S. Reinschmidt Professor of Medical Education, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean, GME and CME, offers his view on the new IOM recommendations for revised duty hours and workloads for medical residents.

The educational model used nationally to teach Graduate Medical Education (GME) was in large part set down by William Osler in the last part of the 19th century in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Is it time to step back and ask ourselves: should we keep trying to fix this model in bits and pieces or is it time to consider a new model better adapted to modern medicine? This question was raised anew for me recently when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) made a number of new recommendations after huddling with their membership – a group conspicuously devoid of physicians from the trenches of teaching hospitals.

Since 2003, residents have been required to adhere to a requirement that they not work more than 80 hours per week (averaged over four weeks). There are a number of corollaries to the requirements but that is the central one. The new IOM recommendations include changes in resident supervision, improved methods for transition of care, increased responsibility of the sponsoring institution to “sign off” on the fulfillment of requirements and, notably, more restrictions on the work routines of the residents.

At the 2009 annual Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) meeting in Grapevine Texas, Dr. Nasca, the head of ACGME, and his colleagues reported on the latest iteration of concerns about resident fatigue as it relates to patient safety. While the tenor of the presentation was collegial, there was unspoken but clear concern that these recommendations were not suggestions but mandates. Dr. Nasca concluded his remarks with a quote from Yogi Berra: “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”

I have to admit I did not grasp the relevance of the quote. I rose to the microphone and introduced myself. And I began my brief comment with another famous and arguably more appropriate Yogi Berra quote: “The trouble with the future is that it just ain’t what it used to be.”

I continued that I had served my internship now forty years ago. During that year, I was on call half the time every other night and half the time every third night. I reported to the audience that I had no beeper, there was no ICU, that patients stayed in hospital for weeks at a time as we coursed the outcomes of their illnesses. And I still remember that there was so much we could not do.

Fast forward those forty years to find that patients are now divided into two quite circumscribed groups: the ambulatory ones and those hospitalized. And among the latter, those in the wards or intensive care units are increasingly the same, horrifically ill. And the chapters of care are nearly endless. No patient can die in the hospital without having endless, technically-sophisticated procedures. In fact, the remarkable technological advances of these years quite certainly resulted in the establishment of “end of life care” and Hospice programs.

And yet our training programs continue to pave the residents’ curricula with the well-worn methods of Osler who established his experiences as the basis for “house officers and resident physicians.” Our current training programs have been modeled on experiences from decades and decades ago.

I concluded by thanking our leaders for their thoughtful presentations but returned to Yogi Berra’s warning: indeed the future just ain’t what it used to be and perhaps we should look closely at how we train our new generations of physicians.

Perhaps it is time to consider a brand new modern model for training as we pass the tenth year of the 21st century – and to reconsider this incremental "improvement" process that simply continues to pound a square peg into around hole; in other words, an educational model based on the clinical conditions of the 19th century.

Want to sound off? Contact Kathleen McFall at mcfallka@ohsu.edu to rent this space (just kidding, it's free).

OHSU: a 2008 media heavyweight

At the close of every year, OHSU Strategic Communications compiles and categorizes media coverage from the prior year. In 2008, OHSU had 10,516 known media mentions and appeared in the media, on average, 30 times a day and 894 times a month. Twenty-three percent of this media coverage was the direct result of a proactive OHSU news release.

Nationally, 37 percent of print and Internet coverage was about research and discoveries at OHSU. Twenty-three percent of the national coverage was OHSU faculty experts commenting on various health and science topics; 14 percent was on the business of OHSU; and clinical care and innovations accounted for nine percent of national coverage. OHSU was covered by the Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and others.

Locally, clinical care and innovations, including patients treated at OHSU, accounted for 21 percent of print and Internet coverage in the Portland area. The business of OHSU accounted for 33 percent of local print and Internet news coverage. OHSU faculty experts accounted for 11 percent of coverage, and research and discovery accounted for 8 percent of coverage locally.

For more information, contact Liana Haywood, OHSU Strategic Communications.

June 4! Save the date and order now! Regalia for School Hooding Ceremony

The School of Medicine Hooding Ceremony will be held at 9:00 am on June 4. Graduates from the School’s MD, MS and PhD programs will be hooded at the ceremony which also celebrates faculty teaching and student achievement. Faculty members are warmly invited to attend and, if they wish, to be part of the processional.This is a School of Medicine ceremony only. Degrees will be conferred by President Robertson at the OHSU Commencement ceremony held later that same day.

Faculty participating in the processional will need regalia. Regalia rental is offered through Royal-T. To order from the Web site:click here. Click on the faculty tab. Regalia must be ordered by Wednesday, April 22, 2009; no orders will be accepted after this date. Regalia distribution on Marquam Hill will occur on May 28, 10 am to 2 pm at the Old Library.

Questions? Contact Shelley Engle (engles@ohsu.edu) in the Office of the Dean.

Dr. Turner’s research ranked tenth in “Red Hot Research” for 2008

The work of Erick H. Turner, MD, and colleagues was ranked tenth for Red Hot Research Papers of 2008. This ranking is an indicator of the influence of the research based on the number of times the article is cited by other journal articles. The research, originally published in the January 17, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that the selective publication in reporting results of antidepressant trials exaggerates the effectiveness of the drugs. Dr. Turner is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Physiology & Pharmacology and Medical Director of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s Mood Disorders Program. For the Red Hot notice: click here (scroll down after linking). To read the OHSU media release about Dr. Turner’s work: click here.

