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September 28, 2010 | Tuesday 
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Flu Vaccine Campaign Now Underway at the Miller School
Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., assists as Evril Antoine, R.N., gives Marc Lippman, M.D., his flu shot.

Yes, the needle prick into the deltoid smarts for a second. And no, you won't get a lollipop. (Candy was axed from the budget.) But, as the Miller School's executive leadership learned last week, getting a flu shot is relatively painless and quick, cheerfully and efficiently administered for free at various locales around campus by nurses like Evril Antoine, R.N.

As Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., told Antoine after shedding his lab coat, rolling up his sleeve and baring his arm, "I don't even feel it. You're really, really good."

With the largest order ever of the influenza vaccine in hand, the 2010-11 influenza vaccination campaign officially started September 16, and Dean Goldschmidt and Rafael Campo, M.D., professor of clinical medicine and medical director of employee health for the University of Miami Health System, are counting on even greater participation than last year, when nearly 7,000 doses of the seasonal and H1N1 vaccine were administered at employee health offices.

DOCS Clinic Opens at Overtown Shelter for Homeless Women

The Lotus House DOCS staff, from left, Michael Spertus, Rujuta Pandya, Elishia McKay and Janki Amin, and previous Lotus House project manager Prabhat Mishra celebrated the grand opening of the Lotus House Wellness Center last week.

After years of planning, the student-run organization that informally began bringing health care to underserved communities nearly 40 years ago celebrated the grand opening Thursday of a wellness clinic at the Lotus House, a sanctuary for homeless women and children in Overtown.

Beginning this Thursday, the Lotus House Wellness Center, the third community-based clinic in South Florida staffed by Miller School faculty and medical students through the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Service, or DOCS, will offer gynecological screenings and other women's health services once every other week at the shelter.



New Study Shows Cholesterol Counts in Kidney Disease

Gabriel Contreras, M.D., M.P.H.

To understand the health effects of high cholesterol levels, doctors first need to assess malnutrition and inflammation status in their chronic kidney disease  patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Patients with chronic kidney disease often develop and die from cardiovascular disease. While it's well known that high cholesterol puts people at risk for cardiovascular disease in the general population, the relationship is not as clear in chronic kidney disease patients. In fact, research has shown that dialysis patients with higher cholesterol levels die at a lower rate than those with lower cholesterol levels. It's not that high cholesterol is beneficial; rather, the higher levels may indicate a lesser degree of malnutrition and inflammation, two serious and interrelated complications of kidney disease.

To see whether malnutrition or inflammation might modify the relationship of cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, Gabriel Contreras, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at the Miller School and Lawrence Appel, M.D., from the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Prevention, Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues studied 990 African-Americans with hypertension and chronic kidney disease who were not yet on dialysis, 31 percent of whom had malnutrition and/or inflammation. 



New Gene Associated with Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.

Researchers have identified a gene that appears to increase a person's risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common type of the disease. Abbreviated MTHFD1L, a gene on chromosome six, was identified in a genome-wide association study by a team of researchers led by Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the Miller School. Details appeared September 23 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are currently 18 million people worldwide with Alzheimer's disease, and this figure is projected to nearly double to 34 million by 2025. By looking at gene variation throughout the human genomes of 2,269 subjects with late-onset AD and 3,107 without the disease, researchers were able to pinpoint small differences in the genetic sequences of people with and without AD.

The study found that individuals with a particular variation in the gene MTHFD1L may be almost twice as likely to develop AD as those people without the variation.



Ransom Students Learn About Concussions and ImPACT Testing

Behind Miami Project President Marc Buoniconti, center, are from left, Claude Grubair, athletic director; Adam Goldstein, parent; Ellen Moceri, head of Ransom; David Goldstein, student; Gillian Hotz, Ph.D., and Cheryl Goldstein, parent.

The Miller School and the KiDZ Neuroscience Center at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis held a special assembly at Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove this month to educate students about spinal cord injury and concussion in sports.

At the September 13 assembly, Marc Buoniconti, president of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, discussed the college football injury that left him paralyzed 25 years ago and the advances in spinal cord injury research, including the start of human trials, that hold promise of a cure.

And Gillian Hotz, Ph.D., director of the Concussion Program at UHealth Sports Medicine, reviewed the signs and symptoms of concussion and described how Ransom students will be tested with ImPACT this fall.



