World-renowned fetal surgeon Rubén A. Quintero, M.D., will join the Miller School and Women’s Hospital Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital on March 1 as director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and professor of obstetrics and gynecology. At the University of Miami/Jackson, Dr. Quintero will launch a unique fetal therapy program that will treat previously untreatable, life-threatening disorders discovered in unborn babies.

Please note that NW 14th Terrace will be closed to traffic starting this Sunday, February 1, for six weeks. NW 10th Avenue,  located in front of the Diabetes Research Institute, will remain open, but the parking lot will be closed until this Friday, February 6. The new drop-off location will be directly behind the Lois Pope LIFE Center on the corner of 14th Terrace and Buoniconti Drive. Signs will be posted for patients and visitors. The sidewalk on both sides of 14th Terrace will remain open and area businesses will be accessible including Dominion Parking Garage. 

On April 30, the Miller School of Medicine, College of Engineering and Office of the Provost  will be hosting Enterprise Development Corporation’s eighth annual Life Science Conference, Biotech 2009, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Miami. The conference brings regional industry and academia together for one day to preview translational research being conducted in South Florida and to uncover new areas of collaboration.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Regenerative Medicine – New Frontiers in Cellular and Stem Cell Therapies and Tissue Engineering.” Participants will explore the field of regenerative medicine - harnessing the body's own power to regenerate a severed limb or create compatible organs for transplantation. It will also cover some of the business and ethical issues related to this theme, particularly in light of the current political and economic climate. Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, will deliver the keynote address.  Bart Chernow, M.D., vice president for special programs and resource strategy, vice provost of technology advancement, and professor of medicine; Joshua Hare, M.D., chief of the Cardiovascular Division and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute; and Camillo Ricordi, M.D., scientific director of the Diabetes Research Institute, will be participating in the conference.

For more information about the agenda, sponsorship and registration, please visit www.edc-tech.org.

The Department of Radiology at Jackson Memorial Hospital has a new phone system. 
 
To talk to a radiologist, call extension 4-1260 from inside the hospital or 305-355-1260 from outside. You will be prompted to select the number of the specific radiology section. Alternatively, you can call a particular section directly. Please find a list of extension numbers below.
 
Body Imaging - 41318
Chest - 41319
MSK - 41320
Neuro - 41321
Pediatrics - 56050
Fluoroscopy (GI and GU) - 41257
PACS library - 57056
Radiology Administration - 55381
 
If you are paged with the direct number, dial the number as written. Do not put a five in front of the number. You cannot call the direct numbers from outside JMH. If you are paged with the main number, you will see the * symbol and the section number after the main number to tell you which extension to select. For example, if you receive a page that reads 3053551260*1, you would call the main number and select extension 1.

*Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine will retain their old numbers.

The nation faces an onslaught of challenges: massive economic bailouts, environmental collapse, resource depletion all mixed with social and health crises. Using the public health model of creating healthy conditions, we must articulate coherent and boundary-spanning efforts to make real headway, for example, through capping emissions and using the revenue to build healthy, efficient, dense, diverse, livable, safe and green cities and towns. 

The Department of Epidemiology and Public Health welcomes distinguished public health leader Richard Joseph Jackson, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA School of Public Health, for a presentation on the challenges facing our health and society today.

Dr. Jackson recently served as a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the University of California, Berkeley. He served in many leadership positions with the California Health Department, including the highest, State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta. In 2005, he was recognized with the highest civilian award for federal government service, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional Grant is providing funds for meritorious cancer research that cannot be readily supported through other funding mechanisms. The primary purpose of the ACS grant is to provide seed funds for the initiation of promising new projects or novel ideas by junior faculty members.

