Message
From The Dean
Focus
on Continuing Medical Education
By
Cam E. Enarson,
M.D., M.B.A.,
Dean, Creighton School of Medicine
Vice President for Health Sciences
 Increasingly,
medical education is a life-long learning process. No longer
can physicians expect that what they learned 10 years earlier
– even two or three years ago – is applicable
today.
Creighton’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) Division
is committed to helping physicians navigate and keep abreast
of the latest in education, patient care, and research to
allow them to continue to develop professionally and provide
the best in patient care.
CME has just completed an 18-month internal review of its
programs; the audit included input from more than 200 people
familiar with the division. Throughout this painstaking process,
meeting the educational needs of program participants remained
a top priority.
Overall, the feedback was very good. A number of respondents
cited CME’s commitment to covering a wide range of health
topics and its interdisciplinary approach, which often results
in programming that reaches a wider health care audience than
only physicians, as positive results.
This internal review has been submitted to the Accreditation
Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the main
accreditation body for continuing medical education courses.
An accreditation team will visit campus in February to conduct
its own review.
Dr. Sally O’Neill, CME associate dean, and her staff
are to be commended for their vision and dedication to Creighton
University School of Medicine’s mission of serving the
entire medical community, in addition to its own faculty,
alumni and students.
Continuing
Medical Education
The
CME staff, from left: Karen Wise, executive administrative
assistant; Lee Taylor, administrative assistant; Sally
C. O'Neill, Ph.D., associate dean for Continuing Medical
Education; Marilyn Stockdale, administrator; Beth Schreiber,
program coordinator; Joann Dorner, staff assistant. Not
pictured: Lin Adkins, administrative assistant. |
|
CME
Outreach Continues to Grow
By Sally C. O’Neill, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education
The Continuing
Medical Education Division continues to focus its energies
on offering quality programs on timely health topics that
impact Creighton University and our regional health care community.
We work closely with School of Medicine faculty to assure
that our activities meet ACCME and American Medical Association
requirements and focus on a team approach to health care.
In 2005-06, CME offered 55 courses and 29 regularly scheduled
conferences (RSC). Conference attendance totaled 5,496, and
RSC attendance reached 20,920.
Increasingly, we are extending outreach and sharing Creighton’s
expertise in other areas of the country and even the world.
This outreach led CME to host a 2005 conference titled “Wuhan
First International Symposium: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis
and Therapy of Malignant Lymphoma and Breast Carcinoma”
in China and a 2006 workshop on hereditary cancer in Hawaii.
While these particular locations appear exotic, they also
are important to expanding Creighton’s reputation nationally
and globally as a world-class leader in medical research,
patient care and health ethics.
We have just completed an 18-month internal review in which
CME identified six initiatives for a new strategic plan to
help us continue to grow and improve. These initiatives include
using technology to deliver more CME activities electronically
and developing more external partnerships to increase programs
and extend geographical reach.
CME is grateful to Dr. Enarson for his continued support or
our activities. For the sixth year, the dean’s office
has provided financial support for a distinguished lecture
series, which allows us to bring six renowned experts to campus
annually to speak on a variety of interdisciplinary topics.
I encourage you to attend the two remaining lectures during
this academic year. Each lecture runs from noon to 1 p.m.
with the locations to be announced.
• Feb. 21. Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., trustee chair and professor,
Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, on
“Promoting Teamwork When the Lives of Others Depend
On It - What Does It Take?”
March 28. David Ryugo, Ph.D., Professor of Otolaryngology,
Johns Hopkins University. Proposed topic: role of auditory
stimulation for the structural and functional maturation of
the central auditory pathways.
CMA
to Update Strategic Plan
By Stephen Lanspa, M.D.
 Creighton
Medical Associates (CMA) will update its Clinical Strategic
Plan in early 2007. Faculty input, through a web-based survey,
will play a critical role in guiding the plan in identifying
major strategic initiatives that support CMA’s clinical
growth over the next three to five years. Faculty have until
the end of January to respond.
