When the mayors of Harlingen and Edinburg received invites to a University of Texas event outlining a blueprint for the Rio Grande Valleys long sought medical school, both mayors had already scheduled a prior engagement on that topic later that same day. Edinburg Mayor Richard Garcia and Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell were front and center at the University of Texas-Pan American on Friday when system Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa announced a blueprint that will graduate the first class of South Texas medical students by 2018. Garcia and Boswell left UTs morning announcement to join other Valley mayors in weighing their options for a medical school behind closed doors, a meeting set up days before the hastily-scheduled UT news conference to unveil its own vision for a Valley medical school. Garcia organized the meeting of mayors to determine common ground issues and affirm a shared commitment to a South Texas medical school that will likely take the combined support of Hidalgo and Cameron counties, he said. But the meeting also exposed some Valley officials frustration with UTs slow pace to establish a full-fledged medical school here and a willingness to explore whats perceived as genuine interest from the Texas A&M system to establish its own Valley medical school. Garcia said nothing came out of the mayors meeting attended by city, county and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance and Valley Baptist officials other than a goal to host similar discussions soon. Theres already been an investment made here (with UT) and we want to move that forward, said Garcia, whose city would retain the medical schools research facilities under UTs proposal. But if something else comes up thats worth talking about, lets talk about it.

PLANTING A FLAG The fight for a Valley medical school is part of an overall push between the UT and Texas A&M systems to increase their presence in one of the fastest growing regions of the state. Internal conflicts between Hidalgo and Cameron county officials remain about how the school should be funded and where its components would be located. On Friday, Cigarroa announced a blueprint to graduate the first cohort of Valley medical students in 2018 by relying on medical school infrastructure already in place in the Valley and San Antonio. As UT pursues accreditation and funding for the Valleys medical school, students could enroll in an independent South Texas track, begin classes at UTs Health Science Center in San Antonio and complete their final two years and clerkships in the Valley. That process is nearly identical to the one that has already sent hundreds of UT Health Science Center medical students to the Valley, but the independent admissions track would eventually turn into a standalone medical school. UT officials said their blueprint is part of the overall vision for a South Texas medical school that fully began in 1997 when the state authorized the Valleys Regional Academic Health Centers, or RAHCs. Since then, UT has spent $79 million building the RAHCs in Harlingen and Edinburg that focus on medical education and clinical research, respectively. UT regents have also put $30 million toward residency programs and biomedical research in the Valley, and theyve funded about $11 million annually to support the medical and research divisions at the RAHC. Boswell said UTs blueprint highlighted the huge investments its made so far and a pledge to go even further. UT has made a commitment to graduate that first class and make it a full, freestanding medical school, said Boswell, praising UTs track record of building some of the nations best medical schools. I appreciate everybody wanting to make things happen quickly, but we also want to make sure we do it right. We dont want a second-rate medical school. But some Hidalgo County officials have expressed frustration with UTs slow pace and reluctance to spend big here. UT regents authorized $30 million in annual funding for Austins medical school from Permanent University Funds in May, but they dedicated no funds for the Valleys school at the same meeting. While there is no proposal on paper from A&M yet, there is interest in seeing if they can make a better offer, said state Sen. Juan Chuy Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Hinojosa, Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia, McAllen businessman Alonzo Cantu, who also founded Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, and some local doctors flew to College Station this week to meet with A&M Chancellor John Sharp to discuss his systems vision for the Valley. Although largely administrative in nature, A&M took steps this month to place its health science center under its flagship university in College Station. The move would allow its regents to expend Permanent University Funds an endowment created by mineral revenues on putting a medical school in South Texas. Hinojosa, who skipped UTs Friday announcement to campaign in Nueces County, isnt opposed to a UT medical school but said their regents lack the will or the commitment to make it happen. Weve been in line for 12 years and, all of a sudden, we get pushed back and somebody jumps in front, Hinojosa said Friday. It doesnt sit well with many of us in South Texas. We need to go where we are wanted.

INTERNAL DIVISIONS Valley officials next step may be ensuring theyre all on the same page because either medical school route would require developing a funding stream. Since laying the foundation for a medical school with the RAHCs, Cameron County officials have cultivated strong ties with UT system leaders. UT placed its School of Public Health in Brownsville and put the RAHCs medical education component in Harlingen, a centralized location that now also houses the structure for a veterans hospital. But McAllen business leaders, reflecting prior issues with regional taxing districts in the Valley, have expressed a desire for Hidalgo County to get the bulk of the medical schools infrastructure. Since Hidalgo County contains more than $30 billion in taxable property values compared to $16 billion in Cameron County, they want most of its presence in the McAllen metro area. In his speech at UTs announcement on Friday, Brownsville state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. tried to assuage those concerns by lauding the medical schools research component that would be located in Edinburg. Although the mayors meeting was scheduled for later at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance, it was also likely no coincidence that UTs announcement was hosted in its future research hub in Edinburg rather than its medical education division in Harlingen. State Rep. Aaron Pea, R-Edinburg, said Valley officials will have to rise to the occasion when determining the structure of the medical school in South Texas, the most populous region of the state without one. We all bemoan the Friday night football mentality, but now were going to have to live up to that, said Pea, an outgoing member of the Valleys delegation. It is as significant a challenge as is the funding of this school.

