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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 11, No. 2
January 12, 2007
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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm
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This week’s news:
* Former inmates are at high risk for death following release from prison, according to New England Journal of Medicine study conducted by former UW Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar Ingrid Binswanger
* Medical school's new Committee on Continuous Professionalism Improvement asking for input from members of UW Medicine community
* UW research support offices taking steps to ensure smooth transition to new electronic grant submission program; researchers urged to budget more time for application process
* Columbia University Medical Center honors Michael Schwartz, UW professor of medicine, for outstanding achievement in diabetes research
* Leighton Chan to lead Rehabilitation Medicine Department at NIH Clinical Research Center
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FORMER PRISONERS AT HIGH RISK OF DEATH, STUDY FINDS
Prisoners who have been recently released have a high death rate, especially in the first two weeks after release, according to a new study published in the Jan. 11 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The study was conducted by Ingrid Binswanger, a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the UW School of Medicine and VA Puget Sound Health Care Center in Seattle, and her colleagues at the UW, Harborview Medical Center, and the Washington State Department of Corrections. Binswanger is now an assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center’s School of Medicine.
In the first study of its kind in the United States, Binswanger analyzed data from 30,237 inmates released from prison between 1999 and 2003 in Washington state. The sample represented almost all prisoners released during that time. Of those individuals, 443 died during an average follow-up time of 1.9 years.
The death rates of the released prisoners were compared to the death rates of other Washington residents of the same age, gender, and race. The study found that newly released prisoners were 12.7 times as likely to die in the two weeks following their release compared to other state residents in the same demographic groups. Over the whole study, the former inmates were 3.5 times more likely to die than other state residents. The death rate among former inmates was considerably higher than the death rate among inmates in prison.
The leading causes of death were drug overdose, cardiovascular disease, homicide and suicide. Nearly one quarter of the deaths were a result of drug overdose. Lung cancer represented half of all the cancer deaths in this population. Younger individuals tended to die from overdose, homicide and suicide, whereas older individuals tended to die from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Binswanger recommends programs targeted by age to address this difference.
Binswanger may be reached at ingrid.binswanger@uchsc.edu
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COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONALISM BEGINS WORK, EAGER FOR INPUT FROM UW MEDICINE COMMUNITY
** Editor's note: The UW School of Medicine's new Committee on Continuous Professionalism Improvement (CCPI), which was created by Paul Ramsey, dean of the School of Medicine, has held its first meeting and is looking for input from faculty, staff and students. The following is a letter from the committee to the medical school leadership and the UW Medicine community. **
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new standing committee convened by Dean Ramsey. The Committee on Continuous Professionalism Improvement, which met this week for the first time, has been charged by the Dean with coordinating and leading efforts to stimulate and promote professionalism across UW Medicine. The Steering Committee on Medical Professionalism and Institutional Culture, chaired by Harry Kimball, and the Task Force on Physician Ethics and Integrity in the Workplace, chaired by Richard Veith, had both, independently, strongly recommended establishing a School of Medicine standing committee for this purpose.
We all see daily evidence of the highest professional values being practiced in the work of our colleagues, trainees and staff throughout UW Medicine. We want to recognize and celebrate these efforts. At the same time, professionalism is an aspirational goal that requires ongoing attention through a process of “continuous professionalism improvement” analogous to continuous quality improvement efforts in clinical care and practice. As in other areas of clinical care, high standards and accountability are crucial to improvement efforts in professionalism.
Our committee will first survey in depth the many activities related to professionalism that are in place at UW Medicine – clinical, research and teaching, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We will also work hard to identify additional initiatives that promote professionalism and organize activities that stimulate discussions on this topic. As we carry out our work we need your help and continued input. Our collective success is highly dependent on everyone’s participation. Thus, we are embarking on a community process of dialogue and engagement at every level of UW Medicine and invite and welcome involvement by all members of our community. We will communicate regularly with the UW Medicine community using whichever communication channels best fit the need.
UW Medicine is committed to understanding and modeling professional values at every level. This commitment is intrinsic to the living fabric of medicine and must be palpable in every aspect of UW Medicine activities – in education, patient care and research. Remember: we welcome your input into this process! Feel free to contact any of the committee members, listed below.
