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December 16, 2011 Table of contents
UW Medicine community made remarkable gains in 2011 Dear Colleagues: As we approach the end of 2011 and look ahead to 2012, I would like to express my personal appreciation for your outstanding work on behalf of UW Medicine. During the global, national and state economic turmoil of the past several years, it would be easy to lose sight of, and hope for, the extraordinary potential in science and medicine. Through challenging times, the UW Medicine community has never lost its vision. As a result you have made remarkable gains in all of the activities that support our mission of improving health.
Over the past year, we saw our UW Medicine family grow, with the addition of Valley Medical Center and the opening of the new UW Neighborhood Ravenna Clinic. Our scientists continued to make outstanding gains in countless areas. Our medical education program completed a pre-curriculum review process that sets the stage for a continuous curriculum improvement process to start in 2012. Our clinical programs achieved many new economies of scale while maintaining a strong focus on quality, safety, service and access to care. These are just a few of the many examples I could list of progress in 2011. Challenges will continue in 2012. But the talent, fortitude and dedication of the UW Medicine community are a match for the most difficult challenges. Please accept my gratitude for your hard work over the past year and for your many outstanding contributions to UW Medicine. Thanks to you, UW Medicine is changing the face of health worldwide. My best wishes for a safe, happy and healthy holiday season and for a wonderful 2012. Sincerely,
Paul G. Ramsey, M.D.
New research centers to explore medical applications of genome sequencing The National Human Genome Research Institute has established two major programs at the University of Washington to accelerate genome sequencing applications for patient care. The UW Center for Mendelian Genomics will be one of three new centers nationwide that will search for the genes underlying Mendelian disorders – inborn diseases and birth defects caused mainly by single-gene mutations. Conditions like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and muscular dystrophy are called Mendelian disorders because they are inherited in families in a pattern similar to those discovered by Gregor Mendel, a 19th century friar. There are more than 6,000 Mendelian disorders.
Principal investigators for the center are Deborah Nickerson (photo, left), UW professor of genome sciences, Michael Bamshad, UW professor of pediatrics in the Division of Genetics and Development, Mark Rieder, UW research associate professor of genome sciences, and Jay Shendure, UW assistant professor of genome sciences. Funding for the UW Center of Mendelian Genomics will be $5.2 million a year for four years. The UW Clinical Exploratory Research Project will be one of five projects designed to speed the application of genomic science to medical care. Other projects will be at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The projects will explore the ways that clinicians might use genome sequencing information in caring for patients. Healthcare professionals, genome scientists, ethicists, patients and patient families will work together to learn important lessons from actually applying genome sequencing information in a medical setting.
Gail Jarvik (photo,right), UW professor of medicine and head of the Division of Medical Genetics, will lead the project, including a diverse team of experts. David Veenstra, UW professor of pharmacy, will oversee the outcomes; S. Malia Fullerton, UW associate professor of bioethics and humanities, and Wylie Burke, UW professor and chair of the Department of Bioethics and Humanities, will explore the social, legal and ethical realms of genome sequencing in healthcare; and Mark Rieder and Deborah Nickerson from Genome Sciences will manage the technological and basic science components. Read more in UW Today.
UW Medicine researchers pioneer molecular imaging agents to individualize cancer therapy UW Medicine researchers Kenneth Krohn and Janet Eary have received a $7 million five-year renewal grant award from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute to continue research in molecular imaging of cancer and its response to therapy. This new award is funded through 2016. It is one of the longest running funded research projects of its kind and includes investigators at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “Medical imaging has been used for more than a century and this information has proven invaluable to doctors looking for early-stage occult disease or even looking for the spread of more advanced disease,” said Krohn, co-principal investigator, and a UW professor of radiology and radiation oncology. “The positron emission tomography (PET) agents we have developed are not intended for detection of cancer, but rather for characterization of the disease in an individual patient.” “Our ability to use PET imaging to identify patients with tumors at high risk for treatment failure, those who are experiencing treatment failure, and those for whom an ideal targeted therapy will have an immediate and direct positive clinical impact,” said Eary, co-principal investigator in the study and a UW professor of nuclear medicine. “Most of the imaging agents we have pioneered are now used around the world and are involved in numerous multi-center clinical trials.” Other researchers on the project are Jeanne Link, UW associate professor of nuclear medicine, and David Mankoff, UW professor of radiology. By showing the chemical reactions actually taking place inside a person’s body, nuclear medicine imaging has the benefit of characterizing the cancer disease within an individual patient. At the very heart of this research project is the collaborative teamwork that takes place between the laboratory scientists and the clinicians. The UW PET Cancer Group has been investigating new imaging agents for more than 20 years. Their work encompasses development of imaging agents, pre-clinical models, and translation to early phase clinical trials. The group consists of radiochemists, clinical imaging specialists, imaging physicists and image analyses experts who interact in a multidisciplinary environment.