It is now more important than ever to get electronic grant applications submitted before the deadline. Since last October, Grants.gov has had server problems, errors with communications and other technical glitches. With both Grants.gov and NIH transitioning to the new Adobe forms this year, technical difficulties in the next months are expected. Grants.gov and NIH are researching these issues. If you encounter technical difficulties, Sponsored Programs Education and Training, the Office of Research Information Management, and Grants.gov are here to help. However, if you have e-submission questions on a deadline date, you should anticipate longer than usual delays when reaching customer support. All of these delays can be avoided by submitting your application early.

Fidelity Investments will visit the Miller School on Wednesday, February 4, and Thursday, February 19, to answer financial questions about your retirement plan. To schedule an appointment, contact Michael Erbaio at 239-560-0701 or Michael.Erbaio@FMR.com.

Everyone can support the fight against heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women, by wearing red on National Wear Red Day, Friday, February 6. By joining thousands of women, companies, organizations and cities across America on National Wear Red Day and making a donation, you'll help the American Heart Association support ongoing research and education about women and heart disease and help raise awareness.

For more information on how you can get involved and to register to be a part of this year’s National Wear Red Day, visit http://goredforwomen.org/national_wear_red_day.aspx.

Portable electronic storage devices such as USB flash drives, external USB hard drives, cell phones, MP3 players, and other mobile devices have become very popular because of their portability and low prices. However, the use of such devices comes with risks that must be recognized and addressed to protect both the physical devices and the information they contain. The most important thing to realize is that the increasingly high capacity of such devices allows for storage of huge amounts of data in a small footprint. Secondly, there are increasing concerns about privacy, identity theft and the volumes of data already maintained in electronic databases on each of us.

To read the complete security awareness update including steps to protect yourself and the University’s information, please visit http://www.med.miami.edu/hipaa/public/x383.xml. If you have questions related to this or any other HIPAA Privacy or Security related issue, please contact the Office of HIPAA Privacy and Security at hipaaprivacy@med.miami.edu.

The Medical Wellness Center has sent this announcement to its members: The operation of our Medical Wellness Center is substantially subsidized by School of Medicine sources. Given the current financial situation, we need to reduce this subsidy and thus will be closing the Center on Saturdays and Sundays effective Feb. 1, 2009. We hope you will understand the need for this action to keep our important Center on stable financial footing.

• 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.

Please join us for Pediatric Grand Rounds today (Tuesday) from 8 to 9 a.m. in the Mailman Center for Child Development, eighth-floor auditorium. Manuel Gonzalez-Brito, D.O., assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, will present "Receptor Phosphatases in Sensory Development and the Regulation of Pain."

Jay Sosenko, M.D., professor of medicine and assistant provost for research standards, will present a Human Subjects Protection Program seminar today (Tuesday) from noon to 1 p.m. at the Mailman Center for Child Development, room 3023. The lecture, "Research in Children," will inform researchers of the latest findings and discuss topics surrounding the protection of human subjects.

The Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy will host Marc E. Lippman, M.D., Kathleen & Stanley Glaser Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, for a seminar today (Tuesday) at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium. Dr. Lippman will present a lecture titled "Estrogenic Control of Breast Cancer Growth."

Join the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health for a pre-recorded videoconference during which findings will be presented from basic and translational studies demonstrating areas of overlap in the neurobiology of drug and food rewards as they relate to drug addiction and obesity.

Members of the University of Sao Paolo Faculty of Medicine will be giving a presentation today (Tuesday) from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 6018. Presenters include Marcos Boulos, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the University of Sao Paolo Faculty of Medicine; Magda Carneiro-Sampaio, Ph.D., president of the International Relations Committee; José Agenor Silveira, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of the Faculty of Medicine; Aluisio Segurado, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of the International Relations Committee; José Eluf Neto, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of preventive medicine; and Luis Yu, M.D., Ph.D., general coordinator of medical residency. They will be presenting "The System of Healthcare at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paolo." A question and discussion session will follow.

