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Meet Mike Rao, VCU's fifth president, at:
Monroe Park Campus
Sonia Vlahcevic Hall, The Singleton Center
Wednesday, March 4
4:15 p.m.
MCV Campus
Kontos Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building
Thursday, March 5
4:00 p.m.
Tom Rosenthanl, VCU Rector, will introduce Dr. Rao to the University and Health System communities. Faculty, staff and student receptions following each session.
The Institute for Women’s Health invites abstract submissions in any domain of women’s health or sex- and gender-differences research. Research Day is April 15 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building. Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, will be the keynote speaker.
Abstracts are welcome from faculty, students and staff. Submission deadline is March 8.
For more information, visit http://www.womenshealth.vcu.edu/research/research_day_2009.html
Virginia Commonwealth University has launched a new summer fellowship program to support research by undergraduate students.
The VCU Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Summer Fellowship Program will take place this summer and is designed to encourage an interest in active learning.
To participate in the program, students must form a relationship with a faculty mentor in the student’s field of study or from another department. The student and mentor will collaborate on a summer research project. Interested students should visit http://www.research.vcu.edu/vpr/ugresources/forstudents.htm for tips on how approach a potential faculty mentor.
Participants will receive a $3,000 stipend, and participating faculty members will receive $500. The scholarships are open to all full-time, undergraduate freshmen, sophomores and juniors in all departments. Up to 14 research projects will be selected.
“We’re looking for serious people who are going to follow through. They need to be ready to commit to 20 to 40 hours a week for a 10- week period over the summer,” said Earl Dowdy, Ph.D., department of psychology.
Dowdy is part of a faculty advisory committee created by Provost Stephen D. Gottfredson and Francis L. Macrina, VCU’s vice president for research. The committee created the summer fellowship program in response to VCU’s 2020 strategic plan.
“What we are hoping for is that a student goes through this summer research opportunity and it changes their lives,” Dowdy said. “We want them to make a commitment to scientific research or other forms of creative work.”
Application materials and more information can be found at http://www.research.vcu.edu/vpr/fellowship.htm. The deadline for applications is March 6. Successful applicants will be announced on April 15.
Bahia pokes her head into classrooms to see how patients are doing and receives a warm welcome from the staff and patients at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s Virginia Treatment Center for Children.
Bahia is a consummate professional with the patients, never raising her voice, or in this case, her bark. She is a specially trained facility dog who works with patients at the VTCC as part of their therapy.
“She has the ability to love absolutely everyone,” said Tess Searls, her handler and a nurse clinician at VTCC. “Some of our children are intimidated by adults, but a dog normalizes their hospital experience.”
Bahia, who will turn 2 years old in March, is one of six facility dogs in Virginia, according to Searls.
Searls applied for a facility dog through Canine Companions for Independence two years ago. After nearly a year and a half of training for Bahia and two weeks of full-time training for Searls, Bahia arrived at the VTCC in January. The application process is lengthy to ensure a proper fit for the facility dogs and to prepare the dogs to work well with sometimes difficult patients.
“Bahia doesn’t raise her voice, she doesn’t bark or bite,” said Searls. “She simply shows stress by closing her eyes and turning her head. As soon as her vest comes off, she relaxes and runs all over the place, but while the vest is on she’s as calm as can be.”
Searls related one incident where a patient was having trouble communicating his need to leave the room.
“He couldn’t vocalize his desire,” she recalled. “We calmed him down, and then I brought Bahia over. I explained how, since Bahia can’t speak, she stands by the door to indicate that she needs to go out.”
The lesson worked, said Searls, and she stressed that Bahia is never placed in dangerous situations. Instead, Bahia is brought in after the patient calms down to help empathize with the patient and communicate a lesson or work through a problem.
“She’s absolutely wonderful,” Searls said. ”The patients love her.”
Part of the VCU School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, the VTCC provides mental-health services to the children, adolescents and families of Virginia. The center offers a wide range of psychiatric services and works to improve mental health through patient care, education and research.
Tadataka Yamada, M.D., offered a clear message as he discussed global health care issues: “If your drive is to improve patients’ lives, you will find the people who need you.”
