What's on My Mind
What’s on my mind this month is the vital support we receive from the Maryland General Assembly.Last month, a delegation of medical students and faculty members traveled with me to Annapolis to express thanks for that support and to communicate our hopes and priorities for the current legislative session. We met one-on-one with key lawmakers to explain how continued legislative support will allow the School of Medicine to continue its growth as a top-tier research institution, healthcare provider, and educator for Maryland’s workforce of physicians and allied health professionals.
This year our priorities include approval of accelerated funding for the School of Medicine’s new research building and support for cancer programs and student loan assistance programs:
Priority 1: Accelerated Support for a New Research Building—Health Sciences Facility III (HSF III):
Last year, we received $4 million in matching funds to kick-start this critical project, which will provide space to dramatically expand our research enterprise—already one of the fastest growing in the nation. We are incredibly grateful for this support, which will allow us to move forward with preliminary architectural work. However, under the current schedule we would not receive additional funding for HSF III until 2015. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, we are one of the most efficient institutions in the nation when it comes to the use of our existing space. The fact is we are already out of research space. This lack of space will impede faculty recruitment and retention, and hamper our growth. Therefore, we have respectfully urged legislators to accelerate capital funding for HSF III with an appropriation of $10 million that would once again be matched with institutional dollars. The economic impact will be significant, including the creation of more than 3,000 new construction jobs, 800 ongoing jobs and $400 million in economic activity over the life of the project.
Priority 2: Increased Funding for Cigarette Restitution Funding (CRF) to Support UM Cancer Programs:
We have urged lawmakers to support the $10 million funding level the legislature previously mandated to support and expand University of Maryland cancer research programs. With CRF support, we have increased capacity within the community to identify and address cancer and tobacco-related diseases to foster prevention, treatment and access to clinical trials. The CRF helped the University of Maryland create a strong cancer disparities clinical program with more than a third of our patients being African American and nearly half of them participating in clinical trials at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center. CRF funds enable us to retain and recruit highly skilled faculty physicians and outstanding scientists in new areas of focus, including cancer genomics, personalized medicine and HIV-related cancers.
Priority 3: Support for Loan Assistance Repayment Programs (LARP) and Scholarships: Heavy debt assumed during medical school often presents a formidable challenge to new physicians entering the workforce. The average debt for the School of Medicine graduating class of 2011 exceeded $135,000. Such debt makes it difficult for graduates to pursue careers in primary care or precludes new physicians from working in underserved communities. With few scholarships available, it is more important than ever for legislators to support loan assistance repayment programs for our graduates.LARPs provide an important incentive to encourage new physicians to specialize in primary care and to locate in rural and underserved areas of Maryland.
The support of the Maryland General Assembly is crucial to our success as we continue to face economic challenges and intense competition from peer institutions. Legislative Day in Annapolis is an important vehicle for our institution to communicate directly with state legislators, so that they may help us achieve our goals. I would like to thank the faculty and students who participated in this important annual advocacy event.
In the relentless pursuit of excellence, I am
Sincerely yours,
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Grants and Contracts
Gregory Carey, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Center for Vascular & Inflammatory Diseases, received a two-year, $354,967 UH2 grant award from the National Cancer Institute for his project entitled “Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in B Lymphoma Fate.”
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, professor, Department of Pediatrics and director, Center for Families, received a two-year $629,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for his work entitled “The Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) Model for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect.”
Seth Himelhoch, MD, MPH, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a three-year, $418,500 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for his work entitled “HEART to HAART: Smartphone Intervention to Improve HAART Adherence for Drug Users.”
Julie Kreyenbuhl, PharmD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a three-year, $453,755 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for her project entitled “A Smartphone Intervention to Improve Adherence to Antipsychotic Medications.”
Alicia Lucksted, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a three-year, $865,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for her project entitled “RCT to Improve Internalized Stigma and Services Engagement among People with SMI.”
Eric Slade, PhD, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a two-year, $275,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for his project entitled “Estimating Mental Health Expenditures Using National Household Survey Data.”