During the 2005-06 fiscal year, which ended June 30, patient-care
revenue grew by 7 percent. Cash flow continues to be good,
and the practice plan operates in the black. New payer agreements,
which increase physician reimbursements, have been negotiated
with TriCare and Tenet MyChoice PPO. CMA is completing installation
of a new practice-management system (ProjectOne) and nearing
a decision for an electronic medical record system.
CMA continues to evolve into a more cohesive and uniform practice
plan. It has established policies for interpretive services,
patient rights and responsibilities, mandatory training for
physicians, protected health information, physician consultation,
immunization of health care workers, and workplace violence.
During the past year, CMA also completed a feasibility study
of new facilities that includes development of an on-campus
ambulatory care center, expansion of the Old Market and Dundee
clinics, and development of a new west Omaha clinic.
Other CMA activities during 2006 included:
• Coordination of the LARA system to provide hospital
patient data to clinicians’ PDAs
• Auditing of clinic labs that perform CLIA-waved testing,
in conjunction with the Department of Pathology
• Participation in a city-wide disaster preparedness
drill in October. The Cardiac Center and Family Health Care’s
Twin Creek and Florence clinics were identified as alternative
care facilities in the event of a disaster.
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Appointments
Gerard
Named Development Director
 Matt
Gerard has been named director of development for the Creighton
University School of Medicine. He is responsible for coordinating
and directing the school’s fundraising efforts.
Gerard, who joined Creighton University in 2004, previously
served as the School of Medicine’s associate director
of development and most recently as assistant director of
principal gifts.
Prior to Creighton, Gerard worked as a public relations writer
at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, from 2001 to 2004,
and at the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine,
Iowa City, from 1993 to 1996. He also served as head cross-country
coach and assistant track-and-field coach at both Western
Michigan and Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y.
An Omaha native, Gerard completed his undergraduate degree
in journalism at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and his
graduate degree in education at the University of Oregon,
Eugene.
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In
the News
Dean
Enarson congratulates Saha at December commencement. |
Med
Student Beats Cancer and Graduates
Kallol Saha looked like any other happy graduate when he received
his medical degree during Creighton University’s December
2006 commencement ceremony. But the 28-year-old was anything
but a typical graduate and his journey to a degree nothing
less than extraordinary.
In September 2001, Saha’s goal to become a physician
was derailed when he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a
type of brain cancer that strikes about one in 50,000 people.
The second-year medical student underwent surgery to remove
the tumor.
While the operation and subsequent chemotherapy were successful,
Saha struggled physically and mentally. He underwent a rigorous
course of physical and occupational therapy. He also spent
long hours laboring over books and notes from his first year
of medical school and began reading ahead in preparation for
a return to the classroom.
Saha re-entered Creighton in September 2002, but he and faculty
quickly realized that he had come back to the classroom too
soon. His mental quickness was gone, and he performed poorly
on timed tests.
He tried again in fall 2003 as a second-year medical student
and a member of the class of 2006. This time, Saha was ready.
The Omaha-World Herald recently chronicled Saha’s
remarkable road to graduation – two and one-half years
behind his first-year classmates. Saha is now cancer-free,
but his illness may have a lifelong impact on his future.
He hopes to get a residency in radiation oncology on Match
Day this spring.
Osteoporosis Study Takes Patients
to New York
When Bellevue resident Martha Todd recently boarded a plane
for a free trip to New York City, including a one-night hotel
stay, sightseeing was the furthest thing from her mind.
Todd is a participant in a joint research project involving
Creighton University’s Osteoporosis Research Center
and Columbia University’s Metabolic Bone Disease Program
in New York City.
As part of the three-year study, more than 20 Creighton participants
will be flown to New York City to undergo a bone examination
using Columbia’s new high-resolution, computed tomography
scanner – one of only a handful of such scanners in
the United States.
The scanner and the NIH-funded study were featured on NBC's
Today Show in November.
Creighton and Columbia researchers hope the noninvasive scans
will provide the kind of detailed information previously possible
only by surgically removing a piece of bone from the patient
through a procedure known as percutaneous bone biopsy.
 “Currently,
it is very difficult to identify women at risk of bone fractures
before they actually experience fractures, ” said Robert
Recker, M.D., director of the Creighton Osteoporosis Research
Center and principal investigator for the Creighton portion
of the study (pictured at right).
