The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and some of the dedicated people who work daily to deliver unparalleled medical care were recognized on Monday when U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) presented over $4.8 million in federal funding for three UM Centers of Excellence.
 
The William Lehman Injury Research Center, the research arm of the Ryder Trauma Center, was awarded $2.8 million to help research innovative techniques for training surgical teams for the battlefield, and the Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education received $146,000 to train paramedics across the state and around the world. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute received $2 million to research better ways to treat, prevent or cure various eye diseases. Click here for more.

Take the first step to keeping your New Year's resolutions in 2008, and join us for UM's first Healthy Resolutions Fair. The event will take place on the Miller School campus this Thursday, Jan. 31, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Medical Wellness Center, second-floor classroom, and on Friday, Feb. 1, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at University of Miami Hospital, seminar center.

Today all faculty members will receive an e-mail about a Faculty Survey that UM conducts every three years. This survey, which is anonymous, will take only 10 to 15 minutes to complete. The responses, including comments, will be read by the Provost, deans, and other senior administrators with a view to improve the faculty environment at the Miller School and the rest of the University.

  


Local opera stars Gregory Schmidt and Eglise Gutierrez perform at the Casa Ricordi Bicentennial Celebration at Dade County Auditorium.








On January 19, Orchestra Miami presented a gala concert celebrating the bicentennial of the founding of Casa Ricordi, a benefit spearheaded by Camillo Ricordi, M.D., scientific director of the Diabetes Research Institute, and seventh-generation descendant of Giovanni Ricordi, the founder of Casa Ricordi in 1808.

Preparations are being made to honor Jonathan J. Braunstein, M.D., former associate dean for medical curriculum, who died on December 29 at age 73. Dr. Braunstein spent more than 50 years in service to the University, beginning in 1956, when he enrolled as a student in the School of Medicine. The medical school, founded in 1951, was in its infancy during Dr. Braunstein’s time here as a student, and he spent his entire professional career shaping its growth.

The Forum on Women's Health at the Miller School is offering a limited amount of HPV vaccines to those who are eligible. The HPV vaccine protects against the human papillomavirus, the most common cause of cervical cancer. The disease affects about 6.2 million Americans each year.

The Miami Institute for Human Genomics is accepting applications from UM graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty for an upcoming course on "Genetic Analysis of Complex Human Diseases." This comprehensive, four-day course will introduce new approaches for the mapping and characterization of human inherited disorders and focus on the mapping of genes involved in common and genetically complex disease phenotypes.

The Gail F. Beach Memorial Visiting Lectureship scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 6, at noon has been cancelled. The lecture will be rescheduled for a later date.

The Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center in the Department of Neurology has multiple Parkinson’s Disease events planned for patients and families. "Parkinson’s Disease 101" is a 3-part lecture series for people with Parkinson’s Disease. The series will be Tuesday, Feb. 26, March 4, and March 11, from 10 a.m. to noon. The first Parkinson’s Disease Complementary Therapies Symposium will be presented on March 27, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Both events will be held at St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation Hospital auditorium, 1050 NE 125 Street, North Miami. Parking is free and lunch will be served.

Other activities offered are a Parkinson’s Disease Support Group/Tai Chi Class every first Thursday, a Parkinson's Disease caregiver support group, and deep brain stimulation support groups. They are held at the National Parkinson Foundation, third-floor conference room. 

To register for any of these events or to obtain further information, please contact George Dumenigo, L.C.S.W., at 305-243-1865 or gdumenigo@med.miami.edu.

Are doctors too smart to be influenced by a free lunch? Are "free" samples good for our patients? Are small gifts ethical? If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions or have ever wondered what type of influence the pharmaceutical industry has on how a physician practices, then join the American Medical Students Association and the American Medical Association for the remaining "Pharm Free Week" lectures. They will host speakers and panels to discuss where UM’s current "pharm" policy is and where it should go.

Lecture Schedule:

Today, Jan. 29, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fifth-floor auditorium--AMA National Board of Trustees 

Tomorrow, Jan. 30, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium--National AMSA President

This Thursday, Jan 31, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fifth-floor auditorium--Laurence Gardner, M.D., Miller Professor of Medicine and executive dean for education and policy

Also this Thursday, Jan 31, at 3 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium--Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., senior vice president for medical affairs and dean, will speak about UM policy

Lunch will be served at the noon meetings. For more information, contact Priyanka Handa at 305-338-9503 or phanda@med.miami.edu.

