MUSC Catalyst 7-18-2014

July 18, 2014

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA

Vol. 32, No. 46

HCC receives NCI designation renewal Staff Reports The MUSC Hollings Cancer Center has been awarded a five-year renewal of its National Cancer Institute designation, a distinction held by only 68 cancer centers in the U.S. The Hollings Cancer Center is the only institution in South Carolina with this prestigious status.

Andrew S. Kraft, M.D., HCC director, said this renewal affirms that HCC researchers and physicians are leaders in discovering, developing and delivering cutting-edge treatments, based on laboratory research, to patients in South Carolina and beyond. The immediate benefit to patients is increased access to early clinical trials offering promising new treatments.

“This renewal confirms that MUSC researchers and clinicians are working together as a team to make advances in the war on cancer,” Kraft said. “We are grateful that this outstanding effort by so many is being recognized and supported through continued NCI Designation.”

The five-year renewal is accompanied by $7.5 million in funding to sustain and grow research efforts at MUSC. The NCI designation and renewal is based on outstanding facilities, commitment to research, leadership and vision.

Since originally receiving NCI Designation in 2009, HCC has continued to grow and expand programs. The cancer center now has more than $42 million in cancer research funding and over 200 clinical trials open to patients. Today, the HCC faculty includes 120 scientists representing more than 20 MUSC departments, with 107 team members from the College of Medicine.

In the last four years, Hollings scientists published 722 articles in peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, HCC now has an established Phase I Clinical Trials program, and accrual to therapeutic clinical trials has seen a 40 percent increase since 2009.

MUSC President David J. Cole, M.D.,

Inside Medical center

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MUSC’s ECLS Center wins fourth ELSO Award.

GlObal health PrOGraM photo by Julia Lynn

Dr. Chrystal Paulous, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the College of Medicine, conducts melanoma research as a member of Hollings Cancer Center. hailed the renewal as affirmation of the strength of the work being done at HCC: “It’s gratifying to see the Hollings Cancer Center receive renewal of our NCI designation. Hollings continues to be at the forefront of biomedical research at MUSC, and this renewal validates the significant, ongoing and dedicated effort by Hollings scientists toward advances in cancer prevention, diagnoses and treatment, with the ultimate goal of finding cancer cures.”

NCI-designated cancer centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate diverse research approaches that focus on cancer. They play a vital role in advancing the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from cancer through increased clinical trials that offer patients new drugs and treatment

protocols that would be unavailable to them otherwise.

When NCI Designation was initially achieved by HCC, U.S. Senator Lindsey L. Graham called the designation "a game changer for the thousands of South Carolinians with cancer,” adding, “The NCI designation only comes to the best and brightest. It is a compliment to the men and women who put in countless hours at this facility and recognition that the Hollings Cancer Center is among the best of the best in cancer research.”

According to the NCI, designated cancer centers are a major source of discovery of the nature of cancer and the development of more effective approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis and therapy. They also

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Global Health pilot grants awarded to six faculty recipients.

2 Campus News 5 Meet James 11 Classifieds t h e c ata ly s t Online http://www. musc.edu/ catalyst

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PeoPle

Around Campus

J. Allan Diehl J. Allan Diehl, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, has joined the Hollings Cancer Center as associate director for Basic Sciences. Diehl will focus on advancing and integrating basic science discoveries in order to facilitate the development of new therapeutics and clinical efforts to treat and eradicate cancer. Diehl comes to MUSC from the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania where he was co-director of its Tumor Biology Program.

Bruce Ovgiagele

Bruce Ovbiagele, M.D., professor Department of Neurology, was named to the 11th Class of Liberty Fellows. The Liberty Fellows program recruits diverse leaders, providing them with a forum to reflect on what makes a just society, deepening their knowledge and perspectives and enhancing their capacity to solve

Editorial of fice MUSC Office of Public Relations 135 Cannon Street, Suite 403C, Charleston, SC 29425.

