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Message from the DeanClass profiles MS-1 student's amazing storySummer Equity ProgramDr. Girard named to endowed professorshipUpdate: Faculty Fundraising Initiative Dr. Saha's diversity study in JAMADiscovery Spotlight: Misha Pavel, PhD Dean's office partners with homeless group Drs. Anderson and Habecker named to Study SectionsDr. Grant to give Mark Keller LectureDr. Warden named EMS Medical Director of the yearDr. Cohen named to ASA delegationMary Masterson honoredWelcome new faculty
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September 2008
Message from Dean Richardson: The privilege of teaching and the “virtuous cycle”
 Greetings and welcome to the September School of Medicine Newsletter.
This fall, we welcome more than 200 new students to our
medical, physician assistant and graduate studies programs. As described in the articles below, our students are an exceptional group. Most are from Oregon, including rural Oregon, but some are from other states and countries too. Several have overcome serious obstacles to reach this point in their professional lives. Some are older students rediscovering an interest in health sciences while others are fresh from their undergraduate education.
Their efforts and commitment to their chosen profession are extraordinary. That's why they are at the OHSU School of Medicine. All of our faculty members who invest their time, passion and creativity in teaching this next generation of providers and scientists are also extraordinary. That's what makes OHSU such an exceptional place. Education is the foundation of what we do, no matter where it takes place: in the hospital or clinic, in the lab, in classrooms or in non-traditional settings.
I have already met many of our students and look forward to meeting the rest over the coming months. Their enthusiasm inspires me, instills optimism and helps me remain connected to my original motivations for entering medicine over two decades ago. Their commitment illuminates a desire for, and belief in, a brighter future for health care. Like them, I believe that the health care world of tomorrow, including academic medicine, will be a very different place than today’s world. In the School of Medicine, we are already participating in this evolution.
This month, the journal Academic Medicine dedicated the entire issue to the “Changing Face of Academic Health Centers.” The articles point to “important evolutionary trends as described by leaders at ten academic health centers.” The journal's guest editor, Steven A. Wartman, MD, PhD, President and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers, writes in a prologue:
“In more than 50 visits to the nation's academic health centers during the past three years, I have seen firsthand the management and leadership challenges that are changing fundamentally the ways in which these organizations operate. These challenges have catalyzed a remolding of the academic health center from an ivory tower to a complex business enterprise that captures the power of a virtuous cycle, whereby clinical revenue and academic performance support each other by being strategically and tactically aligned. The virtue is that each makes the other better.”
Like our peer institutions, we are making steady progress to reshape and reinvigorate the School of Medicine to position ourselves to excel in the changing health care landscape. For instance, this past month, the OHSU Medical Group Board of Directors approved a plan to integrate the clinical practice into the School of Medicine. Among other expected outcomes, this move will help better align the research, clinical and education missions and potentially provide new collaborative opportunities for faculty.
The articles in Academic Medicine don’t reveal a one-size-fits-all model for medical schools but they do indicate the degree of thoughtful change underway throughout academic medicine. While the OHSU School of Medicine is not featured in Academic Medicine (yet), given what we have successfully undertaken thus far and how much we will undoubtedly accomplish in coming months and years, we share much in common with these evolving institutions.
Best regards,
Mark Richardson
Dean, OHSU School of Medicine
Note: The OHSU Library carries Academic Medicine in both print and electronic versions.
Click here for more information about OHSUMG/SoM integration.
Snapshot: Profiles of our 2008 entering classes
OHSU School of Medicine entering students in the Graduate Studies Program, the MD Program and the Physician Assistant Program are settling into their classes and studies. Below are demographic profiles for the new students in each program for 2008.
The Graduate Studies Program admitted 119 new students seeking Masters or Doctorate degrees. Of these, 52 are from Oregon, 57 are from others states and 10 are international. Ninety-five students are entering after finishing their Baccalaureate degree with the remainder having earned higher level degrees. Fifty-eight percent of the class is female. The average age is 26. The program this year saw a rise in the number of students identifying themselves as belonging to ethnic minorities – 10 percent of the incoming class.