Publications
Hats off to those who have been published!
Samuel Angiuoli, PhD, director of Software Engineering; Malcolm Matalka, Kevin Galens, Mahesh Vangala, David Riley, Cesar Arze and James Robert White, PhD, bioinformatics software engineers; Owen White, PhD, professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and associate director of Bioinformatics; and
W. Florian Fricke, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, all also from the Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored “CloVR: A Virtual Machine for Automated and Portable Sequence Analysis From the Desktop Using Cloud Computing,” in BMC Bioinformatics, 2011 Aug 30; 12(1):356.
Mark Eppinger, PhD, research associate, and Jacques Ravel, PhD, associate professor, both from the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute for Genome Sciences (where Dr. Ravel is also associate director of Genomics), co-authored an article entitled, “Phylogeography and Molecular Epidemiology of Yersinia pestis in Madagascar,” in PLoS Neglected and Tropical Diseases; 2011 Sept;5(9): e1319 [Epub ahead of print]. Dr. Ravel also co-authored “Biosynthesis of the Apoptolidins in Nocardiopsis sp. FU 40,” in Tetrahedron, 2011, Sept 2;67(35):6568-6575; “Impacts of Poultry House Environment on Poultry Litter Bacterial Community Composition,” in PLoS One; 2011 Sept 16;6(9):e24785 [Epub ahead of print]; and “Evaluation of a Transposase Protocol for Rapid Generation of Shotgun High-throughput Sequencing Libraries from Nanogram Quantities of DNA,” in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011 Nov;77(22):8071-9. Epub 2011 Sept 23.
Michael Bond, MD, assistant professor, and Daniel Lemkin, MD, MS, assistant professor, both from the Department of Emergency Medicine, published an article titled “The Orthopedic Literature 2009,” in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2011 Oct;29(8):943–953.
Richard Colgan, MD, associate professor and director of Medical Student Education, and Mozella Williams, MD, assistant professor and Assistant Director of Medical Student Education, both from Department of Family & Community Medicine, co-published an article entitled “Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Pyelonephritis” in American Family Physician, 2011 Sept 1;84(5):519-26. They also co-published an article entitled “Diagnosis and Treatment of Uncomplicated Cystitis” in American Family Physician, 2011 Oct 1;84(7):771-6.
Elliott Drabek, PhD, bioinformatics software engineer; Heather Huot Creasy, bioinformatics analyst; Sean Daugherty, bioinformatics analyst; Ivette Santana-Cruz, bioinformatics analyst; and Luke Tallon, scientific director, all from the Institute for Genome Sciences, as well as Patrik Bavoil, PhD, professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Chair of the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis at the School of Dentistry, and Garry Myers, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored “Genome Sequences of the Zoonotic Pathogens Chlamydia Psittaci 6BC and Cal10” in the Journal of Bacteriology, 2011 Aug;193(15):4039-40. Dr. Myers was the senior author. Creasy, Daughterty, Dr. Bavoil and Dr. Myers also co-authored an article entitled, “Genome Sequence of the Obligate Intracellular Animal Pathogen Chlamydia Pecorum E58,” in the Journal of Bacteriology, 2011 Jul;193(14):3690.
Gary Fiskum, PhD, the M. Jane Matjasko Professor for Research and Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Anesthesiology, and Tiffany Greco, PhD, a recent graduate of the GPILS Molecular Medicine program, published “Sulforaphane Inhibits Mitochondrial Permeability Transition and Oxidative Stress” in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2011 Dec 15;51(12):2164-71.
Ronald Gartenhaus, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine and Program in Oncology, was a senior author on “The Novel Anti MEK Small Molecule AZD6244 Induces BIM-dependent and AKT Independent Apoptosis in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma,” published in Blood, 2011 Jul 28;118(4):1052-61. Bojie Dai, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Program in Oncology, was a co-author.
