Department of Medicine at the
University of
Colorado Denver
Departmental Outstanding Housestaff Recognition
The Department is exceptionally pleased to note that 4 of the 6 School of Medicine Housestaff recipients of the prestigious “Humanism and Teaching Award” given annually by a vote of the MS3 class are from the Department of Medicine. These outstanding Houseofficers include: Didi Dingwell, Russ Heath, Janna Huskey and Alex Smart. Overall, 30 of the 57 Houseofficers nominated for this award are members of the Department’s Housestaff.
Outstanding Housestaff Match for Academic Year 2007-08: The Department is exceptionally pleased with its housestaff match for the upcoming academic year. We matched with 55 housesofficers (including those in primary care, categorical and preliminary tracks) from throughout the country. The quality of this year’s class is outstanding. This year’s recruitment efforts were headed by our Program Director (Suzanne Brandenburg), our Vice Chair for Education (Eva Aagaard) and our Associate Program Directors (Jeff Glasheen-Hospitalist Track; Virginia Borges-Housestaff Research; Karen Chacko-Primary Care Track; Mel Anderson-Lifelong Learning, Conferences, Mentoring; and Bill Kaehny-Mentoring and Career Counseling).
Faculty Honored at the Department's 31st Annual Spring Awards Banquet:
Four Departmental full-time faculty members were cited for outstanding achievement at the Department’s 31st Annual Awards Banquet held at the Brown Palace Hotel on the evening of 17 March 2007. These individuals included:
· Brian Freed, PhD-Brian was recognized for his leadership as the Executive Director of ClinImmune Labs, as former Interim Head of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and for his research contributions in the area of elucidating the mechanisms of cigarette smoke toxicity.
· Rafe Nemenoff, PhD-Rafe was recognized for his leadership of the Department’s PhD Committee and his excellence in research accomplishments and mentoring. Dr. Nemenoff’s research contributions have been recently in the areas of lung cancer cellular pathogenesis and vascular calcification.
· Mel Anderson, MD-Mel, based at the Denver VA Hospital, was voted by the Department’s housestaff as this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Housestaff Teaching Award. This award, voted annually for a full-time member of the Department’s faculty, is the highest teaching honor bestowed within the Department.
· Mike Iseman, MD-Mike is this year’s recipient of the Robert W. Schrier Award for Excellence. Mike, based at National Jewish Hospital, was recognized for his career achievements in teaching/medical education and in the development of several innovations with regard to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis and mycobacterial diseases.
Division of Cardiology Update: Peter Buttrick has been on board as our Head of the Division of Cardiology since September, 2006. Peter has had a remarkably positive impact on the clinical, educational and scholarly/research aspects of Cardiology and the Department. Find below the results of Peter’s recruitment efforts. Additional recruitments (heart failure, nuclear cardiology, research) are ongoing. Please join me in congratulating Peter and in welcoming these outstanding new faculty members to the Department.
· Jennifer Dorosz: General cardiology and Echocardiography. Education: BSE, Duke; MD, Yale; Internship and Residency, University of Washington; Clinician-Teacher Fellowship in GIM, University of Washington; General Cardiology Fellowship and Advanced Imaging Training, University of Michigan. Interests include 3-D echocardiography, tissue Doppler and propagation velocity. Awards: Lewis Nahum Prize for best MD thesis (Yale) Howard Clark Award for excellence in engineering (Duke). Jennifer will join Ernesto Salcedo and other cardiologists to further develop the echocardiography services.
· Joel Garcia: Interventional cardiology (at Denver Health). Education: MD Catholic University, Santiago, Dominican Republic; Internship and Residency, Wayne State; Cardiology Fellowship and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship, University of Colorado. Interests: CT reconstruction in the planning of coronary interventions. Awards: Intern of the Year, Resident of the Year (PGY2, PGY3), Outstanding Senior Resident, Wayne State; Outstanding First Year Fellow and Outstanding Research Fellow, University of Colorado; SCAI, Research Award Finalist; ACCF/Bristol-Myers Squibb Award. Joel will become a key partner with the existing 24/7 cardiac interventional team (Drs. Carroll, Groves, Messenger).
· Michelle Khoo: Clinical electrophysiology. Education: BA, MB, B.Ch, BAO, Trinity College, University of Dublin; Internship and Residency, St. James Hospital, Dublin; Internal Medicine Residency, Tufts University; General Cardiology Fellowship and Electrophysiology Fellowships, Vanderbilt University. Interests: Calmodulin kinase activity in experimental and human cardiac disease. Awards: Welcome Scholarship (Oxford); Trinity College Foundation Scholarship (University of Dublin); AHA post-doctoral Fellowship; Outstanding Publication Award, Heart Rhythm Society. Michelle will join an excellent electrophysiology team (Laurent Lewkowiez and Will Sauer).
· Stacie Luther: General cardiology and outcomes research. Education: BA, Iowa State; MD, University of Minnesota; Internship and Residency, University of Colorado; Cardiology Fellowship and MSPH, University of Colorado. Interests: Predicting health status in patients with heart failure. Quality of life in AICD patients. Honors: Chief cardiology fellow, University of Colorado. Stacie will potentially work with several individuals (Drs. Rumsfeld, Ho and Maddox at the VA, Masoudi and Havranek at DHHA and Magid at Kaiser) in various aspects of cardiac outcomes.
· Karen Moulton: General cardiology, angiogenesis. Education: BA, Rochester; MD, University of Washington; Internship and Residency, UC San Diego, Cardiology Fellow, Brigham and Women’s; Research Fellowship, Boston Children’s Hospital (J. Folkman); Instructor and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School. Interests: VEGF functions in atherosclerosis; plaque angiogenesis. Honors: Chief Resident, UCSD; Physician Scientist Award, NHLBI; Bugher Fellowship, AHA; Merit Award, Council on Arteriosclerosis, AHA. Karen will be setting up a lab to continue her studies on angiogenesis.
· Lori Walker: Smooth muscle biochemistry and physiology. Education: BA St. Scholastica, Duluth; PhD, University of Minnesota; Research Assistant Professor, Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Medicine/Cardiology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago. Interests: role of myosin in cardiac function and smooth muscle contraction, biochemistry of cardiac contractile proteins. Honors: University of Illinois Young Investigator Award. Lori is working on the proteomic changes with heart failure.
· John Walker: Regulation and energetics of smooth muscle contraction. Education: BS Monash University, Australia, PhD, Monash University; Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago. Interests: myosin regulation of cardiac function, sacromere structure and myofilament sensitivity and function. John is working on muscle mechanics at the myofibrillar level.