After evaluating over 4,440 applications, the MD Program admitted 115 students. Ninety-four of the students are entering after completing their Baccalaureate degree with 20 students having already earned a Masters degree and one a Doctorate. Sixty-seven of the students are from Oregon with 15 of these from rural Oregon. Fifty-five percent of the class is female. Like the Graduate Studies program, the average student age is 26. The MD Program admitted 21 students with diverse backgrounds – defined in the MD admissions process as variance in ethnicity/race but also including other factors such as socio-economic and educational challenges.
Of note in the MD program this year, 41 of the admitted students were previous applicants. This is nearly twice the number of successful re-applicants from last year. The Office of Admissions regularly works with students whose applications were initially declined to strengthen their re-application. More students are taking advantage of this service.
The Physician Assistant Program, whose incoming 36 students began classes in June, experienced a 26 percent increase in its applicant pool over the 2007 year, resulting in a very competitive selection year. The class is 67 percent female. With an average age of 27 years old, the students represent the youngest group of students since the program started in 1995. Five students self-reported a status as ethnic minority or disadvantaged.
Khloth Lim, MS-1, overcomes extraordinary challenges on path to med school
 Born in Cambodia during that country’s genocidal war, Lim grew up with his family in a forced-labor camp.
As the School of Medicine continues to expand its focus on diversity, several programs are in place to increase the number of students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. One such program is the Post-Baccalaureate Conditional Acceptance MD Program.
The program offers the potential for an alternative pathway to medicine for identified disadvantaged – particularly economically or educationally disadvantaged – students whose traditional medical school applications were declined. Oregon residents who enroll in the program are put through the paces of an intensive three-term course designed to improve study skills, develop and enhance a foundation in science and prepare students for the rigors of medical school.
This year, three students matriculated into the MD class of 2012 through the post-baccalaureate program.
One of these students, 33-year-old Khloth Lim, faced extraordinary challenges in his path to medical school. Born in Cambodia during that country’s genocidal war, he grew up with his family in a forced-labor camp. He fled with his father, stepmother and siblings in 1987, landing in Portland as an 11-year-old refugee. They settled in Hillsboro where Lim struggled to learn English while making headway in his studies. “Eventually, I just learned to get by,” Lim says. “I figured out how to pass without ever really learning how to read or write in English.”
Lim continued to skirt his literacy issues throughout his undergraduate studies by purposefully avoiding reading and writing classes throughout college. He had success in science and math classes and during his senior year in college discovered that he wanted to become a doctor. As part of the application process, he took the MCAT. He did very well on the science portions of the test, but repeatedly failed the verbal portion.
Lim knew he had to address his language barrier, and so he enrolled in literature and creative writing classes. “I made my way through the classics, like Charles Dickens, and eventually it began to make sense,” he says. “I started to understand what a run-on sentence is, and how to write persuasively.”
With his new knowledge – and a higher MCAT verbal score – in hand, Lim reapplied to OHSU. His traditional application was denied, but his application to the Post-Baccalaureate Conditional Acceptance Program was accepted. “I probably never would become a doctor without this program,” Lim says. “It’s going to be the toughest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m so excited.”
Summer Equity Program: Feeding the pipeline for the Graduate Studies Program
 The OHSU Graduate Studies’ Equity Summer Research Program is an eight- to ten-week research internship for undergraduate students who have experienced significant economic, cultural, ethnic or family disadvantage during their educational career.
Six students were selected to participate in the 2008 program, along with two students who had previously participated and were invited back, at their mentors’ expense, to join the group again this year. The students came from as far away as Puerto Rico and as close as Portland State University.
Students worked with mentors in their lab setting and attended weekly seminars and meetings with fellow students and faculty to discuss ongoing research. They also received advice about their individual career pathway from faculty. Participants in the program this year were:
Students: Pictured above, Jonetta Blum (George Fox University); Jessica Hadwin (University of Washington); Bakshander Kaur (California State University, East Bay); Ann Oluloro (University of Oregon); Shereen Sherman (George Fox University); Josh Smith (University of California, Riverside); Not pictured: Carla Rodriguez (University of Puerto Rico); Phoebe Smitasin (Portland State University).