Yamada, president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, spoke at Virginia Commonwealth University last week and offered insight into the developing trends in global health care and the work of the Gates Foundation in developing countries.
His lecture, sponsored by the VCU Libraries and the University Student Commons & Activities, addressed a broad range of topics, including HIV treatment and prevention, monetary investments in medicine and emerging medical trends in sub-Saharan Africa.
Yamada, a former resident with the School of Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, urged the audience to understand the health situation in Africa, and how it affects not just Africa, but humanity as a whole.
“The life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is less than 50 years,” said Yamada. “There are over 1,500 medicines sold worldwide, and only 30 are directed toward two-thirds of the world. This is a moral tragedy, keeping people back from reaching their full potential.”
Yamada went on to describe “the lasting consequences of inequity,” stressing that only one preventable disease is needed to cripple societies. He cited tuberculosis, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic and the pandemic flu as examples of potential outbreaks due to poor health care practices that could cause an international crisis.
“In times of economic crisis, emerging markets pull up our markets, so take care of them,” said Yamada.
Yamada stressed that HIV remains the worst of all the medical problems he cited. He compared HIV to polio to illustrate the importance of creating a vaccine.
“Polio was a burden,” Yamada said. “Hospitals were created just to house the iron lungs some patients needed to breathe. Millions of dollars were spent on treatment. The March of Dimes was created, and people were outraged that instead of spending money on treatment, the March of Dimes collected money for a vaccine. Well, they got the vaccine, and the cost was pennies per patient.”
He compared this to HIV, which had afflicted about 3 million patients at the onset of 2009. The world is falling behind every year, according to Yamada, and a vaccine must be developed. Unfortunately, he said, HIV research is emblematic of the pitfalls of medical research. Without completing nearly all of the research, researchers do not receive grants, and if researchers challenge dogma they do not receive money, according to Yamada.
“We must address these issues proactively,” Yamada said, criticizing the peer-review system currently in place. “Innovation is needed, and innovation has no peers.”
Yamada discussed the work of the Gates Foundation and its distribution of medicines in Africa.
“We have a two-person board,” said Yamada, referring to Bill and Melinda Gates. “We can respond immediately to opportunities or situations. We are apolitical, so our money comes without an IOU attached. We are willing to take risks and fail.”
For more than 25 years, the Richmond chapter of the YWCA has been recognizing outstanding women and their achievements with the Outstanding Women Awards. This year, Robin Foster, M.D., associate professor of emergency medicine and director of pediatric emergency services at the VCU Medical Center, was among the honorees.
The Outstanding Women Awards honor women in 10 different categories, including arts, business, communications, education, health and science, human relations, government and politics, law, religion and volunteerism.
This year's winners were selected from more than 80 nominees, based on their impact on the community, their leadership skills, a high level of personal and professional achievement and commitment to the YWCA of Richmond’s mission to eliminate racism, empower women and elevate children.
“This is a huge honor, especially because of the caliber of the other nominees. I just feel truly honored to be included,” said Foster.
An active member in the Richmond community, Foster also serves as the board president for the Richmond Midnight Basketball League, an organization that serves at-risk adolescents.
She also is the cofounder and medical director for the Child Protection Team and serves as the current president of Prevent Child Abuse Virginia. Through her work with the Child Protection Team, Foster was able to partner with Stop Child Abuse Now of Greater Richmond to form the Child Advocacy Center.
Foster is a founding member of Bridging the Gap, a violence prevention program, and is an active member of Reach Out and Read, a program that provides books to children in medical environments.
Foster received her bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary and her medical degree from the VCU School of Medicine. She also participated in a two-year postgraduate fellowship for pediatric emergency medicine at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.
The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine has received a $3 million National Institutes of Health grant to test a new intervention that could increase the rate of consent to solid organ donation.
In the United States, the major source of donor organs is from deceased patients, but consent from family members has remained relatively low. No more than 60 percent of the families of donation-eligible individuals consent, and there is a critical need to increase organ and tissue donations.