Another round of UM's BeSmokeFree program will begin in February. This is your opportunity to take back control of your life. BeSmokeFree offers UM faculty, staff and dependents, students and non-university affiliates a myriad of innovative techniques designed to complement the program’s basic support group/classroom sessions. Some interventions include pharmacological treatments, a supervised exercise program emphasizing cardiovascular fitness benefits, acupuncture and hypnotherapy, individualized treatment plans and quit kits filled with healthy alternatives to cigarettes. Most of these interventions are available free through the University.

The BeSmokeFree classes include seven group sessions during a six-week program. Participants who are enrolled in the University’s health care plan will receive full reimbursement for program fees upon completion of the program. The cost is $84, however, all UM health care plan members will receive a $12 voucher for each classroom session they attend, which can result in full reimbursement upon program completion. 

For more information on BeSmokeFree or to secure your space in the upcoming series, contact Jennifer Pinto at jpinto@med.miami.edu or 305-243-7609.

All employees must receive their annual performance evaluations between this Friday, Feb. 1, and Wednesday, April 30. Supervisors must submit completed evaluations to their departmental human resources representatives no later than April 30, and all performance evaluation ratings will be submitted in DHRS by Medical Human Resources no later than Thursday, May 1. These ratings must be submitted in order for employees to receive merit increases. 

Last year, the Miller School implemented one template evaluation form for all employees. The forms have been modified for 2008. All Miller School employees (AO1, AO3 and AO6) must be evaluated utilizing the new performance evaluation templates. There is a separate form for employees in management positions, which includes a set of leadership core competencies. 

Employees of the University of Miami specialty hospitals will continue to use Halogen’s online e-appraisal system. 

The new staff performance evaluation template can be found at http://www.med.miami.edu/hr/forms/PerfEval_Final.doc and the leadership performance form at http://www.med.miami.edu/hr/forms/LeadPerfEval_Final.doc. The forms are also located on the Medical Human Resources Web site at www.med.miami.edu/hr under "Forms."
 
If you have any questions about the performance evaluation process or the new evaluation forms, please call 305-326-6090 or send an e-mail to kstimmell@med.miami.edu. For questions about Halogen’s online evaluation process please contact the Halogen Help Desk at 305-243-8171.

The Division of Complementary and Integrative Medicine is now accepting registrations for the 2008 Basic Acupuncture course. The course has been approved by the American Board of Medical Acupuncture and offers a maximum of 105 American Medical Association category one credits. Tuition remission opportunities are limited, however, a 50 percent discount is offered to Miller School employees, residents and fellow.

The course will begin this Saturday, Feb 2, and continue through Saturday, May 17. To register, call 305-243-4751 or send an e-mail to JTorres2@med.miami.edu. For more information, visit www.cam.med.miami.edu.

UM would like to thank you for your support of your men’s and women’s basketball teams. Unfortunately, the previously scheduled Employee Day sales dates for the men's basketball game versus Virginia on Saturday, March 1, have been temporarily postponed. Please continue to read e-Update for future announcements on when Employee Day sales for the men's game will resume. 

• University Compliance (anonymous hotline): 866-YOURCALL
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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.

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Join us today for "IRB Overview and eProst Redesigned." The orientation to federal regulations and some of the institutional policies for the protection of human subjects in research will be discussed during this lecture. Topics will also include a general introduction to the eProst software system, an update on the eProst redeployment project, and a discussion of the resources now available on the Human Subjects Research Office Web site. Human Subjects Research Office representatives will be available to answer any questions or consider any recommendations you may have to improve the IRB submission process.

The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m. at the Mailman Center for Child Development, room 3023. For more information, please contact Sofia Aymerich at saymerich@med.miami.edu.

Please join us today at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium for the next cell biology and anatomy seminar offered by Keith E. Mostov, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anatomy, biophysics and cell biology at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Mostov will present "Morphogenesis of Multicellular Epithelial Structures."

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences invites you to Neuroscience Grand Rounds: "Enhancing Therapeutic Outcomes in Patients with Severe Mental Illness." Robert Post, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine and head of the Bipolar Collaborative Network, will discuss current and future management strategies for bipolar disorder. The lecture will be held today from noon to 1 p.m. at the Mailman Center for Child Development, eighth-floor auditorium. 

At the end of the lecture, participants will be able to review current treatment guidelines for patients with bipolar disorder; evaluate the evidence for mood stabilization and the role of atypical antipsychotic agents in the management of acute affective episodes; discuss current and future treatment options for the management of mania and depression; identify medication side effects that may adversely impact long-term patient outcomes; and indicate methods for improving patient adherence. 

This lecture qualifies for one continuing medical education credit for physicians, and one continuing education unit for licensed clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, and mental health counselors. 

No pre-registration is required. For additional information, please contact Carmen Bou-Crick at 305-355-9073 or cbou@med.miami.edu.