Geoffrey Girnun, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and the Program in Oncology published “PGC1a Promotes Tumor Growth by Inducing Gene Expression Programs Supporting Lipogenesis” in Cancer Research, 2011 Nov;(71):6888-6898. Co-authors included Kavita Bhalla, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Program in Oncology, and Hong Bin Fang, PhD, associate professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health.
David Jerrard, MD, associate professor, and Rose Chasm, MD, assistant professor, both from the Department of Emergency Medicine, published “Patients Leaving Against Medical Advice from the Emergency Department: Disease Prevalence and Willingness to Return,” in The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2011 Oct;41(4):412-7.
Benjamin Lawner, DO, EMT-P, assistant professor, and J.V. Nable, MD, EMT-P, third-year resident, both from the Department of Emergency Medicine, were co-authors of the article “Ambulance Diversion and Emergency Department Offload Delay: Resource Document for the National Association of EMS Physicians Position Statement,” which was published in Pre-Hospital Emergency Care, 2011 Oct-Dec;15(4):555-61.
Xinyue Liu, bioinformatics software engineer; Luke Tallon, scientific director; Lisa Sadzewicz Deshong, PhD, administrative director; Abhishek Pratap, bioinformatics software engineer; Sandra Ott, research specialist; and Naomi Sengamalay, program manager; all from the Institute for Genome Sciences, and Claire Fraser-Liggett, PhD, professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology and director, Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored “Genetic Deletion of trkB.T1 Increases Neuromuscular Function,” in The American Journal of Physiology—Cell Physiology, 2012 Jan;302(1):C141-53. [Epub 2011 Oct 5]. Dr. Fraser-Liggett and Emmanuel Mongodin, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, also co-authored an article entitled, “Pervasive Recombination and Sympatric Genome Diversification Driven by Frequency-Dependent Selection in Borrelia Burgdorferi, the Lyme Disease Bacterium,” in Genetics, 2011 Nov;189(3):951-66.
Terrence Mulligan, DO, MPH, assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, is the co-author of the position paper “International Federation for Emergency Medicine Model Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Specialists,” which was published in the October issue of Emergency Medicine Australasia. He is also lead author of an accompanying editorial titled “Recognizing the Common End-Point of Different Emergency Medicine Specialty Training Curricula,” published in the same issue. The position paper, compiled by the Core Curriculum and Education Committee for the International Federation for Emergency Medicine, was also published in the March issue of the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine and the June issue of the African Journal of Emergency Medicine. It has been accepted for simultaneous publication in Emergencias (Spain), the Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine, the Thai Emergency Medicine Journal, and the Israeli Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Brian Polster, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Anesthesiology was the senior author of “Adaptation of Microplate-Based Respirometry for Hippocampal Slices and Analysis of Respiratory Capacity” in Journal of Neuroscience Research; 89:1979-1988. Co-authors included Rosemary Schuh, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Neurology; Pascaline Clerc, PhD and Zara Mehrabian, PhD, postdoctoral fellows, Department of Anesthesiology; and Hegang Chen, PhD, associate professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health.
Pablo Rabinowicz, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Maximo Rivarola, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, both from the Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored “Stemming Epigenetics in Marine Stramenopiles,” in Current Genomics, August, 2011;12(5):357-70.
Kristi Silver, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, was a co-author on “Chronic Stress and Decreased Physical Exercise: Impact on Weight for African-American Women” in Ethnicity & Disease, 2011;22(2), the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks.
Hervé Tettelin, PhD, associate professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored “Genomes of Streptococcus Mitis, Streptococcus Oralis, and Streptococcus Infantis” and “The Aggregatibacter Actinomycetemcomitans Genome: Diversity of Pathogenic Potential.” Both are book chapters that were published in Oral Microbial Communities: Genomic Inquiry and Interspecies Communication, ASM Press, August 2011. Dr. Tettelin and Nikhil Kumar, research specialist; David Riley, bioinformatics software engineer; and Julie Dunning Hotopp, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, all from the Institute for Genome Sciences, co-authored an article entitled, “Whole Genome Association Study on Tissue Tropism Phenotypes in Group A Streptococcus,” in the Journal of Bacteriology, 2011 Dec;193(23):6651-63. [Epub 2011 Sep 23].