The Sponsored Programs Education Workshop is a required, institutional program for all key personnel listed on proposals. The goal is to educate key personnel and administrators with the fiscal and compliance issues of pre- and post-award management. The workshop covers the most recent information on the grant process from finding funding opportunities to closing an account. The workshop will review the principal investigator's role and responsibility for administering sponsored projects, explain established policies and procedures and provide an overview of the central support services available to the investigator. The workshop will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) from 9 to 11 a.m. at Dominion Tower, room 1003.

Space is limited and registration is required through ULearn. For more information, please send an e-mail to ResEDU@med.miami.edu.

The Deans of the Miller School of Medicine and the College of Engineering invite you to attend the second Collaborative Research Exchange Forum (CREF). The "Biomedical Informatics" CREF will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the McArthur Engineering Building Annex, room 202. The day will include brief presentations from Miller School faculty, who will describe some of the major challenges in bioinformatics and medical informatics. A panel discussion focusing on the engineering methodologies and approaches that can overcome these challenges will follow.

Please join us for Dermatology Grand Rounds tomorrow (Wednesday) from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 2090. Bernard Nusbaum, M.D., voluntary instructor of dermatology and cutaneous surgery, will present "Excerpts From the Hair Transplant Forum Literature."

For more information, please call 305-243-4472.

You are invited to a Pediatric Clinical Research Forum tomorrow (Wednesday) from noon to 1 p.m. at the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute, conference room 508B. Kenneth W. Goodman, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine and philosophy and the director of the Bioethics Program, will present a lecture titled "Pediatric Contributions to Biobanks."

Please RSVP to Natalya Bublik at 305-243-9936 or nbublik@med.miami.edu. 

You are also invited to the Pediatric Clinical Research Forum on Wednesday, February 4, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute, conference room 508B. Jeffery M. Vance, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at the Miami Institute for Human Genetics, will present "The Genetics of Peripheral Neuropathy." 

Lawrence M. Fishman, M.D., professor of medicine, will present the fifth annual Lawrence M. Fishman Lecture, "Medicine and the Arts." The lecture will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium.

There will be a Faculty Senate meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3:30 p.m. on the Coral Gables campus, Schwartz Center for Nursing and Health Studies, room 106. All faculty members are welcome to attend.

The Department of Medicine will host Stephan A. Mayer, M.D., associate professor of clinical neurology and neurological surgery at Columbia University in New York and director of the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital, for a seminar tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4:30 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. Dr. Mayer will present "Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest: The Evidence Base."

For more information, please contact Cameron Dezfulian, M.D., at 305-585-6525 or cdezfulian@med.miami.edu.

Pediatrics South will present a seminar tomorrow (Wednesday) from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at UM Pediatrics South. J. Mark Saunders, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, will give a lecture titled "Vaccines and Autism - Fact and Fiction." 

Beverages and a light snack will be served. For more information, please contact Aja Cole at 305-270-3495.

The Department of Anesthesiology will present Grand Rounds this Thursday from 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. Lee Fleisher, M.D., Robert Dunning Dripps Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, will present "Strategies to Reduce Cardiac Risk of Noncardiac Surgery:  What is New in 2009?"

The Department of Orthopaedics will present Grand Rounds this Thursday from 7 to 8 a.m. at the Mailman Center for Child Development, eighth-floor auditorium. S. Richard Zavoyski, M.D., fourth-year resident, will present "Treatment of Communited Distal Humerus Fractures in Low Demand Patients."

For more information please contact Ledi Figueroa at lfigueroa@med.miami.edu.

Please join us for Surgical Grand Rounds this Thursday from 8 to 9 a.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium. Attila Nakeeb, M.D., associate professor of surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine, will present "Laparoscopic Management of Pancreatic Disorders." Upon completion of this lecture, participants will be able to illustrate the role of laparoscopy in the management of pancreatic disorders.

Please join us this Thursday at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 3109, for a seminar by Richard Jove, Ph.D., director of the Beckman Research Institute, deputy director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of molecular medicine at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. Dr. Jove will present a lecture titled "Targeting SRC and JAK Family Kinases for Cancer Therapy."

