Strobel named 2008 TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator

Dr. Henry Strobel, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and associate dean for faculty affairs, has been named the 2008 recipient of the TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award. Strobel is the third faculty member of the Medical School to earn this honor.

The award, founded by TIAA-CREF and supported by the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science, is given annually to honor teaching physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals for their outstanding work, significant contributions, and exceptional influence in the field of medical education. The award carries a $10,000 honorarium for the recipient and 20 scholarships to The Health Museum’s mini medical camp donated in the recipient’s name. TIAA-CREF is a national financial services group and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, medical, and research fields.

“It is an honor to present the TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award to Dr. Strobel – a person who embodies TIAA-CREF’s mission of serving those who serve the greater good,” said Tameeka Aviles, director of institutional business development at TIAA-CREF. “TIAA-CREF is pleased to continue our partnership with leaders of the Texas medical community to recognize one of its outstanding leaders who has had a deep impact on health care education.”

Strobel joined the faculty of the Medical School in 1972 shortly after the school opened. For 36 years, Strobel has excelled as a teacher of biochemistry and molecular biology and has sponsored international electives through the Medical School at universities around the world. As an assisting priest at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, Strobel’s involvement with and love for the church guides who he is as both an educator and a person.

"Dr. Strobel is a multi-faceted educator who has trained many knowledgeable and caring doctors,” said Dr. L. Maximilian Buja, executive vice president for academic affairs. “He is an excellent classroom teacher. He is innovative and focused on the development of the student as a whole person.”

A favorite among students, Strobel is known for the enthusiasm and talent he brings to his educational activities, routinely receiving high marks in student evaluations. In recognition of Strobel’s abilities and dedication as an educator, he is the frequent recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards. Strobel was honored with the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award from The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston in 2002 and with the 2006 President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UT Health Science Center at Houston.

Strobel received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for two years before joining the UT faculty. He has two children: Elizabeth Fulton and Dr. Nathaniel Strobel. For the first time in the history of the Medical School, a father and son are full-time faculty at the same time. Nathaniel Strobel joined the pediatrics department as an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in 2006.

More than 25 years ago, Strobel founded the Medical Professionalism Orientation Retreat (known as the Henry Strobel Student Retreat) — a program focused on welcoming first-year medical students and building collegial relationships with all medical students and faculty to help new students through the medical school years. The success of the retreat was recognized by the Alumni Association at the 2007 commencement ceremony with a financial endowment in Strobel’s name.

Understanding the value in broadening a student’s education, Strobel initiated international electives, including rotations at the University of Malaya and the Medical School of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; the Medical School of the Deccan in Hyderabad, India; the Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand; the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile; the Ho Chi Minh University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and the Capital Medical University in Beijing, China. Of these, the first and most long-standing program is that with Capital Medical University in Beijing, where more than 300 students have benefited from the experience.

The steering committee selected to govern the award and to evaluate nominations is composed of leading medical professionals from the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, the UT Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Texas Children's Hospital, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing, and the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing at Galveston.

Previous TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award winners from the UT Medical School at Houston are Dr. Frank Arnett, Jr., professor of internal medicine and the Elizabeth Bidgood Chair in Rheumatology; and Dr. Herbert Fred, professor of internal medicine. Strobel is the first Ph.D. to receive the award, recognizing the inclusive nature of medical education.

-R. Cahill

Automatic closers to be installed on all lab doors

Starting in early January, every laboratory door in the Medical School Building will be outfitted with new automatic door-closer hardware to meet the requirements set forth by the State Fire Marshal.

It will take three to four months for Remodeling Services to complete the door renovations – and each door will take about 20 minutes to outfit, according to Julie Lucas, senior project manager in Facilities, Planning, and Engineering.

The primary purpose of the automatic door closers is to limit smoke or other hazardous substances emanating from a lab during a fire. Secondary benefits include enhanced safety and security of lab occupants and a reduction of energy costs as the upgraded HVAC system is designed to operate with lab doors closed.

The closers were installed on the lab doors in the Medical School Expansion during construction and will be installed on lab doors in future buildings, as they are required by the Life Safety Code.

Environmental Health and Safety has established tips for safely transporting materials through self-closing doors:

• Place hazardous items (chemical, biological, radiological) into secondary containment to reduce the risk of spilling the material in a public area.
• Use a cart or dolly when transporting multiple and/or heavy items to avoid ergonomic-related injuries.
• Temporarily prop open the door when carrying items that require two hands, or when pushing a cart (reduces risk of injury and damaging door).
• Temporarily prop open the door when moving objects that require more than one person.
• Always open the door slowly when entering or exiting a room, to avoid hitting someone on the other side.

If the automatic closures do not close and latch when the door is released, contact FIXIT, 713.500.3498, or fixit@uth.tmc.edu.

-D. Brown

UT Physicians begin clinical study of incision-free obesity treatment

Physicians at Medical School‘s Minimally Invasive Surgeons of Texas (MIST) have enrolled the first patient in Texas in a clinical trial that will examine the safety and effectiveness of an incision-free procedure to treat obesity.

The investigational procedure is part of the multi-center TOGA Pivotal Trial. Dr. Erik Wilson, associate professor and director of the Division of Minimally Invasive and Elective General Surgery; and Dr. Brad Snyder, assistant professor and director of clinical research of MIST, have performed their first transoral gastroplasty (TOGA) procedure at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center. Like other obesity procedures, such as gastric bypass, lap band, and gastric sleeve surgeries, TOGA is designed to alter the patient’s stomach anatomy to give a feeling of fullness after a small meal. The difference is that the procedure is performed without any cuts on the abdomen.

