Pike

O'Malley

Academic Women's Network celebrates 10 years of achievement

A career in medicine brings a host of competing de- mands on one's time --teaching and mentoring students and trainees, treating patients, conducting research, securing grants, serving on administrative committees, traveling to conferences.

Factor in any personal responsibilities, such as child or elder care, and it may seem that there simply is not time to take on another commitment.

A small group of women faculty in the School of Medicine did accept a specific additional challenge in 1991 when they formed the Academic Women's Network (AWN).

AWN is celebrating 10 years of achievement by hosting a symposium Nov. 30 with talks by six women faculty and a gala dinner/dance featuring prominent School of Medicine women from over the years.

Click to see entire article

Nice work Douglas F. Covey, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology, presents the Oliver H. Lowry Prize in Pharmacology to Yue Yu Nov. 16 at the Student Awards Luncheon sponsored by the School of Medicine's Office of Student Affairs. Yu, a third-year student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, was one of three recipients of the Lowry prize and one of 28 second-, third- and fourth-year medical students to be honored for excellence during the 2000-01 academic year. Yu also received the Doctor Margaret G. Smith Award for outstanding achievement in her second year of medical school.

Reducing hospital visits among nursing home residents studied

Researchers in the School of Medicine teamed with others in Missouri to design a new method that helps identify nursing home residents at relatively low risk for death from lower respiratory infection, which means patients may be safely treated without transferring them to a hospital.

The study was published in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lower respiratory infections, primarily pneumonia, are the leading causes of hospitalization and death among nursing home residents.

The new method helps clinicians determine the severity of the illness and the risk of death, which can help them choose the location for treatment more quickly. Residents at low risk of dying may be managed best in the nursing home, which may prevent complications or discomfort that can occur from a hospital admission

Click to see entire article

Steroid-induced osteoporosis treatment studied in children

By Anne Enright Shepherd

Older women often are thought to be the only people susceptible to the brittle-bone effects of osteoporosis. But children, too, can get the disease, especially those on long-term steroid therapy.

A new two-year study in the School of Medicine is examining the effectiveness of drugs called biophosphonates in treating osteoporosis in children.

Children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, severe asthma or inflammatory bowel disease may need extensive steroid therapy, as may those who have undergone cell or organ transplants. As many as 50 percent of patients on chronic steroid therapy will have at least one nontraumatic bone fracture. In addition, steroid therapy during childhood may reduce peak bone mineral density, increasing the risk later in life of fractures related to osteoporosis.

Click to see entire article