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Amid UT announcement, Valley weighs A&M med school option

BROWNSVILLE - Graduation ceremonies are just six years away for the first class of students from the Rio Grande Valley's long-awaited medical school, University of Texas Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa pledged Friday.

"The year 2018 will be a very special year for all of us," Cigarroa said at a news conference at the UT-Pan American in Edinburg, site of the medical research component of what's currently the three-campus Regional Academic Health Center.

As has been the case for hundreds of students since the gala opening of the center in Harlingen in 2002, future doctors will spend their first two academic years at the UT-Health Science Center at San Antonio and third and fourth years completing clinical training in the Valley.

The key difference is that students will, from the outset, have applied to a dedicated South Texas admission track. Hopes are high their diplomas will carry the University of Texas Health Science Center-South Texas name.

Independent school

While key questions remain - such as accreditation and funding for the estimated $40 million to $50 million in annual expenses - Cigarroa said that by then the center will have become a more independent entity.

"We are beginning the transition of the UT Health Science Center-San Antonio Regional Academic Health Center - known as the RAHC - into an independent, free-standing, comprehensive and research-intensive regional medical school, with its own president and structure, for South Texas," he said.

Plans for a full-fledged medical school for the Rio Grande Valley have been in the works since the early 1990s, when state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, began documenting how the Valley's fast-growing and historically underserved region needed to better recruit physicians likely to commit to the area.

In addition to previous infrastructure investments by the Texas Legislature and UT System, the Legislature contributes about $11 million annually to support the RAHC's medical and research divisions. In 2011, UT Regents invested another $30 million for faculty recruitment, a clinical simulation facility, programs in obesity and diabetes and education in the sciences. In May, the regents endorsed new medical schools for Austin and South Texas.

"By committing to graduating students by 2018, UT has given everyone in South Texas reason to celebrate," Lucio said Friday. "I do see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "For the first time, I feel confident we can accomplish our goals in the next five years."

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UT chancellor touts progress on Valley medical school

To acquaint Cooper Medical School of Rowan Universitys first 50 students with their new neighborhood, the charter class was loosed upon Camden on Wednesday with a series of clues in search of specific landmarks the good, the bad and the ugly.

For new students Susan Talamini and Rebecca Lee, the first and most crucial item they needed to locate was their car in the parking garage across the street from the new school.

But, like the proverbs will tell you, its about the journey, not the destination.

The women realized that sooner than later.

Talamini, 28, and Lee, 26, are both from out of town.

Complete strangers to each other before orientation at the school this week, Talamini and Lee had to learn to work together quickly as a team.

Talamini was born in Essex County in New Jersey, and Lee is from Cleveland, Ohio.

Both women spent a good amount of their lives in New York and now live in Princeton and Haddonfield.

Something else the pair has in common?

They were two of 50 students chosen out of 2,900 applicants to be the first to attend Cooper Medical School.

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Cooper Medical School of Rowan University sends new students exploring through Camden

EDINBURG University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa today is expected to announce plans to expand medical education as a path to establishing a free-standing medical school in the Rio Grande Valley, a press release said.

The announcement is expected to affect all Regional Academic Health Centers in the Valley, which includes Harlingen, said Louie Sanchez, a spokesman for state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville.

Officials on Thursday declined to disclose details of plans set to be announced at 10:30 a.m. at the Regional Academic Health Centers Medical Research Division in Edinburg.

However, Randy Whittington, a former Harlingen mayor who serves as president of the South Texas Medical Foundation, said the announcement will include plans to turn the RAHC which includes branches in Harlingen, Edinburg and Brownsville into a four-year medical school.

Hes going to announce plans to convert the RAHC into a four-year medical school in the Valley, Whittington said. Hes going to lay out steps to get there and a timetable. I think everybody will be surprised about how quick it can be done.

The plans will impact the entire RAHC system, which includes the Harlingen branch, the Edinburg research division and a public health school in Brownsville, Sanchez said. Its about the entire program, Lucio said.

