New program aims to improve Medical School’s ‘green’ image

A new recycling program for the Medical School is under way thanks to a group of volunteer students and faculty.

Recycling containers will be located by the vending machines in the basement and on the ground floor; outside of the lecture halls on the first, second, and third floors; and by the Grab ‘n Go café. The bins will be designated for empty aluminum cans and #1 and #2 plastics. Paper recycling bins are already in place around the Medical School building.

Joshua Gowin, a student of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is leading the recycling effort in partnership with Jade Hatley, a recent Ph.D. recipient and second-year medical student, and Dr. John O’Brien, assistant professor of ophthalmology. Environmental Health and Safety provided the start-up containers.

The program will depend upon volunteers.

“Once a week, or as necessary, the recycling containers will be emptied by student and faculty volunteers. These volunteers will take about 15 minutes of their time to take the sack out of the bin with whatever recyclables are inside and carry them downstairs to the loading dock on the Fannin side of the building. There are large containers on the loading dock to house the recyclables until they can be picked up and transported to the recycling drop spot every other week. In the future, incoming students can help maintain the project and students can take turns heading up the program,” Gowin explained.

Gowin said this is the start of what he hopes will be a long-term project to improve the Medical School’s recycling capabilities.

“The MSB currently has few options for recycling. We'd like to provide an opportunity for anyone in the MSB to recycle and improve our 'green' image. We hope to create a sustainable recycling program that will grow over time and perhaps make eyes shine a bit if it turns, if a small one, a profit,” he said. “Combining the efforts of the students and faculty in the MSB, we want to create a work and study environment that leads the community not only in science and medicine, but in being a good neighbor and global citizen.”

Gowin said more volunteers are welcomed to empty existing bins, or place recycle bins elsewhere in the building. Contact Joshua.L.Gowin@uth.tmc.edu, Jade.M.Hatley@uth.tmc.edu, or John.OBrien@uth.tmc.edu.

-D. Brown

 

Pediatric gastroenterology, geriatrics fellowships added

In an attempt to help bolster the ranks of much-needed specialists, the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care and the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology welcomed fellows for the first time last month. Both programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Dr. Marc Rhoads is the program director of the three-year pediatric gastroenterology program, which is approved for six positions – two positions each year, for three years. Drs. Jatinder Bhardwaj (from New York) and Rene Gomez-Esquivel (a medicine-pediatric graduate from UT) comprise the program’s first class.

The goal of the program is to train outstanding clinicians, endoscopists, and researchers in pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology, Rhoads said. Fellows will have training and hands-on research experience, if desired, in basic science, liver transplant, or clinical trials. Applicants must be board-certified pediatricians.

“There are needs for pediatric gastroenterologists in every part of the country,” Rhoads said. “There are about twice as many jobs as trainees each year.”

The geriatric program has accepted two fellows for its one-year program.

“One of my reasons for going into medicine is that I want to be relevant,” said Dr. Faith Atai, who along with Dr. Suparna Chhibber, will make up the first fellowship class. “So the fact that there’s a shortage of geriatricians attracted me to the fellowship. I’m already in primary care and as my patients age, I want to be able to take care of them.”

The goal of this fellowship is to train board-certified geriatricians to teach geriatrics to other clinicians and trainees as well as to become expert clinicians in the care of older patients in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, private homes, and rehabilitation centers.

“Dr. Atai and Dr. Chhibber are great candidates, and we’re very excited about having them join us,” said Dr. Kathryn Agarwal, fellowship program director. “They will focus on the differences in care for the very frail elderly, who have more multiple chronic illnesses as well as functional decline and cognitive problems such as dementia.”

- D. Mann Lake, D. Brown

Fallon named director of gastroenterology, hepatology, nutrition

Dr. Philip Orlander, interim chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, has announced that Dr. Michael Fallon will be the new director of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, effective Sept. 1. He succeeds Dr. Gene LeSage, who recently left to become chairman of medicine at East Tennessee State University’s James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

Fallon comes to the Medical School from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he served as professor of medicine and director of the Section of Hepatology in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He also served as chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

“He is an exceptional clinician and recognized investigator who has the enthusiasm and drive to reinvigorate and expand the division,” Orlander said.

Fallon received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut and his fellowship in digestive diseases at Yale University School of Medicine. He served on the Yale School of Medicine faculty for five years before moving to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

His basic research is aimed at understanding the pathogenesis of vascular alterations in chronic liver disease, with a specific focus on defining and characterizing endothelial dysfunction in the pulmonary vasculature that results in vasodilatation and the hepatopulmonary syndrome. His clinical research interests include diagnosis and therapy of the hepatopulmonary syndrome and prevention and treatment of complications of chronic liver disease.

“We believe that with Dr. Fallon as leader, the division is poised for a significant increase in clinical services and research opportunities,” Orlander added.

-D. Brown

Teaching recognized by national organization

Medical School faculty were recognized for outstanding teaching at the 12th annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators at the University of Utah School of Medicine last week.

Dr. Gary Rosenfeld, professor of integrative biology and pharmacology and assistant dean for educational programs, received the IAMSE Master Scholar Award.

This annual award honors an IAMSE member who, over the course of many years, has a distinguished record of educational scholarship, including educational research and/or dissemination of excellent and scholarly approaches to teaching and education. Award recipients are selected based on the impact, ingenuity, and longevity of educational scholarship and their records of publications, presentations, and other forms of dissemination of educational scholarship.

“As a charter member of IAMSE, my goal has been to help promote the development, evaluation, and sharing of innovative educational programs and strategies, to champion national and local infrastructure for mentoring and recognition of faculty educators, and to help develop criteria and evaluation strategies for a ’Scholarship of Teaching.’ To the extent that I have been successful, it was very exciting for me to receive this wonderful recognition by my peers from the only independent organization that specifically addresses educational issues of concern to the basic science educator,” he said.