For additional information, please contact Ilse W. Duarte via email at iduarte@med.miami.edu or call 305-243-5682.

The Division of Hospital Medicine will present Grand Rounds this Thursday at noon at University of Miami Hospital, Seminar Center. Jonathan Cohen, M.D., voluntary associate professor of medicine, will present "Hazards of Blood Transfusions - 2009." By attending this lecture, participants will be able to assess the infection risks of transfusion, cross match risks of transfusions and evaluate cardiopulmonary risks of transfusions. The lecture is designed for family practitioners, emergency physicians, surgeons, internists and hospitalists.

The Miller School designates this educational activity for one continuing medical education credit. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation. For more information, please contact Janette Jurado at jjurado2@med.miami.edu or visit www.cme.med.miami.edu.

Please join us for a Neurology Clinicopathological Conference this Friday from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor auditorium. David Adams, M.D., professor of clinical neurology and director of the Division of General Neurology, and Carol Petito, M.D., professor of pathology, will be presenting a case titled "A 44-Year-Old Male with Acute Confusional State." 

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will present a seminar by Alfred Merrill, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Dr. Merrill will present "Sphingolipid Research in the Era of Sphingolipidomics, Who Would Have Thought There Are So Many Important Subspecies?" The lecture will take place this Friday at noon in the R. Bunn Gautier Building, room 118.

Join us this Friday for a Sylvester Distinguished Lecture by Larry Norton, M.D., deputy physician-in-chief for breast cancer programs, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center and Norna S. Sarofim Chair in Clinical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Norton will present a lecture on “How Self-Seeding Explains Breast Cancer and Clinical Implications” at 1 p.m. at Sylvester, conference room 1301.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 3, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium for a seminar by Paul Lasko, Ph.D., professor and chair of biology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dr. Lasko will present a lecture titled "Post Transcriptional Genetic Regulation in the Drosophila Germline." 

Be our guest at the Saks Fifth Avenue Bal Harbour 2009 Destination Fashion Kickoff Party at 6:30 p.m. in the store at the Bal Harbour Shops to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, the fundraising arm of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

Please RSVP by this Friday to Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard at 305-243-4656 or saagaard@miami.edu.

The Department of Medicine will present Grand Rounds on Wednesday, February 4, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. Nina Singh, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, will present a lecture titled "Infections in Organ Transplant Recipients: Current State of the Art."

Please join us for the Gail F. Beach Memorial Visiting Lectureship Series on Wednesday, February 4, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor auditorium. Moses V. Chao, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, physiology and neuroscience and psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center, will present "Ways of Stimulating Neurotrophic Responses."

The Department of Anesthesiology will present Grand Rounds on Thursday, February 5, from 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. William R. Furman, M.D., professor of anesthesiology and associate chief of staff for clinical outcomes and effectiveness at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present "Endocrine Emergencies."

The 2009 Perioperative Medicine Summit will enable clinicians who are actively engaged in perioperative medical care to incorporate the latest findings from clinical research into their practices so they can improve the quality and safety of their medical care. Evidence-based lectures supplemented by clinical cases will be used and combined with an audience response system for a detailed exchange of information among faculty and attendees. 

Join us for a Sponsored Programs Roundtable brown-bag lunch series on "Clinical Research Subject Enrollment Revenue Cycle." The presentation will be given by Suzanne Page and Grace McPherson on Thursday, February 5, from noon to 1 p.m., at Dominion Tower, twelfth-floor conference room. The lecture is especially designed for researchers, doctors, nurses, clinical coordinators, administrators and those who register patients. Participants will learn more about the revised Clinical Research Subject Enrollment and Tracking Policy. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.

Registration is required through Ulearn. Please send an e-mail to ResEDU@med.miami.edu for more information.

Peter Buchwald, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology and director of drug discovery at the Diabetes Research Institute, will present a seminar titled "Searching for Small Molecule Inhibitors of the CD40-CD154 Costimulatory Protein-Protein Interaction." 