Carlos A. Pellegrini (Committee Chair), professor and chair of surgery, pellegri@u.washington.edu
Scott Barnhart, medical director of Harborview Medical Center, sbht@u.washington.edu
Alfred O. Berg, professor and chair of family medicine, aberg@u.washington.edu
Molly Blackley-Jackson, resident, internal medicine, blackley@u.washington.edu
Wylie Burke, professor and chair of medical history and ethics, wburke@u.washington.edu
Trisha N. Davis, professor of biochemistry, tdavis@u.washington.edu
Mark A. Del Beccaro, professor of pediatrics, mark.delbeccaro@seattlechildrens.org
Kelly Fryer-Edwards, assistant professor of medical history and ethics, edwards@u.washington.edu
Erika A. Goldstein, associate professor of medicine, erika@u.washington.edu
David Kammer, second-year medical student, djkammer@u.washington.edu
Harry R. Kimball, senior advisor to the dean of medicine, hkimball@u.washington.edu
Ramoncita R. Maestas, associate professor of family medicine, maestas@u.washington.edu
Teresa L. Massagli, professor of rehabilitation medicine, massagli@u.washington.edu
Terry J. Mengert, professor of medicine, terrymen@u.washington.edu
Sohail K. Mirza, associate professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine, mirza@u.washington.edu
John R. Pettit, senior advisor to the dean of medicine, jpettit@u.washington.edu
Christina M. Surawicz, professor of medicine, surawicz@u.washington.edu
Kathryn Treit, third-year medical student, ktreit@u.washington.edu
Erik Van Eaton, senior resident, surgery, vane@u.washington.edu
Barbara Van Ess, director of academic personnel and medical staff appointments, bve@u.washington.edu
Richard C. Veith, professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, rcv@u.washington.edu
Edward A. Walker, medical director, UW Medical Center, edwalker@u.washington.edu
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UW RESEARCHERS URGED TO PREPARE FOR NEW ELECTRONIC GRANT SUBMISSION SYSTEM
The UW’s research support offices are taking steps to ensure a smooth transition to the new federal requirements for electronic grant submission, and are also encouraging all researchers to be prepared for the transition to the electronic system. Beginning with this February’s NIH application deadline, all federal grant applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov, the new portal for grant submissions to 26 federal agencies.
The Office of Research and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), formerly known as Grant and Contract Services, have created resources for UW researchers to aid in the transition to Grants.gov. Researchers are urged to take advantage of these tutorials and guides, learn about Grants.gov, and to allow extra time for grant submission. Application bottlenecks, software compatibility problems, and other factors could lead to researchers inadvertently missing application deadlines, even if their grant package is completed in time.
Researchers are strongly urged to budget extra time, especially before big deadlines like the one on Feb. 5 for NIH grant applications. Final proposals need to be submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs at least five business days before the federal agency deadline. People using Mac or Linux operating systems may also run into problems with Grants.gov, which was designed for Windows. For more information on this issue, see the OSP’s guide called Getting Started with Grants.gov, at http://www.washington.edu/research/osp/gg_ready.html
The UW Guide to Electronic Grant Submission can help researchers navigate Grants.gov, and it provides links to UW forms and policies needed at each step. To use the guide, visit
http://depts.washington.edu/sf424vq/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm
The UW's System to Administer Grants Electronically (SAGE) can also help researchers during the application process. Recent updates to the system allow researchers to upload and electronically route some proposal files. For more information, visit http://ucs.admin.washington.edu/sagenet/
OSP has also created a Web resource, Grants.gov at the UW, to help researchers through the transition. It provides information about setting up your computer for the application process, updates and announcements from sponsor agencies, online tools for preparing a Grants.gov application, a schedule of training sessions, a network of peer mentors who can assist with the grants portal, and a set of frequently asked questions and common mistakes with Grants.gov. Visit this resource at http://www.washington.edu/research/osp/gg/index.php
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MICHAEL SCHWARTZ HONORED FOR OUTSTANDING DIABETES RESEARCH
Michael Schwartz, professor of medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition and the head of clinical nutrition at Harborview Medical Center, has been honored by Columbia University Medical Center for his diabetes research. Schwartz will receive the 2006 Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Diabetes Research.
The award is intended to recognize senior researchers in the field of diabetes, and to support collaborations that can help promising early-career researchers. The award includes a two-year, $100,000 grant to support a research fellow in the lab of the Berrie Award recipient.
Schwartz's research has shown how the malfunction of certain neurons in the hypothalamus can cause dysfunctions of body weight and blood glucose. He has shown how insulin and leptin enter the brain and influence these neurons, which regulate food intake, autonomic function and glucose metabolism. Schwartz's work has shown that an inherited or acquired impairment of the neurons can promote weight gain and insulin resistance, hasten the onset of diabetes, and increase the insulin requirements when treating uncontrolled diabetes.
Schwartz earned his medical degree at Rush Medical College in Chicago before coming to the UW for his medical residency and a fellowship in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition. He worked as an acting instructor in the medical school before being named assistant professor in 1993. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the 1994 Young Investigator Award of the American Federation for Medical Research and the 1996 Young Faculty Award of the Western Society for Clinical Investigation.
Schwartz may be reached at mschwart@u.washington.edu
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LEIGHTON CHAN LEAVING UW TO HEAD NIH RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
Leighton Chan, associate professor of rehabilitation medicine at the UW, is leaving the university to lead a department at the National Institutes of Health. Chan will head the Rehabilitation Medicine Department of the NIH Clinical Research Center in Bethesda, Md.
Chan has been a UW faculty member for more than a decade, starting as an acting instructor of rehabilitation medicine in 1994. He has also served as an attending physician at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Harborview Medical Center, and UW Medical Center. He earned his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., and his medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He completed his internship and residency at the UW, and served as chief resident in the UW Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Chan has served for several years as the medical director for the pulmonary rehabilitation program at UWMC. He also ran a back-pain clinic and an electrodiagnostic lab specializing in diagnosis of orthopedic and neurologic disorders. He may be reached at leighton@u.washington.edu
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Online News is published by Health Sciences/UW Medicine News and Community Relations.
Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu
Online News is copyright 2007. All rights, including electronic redistribution, are reserved.
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