Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, the next issue of Scoop arrives Dec. 2.

2010 Research Forum & C. Frank Webber Prize Competition names winners

Twenty-two second-year medical students competed for the C. Frank Webber Prize during the annual student research competition Nov. 4.

The 2010 Research Forum & C. Frank Webber Prize for Student Research Competition was hosted in the Medical School’s Leather Lounge and is a venue for medical students to present and display the results of their summer research projects for peers and faculty to review.

Ryan Brown received the Webber Prize for Student Research, which is an award for outstanding research by a student established in memory of Dr. C. Frank Webber, former dean of the Medical School. Brown's faculty mentor was Dr. Rosemary Kozar.

Other winners included: Second Place, Nathan Webb with faculty mentor Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer; and a tie to Third Place, Priyanka Parekh with faculty mentor Dr. Edgar Walters and Brian Stover with faculty mentor Dr. Heidi Kaplan.

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Be a Santa to someone in need

The UT Police Department is accepting new, unwrapped toys and gifts until Wednesday, Dec. 15 to benefit pediatric and adolescent patients in the Houston area.

Items for infants and adolescents are needed most and will be delivered to LBJ Hospital and Harris County Psychiatric Center.

Want to help lead this effort? Become a toy drive coordinator and place collection boxes in your work area to encourage participation. For delivery of fliers for collection boxes, or more details contact Lt. S. Bozman at 713.563.3539 or Captain V.  Weatherspoon at 713.563.7785.

The Medical School’s Office of Communications, located across from the green elevators in the basement, is a collection site for the annual toy drive.

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UTHealth, Memorial Hermann to research treatments for battlefield limb injuries

The Medical School and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center have joined a nationwide network of civilian and military trauma centers working to enhance the care of soldiers suffering serious limb injuries. Advances and discoveries from this collaborative work also will benefit civilians.

The United States Department of Defense provided initial funding for the creation of the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium in 2009 to generate research needed to establish treatment guidelines for the optimal care of wounded soldiers.

With the addition of Memorial Hermann-TMC and other institutions this fall, the consortium now has 27 core sites. Staffed by Medical School physicians, Memorial Hermann-TMC has one of the nation’s busiest Level 1 trauma centers.

“Together, the members of the network will address the most pressing issues in orthopaedic trauma care. The results of our studies will change practices, for both military and civilians, resulting in better care for all who are injured,” said Dr. Milan Sen, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and principal investigator of the UTHealth/Memorial Hermann site.

One of the first projects will be to explore an innovative surgical treatment for fractures associated with soft tissue injury.

“We are thrilled to have UTHealth and Memorial Hermann-TMC as our partners in this effort to improve the standard of care for the wounded warrior and civilian trauma patient,” said Dr. Ellen MacKenzie, director of the Consortium’s Coordinating Center, which is in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “Without a large multi-center effort such as this, we would be unable to effectively study many of the issues that are critical to ensuring the best outcomes following a severe injury.”

Similar trauma research is already under way at the UT Center for Translational Injury Research (CeTIR), said Dr. Andrew Burgess, co-principal investigator and a professor of orthopaedic surgery. “The center will be a good resource for the orthopaedic surgeons on the team,” he said.

The leader of CeTIR, retired Col. Dr. John Holcomb, is a former commander of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, which conducts extremity injury research.

“Because these studies are of the highest quality and performed at many sites across the United States, we will for the first time have the opportunity to rapidly progress optimal injury care. The research conducted by the consortium will help us better understand what works and what doesn’t in treating these injuries and ensure that our service members and civilians alike are provided with the best care possible,” said Holcomb, vice chair of surgery and holder of the Jack H. Mayfield Chair in Surgery.

Both UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are participants in the consortium.

— Robert Cahill, Office of Advancement, Media Relations

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Grant provides study opportunity in Brazil to students

Current UTHealth students are invited to apply for a USA-Brazil consortium grant in biomedical informatics education.

Jointly administered by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the Brazilian Ministry of Education, the grants provide up to four years to consortia of at least two academic institutions each from Brazil and the United States to pursue biomedical informatics.

To apply, e-mail a statement of interest to Dr. Sriram Iyengar. Students must be in good academic standing to be considered. Students should have a general interest in biomedical informatics, but do not have to be part of the School of Biomedical Informatics. For more information visit the website.

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My fair residency