The Alpert Medical School welcomed its largest class ever this year totalling 120 students following the opening of the schools downtown facility last fall. With the building constructed in downtown Providences Knowledge District able to accommodate more students, the school matriculated 11 additional students in this years class, up from 109 in the class of 2015. The school has expanded from 310 students in 2001 to 421 students this year, according to Ed Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences.

The admittance of the Med Schools largest-ever class was made possible by the new facility, Wing said. Admitting classes of 120 will expand the school to 480 students in the next few years, he said.

Its a terrific building, Wing said, adding that the schools old space in the BioMedical Center did not allow for expansion. Everything in the (new) building has allowed us to provide better education.

The Med School also witnessed a surge in applications for spots in the class of 2016, with a roughly 20 percent increase from 2,825 applicants in 2011 to 3,344 applications in 2012, according to Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of medical education and professor of pediatrics.

There is in general a physician shortage in the United States, Gruppuso said. He noted that the Association of American Medical Colleges has called for a substantial increase in the countrys supply of doctors and that the University is hoping to aid this goal. Gruppuso said the Med Schools expansion was part of a long-term process that occurred after administrators received permission from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting organization for medical degree programs.

Wing said administrators have nothing definite planned to expand the student body any further than 480 students.

The Med School hired more staff to accommodate the larger building, but they did not need to hire more faculty members, Wing said, adding that the school boasts a total of 2,000 faculty members, including 600 full-time clinical faculty. The Med School revamped its curriculum but did not add additional classes or expand the size of courses.

Gruppuso said the University is still considered a small medical school according to national rankings of medical degree programs by size.

We had space and resources and faculty to be able to meet the needs of this number of students, he said. We were very confident this (expansion) was not going to result in any kind of erosion of the quality of the medical program.

As part of its expansion, the Med School introduced a new academy model of advising and training last year, with each class divided into three academies of around 40 students in order to facilitate greater advising services and a better sense of community. Each academy space provides locker and study space, designated advisers and other training services to students to help break down the student body into smaller sections.

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Med school admits largest class ever

The Alpert Medical School welcomed its largest class ever this year totalling 120 students following the opening of the schools downtown facility last fall. With the building constructed in downtown Providences Knowledge District able to accommodate more students, the school matriculated 11 additional students in this years class, up from 109 in the class of 2015. The school has expanded from 310 students in 2001 to 421 students this year, according to Ed Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences.

The admittance of the Med Schools largest-ever class was made possible by the new facility, Wing said. Admitting classes of 120 will expand the school to 480 students in the next few years, he said.

Its a terrific building, Wing said, adding that the schools old space in the BioMedical Center did not allow for expansion. Everything in the (new) building has allowed us to provide better education.

The Med School also witnessed a surge in applications for spots in the class of 2016, with a roughly 20 percent increase from 2,825 applicants in 2011 to 3,344 applications in 2012, according to Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of medical education and professor of pediatrics.

There is in general a physician shortage in the United States, Gruppuso said. He noted that the Association of American Medical Colleges has called for a substantial increase in the countrys supply of doctors and that the University is hoping to aid this goal. Gruppuso said the Med Schools expansion was part of a long-term process that occurred after administrators received permission from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national accrediting organization for medical degree programs.

Wing said administrators have nothing definite planned to expand the student body any further than 480 students.

The Med School hired more staff to accommodate the larger building, but they did not need to hire more faculty members, Wing said, adding that the school boasts a total of 2,000 faculty members, including 600 full-time clinical faculty. The Med School revamped its curriculum but did not add additional classes or expand the size of courses.

Gruppuso said the University is still considered a small medical school according to national rankings of medical degree programs by size.

We had space and resources and faculty to be able to meet the needs of this number of students, he said. We were very confident this (expansion) was not going to result in any kind of erosion of the quality of the medical program.

As part of its expansion, the Med School introduced a new academy model of advising and training last year, with each class divided into three academies of around 40 students in order to facilitate greater advising services and a better sense of community. Each academy space provides locker and study space, designated advisers and other training services to students to help break down the student body into smaller sections.

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Med School admits largest class yet

Sept. 18, 2012, 4 a.m.

DELEGATES at the Nationals' Federal Conference carried a motion on Sunday supporting Charles Sturt University's proposal to establish a new medical school to address chronic shortages of doctors in rural and regional Australia.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Vann said, "We welcome this very public commitment by The Nationals to the establishment of a new medical school at Charles Sturt University.

He said the support followed news this week that more than 21,000 Australians had signed up on Facebook as supporters of Charles Sturt University's planned medical school.