Faculty Mentors: Chris Cunningham, PhD, Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience; Betsy Ferguson, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, ONPRC; Deborah Finn, PhD, Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience; Robert Hitzemann, PhD, Professor and Chair, Behavioral Neuroscience; Bonnie Nagel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience; Jacob Raber, PhD, Associate Professor, Behavioral Neuroscience and Neurology; Francis Valiyaveetil, PhD, Assistant Professor, Physiology & Pharmacology; and Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, Professor and Interim Chair, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology.
Donald Girard, MD, named Reinschmidt Professor
 Donald Girard, MD, Associate Dean for Continuing and Graduate Medical Education, has been named the first recipient of the newly created J.S. “Dutch” Reinschmidt Professorship for Medical Education.
The Professorship is named in honor of the life and works of J.S. “Dutch” Reinschmidt, MD, a longtime member of the School of Medicine faculty who dedicated his service to the art of educating physicians throughout their careers and to improving health care access in rural Oregon. As a member of the OHSU community, he continued to work on behalf of these interests for 30 years, until his death in 1998.
Responding to this appointment, Dr. Girard said, “I am deeply honored. On a personal level, Dutch was my hero, mentor, advisor and dear colleague. He was greatly admired by all who knew him for the vision, integrity and dedication he brought to his work. I hope to carry on his traditions.”
The professorship was established through the collective efforts of Reinschmidt’s widow, Maxine Reinschmidt, the Oregon Medical Association, the Sommer Memorial Trust and John A. Benson, MD, dean emeritus. Additional support and leadership was provided by Joseph D. Bloom, MD, Dean Emeritus, John Kendall, MD, Dean Emeritus, and Edward J. Keenan, PhD, Associate Dean for Medical Education. Click here to read the full announcement.
Update: Faculty Fundraising Initiative “needs assessment”
OHSU is preparing to undertake an important fundraising initiative emphasizing faculty retention and development, one of the six primary five-year goals of Vision 2020. The first step in this process was a philanthropic “needs assessment” – a systematic approach to outlining how private support can advance both the institution and the School of Medicine.
The needs assessment in the School of Medicine began with a request from the Office of the Dean to each department to identify priorities where philanthropy could play a unique role. Dean Richardson then facilitated a collaborative process by which chairs and other school leaders reviewed and discussed all the identified priorities collectively and then ranked them based on how they could best serve the School of Medicine as a whole and/or multiple departments.
During this process, School leaders articulated 24 projects/resource needs with an associated funding total of about $230 million. There was unanimous agreement that a large component of the fundraising initiative should be reserved for Faculty Endowments for Excellence.
The next step in the institution-wide needs assessment will be a review by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) led by President Joe Robertson of the individual results from Schools, Centers, Institutes and the Research Council. The ELT will announce priority decisions for fundraising in October. The OHSU Foundation will then test them within the philanthropic community to realistically gauge donor interest for each identified priority. This input will help shape the fundraising initiative for faculty support that will begin in early 2009.
Somnath Saha’s study on diversity published in JAMA
A study authored by Somnath Saha, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, has provided strong evidence that students consider themselves better prepared to care for minority populations if they have been part of a diverse class in medical school with high levels of interracial interaction.
The study also examined self-reported data about attitudes to access and equity in care, and intent to practice in underserved areas. Along with other findings, Dr. Saha reported that white students attending significantly diverse classes were more likely to endorse the concept of equitable access to health care.
Although similar educational benefits have been researched and observed in undergraduate institutions, this is one of the few studies that has looked closely at the experience of medical students. Dr. Saha and colleagues at the University of Colorado and the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA analyzed data from over 20,000 students who graduated from allopathic medical schools in 2003 and 2004. The study results were reported in the print edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association on September 10. Click here for more information.
