May 2012

The University of Nevada School of Medicine was ranked by U. S. News and World Report in its recent list of top research medical schools, something that has occurred perhaps only once before. We were ranked 86th out of about 130 schools, just behind some nearby schools like the Universities of Arizona and New Mexico. This could be seen as quite remarkable for a community-based school. We have a very high quality but relatively small research enterprise.

Is this good? Should we celebrate? Probably not.

These rankings have become quite controversial, unless of course your medical school is ranked in the top 10, in which case you think the process is excellent and you post the rankings on your web site. Many medical school deans have suggested that we stop cooperating with USN&WR and not provide them with the data they request. USN&WR says they would simply get the data from somewhere else. The rankings are apparently very popular and generate huge advertising revenue.

The USN&WR rankings use a very narrow set of criteria, mostly skewed toward the larger research-intensive medical schools, and are heavily weighted toward MCAT scores, GPA, student yield and selectivity and total research funding. Those are all certainly important factors in the overall quality of a medical school but the inordinate emphasis on standardized measures of medical student cognitive ability, the peculiarities of the admissions process, and the size of the research enterprise does a disservice to the many other ways that excellence can be measured.

What about measuring the passion and commitment with which students approach their education? Or the passion and enthusiasm of the faculty and staff members who have the awesome responsibility of educating, mentoring and supporting these students? We score very highly on the graduation questionnaire completed by all graduating medical students about how well they are treated, the very low (although not zero) rate of mistreatment and the support they feel for achieving their educational goals. Some of the most prestigious medical schools fare much worse on these questions.

What about the volunteerism by our students, residents and faculty members in providing medical care for the medically-indigent through the Student Outreach Clinic and Volunteers in Medicine in Southern Nevada? I was amazed to see a fourth-year student at Volunteers in Medicine last week (I won't embarrass her by revealing her name) who was on her ICU rotation (one of the hardest) but working at VMSN on one of her precious nights off.

Maybe we should be ranked according to how hard so many faculty and staff members work under very difficult conditions caused by the weak state economy. We could easily be in the top 10 here.

One of the features of the school most impressive to me during my early days here was the commitment of so many of you to the success of the School of Medicine, and your awareness of the need for the school to continue to contribute to the needs of the State of Nevada despite the budget and salary reductions.

We could be ranked according to the high level of success of our biomedical scientists, as measured by funding/FTE rather than total funding. Or perhaps we could be ranked according to the prestigious awards received by our faculty members and alumni for scientific achievement, teaching expertise, distinguished service or clinical care (more about that in future issues as these awards are announced!).

The point is that the School of Medicine is a complex organism that excels in many ways, contributes to many missions, and whose contributions are far-flung and highly integrated and not amenable to measurement by simplistic and linear scales.

Above all else, I think the quality of an institution like the School of Medicine is measured by the participative and respectful quality of its culture, by the citizenship of its members, by the accountability that links effort to reward and makes clear how each member's contributions are critical, by the transparency of the decision-making and by the quality of leadership that infuses all levels of the organization.

By these measures we are already ranked well above 86th. My goal is to eventually become the best.

Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D.
Dean, University of Nevada School of Medicine

News and Announcements

Medical Education

Graduation events fill the calendar this month

As is tradition each year at this time, the School of Medicine has several ceremonies and events planned to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our students during graduation week.

The student awards ceremony, which recognizes student accomplishments in all four year-groups, will be held May 17 at 1 p.m. in Nightingale Hall in the Church Fine Arts Building at UNR. This will be followed by a reception for medical resident artists Erika Fran and Momina Razaq from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Sierra Arts Gallery, 17 S. Virginia Street in Reno.

Hooding for the Class of 2012 will take place on May 18 at 1 p.m. at Lawlor Events Center in Reno with a reception to follow on the upper concourse.

Students collaborate with WPI for women's health day event

Organizers of the Student Outreach Clinic are simultaneously holding their monthly women's outreach clinic in conjunction with the Whittemore Peterson Institute's health fair event on May 12 to celebrate National Women's Health Awareness Week. The outreach clinic will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Family Medicine Center, while the WPI event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CMM lobby.