"While we remain hopeful that the current government will fund this initiative in the next federal budget, it is important for rural and regional communities to know that the Nationals are committed to this initiative," Professor Vann said.

"I think there is a growing recognition across all political parties of the serious impact that the rural doctor shortage has on the lives of families and individuals in our communities.

"There also appears to be an increased awareness that people will not live in rural towns, let alone move here, if they can't get access to a doctor when they need one."

He said the commitment by The Nationals follows mounting evidence current rural medical education strategies are not working, and the need to focus more on resources for rurally-based and delivered programs if government was serious about addressing rural doctor shortages.

"For example, a cross-party Senate inquiry into rural medical workforce shortages reported in August this year that city medical schools had consistently failed to meet minimum recruitment targets for rural medical students, despite all the evidence that a rural doctor is significantly more likely to have come from a rural area and been trained in a rural area," Professor Vann said.

"Charles Sturt University's proposed solution to the rural doctor shortage is not only supported by a wealth of national and international evidence, it has the overwhelming support of rural and regional Australians."

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Nationals support new medical school at Charles Sturt

WANNAPA KHAOPA THE NATION September 18, 2012 1:00 am

Professor Adeeba Binti Kamarulzaman from Malaysia responded to a question about the urgent matters to be discussed in terms of research collaboration, saying the academics would see how they could jointly deal with problems that every country in the region faces - diseases such as flu and diabetes.

Prof Agnes D Mejia from the Philippines said having done community based research on diabetes, HIV prevention, E-coli and diarrhoea; the Philippines would share its findings.

Prof Udom said: "In preparation for the Asean Economic Community in 2015, the medical schools have to discuss how to upgrade curriculum, learning processes, medical services and research together. We have to link our patient care systems to support free flow of patients in Asean."

The First Asean Deans' Summit will run until tomorrow, with the theme "Connecting Asean Medical Schools towards One Community". It aims to promote collaboration among leading medical schools in Asean to leverage medical education and health systems towards international excellence and to be prepared to work as one community by 2015.

They will sign the Asean Medical School's Intention Declaration tomorrow to establish and reinforce collaboration and a network among their medical schools. They plan to share human resources and provide capacity building for medical education and research and health systems in Asean countries.

Asked about doctor mobility in Asean, Dr Alonkone Phengsavanh from Laos, said: "We should set up new regulations among medical associations of each country, and the first thing is medical licences. [Each] Health Ministry should be aware about this issue. The country should think about a 'brain drain'.

Udom said he hoped that their collaboration - coming together to look at curricula and (medical) facilities they could share to help each other - would help lift every country's standards to a similar level.

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Medical schools look to link up for AEC

Although men and women working in academic medicine strive toward advancement, significantly fewer women achieve leadership positions, says a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

For the past decade, women have made up about 50% of medical students, according to the Assn. of American Medical Colleges. Meanwhile, the average medical school has 43 female full professors compared with 192 male full professors, said Linda Pololi, MD, lead study author and senior scientist at the Womens Studies Research Center at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

Those numbers are still absolutely shocking, and without a good explanation, she said.

To gain insight into the cultural barriers women face in academic medicine, researchers surveyed 4,578 full-time faculty at 26 U.S. medical schools. They found that women reported a lower sense of belonging and support and were more pessimistic about gender equity and their chances for advancement compared with men. Women also were less likely to believe that their institutions were family-friendly or to see their values as aligning with the institutions.

The average medical school has 43 female full professors and 192 male full professors.

The findings, published online Aug. 31, demonstrate that medical schools have failed to create an environment where women feel fully accepted and supported to succeed, said Dr. Pololi, director and principal investigator of the National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine, also known as C-Change, which engages medical schools in research aimed at attaining equality in academic medicine.

The study proves wrong the notion that women are less ambitious than men. It shows that both genders have equal leadership aspirations and are equally engaged in their work, she said.

Women care very deeply about having a rich professional life, Dr. Pololi said.

The findings are not surprising and reinforce previous research, said Page S. Morahan, PhD, founding director and director of research at the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

We have seen this over and over again, she said.

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Women face cultural barriers in academic medicine

Jordana Spiro

"What would have happened if Meadow Soprano had gone on to medical school and become a doctor?" That's the question writer-producer Josh Berman said he found himself wondering when Jamie-Lynn Sigler (who played Tony Soprano's brainy daughter on The Sopranos) guest-starred on his show Drop Dead Diva.