Laura Siminoff, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert on health communication and decision making in disease treatment at VCU, will lead the five-year grant designed to test the efficacy of a two-part Early Referral and Request Approach intervention by assessing hospital procurement barriers and by teaching effective communications skills to workers at organ procurement organizations.
The goal of the program is to raise consent rates to solid organ donation from the families of deceased patients at the point where requests are made by organ procurement organizations.
“We hope to make a difference and increase the rates of organ donation by understanding the barriers faced by hospitals in the procurement of organs, and arming those who communicate with families who have lost a loved one with the skills and sensitivity to discuss organ donation,” said Siminoff, who is professor and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the associate director of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at the VCU Massey Cancer Center.
In the first part of the study, Siminoff and her team will test the effectiveness of a barrier assessment program that would improve the timeliness with which a hospital notifies an organ procurement agency of a potential donor. The second part of the study is designed to teach communication skills to improve the effectiveness of organ procurement organization requests to donor-eligible families. The study will include eight organ procurement organizations, located throughout the United States, and their coordinators who request organ donation.
The team will determine the effect of the training modules on consent rates. Furthermore, they will test organ procurement organization’s implementation of the modules under two conditions - a completely autonomous condition in which an organ procurement organization does not employ any outside assistance to implement the module, and an assisted method whereby trained outside consultants play a role in implementing the modules.
According to Siminoff, the Early Referral and Request Approach is based on 15 years of prior research in the area of obstacles to organ donation.
Cedars-Sinai’s C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., discusses heart disease in women
C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., a nationally recognized authority on preventive cardiology and women’s heart health, was recognized today by the Virginia Commonwealth University Pauley Heart Center as the 2008 Dr. Carolyn McCue Woman Cardiologist of the Year.
The McCue Award honors the memory of Dr. Carolyn McCue, one of the few female cardiologists of her time and a pioneer in the field of pediatric cardiology, who practiced at the Medical College of Virginia, now the VCU Medical Center, for 42 years.
McCue created and chaired the school's Pediatric Cardiology Division for 20 years, during which she was instrumental in establishing pediatric cardiology clinics in medically underserved communities throughout Virginia.
“It’s a special honor to receive the first Carolyn McCue award for female cardiologist of the year, and I cannot say enough about VCU for initiating this,” said Bairey Merz. “Acknowledging Dr. McCue’s pioneering passion and commitment is very fitting and I’m deeply honored to accept this award.”
Bairey Merz also presented a Medical Grand Rounds lecture at VCU that covered topics such as heart disease assessment in women, gender differences in cardiovascular disease and the women’s healthcare cost gap.
“Cardiovascular disease is the most costly and most preventable disease in women, yet we spend the least on screening and prevention,” said Bairey Merz, who emphasized the importance of raising awareness and taking advantage of treatment opportunities for cardiovascular disease in women.
Bairey Merz, the Women's Guild Endowed Chair in Women's Health, is director of the Women's Heart Center, director of the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center and professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.
Since 1997, Bairey Merz has been chair of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute-sponsored multicenter study, Women’s Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE), which is investigating the potential for more effective diagnostic, evaluation and treatment methods for ischemic heart disease in women and is considered the pre-eminent examination of women and ischemic heart disease.
Throughout her career Bairey Merz has served the medical community in countless ways. She is on the board of trustees of the American College of Cardiology, serves on the steering committees for the National Cholesterol Education Program and writing group and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and is chair of the American Heart Association Women in Cardiology committee. She has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed research papers and has been an invited presenter at more than 300 scientific meetings.
The McCue Award Program attracted nominations from top medical centers throughout the country. The award, which carries a $10,000 prize, is made possible by a grant from the McCue family to encourage and inspire other young women to pursue careers in cardiology.
The Virginia Commonwealth University schools of medicine and nursing have achieved significantly higher rankings in medical research funding over the past year - medicine moved up six positions and nursing into the top 20 -- according to data recently released by the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH data show that the VCU School of Medicine moved from No. 59 in 2007 to No. 53 for 2008, out of 126 ranked schools of medicine, and the VCU School of Nursing moved from 23 in 2007, to No. 19, out of 82 ranked schools of nursing - higher than any nursing schools in Virginia.