Appointments
We applaud our colleagues on their recent appointments!
Debra Counts, MD, associate professor, has been appointed associate chair of Clinical Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics. In this new departmental position, Dr. Counts will provide medical director leadership for the subspecialty clinics and will lead outpatient clinic operations, outpatient clinical care, and patient-satisfaction initiatives; ensure full compliance with regulations and guidelines set forth by relevant governing and regulatory bodies involved in all patient care activities; provide leadership in developing mechanisms for evaluating and reporting divisional clinical productivity and effectiveness; assist the department chair in strategic planning and clinical expansion, and handle all other matters related to inpatient and outpatient clinical activities.
Michael Donnenberg, MD, professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology, was appointed to serve as a member of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step-3 Chronic Illness and Ongoing Conditions Test Material Development Committee. The USMLE is responsible for producing the licensing examination for allopathic physicians in the United States. Dr. Donnenberg’s initial term is for two years and began in January 2012.
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, professor, Department of Pediatrics and director, Center for Families, has been elected president of the Ray Helfer Society, an international honorary society of physicians working in the field of child abuse. His term runs from 2011–2013.
Brenda Hussey-Gardner, PhD, MPH, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, has been nominated as chair of the Maryland State Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC). The SICC is established in accordance with the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Part C). The mission of the SICC is to advise and assist the lead agency (Maryland State Department of Education) in administering, promoting, planning, coordinating and improving the early childhood intervention and education system of services.
Henry York, MD, assistant professor, Department of Neurology, was elected to a two-year term as secretary-treasurer of the Maryland Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in December 2012.
In the News
A job well done to all who have kept us in the media spotlight!
John Cole, MD, MS, associate professor, Department of Neurology, was quoted in the article “Smoking Causes Stroke to Occur a Decade Earlier, Ottawa Study Suggests,” written by Anne-Marie Tobin for The Canadian Press, online edition, posted 10/2/2011.
Julie Hotopp, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, was interviewed by BBC World Service on August 9, 2011. The article—entitled “Super Mouse Evolves Resistance to Most Poisons”—appeared in the Science & Environment section.
Mark Eppinger, PhD, research associate, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, was interviewed by LiveScience magazine about a new study reporting on the reconstruction of the blueprint of a plague genome from a medieval plague victim. The article, entitled “Black Death Is Grandmother of All Modern Plague,” was published on October 12, 2011. Dr. Eppinger was one of the lead authors who published the global bacterial family tree in November 2010, a breakthrough study that allowed for the first time comparison of modern day extant isolates to an ancestral plague genome that was actually responsible for the deaths of people during the “Black Death” pandemic.
Philip Mackowiak, MD, MBA, professor & vice-chair, Department of Medicine, was interviewed on Sirius Radio on October 10, 2011 by Dr. Ira Bright. The topic of discussion was the medical history of Christopher Columbus.
David Rasko, PhD, assistant professor, and Jacques Ravel, PhD, associate professor, both from the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute for Genome Sciences, and Claire Fraser-Liggett, PhD, professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology and director, Institute for Genome Sciences, were featured on CNN on October 2, 2011 in the documentary “CNN Presents: Death by Mail: The Anthrax Letters,” which detailed their work in the scientific investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailing attacks. Dr. Rasko and Dr. Fraser-Liggett were also featured on the October 11, 2011 Frontline special “The Anthrax Files,” which highlighted their work on that case as well.
Neil Siegel, MD, assistant professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, was featured in AAFP News Now on October 5, 2011 in an article entitled “Use of EHRs Enhances Diabetes Care, Study Finds.”
Vicki Tepper, PhD, associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, and director, Pediatric AIDS Program, was mentioned in a October 24, 2011 Baltimore Sun article by Brian Conlin about a 12-year-old boy who raised over $1,500 by holding a bake sale in lieu of receiving birthday gifts. The Catonsville sixth-grader donated the proceeds to the Pediatric AIDS Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Hospital for Children.
