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Shu Wu, M.D., a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology, who’s conducting research on chronic lung disease in premature infants, was awarded the 2008 Micah Batchelor Award for Excellence in Children’s Health Research on Tuesday evening. Wu received the award during a ceremony at the Batchelor Children’s Research Institute, before an audience that included UM President Donna E. Shalala, Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., and Steven Lipshultz, M.D., professor and chair of pediatrics. Also present were board members of the Batchelor Foundation, which makes the award, and the $300,000 prize accompanying it, possible.
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Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are medical devices designed to constantly monitor the heart beat, recognize life-threatening heart rhythm disturbances, and deliver a life-saving shock when needed. Patients who have survived a cardiac arrest clearly benefit from these devices.
In addition, certain groups of patients who have survived a myocardial infarction (heart attack) – but have not had a cardiac arrest – can also benefit, but it is difficult to identify the individual patients within those groups who will achieve benefit from an ICD after a heart attack. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine cardiologist Robert Myerburg, M.D., has authored a review article examining and dealing with this problem in the November 20 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Miller School Scientist Wins Genetics Award
11/17/2008
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A paper published by genetic researchers at the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the Miller School of Medicine received the prestigious Cotterman Award during the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics on November 15. Each year, the editorial board of The American Journal of Human Genetics selects two articles that best represent outstanding contributions to the field of genetics and in which the first author was either a pre or postdoctoral trainee and a member of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Gaofeng Wang, Ph.D., now an assistant professor in the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, served as first author on the paper titled “Variation in the miRNA-433 Binding Site of FGF20 Confers Risk for Parkinson Disease by Overexpression of α-Synuclein” which was published in the February issue of the journal. The FGF20 gene that produces a protein of the same name was previously identified as a risk factor for PD by research teams at the Morris K. Udall Parkinson Disease Research Center of Excellence at the Miller School and the Miami Institute for Human Genomics.
Biomedical Engineer Wins Prestigious Diabetes Research Award
11/10/2008
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Cherie L. Stabler, Ph.D., director of the tissue engineering program at the Diabetes Research Institute at the Miller School, is one of only ten scientists across the country to win the Type 1 Diabetes Pathfinder Award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). The award recognizes highly innovative research studies that offer exceptional promise for improving the understanding, prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes and its complications.
The recipients, all new researchers who have never been principal investigators on an NIH-funded grant, receive about $1.5 million each in direct costs to pursue their work over a five-year period.
Dr. Astrid Mack Receives National Award from AAMC
11/4/2008
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As associate dean for minority affairs, Astrid K. Mack, Ph.D., was a champion of student diversity at the Miller School and was known for his dedication to steering hundreds of underrepresented minorities to Miller and other medical schools through a long-running health care careers preparatory summer program at the University. For his notable work, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) on Monday honored Dr. Mack with a Special Recognition Award.
Mack, who retired this summer after 35 years at the Miller School, collected the AAMC’s Group on Student Affairs – Minority Affairs Section (GSA-MAS) special award at the organization’s annual meeting in San Antonio. According to the AAMC, Dr. Mack was recognized for his “unwavering dedication and service to medical students and minority medical students in particular.” The group noted that he “established and sustained a record of commitment and service to minority medical education…and committed to enhancing health care delivery and eliminating health care disparities.”
UHealth Cardiologists Are First in the U.S. to Use a
Novel Catheter to Inject Stem Cells
10/30/2008
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To look at Max S. Eaton, you wouldn’t know that he has survived one heart attack, that he has heart failure -- or that he has made history. Last Thursday, the 66-year-old Broward County man became the first person in the United States to have stem cells injected into his heart using a novel, corkscrew-shaped catheter. Cardiologists at the University of Miami Health System (UHealth) performed the procedure, using bone marrow cell therapy in an effort to treat heart failure.
This trial, the Transendocardial Autologous Cells in Ischemic Heart Failure Trial (TAC-HFT) study, is being led by Joshua M. Hare, M.D., chief of the Cardiovascular Division and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute. It is the world’s first stem cell trial comparing two cell populations, bone marrow cells and mesenchymal cells, against placebo. “This is truly a breakthrough procedure,” says Hare.