843-792-4107 Fax: 843-792-6723 Interim editor: Cindy Abole catalyst@musc.edu Catalyst staff: Mikie Hayes, hayesmi@musc.edu

evenTs Inspired Kids book

photo by Tim Roylance, Digital Imaging

Members of the College of Medicine Class of 2016 are presented with their white coats from medicine associate deans and clerkship directors at the June 27 Third-Year Student Clinician’s Ceremony held at the Drug Discovery Building. Also recognized were new inductees into the Paul B. Underwood Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. problems facing South Carolina leaders.

Jake Abernathy

Jake Abernathy, M.D., associate professor, Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, was among nine researchers to receive

The Catalyst is published once a week.

Paid adver tisements, which do not represent an endorsement by MUSC or the State of South Carolina, are handled by Island Publications Inc., Moultrie News, 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C., 843-849-1778 or 843-958-7490. E-mail: sales@moultrienews.com.

the 2014 Liberty Mutual Research Institute and Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors best paper award.

Kristin Shumard Kristin Shumard is MUHA’s new Release of Information supervisor. Shumard will work closey with Compliance for HIPAA oversight, legal, risk management, and government agencies. A supervisor in Patient Access at Ashley River Tower, Shumard will begin her role on July 21.

The 5th annual “Inspired Kids Helping Kids” campaign, sponsored by Signature Photography, is looking for local kids ages 1 to 15 years old to be in their “Inspired” art book, proceeds from which will benefit the MUSC Children’s Hospital.

Photo sessions will take place during the months of July, August and September and will be taken at Charleston area locations as well as at their studio. Their offices are located at 320 East Bay Street, Charleston.

For more information, visit http:// Inspired.SignaturePhotography.Biz or contact Eddie Toporek by phone at 300-3333 or via email at etoporek@ gmail.com

Golf Tournament The 18th Annual Monica Kreber Golf Tournament will take place July 18 at Wild Dunes. Cost is $800 per team and includes lunch by Outback Steak House, beer, wine, a goodie bag, and dinner by Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ. The tournament is named in honor of Monica Kreber who was diagnosed with Leukemia 18 years ago and treated here at MUSC. This event raises $40,000 annually and all proceeds go to pediatric oncology research at the MUSC Darby Research Institute.

Contact Mimi Dorman at 345-3172.

Maralynne Mitchum Lectureship set July 18 The Second Annual Maralynne D. Mitchum Lecture and Alumni Luncheon will take place Friday, July 18, at the College of Health Professions. It will be hosted by the Division of Occupational Therapy and Office of Development/ Alumni Affairs.

It will begin with coffee and registration from 8 to 8:30 a.m., Bioengineering Building Lobby and continues with a tour of the Center for Rehabiliation Research in Neurological Conditions. The formal program will start at 10:30 a.m.,

Bioengineering Building Auditorium.

This event’s guest speaker will be Glen Gillen, Ed.D., a writer and professor at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manhattan.

The Maralynne D. Mitcham Lectureship Fund was established to create, in perpetuity, an annual lectureship program for the Division of Occupational Therapy.

To register, email bozzelta@musc.edu. visit http://academicdepartments.musc. edu/chp/ot/mmitcham/index.htm.

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Fund aids employees to purchase items for PCICU families By emily UPshUR Public Relations

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hanks to the generosity of MUSC employees through this year’s Yearly Employee Support campaign, $2,500 will help meet a need for the patients and families of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

“The YES campaign, which runs from April through June each year, is MUSC’s internal fundraising campaign that allows faculty and staff to make charitable contributions to support funds right here at MUSC. The YES Family Fund is one that receives support during our YES campaign,” said Whitney McLuen, the campaign coordinator.

The YES Family Fund in particular is special, McLuen said, in that it provides grants to MUSC programs that receive little to no funding from other sources.

Each grant can total up to $2,500 in funds toward a specific program. Since its introduction in 1999, the YES Family Fund has provided more than $300,000 toward MUSC projects.

One of this year’s projects was designed to promote infant development and family bonds in the PCICU. Led

by Child Life specialist Casey Page, the program caters to PCICU patients and families.

The grant money will allow Page to purchase necessary items such as sound machines, recordable storybooks, digital voice recorders, and mechanical swings called mamaRoos® that will be used exclusively for this program in the PCICU. These valuable resources are intended to help the disrupted relationship between PCICU infant patients and their parents.

