Join the Medical Wellness Team at the membership open enrollment kick-off festivities on Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Schoninger Research Quadrangle. This is the first opportunity the university workforce will have to join the new facility. Please make sure to bring your university ID card and ID number, and completed enrollment forms with you.

Participants in the new 2006 Humana RxImpact Prescription Plan will be receiving a Humana RxImpact Prescription Drug Benefit’s User’s Guide. To view the User’s Guide visit http://www.miami.edu/benefits/RxUserGuide.pdf. The RxImpact Prescription Plan will pay up to a specified allowance for covered medications. The participant will be responsible for the difference between the negotiated price and the plan allowance. 

Is your drive home from work a hassle? Here’s the solution: Vanpool. If you live in the area of Weston, Pembroke Pines, Miramar or Cooper City and work between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Vanpool has a ride for you. Call Marie during the day at 305-585-6480 (ext. 62527).

The Miami Lite program helps participants with weight loss, nutrition, controlling portion sizes, weight management techniques and guidelines for exercise. It is open to the public and is offered every Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Diabetes Research Institute, first-floor Education Center. The cost is $20 per class or $150 for ten sessions. If you would like more information, please contact Anna M. Fraker at afraker@med.miami.edu or call 305-243-3455.

To ensure that your child car seat is installed correctly, a certified child passenger safety technician will be available on Wednesdays in front of the Mailman Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The service is available to everyone who transports children under the age of 12 in their vehicle. For more information, e-mail gstepanian@um-jmh.org, or call 305-243-3928 to set up an appointment. Priority will be given to those with appointments. The Injury Free Coalition for Kids is a division of Holtz Children's Hospital/ Miller School of Medicine.

A representative from Lincoln Financial Group will be at the medical campus on March 13 to conduct individual counseling sessions. To schedule an appointment, contact Theresa Yong at 305-245-7332 or tmyong@lnc.com.

• University Compliance (anonymous hotline): 866-YOURCALL
• Billing (anonymous hotline): 305-243-HELP or 877-415-HELP
• Research Integrity and Compliance: 305-243-6415
• Financial Improprieties: 305-284-2605
• Privacy Office/HIPAA: 305-243-5000 or 1-866-366-HUSH
• University Ombudsperson: 305-284-4922

Any University of Miami employee reporting or deciding whether to report activity that may be in violation of a law, rule, or regulation is protected against retaliation by the Whistleblower Protection Statement. For more information, visit the Office of Compliance site.

• Please note that submissions are due no later than 5 p.m. Thursday for publication on Tuesday.
• We are unable to include attachments.
• Please use URL addresses in your announcements rather than hyperlinks.
• Event announcements should include the time, date, location, speaker, topic and cost if applicable. All events should have a contact phone number or e-mail address for further information. We will run event announcements for three weeks only.
• Information must be written in paragraph form. PDFs, Publisher files and flyers are not accepted.
• Human Subject recruitment announcements must be IRB approved.
• Events to be listed should be either held on the medical campus, sponsored or hosted by the Miller School of Medicine, or affect all or most of the employees on the medical campus.
• Please be sure to e-mail items to e-Update at update@med.miami.edu. Submissions to other e-mail addresses run the risk of being missed.

Did you know that every three to four seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion?  That’s 16 people every minute. A donation from you can save up to three lives.
 
There will be a blood drive today (Tuesday) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The locations are the second floor of the Retter Auditorium, the student lounge on the second floor of the Rosenstiel Medical Sciences Building, and the mobile unit located on the south side of UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Subway sandwiches, chips and soda will be provided. Everyone who donates will also receive two tickets to the Improv, a comedy club in Coconut Grove, one movie ticket to an AMC theater, and a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine visor. There will also be a raffle for all donors. Prizes include a portable DVD player and a CD player.

The following events are free of charge and a light lunch will be served. Please call 1-800-545-2292 to register. 