"This promising procedure allows us to do the entire surgery through the mouth, eliminating the need for even the smallest incision," said Wilson, principal investigator of the study's Houston site and also head of bariatric surgery at Memorial Hermann - TMC. "If the study results demonstrate that this is safe and effective, TOGA will be another tool bariatric surgeons can offer patients to help them be healthier and successful with long-term weight loss. It could be ideal for patients who need to lose a significant amount of weight to get healthy but don't like the idea of a more invasive surgery."

Surgeons performing the TOGA procedure put a set of flexible stapling devices into the stomach through the mouth and use them to create a restrictive pouch. The pouch is intended to catch food as it enters the stomach so that patients feel full faster and eat smaller portions. The TOGA Pivotal Trial will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this new procedure for the treatment of morbid obesity. Patients whose body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio, is at least 40, or patients with a BMI between 35 and 40 who suffer from one or more obesity-related diseases, meet the clinical definition for morbid obesity.

Two out of three patients enrolled in the clinical trial will receive the TOGA procedure, while one out of three will receive a control procedure, which is similar to the TOGA procedure except no pouch is created. After one year, patients will be told which procedure they received, and patients who received the control procedure will be offered the TOGA procedure if they continue to meet the treatment criteria.

The Medical School is currently recruiting patients for the TOGA Pivotal Trial. Patients will be followed for a minimum of 12 months. Patients' health care insurance should cover the initial visit. Once they are approved, the pre-hospital testing, procedure, and study-related medical care, including medically-supervised nutritional counseling, will be free of charge. The procedures will be performed at Memorial Hermann – TMC, and Wilson, Snyder and other specialists, including nurses and nutritionists on the bariatrics team, will provide follow-up care at the UT Specialty Surgery Center, 6700 W. Loop South.

"Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and throughout the world. Nearly one-third of adults in America are obese, and their excess weight contributes to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and other medical conditions, even cancer," Snyder said. "We offer surgical solutions -- including gastric bypass, lap band and gastric sleeve procedures -- that help morbidly obese patients lose excess weight, eliminate existing medical problems and reduce their risk of future weight-related health complications. We are excited to be a part of the TOGA trial so that we can test whether this is another viable choice for our patients who are considering weight-loss surgery."

Between February 2006 and July 2007, 47 patients had the TOGA procedure in a pilot study at medical centers in Mexico and Belgium. They weighed an average of almost 120 pounds over their ideal body weight. Six months after the procedure, patients had lost more than a third of their excess body weight, and at 12 months, their excess weight loss averaged almost 40 percent.

"People who have gastric bypass surgery tend to lose more weight more rapidly than what we saw in the TOGA pilot study, but gastric bypass is not for everyone," Wilson said.

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, approximately 200,000 patients had weight-loss surgery in 2007. That number is estimated to be less than 2 percent of the eligible patient population.

"This endoscopic procedure may be an option for severely obese patients who are considered too high risk for laparoscopic or open surgery," Wilson said. "We expect the incision-free procedure may also result in a faster recovery period, shortened hospital stay and decreased risk of complications. One concern we do have is that the procedure may not have long-term durability. The stomach may eventually stretch, and patients who have initial success with weight loss may begin to regain weight. That's one of the things we hope to determine with this study."

The TOGA study will investigate the technique in at least 275 patients at centers across the United States. Wilson and Snyder will enroll at least 30 volunteers for the trial. Patients who are between 18 and 60 years of age, approximately 100 or more pounds overweight, and have been unsuccessful with non-surgical weight loss methods may qualify to participate in this study. Patients with a recent heart attack, stroke, chest pain, or severe reflux disease are not eligible.

For more information, call toll free 1-866-678-8399 or visit www.togaclinicalstudy.com.

The TOGA System is an investigational device and does not have marketing approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The trial is funded by Satiety, Inc.

-M. Raine

Genetic counselor wins awards for leadership, service

Jennifer Hoskovec, director Prenatal Genetic Counseling Services in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, recently received two accolades at the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Annual Education Conference in Los Angeles.

Hoskovec received the New Leader Award from NSGC and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the UT Genetic Counseling Program. The New Leader Award recognizes leadership within the society and is granted to one full member of NSGC each year who has five or less years of experience. The alumni award is granted to one alumnus who has shown significant contribution to the field of genetic counseling and to the UT program.

“I was very honored to receive both awards as it is recognition from my colleagues of all of the work I do outside of my everyday clinical duties. While I love my job every day, it's always nice to receive a pat on the back! I am lucky to work with such a supportive group of genetic counselors and doctors,” she said.

Hoskovec joined the Medical School as a clinical instructor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences in 2003 after graduating from the Graduate School of Biomedical Science’s Genetic Counseling Program. She received her bachelor’s degree from Truman State University in Missouri. She also is a genetic counselor at numerous Memorial Hermann hospitals: Southwest, Memorial City, Sugar Land, Southeast, and Katy.

-D. Brown

AAMC examines gender differences in faculty job satisfaction

Increased demands on U.S. medical school faculty have raised concerns about job satisfaction. According to the latest issue of AAMC Analysis in Brief, levels of faculty job satisfaction differ between genders — especially in the areas of culture, collegiality, promotion, and compensation. Women faculty are less likely than their male colleagues to report feeling satisfied with their "fit" (sense of belonging) in their departments. Data also show that women faculty believe the promotion process is less equitable than do their male colleagues. Given the high costs of faculty turnover, medical school administrators and leaders can use evidence-based insights such as these to improve the work environments of all faculty.

Information: Go to http://www.aamc.org/data/aib/aibissues/aibvol8_no7.pdf

Decking the halls