Advances

              College of Medicine
Advances
Dr. William M. Crist
September 2008 • Vol. 2 • No. 6
William M. Crist, MD, dean of the University
of Missouri (MU) School of Medicine and a
nationally noted pediatric cancer investigator, has
been appointed vice president for health affairs at
The University of Arizona.
Dr. Crist, who is scheduled to begin his new
duties Oct. 31, will be responsible to UA President
Robert N. Shelton for the coordination and
administration of overall academic and medical
services in the UA Colleges of Medicine (in Tucson
and at the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix in
partnership with ASU), Nursing and Pharmacy
and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College
of Public Health. He also will oversee all UA
agreements with UMC, UPH and UPH Hospital.
He will work in partnership with Meredith Hay,
UA executive vice president and provost, in the
development and execution of strategic academic
priorities for the health sciences academic units.
A 1969 graduate of the MU School of
Medicine, Dr. Crist became its dean in September
2000; in October 2004, he was named MU’s
first Hugh E. and Sarah D. Stephenson Dean.
During his tenure, he contributed greatly to the
recruitment of renowned physicians, a tripling of
the school’s endowment, significant increases in
grant support for research, extensive construction
of new labs and an ongoing effort to integrate
continuous quality improvement into the
curriculum and patient care.
Also a professor in the MU Department of
Child Health, Dr. Crist is among the scientists
credited with dramatically improving our
understanding of childhood leukemias and their
treatments.
Dr. Crist completed an internship in
pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical
School, Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor,
Mich. He was a resident fellow in pediatrics and
pediatric hematology at Washington University
School of Medicine, St. Louis Children’s
Hospital, St. Louis, Mo., and a fellow in pediatric
hematology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
He served as director of pediatric hematology
and oncology at the University of Alabama,
Birmingham; then as director of pediatric
hematology and oncology at the University of
Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis; as
chair of hematology and oncology at St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis; and as
chair of pediatric and adolescent medicine at the
Mayo Medical Center in Rochester, Minn.
Dr. Crist has published extensively in the
medical literature, has received a wide range of
honors and awards and has served on numerous
editorial boards and professional societies. He
led the merger effort that formed the Children’s
Oncology Group, which designs and directs
clinical trials for children with cancer throughout
North America and beyond.
President Shelton said, “As our vice president
for health affairs, we believe Bill Crist will take
the UA’s Arizona Health Sciences Center to the
next level in terms of growth and success. His
excellent track record as a medical school dean
and successful fundraiser, as well as his noted
work as a physician-scientist, provide the exact
background we were seeking for this important
new position.”
Dr. Crist said, “I’m extremely excited to
have the opportunity to lead the fast-emerging
Arizona Health Sciences Center. I truly believe
the ‘sky is the limit’ for the UA’s health colleges
and its clinical enterprise if we work together,
plan appropriately and are successful in gaining
additional resources.”
Dr. William Crist Appointed
UA Vice President for Health Affairs
Naendw Nsotes
First ‘HeartMate II’ used at UMC
The HeartMate II, a relatively new bridge-to-
transplant device, recently was used for
the first time at UMC. Unlike other assist
devices, which require heart patients to stay
at the hospital until receiving a donor match,
the small size of the HeartMate II and its
streamlined support system allow patients
to leave the hospital while they wait for a
transplant. UMC’s first HeartMate II recipient, a patient in severe heart
failure, was in good spirits, able to take walks and planning to leave
the hospital just days after his surgery. The surgery was performed
by Jack G. Copeland, MD, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UMC and
co-director of the UA Sarver Heart Center, and his team.
Medical residency programs begin at UPH Hospital
Gov. Janet Napolitano joined
new resident-physicians
and community leaders at
the launch of the Graduate
Medical Education (GME)
program at UPH Hospital July
21. Residencies in internal
medicine and psychiatry began in July with 16 resident-physicians.
By 2011, it is expected that up to 118 residents will be participating
in a total of seven residencies at UPH, including neurology, radiology,
emergency medicine, family medicine and ophthalmology.
Abdominal organ transplants increase at UMC
The successful revitalization of the UMC Abdominal Transplantation
Program has resulted in a dramatic
increase in the number of patients
who have received new organs this
past fiscal year, with the number of
kidney and pancreas procedures
reaching all-time highs. The total
number of transplants overall – heart, lung, kidney, liver and pancreas
– has passed the 140 mark for 2007-08. The highest number since the
program began in 1979 was 114 in 2006.
$1 million gift establishes new fellowship at Steele Center
The Dorrance Family Foundation,
based in Scottsdale, has donated
$1 million to establish the Dorrance
Endowed Fellowship in Pediatric
Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the
UA’s Steele Children’s Research Center.
The fellowship will provide funding
to train promising young researchers
in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition. The first Dorrance
Fellow is Rajalakshmy Ramalingam (“Raji”), a doctoral student in
immunobiology whose research will focus on the development of
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
at the UA College of Medicine RMeastetearsrch
Ceremony Pays Tribute to Willed
Body Program Donors
Second-year medical students gathered
near the AHS Library with Albert
Sombrero of the Diné Nation and others
from the College of Medicine for a
Native American blessing ceremony and
tree-planting Aug. 14. The ceremony
followed a memorial service recognizing
donors to the Willed Body Program.
