We are pleased to provide an update to members of the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) on activities over the past year of the University of Washington School of Medicine. The enduring partnership of the UW School of Medicine with WSMA has been extremely valuable over the years. The leadership and membership of the WSMA are a tremendous source of support for the School of Medicine and outstanding partners in our work.
This report provides highlights of a productive and busy year in our diverse academic settings. Medical student teaching, residency training and fellowship programs are thriving and expanding to meet the needs of the state and region; we have made considerable progress in scientific discovery; and we have moved forward in the realm of providing quality health care for patients. New initiatives in place or being planned address key state needs. Additions and improvements of buildings and space will permit our activities to move forward more efficiently in the future in support of state priorities.
2008 legislative session
The 2008 session of the Washington State Legislature passed a supplemental budget that included funding for services delivered or supported by the UW School of Medicine, as follows:
- $400,000 for senior falls prevention, following up on research-based recommendations from UWSOM faculty member Elizabeth Phelan and others;
- $50,000 to support strengthening faculty and student research for improving services to persons with developmental disabilities; and
- In conjunction with the WSMA and others, expansion of $1.25 million to the state’s $6 million health professions scholarship and loan repayment program for primary care.
Programs that advance learning
Medical student vital statistics:
The entering 2008 medical school class had 774 Washington applicants, with 118 accepted. The ratio of qualified Washington applicants to admissions is 6.5 to 1, compared with 7.5 to 1 in 2007. Overall, there were more than 4,600 applicants for 216 positions for fall 2008. Among all students, the entering class in September 2008 will be 55 percent female. The average age is 25, with a range of 19 to 46. The average GPA is 3.67.
Students in the UW School of Medicine joined more than 15,000 other medical students around the country in participating in the National Resident Matching Program, which matches them with medical residency programs throughout the nation. Of the 167 graduating students at the UW School of Medicine, 157 participated in Match Day; another 10 students who had previously graduated from the UW entered the matching program this year. Ninety-seven percent of the UW students matched with programs initially, and the remainder successfully filled positions in the “scramble.” Thirty UW students matched with UW-affiliated hospitals, and several more will enter family medicine residencies at UW network programs at Valley Medical Center in Renton, Swedish Hospital, and Providence-St. Peter in Olympia. Another 18 UW students matched with either one-year (preliminary or transitional) or categorical programs within the WWAMI region.
Out of the UW graduating class, 48 percent went into primary-care specialties, including family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics. The number of students matching in obstetrics and gynecology increased from 9 in each of the past two years to 18 this year. Family medicine also saw an increase from 18 matching in 2007 to 24 students matching this year. About 14 percent of UW graduates matched into family medicine residencies, compared with only about 7.6 percent nationwide.
The UW School of Medicine ranked first in the nation among primary-care medical schools for the 15th consecutive year according to annual rankings of graduate and professional schools by U.S. News & World Report. In addition, for the 17th consecutive year, the school’s teaching programs in family medicine and in rural health ranked No. 1 in the nation.
The U.S. News rankings, which consider peer assessments, rankings by residency program directors, NIH funding, and other factors, assign just two overall rankings for medical schools: one for biomedical research and the other for primary care. The University of Washington and Harvard University were the only two medical schools in the nation to rank in the top seven for excellence in both of these areas.
The UW School of Medicine again had the distinction of being the only medical school in the nation ranked in the top 10 in all specialties in the annual survey. In addition to top rankings in family medicine and rural health, the school was No. 4 for teaching students about AIDS, No. 6 in internal medicine, No. 7 in three specialties: geriatrics, pediatrics (tied with Washington University in St. Louis and up from No. 8 last year), and women’s health (up from No. 10 last year), and No. 8 in drug/alcohol abuse (up from No. 10 last year). The master’s degree program in occupational therapy in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine was ranked No. 9 in a tie with New York University and the University of Pittsburgh. In disciplines that the UW School of Medicine shares with other UW schools and colleges, the UW ranked No. 5 in the nation in biomedical/bioengineering.
