The Houston Geriatric Education Center offers new courses

The Houston Geriatric Education Center is offering two 40-hour course options on geriatric best practices. Principles of Geriatric Care: A Certificate Program for Health Care Professionals will help increase participant knowledge and skills in geriatrics/gerontology, with heavy emphasis on pathophysiology and complex patient management.

The course will be held twice a month (Tuesday evenings) for 2 to 2.5 hours, September 2011 through June 2012. The recommended audience for this course is health care faculty or practitioners. Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists may find this course especially applicable to their practices.

Participants may also choose to attend individual topics, if they cannot commit to the entire 40-hour course certificate program.

Please visit the website for more information.

Post Comment

Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation awards geriatric studies grants

Through a generous gift from the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, the UTHealth Consortium on Aging has awarded four pilot grants to junior faculty this year.

The goals of the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation Geriatric Studies for Junior Faculty program are to integrate geriatrics studies across all the schools of the UTHealth Science Center, increase collaboration and cooperation between school faculties, instill geriatrics studies into all student curriculum, and foster future geriatrics practitioners.

Grants Awarded in 2011
Project Name	The South Asian Aging Experience
Award	$13,500
Principal Investigator	Dr. Nasiya Ahmed, assistant professor, Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine
Collaborators	Dr. Joan Engebretson, School of Nursing Dr. Myriam Fornage, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dr. Akhtar Alam, Medical School Dr. Nahid Rianon, Medical School
Project Name	Treatment Efficacy of Multi-Component Fall Prevention Programs for Community Dwelling Older Adults
Award	$4,000
Principal Investigator	Dr. Pei-Fen Chang, assistant professor, School of Occupational Therapy, Texas Woman's University
Collaborators	Dr. Gayle Hersch, Texas Woman’s University Carolyn Kelley, PT, DSc, NCS, Texas Woman’s University
Project Name	Novel assessment of admission sarcopenia and nutritional adequacy in the injured elderly requiring ICU admission
Award	$11,000
Principal Investigator	Dr. Laura Moore, assistant professor, Department of Surgery
Collaborators	Dr. Rosemary Kozar, Medical School Dr. Charles Wade, Medical School Dr. Carmel Dyer, Medical School Dr. Gregory Press, Medical School Dr. Marina Mourtzakis, Waterloo University Ruth Van Houten, RD, Memorial Hermann Hospital Dr. Daren Heyland, University of Kingston
Project Name	Determining prevalence of serum vitamin D testing and vitamin D deficiency in patients 65 years or older undergoing treatment for osteoporosis, osteopenia, vertebral fracture or hip fracture in the UTHealth outpatient Family Medicine and Geriatrics clinics between January 2009 and December 2010
Award	$11,950
Principal Investigator	Dr. Nahid Rianon, assistant professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Collaborators	Dr. Beatrice Selwyn, School of Public Health Dr. Kathleen Murphy, School of Nursing

Post Comment

Burroughs Wellcome Fund seeks nominations for career awards

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund has announced a call for nominations to its Career Awards for Medical Scientists program. The awards “foster the development and productivity of physician-scientists who are early in their careers and help them make the critical transition to becoming independent investigators.”

The ideal candidate will be two years away from becoming an independent investigator, have at least two years or more of postdoctoral research experience, and have a significant publication record. A select list of eligibility criteria include:

• Candidates must hold an M.D., D.D.S., D.V.M., or equivalent clinical degree.
• Proposals must be in the area of basic biomedical, disease-oriented, or translational research. Proposals in health services research or involving large-scale clinical trials are ineligible.
• Candidates must be a clinical fellow, resident, or a postdoctoral researcher and have at least two years of postdoctoral research experience at the time of application.
• Candidates with a clinical degree not awarded in the United States or Canada must be fully licensed to practice in the United States or Canada or have completed a residency in the United States or Canada.
• Candidates must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada at the time of application.
• Candidates with tenure-track appointments as an instructor or assistant professor at the time of application are not eligible.
• Candidates that have faculty appointments with institutional start-up funds or hold an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health are not eligible.

UTHealth is limited to five nominations under the terms of this notice. As such, Dr. George Stancel is requesting that eligible investigators submit a letter of interest to research@uthouston.edu no later than Aug. 1.

For more information, please visit the website.

Post Comment

Student applications being accepted
for border rotation

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA)—the UT medical school that serves the South Texas/Border Region—offers unique field experiences at the U.S.-Mexico border for medical students enrolled at the UTSOM and visiting students enrolled in U.S. MD/MPH, medical, public health, and other health professions degree programs. This four-week elective is presented by the South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) program, which has been based in Laredo since 1996 and Harlingen since 2004.

Tuition is free for students in U.S.-accredited schools of medicine and public health. Housing is provided for $600 a month. Most students’ schools give credit for STEER, and some programs offer global health credit for STEER elective. Some students have chosen STEER to fulfill their public health practicum. Presenters are bilingual, and Spanish is not necessary.

At present, the STEER students do not cross into Mexico. Nevertheless, the Border provides a unique bicultural (90% Hispanic), bilingual learning environment, with a focus on the concerns of our nation’s border with Mexico—poverty, water and air pollution, immigration, sanitation, imports, the border “fence” and a medically underserved population threatened by infectious diseases such as dengue, tuberculosis, rabies, as well as high rates of obesity and diabetes.

STEER offers training in two locations along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Laredo and Harlingen.

For more information, please visit the website or contact via email.

Post Comment

Research on display