Faculty promotions mark professional accomplishment and achievement
Dear Colleagues:
I am very pleased to announce the promotion to a higher academic rank of 72 UW Medicine regular faculty members and 102 UW Medicine clinical and affiliate faculty members. These promotions became effective on July 1.
This year, among regular faculty members, 36 individuals were promoted to associate professor, 3 were promoted to research associate professor, 32 were promoted to professor, and 1 was promoted to research professor. The list of these faculty members, organized by department and within department by rank, can be accessed here.
Among clinical and affiliate faculty members, 102 individuals were promoted to a higher academic rank this year. The list of these individuals can be accessed here.
Congratulations to each individual promoted for a job well done, and thank you for your many contributions to UW Medicine. Promotion to the next faculty rank is an important marker of professional accomplishment and achievement on behalf of our collective mission of improving health. Whether in teaching, research, and/or patient care activities, your contributions are greatly appreciated.
In addition to the individuals promoted in 2009, more than 6,500 UW Medicine regular, clinical and affiliate faculty located throughout the five-state WWAMI region are making major contributions to health in our region and around the globe. At a time when the eyes of the nation are focused on health care, your commitment to excellence in patient care, teaching and scholarship is exemplary. Thank you for your many efforts on behalf of improving health.
Sincerely,
Paul G. Ramsey, M.D. CEO, UW Medicine Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Washington
Research
Harmit Malik and Ulrike Peters receive Presidential Early Career Award
Evolutionary biologist Harmit Singh Malik and cancer-prevention researcher Ulrike Peters are among 100 researchers to receive the prestigious 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Each will be honored in a ceremony this fall at the White House.
Malik is an associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Basic Sciences Division and an affiliate assistant professor of genome sciences at the UW School of Medicine.
Malik studies genetic conflict. He sees battles raging within a cell’s nucleus as genes jockey for evolutionary dominance. These clashes can have a long-term impact on organisms, as they sometimes alter the function of essential genes. Malik uses biochemistry and genomics to study the causes and consequences of these genetic conflicts in yeast, fruit flies and other model organisms. His work has offered novel explanations for host-pathogen interactions and for the evolution of structural DNA elements (centromeres) that are critical for proper cell division.
He was nominated for the honor by the National Science Foundation, which supports his work. Earlier this year, Malik was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist.
Peters is an associate member of the Cancer Prevention Program within the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division and a research associate professor of epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health.
A nutritional and genetic epidemiologist, Peters studies the link between nutrition and cancer prevention particularly how the interplay of genetics and nutrition can affect cancer risk. By analyzing blood, DNA and tissue samples from large study populations, Peters integrates genetic and molecular methods to better understand the role selenium, vitamin D, calcium and other dietary components may play in preventing prostate and colorectal cancer.
Peters also studies genetic variants across the entire genome and is conducting genome-wide association studies for colon and breast cancer. She hopes to identify new genetic markers for use in developing better ways to detect, treat and prevent these diseases.
Peters was nominated for the PECASE by the National Institutes of Health, which supports her work.
Other UW faculty receiving the 2008 PECASE awards are Michael Hochberg, assistant professor of Electrical Engineering, and physicist Benjamin E. Smith.
Since 1996 the annual PECASE awards have honored the most promising young researchers in the United States whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for strengthening America’s leadership in science. The awards are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President.
While applauding findings that an Easter Island compound extends the lives of middle-aged mice, UW longevity researchers caution that healthy people shouldn't start taking the drug in the hopes of extending their own life spans -- at least not yet.
Matt Kaeberlein, assistant professor of pathology, and Brian Kennedy, associate professor of biochemistry, who study factors that control aging, were asked by Nature to write a commentary on a paper published in the same issue showing that dietary supplementation with rapamycin increases the life span of mice.
Their News & Views editorial, "A Mid-Life Longevity Drug?" noted that the study, which was co-led by David Harrison at the Jackson Laboratories in Maine, Richard Miller at the University of Michigan, and Randy Strong at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, used a specially formulated, time-release rapamycin supplement in their laboratory mouse chow. The mice were not exposed to rapamycin in the diet until middle age, or, as the study report stated, "roughly the equivalent of a 60-year-old person." Even given to the mice at this relatively late time in their lives, the drug had a profound effect on lifespan.
Rapamycin was originally discovered in soil samples on Easter Island. The compound already has a clinical role in reducing rejection of transplanted organs, in treating advanced kidney cancer, and in preventing narrowing of the heart’s arteries after corrective surgery.
The study of the longevity effects of rapamycin was part of the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program. The program accepts nominations for compounds from the scientific community and selects the most promising of these to undergo testing in parallel longevity studies at three different institutions. Several compounds have been tested, but rapamycin is the first to significantly increase murine lifespan at all three centers in both males and females.
Kaeberlein, Kennedy and Stanley Fields, professor of genome sciences, had previously shown rapamycin increases life span in yeast by inhibiting an enzyme called TOR. TOR activity is regulated by nutrient availability. Prior work from these UW scientists indicated that reducing TOR activity is central to how dietary restriction slows aging in yeast.
