USA Physician Featured on Fox10

Dr. Daniel Dees, assistant professor of neurology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, recently was interviewed by Fox10 about Alzheimer’s, a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions.

To read the full story, click here.

USA Burn Surgeon Responds to Mobile River Barge Explosion

Dr. Frotan

Last week, tragedy struck Mobile when two barges exploded on the Mobile River, injuring three workers.

The workers were transported to the University of South Alabama Medical Center's Regional Burn Center, which is the only burn unit south of Birmingham between Baton Rouge, La., and Gainesville, Fla.

Dr. Amin Frotan, assistant professor of surgery at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine and medical director of critical care at the USA Regional Burn Center, said the USA Burn Center is the only facility in the region to handle such an emergency.

Dr. Frotan recently talked with media about the unique care USA Medical Center provides our community. To see his interview and to read more about the USA Medical Center's role in treating injured patients, click the following links:

Press-Register
Local 15
WKRG

The USA Regional Burn Center provides specialized care to burn and trauma patients in south Alabama, northwest Florida, southern Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. To learn more, click here.

Faculty and Students to be Honored at Annual Honors Convocation

Honors Convocation 2012

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 2013 will be held May 10, 2013, at 7 p.m. at the USA Mitchell Center.

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

Dr. J. Allan Tucker, Louise L. Locke Professor and Chair of pathology, will deliver the address to the class.

A reception for students, guests, and faculty will follow the program at the Globe.

To read about last year's ceremony, click here.

Richard Friedman Receives Eran and N.Q. Adams Endowed Scholarship in Neurology

Richard Friedman, a fourth-year medical student at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, was recently awarded the Eran and N.Q. Adams Endowed Scholarship in Neurology.

Friedman, who plans to pursue a career in neurology, received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.

Friedman will complete a preliminary year in internal medicine at the University of Alabama Medical Center in Montgomery, Ala., before entering a residency in neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

As a medical student at USA, Friedman has served as the research chair of the Student Interest Group in Neurology and as a member of the Psychiatry Student Interest Group.

The Eran and N.Q. Adams Endowed Scholarship was established to support, in the early stages of their careers, young physicians engaged in neurology who wish to gain a better understanding of dysautonomia. Third and fourth-year medical students at USA were invited to submit applications for the scholarship that included a unique research or learning opportunity.

For more information on  the scholarship, contact Nicole Laden at (251) 445-8262.

Report Co-Authored by USA Physician Receives National Attention

A report co-authored by Dr. David Gremse, professor and chair of pediatrics at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, is receiving national attention.

The report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, says pediatricians should differentiate between gastroesophageal reflux (GER), marked by the constant regurgitation of stomach contents, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) before determining a course of treatment.

You can read the full report here, and you can read USA TODAY's story about the report here. MedPage Today also wrote a story about the report here.

Dr. Gremse recently gave an update on GERD, a chronic digestive disease that occurs when stomach acid flows back into the esophagus. To view the lecture in its entirety, click here.

New Collaboration to Help Prepare Students for Revised MCAT Exam

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Khan Academy, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) recently announced a new collaboration to provide free, online resources to help students prepare for the revised Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) that will be administered in 2015.

To develop the new content, the three organizations will sponsor a competition to encourage medical students and residents to create educational tutorials (i.e., collections of videos, questions, and articles) about concepts that will be tested by the new MCAT exam.

Video submissions are now being accepted online, and the deadline for submissions is June 14, 2013. Khan Academy will review the videos and select the winners, who will receive an all-expenses-paid weeklong program as they are trained by Khan Academy staff and scholars. Trainees then will produce the new collection of tutorials on pre-health competencies. Full contest rules, submission guidelines, and criteria for entry can be found at http://www.khanacademy.org/about/med-competition.

The first tutorials for the new collection are expected to be available in the fall of 2013 through Khan Academy’s online learning library, as well as the Pre-health Collection of the AAMC’s MedEdPORTAL iCollaborative, a free, searchable online repository of instructional materials for teaching pre-health curricula.

Once developed, the new tutorials are intended to be especially helpful to students who cannot afford to take test preparation courses or who are enrolled in pre-health programs at institutions with limited resources.

Dr. Ronald Franks, vice president for health sciences at the University of South Alabama, served as vice chair of the MCAT revision committee that recommended the update to the exam. To learn more about the revised MCAT exam announced last year, click here.