“Our goal is to find possible causes for women with
low-bone mass,” he noted. “Such a discovery could
eventually lead to a treatment that would help young women
improve their bone health.”
Osteoporosis, or low bone mass, typically affects postmenopausal
women and places them at increased risk for fractures. However,
the disease may also affect premenopausal women (and some
men). For many young women, the causes of their low-bone density,
which can lead to fractures, are unknown.
The Creighton study includes premenopausal women, ages 20-48,
with regular menstrual periods. The study is still accepting
participants who suffer from osteoporosis or are experiencing
nontraumatic fractures. For information about the study, contact
the research center at 402.280.4839.
In addition to the scans, participants will undergo other
tests to measure their bone health. Researchers have recently
determined that bone density is not the only measurement of
bone strength. The quality of bone –defined as the sum
of all that allows bone to withstand ordinary loads without
fracturing – is garnering increased attention from the
scientific community.
Haddad Contributes to Award-Winning
Poetry Book
 Amy
Haddad, Ph.D., M.S.N., director of the Center for Health Policy
and Ethics at Creighton University Medical Center, is one
of contributors to “The Poetry of Nursing,” the
2006 winner of the American Journal of Nursing’s Book
of the Year Award in the category of public interest and creative
works.
The award was announced in the journal’s January issue,
in which the book was referred to as an “unusually rich
poetry anthology (that) gives life to varying experiences
of patients and nurses.”
The 206-page book includes the work of 14 major nurse poets
from around the United States and England who use prose and
poetry to share, dissect and analyze the life-and-death experiences
and ethical dilemmas working nurses face.
In one of her poems, entitled “Asking for Direction,”
Haddad talks about how one woman’s world is turned upside
down when her husband collapses and possibly faces permanent
brain damage. Health care professionals ask the bewildered
wife, whose husband was always the decision-maker, whether
they should resuscitate him if his heart stops beating.
“As an ethics consultant at several local hospitals,
I listened to many cases like the one in the poem,”
Haddad writes in the book. “I was struck by the number
of family members, particularly women, who never made a serious
decision in their lives without asking first for permission.
Then, after a tragic accident or sudden illness of a loved
one, they are asked to make life-and-death decisions for someone
else.”
The Poetry of Nursing was edited by Judy Schaefer and published
by The Kent State University Press.
Lynch Featured in National Advice
Column
 A
letter from Dr. Henry Lynch, M.D., director of the Creighton
University Hereditary Cancer Center, was featured in an October
column of Annie’s Mailbag as part of Breast Cancer Awareness
Month. The syndicated column runs in newspapers worldwide.
In his letter, Dr. Lynch noted that an estimated 212,920 American
women would get the dreaded news in 2006 that they had invasive
breast cancer. Five to 10 percent or more of those cases will
be the result of hereditary causes.
He added that the average age of onset for hereditary breast
cancer is 44 years – more than 20 years earlier than
breast cancer in the general population. Women who are at
genetic risk need to be more closely monitored and have annual
mammograms beginning at the age of 25, biannual clinical exams
and genetic counseling, he said. For other women, mammograms
should begin at age 40.
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Briefly
Noted
Dr.
Bob Cusick operates on a Dominican child. |
Hernia
Team Treats 80
More than 80 Dominican Republic residents received needed
hernia repair in November, thanks to a Creighton service trip
headed by Charles Filipi, M.D., professor of surgery. The
team, comprised of 56 physicians, medical students, nurses
and others, saw patients ranging in age from 1 to 84.
"We make the trip yearly because there is such a significant
need," Filipi said. "The patients cannot afford
the care and cannot access the hospital system. They are very
poor and the medical care system is understaffed and poorly
equipped."
The surgeries were performed at Creighton’s Institute
of Latin American Concerns (ILAC) in Santiago. This is the
fourth such mission trip.
"The gratitude of the patients is overwhelming and the
feel-good sensation the team members have is also overwhelming,"
said James L. Manion, M.D., The Sheila and James J. Shea Family
Endowed Chair, one of the participants. Manion found this
trip particularly memorable since daughter Kathleen, a fourth-year
Creighton medical student, accompanied him.