“These infants get diagnosed either in utero or after birth with severe, congenital heart defects that often require immediate surgery during their first few days of life. The PCICU environment, diagnosis and treatment can potentially interrupt the natural caregiving relationship between parent and child. Sometimes the parent can’t even pick up the infant and it makes him or her feel at a loss as to what to do.

When parents are unable to successfully

act as caregivers their confidence drops and so does their desire to engage their child. This can sometimes lead to a disrupted attachment between parent and child,” Page explained.

This absence of confidence and attachment can lead to problems in the infant’s future development, Page said, especially in cases where PCICU admissions are expected to be lengthy ordeals in the child’s life. However, with the grant money provided by the YES Family Fund, the items will be available in the PCICU to help strengthen and maintain the bond between parent and infant.

“I wanted to bring in some materials that would meet the needs of those highacuity patients, but wouldn’t overwhelm the patient’s sensitivity to sound and touch. These materials would meet the patient’s needs as far as development is concerned. It also allows the parent a very specific role that would be familiar to them as a parent taking care of their child,” Page said.

Page described how parents could use the digital recorders to record their voices sharing messages of love or reading storybooks to their children.

This would enable those parents who are separated from their child to still be involved in the recovery process. She also said that once the infant is healthier and more aware, the mamaRoo® swing can be used to mimic a parent’s natural movements such as walking and swaying.

It also emits familiar noises, producing the sound of a heartbeat or swishing to reflect what the infant heard in utero.

The digital recorders and the swing serve to lower the stressors of hospitalization and ease the parents and infants back into that natural parent-child relationship.

“As a child life specialist, my background is heavy in childdevelopment and promoting coping and resiliency in children during hospitalization. I understand how important creating a strong bond during infancy is to healthy development.

This project is intended to promote interactions between an infant and his or her parent while in the PCICU that are as typical as possible,” Page said.

photo by Mary Ellen Dudash, Public Relations

Children’s Hospital’s PCICU staff includes Amanda Schubert, R.N., from left, Casey Page, Shelley Grosso, R.N., Lauren Ruthven, R.N., Dr. Jason Buckley and Kelly Allen, R.N. To learn more about the YES Family Fund, visit https://giving.musc.edu/yes/.

The 2014 YES Family Fund received 38 applications and was able to award more than $32,000 to 16 different projects.

They are: q Lifts for Little Brains, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology – $2,500 q Dynacleft for Cleft Children, Craniofacial anomalies and cleft lip and palate clinic — $2,225 q Therapeutic Listening Program, Rehabilitation Services – $1,291.95 q Increasing Access to Dental Care in an Underserved Population, clinical Neuroscience — $2,500 q Centering Pregnancy, Department of OB/GYN – $2,445.97 q Development and Preliminary Reliability Study of the Pediatric Sensory Modality Assessment and Rehabilitation

Technique (SMART), physical therapyCHP – $1,158 q Can–Teen Support Group, PediatricsChild Life/Oncology – $2,500 q Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Psychosocial Program, Child Life – $2,500 q EMPOWERR, IOP – $2,500 q Children’s Hospital Bereavement Program, Children’s Services – $2,500 q Ozzie’s Project, Child Life-7East – $2,500 q Little Tykes Buggy/Tricycles, 7B-Pediatric Subspecialty – $300 q Vecta Distraction Station, Child Life Services — $2,500 q Children’s Day Treament Urban Farm Satellite, IOP – $250 q Sickle Cell Sisters, Child Life Services – $2,500

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ECMO program wins ELSO Award for fourth time By maRy ellen DUDash Public Relations

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or the fourth consecutive time, the MUSC Extracorporeal Life Support Center has been presented with the Award for Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization.

This distinction is awarded to a center that demonstrates excellence in promoting ELSO’s mission and vision, patient care, and training, education, collaboration, and communication.

These extraordinary achievements support the guidelines of ELSO toward a healing environment for patients, families and staff.

Established in 2007, ELSO created the award so its members had an opportunity to apply to be designated a Center of Excellence and to demonstrate their commitment to remarkable patient care. Emily Warr, R.N., coordinator of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program, which is a member of ELSO, explained, “Being a center of excellence is an accolade that recognizes our achievements and reflects the dedication to advancing intensive care and nursing leadership at the bedside that we continuously work to

The ECMO machine is an integral part of the ECLS center.

achieve here at MUSC.” According to Warr, MUSC’s ECLS Center is one of a few hundred across the world that provides this type of therapy; however, this is the only center in South Carolina that provides ECMO services.