McDonnell earns volunteer award

Chris McDonnell, Class of 2012, is this year's recipient of the UNR Margery Cavanaugh Community Volunteer Award. The award was established by John Cavanaugh and Barbara Thornton to recognize a graduating student who has done outstanding community service work while attending the University of Nevada.

Graduating student heads to Panama for mission work

A graduating University of Nevada School of Medicine student will participate in a medical mission to Panama later this month thanks to the generosity of the pediatric cardiologists of Children's Heart Center of Nevada.

Memorial service planned for anatomical donors

Students from the University of Nevada School of Medicine's Class of 2015 will hold a memorial service to honor those who donated their bodies to the anatomical donation program for medical research and education. The service will begin at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 at Walton's Funeral Home Chapel. Family and friends of donors are invited to attend the service.

Bhetwal earns UNR graduate student awards

Bhupal P Bhetwal, a Ph.D. candidate in the cellular and molecular pharmacology and physiology graduate program has earned two awards from the University of Nevada, Reno Graduate Student Association. He earned third place, and a $300 award in the form of a scholarship, in the poster competition for his poster entitled "Reduced Gastric Smooth Muscle Contraction in a model of Type-2 Diabetic Gastroparesis." He was also recognized with an Outstanding Graduate Student Award, which is distributed as a $650 scholarship. Bhupal is carrying out his dissertation research in Brian Perrino's lab, in the Department of Physiology & Cell Biology, working on the regulation of stomach smooth muscle contraction by cholinergic neurotransmission, and how the signaling pathways activated in the smooth muscles that regulate contraction could be targeted to help improve gastric motility disorders such as functional dyspepsia and diabetic gastroparesis.

Ulrich one of three nationwide to receive three-year award

Craig Ulrich, a graduate student studying for his doctorate degree in Iain Buxton's lab, was recently recognized as one of only three students in the nation to receive a prestigious three-year award from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association PhRMA. Craig's proposal entitled, "The Uterine Smooth Muscle Nitrosylproteome," probes the mechanistic basis of preterm labor by examining the post-translational modification of proteins by nitrosylation. The goal of his studies is to discover new therapeutic targets for the prevention of preterm birth.

Faculty

Pediatric professors have paper accepted for presentation

Nevin Wilson and Mary Beth Hogan, both professors of pediatrics in Reno, have had their paper entitled "Physician-family communication and family recall of treatment plans in pediatric asthma" accepted for presentation at both the 2012 American Thoracic Society International Conference and he 25th Midwest Regional Conference on Pediatric Psychology.

Pennington selected to board of governors

James Pennington, a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer in the OBGYN department's maternal-fetal medicine division, presented three different talks at the National AIUM conference in March. The topics included "Extending the Protocol," an advanced concept beyond the expected imaging process of diagnostic ultrasound, "Maintaining Quality while being fiscally responsible" and "Legal Issues for the Sonographer; are we vulnerable?"

Pennington sits as chair of the Committee for the Practice of Sonography, is a member of the Committee for the Endowment for Education and Research, and various other committees for the AIUM, the largest accrediting organization in the country that joins all modalities of medical ultrasound under one roof and sets imaging standards that are followed worldwide.

In addition, Pennington was recently selected to the Board of Governors of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

"It is an extraordinarily prestigious program, and the fact that I've been recognized on such a large scale is an honor," Pennington said. "The responsibilities in the field have grown exponentially, and I aim to elevate the stature of non-physician sonographers everywhere."

Hunt makes two presentations to national audiences

Thomas Hunt, M.D., family medicine physician in Las Vegas, recently made two presentations to national audiences: the first, describing his department's work in rural Nevada was made at the National Health Promotion Summit in Washington, DC and the second was made to members of the Department of Justice on cancer screening and cancer statistics in Nevada.

Palmer receives family medicine physician award

Elissa Palmer, M.D., chair of family medicine in Las Vegas, was presented a plaque honoring her as the Family Medicine Physician of the Year 201, by the American Academy of Family Physicians Nevada Chapter. The award was presented by Tom Hunt, M.D., the immediate past president of the NAFP and a School of Medicine family physician.

School Notes

Medical education town hall event on May 1

Join the Office of Academic Affairs as it gives an update on the new Year 1 and 2 curricula. Meet the faculty leaders who have worked on creating the new undergraduate medical education program. Ask questions and learn about new teaching technologies. The town hall will be held May 1 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Pennington Health Sciences, Room 102 in Reno with pictel to the Clinical Simulation Center, Room 121 in Las Vegas.