Dr. Hanifin honored as National Eczema Association founder

The Department of Dermatology congratulates Jon Hanifin, MD, Professor Emeritus of Dermatology, who was honored by the National Eczema Association (NEA) on March 5, 2009, in San Francisco at its 20th Anniversary Gala. The Association was founded in 1988 by Hanifin with a group of patients, other medical professionals, and parents who decided they could do something more to make living with eczema easier. He served as its president until 1990 and still sits on its Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Committee.

When Dr. Hanifin arrived at OHSU in 1971, he began focusing his research and advocacy efforts on atopic dermatitis and the creation of NEA was a natural result of his passion. Since that time, he has played a central role both nationally and internationally in researching and advocating for atopic dermatitis. He has given named lectures all over the world and has authored more than 230 scientific articles and 44 book chapters.

Dr. Grady-Weliky elected board member of American College of Psychiatrists

Tana A. Grady-Weliky, MD, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Professor of Psychiatry, has been elected a board member of the American College of Psychiatrists. The American College of Psychiatrists is a not-for-profit honorary association dedicated to providing continuing education to its Members, promoting the latest advances in the specialty, and supporting the highest standards in psychiatry. Elevated to Fellowship in the College in 2009, Dr. Grady-Weliky served as Chair of the Laughlin Fellowship Selection Committee and as a Member of its Scientific Program Committee.

Dr. Wolfe appointed Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery

The Department of Surgery is pleased to announce that Bruce Wolfe, MD, has been appointed Vice Chair for Research of the Department of Surgery. Dr. Wolfe is a graduate of Stanford University and the St. Louis University School of Medicine. His surgical training was completed at St. Louis University and he did additional research training at Harvard Medical School. In 2005 he relocated to OHSU from the University of California Davis where he was Professor of Surgery.

Dr. Wolfe has devoted his surgical career to surgical nutrition and specifically obesity, including the surgical care of obese patients and related research, and has made many contributions to the advancement of the surgical treatment of obesity, including a demonstration of the benefits of laparoscopic surgery. Dr. Wolfe currently serves at the co-chair of the NIH research consortium on bariatric surgery, known as LABS. He has performed approximately 1000 bariatric surgical procedures in his career, as well as a wide variety of open and minimally invasive GI surgery.

Dr. Nigg joins Department of Psychiatry

The Department of Psychiatry is delighted to welcome Joel Nigg, PhD, to the faculty. Dr. Nigg joins the faculty as the head of the Division of Psychology. Dr. Nigg has moved his research program from Michigan State University to Portland. His research focus is in the area of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and has been continuously funded through NIH since 1997. Dr. Nigg has authored more than 70 scientific publications resulting from his efforts to understand the causes of ADHD, including his recent book: “What Causes ADHD?”

This outstanding research career is Dr. Nigg’s second career. Educated at Harvard, he went on to obtain his Masters in Social Work at the University of Michigan. Five years of clinical social work thoroughly grounded him in the reality of the suffering that patients with psychiatric illness endure. The desire to alleviate this suffering through scientific investigation propelled him to doctoral work. He obtained his PhD in psychology at the University of California at Berkeley in 1995 and did his clinical internship at University of Washington at Seattle subsequently accepting a faculty position at Michigan State. In addition to his research work he has been an active teacher and was the Director of Clinical Training for Psychology at Michigan State.

Drs. Haney and Marshall selected for USBJD Young Investigators Initiative

Elizabeth Haney, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology, and Lynne Marshall, ScD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, were selected to participate in the US Bone and Joint Decade Young Investigator Initiative. This initiative provides intensive mentoring with experienced investigators on grant writing through in-person workshops sponsored by the USBJD. The workshop was in Chicago on March 27-29.

Dr. McCarty receives 2009 Karl Link New Investigator Award

Owen J. McCarty, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, has been awarded the 2009 Karl Link New Investigator Award in Thrombosis for a paper published in the Journal of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. The paper, “The Thrombin Mutant W215A/E217A Acts as a Platelet GPIb Antagonist,” was selected as most outstanding paper for 2008 in the Thrombosis section of the Journal. Dr. McCarty will be recognized by the ATVB Council at a ceremony in Washington, DC in April.

OHSU counselor tours with memoir of Laos imprisonment

Bounsang Khamkeo, a behavioral health counselor at the OHSU Avel Gordly Center for Healing, is an addictions treatment expert and offers behavioral health counseling in Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Haka), Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, French and English. He grew up in Laos but left at the age of seventeen to study in France. Thirteen years later, in 1973, he returned to his homeland and was imprisoned. “I Little Slave” is an account of his seven-year struggle in prison to stay alive and keep sane in spite of harsh physical privation and endless psychological abuse. Throughout April, Khameko will be touring with the book with speaking engagements set for Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Voice of America, and Georgetown University. A Grand Rounds will be organized by the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU later in the year.

OHSU breaks into Top 50 ranking as best place to work for post-docs

According to the March 2009 issue of The Scientist, OHSU came in 27th in the top 50 institutions as the best place to work for post-docs. This publication and surveys done through The Scientist are nationally recognized and often help predict future attractiveness to graduate students, staff and faculty. OHSU has never been on this list before.

Welcome new faculty

A warm welcome to new faculty whose appointments became effective during the previous month, listed in alphabetical order.

Christopher L. Amling, MD, Professor-Provisional, Surgery, Urology

Victor Z Han MD, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Physiology & Pharmacology

Regina-Maria Renner, MD, Instructor, Obstetrics & Gynecology