The VCU School of Medicine in 2008 was awarded nearly $63 million from the NIH for medical research, with significant funding in neurosurgery, pharmacology and toxicology, human and molecular genetics, anatomy and internal medicine research.
"The increase in federal support for biomedical research reflects the creativity and dedication of our faculty and validates the importance and quality of their scholarship as viewed by their peers," said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine. "The increased funding has yielded already significant advances, which are documented in scientific publications in high impact journals, patents and patent applications.
"Most importantly, the research is being translated into improved clinical care," Strauss said.
The VCU School of Nursing was awarded $2.2 million in 2008 for research that largely is focused on the development of the science for improving the health of the nation.
"The faculty has a major concentration on bio-behavioral clinical research that improves the quality of care and therefore the quality of life of people experiencing critical illnesses," said Nancy Langston, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Nursing.
Langston said it is part of the school's strategic plan to be ranked consistently in the top 20 Schools of Nursing in the nation in NIH funding.
"Both of these schools have nationally prominent faculty that are contributing enormously to their fields," said Sheldon Retchin, M.D., vice president for VCU Health Sciences. "We are extremely fortunate to have recruited such talented individuals to VCU."
The NIH annually computes data on funding provided by NIH grants, cooperative agreements and contracts to universities, hospitals and other institutions.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
Video and audio are available at http://www.news.vcu.edu/news.aspx?v=detail&nid=2732.
The most recent Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences survey shows that support for embryonic stem cell research has remained steady over the past few years at 57 percent of adults favoring the research.
New scientific developments have changed the landscape of stem cell research. Seven-in-10 adults favor stem cell research when it does not involve human embryos, down slightly from 75 percent just after the November 2007 announcement that human skin cells can be used to create stem cells or their near equivalents. Support for embryonic stem cell research is similar to past years: 57 percent of adults favor embryonic stem cell research, while 36 percent oppose.
The 2008 VCU Life Sciences Survey was conducted by telephone with 1,005 adults nationwide, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 7, 2008. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. The VCU Life Sciences Survey is conducted for VCU Life Sciences and the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences by the VCU Center for Public Policy.
The survey also found that eight in 10 adults nationwide favor making genetic testing easily available to all who want it, and 54 percent say that the benefits of conducting genetic research outweigh the risks.
Public concerns about genetic research are varied with a plurality of 38 percent saying their main concern is that too little is known about how to conduct such research safely. About three in 10, or 28 percent, say their main concern is that genetic research will be used in ways that violate moral principles, while 21 percent are most concerned about discrimination. A majority of the U.S. public is skeptical that government regulation will protect the public from any risks associated with genetic science.
Other survey findings:
* Support for government spending on scientific research, especially when it promises immediate benefits. Despite the economic downturn, there is considerable public support for spending on scientific research. Nearly a quarter of respondents, 23 percent, say that government spending on scientific research should be a top priority. Fifty-nine percent say it should be important, but not a top priority. Only 15 percent of adults say that government spending on scientific research is not too or not at all important. Support for spending on research with immediate benefits is stronger than for basic science research. Fifty-four percent of adults say that spending on research with immediate benefits is important, while 38 percent say that spending on research that advances knowledge even if there are no immediate benefits is important.
* Which is more important: nature or nurture? When asked the more important influence on behavior -- the environment or genes -- a majority of respondents, 57 percent, said the environment. Similarly, most take the position that environmental factors and living practices can alter a person's likelihood for disease. Two-thirds of Americans disagree that "a person's likelihood for disease is pretty much set from birth and cannot be greatly increased or decreased by their environment and living practices."
* Science and society. Fully 83 percent of Americans say that new developments in science have helped make society better. Forty-six percent say science has helped make society a lot better, while 36 percent say it has helped make society somewhat better. More than six in 10, or 61 percent, agree that scientific research is essential for improving the quality of human lives. Some ambivalence in public sentiment continues to surface when it comes to how science matches up with moral principles. A majority of the public, 53 percent, says that scientific decisions should be based primarily on an analysis of the risks and benefits involved rather than the moral and ethical issues involved, cited by 32 percent. At the same time, a majority, 56 percent, agrees that scientific research doesn't pay enough attention to the moral values of society.