For the first time in many years, the debt load of graduating UW medical students stabilized somewhat in 2007. While median medical school debt increased slightly to $107,987 and median overall educational debt increased to $113,548, the increases were smaller than in recent years. In addition, the percentage of graduates with medical school debt declined from 93 percent in 2006 to 87 percent in 2007. At least a portion of this progress is due to the generosity of donors to medical student scholarships. We hope to continue this progress toward slowing and reversing debt in future years; promoting contributions to student scholarship remains a key focus among the School’s development activities.
Residency vital statistics:
The UW School of Medicine has experienced considerable growth in its accredited residency and fellowship programs, with four new fellowships recognized by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in the past year in cardiothoracic anesthesiology, transplant hepatology, sleep medicine, and congenital CT surgery. In addition, the VA has funded a number of new residency positions through its enhancement initiative.
UW graduate medical education currently supports a roster of nearly 1,100 trainees. Major training sites are UW Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Puget Sound VA, and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center. Eighteen medical centers in the Seattle area serve as affiliated sites, with additional training in numerous local and regional clinics and ambulatory sites. In addition, the UW-affiliated Family Practice Residency Network trains nearly 400 family medicine residents in programs in the WWAMI region; 11 sites are located throughout Washington.
Interest in GME throughout the State of Washington is strong, with affiliated programs in internal medicine and family medicine in Spokane. The Spokane Psychiatry Track, which includes two years of training in Seattle and two in Spokane, has been instrumental in improving mental health capabilities in Eastern Washington. Two new family medicine sites are also under consideration in Eastern Washington.
UW residency training programs continue to rank among the best in the nation; as in previous years, most programs matched their top choices. Twenty-eight UW programs and tracks participated in the NRMP Main Residency Match in 2008. Only 10 of the 197 available slots did not match and all were filled in post-Match recruitment. All Washington state family medicine network sites also filled this year. While primary-care specialties (e.g., family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics) have struggled to fill their ranks nationally, the UW programs once again had a stellar match, filling all available positions in Seattle with American medical school graduates.
The NRMP recently instituted a broad range of fellowship matches, and 27 UW fellowships matched 65 of 71 positions through the various matches, for a 92 percent fill rate, compared with 87 percent nationally.
Key educational initiatives and milestones:
Upgraded teaching space: Medical student teaching facilities in the T-wing of the Health Sciences Center were remodeled substantially in 2007-2008. Construction was completed in spring 2008 to increase the seating capacity in one of the main lecture halls from 185 to 235, to install new distance education equipment in the first-year lecture hall, and to remodel and renovate 14 small-group classrooms.
Expansion to Spokane: We eagerly await the September 2008 start date for the new WWAMI-Spokane program. The addition of 20 students per year at the new site increases enrollment of Washington students by nearly 20 percent. With its multitude of resources and excellent physicians and faculty, Spokane is an outstanding addition to the WWAMI program.
Washington State University Spokane hired WSU alumnus Kenneth Roberts as director for the Spokane program. Roberts, who came from the University of Minnesota in February to fill the new position, will administer the first-year medical curriculum at the new WWAMI site, to be located on the Riverpoint campus in Spokane. Roberts holds a doctorate in biochemistry from WSU; his primary research interest is in male infertility and contraception.
John McCarthy has accepted the position of WWAMI assistant dean for the clinical phase/Central and Eastern Washington; he began in April 2008. McCarthy, who holds a faculty appointment in the UW Department of Family Medicine, will work with Dr. Deborah Harper to further the UW School of Medicine’s mission and goals in Central and Eastern Washington. McCarthy will hold the position half-time while continuing to work as a family medicine physician for Group Health.