Kenneth W. Goodman, Ph.D., will present “Next of Kin:  Secondary Subjects in Genetics and Pedigree Studies” today (Tuesday) from noon to 1 p.m. in the Mailman Center, conference room 3023. Advance registration is required as room capacity is limited. Log on to Net Learning at https://netlearning.miami.edu to register. For more information, please e-mail Maira Abraham at Mabraham@med.miami.edu.

This presentation, sponsored by T. Rowe Price, will cover information on savings and investments through a 403(b) retirement savings plan and how to make the plan work for you. It takes place today (Tuesday) from noon to 1 p.m. in the Human Resources conference room, 817 N.W. 17th Street, suite L. Participants are asked to bring a lunch. Additionally, a representative from T. Rowe Price will conduct individual financial counseling sessions. Call 305-284-6834 to register for the seminar. To schedule an individual appointment, e-mail Jay_Schuman@troweprice.com. Walk-ins for both the seminar and the individual counseling sessions will be accepted.

The “Biochip Array Technology for Cytokines Quantitation” workshop takes place tomorrow (Wednesday) from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Fox Cancer Building, third-floor conference room. The presenter is Angela Wilson of Randox Laboratories. This workshop is sponsored by The Laboratory for Clinical and Biological Studies. There is limited space. To register, please contact Margarita Ashman at 305-243-2010, or mashman@med.miami.edu. 

S.T.E.P. (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting) Teen offers parents a realistic and practical approach to meeting the challenges of raising adolescents today. It helps parents learn effective and enjoyable ways to communicate with their teens and to achieve the goal of raising responsible children. Classes will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) and also on March 10, 15 and 22, in Dominion Parking Garage, room 155, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. You may register online at http://netlearning.miami.edu (be sure to register for all sessions). If you have any questions on using the online registration system, call 305-284-5110 or 305-243-3090. For questions about content, call 305-284-6604.

Diana M. Lopez, professor of microbiology and immunology, will be presented with the Faculty Senate 2006 Outstanding Teaching Award at a ceremony tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4 p.m. in the Storer Auditorium of the School of Business Administration. All faculty are invited to attend the ceremony and reception that follows.

The following presentations take place at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 3109, and are sponsored by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. For additional information, please contact Michelle Perez at 305-243-6655.

Ronald Goldfarb, a Washington, D.C., attorney and author who served in the 1960s as a member of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice, will present “Confidentiality and the Professions.” This series will address issues in law, medicine, pastoral care, journalism, information technology and other professions. It is open to the University community as well as the public. Those who attend at least four sessions will receive a University of Miami Ethics Programs Certificate of Attendance. The sessions will take place on Thursday, and again on March 16 and 30 at 3 p.m. in the Mailman Center, room 5003. For more information, contact the UM Ethics Programs at 305-243-5723 or ethics@miami.edu.

Jill Tincher, senior director, Medical Research Administration, will present “NIH Electronic Submission Requirements” on Thursday at noon in the Baxter conference room of the Batchelor Children's Research Institute. The National Institutes of Health will soon require all competing research grant applications to come in electronically via the web portal of www.Grants.gov on a new SF 424 Research and Related (R&R) application. Participants will learn how to prepare for electronic submission through Grants.gov. Log onto Netlearning at http://netlearning.miami.edu to register. For more information, please e-mail Maria Valero-Martinez at mvalero@med.miami.edu.

Neuroscience Research Day assembles poster presentations of neuroscience-related research from all University of Miami campuses. Graduate and undergraduate posters will be judged by a faculty panel for scientific merit and presentation. Awards will be given for the top posters. This year's session will be held on Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. in front of the Mailman Center. Admission is free. Refreshments will be provided. For more information or to submit a poster title for your research, please contact the neuroscience program office at neurosci@med.miami.edu or 305-243-3368.