Lectures and Workshops
Kudos to our colleagues who are experts in their fields and give their all to represent the School of Medicine!
Mordecai Blaustein, MD, professor, Departments of Physiology and Medicine and director, Maryland Center for Heart, Hypertension & Kidney Disease, presented an invited conference banquet lecture entitled “Livin with NCX—and Lovin’ It: A 45-Year Romance” at the 6th International Conference on Sodium Calcium Exchanger in Ischia, Naples, Italy on October 4, 2011. At the same conference, Vera Golovina, PhD, associate professor, Department of Physiology, presented an invited talk entitled “Cross-Talk Between Plasma Membrane Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger-1 and TRPC/Orai-Containing Channels: Key Players in Arterial Hypertension” and Jin Zhang, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Physiology, presented an invited talk entitled “NCX: A Key Player in the Regulation of Arterial Contraction and Blood Pressure.”
Matthew Cooper, MD, associate professor, Department of Surgery, joined Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller, Jr., Speaker Michael E. Busch, Delegate Anne Healey, and the Living Legacy Foundation to announce an all-day blood drive and organ donation sign-up for the State House complex. Delegate Healey asked for the blood drive during the special session after her son, Robert, was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness during the 2011 regular legislative session. The event occurred on October 17, 2011 in Annapolis. Dr. Cooper also presented “Long-Term Effects of Living Kidney Donation” at Methodist Dallas Medical Center on November 8, 2011.
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, professor, Department of Pediatrics and director, Center for Families, presented the plenary session “Child Abuse and Neglect” and the workshop, “A Practical Approach to Child Neglect” at the Asia Pacific Conference, held in New Delhi, India on October 7, 2011.
Mark Eppinger, PhD, research associate, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, was an invited speaker at the 5th European Conference on Prokaryotic and Fungal Genomics at the Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany on September 20, 2011. His lecture was entitled “Pathogenome evolution of Escherichia coli O157:H7.”
Gary Fiskum, PhD, the M. Jane Matjasko Professor for Research and Vice-Chair, Research in the Department of Anesthesiology, organized and chaired a joint University of Maryland Baltimore/Johns Hopkins University Mitochondrial Research Retreat, held at UMB on Saturday, October 29, 2011. Over 50 investigators representing both universities attended the conference, which consisted of oral and poster presentations. Speakers from UMB included Carole Sztalryd, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine; Mariusz Karbowski, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; and Tibor Kristian, PhD, and Brian Polster, PhD, both assistant professors in the Department of Anesthesiology.
Seth Himelhoch, MD, MPH, associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, presented “Prevalence and Predictors of PTSD among Urban Dwelling Attendees of a Methadone Maintenance Program” at the 2011 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Julie Dunning Hotopp, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, was an invited speaker at the Seventh Annual NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Symposium on September 20, 2011. Her presentation was entitled, “Lateral Gene Transfer from the Microbiome as a Source of Novel Mutations in the Human Genome.” Dr. Dunning Hotopp was one of only six NIH New Innovator Award recipients selected to present at the symposium in Bethesda, Maryland.
Benjamin Lawner, DO, EMT-P, assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, and deputy medical director, Baltimore City Fire Department, and Nan Garber, MD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, and medical director, Maryland ExpressCare for Kids, were invited faculty members at the 6th Annual Eastern Shore Emergency and Critical Care Symposium, held at the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department on October 27, 2011. Dr. Lawner spoke on the topic of airway management, and Dr. Garber’s topic was pediatric respiratory distress. Dr. Lawner was also an invited faculty member for the 32nd Annual Virginia EMS Symposium, held in Norfolk in November 2011, where he presented “Foundations of Emergency Airway Management” and “Pulmonary Edema or Pneumonia: The Classic EMS Diagnosis.”