* Cloning and therapeutic cloning. Opinion about therapeutic cloning is more divided. Fifty-two percent of adults favor and 45 percent oppose using cloning technology for the development of new medical treatments. When cloning is not restricted to therapeutic purposes, about eight in 10, 78 percent, oppose the use of cloning technology in humans. Opinion on both issues has been fairly stable since the first VCU Life Sciences Survey on public opinion about science and biotechnology was conducted in 2001.
A PDF of the survey report is available at http://www.news.vcu.edu/doc/VCU-Life-Sciences-Report-2008.pdf. Current and past survey reports will be available at http://www.vcu.edu/lifesci/centers/cen_lse_surveys.html.
A team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers is studying the underlying causes of brain tumors in children to pinpoint the genetic changes that take place in healthy cells and transform them into cancer.
Through the VCU Medical Center's Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Program, Timothy E. Van Meter, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the VCU Department of Neurosurgery, and Gary Tye, M.D., a pediatric neurosurgeon at the VCU Medical Center's Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center, are looking at the full spectrum of genes that play a role in pediatric brain tumor progression - the leading cause of death from childhood cancer.
Van Meter, Tye and the VCU team have been collaborating with investigators with the Labatt Brain Tumor Center at the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto, Canada, on several projects. Using a variety of molecular techniques, the team has been able to look globally at the tumor-specific changes that lead to transformation of normal brain cells into cancerous cells.
"Ultimately, we hope to develop tests that will tell us, based on the patterns of gene alteration in a patient, which tailored treatment they will most benefit from and which treatment protocol will most effectively eradicate their tumor. Our large-scale studies are providing the information we need to do just that," said Van Meter.
In a study published online the week of March 9 in Nature Genetics, the international team reported the discovery of a molecular pathway that becomes genetically altered, resulting in the growth of a brain tumor called a medulloblastoma. The findings may one day help researchers develop a therapy to target the specific pathway and block the genetic changes from occurring, possibly preventing tumor growth.
According to Van Meter, a medulloblastoma typically originates in the cerebellum and can be extremely aggressive. This area of the brain is responsible for the coordination of voluntary movement and helps maintain balance and muscle tone. Medulloblastomas can cause pressure in the brain and may block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Unfortunately, treatment options such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can cause severe developmental and cognitive deficits in patients.
"Conducting research in pediatric brain tumors is challenging because statistically meaningful, clinically relevant studies require more patient samples than most centers have available to study," said Van Meter. "Therefore, scientists such as myself form large collaborative networks - like the one we formed for this study - pooling resources and patient materials."
In this study, the team examined approximately 200 medulloblastoma specimens and characterized alterations in DNA on chromosomes. The VCU team consulted and provided medulloblastoma clinical samples and data.
Van Meter said that the team continues to examine this large cohort of patient material with other genomic technologies as well, to look at gene expression and other chemical and biological processes at play.
This research involves faculty from the VCU Department of Pathology in the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and the Department of Biostatistics.
This work was supported by the American Brain Tumor Association Cherise Fleming Translational Research Grant Award from the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation and the VCU School of Medicine Harold F. Young Neurosurgical Center.
The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and School of Dentistry have honored two faculty members with the 17th Annual Women in Science, Dentistry and Medicine (WISDM) Professional Achievement Award for their special contributions and accomplishments in the schools of Medicine and Dentistry.
The award recognizes those women who have served as strong role models and mentors for the professional development of women faculty.
This year's honorees are Mary Helen Hackney, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine's Division of Hematology and Oncology, and Kim Isringhausen, M.P.H., assistant professor in the School of Dentistry's Division of Dental Hygiene.
President of the WISDM Executive Council, Hackney is a medical oncologist who specializes in breast cancer.
According to Kelsey E.S. Salley, M.D., associate program director for Women's Health, Hackney's compassionate approach to patient care, combined with her leadership abilities and mentoring relationships with residents, students and fellows are among the many qualities that make her an ideal role model deserving of the prestigious award.