The commentators warn that healthy people shouldn't take rapamycin to slow ageing because it can suppress the immune system. However, they don't rule out the possibility that rapamycin -- or more sophisticated interventions to reduce TOR activity -- might someday prove useful against age-related diseases. They also speculate that drug strategies might be discovered in the relatively near future to provide similar disease-fighting and longevity benefits without unwanted side effects.
Clinical care
Catherine A. Boelke named executive director of UW Physicians
Catherine A. Boelke has been appointed executive director of UW Physicians, effective Aug. 31. She succeeds Rick Deese.
Boelke was chief revenue officer at University of Texas (UT) Medicine in San Antonio, the largest multi-disciplinary practice in central Texas. UT Medicine has about 300 physicians and medical professionals in more than 70 specialties seeing patients in 17 locations across San Antonio and south Texas. Boelke re-organized the revenue cycle of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, thereby helping to develop a more centralized professional billing system.
Prior to joining University of Texas Medicine, Boelke worked at the University of Wisconsin Health in Madison as director of Patient Business Services from 2002 to 2008. In that position, she implemented the Epic practice management system and played a key role in re-engineering the revenue cycle for the 1,300 provider organization with annual revenues of over $400 million.
Boelke earned graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She has a master’s in business administration/finance and a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics. She is a certified member of the American College of Medical Practice Executives, and a member of the Medical Group Management Association and Healthcare Financial Management Association.
UW Medical Center ranks 12th in U.S. News & World Report survey
UW Medical Center (UWMC) is ranked among the nation's top hospitals in U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 edition of America’s Best Hospitals, and made the Honor Roll for its breadth of excellence in specialty care. The 2009 edition is accessible online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals and on sale at newsstands.
UW Medical Center has been rated among the leading hospitals in the United States since U.S. News began rankings in 1990. Of the nation's 4,861 hospitals considered for this year's survey, only 174 scored high enough to be ranked in even one of 16 specialty areas. UW Medical Center ranked 12th in the nation and was among just 21 hospitals qualified to be listed in the 2009 Honor Roll for achieving high scores in six or more specialties.
UW Medical Center is part of the UW Medicine health system, which includes Harborview Medical Center, the UW School of Medicine, UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics, UW Physicians, and Airlift Northwest.
Several UW Medicine programs were ranked highly including: rehabilitation (3) (based at Harborview Medical Center and UWMC); cancer (6); ear, nose and throat (12); geriatric care (14) (based at Harborview Medical Center); gynecology (15); orthopaedics at UWMC (15); respiratory disorders (16); kidney disorders (16); orthopaedics at Harborview Medical Center (18); diabetes and endocrine disorders (20); rheumatology (22); digestive disorders (25); neurology/neurosurgery (25) (based at Harborview and UWMC); and urology (30).
For 12 of the 16 specialties ranked, U.S. News evaluated hospitals on several elements: reputation, death rate, patient safety, nurse staffing, Nurse Magnet Hospital designation, type and number of Medicare discharges, patient-care services, presence of a Level 1 or 2 trauma center, designation as a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center, key technologies, presence of a National Institute on Aging-certified Alzheimer's Center and a Level 4 Epilepsy Center, accreditation for cell transplants to treat cancer, and quality measures like patient volume and nursing care. In the other four specialties — ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology —rankings were based solely on a reputational survey of board-certified physicians who were asked which were the best hospitals in their specialty for handling the most challenging cases and procedures.
Seattle magazine names 65 UW faculty among the region’s best physicians
Sixty-five UW faculty members were among the region’s top 386 physicians in Seattle magazine’s ninth annual top doctors survey. The Top Docs issue hit newsstands earlier this month.
The magazine featured Paul Nghiem’s research in the use of caffeine to prevent skin cancer. Nghiem is an associate professor in medicine, Division of Dermatology. Rosario Freeman, associate professor in medicine, Division of Cardiology, was also profiled for her work in women’s heart health. She is based at the UW Medicine Regional Heart Center, Roosevelt. Pete McGough, chief medical officer of UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics and associate professor in medicine, was interviewed for an article about the new medical home model.
How do Seattle magazine editors decide who makes the cut? Surveys were mailed earlier this year to 10,000 physicians in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. The survey asked physicians to name the provider they would recommend to loved ones, regardless of hospital, clinic or health plan affiliation. According to the magazine, more than 4,050 physicians were nominated.
Freeman’s profile is available online. Click here to view Seattle magazine’s UW Medicine Top Docs list. The list and other articles are available only in the print version of the magazine.
Education and Training
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science recognizes UW chapter
The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Student Chapter at the UW has been recognized by SACNAS National as the Chapter of the Year for the 10- to 19-member category for 2009.
The award was based on the chapter’s excellence in professional and leadership development, mentoring and its extensive participation at the 2008 SACNAS national conference.
