Dr. Mark S. Williams to Give Presentation to USA Clinical Faculty, Hospital Staff

Dr. Mark S. Williams, chief medical officer for the North Mississippi Health System, will be giving a presentation to clinical faculty and hospital staff at the University of South Alabama. The presentation, titled “Adverse Events in Hospitals: Why Culture Matters,” will take place Nov. 16 at 4 p.m. at the USA Medical Center Conference Center.

In addition, Dr. Williams will have an informal discussion with College of Medicine students in the Eichold Room on Nov. 15, 2010, at 6 p.m.

Dr. Williams also serves as board chairman for the Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation, clinical associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and a healthcare consultant for Alabama Power Company.

He received his medical degree from USA in 1980 and completed a residency in internal medicine and a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition, he received a master’s in business administration from Samford University School of Business in Birmingham, Ala., and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Dr. Williams is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology. He has a unique combination of medical, business and legal skills that contribute to a broad understanding of the healthcare environment.

Support for Dr. Williams' presentation and visit is provided by the Dr. Richard Goldhammer Endowment. The lecture is open to all faculty, residents, students and hospital staff.

Surgery Chair to Give Free Community Lecture

Dr. William O. Richards, professor and chair of surgery at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, will present a free community lecture titled “Bariatric Surgery for Morbid Obesity” at 6 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2010. The lecture will take place in the Atlantis Room in the CWEB-II building behind USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Richards’s clinical interests focus on surgical treatment for Type 2 diabetes and treating motility disorders of the gastrointestinal tract using minimally invasive surgical procedures. He has performed more than 1,000 laparoscopic procedures since 1990, including numerous laparoscopic bariatric procedures.

Dr. Richards received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School Of Medicine in Baltimore. He completed his internship at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and his surgery residency at the University of Maryland. Following his residency, Dr. Richards completed a surgical fellowship in portal hypertension and endoscopy at Emory University in Atlanta. In addition, he also completed a research fellowship in gastrointestinal motility at the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.

Dr. Richards is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

For more information on the lecture, call (251) 471-7413.

Directions: Enter the Geri Moulton Children’s Park from Springhill Avenue. At the end of the park, turn right on Center Street and then left on Cox Street. Turn left into the rear parking lot and pass the guard shack. There are several buildings accessible from this parking lot. CWEB II/Atlantis room is the last building.

USA Health Disparities Research Group Holds Planning Meeting to Discuss Future Goals

Dr. Martha Arrieta (far left), director of research for the University of South Alabama’s Center for Healthy Communities, leads the USA Health Disparities Research Group (HDRG) planning meeting on Oct. 29, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the group’s future goals and objectives, as well as to define member responsibilities.

HDRG, a multidisciplinary group of university faculty with an interest in health disparities, was initiated after the awarding of an NIH grant to the USA Center for Healthy Communities in 2004. The overall strategy for the Center for Healthy Communities was to implement community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches. To achieve this goal, HDRG was developed.

Dr. Arrieta said HDRG consists of a dedicated core of eight to 10 faculty members, as well as many other faculty members that are involved with HDRG at some level.

The mission of HDRG is to foster interdisciplinary, collaborative research toward eliminating health disparities. The group’s overall goals are to conduct and support health disparities research, garner adequate resources for the HDRG to become self-sustaining, engage community stakeholders in the process of developing research and collaboration, strengthen faculty capabilities to conduct health disparities research, and to translate and disseminate research findings related to health disparities.

Next Week's DSS - Dr. K. Mark Coggeshall

The next Distinguished Scientist Seminar at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine will be presented by Dr. K. Mark Coggeshall, the Robert S. Kerr Jr. Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

His seminar, titled “Long and Short Term Inflammation: Causes and Effects in a Murine Lupus Model and in Human Bacillus Anthracis Infections,” will take place Nov. 18, 2010, at 4 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Building auditorium.

Dr. Coggeshall, who also serves as an adjunct professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a scholar of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Southern Illinois University and a Ph.D. degree from Duke University.

Dr. Coggeshall’s research has three main projects, all of which study the signal transduction processes in hematopoietic cells. In the area of inflammation, he is studying the signal transduction process by receptors for gamma-type immunoglobulins on human macrophages and neutrophils. These IgG receptors stimulate many biological functions in these cells, including phagocytosis, release of inflammatory cytokines, and the elimination of pathogenic organisms.

Dr. Coggeshall is a member of American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, an associate editor of Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of Immunology, and a panelist for AHA Immunology & Microbiology II.

For more information on Dr. Coggeshall’s research, click here.

Apple iPad Winner Announced

Becky Tate (left), chief executive officer of the USA Physicians Group, presented Gwenn Moring, a physical therapy assistant at the USA Medical Center, with an Apple iPad she won after a drawing sponsored by the USA Physicians Group.

Gwenn Moring, a physical therapy assistant at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, won the Apple iPad drawing sponsored by USA Physicians Group at USA’s 6th annual Benefits Fair. A total of 998 people stopped by the USA Physicians Group booth and registered for the iPad during the Benefits Fair, which was in three locations over the course of two days.

Moring, who was surprised with the gift Monday afternoon, said she has never won any giveaways before. “This may go under the tree this year for my kids,” she said, “but it will be very tempting not to play with it until then.”

“I’m very thankful,” Moring added. “I love working here, and it’s definitely an adventure every day. I’m glad I was able to share this experience with my coworkers.”

Moring, who has been in Mobile most of her life, has been a physical therapy assistant at the USA Medical Center for two years.

USA Physician Group providers were on hand at the Benefits Fair to answer health questions and provide guidance. USA Cardiology handed out heart healthy information, the USA Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Center provided grip strength testing and occupational/physical therapy information, Knollwood Physicians Group gave skin cancer screenings, and the department of surgery was on hand to discuss appropriate tests and screenings for bariatric surgery and surgical oncology.

“We were pleased with the interest and excitement from USA employees as they visited our booth,” said Becky Tate, chief executive officer of the USA Physicians Group. “This year, for the first time, we had several representatives from our care centers answering questions about health concerns. Based on the positive feedback from USA employees, we are definitely planning to do the same next year.”