The lecture will take place on Thursday, February 5, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 6018. For further information, please contact Nivia Machin-Gonzalez at 305-243-1078.

Please join Apple for an introduction to developing for the iPhone. Steve Hayman, Apple consulting engineer and developer tools expert, will provide a fact-filled and entertaining presentation on the tools and programs that are available for developing applications on the iPhone and iPod touch. Steve will explain the various developer programs and demonstrate the tools that you can use to quickly develop applications for your institution and for the Apple App store. If you are considering adding iPhone development to your curriculum, building applications for your school or are curious as to what all the fuss is about, please plan on attending the seminar on Thursday, February 5, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fifth-floor auditorium.

To register, visit http://edseminars.apple.com/seminars/event.php?eventID=1471. For more information, please call Kevin Hodges at 1-800-800-2775 ext. 46552.

Please join us on Thursday, February  5, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 3109 for a seminar by Ranjan Sen, Ph.D., senior investigator and chief in the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology and chief of the Gene Regulation Section at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sen will present a lecture titled "The NF-kB Response in B Lymphocytes."

The Professional Development Council, sponsored by the Professional Development and Training Office, will be holding quarterly meetings to provide an opportunity to network and learn the best practices for anyone engaged in development and delivering training at UM. The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Dominion Parking Garage, suite 155. The focus of this session will be on ensuring retention and measuring a program's impact on participant performance. 

For more information or to register, login to ULearn and search for the session using the keyword "council."

The Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology will host Michael G. Rosenfeld, M.D., professor of medicine at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California in San Diego, for a seminar on Friday, February 6, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, fourth-floor auditorium. Dr. Rosenfeld will present "Life, Death, and Transformation: Epigenetic and Architectural Nuclear Regulation of Gene Expression."
 
For further information, please call Nivia Machin-Gonzalez at 305-243-1078.

Please join us on Friday, February  6, at noon in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, room 3109 for a seminar by Jyoti Misra Sen, Ph.D., investigator in the Lymphocyte Development Unit at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Sen will present a lecture titled "Beta-Catenin and TCF in T Cell Function."

The Department of Anesthesiology will present Grand Rounds on Thursday, February 12, from 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. Beverly K. Philip, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, will present "Propofol by Surgeons: Current Controversies."

The Miller School designates this educational activity for one continuing medical education credit. For further information, please contact Marsha Williams at 305-585-1191 ext. 2*2 or mwilliams@med.miami.edu.

On Thursday, February 12, at 12:15 p.m. the Medical Wellness Center will host a "UStretch" seminar. The interactive seminar will teach participants the benefits of stretching, proper techniques to avoid injury and exercises they can do in the office. All members and non-members are welcome to attend. Participants are encouraged to stay in work attire.

To reserve your seat, please contact the Medical Wellness Center at 305-243-7600. For questions regarding the seminar, contact Dunia Sanchez at dsanchez1@med.miami.edu or Joanna Torrens at jtorrens@med.miami.edu.

Treat your valentine to an unforgettable evening complete with fabulous food, spectacular décor, music, dancing and more at the Love and Hope Royal Ball. This black-tie gala will reach its pinnacle when Barry Gibb takes the stage, along with a nine-piece band, including his son, Stephen Gibb. Scheduled to be held at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood on February 14, this anniversary occasion will celebrate the 35th year of Love and Hope, whose mission it is to support the cure-focused work of the Diabetes Research Institute.

The Department of Medicine will present Grand Rounds on Wednesday, February 18, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rosenstiel Medical Science Building, third-floor auditorium. Lennox Jeffers, M.D., professor of medicine, will present a lecture titled "Hepatitis B & C in the African American and Hispanic Communities." 

The seventh annual Miami International Revascularization Summit is scheduled to take place Thursday, February 19, through Saturday, February 21, at the Alexander All-Suite Oceanfront Resort in Miami Beach.
 