Fall Preview: Get scoop on all of this season's new shows

Thus was planted the seed for The Mob Doctor, Berman's new series that stars Jordana Spiro as Dr. Grace Devlin, a surgeon who tries to balance her professional career with a secret side job: providing medical services for the Chicago Mafia in order to pay off a debt owed by her brother (Jesse Lee Soffer).

Berman says that after Sigler's appearance on Drop Dead Diva, he and co-producer Rob Wright started researching real-life Mob doctors. "We were shocked," he said. "It is the underbelly of organized crime their medical fixers, so to speak. So when we found out that this actually did exist, it became even more compelling and that's the point we decided, 'We have to write this.'"

See Mob Doctor's Jordana Spiro and more fall stars to watch

Inspired by one nonfiction account in particular, Ron Felber's Il Dottore: The Double Life of a Mafia Doctor, Wright and Berman started developing the character of Grace. Berman says the series will balance the medical drama with Grace's personal life story lines bookended by her relationships with her boyfriend/colleague (Zach Gilford) and former Mafia boss/family friend Constantine (William Forsythe).

"We have some episodes that take place predominantly in the hospital, and then some that take place predominantly in the field," Berman said. "I like to refer to those cases as the dirty medicine cases, because we get to tell stories without the bureaucracy of a hospital, and to me that's what's so compelling. ... When Grace is in the field, the only thing she needs to do is worry about the patient. And I think she takes that energy and that passion back into the hospital with her, which kind of gives her that 'I don't give a damn' attitude when it comes to placating her bosses. Instead, she puts her patients' interests first."

Spiro, who previously starred in TBS' comedy My Boys, said she was drawn to the role due to the moral dilemmas Grace faces as she tries to extract herself from the Mafia life. (Her father was a minor player in the Mob.) In the pilot episode, for instance, Grace receives a message to kill a patient, an informant who's brought into her hospital."This woman is making choices that are very morally conflicted and yet, at the beginning, it's to save her family," Spiro says. "And so this question becomes, 'How far do you go, and where is that line that you absolutely won't cross? And what happens when that line keeps edging further and further away?'"

The Mob Doctor's antihero will cross the line

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Mafia Medicine: Jordana Spiro, Josh Berman Weigh In on The Mob Doctor

iStock / DOConnell

The Boston Children's Hospital pediatric doctor charged with receipt of child pornography was disciplined for using a school computer to access adult pornography when he was medical director at Phillips Academy boarding school, school officials said Friday.

Richard Keller, 56, who is also a pediatrics clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, was the medical director at Philips Academy for 19 years, according to John Palfrey, the head of the school.

In an e-mail to faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents on Friday, Palfrey said Keller was reprimanded in 1999 for using an academy computer to access pornography that featured adult subjects, and in 2002 was reprimanded for showing an inappropriate cartoon to students.

According to Palfrey, Keller was cited for "poor management and poor judgment," leading the Andover, Massachusetts, school to place him on administrative probation in 2009.

Palfrey went on to say that as recently as 2010, Keller sent an inappropriate voice-mail message to a colleague at the school. A claim by Keller that the school had discriminated against him was determined to be "groundless," according to Palfrey.

In April 2011, the academy informed Keller that his contract would not be renewed. The doctor resigned that month, the school said.

"We have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved in, or affected by, Dr. Keller's alleged criminal behavior," Palfrey said, adding the federal case made Thursday against Keller is unrelated to alleged misconduct at Phillips.

Keller's name came to the attention of authorities after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began a 2010 investigation into a movie production company that sold films featuring minor boys, according to the criminal complaint.

Investigators conducted a review of the company's customer database and located alleged customer Richard Keller, who had two addresses listed, authorities said.

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School: Doctor disciplined for viewing adult porn

The head of a Massachusetts prep school says the former medical director was reprimanded for using a school computer to access adult pornography, one of the many reasons he was not rehired.

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Mass. school: Ex-med chief used computer for porn

The former medical director of an exclusive Massachusetts prep school was reprimanded for using a school computer to access adult pornography, one of the many reasons his appointment was not renewed, the school says.

Excerpt from:

Mass. school: Ex-employee used computer for porn

From Chris Boyette, CNN

updated 10:44 PM EDT, Fri September 14, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- The Boston Children's Hospital pediatric doctor charged with receipt of child pornography was disciplined for using a school computer to access adult pornography when he was medical director at Phillips Academy boarding school, school officials said Friday.

Richard Keller, 56, who is also a pediatrics clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, was the medical director at Philips Academy for 19 years, according to John Palfrey, the head of the school.