“Without these donations our medical
school would not be able to provide the
same excellent education in anatomy to
our next generation of physicians,” says
T. Philip Malan Jr., MD, PhD, vice dean
for academic affairs. “This education will
benefit their future patients.”
Grant Seeks Solutions to Health-Care Disparities
Can the Internet help treat depression? The UA Department of
Psychiatry is one of 10 organizations to receive funding from the
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation’s program, “Disparities Research
for Change,” for a study to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency
of providing treatment for depression via the Internet. The UA
study, “Telepsychiatry Treatment for Depression in Underserved
Hispanics,” will compare webcam treatment with standard face-to-face
treatment provided by a primary care provider.
www.medicine.arizona.edu/news/story.cfm?ID=1337
Measuring Bone Mineral Density May Help
Predict Breast Cancer Risk
A UA study suggests that measuring a woman’s bone mineral
density can provide additional information that may help to
determine more accurately her risk of developing breast cancer.
www.medicine.arizona.edu/news/story.cfm?ID=1342
Clinical Scholars Named
The UA Arizona Clinical and Translational Research and Education
Consortium (ACTREC) has announced the 2008 Clinical Scholars
Circle award recipients. They are: Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD, UA
Department of Medicine and Arizona Cancer Center; Betsy Dokken, PhD,
NP, UA Department of Medicine Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes &
Hypertension; Leona Downey, MD, Arizona Cancer Center; Jaswinder
Ghuman, MD, UA Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics; Kurt Griffin,
MD, PhD, UA Department of Pediatrics; and Eric Snyder, PhD, UA College
of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice and Science.
Developed in 2007 to address a growing shortage of clinical
researchers, the UA Clinical Scholars Circle fosters and supports new and
established translational-science faculty across multiple specialties at AHSC.
The Clinical Scholars Circle program is supported by the Technology and
Research Initiative Fund.
Transplant FY 06 FY 07
Kidney 45 68
Liver 5 15
Pancreas 4 10
David G. Armstrong,
DPM, PhD, and Joseph L.
Mills, MD, UA professors
of surgery, have written a
guide to help physicians
prevent amputation and
manage foot-related
complications in patients with diabetes. “Comprehensive
Foot Examination and Risk Assessment,” published in the
online August 2008 edition of Diabetes Care, identifies key
components of the diabetic foot exam and provides a simple
protocol for physicians to use for their patients with diabetes.
Anne Cress, PhD, professor of cell biology and anatomy
and associate dean for research at the UA
College of Medicine, recently was appointed
chairperson of the Tumor Progression and
Metastasis Study Section by the Center for
Scientific Review (CSR). CSR is the portal
for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
grant applications and their review for
scientific merit. Study sections evaluate the majority of the
research grant applications sent to NIH, which is responsible
for 28 percent of the total biomedical research funding spent
annually in the United States.
Rainer W.G. Gruessner, MD, professor and chairman of the
UA Department of Surgery, co-authored the
recently published book, Living Donor
Organ Transplantation, which received
an excellent review in the New England
Journal of Medicine. A comprehensive
guide to abdominal transplantation, the
book addresses the use of living donors in
the transplantation of the kidney, pancreas, islets, liver and
intestine.
Donna M. Wolk, PhD, D(ABMM), AHSC division chief
of clinical microbiology, recently was
elected to the Association for Molecular
Pathology’s Infectious Disease Clinical
Practice Committee. The committee acts
as a national resource to improve and
standardize clinical laboratory practice
via method standardization and quality
improvement, as well as evidence-based testing algorithms
and reporting practices in molecular microbiology. Its
members are chosen for their expertise in molecular
diagnostics. Dr. Wolk is a research associate in the BIO5
Institute and a clinical research scholar in the Health
Research Alliance Arizona.
Profiles in Philanthropy
Ver Steeg Family Endows Scholarship for Rural Care
Medical students committed to serving
in a rural community will benefit from an
endowed scholarship recently established in
memory of John W. Ver Steeg, MD. “John was
never able to fulfill his dream of serving in a
small rural community. My daughter, Ann, and I
want this scholarship to help someone else attain
that dream,” said Pat Ver Steeg, John’s widow.
The son of a Presbyterian minister, John grew
up in small towns throughout the Midwest. He
attained the rank of Eagle Scout and loved canoeing and camping in the
Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada. After graduating from high
school in Russell, Iowa, he attended the University of Iowa, where he
received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1966. He earned his MD
from Northwestern University in Chicago four years later.
While in medical school, John married his first wife and they had
two sons – Joe, who lives in Eagle River, Alaska, and Jake, who lives in
Scottsdale, Ariz. In 1980 John met Pat, and the two were married in Kansas
City, Mo. There, John did an internship in family practice at Truman
Medical Center-East, and Pat taught school for the Blue Springs School
District. After a year, they moved to a small town in Minnesota, where
their daughter, Ann, was born. Suffering from a bipolar illness, John had
difficulty maintaining a practice, and after a year, he retired and the family
moved to Tucson.