Educating for patient safety and enhanced learning: The Institute for Surgical and Interventional Simulation (ISIS) continues its remarkable progress in standardizing the training of medical students, residents, and practicing physicians in procedures and ensuring safety for patients. The program was featured on the television program, Evening Magazine in October 2007; the clip can be viewed online at http://www.isis.washington.edu/Media/ISIS_evening_magazine.mp4
The new ISIS facilities are located in the UW Medical Center Surgery Pavilion. A key feature of the center is a virtual operating room where simulations teach and assess trainees and physicians on state-of-the-art simulators in a setting identical to a true operating environment. Five years from now, ISIS may be part of a UW simulated hospital, where trainees will follow a simulated patient from admission through discharge. Teams that include physicians, nurses, social workers and others would work together to learn effective skills for treating patients in an array of scenarios, from a routine surgical admission to a biohazard contamination.
Community physicians will be able to take advantage of the simulation center. As the pace of medical discoveries quickens and as new and better techniques and procedures are developed, ISIS will provide a setting for physicians at all levels to master these techniques before using them with patients.
The Division of Education of the American College of Surgeons has taken steps to support surgeons’ efforts in acquiring skills in new procedures and technologies. A major area of focus is verifying the knowledge and skills of surgeons at the completion of experiential courses.
The Ninth and Jefferson Building currently under construction at Harborview Medical Center will dedicate 4,000 square feet for ISIS facilities, and conversations are underway at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center to add simulation facilities there.
New Hispanic Health Pathway: The UW School of Medicine and its Office of Multicultural Affairs have launched a new medical education certification program aimed at improving health in the United States’ growing Hispanic community. The Hispanic Health Pathway is designed to help medical students better understand and more effectively respond to the growing needs of the roughly 30 million Hispanics living in the United States. It will give students the knowledge and skills they need to give high-quality and culturally responsive care to the Hispanic population.
The pathway includes a combination of classroom and Web-based education, independent research, and clinical experiences. Students will complete their required research project (Independent Investigative Inquiry) in an area related to Hispanic health disparities. Students will also have pre-clinical and clinical experiences in clinics that provide care for the Hispanic population, such as the SeaMar Community Clinic in Seattle. They will also be encouraged to participate in a community service project involving the Hispanic community.
Programs that support scientific discovery
Vital statistics:
In NIH funding, the UW School of Medicine was again second only to Harvard among all U.S. medical schools in grant funding from the NIH. UW Medicine faculty received $579.7 million in NIH funding in 2007—$93 million above the third-ranked school in this category, the University of Pennsylvania. This is an increase of $6.5 million over 2007—a remarkable accomplishment at a time of flattening and declining federal support for research.
Key research initiatives:
The UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences was among 12 academic medical organizations nationwide to receive funding through the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) in a second round of funding. The national consortium is aimed at transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers across the country. Ultimately, this consortium will enable researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients. The UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) will receive approximately $62 million over five years.
ITHS is a consortium of six UW health science professional schools and multiple partner institutions covering 12 sites, involving 67 key scientific personnel, and connecting researchers to more than 150 centers. This ITHS site includes the UW, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, and the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research.
The institute is led by Nora Disis, associate dean for translational science in the UW School of Medicine, UW professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology, director of the UW Center for Translational Medicine in Women’s Health, and member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The ITHS will integrate research and clinical institutions across the five-state WWAMI region through successful collaborative pathways that exist within the WWAMI program.
The Institute of Translational Health Sciences includes: a community engagement plan that considers diversity across race, ethnicity, culture, rural and urban locations, geography, health status and health service delivery in partnership with Group Health Cooperative’s Center for Health Studies; an integrated ethics program linking adult and pediatric medical centers in partnership with Children’s Hospital; and advanced capability for therapeutic product development and clinical testing, in conjunction with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, aimed at enhancing future health care in the region. In addition, six American Indian/Native American network sites have been invited to partner with the ITHS, including the Seattle Indian Health Board, the Native Health Clinic (Spokane, Wash.), the South Puget Sound Intertribal Planning Agency (Shelton, Wash.), and others.
Life Sciences Discovery Fund projects: The first two rounds of funding of Washington state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund have been completed. Three UW programs were funded in both rounds. David Flum, UW professor of surgery, will lead a project to assess and improve surgical outcomes. He will oversee an expansion of the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP) to include an additional 30 hospitals in Washington. The program will benchmark many of the state’s hospitals against each other in the use of some health-care technologies, and will help reduce inappropriate use of those technologies to improve patient safety. Flum's project received a $1.35 million grant.