In an e-mail to faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents on Friday, Palfrey said Keller was reprimanded in 1999 for using an academy computer to access pornography that featured adult subjects, and in 2002 was reprimanded for showing an inappropriate cartoon to students.

According to Palfrey, Keller was cited for "poor management and poor judgment," leading the Andover, Massachusetts, school to place him on administrative probation in 2009.

Palfrey went on to say that as recently as 2010, Keller sent an inappropriate voice-mail message to a colleague at the school. A claim by Keller that the school had discriminated against him was determined to be "groundless," according to Palfrey.

In April 2011, the academy informed Keller that his contract would not be renewed. The doctor resigned that month, the school said.

"We have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved in, or affected by, Dr. Keller's alleged criminal behavior," Palfrey said, adding the federal case made Thursday against Keller is unrelated to alleged misconduct at Phillips.

Continued here:

School: Boston doctor was disciplined for viewing adult pornography

BOSTON - The head of an exclusive Massachusetts prep school says the former medical director was reprimanded for using a school computer to access adult pornography, one of the many reasons he was not rehired.

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Mass. prep school says ex-medical director used school computer to look at pornography

From Chris Boyette, CNN

updated 10:44 PM EDT, Fri September 14, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- The Boston Children's Hospital pediatric doctor charged with receipt of child pornography was disciplined for using a school computer to access adult pornography when he was medical director at Phillips Academy boarding school, school officials said Friday.

Richard Keller, 56, who is also a pediatrics clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, was the medical director at Philips Academy for 19 years, according to John Palfrey, the head of the school.

In an e-mail to faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents on Friday, Palfrey said Keller was reprimanded in 1999 for using an academy computer to access pornography that featured adult subjects, and in 2002 was reprimanded for showing an inappropriate cartoon to students.

According to Palfrey, Keller was cited for "poor management and poor judgment," leading the Andover, Massachusetts, school to place him on administrative probation in 2009.

Palfrey went on to say that as recently as 2010, Keller sent an inappropriate voice-mail message to a colleague at the school. A claim by Keller that the school had discriminated against him was determined to be "groundless," according to Palfrey.

In April 2011, the academy informed Keller that his contract would not be renewed. The doctor resigned that month, the school said.

"We have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved in, or affected by, Dr. Keller's alleged criminal behavior," Palfrey said, adding the federal case made Thursday against Keller is unrelated to alleged misconduct at Phillips.

Continue reading here:

School: Doctor was disciplined for viewing adult pornography

First-year medical students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine will be the first in New York to be introduced to a digital-age ultrasound device that can visualize inside the body, and fit directly into the pockets of their brand new white coats. ...

Original post:

Seeing Is Believing: Mount Sinai School of Medicine Aims to Revolutionize Medical School Program

By Mary Ann Roser

More than 400 Austin-area doctors are backing a Nov. 6 ballot proposition for a big increase in Travis County property taxes to support services for a planned medical school and other programs, a political action committee said Wednesday.

"I think Proposition 1 is about health care for families, and doctors are interested in that," said Lynda Rife, a spokeswoman for the Keep Austin Healthy PAC.

She said her release of the doctors' names was the culmination of a grass-roots effort that took about a week with doctors contacting each other and expressing support for the proposition.

Central Health, which oversees health care services for indigent residents of Travis County, is asking voters to approve a 63 percent increase in property taxes from 7.89 cents per $100 of assessed value to 12.9 cents. The money raised, estimated at $54 million, would pay for health services provided by medical school faculty, residents and students, as well as help pay for a teaching hospital site and other health care programs.

"Our doctors understand how this initiative will help raise funds that will be used to further enhance care, improve the efficiency of care, and provide greater access to care for patients in our community," Dr. Norman Chenven, founder of Austin Regional Clinic, said in a statement.

Michael Rotman, a retired Austin cardiologist, said he fears duplicating services and driving up costs.

Contact Mary Ann Roser at 445-3619

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400 doctors say they support a tax increase for medical school services in Austin

Relationship expands trust in one of the leading consumer health care appsDenver, CO (PRWEB) September 12, 2012 iTriage® today announced that Harvard Medical School has completed an extensive review of its medical content and has extended its stamp of approval. iTriage’s core medical content – which includes information on conditions, medications and medical procedures – was developed by a team ...

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iTriage Adds Harvard Medical School as a Content Review Partner

A newly-launched medical school program in State College will be highlighted Wednesday during the annual open meeting of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center board of directors. The program presently involves 13 medical students who are in their third year, and spent their first two years at Derry Twp.-based Penn State College of Medicine.