Miller School, ALS Recovery Fund Linkage Celebrated
10/27/2008
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Over the years, the ALS Recovery Fund has been a steadfast, generous Miller School ally in the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
On Thursday, October 23, the Department of Neurology hosted a reception for the ALS Recovery Fund in the University of Miami Hospital’s Seminar Room. The event was to thank the organization for a $1 million gift partially endowing a chair for Walter G. Bradley, M.D., Miller School professor and chairman emeritus of neurology.
Dean Goldschmidt Travels to Ohio State to Accept Award
10/28/2008
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Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., received the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences during a ceremony at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, Monday evening.
Director of cardiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health from 1997 to 2000, Goldschmidt is the inaugural winner of the prize, from The Ohio State University Heart and Vascular Center. The Schottenstein Laureate receives a minimum honorarium of $100,000.
UHealth and the Miller School Host American Hospital Association Health Care Reform Forum
10/23/2008
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The Miami edition of the “Health for Life” community forum, an American Hospital Association event that brings health care and public policy experts and advocates together to discuss needed reforms, opened at the Miller School’s Medical Wellness Center Wednesday with a presentation of statistics depicting the current lack of health care coverage many Floridians face, a dark snapshot of the national landscape where, for many, health care is unaffordable and the system is in crisis.
In Florida, more than 3.7 million people, including more than 541,000 children, make the state the third highest in the country in both the number and percentage of uninsured. In Miami-Dade County alone, 29 percent of residents don’t have health insurance.
City to City: Boston Group in Miami to Observe Best Practices Makes Stop at UM
10/23/2008
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Bart Chernow, M.D., vice president for special programs and resource strategy, and vice provost for technology advancement (left at podium), Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., and University President Donna E. Shalala addressed a group of Boston business and civic leaders who visited the Miller School on October 21 as part of its City to City tour of Miami. Through City to City, a Boston leadership development program, participants travel to different cities to learn best practices used to solve a range of economic and social issues. Upon returning to Boston, the team expects to incorporate the best solutions into initiatives to help entities such as schools, non-profits, small businesses, and even neighborhoods, improve social and economic circumstances.
UM Pediatrician Receives Clay Hamilton Hope Award
10/23/2008
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Judy Schaechter, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the Miller School, received the Clay Hamilton Memorial Hope Award from the Human Services Coalition for her work as an advocate in the struggle to provide healthcare to children and families. The award was presented at “A Prosperity Ball: Celebrating Life’s Riches” hosted by the organization on Saturday, October 11.
“I am very grateful to be named this year’s recipient of the Clay Hamilton Hope Award, but I know that this honor is only possible because I have been so blessed to work with people from the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial, The Children’s Trust, the health department, the schools and the Human Services Council itself, people who believe in our community and have worked together through challenges and obstacles toward a common vision of something better for our children and families,” said Schaechter.
Dr. Eduardo Alfonso Named Health Care CEO of the Year
10/17/2008
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Eduardo C. Alfonso, M.D., interim chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, and medical director of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was named Health Care CEO of the Year by the South Florida Business Journal. The 2008 Excellence in Health Care Awards were presented during a ceremony October 16 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale.
“I am sincerely humbled to be selected as the Healthcare CEO of the Year,” said Alfonso. “In healthcare today, the term CEO really means Credibility, Encouragement and Organization. I salute the Bascom Palmer team of 1,200 faculty and staff members and share this great honor with each one of them.”
Dr. James D. Potter Steps Down as Chairman of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology
10/16/2008
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After more than 25 years of distinguished service as professor and chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, James D. Potter, Ph.D., has decided to step down as chairman to pursue his research full time.
A pioneer in the field of muscle contraction and regulation, Dr. Potter is also considered a leader in the investigations of troponin and of cardiomyopathy due to troponin mutations. He is also an expert in thin filament biochemistry and cellular physiology, and his work concerning the thin filament regulation of force has provided some of the foundation for much of what is known about this area.