When a child’s heart or lungs are not able to function on their own or with the use of medicines or mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal life support can provide the necessary support for these organs to heal. ECMO is a treatment that utilizes a machine to bypass a patient’s lungs while circulating blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream.

In addition to Warr, the ECLS team is comprised of ECMO specialist nurses, Joel Cochran, D.O., the medical director, cardiovascular perfusionists, and intensivists from five ICUs throughout the hospital.

This team has become accustomed to receiving such an honor. For the fourth time in four terms, it has received the ELSO Award and this year, the center’s overall scores exceeded both the average and median scores.

In a letter to Warr informing her of the center’s award, the selection committee noted that one of the noteworthy reasons the center was recognized was the fact that the ECLS Center presents an example for improving workforce management that is comprehensive, detailed and precise. The committee further stated that implementation of a new staffing model is never easy and this center describes a route that other ECLS Center may emulate.

U.S. News & World Report recognizes the ELSO Award of Excellence as one criterion for top institutions and winning the ELSO Award was no small feat. According to Warr, the 45page application process has become more difficult and extensive each year, including questions about various domains of the program. She explained that the application process was designed to bring to light the extraordinary achievements of representative centers The process also served to pinpoint what the ECLS Center at MUSC

photos by Mary Ellen Dudash, Public Relations

Registered nurses Christine Cameron, from left, Emily Warr and Mical Parker pose in front of one of MUSC’s ECMO machines. The ECMO machines provide perfusion to a patient’s sick organs supporting patients for days to weeks recovering in the ICU while his or her body heals. could improve on. “It is a continuous improvement project,” Warr remarked.

The ELSO award ceremony will take place later this fall, at the 25th Annual Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Something that is really exciting,” explains Warr, “is that we are one of five centers selected to present a poster at the conference on one of the standards that we met.”

The poster will cover a workforce management solution that the ECLS Center installed in the last two years that includes recruiting R.N.s to the ECMO

team from all ICUs in the hospital. The center also worked on improving NICU staffing since they are the ICU that most heavily supports ECMO staffing hospital wide. The ELSO award committee noted this example of improving the workforce as going above and beyond their expectations.

When asked what the award meant for the ECLS Center, Warr humbly said that it is all about acknowledgment. “Really, the award is recognition that we are leaders in our field.”

IHI Medical Missions recruiting for August Indigenous Health International is looking for volunteer physicians (medicine, OB/GYN and pediatrics), and dentists to participate in an upcoming 10-day trip to the Kunas of Panama, Aug. 1-10. Currently recruiting highly motivated

individuals with a passion for meeting the health care needs of underserved and marginalized populations.

Interested individuals should contact Dr. Leonard Egede at indigenoushealthinternational @ gmail.com.

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MEET JAMES

James Brook Department Hollings Cancer Center How you are changing what’s possible at MUSC We are attempting to grow the Hollings Cancer Center service line, in collaboration with College of Medicine departments in the hospital and cancer center, to create a cancer treatment network improving cancer care for the residents of South Carolina.

How long at MUSC 2.5 years Children Kristine and Elizabeth Who in history would you like to meet and why Vince Lombardi. I would like to understand how he motivated people to be successful both in football and also in life.

Meal you love to cook Triple pork -- grilled pork tenderloin with an Italian sausage inserted in the middle and wrapped with bacon Your idea of a dream vacation Cycle through Europe following the Tour de France for the 23 days and ďŹ nishing in Paris

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Doctor praises improvements in stem cell transplants By helen aDams Public Relations

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t’s a claim to fame Archie Suber probably would rather not have.

On June 26 he became the 1,500th person to receive a bone marrow or stem cell transplant at MUSC to treat his mantle cell lymphoma, which accounts for about one in 20 Non–Hodgkin lymphoma diagnoses in the nation.

The day before his stem cell transplant, Suber had something else on his mind as well – his favorite church buffet in Columbia, where he lives. He laughed, trying to make it sound nutritious.