Terrence Mulligan, DO, MPH, assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, attended a briefing on global health and non-communicable diseases, held at the New York Foreign Press Center at the United Nations on September 20, 2011. Dr. Mulligan—as a representative of the Department of Emergency Medicine, the African Journal of Emergency Medicine, and the magazine Emergency Physicians International—had the opportunity to ask representatives of the U.S. State Department, the CDC, and the Obama administration’s Global Health Initiative about the role of emergency medicine and acute care systems development in their programs. The briefing can be viewed at http://fpc.state.gov/172925.htm.
David Rasko, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, presented “Genomic Evaluation of Shigella Species,” at the Society for General Microbiology Autumn Conference in September 2011. The conference was held at the University of York in York, United Kingdom. At the same conference, he also presented a Hot Topic Lecture entitled “EAEC: Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Strikes Germany with a Vengeance! Update on the German HUS Outbreak.” And at the 2011 Conference on Microbial Evolution and Cutting Edge Tools for Outbreak Investigations, held at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, he presented “Sequencing Technology: A Tale of Two Applications.”
Jacques Ravel, PhD, associate professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, and associate director of Genomics, Institute for Genome Sciences, was an invited keynote speaker at The Functional Role of the Human Microbiota in Health and Disease Conference in England on September 7, 2011, which was sponsored by the Wellcome Trust Foundation. His lecture was entitled “Does It Begin with the Maternal Vaginal Microbiota?”
Mark Rogers, PT, PhD, FAPTA, professor and vice chair for research, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, and director of the PhD program in Physical Rehabilitation Science, was an invited keynote speaker at the October 2011 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Congress in Liverpool, England. He presented “Balance Strategies and Training in People with Parkinson’s Disease and Older People.”
Megan Skinner, MS, MGC, instructor, Department of Pediatrics, presented a poster entitled “Microarray Analysis Leads to Ethical Genetic Counseling Dilemmas Surrounding Consanguinity” at the 2011 meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors in San Diego, California.
Honors and Awards
Congratulations to the following who have received honors!
Rose Chasm, MD, assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, won the New Speakers Rising Star Award during a competition at the Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The conference was held in San Francisco in October 2011. The title of her presentation was “Just Too Sweet for Me: Pediatric Diabetic Ketoacidosis.”
A
nn Gruber-Baldini, PhD, professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health (EPH), won best poster in the “Surgical Management” section of the presidential poster session at the American Geriatrics Society. The poster was “Blood Transfusion and Delirium at 45-days Post-Hip Fracture: Long-term Outcomes from the FOCUS Cognitive Ancillary Study.” Co-authors from EPH were Denise Orwig, PhD, assistant professor; Jay Magaziner, PhD, MSHyg, professor and chair; and Michael Terrin, MD, CM, MPH, professor.
Bryan Hayes, Pharm D, clinical assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, received the Jeffrey Ensor Emerging Leadership Award from the Maryland Society of Hospital Pharmacy in November 2011. The award is given annually to a society member for leadership, excellence and the ability to inspire others. He also passed the certification examination of the American Board of Applied Toxicology and therefore is now a board-certified clinical toxicologist.
Jay Menaker, MD, associate professor, Department of Surgery, received the Peter C. Canizaro Award, presented by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST). This award is given to the best paper by a new member of the AAST in their first two years of membership. The title of Dr. Menaker’s award-winning paper was “Evaluation of Multidetector Computed Tomography for Penetrating Neck Injury: A Prospective Multicenter Study.” The award was presented at the 70th annual meeting of the AAST in Chicago, IL.
Ben Prosser, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Physiology and Center for Biomedical Engineering & Technology (BioMET), was named the GPILS Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar for 2011. The formal award was given to Dr. Prosser at the GPILS Award Ceremony held on November 7, 2011.
Laurie Punch, MD, assistant professor, Department of Surgery, was awarded the AAST/KCI Research Scholarship for the academic year 2012 in the amount of $50,000. The award was for Dr. Punch’s research project entitled “Vacuum-Assisted Closure Versus Conventional Wound Care Techniques in Fournier’s Gangrene.” The scholarship was awarded at the 70th annual meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) in Chicago, IL.