Officials continue to work to develop a four-year medical school in Harlingen, Lucio said. The goal we have always had is to go from a two-year operation to a four-year institution, Lucio said.

About 1,000 third- and fourth-year medical students have trained at the RAHC since it opened in 2002, said Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell, who has called the RAHC one of the citys hallmarks.

It has built up, Boswell said. A huge investment has been made.

The Regional Academic Health Center lays the foundation to a proposed South Texas health science center, Sanchez said.

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RAHC Impact: ‘Path’ to Valley medical school announcement expected

ALEXANDRIA Donning the white coats of a doctor, three Bishop Brossart High School alumni have entered the same medical school class at the University of Louisville.

Jessica Baumann of Highland Heights, James Schack of California, and McKenzie Vater of Alexandria, joined the medical class of 2016 in a White Coat Ceremony at the University of Louisville School of Medicine Sunday, Aug. 5.

The three Bishop Brossart alumni are part of a class of 160 medical students seeking to complete four years of medical school. The three were among the members of the medical class selected from a pool of 3,200 applicants, according to a news release from Bishop Brossart. Of the 160 medical students selected, 120 were Kentucky residents.

This is an extremely proud moment in the lives of these three aspiring medical professionals and their families, as well as, an incredible tribute to our wonderful Bishop Brossart faculty and staff, said Ron Heiert, director of development for Bishop Brossart.

Bauman, the daughter of Larry and Jill Baumann of Highland Heights, is a 2006 Bishop Brossart graduate. Schack and Vater are 2008 Bishop Brossart graduates. Schack is the son of Jim and Milissa Schack of California, and Vater is the daughter of Jim and Carole Vater of Alexandria.

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Bishop Brossart trio enter medical school

Harvard Medical School says it will start making changes at the primate research center that has come under national scrutiny following the death and injury of several monkeys in the past year and a half.

The school said it is following the recommendations of an independent panel of scientists who conducted a five-month review of the schools primate research center and this week released a two-page summary of their report.

The document recommends adding several new leadership positions and advises better oversight and more open communication between the school and the research center, which has played a key role in cancer, AIDS and other medical research.

Southboroughs New England Primate Research Center has come under scrutiny from the U. S. Department of Agriculture after several incidents that resulted in research monkey injuries and deaths.

The USDA investigation of the facility is ongoing, spokesman David Sacks said Wednesday, for the incidents of neglect over the last 18 months. The lab faces up to $10,000 in fines for each violation of the Animal Welfare Act, he said.

But an animal rights advocate who has been following the saga of the labs missteps said Wednesday the center isn't doing enough to rectify the situation and should be more transparent.

"It does not sound as though theyre taking the steps necessary to prevent additional deaths from happening in the future," said Michael Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now!

The summary said the seven-member panel set out to find major themes and processes that could be improved, not to identify every risk identified in previous reports.

"I think they should give a tour of this facility to myself and news media to give us the opportunity to see whats going on inside this facility," Budkie said.

Harvard Medical School Wednesday did not release the full report "out of sensitivity to the privacy of our operations."

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Southborough primate lab to make changes

Posted on | August 16, 2012 | Comments

UC Riverside School of Medicine Research Building

Legislation that would give the UC Riverside Medical School $15 million finally made it to committee Thursday, quickly stalled, and is likely dead for the year.

The bill by Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, emerged earlier this summer and had co-authors from across Inland Southern California. It proposed to allocate $15 million to help open the medical school from the states expected settlement of an overbilling case with the Senior Care Action Network (SCAN.)

The bill idled in the Senate Rules Committee for several weeks. Thursday, it was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where majority Democrats voted to place it on the suspense file. Later, it was among dozens of bills left on suspense.

There are significant costs, the panels chairwoman, state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, said during the hearing.

Miller is the Republican candidate for Riverside Countys 31st Senate District, a top fall target of Senate Democrats. In a statement a short while ago, Miller blamed partisan politics for the bills demise.

It is extremely disappointing to see Sacramento Democrats put partisan politics first and block the vital funding needed to get the UC Riverside Medical School off the ground, said Miller. Its clear that the political bosses are more interested in playing political games than improving health care.

Earlier, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, denied that the SD-31 race had anything to do with the bill.

My thoughts are it is premature and there ought to be a public-policy discussion about how to spend those proceeds, he said of the SCAN settlement. Without mentioning Miller, Steinberg alluded to legislative Republicans blanket opposition to new tax revenue.

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UCR Medical School: Funding bill stalls in committee

Newswise NEWARKScientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ-NJMS) have developed new DNA sequencing tests that hold significant promise for decreasing costs associated with diagnosing cancer and hereditary diseases, including cysticfibrosis.

