Friday, May 7, 2010

Professionals Gather To Learn About Sickle Cell Disease

Keynote Speaker Dr. Kathryn Hassell gave the Cecil Parker Distinguished Lectureship at the recent annual Sickle Cell Conference on April 24, 2010. 

Her talk, "Life’s Passages: Making Transition Work in Sickle Cell Disease," was given to regional healthcare professionals interested in improving care for patients living with sickle cell disease. Dr. Hassell serves as professor of medicine and director of the Sickle Cell Center in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver. 

The conference was sponsored by the University of South Alabama Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center.

Faculty and Students To Be Honored For Excellence

Each spring, the University of South Alabama College of Medicine recognizes students for their academic achievements at the annual Honors Convocation.  This year's College of Medicine Honors Convocation for the Class of 2010 will be held May 7th at 7 p.m. at the USA Mitchell Center.

Doctoral hoods, along with the student honors, will be awarded to the medical students. Faculty will be honored by the students as well. The seniors selected those members of the faculty who had the most meaningful input into their medical education, and for their positive influence, the faculty selected will wear a scarlet sash over their academic regalia.

Below is a list of faculty honored with scarlet sashes:
  • Dr. Jorge Alonso
  • Dr. Ronald Balczon
  • Dr. Stephen Ballard
  • Dr. John Bass
  • Dr. Samar Bhowmick
  • Dr. Judy Blair-Elortegui
  • Dr. Nicole Brooks
  • Dr. Loran Clement
  • Dr. Scott Clements
  • Dr. LaDonna Crews
  • Dr. Errol Crook
  • Dr. Mike Culpepper
  • Dr. Benjamin Estrada
  • Dr. Karen Fagan
  • Dr. Phillip Fields
  • Dr. Roy Gandy
  • Dr. Anthony Gard
  • Dr. Mark Gillespie
  • Dr. Jorge Herrera
  • Dr. Juvonda Hodge
  • Dr. Grace Hundley
  • Dr. T. J. Hundley
  • Dr. Ihab Jubran
  • Dr. Stephen Kayes
  • Dr. Dimitris Kyriazis
  • Dr. John LaFleur
  • Dr. Roger Lane
  • Dr. Susan LeDoux
  • Dr. Arnold Luterman
  • Dr. Samuel McQuiston, Jr.
  • Dr. Frederick Meyer
  • Dr. Tom Montgomery
  • Dr. Hattie Myles
  • Dr. Sheri Owens
  • Dr. James Parker
  • Dr. Kenan Penaskovic
  • Dr. Kathy Porter
  • Dr. Aarati Rao
  • Dr. Rodney Rocconi
  • Dr. Charles Rodning
  • Dr. W. George Rusyniak, Jr.
  • Dr. Gregory Rutecki
  • Dr. John Schultz
  • Dr. Jeffrey Sosnowski
  • Dr. Franklin Trimm
  • Dr. Allan Tucker
  • Dr. Barry Warner

USA Team Wins Top Honors


Pictured above (left to right) :  Amy Mitchell, MS, CCC, SLP, speech/language pathologist and USA Autism Clinic coordinator; Deborah Bowman, USA Developmental-Behavioral Clinic secretary, and Jennifer Robertson, with the Autism Society of Alabama.

Last month, the faculty and staff at the University of South Alabama Autism Clinic participated in this year's Autism Walk at Hank Aaron Stadium. The money raised is used in part to provide scholarships for camps for children and scholarships for educational seminars for parents and professionals working with autistic individuals.  USA's team took first place for the most money raised.  

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Mobile Medical Museum Hosts Lecture By Medicine Historian Dr. Todd Savitt

The Mobile Medical Museum is hosting a lecture titled “Entering a White Profession: Black Physicians in the Turn-of-the-Century South” by Todd L. Savitt on May 12, 2010, at 6 p.m. at the University of South Alabama Health Sciences Building.

Savitt is a historian of medicine in the department of medical humanities at East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C. His primary research interests are African-American medical history and medical history of the American West and South.

He has written or co-edited four books (including Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Ante Bellum Virginia and Disease and Distinctiveness in the American South) and a number of articles on such topics as the history of sickle-cell anemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), use of African Americans for medical experimentation, the entry of black physicians into the American medical profession and early African-American medical schools. He was visiting professor of history at the University of Montana and St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula in 1994 and recently completed an article on the early history of that hospital.

Savitt received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and his master’s degree and doctorate in history from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.

The lecture is provided free of charge, but RSVP’s are requested. Call (251) 415-1109 to make a reservation.

This program is made possible by the following supporters:

Gold Sponsor $500.00
Byron E. Green, M.D.
Charles B. Rodning, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S.

Silver Sponsor $250.00
Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic, P.C.
Marion L. Carroll, Jr., M.D.
L. Lamar Snow, M.D.

Bronze Sponsor $100.00
Citrin & Rihner Cardiology, P.C.
Paul W. Petcher, M.D.

DSS -- May 6 -- Dr. David DeShazer

The next Distinguished Scientist Seminar will be presented by Dr. David DeShazer on May 6, 2010, at 4 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Building auditorium.

Currently, Dr. DeShazer is a senior microbiologist for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in the bacteriology division.

Dr. DeShazer completed his bachelor of general studies in microbiology and human biology at the University of Kansas, and his doctorate in microbiology and immunology at the University of Arizona.

Dr. DeShazer’s research focuses on Burkholderia mallei, a gram-negative bacillus that is the causative agent of glanders. It is a highly adapted parasite of equines and cannot persist in nature outside of its host.

His seminar is titled “Type VI Secretion in the Category B Select Agent Burkholderia pseudomallei.”

For additional information, contact Natalie Kent at 461-1548 or visit http://www.southalabama.edu/com/dss.shtml.