"I've been on the committee to select past recipients of this award and have always been in awe of them," said Hackney, who held her cell phone close by so that her mother, who was unable to attend the ceremony, could hear her daughter accept the award. "I'm very humbled to be standing here at this time."
Hackney's primary practice focuses on systemic treatment for all stages of breast cancer. This includes chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, new drugs and clinical trial participation. She also offers counseling regarding risk reduction for breast cancer and is the local primary investigator for the national breast cancer prevention trial.
Hackney also sees patients with other hematology and oncology problems through the Rural Cancer Outreach Program, and another focus is cancer education for non-oncology medical professionals and for the lay population.
Isringhausen received the School of Dentistry Award. She became a School of Dentistry faculty member in 2002 and in 2005 became director of the Division of Dental Hygiene. During that time, she completed a master's of public health degree at VCU.
Although she is not a dentist, because of her public health education and her accomplishments as a division director, Dean Ron Hunt asked Isringhausen to take on additional leadership responsibilities as the director of the preceptorship programs for the dental school.
"I've attended the WISDM conference for a number of years and have had the opportunity to see many honored for their achievements," said Isringhausen. "I'm truly honored to be among their ranks.
"It inspires me to be a role model and mentor," she said. "Today's recognition is as much a tribute to those who have mentored me, and I hope to continue achieving good things and continue inspiring others the way they have inspired me."
Isringhausen's teaching and leadership abilities also have been recognized by students and professional organizations. She recently was honored as Dental Hygiene Faculty Member of the Year and Best Student Advocate. In addition, her preceptorship program won a 40 Acts of Caring Award for service to the community during VCU's 40th anniversary celebration last fall.
Isringhausen also has been recognized by the American Dental Education Association, including selection into the ADEA Allied Dental Faculty Leadership Development Program and the ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Teaching Fellowship.
The WISDM Professional Achievement Award is presented annually by the Women in Science, Dentistry, and Medicine Faculty Organization, VCU School of Medicine, MCV Campus.
The award was established in 1993 to acknowledge the special contributions and accomplishments of women faculty in the School of Medicine and to recognize those women for their special contributions, dedication, leadership, mentorship and accomplishments in the schools of Medicine and Dentistry.
The WISDM faculty organization solicits nominations annually. For more information, visit http://www.womeninmedicine.vcu.edu/APAA.html.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that adult animals with hearing loss actually re-route the sense of touch into the hearing parts of the brain.
In the study, published online in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 23, the team reported a phenomenon known as cross-modal plasticity in the auditory system of adult animals. Cross-modal plasticity refers to the replacement of a damaged sensory system by one of the remaining ones. In this case, the sense of hearing is replaced with touch.
About 15 percent of American adults suffer from some form of hearing impairment, which can significantly impact quality of life, especially in the elderly.
"One often learns, anecdotally, that 'grandpa' simply turned off his hearing aid because it was confusing and no longer helped. Our study indicates that hearing deficits in adult animals result in a conversion of their brain's sound processing centers to respond to another sensory modality, making the interpretation of residual hearing even more difficult," said principal investigator Alex Meredith, Ph.D., a professor in the VCU Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.
"Whether this becomes a positive feedback cycle of increasing hearing difficulty is currently under investigation, but these findings raise the possibility that even mild hearing loss in adult humans can have serious and perhaps progressive consequences," Meredith said.
The findings provide researchers and clinicians with insight into how the adult brain retains the ability to re-wire itself on a large scale, as well as the factors that may complicate treatment of hearing loss with hearing aids or cochlear implants.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Meredith worked with postdoctoral fellows Brian L. Allman and Leslie P. Keniston, both in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.
VCU School of Pharmacy alumni, Nancy and Ron McFarlane, class of 1980, have donated $250,000 to the school for an endowed professorship in pharmacy practice.
The couple has previously established two scholarship funds for pharmacy students - the Phi Delta Chi Scholarship and the Nancy L. and Ronald H. McFarlane Scholarship.
"The school is doing a lot of great things," said Ron McFarlane. "We are happy to be able to help them achieve and grow their mission."