Officials at the New Jersey Department of Health approved the use of the new Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Carrier and Diagnosis Test, which was created at the Institute for Genomic Medicine at UMDNJ-NJMS. Using a semiconductor mechanism that was developed by San Francisco-based Ion Torrent, the microchip tests the entire gene for mutations. IGM now offers this certified Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory service for hospitals as well as obstetrics and gynecology practices throughout the Garden State.

According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation web site, More than 10 million Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene. This chronic disease impacts the lungs and the digestive system. It occurs when a child inherits one defective CF genefrom each parent. Statistics show New Jersey averages 125,000 births of children who are diagnosed with cystic fibrosis annually.

We believe the adaptation of this new sequencing technology will drastically improve our ability to analyze genetic disorders, said Marvin N. Schwalb, PhD, director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine. Traditional CF sequencing testing costs thousands of dollars making the test unavailable for carrier screening. This new test costs less than $200. Most importantly, the genetic carrier test we developed improves the diagnosis rate to 98 percent. While the test provides significant improvement for all populations, the improved rate is particularly valuable for minorities because current carrier screening methods only detects approximately 65% of mutations in these populations.

The new technology provides many advances including the ability to test as many as 96 samples on a single platform and the fact that the equipment cost 1/10 as much as the previous technology.

IGM has developed another test, which was also approved by the NJHSS, for mitochondrial DNA. Mutations in mitochondria cause a wide variety of diseases, such eye and neuromuscular system disorders and possible cancer.

Schwalb, a professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at NJMS, said, We are proud of the fact that the IGM is a world leader in the advancement of genetic diagnosis. DNA sequencing will keep us very busy for a while. In the state of New Jersey, there is nothing thatcompares to this advancement and this is just the beginning.

To arrange an interview with Dr. Marvin Schwalb, contact Kaylyn Kendall Dines at 973-972-1216.

About New Jersey Medical School:

Founded in 1954 as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry, UMDNJNew Jersey Medical School was the state's first medical school. Today, it is part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. NJMS has four mission areas: education, research, clinical care, and community outreach. It has 22 academic departments and more than 60 centers and institutes. In addition to offering the MD degree to its students, NJMS also offers, MD/PhD, MD/MPH, and MD/MBA degrees through collaborations with other institutions of higher education.

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New Jersey Medical School Researchers Develop DNA Sequencing Tests for Hereditary Diseases

BOSTONHarvard Medical School says it plans to follow the recommendations of an independent panel of scientists and veterinarians that reviewed the university's troubled primate research facility in Southborough.

The two-page executive summary of the report, released to The Boston Globe ( http://b.globe.com/NBhlZe) by Deborah Kochevar, dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and chairwoman of the committee, calls for establishing a new veterinarian position and appointing a biosafety officer.

The committee did not investigate the specific lapses in animal care and procedures that resulted in death and harm to monkeys.

Many of the recommended changes involve adding layers of oversight and direct reporting to Harvard.

Medical School Dean Dr. Jeffrey Flier said in a statement that the school has started "a timely implementation" of the recommendations.

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Harvard pledges changes at primate research center

By Steve DeVane Staff writer

BUIES CREEK - Campbell University's medical school has more than 700 applications for its inaugural class of 150 students, school officials say.

Another 800 students have expressed interest in attending the School of Osteopathic Medicine, which will be the first of its kind in North Carolina when it opens in August 2013.

Campbell officials announced Wednesday that the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Golden LEAF Foundation each gave the school $2 million gifts.

Leaders of the groups said the private university's medical school will provide badly needed primary care doctors for rural communities in North Carolina. The school will eventually have 600 students who will train at the school in Harnett County for the first two years and learn in community hospitals during the third and fourth years.

Campbell's will be the first medical school to open in the state in 35 years. Osteopathic doctors use traditional medical techniques, such as prescription drugs and surgery, but also focus on wellness and disease prevention.

An economist estimated that the medical school will create more than 1,150 jobs and have an estimated economic impact of nearly $300 million in its first 10 years.

The medical school will be in a $60 million, 96,500-square-foot facility that also will be home to Campbell's physician assistant program. The two buildings on U.S. 421 between Lillington and Erwin are about a quarter mile from Campbell's main campus in Buies Creek.

The buildings, which will be connected by a hallway, are taking shape, with workers spraying insulation and laying bricks on the outer walls Wednesday. Inside, metal studs separate where classrooms, offices, the library, study rooms, labs and a cafe will be located.

Dr. John Kauffman, the school's founding dean, said the gifts from the trust and the foundation will allow the school to equip its simulation lab with state-of-the-art high-fidelity robotics.

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Campbell University's new medical school gets $4 million in gifts, already has 700 applicants

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.