Help us celebrate the first-year medical students as they take part in the 6th Annual Pinning Ceremony on Friday at 5 p.m. in the Schoninger Research Quadrangle. The attire is casual. A keynote address will be given by Stephan Baker, M.D., F.A.C.S., a local plastic and reconstructive surgeon, followed by a barbecue hosted by John G. Clarkson, M.D. To RSVP, please call 305-273-6256, or e-mail alumni@med.miami.edu.  

Ray Novak, Ph.D., director, NIEHS Institute for Environmental Health, Wayne State University, will present “Obesity and Diabetes: Altered P450 and Global Gene Expression Profiles: Implications for Hepatocellular Injury” on Friday at noon in the Diabetes Research Institute, first-floor education center. Dr. Novak will be available to meet with faculty members from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Diabetes Research Institute’s sixth-floor library. Any faculty member interested in meeting with Dr. Novak should contact Ms. Gayl Van De Bogart at gvandebogart@rsmas.miami.edu, or Lora E. Fleming, M.D., Ph.D., at lfleming@med.miami.edu to set up an appointment.

The Papanicolaou Corps for Cancer Research will hold its sixth annual Celebration of Life Walkathon and Health Fair, “Let’s Reach for the Moon…And Reach for the Cure,” on Saturday at UM/Sylvester at Deerfield Beach, 1192 East Newport Center Drive, beginning at 8:30 a.m. 

The following classes are offered by The Leadership Academy and take place from 9 a.m. to noon in Dominion Parking Garage, suite 155. Seating is limited. To register for a session, visit http://netlearning.miami.edu.  For more information about the Leadership Academy, visit www.miami.edu/development-training/la, or call the Professional Development Training Office at 305-243-3090 or 305-284-5110.

You are invited to become a part of an historic discussion taking place right now across America. It’s one where citizens like you get to tell the policymakers in Washington, D.C. what you like and don’t like about our nation’s health care system, and what tough choices our country should make to turn it into one that works for all Americans. Your opinions will help form a citizens’ action plan that the President and Congress are required by law to consider as they work to make health care work for all Americans. The community meeting takes place on Thursday, March 9, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Grand Bay – Coconut Grove, 2669 South Bayshore Drive.

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute presents its first Oculofacial Aesthetics Conference, March 10 and 11 in Bascom Palmer's Retter Auditorium. This symposium has been designed for oculoplastic surgeons, general plastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons, and cosmetic dermatologists interested in aesthetic facial enhancements. The meeting will present an update in oculofacial treatments, both surgical and nonsurgical, that will be relevant to the clinician in the evaluation and management of the cosmetic patient. For more information, please contact Karen Davila at 305-326-6110 or kdavila@med.miami.edu.

The Third Annual University of Miami HIV Winter Symposium will be held on March 10 and 11 in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor conference room. This year’s topic is “Immunoregulation and Immunotherapy of HIV.” The goal is to present recent advances in the science of immunoregulation and the potential for immunotherapy. This event is free and breakfast and lunch will be served. For more information, please contact Ana Ayala at 305-243-5359, or e-mail aayala@med.miami.edu.

“Sponsored Programs Administration 101” was created to provide an overview of sponsored programs.  This on-line course will review the institutional and federal policies for submitting and managing sponsored programs. Participants will learn about the pre- and post-award process in the 90-minute course. After reviewing the course material, participants will take a brief test. This course will be a pre-requisite for staff interested in attending the Special Seminar Series.

Honors

Baruch B. Lieber, Ph.D.,  professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, was elected a Fellow by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The Fellow Grade is the highest elected grade of membership within ASME, recognizing exceptional engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Jennifer B. Marks, M.D., is currently recruiting patients ages 18 through 40 with type 1 diabetes mellitus with a recent diagnosis for participation in a research study to test the safety and effectiveness of an investigational medication. Patients must be taking multiple insulin injections daily and in good health. Those who are interested should contact Rogelio Suarez at 305-243-6573 or rsuarez2@med.miami.edu.

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