Ann grew up in Tucson and attended The University of Arizona, as did
her fiancé, Jonathan. Ann says, “This memorial is especially meaningful for
me because my dad loved helping people as a doctor. He would be happy
to know that this scholarship is assisting others who are willing to aid all
those he was unable to serve.”
His family describes John as someone who enjoyed life and had a great
sense of humor. He painted abstract images, and many of his works adorn
the homes of family and friends. “John could figure anything out. He was
bright and resourceful and could make something out of nothing, and he
analyzed everything. He believed in paying attention to the one you are
with at the moment, and he lived that belief every day,” says Pat.
POeno tphlee move
John W. Ver Steeg, MD
David Armstrong, DPM, PhD Joseph Mills, MD
Anne Cress, PhD
Rainer Gruessner, MD
UA President Robert Shelton joined Donna Wolk, PhD, D(ABMM)
CATS personnel for a photo when
he and Leslie Tolbert, UA vice
president for research, toured the
new facility in July. CATS (Clinical
and Translational Science Research
Center) is part of a movement by
the National Institutes of Health to streamline clinical and translational research by providing
space, materials and qualified experts in one accessible location.
Four Surgeons Join UA Department of Surgery, UMC Trauma Center
Four new trauma surgeons have joined the UA Department of Surgery, Section of Trauma, Critical
Care and Emergency Surgery, and the UMC Trauma Center.
Randall S. Friese, MD, FACS, UA associate professor of surgery, earned his
MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed residency
training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He completed a
fellowship in trauma critical care and a master’s degree in clinical science at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he joined the faculty as
a trauma surgeon for six years. Dr. Friese also served as a staff general surgeon
in the U.S. Navy. His research interests include the effects of sleep deprivation
during recovery from critical illness and injury and the benefits of sleep
promotion during recovery.
Terence O’Keeffe, MB, ChB, MSPH, UA assistant professor of surgery, comes
to the UA from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Dr. O’Keeffe underwent his undergraduate training at Edinburgh University,
Scotland. Following an internship in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, he went
to Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland for his surgical residency
and a fellowship in laparoscopic surgery. He completed a surgical critical care and
trauma fellowship at the Ryder Trauma Center at the University of Miami while
studying for a master’s of science in public health degree. His research interests
include injury prevention and massive transfusion practices, motorcycle trauma and damage control
surgery.
Julie L. Wynne, MD, MPH, FACS, UA assistant professor of surgery,
completed her MD degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She
received a master’s of public health degree from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene
and Public Health. Following her residency training in surgery at the University
of South Alabama, she completed a fellowship in surgical critical care and trauma
at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Dr. Wynne served as
a trauma surgeon at Mercer University School of Medicine. Her current interests
are in the areas of chronic wound healing, surgical critical care and volunteer work
with such humanitarian organizations as “Doctors without Borders.”
Craig A. Hurst, MD, MSc, FRCSC, UA assistant professor of surgery, is a
graduate of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he obtained both
an MD and a master’s degree in science. He completed residency in general surgery
at the University of Ottawa and complemented this with a plastic surgery residency
at the University of Utah. Dr. Hurst went to Indiana University as the vonDeilen-
Curtis fellow in craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery. For the past two years,
he has been an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery with the
Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Hurst specializes in congenital
conditions affecting the craniofacial skeleton of children and adults, cleft lip and palate surgery and
the treatment of facial trauma.
Advances is published monthly,
except July and January, by the
AHSC Office of Public Affairs.
All contents © 2008 Arizona
Board of Regents. All rights
reserved. The UA is an EEO/AA
– M/W/D/V Employer
EDITOR: Janet Stark
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT,
PUBLIC AFFAIRS:
George Humphrey, MA
WRITING: Jo Gellerman,
George Humphrey, Katie Maass,
Darci Slaten, Jean Spinelli,
Janet Stark, Daniel Stolte
PRODUCTION:
UA College of Medicine ITS
WEBMASTER:
Ann Cisneros
Deadline for submission of items
for the October 2008 issue is
Monday, Sept. 15, 2008.
janets@email.arizona.edu
P.O. Box 245095,
Tucson, AZ, 85724-5095
Phone: (520) 626-7301
fax: (520) 626-2101
To read this and past issues
of Advances online, visit
www.opa.medicine.arizona.edu
Sept. 2
Unveiling: Who We Are Now
Photo installation capturing the spirit of AHSC
Noon-1 pm
Lobby, College of Medicine Administrative Offices
Becky Anderson, (520) 626-6177
CEovellentgse of Medicine
For more events at the College of Medicine, visit http://events.medicine.arizona.edu
Sept. 23
Building Partnerships: Is It Worth It?
Faculty fundraiser Soyeon Shim, PhD
11:30 am-1 pm
DuVal Auditorium
RSVP: health@email.arizona.edu
2 23
InFocus