Department of Medicine at the
University of
Colorado Denver
Fourth Quarter 2008 News
Thank you to the more than 200 individuals who participated in the Department’s Sixth Annual Research Day on Saturday, November 1, 2008. Particular thanks to our outstanding speakers including Mike Bristow, David Schwartz and James Baker.
Department of Medicine 2008 Research Day Abstracts - by Category
Professional Research Associates
KUDOS- Here are some notes about Departmental Faculty accomplishments over the past quarter:
- Peter Buttrick, MD (Head of the Division of Cardiology) has done an outstanding job of leading and administering a large and complex Division as well as in recruiting outstanding faculty members. In the current era of ever-tightening financial constraints, obtaining philanthropic funding has become difficult. Please extend your sincere congratulations to Peter who recently obtained a gift of $1,750,000 from a family of grateful patients. More information on this generous gift will be forthcoming.
- Patty Gabow, MD (CEO of Denver Health and Hospitals, Renal Hypertension) was elected to become a Master of the American College of Physicians which will be conveyed at the 2009 annual meeting of the College.
- Obtaining extra-mural funding for educational endeavors can be an exceptionally difficult undertaking. Karen Chacko (General Internal Medicine, Associate Director for Primary Care of our Housestaff Training Program) and Kelly White (General Internal Medicine, Director of our third year medical student Ambulatory Care Clerkship) recently were awarded $269,000 from the Colorado Health Foundation to help support rural and underserved rotations for primary care residents as well as intensified recruitment efforts for highly qualified applicants who are either of rural /underserved backgrounds, or are minorities.
- David R. West, PhD (General Internal Medicine), Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine for Academic Affairs, has accepted the Interim Directorship of the Colorado Health Outcomes Program (COHO).
- Mark Earnest, MD (General Internal Medicine) has agreed to become the Interim Director of the Interprofessional Education effort, a new position recently created by Dean Krugman. In this role, Mark will lead a 12 month process working with representatives of all schools and training programs on campus to identify opportunities to enhance and develop interprofessional education.
- Developing effective scientific collaborations with our colleagues at the downtown campus of the University of Colorado Denver is potentially a mutually beneficial and productive undertaking. Moshe Levi and Nick Barry (Renal Hypertension) have worked collaboratively with Tim Lei, PhD, Department of Electrical Engineering and Emily Gibson, PhD, Department of Physics on issues involving advanced biomedical imaging systems. This collaboration has resulted in productive scientific endeavors as well as submission of an instrumentation grant to the National Science Foundation.
- Rita Lee, MD (General Internal Medicine) has been selected for the 2009 Colorado Chapter of American College of Physicians Volunteerism Award, to be awarded at the February, 2009 annual Colorado ACP chapter meeting.
- Susan Boackle (Rheumatology) has been appointed as the holder of Charley Smyth Endowed Chair in Rheumatology. Dr. Boackle is a NIH-funded and very productive clinician scientist who works on the pathophysiology of systemic lupus. Dr. Boackle has been an outstanding member of the Department’s faculty since 1997.
- Sarah Faubel (Renal) has been selected as a recipient of a 2008 American Society of Nephrology Gottschalk Award. This highly competitive two-year award is for $200,000 for salary and laboratory support. One area of Sarah’s investigative work seeks to delineate how distant organ damage (e.g., lung dysfunction) occurs as a consequence of acute kidney injury.
- Amy Meditz (Infectious Diseases) has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Association of Specialty Professors-Infectious Disease Society of America Young Investigator Award in Geriatrics.
- Rick Johnson (new Head of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension) is the senior author of a randomized trial published in JAMA (2008;300:924-932) that found that allopurinol lowers blood pressure in adolescents with newly diagnosed hypertension. Rick also has an article coming out soon in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Three Departmental faculty members recently wrote authoritative editorials that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. John Rumsfeld (Cardiology, Denver VA) co-authored an editorial entitled “Finding the Courage to Reconsider Medical Therapy for Stable Angina” that appeared in the August 14, 2008 edition. Moshe Levi and Sophia Breusegem (Renal) authored an editorial entitled “Renal Phosphate Transport Proteins and Nephrolithiasis” that appeared in the 11 September 2008 edition 2008; 359:1171).
- Some Departmental faculty members work very quietly and often “under the radar screen.” One such individual is David West (General Internal Medicine, Associate Chair of the Department for Academic Affairs). David has a track record of effective networking and organizing and leading health services research projects. At present, David is the PI of a combined NIH RO1 and R18 award examining the effect of primary care practice designs that improve outcomes with regard to diabetes mellitus and depression. David also is the PI on the AHRQ Master contract that is funded at 1 $ million for practice network studies, on a Decide Master contract funded at 1 $ million for a variety of projects, on a 2 $ million contract with the State of Utah to evaluate their policy and interventions to reduce smoking in Utah and on a $300,000 award from the Arthritis Foundation to develop educational materials for patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis.
- Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann (Endocrinology-Metabolism) was recently selected as the Endocrine Society’s recipient of its 2009 Distinguished Educator Award. This award, which is accompanied by a significant cash honorarium, will be given in recognition of Dr. Gutierrez-Hartmann’s numerous efforts in graduate education, mentorship and especially commitment to recruiting minorities to biomedical research careers.
- Virginia Sarapura (Endocrinology-Metabolism) was selected to participate in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Network of Minority Research Investigators Workshop recently held at the NIH in 2008.
- Ed Havranek (Cardiology, DHHA) was the recipient of DHHA’s 2008 Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. Ed’s award was in recognition of exceptional productivity with regard to cardiology outcomes research which has included several outstanding publications and citation classics published in the journal Circulation.
- Eric Coleman, MD, MPH (Health Care Policy) is one of the world’s acknowledged experts in the area of transitions of care. Eric has recently received notification of a new $1.2 M Hartford grant to support further dissemination of his Care Transitions work.
- Kate Horwitz, PhD (Endocrinology), one of the Department’s Distinguished Professors of Medicine, has received a $1 M grant from the Avon Foundation for continuation of her work on the pathogenesis of breast cancer including exploring the role of breast stem cells in breast cancer.
- Allan Prochazka, MD, MPH (General Internal Medicine, VA) has been announced as the new Educational Director for the Clinical Science Graduate Program (CLSC). Dr. Prochazka will also continue in his position as Director of the Clinical Investigation Track for the CLSC.
- Gretchen Guiton, PhD (General Internal Medicine, Educational Development and Research Office) was a co-author of a study entitled “Student body racial and ethnic composition and diversity-related outcomes in US medical Schools” that appeared in the annual medical education edition of JAMA (2008;300:1135-1145).
- Mike Bristow, MD, PhD (Cardiology) has been named the 2008 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Heart Failure Society of America. This award is given based upon Dr. Bristow’s introducing beta blocker therapy for heart failure and his studies on molecular mechanisms of heart failure.
- Andy Kramer, MD (Health Care Policy) recently received notification of a new 3-year, $1.7 M Study of the Federal Regulatory and Quality Monitoring Approaches for Nursing Homes as well as an $800,000 award for continuation of the multi-year project to implement the Quality Indicator Survey that was developed here at the University of Colorado Denver.
- Drs. John Kappler, PhD and Phillipa Marrack, PhD, both Professors in the Department of Immunology and holders of secondary appointments within the Department of Medicine were among a very select group of 65 individuals elected to membership this year by the Institute of Medicine. Both are exceptionally accomplished scientists and have played important, key roles in mentoring and collaborating with several faculty members and fellows in the Department of Medicine.
5280’S TOP DOCS IN DENVER-the following Departmental faculty members have been cited as among the Top Docs in Denver based upon the recent poll taken by the 5280 magazine:
DENVER HEALTH
· Dan Bessesen-Endocrinology/Metabolism
· David Collier-Rheumatology
· Ivor Douglas-Pulmonary/Critical Care
· Stuart Linas-Nephrology
· Phil Mehler-General Internal Medicine
NATIONAL JEWISH
· Kern Buckner-Cardiology
· Howard Weinberger-Cardiology
· Teofilo Lee-Chiong-Sleep Medicine
· Aryeh Fischer-Rheumatology
· James Good-Pulmonary
· William Silvers-Allergy
· Stephen Frankel-Pulmonary/Critical Care
· Michael Schwartz-Pulmonary/Critical Care
· Cecile Rose-Occupational Medicine
PRESBYTERIAN-ST. LUKES
· Christine Gilroy-Adolescent Medicine
UNIVERSITY
· JoAnn Lindenfeld-Cardiology
· Laurent Lewkowiez-Electrophysiology
· Mike McDermott-Endocrinology/Metabolism
· Jeff Wallace-Geriatrics
· Kathy Hassell-Hematology
· Jean Kutner-Palliative Care
· Steve Johnson-Infectious Diseases
· Mark Earnest-General Internal Medicine
· Larry Feinberg-General Internal Medicine
· David Tanaka-General Internal Medicine
· John Carroll-Interventional Cardiology
· John Messenger-Interventional Cardiology
· Matt Taylor-Medical Genetics
· Isaac Teitelbaum-Nephrology
· Sterling West-Rheumatology
· Greg Everson-Hepatology
· James Trotter-Hepatology