The purpose is to train doctors closer to rural communities where they will eventually work, and help remedy shortages in those areas. The program is a collaboration involving Penn State-Hershey, Mount Nittany Medical Center and other medical providers based in the State College area.

According to a news release, the meeting also will highlight items including the record $107 million in research funding received by the medical center and Penn State College of Medicine during the most recent fiscal year. The figure represents a $1.5 million increase from last year, with about $65 million coming from the National Institutes of Health.

The meeting is expected to further highlight the center's new Institute for Personalized Medicine. The goal of personalized medicine is to tailor treatments based on the patient's biologic and genetic makeup.

Penn State-Hershey, which was founded in 1963, has 491 beds and admits about 27,000 patients annually. Its most recent class of medical school graduates included 131 doctors, and it annually gets about 7,300 applicants for 145 medical school slots, according to the medical center.

The hour-long board meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. in the Edward P. "Ted" Junker III Auditorium at the medical center.

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Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center will tout record research funding, new programs

Next time you go for a checkup or medical procedure, bear in mind: There’s a good chance the person writing that prescription—or holding that scalpel—never went to medical school.

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The doctor won’t be seeing you now

By Yeoh Lai Lin – The Online Citizen Spoke to Associate Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah, associate professor at a local medical school and infectious diseases specialist, member of the SDP Advisory Healthcare Panel and one of the engineers of the plan.   1. Since its official launch, The SDP National Healthcare Plan has yet to [...]

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Interview with Associate Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah, Associate Professor at a local medical school

Government has tabled a parliamentary resolution to transfer the Medical School site at Guardamangia to the Augustinian Order to use it as a primary school for 400 children.

Government is proposing to lease it to the Order for 99 years for 1,000 a year as rent. Sports and other educational facilities can be developed on the site and even the 2,177 sq m car park in front of the Medical School building can be made use of by the school.

The Augustinian Order is committing itself to spend at least 1,000,000 on the primary school project and that the work on it will start within 10 weeks of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) issues the necessary permits.

In exchange for the Medical School site, the Augustinian Order will transfer to government the site on which they were going to build the primary school for a lease of 99 years at 900 per year. Government will pass back this land to the Order on condition that no development is carried out on it.

After working hard for more than three years on a new primary school for St Augustines College, MEPA last February turned down the application by five votes to four and wanted the extension to have two and not three floors as planned, making the whole project too small and costly to be viable.

On 9 February 2012 the Prime Minister was given a petition signed by parents after the students of the school, parents and teachers met near the War Monument in Floriana and walked to Castille.

Neighbours of the college had objecting to the project as the new building would block their view and devalue their property.

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Medical School becomes St Augustine Primary School

A facility responsible for the Harvard Medical Schools laboratory animals has been cited by the United States Department of Agriculture for failing to review exemptions that allowed it to house primates alone.

The new report reveals the findings of a July 31 inspection, which cited the Harvard School for Comparative Medicine for housing the rhesus macaques alone. The Animal Welfare Act, overseen by the USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service states that primates, as social creatures, should not be housed alone in order to prevent potential harm that could result from the stress of living alone.

The Animal Welfare Act regulations state that dealers, exhibitors ,and research facilities using primates must develop an environment enhancement plan that addresses the social needs of nonhuman primates of species known to exist in social groups in nature.

David Sacks, a spokesperson for the USDA, said that the Harvard School for Comparative Medicine was granted exemptions allowing them to house the rhesus macaques alone.

Paula S. Gladue, a veterinary medical officer inspector, cited the center for failing to review these exemptions every 30 days.

The Harvard Medical School said in a prepared statement that the Center for Comparative Medicine has revised the system of documentation for social housing.

This citation follows a string of citations for facilities affiliated with the Harvard Medical School over the past two years. The New England Primate Research Center, in Southborough, Mass. has seen four primates deaths in less than two years.

Most recently, a cotton-top tamarin monkey died of thirst in February as a result of not having a water bottle in its cage. Other incidents at the NEPRC include a primate that died after being overdosed with anesthetics in July 2011. The animal could not be saved after it experienced kidney failure and was later euthanized. In Oct. 2011 a marmoset died after escaping from its cage, being caught, and undergoing an imaging procedure. In June 2010 a primate was found dead after allegedly going through a mechanical cage washer.

Staff writer Nathalie R. Miraval can be reached at nmiraval@college.harvard.edu.

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Department of Agriculture Assesses HMS Lab Protocols