Becoming a doctor is hard work. Medical students spend three years studying symptoms, diseases, and treatments, endure long hours in residencies and fellowships, and then must pass a grueling series of board exams. But before any of that can happen, future M.D.'s need to get into medical school.

On average, fewer than 9 percent of medical school applications were accepted in 2011, according to data reported to U.S. News. In total, 500,900 applications were submitted in 2011 to the 111 medical schools reporting application and acceptance data to U.S. News in an annual survey. Prospective medical students often apply to multiple schools.

[Discover the top three reasons why med school applications are rejected.]

Grades, MCAT scores, letters of evaluation, and extracurricular activities all play a role in whether an application is accepted, but which programs students apply to can also impact their chances of getting into med school.

Among the 11 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates, an average of 3.4 percent of applicants were accepted in 2011. (Due to ties, there are more than 10 schools on the list.) The Mayo Medical School in Minnesota accepted just 1.9 percent of applicants, the lowest acceptance rate among the medical schools that submitted acceptance data to U.S. News. George Washington University's School of Medicine and Health Sciences had the second lowest, sending acceptance letters to 2.5 percent of the 14,649 students who applied in 2011.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the University of North Dakota's School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Western University of Health Sciences's College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in California each accepted more than 25 percent of its 2011 applicants.

Below are the 11 medical schools with the lowest acceptance rates, based on applicant and acceptance data reported by the institutions to U.S. News:

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Medical School Compass to find application and acceptance data for every school, residency statistics, and much more.

U.S. News surveyed more than 140 medical schools for our 2011 survey of research and primary care programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of school facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Medical Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.

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10 Medical Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates

A week or so ago, my wife and I drove from Santa Barbara to the University of California, Irvine, to attend a "White Coat" ceremony for the incoming class of medical students, including our son, at the UC Irvine Medical School.

It was a very impressive event and, as parents, we felt very proud of our son, as we were a couple of years earlier when our daughter graduated from law school. But what I also found impressive about the ceremony where these would-be doctors are initiated into their first step as doctors by receiving their white doctor's coat was how diverse the students were. Not only were more than half of the students women, but ethnically, the mix was likewise impressive.

As a scholar of Latinos in the United States, I paid particular attention to the number of new Latino medical students, including my son. Here again, I was impressed. A good percentage was Latinos. What is important here is that UC Irvine is ahead of the curve with respect to the number and percentage of Latinos in our medical schools. Nationally, only about 5 percent of all medical students in the country are Latinos, while the percentage of Latinos in the U.S. is about 16 percent. Many Latinos, especially immigrants, do not regularly see doctors, and some studies suggest this has to do with the lack of Latino physicians.

Latinos as a whole suffer from many illnesses, including an almost epidemic number of diabetic cases, and the lack of Latino doctors in Latino communities only compounds the problem. I recently received a small grant to begin oral histories with the few Latino physicians in the Santa Barbara area as a way of using their stories to encourage potential Latino medical students to apply and to go to medical schools. I am encouraged at the same time by the Irvine model, where clearly the medical school understands the importance of recruiting qualified Latinos to attend medical school and to challenge the national lack of Latino medical students. My hope is that other major medical schools will follow this model. Much of our nation's health could depend on this because by 2050, Latinos are project to represent one-third of the national population.

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A new model for medical schools

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

An independent panel of scientists and veterinarians enlisted by Harvard Medical School to review its troubled primate research facility in Southborough is recommending that new leadership positions be created and a committee be formed to assure animal safety and foster closer ties with the main medical school.

The two-page executive summary of the report, released to the Globe by Deborah Kochevar, dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the chairwoman of the committee, calls for establishing a new veterinarian position and appointing a biosafety officer specifically dedicated to the New England Primate Research Center. The committee did not set out to investigate the specific lapses in animal care and procedures that resulted in death and harm to animals.

Our charge and our intent was the evaluation of process improvements and these long-term strategies that would impact the delivery of humane, effective animal care and also ensure productive research, Kochevar said in an interview. The information about recent primate deaths was part of our context, but we werent there to investigate those incidents.

Many of the recommended changes involve adding layers of oversight and direct reporting to Harvard, including the designation of a senior leader at the medical school who would act as an advocate for the primate center.

The new attending veterinarian specifically assigned to the primate center would report directly to Harvard Medical Schools executive dean for administration. The independent committee recommended a review of training and policies to ensure they encourage open communication and reporting of problems.

Similarly, authors of the review recommended that a subcommittee be formed with the express task of focusing on the care and use of primates at the Southborough center. Now, there is a single committee overseeing animal research and care at all of the medical schools research facilities.