“It’s not unhealthy food. They fix baked chicken. They have your basic vegetables, your carrots, green beans and salads. And the little strawberry shortcakes.”

The father and computer programmer hopes to eat at that buffet again in a few months, once he recovers from his transplant.

Appropriately, Robert Stuart, M.D., supervised Suber’s transplant. The MUSC doctor knows a lot about such procedures. He performed the first stem cell transplant in South Carolina more than 27 years ago at MUSC. Today, Stuart is a professor of

photo Sarah Pack, Public Relations

Archie Suber was MUSC’s 1,500th person to receive a bone marrow or stem cell transplant on June 26.

medicine in MUSC's division of hematology/oncology. If he could go back in time and talk to his younger self in the 1980s, when he was new at bone marrow and stem cell transplants, he would tell himself that he was wrong about what he thought then.

Stuart told his mentor at the time that bone marrow transplants wouldn’t last long. “The future is obsolescence.

I said, 'if at the end of my career I’m still doing this brutal, barely defensible procedure, I will consider my career a failure.' I was joking a little bit, but not completely," he said. “We’re still doing it, but now we’re doing it a lot better.”

Studies show survival rates have increased significantly among patients who receive blood stem cell transplants from both related and unrelated donors for many reasons, including advances in human leukocyte antigen tissue typing, better supportive care and earlier referral for transplantation.

Stuart said in the early days of bone marrow transplants, the methods for determining whether two unrelated people really were matched well enough for a transplant were very crude. He has watched the procedures evolve.

“In the 2000s, we started doing basically DNA typing – like the TV show “CSI.” So now we identify the genes for each of the immune system identification signals called HLA antigens. Everybody has four critical HLA genes. You have two copies of each. So we say a perfect match is an eight out of eight match.

Now, we actually sequence those four genes for the donor and the recipient.

When the DNA is exactly the same, that’s a real match.”

That dramatically improved the matching procedure at a time when the demand for bone marrow and stem cell transplants was on the rise. When Stuart started doing bone marrow and stem cell transplants in the 1980s, patients had to be under 40 to qualify. Doctors believed it was too toxic for anyone older.

“Then what happened was the doctors started getting to be over 40,” Stuart said, joking.

Doctors started raising the age limit as they got better at the transplants

photo by Brennan Wesley, Business Development & Marketing Services

Hematology/Oncology’s Dr. Robert K. Stuart reviews a patient’s case prior to a stem cell transplant procedure. Story taken from MUSC News Center, visit http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/pr/newscenter/. and refined their techniques. They increased the number of people receiving autologous transplants, which involve the patient’s own stem cells, and the number of people receiving allogeneic transplants, which involve cells or marrow from donors. MUSC doctors now perform about 120 such procedures per year, compared to 40 per year in the 1990s.

Stuart’s hair has gone from brown to gray during his three decades of

performing bone marrow and stem cell transplants. Both he and MUSC’s 1500th transplant patient are looking forward to the future; Stuart, because he’s still fascinated by the intellectual challenges of his field, and Suber, because he is looking forward to more than just a church buffet. His daughter is about to start her freshman year in college, possibly majoring in education.

Suber plans to be around to see where life takes them both.

The above illustration shows an allogeneic transplant, which involves cells or marrow from donors. Archie Suber received an autologous transplant, which involves the patient’s own stem cells.

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Center announces Global Health grant recipients

By Kevin wiley Center for Global Health

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USC Center for Global Health recently awarded global health seed funding of up to $20,000 to support global health research projects in low–and–middle income countries to six faculty members. The CGH’s goal in releasing these funds is to bolster our faculty’s ability to collect vital preliminary data needed to secure extramural funding from governmental, private or non-governmental sources.

Awardees were selected from a diverse pool of exceptional submissions through a competitive peer-reviewed process. The following are 2014 Global Health Pilot Grant recipients.

“Spatiotemporal and regional variation in HIV testing and infection rates in Sub-Saharan Africa” Gebregziabher has worked with demographic health survey data from sub–Saharan Africa for the past four years to assess markers associated with HIV using advanced statistical methodology.