Airlift Northwest aircraft now based in Yakima Airlift Northwest has established a base at Yakima International Airport to serve communities in central Washington. The new Turbo Commander and flight crew will be based in Yakima from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Service from Yakima began Dec. 5. The twin-engine Gulfstream Turbo Commander and a crew of two pilots and two critical care nurses serve Yakima, Wenatchee, Ellensburg, Omak, Moses Lake, Tri-Cities and other communities in central Washington. Day-basing the Turbo Commander in Yakima allows Airlift Northwest to decrease its estimated arrival time and allow patients access to complex medical care sooner. In addition to Yakima, Airlift Northwest aircraft, equipped with the most up-to-date safety equipment, are strategically located at five other bases throughout the Pacific Northwest (Juneau in Alaska and Arlington, Bellingham, Olympia and Seattle in Washington). Airlift Northwest is able to rapidly deploy emergency flight crews to provide service to one of the largest and geographically varied land masses in the world - from isolated islands in Alaska to coastal villages in western Washington, and desert communities in eastern Washington. An article about Airlift Northwest’s Yakima base was published Dec. 3 in the Yakima Herald-Republic. Small lifestyle changes can prevent diabetes
The following is an excerpt from an article by Victoria Fang, clinical associate professor of medicine and an internal medicine physician at the UW Neighborhood Clinic – Federal Way. The article was published Dec. 5, 2011 by the Journal Media Group.
Although diabetes is an epidemic affecting 25.8 million Americans, many people are unaware that they have the disease. They may never experience its most common symptoms: unusual thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision or a feeling of being tired most of the time for no apparent reason. In other cases, these symptoms appear so gradually that they are not recognized. Being unaware of symptoms is also common for 79 million Americans with “prediabetes.” Without their knowledge, they are at a health crossroads. While they are likely to develop type 2 diabetes over time, they can delay or prevent its onset with small lifestyle changes. With the start of the winter holiday season, diabetes prevention is particularly timely. A 2000 study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicated that the average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is a little over a pound. While this finding was actually less than the researchers expected, they also learned that the weight is typically not lost later in the year. Rather, it accumulates from year to year, leading the researchers to suspect that holiday overeating is a major contributor to obesity and the increase in diabetes in the United States. Read the entire article.
John Olerud receives WSU's Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award
Olerud, who holds the George F. Odland Endowed Chair in Dermatology, is a graduate of WSU and of the UW School of Medicine where he completed residency training in medicine and a dermatology fellowship. He joined the faculty in 1977 and became division head in 1991. He is a board member of the Association of Professors of Dermatology, vice-president of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and a past president of the Association of Professors of Dermatology, among numerous national and local leadership positions. He was the inaugural recipient of the division’s John E. Olerud Resident Teaching Award. His research interests include wound healing in patients with diabetes, cutaneous T cell lymphoma and biomaterials-skin interface. He has published and lectured widely in those and other fields. In addition to his distinguished work in medicine, Olerud is well known for a parallel career in baseball. At WSU he was team captain and catcher for the 1965 Cougars, who went to the College World Series, and he was named All-American the same year. He was drafted to the majors and played on professional teams, including the Seattle Angels, throughout his medical training. The father of former Mariners first baseman John G. Olerud, also a star at WSU, Olerud today plays for the Smoky Sugar Kings in the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League. Department of Medicine Chair William Bremner said of him, “John is a wonderful physician, scientist, teacher and human being. I have always admired him, starting in our medical student days and continuing through the present time. He has a very calm, thoughtful, and effective approach to all issues and is universally admired. We are thrilled that he is receiving this most prestigious award from his alma mater, WSU.”