In a statement, Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the medical school, said Harvard accepted the recommendations.

We have begun a timely implementation of these recommendations, Flier said in the statement.

Of course, this has been a challenging period, for the primate center, Flier wrote, but it has also been a time of reflection and analysis that has led to more stringent oversight and to a rigorous process of quality improvement.

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Independent committee recommends changes at Harvard’s New England Primate Research Center

As a clinician, research scientist, scholar, and teacher at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr. Saumil Nalin Merchant had a reputation that reached around the world.

He worked in the field of otology, treating disorders and diseases of the ear, and was one of the American members of the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum, the premier international society for otologic research.

Yet despite such renown, his neighbors in Acton knew he was available to treat any medical emergency.

He was the kindest, most gentle man I ever met, said his neighbor Susan Pinsky, who added that Dr. Merchant was always glad to examine a neighborhood child with an earache.

He was so generous with his time, efforts, and knowledge, she said. My daughter burst into tears when she heard he had died.

Dr. Merchant, the son of two physicians, was the Gudrun Larsen Eliasen and Nels Kristian Eliasen Professor of Otology and Laryngology.

He died of complications following a heart attack June 27 in the Kaplan Hospice House in Danvers. He was 51 and had lived in Acton.

He was such a kind person and so caring, said Herb Chambers of Boston, who owns automobile dealerships. He would take whatever time was necessary for you and would come to my office in Somerville if I needed him. He was brilliant.

Dr. Merchants other research passion was the study of the pathology of the human temporal bone.

In a tribute, Dr. Joseph B. Nadol Jr., chief of otolarygology at Mass. Eye and Ear, and Dr. Michael J. McKenna, a professor of otolaryngology and laryngology at Harvard Medical School, wrote that Dr. Merchants research was consistently supported by National Institutes of Health funding, a clear testament to the high regard in which his research work was held.

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Dr. Saumil Merchant, ear specialist beloved by patients, colleagues

In 2011, final-year University of Adelaide medical students Rachel Jones and Ben Rogers were looking forward to gaining rural practice experience. Now their uni is doubling the number of interviews with rural candidates. Picture: Calum Robertson Source: The Advertiser

THE University of Adelaide's medical school aims to double the number of rural students it interviews for places with changes to its entry process.

From this year the university will consider rural applicants' Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test scores separately from metropolitan applicants in a bid to ensure more get through to the interview stage.

The university hopes to interview about 120 rural students, up from the 61 it saw for this year's cohort.

Faculty of Health Sciences executive dean Professor Justin Beilby acknowledged rural students were under-represented but hoped the changes would see growth.

University of Adelaide second-year medicine student Matt Watson, from Tooligie on the Eyre Peninsula, said: "Where I'm from, the only person I could talk to who'd got into medicine was the GP."

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Uni targets rural medical students

HERSHAW DAVIS JR., LEFT,said he is trying to eat better and exercise more to control his weight, but finds his 12-hour, overnight shift as an ER nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital makes it difficult. (GABRIELLA DEMCZUK | THE BALTIMORE SUN)

Taylor DesRosiers was a competitive swimmer throughout her life, always fit. But in her first year of medical school, she realized that had changed - she was at an unhealthy weight.

The rigors of her education had piled on top of two rough years in which she went through a broken-off engagement and supporting her mother through a health scare. During a course on obesity, she realized, according to body mass index charts, she was technically obese herself.

"It just kind of hit me: I need to make a large change," DesRosiers said.

She had some support in doing that: Two fellow Johns Hopkins University students recently launched the Patient Promise, a program that aims to ensure health professionals do as they tell patients when it comes to healthy lifestyles. It is one of many similar programs to arise in the industry as health professionals seek to tackle rising obesity rates nationwide by starting with themselves. (Lakeland Regional Medical Center, for example, offers Living Well: Lakeland Regional's Culture of Health. It includes classes on nutrition, diabetes, smoking cessation and more, as well as an exercises series and health screenings.)

Research has shown that healthy lifestyle choices on the part of physicians can translate into better care for obese patients. That care is important as the health industry seeks to tackle the rising costs of care, particularly for many chronic conditions that can stem from obesity.

About 36 percent of adults in the U.S. are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control. For a 5-foot-4-inch adult, a weight above 174 pounds is considered obese, while a 5-foot-9-inch person weighing 203 or more would qualify, for example. Obesity-related conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer are among the leading causes of death.

Hopkins students Shiv Gaglani and David Gatz started talking about the idea behind the Patient Promise early this year, realizing that their career choices were taking a toll on their health.

"Our own healthy-lifestyle behaviors were going out the window," Gaglani said, given time spent sedentary in classes or studying and busy schedules leaving little room for exercise or healthy cooking. "It's sort of a sacrificial career. By sacrificing our own health, we would become potentially less effective as clinicians because we wouldn't be credible."