Charlene Quinn, PhD, RN, assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, was recently recognized by the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships for her contribution to the program. Dr. Quinn was a member of the Washington, D.C. Regional Selection Panel for the 2011–2012 White House Fellows Program. Founded in 1964, the purpose of the non-partisan White House Fellows program is to provide up to 20 gifted and highly motivated young Americans with first-hand experience in the process of governing the nation and a sense of personal involvement in the leadership of society. Dr. Quinn is a former White House Fellow.
Elijah Saunders, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine, received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Association of Black Cardiologists in October 2011. In September 2011, the annual American Heart Association Watkins-Saunders Award was named in his honor. In November 2011, Dr. Saunders received the 2011 W. Nickens Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges for his outstanding contributions to promoting justice in medical education and healthcare equality. For more than 50 years, Dr. Saunders has worked to achieve medical equality and eradicate health care disparities within African-American communities.
The University of Maryland Medical Center and faculty from the School of Medicine were honored on November 10, 2011 by the Living Legacy Foundation for achievements in organ and tissue donation and transplantation. UMMC was the only hospital in Maryland to meet and exceed three donation and transplantation criteria designated by the Department of Health and Human Services, earning the hospital a total of six awards. These achievements were made possible through the coordinated efforts of the donor advocates, trauma, ICU, transplant and nursing teams.
New Appointments
We welcome our new faculty!
Dayanand Bagdure, MD, MPH, joined the Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Critical Care as an assistant professor in November 2011. He completed his Masters in Public Health in 2005 at Florida International University, in Miami. In 2008, he completed his residency at the Miami Children’s Hospital. Most recently, he completed a fellowship in June 2011 at The Children’s Hospital of Denver, Colorado. Dr. Bagdure is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. His research goals are to study outcomes in children with sepsis, both long-term and short-term. His five-year goal is to become a funded, mentored physician scientist working towards becoming an independent investigator and facilitating excellent clinical care, clinical research and monitoring outcomes.
Kathryn Conniff, MD, joined the Department of Family & Community Medicine in August 2011 as an assistant professor. Dr. Conniff graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2008 and completed her residency at Thomas Jefferson University in June 2011. She will be working with Dr. Richard Colgan and Dr. Mozella Williams in the Medical Student Education Division.
Guido Grasso-Knight, MD, MPH, joined the Department of Family & Community Medicine in August 2011 as an assistant professor. Dr. Grasso-Knight completed medical school at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, where he earned a dual degree with a Masters of Public Health in Community Medicine in 2007. He completed a one-year Family Medicine Residency Internship at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon and his Family and Social Medicine Residency at Montefiore Medical Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 2010. He also completed a one-year fellowship in Operative Obstetrics at the Lincoln Memorial and Mental Health Center in the Bronx.
Komal Patil-Sisodia, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, joined the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Nutrition in October 2011. As new clinical faculty, Dr. Patil-Sisodia will be seeing patients in the Center for Diabetes & Endocrinology, the Cancer Center and the Faculty Practice office. She will be seeing endocrine, diabetes and thyroid patients.
Lance Uradomo, MD, MPH, joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, in October as an assistant professor. Previously, Dr. Uradomo was assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Uradomo was also a Gastroenterology Fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Uradomo received his MD degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 2000 and completed his residency in the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Dr. Uradomo’s clinical and research interests will focus on interventional gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Community Service
Thanks to those who selflessly donate their time, talent and resources. Your goodwill does not go unappreciated.
Members of the Division of Growth and Nutrition within the Department of Pediatrics participated in the first annual SOWEBO (SOuth WEst BAltimore) Landmark 5K Race/Community Fair on October 2, 2011 as runners and volunteers. The event was planned to encourage Baltimore City residents to become actively involved in tackling childhood obesity. The Growth and Nutrition Division works in communities and schools throughout Baltimore to promote healthy lifestyle habits that prevent childhood obesity.