Produced by the Office of Communications // May 10, 2012

Savage named Schweitzer Fellow

Third-year MD/PhD student David Savage has been selected as one of 12 Houston-Galveston Schweitzer Fellows who will spend the next year working to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable communities across the Houston region while continuing their academic responsibilities.

In this role, Savage will develop an orientation program that will empower refugees to navigate Houston's healthcare system, utilize entitled health benefits, and establish consistent medical homes. His community site will be the Alliance for Multicultural Community Services.

“I am extremely excited and humbled by the opportunity to be a Schweitzer Fellow,” Savage said. “The fellows I have met the past few years have been remarkable role models for me in leadership and service, so having the opportunity to follow in their footsteps is an honor.”

Savage is one of 240 fellows nationwide named by the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) who will carry out service projects in underserved communities at 12 program sites throughout the United States.

“The Schweitzer Fellowship simultaneously promotes Schweitzer’s legacy and addresses a critical gap in today’s health care landscape by equipping emerging professionals with the tools to address not only clinical health issues, but also the social determinants of health,” said ASF President Dr. Lachlan Forrow. “The fellowship’s leadership development programming also helps them to contextualize this experience—delivering lasting impact by developing health professionals with the capacity and cultural competence to address social factors on an ongoing and effective basis throughout their careers.”

Savage graduated from Austin College and was previously the winner of the Texas Association of Advisors for the Health Professions Kaplan Award. He plans to pursue a career in oncology following his MD/PhD program.

“I am passionate about tackling health disparity problems, and I aim to make it central to my future career as a physician,” he said. “The past few years I have worked closely with Students Improving Global Health in Texas (SIGHT) at the Medical School, working on service projects in Houston for refugees and in Brownsville for a very mixed immigrant community on the U.S.-Mexico border. These have been some highlights of my training so far, and I believe that this fellowship will teach me valuable skills in problem solving, resource management, and leadership that will help me achieve my future goals in service.”

Savage added that he is especially thankful to Rebecca Lunstroth, assistant director of the John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Humanities and Ethics, for encouraging him to apply for the fellowship.

“I initially found the Schweitzer application process, which requires selecting a community partner and planning a complete project from scratch, to be daunting. Had it not been for the email she sent last fall encouraging me to apply, I most certainly would not be a fellow today. Rebecca is a great asset to students and serves as a remarkable example of the great mentorship we get at our medical school,” he said.

Launched in 2008, the Houston-Galveston Schweitzer Fellows Program is hosted and sponsored by Baylor College of Medicine. Other generous sponsors include Baxter Trust, The Simmons Foundation, The Frees Foundation, The Fondren Foundation, Houston Endowment Inc., and Healthcare and Nursing Education Foundation.

Upon completion of their initial year, the 2012–13 Houston-Galveston Schweitzer Fellows will become Schweitzer Fellows for Life by joining a network of nearly 2,500 Schweitzer alumni who are addressing the health needs of underserved people throughout their careers.

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Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards

May is designated as teaching excellence month for the Medical School. Below are this year's recipients of the Dean's Teaching Excellence Awards:

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Neurodevelopment expert studies influence
of brain injuries on children’s future health

Each year, more than 8 million children under the age of 17 sustain some physical injury, and nearly half a million children sustain traumatic brain injuries. In an effort to address this major pediatric public health concern, a neurodevelopment expert at the Children’s Learning Institute has added a significant new study to her long-term research on the cognitive and psychological effects of pediatric brain injuries.

Dr. Linda Ewing-Cobbs, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is the principal investigator of a project that examines how traumatic injuries to the brain and other body systems affect children’s stress response systems and how that influences their future health.

This five-year study, funded through a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is a continuation of several studies Ewing-Cobbs and colleagues have conducted on the overall effects of traumatic brain injury on a child’s neurodevelopment.

“Our preliminary studies suggested that major impairment of multiple stress systems persists for years,” Ewing-Cobbs said. “Despite the high occurrence of traumatic stress following injury, the impact of different types of injuries on the limbic-prefrontal, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, and noradrenergic systems has rarely been studied.”

In this study, Ewing-Cobbs and colleagues are investigating the impact of injury on biomarkers of neurobiological stress response systems in youth ages 8–15 hospitalized for traumatic brain and/or extracranial injuries. In addition, they are examining the degree to which these biomarkers predict post-traumatic changes in cognitive, neurobehavioral, and psychological health outcomes. These outcomes include increased attention deficits, post-traumatic stress symptoms, memory dysfunction, inhibition problems, anxiety, and depression.

Researchers are currently recruiting 90 children with mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injuries, 45 children with extracranial injuries, and 45 healthy children for comparison purposes. Children with traumatic brain injury and/or extracranial injuries must begin participation in the study within five to seven weeks of their admission to pediatric units at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital with injuries resulting from motor-vehicle accidents.

Researchers will visit three times with each child participant over the course of one year. All participants are tested for memory, attention, and adjustment with their stress levels measured through saliva. Each participant will undergo a MRI of his or her brain at the first and third visits.

“Understanding relations between neurobiological and psychological responses following pediatric injury will guide development of targeted strategies to improve health-related quality of life,” Ewing-Cobbs said. “This research has the potential to advance both scientific inquiry and clinical care of pediatric injury patients.”

To participate in this study, contact Linda Winzeler at 713.500.3829 or Jane Waugh at 713.500.3858. For more information on this research, visit the website.

—Andrew Heger, Children’s Learning Institute

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Memorial Hermann to replace old pagers

Beginning in May, pagers across the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System are being switched out to replace the old models that utilize a frequency that is becoming obsolete. The System currently supplies almost 6,000 pagers to physicians and other allied healthcare professionals, all of which are being replaced with new models that have enhanced reception and much better overall signal quality.

Representatives from USA Mobility, the pager supplier for the System, will be onsite at the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center Campus for the pager exchange from 6 a.m.–6 p.m., May 14–17 and 6 a.m.–1 p.m., May 18 across from Brioche Doreé in Hermann Pavilion.

To exchange your pager, bring a completed pager swap form which is available online at PhysicianLink and InSite. For those who are not on site during the pager exchange in May, a new pager may be obtained at the PBX office on the ground floor of Robertson Pavilion.

For questions, please call Jackie White, PBX Manager, at 713.704.5986.

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Food for thought

First-year medical students are treated by family and friends to a “burnout” dinner May 3 before final exams.

— Dwight C. Andrews, Office of Communications, Medical School

 

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