The pair got about a dozen students together, including DesRosiers, to draft the Patient Promise, and they launched it in June. Within a few weeks, 300 medical professionals and students across the country had signed it, and the organizers plan to raise that to a few thousand eventually.

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Medical Professionals Not Always Leading Healthy Lifestyles

Dr. Craig Brater will retire in June next year as dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine, he announced Wednesday, and the school has formed a committee to find his replacement.

Brater, 66, has worked at the Indianapolis-based school for 26 years, including the past 12 as dean. The school is the second largest medical school in the nation and the only one in Indiana.

Brater oversees a massive operation that includes a main campus in Indianapolis and eight satellite campuses throughout the state.

The medical school had a budget of nearly $426 million in the last school year, up by 30 percent over the past five years. It employs 1,900 professors who oversee a total student body of 1,880 and also serve as doctors at five hospitals in Indianapolis, including Wishard Memorial Hospital, the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, as well as IU Healths University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children.

Craig Brater has done a superb job leading the IU School of Medicine for the past 12 years and working in close partnership with IU Health and our other clinical partners," said IU President Michael McRobbie in a prepared statement announcing the launch of a national search for Braters replacement. "He has effectively and skillfully positioned the school as a research and clinical leader.

IU has formed a 20-member search committee, which will be led by John Williams, dean of the IU School of Dentistry. Other members of the committee include Dan Evans, CEO of the IU Health hospital system; Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO of Wishard Health Services; and Marion Broome, dean of the IU School of Nursing.

That committee will identify and screen prospective candidates, then recommend a group of finalists to McRobbie and to Charles Bantz, the chancellor of the IUPUI campus, where the medical school is based.

The search committee will be helped by an outside advisory committee, which will be chaired by Chuck Schalliol, a life sciences attorney at Faegre Baker & Daniels LLP, who is a former manager at Eli Lilly and Co. and the former CEO of BioCrossroads, an Indianapolis-based life sciences development group.

Brater is a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn. He attended undergraduate and medical school at Duke University. Before IU, he was part of the faculty at the University of California at San Francisco and worked for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Brater and his wife Stephanie have one grown daughter who lives in Florida.

Continued here:
Brater to retire as dean of IU medical school

August 9, 2012 Grant to benefit Columbia-Bassett Medical School student

Anonymous The Cooperstown Crier Thu Aug 09, 2012, 10:20 PM EDT

The Central New York KeyBank Foundation Committee has awarded Friends of Bassett Healthcare Network a four-year grant of $120,000 to provide scholarship support for one student over the course of their four year Columbia-Bassett Medical School experience beginning this fall, according to a media release from Bassett.

Innovative ways of attracting highly skilled physicians to practice in rural areas are crucial given the changing health care environment, Stephen D. Fournier, president of KeyBanks Central New York District said in the release. The Columbia-Bassett program goes well beyond that by also preparing medical school students to lead the health systems of the future, and thats why KeyBank felt it was important to demonstrate the Foundations support of the program in such a meaningful way.

Columbia-Bassett Assistant Dean for Education Dr. Henry Weil said in the release that the KeyBank grant will be life changing for the student who receives it.

Young physicians coming out of medical school face educational debts that can exceed $200,000, which forces them to make career decisions based upon maximizing their earning potential, Weil said. Our goal has been to make rural practice a more attractive and viable option by limiting future debt through substantial financial assistance, like the scholarship KeyBank will provide to one deserving medical school student.

The Columbia-Bassett Medical School Program is a collaborative endeavor of Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown and the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City. The program annually recruits 10 exceptional students with an interest in providing care in underserved rural communities and learning how to manage health care systems that promote both quality and cost-effective delivery of care. Bassett Medical Center underwrites the cost of education for the students, providing $30,000 in scholarships per year per student. The students spend their first 18 months learning the basic science curriculum with the rest of their class in New York City, but their clinical training for the following two-and-one-half years is based at Bassett Medical Center.

According to the release, this unique program attracts more than 750 applicants each year for the 10 slots. Applicants are from across the country and are among the most qualified of those applying to medical school.

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Grant to benefit Columbia-Bassett Medical School student

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Council Member Mike Martinez suggested increasing the package to $400 million, while trying to work around Mayor Lee Leffingwell's reluctance to raise taxes.

Leffingwell says he is hesitant to increase the size of the bond package because the council has already approved rate increases for electricity, water and natural gas service, among others.

The mayor also supports State Sen. Kirk Watson's push to establish a medical school at the University of Texas, and to build a new, state-of-the-art research hospital.