The chapter’s goals are to enhance the public understanding of and appreciation of underrepresented minorities in science in collaboration with groups with a similar purpose in the greater UW community; to promote UW student recruitment and retention in science at all education levels; and to provide a forum for students from different science-related majors to come together for academic, community service and social activities at the UW.
Among its accomplishments, the UW chapter established a partnership with Royal City High School in Eastern Washington, which has a largely Latino population, to promote science at the school through annual visits to meet students, conduct hands-on science experiments, present lectures about their research, and educate students about college admissions and how to become a scientist.
On campus the chapter collaborates with various departments to promote diversity in the sciences. It works closely with the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP), which has provided institutional support for the chapter and will provide travel funds for several students to attend the national conference in October in Dallas, where the chapter will be recognized.
In addition, the chapter arranged the first student-sponsored scientific symposium in the 35-year history of SACNAS. More than 300 students, scientists and educators attended this symposium at the 2008 National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The UW SACNAS chapter was founded in 2007 by UW alumnae Charla Lambert, genome sciences; Ramon Mendoza, molecular and cellular biology; and Yolanda Sanchez, environmental health and public affairs; and current graduate students Amanda Bruner, aquatic and fisheries sciences; and Amber Caracol, molecular and cellular biology.
The chapter is open to all interested students, faculty and staff in the sciences and meets monthly. For more information, contact Amber Caracol, UW SACNAS president, at acaracol@u.washington.edu. Carlos Catalano, professor of medicinal chemistry, is the group’s adviser.
Family Medicine’s Underserved Pathway graduates first full class
This year, Family Medicine’s Underserved Pathway graduated its first full class. A celebratory luncheon was held in June to mark the milestone.
The Underserved Pathway Team, which includes Sharon Dobie, professor of family medicine; Frederick Chen, acting assistant professor of family medicine; Misbah Keen, assistant professor of family medicine; and Rachel Lazzar, program coordinator in family medicine, lauded the pathway graduates.
In her remarks, Dobie recognized each graduate’s contributions to Pathway programs and the community during medical school. These students have met regularly with a Pathway mentor, completed on-line curricular modules, experienced clerkships at "underserved" sites, and been leaders in community service activities spanning the Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP), Students in the Community (SITC), Al-Shifa, the Medicine Wheel Society and others. The team presented each graduate with a certificate marking successful completion of the pathway curriculum. The Pathway also mentored five additional students who participated in many pathway activities.
The 2009 Underserved Pathway graduates and their residency choices are: Stacie Beck, family medicine; Andrew Benefield, emergency medicine; Sarah Gerrish, family medicine; Elisha Gionet, preliminary surgery, obstetrics and gynecology; Peter Karlin, family medicine; Adeena Khan, internal medicine; Brianna Label, pediatrics; Caroline Lynch, obstetrics and gynecology; Paula McPoland, pediatrics; Meg Mullin, family medicine; Heather Ostmann, family medicine; Melissa Roberts, internal medicine/pediatrics; and Kirsten Sayson, internal medicine.
The Underserved Pathway prepares providers to work with a number of underserved populations which includes individuals and communities experiencing barriers in accessing quality health care because of factors such as ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic status, and life circumstance.
The Underserved Pathway works closely with the other School of Medicine Pathways: the Indian Health Pathway, the Global Health Pathway and the Hispanic Health Pathway.
Upcoming events
The following is a listing of some upcoming events in the UW Medicine community. For the full UW Medicine events calendar, click here.
Genome Sciences Summer Lecture, July 29 Wednesday Evenings at the Genome, a public lecture series, concludes with Aging and Cancer: Clues from the Wine Bottle by Dan Gottschling, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center affiliate professor of genome sciences, 8 p.m., July 29, Foege Building Auditorium, room S-060, followed by refreshments at 9 p.m. For more information, please click here.
Summer Seminar in Health-Care Ethics, Aug. 3-7 This annual one-week seminar in health-care ethics provides participants with skills and information for making competent ethical decisions in clinical situations and to assist others in doing so. Attention is paid to methods of case analysis and discussion of cases. Registration is limited to physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, attorneys, teachers and others involved in patient care or provider education. For more information or to register online, visit the UW CME Web site.
Emergency Radiology 2009, Aug. 16-19 This annual course covers a range of emergency imaging, including epidemiology and mechanisms of trauma, and an integrated approach to injuries of the head, neck, spine, torso, pelvis and appendicular skeleton. Course is intended for practicing radiologists, physicians-in-training, and others interested in imaging of emergency and trauma patients. For more information and to register, visit the UW CME Web site or call 206.543.1050.
Evolutionary biologist Harmit Singh Malik and cancer-prevention researcher Ulrike Peters are among 100 researchers to receive the prestigious 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Each will be honored in a ceremony this fall at the White House. 
top doctors survey. The Top Docs issue hit newsstands earlier this month. 
The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Student Chapter at the UW has been recognized by SACNAS National as the Chapter of the Year for the 10- to 19-member category for 2009. 