Faculty, residents attend workshop in Thailand

School of Medicine faculty and residents from Las Vegas and Reno together with faculty from John Hopkins recently returned from giving workshops that provided information about and hands-on practice in clinical skills and residency interviews at Ramathibodi Hospital Medical School, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.

According to School of Medicine team leader and co-organizer Dr. Pisespong Patamasucon: "We had done this type of workshop three previous times: one in Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University and other two times at Phramongkutkloa Medical School."

The meeting, postponement from last year because of major flooding in Bangkok, was hosted by Ramathibodi Hospital for medical students, residents and young faculty who are planning to come to the U.S. for further training.

School of Medicine faculty and residents on this trip included: Dr. Caroline Barangan, associate pediatrics professor; pediatric residents Drs. Amit Misra, Richard Villegas and Shilpa Shahani; pediatrician Dr. Rebecca Scherr; and internist Dr. Nageshwara Gullapalli.

Through Dr. Patamasucon's connections, the School of Medicine and several medical universities in Thailand have ties going back 10 years.

Leading experts on congenital muscular dystrophy convene at medical school

The nation's leading scientists and clinicians exploring treatment breakthroughs for congenital muscular dystrophy convened April 22-24 on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, where research by School of Medicine pharmacology professor Dean Burkin has led to a potential therapy.

Hug High, School of Medicine cement partnership

Hug High School and the University of Nevada School of Medicine continued their 20-year educational partnership with a kick-off event to celebrate the opening of Hug's Health Science Academy this fall.

Clinic dates for May, June announced

The University of Nevada School of Medicine's free Student Outreach Clinics for May and June have been announced for the following dates: a geriatric clinic will be held May 5 from 8 a.m. to noon, a women's clinic will be held May 12 from noon to 3 p.m. and a combined adult's and children's clinic will be on June 30 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Redfield Foundations commits $1.6 million to medical school

From a research center to a patient's bedside, the delivery of new medical discoveries can take upward of 17 years. Now, with the help of $1.6 million from the Nell J. Redfield Foundation, researchers at the University of Nevada School of Medicine endeavor to impact medical practice and patient treatment by providing the treatments of tomorrow—today.

Clinic staff earn certificate of achievement

The HMR program for weight management in the internal medicine department in Reno received the 2011 HMR Gold Standard Certificate of Achievement. HMR recognizes programs that demonstrate excellence in performance and patient care by annually presenting these awards to select clinics. Criteria for earning the award include group attendance, compliance with the imperatives, weight loss success rates and weight maintenance success rates.

Stethoscope submissions now being accepted

The School of Medicine's annual journal of literature and art, The Stethoscope, is now accepting submissions for publication this summer. Original and creative work from the students, faculty, and friends of both the School of Medicine and the Division of Health Sciences is welcome. This includes (but is of course not limited to) short stories, poems, essays, drawings, photography, jokes, and quotes, and the subject matter does not need to be medically related.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 4. Submissions and questions may be emailed to Brittany.

State license plates supporting health care now available

Through a show of support for Nevadans receiving the finest health care, by honoring those who have dedicated their lives to the profession of caring about other's health and wellbeing, and to specifically benefit the Silver State's transplant patients, the Nevada DMV is now offering a new specialty license plate called "Supporting Healthcare."

The money generated from the specialty license plates will help fund transplant care in Nevada. Across the country, more than 112,500 people are on a waiting list for an organ donation. Here in Nevada, 85 patients are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.

The "Supporting Healthcare" license plate is available by going to any DMV office, or dmvnv.com.

Twenty-five dollars from every "Supporting Healthcare" license plate that is purchased and twenty dollars from every registration renewal will help fund transplant care in our state.

Alumnus earns Duncan Clark Award

Matthew Boulton, M.D.'87, MPH, recently received the Duncan Clark Award from the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. The award is the most prestigious national recognition offered by APTR and is presented to a senior-level physician with a distinguished record of achievement in the areas of teaching, research, and advocacy in the field of prevention and public health.

Job listings

Job openings at the School of Medicine. Additional job listings at University Health System.