Grand Rounds
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 1 p.m. Cardiovascular Grand Rounds: “Patient Selection and Use of Left Ventricular Assist Devices in Bridge to Transplantation, Bridge to Decision and Destination Therapy"
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 8 a.m. Family Medicine and Community Health Grand Rounds: “Medical Errors”
Thursday, September 30, 2010 6:45 a.m. Anesthesiology Grand Rounds: “Recent Developments in the Monitoring of Oxygenation”
Thursday, September 30, 2010 7 a.m. Neurological Surgery Grand Rounds: “Management of Pineal Region Tumors in Children”
Thursday, September 30, 2010 7 a.m. Obstetrics and Gynecology Grand Rounds: “Malpractice or Miscommunication? Lessons Learned to Improve Patient Safety on the Labor and Delivery Suite"
Thursday, September 30, 2010 7 a.m. Orthopaedic Grand Rounds: “Cartilage Injuries in the Talus”
Thursday, September 30, 2010 8 a.m. Otolaryngology Grand Rounds: “An Electrophysiological Intra-Operative Monitoring of Hearing During Ossiculoplasty"
Thursday, September 30, 2010 8 a.m. Neurological Surgery Grand Rounds: “Advances and Controversies in the Management of Pituitary Tumors"
Thursday, September 30, 2010 12 p.m. Hospital Medicine Grand Rounds: “The Handoff of Hospitalized Patients”
Friday, October 1, 2010 1 p.m. Neurology Grand Rounds:  “Assessment of Rapidly Progressive Dementia and Early Diagnosis of Prion Disease"
Friday, October 1, 2010 2 p.m. Neurology Grand Rounds: “Therapeutic Strategies and Mechanistic Insight into Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis, a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis"
Thursday, October 14, 2010 6:45 a.m. Anesthesiology Grand Rounds: "Update on Neuromuscular Blockade Monitoring and Reversal"
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 4 p.m. Special Surgery Grand Rounds Presentation and Celebration of 40 Years of Excellence
Events
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 9 a.m. The Miami Project Wednesday Morning Seminar: “Do Additional Inputs Change Maximal Voluntary Motor Unit Firing Rates After Spinal Cord Injury?"
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 12 p.m. Healthy Steps Presentation: “Clingy Children Who Won’t Let Go: Strategies to Help Your Child Overcome Separation Anxiety"
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 3:30 p.m. Faculty Senate Meeting
Friday, October 1, 2010 12 p.m. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Seminar: “The Genetic Pharmacopoeia: Translational Applications of Gene Transfer Technologies"
Monday, October 4, 2010 12 p.m. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Seminar: “Target Identification and Inhibition in the Chronic Myeloproliferative Neoplasms"
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 12 p.m. Cell Biology and Anatomy Seminar: “Basic Concepts in Cancer Histopathology”
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 1 p.m. Center for Computational Science Seminar: “Developments in Network Inference with Applications to Protein Interactomes"
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 4 p.m. McKnight Research Seminar: “C-C Chemokine Receptor Type 3 and Choroidal Neovascularization”
Thursday, October 14, 2010 7 a.m. Annual Masters in Repair of Structural Heart Disease 2010 Conference
Thursday, October 14, 2010 6 p.m. School of Business Administration MBA Program Information Session: “How Sick is Our Health Care System: The Question of Health Care Reform"
Saturday, October 23, 2010 3 p.m. Bike to the BankAtlantic Center to Benefit Motorcycle Safety and Education
Sunday, October 24, 2010 10 a.m. 2010 Miami-Dade County Out of the Darkness 5K Walk for Suicide Prevention
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 8 a.m. XIII Ibero-American Stroke Society Meeting
Funding and Research
NIH Loan Repayment Application Deadline November 15
Coulter Center’s Biological Modifiers Core Offers Novel Methods to Generate Monoclonal Antibodies
Subject Enrollment Policy Reminder: For Clinical Researchers and Study Teams
JHS CTO and CRIS Forms
Stay Connected: Subscribe to the Research Listservs
Stimulus Funding Information
For Your Benefit

Well ‘Canes Mammography Days in October

Seminar: “Hiring and Onboarding Talent”

Open Enrollment for UM’s Competency-Based Programs

Psychological Services Center Program: “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Chronic or Acute Health and Pain Issues"

Seminar: “Business Writing”

Seminar: “Organizational Skills”

Seminar: “Coaching for Performance”

Events
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The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University.

Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
CEO, University of Miami Health System
Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D.

Executive Editor
Associate Vice President for Communications
Christine Morris

Editor
Jenny Prather

Contributors
Maya Bell
Dwayne Campbell
Jeanne Antol Krull
Lisa Worley


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