The Cardiovascular Division will present a lecture by guest speaker Kenneth L. Baughman, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the Advanced Heart Disease Section at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Baughman will present "Indications for Heart Biopsy" from noon to 1 p.m. today in the Clinical Research Building, room 1179A.

For more information, please contact Doris Fernández at 305-243-1998 or dfernandez4@med.miami.edu.

The Cardiovascular Disease Forum welcomes you to our monthly echocardiography series today at 5 p.m.in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium. Thinn Hlaing, M.D., cardiology fellow, will present a lecture on "Mitral Valve Disease."

Dinner will be provided. For more information, visit www.cdfmiami.com or contact Arif Syed, M.D., at asyed@med.miami.edu.

MedicOUT invites you to come listen and ask questions as we discuss the reality and the misconceptions about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Leading this discussion will be Joseph Zolobczuk, education and training specialist at the YES Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing suicide and ensuring the healthy development of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. The event will take place tomorrow at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided. For more information, please contact Rich Coia at recoia@med.miami.edu.

UM/Sylvester at Deerfield Beach presents "Those Fabulous Fats," a Conversations About Cancer lecture by Karon Rzad, R.D., L.D.N., C.D.E., C.P.T., director of medical nutrition services at UM/Sylvester. The lecture will take place tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. at the Best Western Deerfield Beach.

The Cardiovascular Disease Forum Journal Club will present "Comparison of Warfarin and Aspirin for Symptomatic Intracranial Arterial Stenosis" tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Building, fourth-floor auditorium. The lecture will be presented by Gurdesh Bedi, M.D., third-year neurology resident. Following the lecture a discussion will be led by Ralph Sacco, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Neurology, and Jose Romano, M.D., associate professor of neurology and associate chair for clinical affairs.

Dinner will be provided. For more information, send an e-mail to ebernstein@med.miami.edu or visit www.cdfmiami.com.

The Department of Orthopaedics invites you to the last Grand Rounds this month. Jagdeep S. Sodhi, M.D., fourth-year resident, will speak on "Review of Retrofibular Region" this Thursday from 7 to 8 a.m. in the Mailman Center for Child Development, eighth-floor auditorium.

This lecture is recommended for orthopaedic surgeons, residents, fellows, practicing orthopaedists, physiatrists, physical therapists, nurses and medical students. It qualifies for one continuing medical education credit for physicians. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. For more information, contact Ledi Figueroa at lfigueroa@med.miami.edu or 305-243-6725.

The Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology will present "NAD Synthase NMNAT Acts as a Chaperone to Protect Against Neurodegeneration," a seminar by Fan Zhang, Ph.D. post-doctoral associate of molecular and cellular pharmacology at the Miller School.
 
The lecture will be held this Thursday at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 6018. For additional information, please call Nivia Machin-Gonzalez at 305-243-1078.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology presents a seminar by J. Alan Diehl, professor of cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania. The event will take place this Friday at noon in the R. Bunn Gautier Building, room 118. To meet with the speaker, e-mail jslingerland@med.miami.edu.

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology presents the Enriqué Cepero Memorial Lecture by Gerard I. Evan, Ph.D., Gerson and Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of California, San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Evan will present "Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors--The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" this Friday at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium.

For more information, please contact Michelle Perez at 305-243-6655 or miperez@miami.edu.

The Employee Assistance Program is pleased to offer a seminar on "Relationship Building." By the end of the session, participants will be better equipped to demonstrate respect, establish trust, understand the point of view of others and experience fewer reactive interactions. 

To achieve more satisfying results when interacting with partners, family, friends, colleagues and even those we meet casually, join us for "Relationship Building" on Tuesday, Feb. 5, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. at the Medical Wellness Center, twelfth-floor classroom. To register, please visit http://ulearn.miami.edu. For help with registration, call the Medical Wellness Center at 305-243-7600.

This course will also be held on the Coral Gables campus on Thursday, Feb. 7, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Max Orovitz Building, room 139. For help with registration call the Coral Gables Professional Development and Training Office at 305-284-5110.

Please join us for the 14th annual Leon Schiff Department of Medicine Grand Rounds with guest speaker Anna Lok, M.D., M.R.C.P., professor of internal medicine and director of clinical hepatology at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Lok will present "Hepatitis B Treatment: When to Start and When to Stop" on Wednesday, Feb. 6, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium.

At the end of the lecture, participants will be familiar with the natural history of chronic hepatitis B infection, treatment options, and when to start and stop treatment.