UM Takes Top Fundraising Honors at American Heart Association Start! Heart Walk
10/13/2008
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Thousands of fitness gear-clad community members gathered at Miami’s Tropical Park on October 11 for the Start! Heart Walk, a 5K event that raised $523,000 to support the American Heart Association’s mission to prevent heart attack and stroke.
NBC-6 anchor Roxanna Vargas hosted a short program to kick off the event, where she recognized the Miller School and UHealth as the “top new company” for raising $37,000 for the event, and UM Hospital employee Victor Vega as the top individual fundraiser.
Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., energized the crowd when he accepted the honor. “Miami has the best doctors and nurses in the country for fighting heart attack and stroke,” said Goldschmidt, who received his first research grant from the American Heart Association, which allowed him to launch his career in cardiology. “We are proud to be their partner, proud to be UM, proud to be UHealth, and proud to bring the “U” to all of you.”
Annual DOCS Little Haiti Health Fair Draws 400 Patients and Special Visitor, Author Tom Wolfe
10/13/2008
Wolfe witnesses the student-run event at the Center for Haitian Studies; Wal-Mart Foundation makes appearance and donates $50,000 to Project Prevent
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When friends told Ruth Joanis about the Little Haiti Health Fair, the annual free health services event put on by medical students in the Miller School’s Mitchell Wolfson, Sr. Department of Community Service (DOCS) Program, she decided it was the perfect opportunity to get student doctors and the trained UM physicians who assist them to attend to some of her family’s medical needs.
The event Saturday, in its fourteenth year, was one of the largest, serving Joanis, her 10-month-old son, Jasper, her father and grandmother, and about 400 other patients. It was also the year when Tom Wolfe, who stood out in his signature all white clothing, mingled with the volunteers and those who had come for medical aid. Wolfe, the celebrated author, and his wife, Sheila, toured the event at the Center for Haitian Studies with Barth Green, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and co-founder of Project Medishare, a nonprofit medical initiative Green co-founded nearly 20 years ago to assist people in Haiti.
What Wolfe saw was a buzzing clinic with several rooms offering services such as screenings for head and neck and prostate cancer, breast exams, Pap smears, blood pressure and cholesterol checks, eye exams, and check-ups for children. For much of the day, medical students, doctors, and assistants, including undergraduate students and missionaries who served as Creole translators, operated with a strict efficiency that saw the movement of patients from check-in and paper work review and interviews to a series of medical stations, based on assessed needs.
“We have challenges but we are extraordinarily strong”
10/7/2008
Dean Goldschmidt outlines progress on strategic plan and his vision for the future of the Miller School and UHealth at a town hall meeting
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Despite a global financial crisis and a weakened economy, Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., is moving ahead with the strategic plan he introduced soon after joining the Miller School -- a plan that all employees of the School, faculty, staff and students, were asked to help design. The strategic plan, which has seen tremendous growth and success so far, will be carried out at a somewhat slower pace, a prudent move to ensure the health system remains on solid financial footing.
Goldschmidt, also senior vice president for medical affairs and CEO of University of Miami Health System (UHealth), made the remarks to faculty and staff on October 6 during a town hall meeting in the Schoninger Research Quadrangle. The address sought to allay any concerns employees might have about how the economy could adversely affect the University, and what that could mean for revenues and job security.
Click here to watch video of the town hall meeting.
New 128-Slice CT Scanner Aids Miller School’s Genomic Medicine Efforts to Prevent Disease
As a noted cardiologist and proponent of preventive medicine through genetic testing, Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., believes in being a billboard for good health.
UM To Lead Historic NIH-funded National Children’s Study in Florida
The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been selected by the National Institutes of Health as the study center in Florida for the wide-reaching National Children’s Study, an unprecedented look at the health of children in the U.S. that examines both environmental and genetic factors.
UHealth Unveils HeartAware and New CT Scanner
Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women across the United States, with nearly 2,400 Americans dying from cardiovascular disease each day.
► March of Dimes Honors Dr. Barth Green with Humanitarian of the Year Award
► Miami 2009 Winter Symposium: “Interpreting the Human Genome”
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