“Dr. Rosenfeld’s honor represents a major recognition of the service he has shown to the national community, and our own community, in development of academic scholarship,” said Dr. Jeffrey Actor, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and chair of the Faculty Senate.

Dr. Bill Seifert, senior lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, representing the first-year course directors, presented the group’s clinical applications project on team-based learning (See Scoop 04.03.08). The presentation received the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award.

“This course (Clinical Applications) is an attempt to integrate the basic sciences so that the first-year medical students see the relationships between each of the basic sciences as well as their relationships to the clinical aspects of medicine,” Seifert said. “It allows them to apply the basic sciences principles they have learned to clinical problems.

“As you can imagine, I was quite pleased and gratified to know that maybe we are on the right track,” he added.

Founded in 1988, the mission of the IAMSE is to “advance medical education through faculty development and to ensure that the teaching and learning of medicine continues to be firmly grounded in science.”

-D. Brown

 

At this time of year, prepare, prepare, prepare

With the threat of a tropical storm and hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico this week, it is important for all employees to be ready for emergency situations. But since hurricanes aren’t the only type of disaster that can threaten our community, the best advice is to take the time to create an “all hazards” emergency response plan for you, your family, and your work unit. By doing this, you’ll be in better shape to respond to an event, whether the emergency is bad weather or pandemic flu.

Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) has worked closely with many key units across the health science center to keep the institutional Emergency Situation Response Plan (ESRP) up to date and well practiced. The ESRP classifies the types of emergencies that might be encountered and the corresponding decision making teams to be assembled for each event.

But this overarching plan must be supplemented with unit specific plans. In other words, the ESRP contains contact information and decision-making authority for the highest levels of the university. But information or decisions must flow down to the individual operating units, and this is where team, division, and departmental contact lists and plans must come into play.

To make our emergency response plan really work, everyone within the health science center is encouraged to do the following:

• Take a few moments to review the plan at http://www.uth.tmc.edu/safety/emergency.html.
• Pay particular attention to the locations where emergency information can be obtained, such as the Web site or central call-in phone numbers.
• Also familiarize yourself with your department’s plan — some good questions to ask might be:
• How do I call my supervisor or co-workers at home (or on cell phones) so we can communicate in the event of an emergency?
• Is my unit or position considered absolutely critical for the continuation of operations in the event of an emergency?
• Who would be my back up if I’m unable to perform my job?
• Does that person know they are considered my back up?
• Also, take the time to prepare at home.
• Create an “all hazards” kit, as listed at http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html.
• Make sure you have a plan for gathering family members (from schools, elderly parents’ homes, etc.).
• Make plans to determine whether to shelter in place or when to leave your home or city.
• Keep communication devices charged and gas tanks full.

And don’t be shy with questions — EH&S is available to help you in being as prepared as you can be.

— Robert “Safety Bob” Emery, Dr.P.H.

 

 

 

Bacterial infection has high rate of recurrence in pregnant women

A new study by Medical School researchers could help experts better decide whether to continue the current practice of retesting women during their second pregnancies for a common bacterial infection if they had tested positive for the infection previously.

Group B Streptococcus, or GBS, is a type of bacterial infection that is harmless to carriers but in some cases can be deadly to an infant passing through the mother’s birth canal. It is normally found in the vagina and/or lower intestine of 10 to 30 percent of all adult women. GBS is not a sexually transmitted disease. Those women who test positive for GBS are considered “colonized.”

Published in the Aug. 1 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the two-year study included more than 5,000 women who delivered their babies between 2003 and 2004 in the greater Houston area.

“Of those women, we were able to follow 418 women who gave birth vaginally, had a second child or more, were tested for GBS during their first and second pregnancies, and were not excluded from the study due to various factors. We found that of the 418, the risk of testing positive for GBS during a second pregnancy was 53 percent,” said lead author Dr. Mark Turrentine, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

According to Turrentine, research is ongoing to determine why some women are colonized and others are not. There also will need to be further studies conducted on how to use the information from this study.

Current guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) state that since colonization varies from pregnancy to pregnancy, women should be screened with each pregnancy.

“Our study did not tackle this issue, but the results could help experts decide whether it is cost effective to keep testing women in subsequent pregnancies if their risk of testing positive remains so high,” Turrentine said.

Although GBS is not harmful to the mother, it can be deadly to an infant passing through the mother’s birth canal. Signs and symptoms usually happen within hours of birth and could include difficulty breathing; heart, blood pressure, kidney and gastrointestinal problems; and sepsis, pneumonia or meningitis.

Some of the symptoms that increase a woman’s risk of passing GBS to her baby include: labor before 37 weeks, rupture of her amniotic membrane 18 hours or more before delivery, fever during labor, a urinary tract infection as a result of GBS during pregnancy, and a previous baby with GBS disease.

The CDC recommends routine screening for GBS for all pregnant women. The screening is given between the 35th and 37th week of pregnancy.

“The test involves a swab of the vaginal-rectal area. If a woman tests positive, and is therefore considered colonized, she will most likely be treated with intravenous (IV) antibiotic therapy during labor. The antibiotics will help protect the infant,” said co-author Dr. Mildred Ramirez, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

According to the CDC, one of every 100 to 200 babies whose mothers carry GBS will, without antibiotics, develop signs and symptoms of GBS disease.

If a woman’s GBS status is unknown at the time of delivery, the CDC, ACOG and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend the women be given IV antibiotics during labor. The recommended regimen is intravenous penicillin.

-M. McDonald

 

 

Location & Contact

6431 Fannin Street,
Houston, Texas 77030

PO Box 20708,
Houston, Texas 77225

713.500.4472