Daniel Chiu, UW professor of chemistry, will receive $760,000 for a project related to breast cancer monitoring. Chiu and his colleagues will work on a chip-based device that could monitor circulating tumor cells and tumor DNA in the blood of breast cancer patients. This work could help physicians track the spread of cancer and observe the efficacy of treatments.
In the second round of funding, the newly established Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine received an award of $5.3 million over four-years. The institute is a collaborative effort between researchers at the UW, Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Group Health, and local biotechnology companies. The funding will facilitate the design, development and execution of translational genetics studies that bridge the gap between basic-science research and clinical studies at academic institutions and biotechnology companies. The goal of the institute’s research will be to prevent illness and speed recovery by identifying which patients are at high risk for disease or best-suited to a specific treatment.
Gail Jarvik, the Arno G. Motulsky Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences and head of the Division of Medical Genetics, will lead the institute. The institute will include several UW researchers in the Departments of Genome Sciences, Pediatrics, Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Biostatistics.
Expansion of research space at South Lake Union: The second phase of UW Medicine’s construction of research space at South Lake Union in Seattle is now complete. The second phase, located at 815 Mercer in Seattle, includes a 170,000-square-foot laboratory building and an 86,000-square-foot office building.
The project brings almost 950 UW Medicine scientists and employees to the new buildings, including a laboratory building that will house the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, the Center for Lung Biology, the Diabetes & Obesity Center of Excellence, and a proposed Mitochondria and Metabolism Center run by the Department of Anesthesiology. The administration building will house a number of UW Medicine administrative units.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation: The UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) was established in summer 2007. This independent research institute at the UW is led by director Chris Murray, UW professor of global health, and is overseen by an international board. The IHMC debuted to the public with its first board meeting, an open house, and a research conference.
The IHME was created to conduct rigorous, independent analysis of global health conditions and health systems, and to provide high-quality information about population health. The institute is designed to provide researchers, donors, policymakers, and health practitioners with better information as they allocate the limited resources available for global health programs.
In its April 5-11 issue, The Lancet announced a partnership with the IHME to initiate a new Global Health Tracking section of the journal focused on health metrics research. Murray and Julio Frenk, chair of the IHME board and a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, co-authored the first article in this section for The Lancet. The article, “Health Metrics and Evaluation: Strengthening the Science,” discusses the importance of the field and gives an overview of some of the challenges that health metrics researchers face.
New funding in diverse areas: The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health, has funded a new research program at the UW focused on the study of the basic biology of human embryonic stem cells. One of only two such programs in the nation, the UW group consists of investigators with diverse expertise to research the unique properties of human embryonic stem cells. The findings will lead to a better understanding of how stem cells self-renew and become specific cell types, bringing stem cell-based therapies a step closer to clinical practice. The research funded through this grant is restricted to the 21 human embryonic stem cell lines approved by President Bush in August 2001.
The National Human Genome Research Institute has awarded UW researchers $10.8 million as part of a national effort to expand the ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project. In this next phase of the Human Genome Project, researchers will attempt to read instructions hidden within the genome and determine how to switch genes on and off. The effort represents a full-scale initiative to build a list of biologically functional elements in the human genome. Previous work in the ENCODE project looked at just one percent of the genome; this phase will survey the entire genetic map. Researchers hope the project will give a more complete picture of the biological roots of human health and disease.
Future severe climate changes will have major public health ramifications. Following a request from Gov. Christine Gregoire, health researchers from the Washington State Department of Health and the UW are analyzing the likely effects of climate change on the state over the next century. The group is called the Climate Change and Human Health Impacts Team (CHIT). Assessments will be based on scenarios developed by the UW Climate Impacts Group, an interdisciplinary research effort to discern the effects of natural climate shifts and global warming on the Pacific Northwest. CHIT’s findings will be presented to the governor and the state legislature. The researchers will recommend how to manage and mitigate, and perhaps prevent, anticipated public health problems.