The McFarlanes live in Raleigh, N.C., where they own MedProRx Inc., an accredited specialty infusion pharmacy that focuses on treatments for people with bleeding, autoimmune, neuromuscular and rheumatologic disorders and other complex medical conditions. According to Ron McFarlane, MedProRx, which opened in 2002, is one of few such pharmacies left on the East Coast.
In addition to their education, another reason the McFarlanes have such a strong connection with the School of Pharmacy is that they met here. The couple has three children and will celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary this November.
Although they moved to North Carolina in the mid-1980s, Nancy McFarlane says the school has always been an anchor for them in Virginia.
"I am thrilled that we are in a position to help the school that helped us," said Nancy McFarlane.
The futures of 174 fourth-year medical students were determined last week as the tradition of Match Day revealed the much-anticipated locations of their residencies.
Match Day, a national tradition since 1952, occurs on the third Thursday of March each year. It is the culmination of a grueling and tiresome process in which fourth-year medical students receive sealed envelopes containing the residency program to which they have been matched. The process of applying and interviewing begins in December and January.
As friends, family and faculty members gathered in support, the students anxiously awaited hearing their name called.
"I was extremely excited and a little emotional. It's the end of a long process," said Kevin Lee, who matched with Fairfax Family Medical, his first choice.
"I was nauseous all morning," said Claire Rezba, who also matched with her first choice - the University of California, San Diego Medical Center.
According to Chris Woleben, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and adviser to residency hopefuls, the process can be stressful not only for the students, but for faculty as well.
"I can finally sleep tonight," said Woleben. "I felt like I was going through the process all over again."
The event, which was held at the Woman's Club of Richmond, Bolling-Haxall House, featured a "bon voyage" theme. Attendees sported leis and Hawaiian shirts and ties and enjoyed food and beverages as everyone celebrated the students' success.
The matching process is coordinated by the National Resident Matching Program. Established in 1952, the National Resident Matching Program matches thousands of graduating medical students from all over the United States and Canada with various hospital internship and residencies.
Both the students and hospitals select and rank their top choices. Based on this information the National Resident Matching Program then matches the students with their residencies.
This year VCU School of Medicine exceeded the national average with 96 percent of the students matching with their No. 1 choice, many of whom matched in highly competitive fields. VCU had 17 students match in radiology, 20 in anesthesiology and 56 in primary care.
"They are all such bright and talented students," said Woleben. "The caliber of our students keeps going up every year and with our matching rate, we expect that to continue."
The Richmond Medical Reserve Corps will host training on disaster behavioral health on Wednesday, April 1, at 4:30 p.m. in Sanger Hall, Room 1-044, presented by Mike Magner, emergency planner for the Virginia Department of Health, Henrico Health District. Disaster behavior health, often called psychological first aid, refers to the skills and actions needed to prevent or mitigate the long-term psychological impact of a disaster on both victims and first responders. Sponsored by the Division of Health Careers/Education and Special Services for Students.
To R.S.V.P., e-mail ekdumke@vcu.edu.
The Research Incubator and Tompkins McCaw Library present a research seminar, "Strategies and Tools for Patient Recruitment," on Wednesday, April 1, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building, Room 104. Tammy Anderson, clinical trials coordinator in the Department of Pediatrics, and Cornelia Ramsey, community research liaison of the Research Incubator, will discuss techniques they use to successfully recruit research participants and engage the community in research.
For more information or to R.S.V.P., e-mail Pam Dillon at pmdillon@vcu.edu.
The MCV Campus April Snack Series will kick off on Thursday, April 2, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Patterson Memorial Garden outside of the Hunton Student Center. Live music and refreshments will be provided by the University Student Commons & Activities MCV Campus Programs Office. The April Snack Series continues on April 9, 16 and 23. In case of rain, the event will be held in the Hunton Student Center.
For more information, contact Yolanda Jackson at 828-2754 or yjackson@vcu.edu.
The Institute for Women's Health Annual Women's Health Research Day, a celebration and promotion of research activities in women's health at VCU, is April 15 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event features keynote speaker Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, a poster session and reception and young investigator and community-based research grant awards.
For more information, visit http://www.womenshealth.vcu.edu/research/research_day_2009.html.