His interest was initiated by a class project of an MUSC student, Abeba Teklehaimanot, who is now pursuing a project on “Barriers and Facilitators of serological testing in Ethiopia” using Demographic and Health Surveys data under the guidance of Dr. Anbesaw Selassie.

The World Health Organization continues to characterize HIV as the single largest threat to health affecting sub-Saharan Africa. While the spread of HIV has continued in some areas such as Kenya and Rwanda, other countries like Ethiopia have sustained relatively low rates of HIV incidence over time.

There has been an increase in HIV testing and counseling, in Ethiopia, from two percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2010, but the majority of the country’s population who are eligible for testing remain unreached.

In this study, Gebregziabher will use a Bayesian approach to analyze DHS data to further understand factors associated

Mulugeta Gebregziabher, Ph.D.

Andrea Summer, M.D., MSCR

Associate professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, College of Medicine

Associate professor, Department of Pediatrics College of Medicine

with regional spatiotemporal variation in HIV testing and HIV infection, with collaborators at Mekelle University in Tigray, Ethiopia.

The results will affect the direction of research capacity and best practices for HIV testing strategies for populationbased interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.

Understanding what factors can influence rates of testing could prove critical to improving testing, treatment and prevention processes.

Identifying additional risk factors or markers for HIV seropositivity may identify populations that would benefit from enhanced testing and perhaps uncover approaches to engaging these populations. MUSC co-investigators include Patrick Mauldin, Ph.D.; Preston Church, M.D.; Anbesaw Selassie, Dr.PH; Michael Sweat, Ph.D.; and Andrew Lawson, Ph.D. “Establishment of a pilot telemedicine network in Honduras”

Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America and with only nine physicians per 10,000 residents, it lacks adequate access to health services.

Summer and colleagues are planning to determine the feasibility of establishing a telemedicine network in a rural community setting in Honduras in order to improve access to general and specialized pediatric care in areas where there are large unmet needs.

The network will consist of integrating technologies between rural and urban sites in Honduras with those at MUSC. The researchers will develop a method to transmit evaluation and diagnosis data to improve pediatric patient care management in underserved populations.

If this pilot network is successful, the next step will be to develop a larger network adding additional subspecialties and expanded capabilities, including inter-site collaboration for learning and professional development. These types of collaborations have the potential to motivate practitioners to remain in rural or inner-city locations, which has tremendous implications for improving the health of underserved populations worldwide.

MUSC co-investigators include James McElligott, M.D., and Kenton Holden, M.D. “Community assessment for phonebased intervention under nurse guidance after stroke”

Carolyn Jenkins, DrPH

Bruce Ovbiagele, M.D.

principal investigator, professor, College of Nursing

co-principal investigator chair, Department of Neurology professor, College of Medicine

Stroke is the leading cause of death and a major contributor to disability, dementia and depression in subSaharan Africa. Among stroke survivors, recurrent stroke and myocardial infarction leads to functional decline and subsequent mortality. The goal of this study is to identify barriers to managing hypertension using mobile technology in Ghanaian stroke patients, thereby establishing culturally sensitive interventions for the catchment

See Global on page 8

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GloBal

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Seizing on an opportunity to utilize growing mobile phone usage (of the world’s seven billion people, six billion own cell phones) for public health, Jenkins, Obviagele and their team plan to conduct a cross-sectional, nested mixed methods study with Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana using community based participatory approaches.

They will be among the first researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa to appraise mobile health interventions for stroke patients, providers and administrators by engaging community members and groups to assist in developing a theory guided, culturally sensitive patient- and provider-centered medical regimen self-management program.

The researchers will develop a community-partnered approach for patients at highest risk for future strokes to design a system for a theoretical, multilevel, novel intervention to control the premier stroke risk factor, hypertension.

The program will be empirically evaluated in a future randomized controlled trial.

Frank Treiber, Ph.D. is a coinvestigator from MUSC who is also contributing to this study.

“Global Health and Simulation in Midwifery Curriculum” The highest burden of neonatal deaths globally is attributed to India where 900,000 newborns die each year. In her study, Shearer addresses the need to increase the skillset of midwives in India to better improve infant and maternal outcomes.

Collaborating with Bangalore Baptist Hospital in Bangalore, India, the goal of her project is to provide a birthing simulator and training for faculty and to collect data to determine the effectiveness of simulation for improving the knowledge and skills of midwifery students.