Autism researchers at the UW are taking initial steps in attempting to prevent the developmental disorder, with a new $11.3 million study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development. This study is the first of its kind to attempt treating infants at risk for autism, and to intervene at the earliest time that symptoms are present. Other research has shown that early intervention can improve treatment outcomes.
The UW is partnering with two other local institutions in a major grant for the study of a type of gene therapy. The Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute, the UW School of Medicine, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are taking part in this five-year, $23.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Children’s Hospital will receive $13.2 million and UW faculty based at Children’s will lead the entity created by the grant, the Northwest Genome Engineering Consortium. The UW will receive $5.3 million and the FHCRC will receive $5.2 million. Andrew Scharenberg, a UW associate professor of pediatrics based at Children’s, will lead the consortium.
The consortium includes 11 projects aimed at developing methods for gene repair, a type of gene therapy that involves manipulating defective DNA sequences to restore them to the correct order. Scientists hope that by fixing the defective DNA, they can help a patient’s genes work properly and prevent or cure an inherited disease. The consortium will work at first on single-gene inherited disorders like immune deficiencies, Sickle Cell Disease, and thalassemias.
Programs that promote patient care
Vital statistics:
Several administrative changes occurred in the past year. Johnese Spisso has assumed the position of the clinical operations officer (COO) for UW Medicine and vice president for medical affairs for the University of Washington. She has administrative responsibility for the UW Medicine healthcare system, including the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, and the UW Physicians Neighborhood Clinics. Spisso has served also this past year as interim executive director of Harborview Medical Center while a search is completed for this position.
Stephen P. Zieniewicz was named executive director for UW Medical Center and began in September 2007. He provides executive leadership for the hospital and serves as a member of the senior leadership team for UW Medicine. Zieniewicz had served as chief operating officer at Saint Louis University Hospital and Tenet Healthcare Corp. since 2004. He has more than 25 years of experience in health care.
Mika Sinanan, UW professor of surgery, has been named president of UW Physicians, the practice group for the more than 1,500 faculty physicians at UW Medicine. Sinanan succeeds Norm Beauchamp, professor and chair of radiology, who served as president of UW Physicians for the previous 18 months. The practice plan includes practitioners at UW Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics. Rick Deese serves as the executive director.
Key clinical initiatives:
Harborview Medical Center: Harborview Medical Center received the prestigious 2007 Foster G. McGaw Prize in recognition of its outstanding leadership, spirit of excellence, and remarkable achievements in its community. The $100,000 prize is one of the highest honors in community service in health care, and honors an organization that provides innovative programs that significantly improve the health and well-being of the community. Harborview was recognized for its dedication to teaching and providing exemplary patient care, and its devotion to caring for the underserved.
The Norm Maleng Building opened at Harborview Medical Center in June 2008, providing much-needed expansion of inpatient beds and operating rooms. The Metropolitan King County Council voted to name the new building at Harborview Medical Center in honor of former King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. Maleng, who died last year, was a longtime advocate for Harborview. In 1989, Maleng’s daughter Karen received care in the Harborview trauma center for injuries suffered during a sledding accident. Following her death, Maleng and his wife Judy became community ambassadors for the medical center in appreciation of Harborview’s work to save lives after devastating injuries and to help families heal following the death of a loved one.
The Maleng Building includes eight operating rooms and additional inpatient beds, along with acute care, rehabilitation and clinic facilities. The building connects to Harborview Medical Center by a 70-foot long, six-story “building bridge” that contains family waiting rooms, conference rooms, staff lounges, and sleeping rooms.
The Ninth and Jefferson Building at Harborview Medical Center is expected to open in January 2009. The building will house a number of Harborview departments, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, the UW Medicine Neuroscience Institute, the UW Department of Global Health, the UW Medicine Eye Institute, and additional county health functions. These additions result from voter-approved bond funding in 2000.