Discovery Spotlight: Misha Pavel, PhD
 New Division Head charts course to a future where biomedical engineering stands shoulder to shoulder with clinical care.
Recently appointed Head of the Division of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Science & Engineering, Misha Pavel, PhD, envisions a future in which the Division is differentiated from similar units at other schools by its close relationship to clinical care.
“Technology is likely to be a critical component of any solution to our national and even global crisis in health care,” says Dr. Pavel. “We are defining a new biomedical engineering discipline where engineers, biologists and computer scientists work shoulder to shoulder with their clinical colleagues to combat health care problems and improve quality of care.”
The high cost of technology is often cited as a factor in driving up health care costs overall but one of the Division’s goals is to help make technology more effective but less expensive when applied in the trenches – at the point-of-care. An important aspect of meeting this goal will be to provide clinically relevant curriculum in the educational process to help future physicians more effectively deploy biomedical engineering and computational techniques into their decision-making.
Dr. Pavel’s own research reflects this vision of a marriage between engineering and clinical care. His focus is on aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Several years ago, he and his colleagues from multiple disciplines began to collaboratively investigate technological approaches to care for elders that would keep them independent and maintaining a high quality of life.
The approach relies on minimally obtrusive but continuous monitoring devices with sophisticated algorithms to detect and track changes in activities and behaviors relating to cognitive and functional decline. This monitoring holds promise for helping elders overcome the decline associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases and maintain their independence.
For example, a “smart cane” senses movements and forces for monitoring balance issues. In addition, it beeps if it is not used when the elder is moving about. “My father broke his hip when he forgot to use his walker one day and fell,” says Dr. Pavel. “Smart devices such as the cane can remind the user that they need assistance when walking or alert remote caregivers that something has happened if it has not been used for a period of time.”
The key to the success of this approach is the ability to formalize and precisely represent the processes that underlie human cognition, perception and action. “To make early intervention possible these devices have to incorporate statistical pattern recognition techniques that build computational models of brain function and detect the subtlest of behavioral changes,” Dr. Pavel says.
Dr. Pavel is part of the Oregon Consortium on Aging and Technology (ORCATECH). Already, ORCATECH has several research projects utilizing this type of technology underway.
“We are fortunate that Misha is willing to step into this demanding leadership role, which has been filled so well and so graciously by Tamara Hayes, PhD, during the interim period,” says Ed Thompson, PhD, Chair, Department of Science & Engineering. “He is already working with his faculty to craft the vision that will keep the Division at the forefront of the drive to deliver workable technological solutions to tomorrow’s health care providers.”
Dr. Pavel was born in the former Czechoslovakia and received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from New York University and his MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He joined OGI in 1993. During a leave of absence, Dr. Pavel was a Technology Leader at AT&T Laboratories in Menlo Park, California, where he was developing networked, wireless and mobile applications for information access and context-aware interactions. Previously, Dr. Pavel was a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories. Dr. Pavel is the author of more than 80 technical and scientific papers.
Dean’s “Do-IT” Team calculates school supplies drive success
The Dean’s office Involvement Team (Do-IT) worked with downtown Portland’s Central City Concern (CCC) to provide sorely needed back-to-school supplies. At the top of CCC’s list were the Ti-83 advanced graphing calculators that the 12 high-school students living in CCC’s drug and alcohol-free family housing program needed for their math curriculum. In addition to contributions of workbooks, backpacks and scissors, Dean’s office staff contributed a total of six calculators, valued at about $100 each.
With six calculators in hand, Do-IT Steering Committee members suggested CCC apply for a matching grant from the SW Portland Rotary Charitable Trust. The Trust board approved the grant in time for CCC to purchase an additional six calculators bringing the total to the needed 12.
“These calculators, though costly, have enormous value to the students,” said Jennifer “Mac” McDonald, Development Officer for Central City Concern. “Not only are they important academically, but it makes a big difference for the students to start out the school year with the proper tools they need to be successful.”
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