By examining skill performance as an outcome, this study will contribute to the scientific basis of simulation in nursing education and provide justification for the cost of simulation trainers in

Jennifer Shearer, Ph.D.

Cynthia Swenson, Ph.D.

Julie Kanter, M.D.

assitant professor, College of Nursing

professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences College of Nursing

assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics College of Medicine

resource-poor countries.

The research contributes to the public health goal of reducing maternal and neonatal deaths and supporting the World Health Organization effort to improve education training of midwifery practitioners using simulation as part of the standard curriculum.

The long-term goal of this research is to support the establishment of a simulation program in Bangalore to increase the skill set of the midwives in order to provide better outcomes for maternal and neonatal care.

“Improving health through implementation of a village-based complex biogas system” Swenson and her team will be funded to assist in implementing a green sanitation system, in rural Ghana, West Africa that leaves no carbon footprint.

The system is a waste-to-energy biogas system that is novel because it has three steps.

First, waste enters a conversion chamber in the toilet. The waste is then converted to gas that is piped to a cook stove for clean cooking. Finally, the waste is converted to bacteria free organic fertilizer.

To date, biogas systems in Ghana have not had the three-component capacity and have been seen only in large institutions in the country. Swenson and team plan to test the implementation

and uptake of this system in an economically distressed rural community where residents do not have access to sanitation systems.

The biogas system will address three major health hazards: the practice of open defecation; the use of charcoal and wood in cooking which leads to heavy smoke inhalation and environmental risks; and the use of heavy chemicals in farming.

The biogas system implementation is part of a larger project that aims to improve water, sanitation, health, education, economic self-sufficiency, and food security in the intervened community in Ghana.

The research team will determine feasibility and acceptability of the biogas system; assess attitudes and knowledge of this technology over time; and better understand barriers to sustaining this intervention as well as factors that promote novel technology.

“If, through this project, we can implement and foster uptake of the biogas system that is planned, we will be able to reduce or perhaps stop open defecation, reduce use of wood and charcoal in cooking, and increase use of organic methods for farming,” said Swenson.

“Addressing these three issues can have major health benefits to the community.”

Sarah Logan, Ph.D., an MUSC researcher, will also contribute to this study as a co-investigator.

“Partnership screening program for sickle-cell disease in St. Vincent and the Grenadines” Sickle cell disease is one of the most commonly inherited blood disorders worldwide. SCD affects one out of every 375 African-American infants in the United States alone.

In Jamaica, however, the estimated incidence rate for SCD is one out of every 150, showing a need for screening programs in the Caribbean. Kanter and her colleagues plan to design and implement a pilot program in St. Vincent and the Grenadines—where no screening program exists—to screen neonates to determine the incidence of sickle-cell disease.

Preliminary data will be collected to assess the utility of universal neonate screening for sickle-cell disease as a means to develop a larger costeffectiveness study to demonstrate the feasibility of neonatal sickle-cell disease screening programs to reduce morbidity and mortality rates universally.

Shelly-Ann Williams, M.D., a Grenadian and fellow in the Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine Department, and Susan Reed, D.M.D., are co-investigators on this study.

Editor’s note: Reprinted with permission from MUSC Center for Global Health, http://globalhealth.musc.edu.

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Renewal

Continued from Page One

prevention, diagnosis and therapy.

They also deliver medical advances to patients and their families; educate health care professionals and the public; and reach out to underserved populations. They are characterized by strong organizational capabilities, institutional commitment, and transdisciplinary, cancer–focused science; experienced scientific and administrative leadership; and state–of–the–art cancer research and patient care facilities.

NCI designation is awarded for a five–year period, after which centers undergo an extensive renewal submission and examination. HCC submitted its Cancer Center Support Grant renewal to NCI in 2013, underwent a three-day site visit in September and received official notification of renewal in late June.

Etta Pisano, M.D., vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, added, "We are very proud of our faculty and staff who serve our cancer patients and do outstanding cancer research. This renewal is a tribute to their excellence."

photo provided

Eminent Scholar Dr. Besim Ogretmen, professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology uses a pipette in his lab. Ogretmen is director of the Lipidomics Shared Resource at Hollings Cancer Center.