Harborview Medical Center has been selected as the only top performer in a national benchmarking project for palliative care. The University HealthSystem Consortium sponsored a review of 44 hospitals around the country, with a goal of identifying the best practices in caring for patients with terminal illness.
UW Medical Center: Physicians at UW Medical Center performed the first adult heart and lung transplant in Western Washington. The transplant recipient, a 30-year-old man from Richland, Wash., had suffered from both cystic fibrosis and cardiomyopathy. UW Medical Center has been a regional leader in organ transplants since the 1960s, and has performed heart transplants since 1985 and lung transplants since 1991. The first heart and lung transplant occurred in 1981 at Stanford.
UW Medical Center is one of eight hospitals worldwide testing a surgical checklist that the World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled in June 2008. The checklist also includes items from a statewide project, the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP), led by Dellinger’s colleague, David Flum, mentioned above. WHO officials said preliminary results show the checklist nearly doubled patients’ chances of receiving proven standards of surgical care and substantially reduced complications and deaths.
Health Summit: On March 28, 2008, UW Medicine and Premera Blue Cross hosted the first-ever Washington Business & Health CEO Summit to address issues of rising health costs and rising health risks by focusing on prevention and wellness. Companies represented at the table have more than 700,000 employees. The business leaders heard experts in science and finance make the business case for the prevention of heart disease and cancer, two of the most costly and preventable diseases in the United States. The conference also highlighted the prevention and wellness programs at Pitney-Bowes, Microsoft, and K&L Gates.
Chair appointments
Six UW School of Medicine department chairs were appointed in the past year, as follows:
James Champoux, on the UW faculty since 1972, was appointed chair of the Department of Microbiology, effective October 1, 2007. Champoux succeeds Peter Greenberg, who is continuing his research work in the department.
Peter Esselman was appointed chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, effective October 2, 2007. He served as acting chair when Larry Robinson became vice dean for clinical affairs.
Russell Van Gelder was appointed chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, effective January 1, 2008. Van Gelder came to the UW School of Medicine from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was the Bernard Becker Professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Neil D. Futran became chair of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery, effective June 1, 2008. On the UW School of Medicine faculty since 1995, he previously served as director of head & neck surgery at UW Medical Center. Futran replaces Ernie Weymuller, who began his tenure as chair in 1991 and who is remaining on the faculty.
Hunter Wessells is the new chair of the Department of Urology, effective July 1, 2008. Prior to his appointment, he served as chief of urology at Harborview Medical Center since 2002. Wessells replaces Paul Lange, who served as chair for nearly 20 years.
James Davis will serve as chair of the Department of Family Medicine, starting November 1, 2008. Davis will join UW School of Medicine from the University of Wisconsin where, among other roles, he was founding director of the Department of Family Medicine’s Research Division. His research focuses on quality measurement and strategies to change practice behavior. He will succeed David Losh, who has been serving as acting chair since Alfred Berg stepped down as chair.
Faculty honors
Seymour Klebanoff, emeritus professor of medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received the 2007 Award for Distinguished Research from the Association of American Medical Colleges. This award, established in 1947, recognizes outstanding clinical or laboratory research by a medical school faculty member. This is the first time a UW faculty member has received this major award.
Two School of Medicine faculty were elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Michael J. Bevan, UW professor of immunology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and Elizabeth Thompson, UW professor of statistics and adjunct professor of genome sciences and of biostatistics, were among the 72 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the academy in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Three UW School of Medicine faculty were elected this year to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies: Wylie Burke, professor and chair of the Department of Medical History and Ethics; Eric B. Larson, clinical professor of medicine and former medical director of UW Medical Center; and Christopher Murray, professor of global health and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. These three join 30 other UW School of Medicine faculty in the prestigious institute.
Rene H. Levy, professor of pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy and of neurological surgery in the School of Medicine, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Levy was elected to the Section on Pharmaceutical Sciences for distinguished contributions to the treatment of epilepsy, and for fostering the development and rational use of new drugs and therapeutic modalities.