Macy grant team presents at international Collaborating Across Borders III Conference Eight members of the UW Macy grant team were a strong presence at the international Collaborating Across Borders III (CABIII) Conference in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 19-21 as they highlighted their accomplishments in advancing interprofessional educational initiatives at UW. CABIII is the third Canada–United States collaborative conference on interprofessional education (IPE) and practice. This year, 764 attendees from 10 countries participated in the conference. Presentations included interprofessional education, practice, research and policy in a national and global context and featured best practices, research evidence, program outcomes, and lessons learned. The UW team was headed by Macy Grant co-principal investigator Brenda Zierler. Team members included Sarah Shannon (School of Nursing); Karen McDonough (School of Medicine); Nanci Murphy (School of Pharmacy); Erin Abu-Rish (School of Nursing); Ken Plitt (School of Medicine); Mayumi Willgerodt (School of Nursing); Dana Hammer (School of Pharmacy); Doug Brock (MEDEX); Katherine Blondon (Ph.D. student in Health Services); and Chia-Ju Chiu (School of Nursing). The UW team presentations highlighted innovations from a three-year long project to integrate interprofessional education and practice into the health sciences curricula at UW. The project was funded by The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which supports innovative research and programs designed to improve the health of the public. McDonough led a workshop demonstrating an IPE acute-care team communication simulation scenario that has been successfully integrated into the senior health professional student education. Shannon led a workshop on the error disclosure curriculum developed and now used with 500 students and 80 faculty at UW’s Health Sciences Interprofessional Day. (Read about the 2011 event in UW Today). The next Health Sciences Interprofessional Day is scheduled for March 6. Zierler described the innovative Interprofessional Teaching Scholars Program developed in conjunction with the Department of Medical Education. One of the team’s four posters won the top prize in the Policy Theme. View the poster created by Doug Brock, UW associate professor of family medicine. “The UW Macy team truly is finding a new and better way to teach health professional students how to work together as a healthcare team,” Shannon said. “The energy in Tucson around our work was infectious!” Visit the the Center for Health Science Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice website for more information. William Robertson, pediatrician and founder of Washington Poison Center, dies
For six decades, Robertson, known as Dr. R., was one of Seattle's most influential physicians in pediatrics, toxicology, teaching and poison prevention. Robertson graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He taught pediatrics at Yale University before heading to Ohio State University to chair the Department of Pediatrics. He moved to the Northwest in 1963 and started working for the University of Washington and Seattle Children's, where he started the poison-control center. Over the next five decades, he held multiple and concurrent positions including: attending physician, director of medical education at Seattle Children’s, chair of pediatrics at the UW, and medical director and medical director emeritus for the Washington Poison Center. “Dr. Robertson was a tireless defender of poison prevention. Unassuming and intensely loyal to his co-workers and collaborators, it was easy to take his leadership in toxicology and his considerable accomplishments for granted,” said Jim Williams, executive director of the Washington Poison Center. Robertson was also instrumental in Washington State’s Anti-Scribbling legislation, making it illegal for doctors to scribble or to write sloppy prescriptions that could result in drug errors. He was also a force behind the national drug identification legislation marking all pills for quick identification by healthcare providers and law enforcement. He is survived by sons Andy and Doug Robertson and daughters Kerry Kuenzi, Kathy Robertson and Lynn Robertson. Read Dr. Robertson’s obituary in The Seattle Times.
Simulation manager appointed at University of Alaska Anchorage College of Health
“As we teach our students, they learn the specifics of their profession, i.e., doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc. What we need to do more of is teach our students how to interact with other healthcare professionals,” says Moore. “Using patient simulation, we hope to bridge this gap using inter-professional scenarios to facilitate this learning and integration of our healthcare professionals.” Moore has been recognized for embracing the need for change. He has directly supervised many initiatives with responsibility for planning, forecasting and reporting. Moore has successfully implemented new systems on-time or ahead of schedule and below budget. Moore spent 10 years in the United States Navy as a corpsman where he was assigned to United States Marine Corps units and specialized in the treatment and management of situations involving weapons of mass destruction. After leaving the military, Moore taught the Department of Homeland Security’s Weapons of Mass Destruction for Health Care Providers curriculum, in which he used patient simulators at Texas A&M University to demonstrate the pathophysiology of weapons of mass destruction agents. Moore also has been program director at the Youngblood Medical Skills Laboratory at the University of Missouri Kansas City, School of Medicine. Most recently, Moore has been consulting with numerous colleges and universities in the area of patient simulation integration. Moore has been a licensed paramedic since 1996. He has a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management and a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on finance. He is a member of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the American College of Healthcare Executives. Article submitted by Michelle Devine, WWAMI Alaska, md3@uw.edu.