Learn how to use the InfoEd Proposal Development System to prepare and submit your proposal electronically to the NIH by attending an upcoming special presentation. This session will help participants create, route, submit, and track proposals using the InfoEd System. Presentations will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 6, and Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics has invited Jose Humberto Nicolini, Ph.D., to the Miller School to present a lecture on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 11 a.m. in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor auditorium. Dr. Nicolini will discuss "Opportunities for Psychiatric Genetic Research in Mexico." 

Lunch will be served at noon following the lecture. For more information, please contact Maggy De Tullio at 305-243-5381.

On Thursday, Feb. 7, Maria Valero-Martinez and Sofia Aymerich will lead a question and answer session about research administation and the University's process and policies for submitting and managing federal grants. The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in the Batchelor Children's Research Institute, Baxter Conference Room. 

Prior to the event, please send all the questions you have about research administration and managing federal grants to saymerich@med.miami.edu no later than Thursday, Jan. 31. Then, join us on Feb. 7, when your questions will be answered while everyone enjoys a friendly game of Bingo.

The Office of Graduate Studies is pleased to announce an opportunity for pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows to develop their grant writing skills. You are invited to attend a half-day workshop, "Write Winning Grants," on Thursday, Feb. 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Clinical Research Building’s Michael S. Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education seminar room located on the first floor. The emphasis of this workshop will be on research proposals in the biomedical sciences, specifically as it pertains to NIH funding. 
 
Stephen Russell, D.V.M., Ph.D., co-founder and managing member of Grant Writers' Seminars and Workshops, will present the seminar. Dr. Russell has held grant support from the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator since the early 1970s, including individual, group, center, and training grants. Please visit www.grantcentral.com for more information.
 
Participants who are registered graduate medical school students will receive a complimentary copy of Dr. Russell’s notes and The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook. The cost of the course is $60 and payable by IDR upon registration. Please RSVP to ogs@med.miami.edu by Monday, Jan. 28.

Marshall B. Kapp, J.D., M.P.H., Garwin Distinguished Professor of Law and Medicine, and co-director of the Center for Health Law and Policy at Southern Illinois University School of Law, will discuss "The Liability Environment for Physicians Providing Nursing Home Care: Does It Make a Difference for Residents?" Professor Kapp is the author and co-author of a substantial number of published articles, book chapters and reviews. He is also the founding editor of the Ethics, Law and Aging Review. 

The lecture will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8, at the Coral Gables Wellness Center, second-floor conference room. Lunch will be served following the lecture. Please RSVP via e-mail to spurcell@med.miami.edu or call 305-355-9081.

On Monday, Feb. 11, Music Ensembles for the Enrichment of Medicine (MEEM) will hold a Valentine's Day concert for its latest monthly concert series. Bring a blanket, pack a picnic and join us at 5 p.m. in the Schoninger Research Quadrangle, where students will showcase their talents with a variety of musical performances. 
 
This concert is free and open to everyone. For more information, please contact Dan Cushman at dcushman@med.miami.edu.

Please join us on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium for the next lecture in the Jay Weiss Center for Social Medicine and Health Equity Grand Rounds series. Cheryl Little, J.D., executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, will present "Immigration Detainee Medical Care." 

Lunch will be provided. For more information, e-mail Katie Houghton at Khoughton@med.miami.edu or visit www.jayweisscenter.org.

Nordstrom, one of the nation’s leading fashion specialty retailers, will kick off the opening of its third Miami-area store with an evening gala on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Aventura Mall. The party is expected to raise more than $300,000 for The Buoniconti Fund/The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and UM/Sylvester. Nordstrom in Aventura Mall opens on Friday, Feb. 15.

Learn how the CRIS Office can assist you with your clinical trials. Please join us on Thursday, Feb. 21, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Batchelor Children's Research Institute, Baxter Conference Room for the next roundtable discussion on CRIS Office updates and procedures. Suzanne Page, director of CRIS, will present: "Working with Clinical Research Initiation Services (CRIS): An Overview of the Process and Services Provided."

The Office of Graduate Studies will once again host four workshops by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Announcements will be sent out to the Miller School research community in mid-March. Prior to these workshops, the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine will hold a two-day scientific meeting to celebrate the first 25 years of service by GenBank, the NIH nucleotide sequence database.

The meeting will be held on Monday, April 7, and Tuesday, April 8, starting at 9 a.m. at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, Building 45, Natcher Auditorium.

Although registration is free, seating is limited. Early registration is recommended at
http://www.tech-res.com/GenBank25/. Please send any questions to GenBank25@tech-res.com or call 301-897-7481.

The Division of Geriatrics is recruiting men and women age 65 and older to take part in a study of vitamin D in the prevention of frailty. Participants are asked to come for six visits over six months for blood and urine tests. If you or someone you know are interested, please call Silvina Levis, M.D., at 305-243-4330.

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