UW faculty members Karen Horvath, associate professor of surgery, and Richard Shugerman, professor of pediatrics, are among 10 people in the nation receiving the 2008 Parker Palmer Courage to Teach Award for their commitment to teaching and development of innovative and effective residency programs.
Douglas Paauw, professor of medicine and head of general internal medicine at UW Medical Center, received the Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians (ACP) Washington Chapter. The award honors ACP fellows and masters who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in medical care, education, and research, and who have provided service to their communities and region.
Roger Rosenblatt, professor and vice chair of family medicine, received the 2007 Malcolm Peterson Award from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Rosenblatt has been involved in caring for underserved populations as founder of the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and as director of the medical school’s Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program (R/UOP). He was a co-founder of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment-Washington chapter.
Maxine Hayes, the state health officer for the Washington State Department of Health, clinical professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine, and clinical professor of health services in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, received the 2007 Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award from the American Public Health Association .for her work in helping vulnerable populations and those people who are underserved by the medical system, especially women and children.
Four UW School of Medicine alumni, including three Washingtonians, were honored with awards from the UW Medicine Alumni Association in June. Gerald Nepom, director of the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center, received the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award . This award recognizes individuals for professional achievements and cumulative contributions that have brought personal distinction, enhanced the profession, improved the welfare of the general public, and brought honor to the UW School of Medicine. Ben Danielson, medical director of Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Seattle, received the 2008 Early Achievement Alumni Award. John Vassall II, vice president of medical affairs for Swedish Medical Center, received the 2008 Alumni Service Award, which honors dedication and determined efforts on behalf of the UW School of Medicine and the UW Medicine Alumni Association that have benefited the community.
UW School of Medicine alumnus William Foege, senior fellow at the Gates Foundation, received the 2008 Advancing Global Health Award from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. The award honors people with connections to the Puget Sound area who have demonstrated long-term commitment to improving health worldwide. Foege also received Research!America’s 2008 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership. The award honors the nation’s top advocates for medical and scientific research.
Of special note:
Northwest Kidney Centers, a Seattle-based not-for-profit organization, and Kirin-Amgen, a California-based biotechnology joint venture, have given an honorary gift to the UW to establish the Joseph W. Eschbach Endowed Chair in Kidney Research. The chair is based in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine.
The gift is made in recognition of the late Joseph Eschbach, a nephrologist and UW clinical professor. Eschbach died Sept. 7, 2007. Through his exemplary clinical care, home dialysis program leadership, scholarly activity, groundbreaking research in anemia management, and leadership of the Northwest Kidney Centers, Eschbach changed the face of kidney care throughout the state, region and world.
Eschbach, who was senior research advisor at Northwest Kidney Centers and clinical professor emeritus of medicine at the UW, spent his 45-year career at the Northwest Kidney Centers, the UW, and Minor and James Clinic. In the 1970s, Eschbach and former UW faculty member John Adamson sought to understand the physiology of treating severe anemia in advanced kidney disease. They showed that in an animal model of dialysis-dependent kidney disease, replacement of erythropoietin would stimulate red blood cell production.
In the mid-1980s, Eschbach led successful clinical trials to treat anemia in kidney dialysis patients. This research played a pivotal role in Amgen’s development of the drug Epogen. Eschbach treated patients with Epogen at Northwest Kidney Centers in the world’s first clinical trials of the drug.
Eschbach was recipient of the David Hume Memorial Award of the National Kidney Foundation and the International Society of Nephrology Amgen International Prize. He was an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and an emeritus board member of the Northwest Kidney Centers.
We thank the members of the Washington State Medical Association for your ongoing support of the UW School of Medicine. Working together on legislative issues and advancing medical education, research, and patient care, we have come a long way. Much remains to be done, and our track record of collaboration will move these agendas forward. We greatly appreciate the active involvement of so many WSMA members as preceptors and clinical faculty in teaching our medical students and residents in community and academic settings throughout the state. Your excellent work does much to promote quality health care and recruitment of physicians to care for our growing population in Washington.