The three-day course will cover topics such as the latest technologies in the treatment of coronary artery disease, emerging technologies for the percutaneous treatment of structural heart disease, non-cardiac endovascular therapies, electrophysiologic ablations and devices, robotic surgery and the latest in cardiac imaging.  

The Miller School and the Miami Area Geriatric Education Center will present a "Falls Prevention" conference on Thursday, February 19, and Friday, February 20, at the Hilton Deerfield Beach/Boca Raton. The goal of the conference is to increase awareness and understanding of the impact falls and fall injuries have on older adults and to introduce and promote the use of evidence-based interventions and strategies in area health facilities and local communities.

Registration is now open. For more information and to register, visit http://www.miami.edu/magec or call the Miami Area Geriatric Education Center at 305-355-9123. Participants can receive ten continuing medical education credits for attending. 

A course titled "New Concepts in Women's Health" is scheduled for February 19 to 21 at the Mayfair Hotel and Spa in Coconut Grove. The course will provide a comprehensive update on the problems encountered in obstetrics and gynecology and its subspecialties and will disseminate new concepts of care in women’s health through every phase of life. New information and ideas will be presented, and participants will be able to determine when other advanced technologies are necessary. 

Bal Harbour Shops will host an ultra-luxe charity auction and party for Destination Fashion 2009 to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. Be our guest and join us as bidding begins Thursday, February 26, at Bal Harbour Shops’ Silent Auction Preview Party from 6 to 8 p.m. All auction items will be on display at participating Bal Harbour stores through the main event on Friday, March 7.

To RSVP or for more information, please call Stephanie Sayfie Aagaard at 305-243-4656 or  saagaard@miami.edu.

The Miller School's Developmental Center for AIDS Research (DCFAR) and Division of Infectious Diseases will present the sixth annual HIV symposium titled "Novel Interventions for HIV Infection" on Friday, March 13, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Michael S. Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, Broad-Bussell Auditorium located on the first floor of the Clinical Research Building.  

On Friday, May 1, 2009, the Institute for Women’s Health will hold the second annual University of Miami Women’s Health Research Day.

The Health Research in the Americas Conference, sponsored by the Miller School's Miami Fogarty International Training Program in AIDS & TB  and UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is scheduled for Thursday, May 7, and Friday, May 8, at the Michael S. Gordon Center for Research in Medical Education, Broad-Bussell Auditorium. The conference will focus on HIV prevention, including presentations on prevention methodology among pediatric, adolescent, adult and aging populations. It will also provide current HIV prevention information for clinicians, students, researchers and non-clinical health workers in order to address the increasing prevalence of HIV and the need for clinicians and researchers to address prevention efforts among vulnerable and difficult-to-reach populations.

Presentations will take place Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The keynote address, “Know Your Epidemic! Know Your Response!," will be given by Ruben F. del Prado, UNAIDS country coordinator for Guyana and Suriname. The conference will feature presentations and roundtable panels discussions with experts, physicians and researchers from UM, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The conference will continue on Friday, May 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with presentations and roundtable panel discussions with physicians and researchers from UM, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Physicians who attend both days of the conference can earn continuing medical education credits. The general registration fee is $100. The registration fee for physicians requesting continuing medical education credits is $150. Seating is limited to 100 people. For more information or to download the registration form, please visit http://www.med.miami.edu/fogarty/x18.xml or contact Victoria Elf at velf@med.miami.edu or 305-243-3210.

Tai Chi for Health and Smoking Cessation
The University of Miami Division of Complementary and Integrative Medicine in conjunction with the Medical Wellness Center is conducting a research study to determine if Tai Chi exercise is effective for helping people to stop smoking. Patches, gum, hypnosis...if you've tried everything and still can't quit smoking, Tai Chi may provide the ideal mind-body awareness to help you put out that last cigarette. Tai Chi combines deep breathing with postures that flow from one to the next through a series of slow, continuous movements to help you focus and reduce the stress and cravings typically associated with smoking.

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