"Realizing that it is such a high priority for our city and for our region, I think it's very appropriate for other jurisdictions to keep in mind that we have to respect that request too," Leffingwell said.

Sen. Watson says his law firm is not at all involved in the efforts to bring a medical school to the University of Texas, but voters need to be educated about the benefits higher taxes will bring.

"They are going to want to create 15,000 jobs and $2 billion in economic activity, Sen. Watson said. They are going to want to take care of the indigent population, so they save money because people aren't at the emergency room."

However, it all still comes with a price tag. Travis County voters would pick up about 10 percent of the tab, or $35 million a year. That would cost the average Austin area homeowner about $88 more a year in property taxes.

"For every dollar of local money we put up, the federal government will match it with $1.46," Watson said.

Leffingwell expects Austin's bond package to be broken up into about seven partsincluding transportation, affordable housing and parks.

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City weighs taxpayer burden of medical school, bond package

Public release date: 7-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mark L. Shelton mark.shelton@umassmed.edu 508-856-2000 University of Massachusetts Medical School

BOSTON, Mass. A pivotal clinical trial for an anti-rabies human monoclonal antibody (RMAb) being developed through a collaborative partnership between MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Serum Institute of India, Ltd., is starting to enroll patients. The study, sponsored by the Serum Institute, will evaluate the efficacy of post-exposure prophylaxis following rabies exposure with RMAb and vaccine compared to standard treatment of human rabies immune globulin (hRIG) and vaccine. Post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies that includes a monoclonal antibody should provide a more affordable, safer alternative to prevent the disease, which is a world-wide public health problem impacting 10 million people a year and resulting in some 55,000 deaths.

"We are extremely pleased that this potentially life-saving product has moved forward to the pivotal clinical trial phase," said Deborah Molrine, MD, deputy director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at MassBiologics and an associate professor of pediatrics at UMass Medical School. "Rabies is a major public health problem in Asia and Africa, and we are hopeful that the findings of this study may result in a treatment option readily available in those areas where it is needed most."

The randomized, comparator-controlled study being conducted in India will enroll 200 patients who have had a high-risk (category III as defined by the World Health Organization) exposure to a suspected rabid animal. Study participants will receive proper wound care followed by injections of either the investigational RMAb or standard hRIG treatment in combination with a five-dose rabies vaccine series.

The primary endpoint of the study is to demonstrate that the level of neutralizing antibody to rabies virus in the blood of participants who received RMAb and vaccine is at least as much as the level of anti-rabies neutralizing antibody in the blood of those who received hRIG and vaccine.

While deaths from rabies in the United States are rare, rabies remains a significant problem with approximately 95 percent of human deaths from rabies occurring in Asia and Africa. Death from rabies is preventable with timely post-exposure prophylaxis consisting of wound hygiene, administration of rabies immune globulin, and active immunization with rabies vaccine. In persons wounded by a suspected rabid animal, the vaccine works to stimulate the immune system to fight the rabies virus, while the rabies immune globulin provides immediate protection with neutralizing antibodies before the immune system begins making its own antibodies.

Human rabies immune globulin, derived from human blood, is an expensive product and carries a potential risk of contamination with blood-borne pathogens. Equine immune globulin (eRIG), derived from horse serum, is used in many parts of the world, but its use is associated with significant adverse effects such as anaphylaxis or serum sickness. Both products are often in short supply and costly for inhabitants of areas of the world where rabies is endemic. In India alone, it is estimated only 2 percent of patients whose wounds require the rabies immune globulin receive appropriate post-exposure treatment.

To address the supply and adverse effects issues, MassBiologics and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed an anti- rabies monoclonal antibody with the goal that it might be used in place of hRIG or eRIG. MassBiologics then partnered with the Serum Institute to develop and manufacture the monoclonal antibody in India. "A monoclonal antibody for rabies has the advantage of being able to be produced in large quantities, at much lower costs than blood products," said Prasad Kulkarni, MD, medical director at the Serum Institute of India, Ltd. "And since they are not derived from blood serum, they have none of the safety issues associated with human blood products. If the primary endpoint from this pivotal trial is met, a new therapy could become available to thousands of patients each year to prevent the too-often fatal outcome of this infection."

In a phase 1 trial at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai, India, 74 healthy volunteers were randomized into several groups that either received RMAb or of hRIG combined with vaccine. Results showed that the RMAb was well tolerated by all subjects, with no serious side-effects. A dose of RMAb was selected from this study that produced comparable levels of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies in the blood from volunteers who received RMAb and vaccine compared to those who received the standard regimen of hRIG and vaccine.

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Clinical trial for rabies monoclonal antibody