Medical School moves up to 5th best for Hispanics

For the third consecutive year, the Medical School has been recognized as one of the top medical schools in the country for Hispanic students.

The school propelled ahead two spots to fifth from last year’s ranking in Hispanic Business Magazine.

The rankings will be published in the September issue of the magazine.

“I am very pleased that our medical school’s reputation for embracing and nurturing a diverse student body is being recognized and continues to improve,” said Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo.

The Medical School has, for years, been recognized for diversity recruitment and retention initiatives and has quickly moved up the ranks on the magazine’s list. It climbed from No. 8 in 2006 to No. 7 in 2007.

The magazine praised the Medical School for providing a “high quality education in a supportive environment” for Hispanic students. Currently, about 13.5 percent of students are Hispanic, according to the Office of Student Affairs.

Guadadalupe Alexander, a second-year medical student who is also a member of the National Network of Latin American Medical Students, said she was pleased she chose the Medical School for her education.

The vast resources available to students, including peer tutoring, diversity lectures, cultural clubs, and a second-year mentoring program, make it a nurturing environment for all students, she said.

“My first-year experience at UT Houston was great and certainly surpassed any of my preconceived expectations,” Alexander said. “I attribute it to our devoted faculty and the sense of community among the student body. Being of Mexican descent, this sense of family and community is particularly important to me.”

There is also the issue of location. Being located in one of the largest and most diverse cities in the country, a metropolis with a significant – and growing – Hispanic population, is an overlooked supplement to medical training, Alexander said.

“Our location, Houston, enhances our medical education through its diverse population and its endless medical resources. As a Latina and a medical student, I want to be able to help the medically underserved Hispanic population while simultaneously learning from other cultures. UT Houston offers that opportunity,” Alexander said.

The University of Texas System is well represented in this year’s rankings. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Medical School was No. 1. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine ranked fourth, and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston School of Medicine placed seventh.

-A. Guy

Francisco named interim chair of PM&R

Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo has announced that Dr. Gerard Francisco will be the interim chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, effective Sept. 1, 2008. Francisco is filling the vacancy left by Dr. William Donovan, founding chair of the department, who stepped down from the chair role as of Aug. 31, 2008.

“Dr. Francisco has the experience and enthusiasm to successfully serve as interim chair of this department, and I thank him for taking on these important responsibilities,” Dean Colasurdo said, adding that a search for the permanent chair will soon commence.

Francisco, clinical associate professor and vice chair of the department, also is being named interim medical director at TIRR Memorial Hermann. Francisco also serves as the Residency Program Director for the PM&R Alliance of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Baylor College of Medicine and is interim co-director of the Brain, Injury and Stroke Program at TIRR.

“Dr. Francisco is a seasoned clinician as well as an effective partner with hospital administration. I look forward to working with Dr. Francisco in this expanded role,” stated Carl Josehart, CEO, TIRR Memorial Hermann.

His clinical and research interests include brain injury, stroke rehabilitation, and spasticity management.

Francisco received his medical degree from the University of the Philippines and completed his internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. His residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation was at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School, where he was chief resident. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in brain injury rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. Before joining the TIRR Brain Injury Program in 1997, he was director of the Brain Injury Program at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, and assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at New Jersey Medical School.

-D. Brown

Organization of Faculty Wives and Women Faculty sets fall get-together

Every fall, the Organization of Faculty Wives and Women Faculty (FWWF) hosts a social meeting for all women faculty and faculty wives to promote membership in the organization. Usually this has been a “coffee” at a member’s house. This year, the organization has had a gracious invitation from Dr. Regina Verani to hold this event Sept. 28 at her new art gallery, Galeria Regina, at 1716 Richmond in the Houston arts area. Spouses and others are welcome.

Please RSVP to Gerlind Wolinsky (gwolinsky@aol.com or 713-668-4554) by Sept. 24.

Besides promoting fellowship among the faculty and faculty wives, the organization has a monthly series of programs, monthly interest groups, including the Book Club and the Bridge Club. Special Art Tours are arranged by Emily Steiner several times a year. And the FWWF is a proud sponsor of the Art Wall project to beautify the Medical School.

To join the FWWF, please send your name, address, (with ZIP code please), e-mail address, your UT affiliation, and your spouse’s/partner’s name and UT affiliation, if any, to membership coordinator Gerlind Wolinsky, 3311 Rice Blvd, Houston 77005 with a check for our dues of $35 (made out to FWWF).