Assistant clinical dean position for WWAMI now open The University of Washington School of Medicine WWAMI program has a position available for assistant clinical dean. The assistant clinical dean will have responsibilities for developing, coordinating, and maintaining clinical medical education activities in western Washington with an emphasis outside the greater Seattle Area. Visit the Academic Human Resources webpage for the position announcement.
The following are events that may be of interest to the UW Medicine community. Party beCause: Benefit for Country Doctor Youth Clinic, Jan. 20 The UW School of Medicine Medical Student Association (MSA) will host a benefit auction for the Country Doctor Youth Clinic, 6 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20, at UW Medicine South Lake Union. The auction will benefit the Country Doctor Free Teen Youth Clinic run by the UW Department of Adolescent Medicine. The clinic provides medical and social services to homeless youth in Seattle. Auction items include a winemaker’s dinner for up to six people, dinner at Canlis Restaurant, horseback ride in Yellowstone National Park, and more. The evening will include music and refreshments. For more information, visit the Party beCause website. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.
Faculty Development Workshop, Jan. 24
Demystifying the Teaching Portfolio, 8:30 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, Jan. 24, South Campus Center, Room 316. The workshop will help clinician-educators develop a framework for their teaching portfolios. Participants will leave with a portfolio template and enhanced skills in composing and assembling this important part of merit documentation and faculty promotion. Presenters include Helen Emery, UW professor of pediatrics and division chief of rheumatology, Seattle Children’s; Andrew Luks, UW assistant professor of medicine; Mark Whipple, UW associate professor of otolaryngology -- head and neck surgery; and other select members of the 2006-07 UW Teaching Scholars program cohort. The workshop is sponsored by the Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics in partnership with the Office of Faculty Development. Contact Rachael Hogan at 206.616.9875 or rhogan@u.washington.edu for more information. Paul Ramsey annual address to the UW Medicine community, Feb. 9 Paul G. Ramsey, CEO of UW Medicine, executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, University of Washington, will give his annual address to the UW Medicine community at 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9, in Hogness Auditorium at the UW Health Sciences Building. The talk is open to all faculty, staff, students, trainees, and others. A reception will follow the address. For more information, contact Julie Monteith at 206.543.7718 or jspiro@uw.edu.
UW Medicine Salutes Harborview, Feb. 25 The 20th Annual Salute Harborview Gala, the premier fundraising event for Harborview Medical Center, will take place at 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. The Gala’s net proceeds benefit Harborview’s Mission of Caring Fund, which helps Harborview serve vulnerable populations and provide world-class care to patients from throughout the region. The event is presented by the Western Washington Toyota Dealers Association. Register to attend the 20th UW Medicine Salutes Harborview Gala. Follow the event on Facebook.
Continuing Medical Education
Visit Continuing Medical Education for more information on upcoming classes.
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The UW Center for Mendelian Genomics, along with the Center for Mendelian Disorders at Yale University and Baylor-Johns Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics, will use the latest advances in rapid genome sequencing to aid in the discovery of the genetic changes responsible for these illnesses. The UW group will also serve as the coordinating center for this large-scale effort. 
The UW will receive $2.3 million a year from the National Human Genome Institute and the National Cancer Institute. 
John E. Olerud, UW professor of medicine and head of the Division of Dermatology, is the 2011 recipient of the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor Washington State University (WSU) bestows on its alumni. 
William O. Robertson, a pediatrician and founder of the Washington Poison Center (WAPC), died Nov. 30 of natural causes at his home in Seattle. He was 86.
Rob Moore recently joined the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Health as simulation manager. Moore will be moving the inter-professional simulation effort forward by integrating a number of professions into simulation training and incorporating exercises with simulation mannequins, standardized patients and virtual simulation at various levels of complexity.
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