MOTAC Honors Mohiuddin
 Syed
Mohiuddin, M.D., chief of Creighton University School of Medicine’s
Division of Cardiology, has been named 2006 Medical Professional
for the Cause by the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition
(MOTAC). The award was presented to Mohiuddin at MOTAC’s
Annual Community Recognition Luncheon in December.
“Dr. Mohiuddin is one of the tobacco-control movement’s
greatest allies. He believes in the mission of MOTAC and is
deeply committed to reducing the cardiovascular disease risk
factors associated with tobacco use and exposure to secondhand
smoke. ...Dr. Mohiuddin has been in the lead in making The
Cardiac Center a tobacco-free property as well as for Creighton
University Medical Center to do the same,” MOTAC President
Athena Ramos said.
Peak Receives MLK Award
 Frank
Peak, administrator for Community Outreach Services for the
Creighton University Medical Center Partnership in Health,
has received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award
from the State of Nebraska MLK Planning Committee.
The committee chose Peak because of his long history of community
activism and leadership in health and human services. Peak
is co-founder and president/chief operating officer of Nebraska
Ethnics Together on Reaching Kids, Inc., a nonprofit prevention
organization that addresses high-risk behaviors among youth
and, in particular, youth from communities of color. He also
is considered a champion in the area of health care and reaching
underserved and economically challenged populations, the committee
noted.
The award was presented Jan. 12 during a celebration honoring
King at the Capitol Rotunda, in Lincoln.
Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program
in Top 10
 Creighton
University Medical Center’s Melanoma and Skin Cancer
Program has been recognized as one of 10 Melanoma Centers
of Excellence by the Melanoma Hope Network (MHN).
CUMC is being recognized for providing exceptional and comprehensive
care with knowledge and compassion to their patients, according
to the Melanoma Hope Network. Melanoma is the most threatening
form of skin cancer.
To receive the designation of a center of excellence, Creighton’s
Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program had to meet a variety of
requirements, including the ability to treat all stages of
melanoma and a multidisciplinary approach to providing seamless
care in dermatology, surgery (general or surgical oncology),
medical oncology, and radiation oncology.
Doctor’s Research Highlighted
in JAMA
The research of Henry Lynch, M.D., director of the Creighton
University Hereditary Cancer Center, was the focus of an editorial
and three separate studies reported in the Sept. 27 issue
of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The editorial and studies are linked to Lynch’s groundbreaking
work in the field of hereditary cancers and his discovery
of the Lynch syndrome, a rare disorder named after him and
also known as hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome.
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Research
Gallagher
Receives Grant to Study Vitamin D
 Creighton
University Medical Center has received a $1.96 million grant
from the National Institutes of Health to study vitamin D
supplementation in women.
While most people are aware of the critical role that calcium
plays in bone health and osteoporosis prevention, fewer appreciate
vitamin D’s role in the absorption of that calcium by
our bones, said J. Christopher Gallagher, M.D. professor of
medicine in Creighton’s Department of Endocrinology
and the study’s principal investigator.
The Creighton study will help determine optimum levels of
vitamin D supplementation for women, the most frequent victims
of osteoporosis. According to the NIH, people with an insufficient
intake of vitamin D absorb less than 10 percent of the calcium
they eat or drink.
Gallagher is the 2006 recipient of an award for Career Contributions
to Vitamin D Research from the International Vitamin D Society.
Co-investigators on the five-year grant include Prema Rapuri,
Ph.D., Creighton assistant professor of medicine.
Women, ages 25-85, interested in participating in the study,
should call 280-4164 or 1-888-254-7357.
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Faculty
News
Arrivals
- Javed
Akhtar, M.B.B.S., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
- Shashank
Dravid, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
- Muhammad
Khan, M.B.B.S., Instructor of Neurology
- Lisa
Tyler, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology
- Yetunde
Ogunleye, M.B.C.h.B., Instructor of Psychiatry
Awards
(presented at Fall Faculty Meeting)
- Young Investigator Award to Yaping Tu, Ph.D., Assistant
Professor of Pharmacology
- Master Clinician Award to Stephen Lanspa, M.D., Professor
of Medicine
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