-D. Buja

Novel sports imaging fellowship established

Responding to a growing number of patients with sports-related injuries, a newly named Sports, Orthopedic and Emergency Imaging Fellowship has been established in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging.

Radiologists who have routinely dealt with multiple, traumatic injuries from accidents are now spending a great deal of time imaging and treating athletes from Little Leaguers to aging Baby Boomers to the Houston Rockets.

“The nature of the practice began to change last year with the opening of Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine,” said Dr. O. Clark West, associate professor of radiology, chief of emergency radiology and director of the fellowship program. “We began to see a large sports medicine practice. I think our fellowship is the only one like it in the country.”

Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine, located in Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza in the Texas Medical Center, opened in January 2007. Memorial Hermann is the official healthcare provider for the Houston Rockets, Comets, Aeros, and Rice University athletics.

“The huge advantage with this fellowship is the interactive way we work with the team physicians and the athletes,” said Dr. Manickam Kumaravel, assistant professor of radiology, who was a surgeon before he became a radiologist. His specialty is musculoskeletal imaging.

Kumaravel said radiologists use the 3-tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image “high-end athletes.”

“It gives us a huge amount of detail,” he said.

Last year’s fellow Dr. Silanath Peungjesada, said it is not uncommon to see non-professional athletes in their 20s and 30s with joint problems, as well as gymnasts and cheerleaders.

“These are people who exercise a lot,” Peungiesada said.

Radiologists are doing more interventional procedures, such as ultrasound-guided injections of therapeutical agents including anesthetics and lubricants into and around ailing joints. The radiology team has gone from doing 14 joint treatments a year to three or four a day.

“The most common are hips and shoulders, but we also treat a lot of wrists, knees and ankles,” Kumaravel said. “With tendon inflammation, you have to be very careful to guide the medication to a site close to the tendon without hitting the tendon, which could rupture it.”

Radiologists are also working with physicians to match pre-surgery images with the color film taking during the surgery to see how their readings of black and white images translate to the actual damage.

“We can get direct feedback,” Kumaravel said.

Drs. Juan Ramos and Jin Kim came on board in July as the first Sports, Orthopedic and Emergency Imaging fellows.

“Being able to work as a team with the surgeons and the athletes on a daily basis helps us make a more accurate report about the injury, leading to less risk, less complications and a smaller scar,” Ramos said.

The Texas Medical Board approved the name change earlier this year. The Sports, Orthopedic and Emergency Imaging Fellowship replaces and expands the scope of diagnostic imaging training previously offered in the Emergency Radiology Fellowship, which was established in the early 1980s.

With increased opportunities for training in sports medicine, graduates of the new fellowship will be well-trained to provide expert imaging care for any injured patient, whether the injuries are life-threatening internal injuries sustained in a high-speed car crash, or joint injuries sustained in a professional sporting event, West said.

-D. Mann Lake

 

GSBS presents Topics in Translational Research 2008

Everyone is welcome to attend this noontime seminar series to learn more about the process of translating basic science findings into clinical applications. Graduate students at the UT-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and other area institutions may take the course for credit, and UT Medical School at Houston students may receive Blue Book credit for attending the lectures (see Web site for more information). Please contact Dr. Steven Norris for questions.

The courses will be held noon-12:50 p.m. on Mondays in MSB B.610.

 

Sept. 8	What do you have to translate? C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., professor, director, and chief executive officer of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine
Sept. 15	The ins and outs of intellectual property. Bruce J. Butler, Ph.D., director, UTHSCH Office of Technology Management
Sept. 22	From the Broad Street Pump to Oral Rehydration Therapy: A tale of translational research Stanley G. Schultz, M.D., professor of integrative biology and pharmacology and associate dean for institutional advancement
Sept. 29	NASA and the space travel/translational research interface. Neal R. Pellis, Ph.D., director, Cell Biology Program, Johnson Space Center, NASA, Room change MSB 3.301
Oct. 6	Nanotechnology in medicine. Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., professor & director, Center for NanoMedicine, Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine; chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UTHSCH
Oct. 13	Life as an intellectual property attorney/scientist. David L. Parker, Ph.D., J.D., partner, and Qiong Wong, Ph.D., scientific advisor, Fulbright and Jaworski, L.L.P., Austin, Texas
Oct. 20	Translational Studies on Characteristics and Effective Treatment of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Fredika M. Robertson, Ph.D., professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Oct. 27	How can advanced quantitative MRI techniques help improve patient management? Ponnada Narayana, Ph.D., professor, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, University of Texas Medical School at Houston

 

 

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