10 The CaTalysT, July 18, 2014

Monthly challenge examines meat-free alternatives Congratulations to our June end to those who take the Monthly Mindful Challenge winner, first survey.)

Morey Lent. The task for the month was going “Meat-Free” on Mondays Wellness Events which led this executive secretary q Take the July monthly in Hospital Patient Accounting Mindful Challenge —The to investigate alternative protein July challenge is to eat sources. Participating in the June less processed: Reconnect Monthly Mindful Challenge led with real food. To begin, Morey to consider tofu as “another take the first July Monthly white meat.” “I remember tofu Mindful Challenge was good at taking on the taste of survey at http://tinurl. the sauces used with it, so maybe com/la6drdo (A link to Susan Johnson I should try tofu. I also see lots of final surey will be sent at non-meat “meats” in the frozen month’s end to those who section of grocery stores.” He take the first survey). consulted with vegan and vegetarian q Sodexo is bringing a new, mobile friends for suggestions which included food cart to MUSC. We just don’t know soy and legumes. Initially his biggest what to name this mobile cafe so make concern was not a suggestion and you’ll be entered in a giving up meat, drawing for a chance to earn $50 on but ensuring your badge for the cafeterias and mobile he consumed food cart. Visit http://muschealth.com/ enough protein nutrition. to keep up q Red Cross Blood Drives on MUSC with his weekly campus — Summer months are a strength and crucial time for blood donations and cardio training the bloodmobile will be at the MUSC which are a horseshoe several times throughout the big part of his month (visit from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., healthy habits.

Lent July 16, July 23 and July 30). Walk–ins In the process are available as well as appointments at he rediscovered an affection for kidney http://www.redcrossblood.org. Enter beans which may play a more prominent sponsor code: MUSC. role in his diet in the future as he opts q Worksite screening — July 18, for more meals without meat. At the University hospital, 2W Classroom. end of the challenge Morey felt pleased The screening, valued at about $350, with the result. “I felt challenged at the is available to employees of the State start knowing I had to research more Health Plan (including the MUSC alternative protein sources. It also was a Health Plan) for only $15 (covered great learning experience. At month’s spouses also can participate for $15). end I felt great satisfaction in that I Employees and spouses without could go a full day without meat and still this insurance can participate for get the protein my body needs for good $42. Register at www.musc.edu/ functioning. “ employeewellness.

Lent has participated in the program q Fight for Air Climb Charleston — since the beginning in February: “I have Saturday, July 26, North Charleston really enjoyed these Mindful Challenges! Coliseum participants choose between I think they will help more and more of the Climb (1,500 steps and higher), the our 14,000 employees and students and Ultra Climb (5,000 steps and higher) or team members achieve healthier habits.” the Firefighter Challenge (firefighters There is a new wellness challenge climb more than 1,500 steps in full gear each month. The July Mindful Monthly with the option of on–air or air–off). challenge is eat less processed: Reconnect Practices held from 8 to 9 a.m., July 19, with real food. To begin, take the first North Charleston Coliseum. Register at July Monthly Mindful Challenge survey www.climbcharleston.org or call 556at http://tinyurl.com/la6drdo (A link to 8451 the final survey will be sent at month’s q Chair massages: Free massages

Health at work

are offered to employees on midday Wednesdays. Look for broadcast messages for locations and times. q Farmers Markets: Enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers on Tuesdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Harborview); Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ART); and Fridays, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Horseshoe).

MUSC Urban Farm

q Sunset Work & Learns – Thursday, 4 to 5 p.m. Take home fresh produce in return for work efforts. Open to all employees, students and the community q Third Thursday Lunch & Learn

—12:15 to 12:45 p.m., July 17. Join Debie Petitpain, RDN, as she explores healthful or just a health halo? What labels on packaged foods really mean. q Third Saturday Family Friendly Work & Learn —9 to 11 a.m., July 19. Bring a plastic bag to take home fresh produce in return for work efforts. Please wear closed toe shoes. Open to all MUSC employees, students and the general community q Early Bird Maintenance —7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Get your day started at the farm.

For information on MUSC wellness events, contact johnssa@musc.edu or whela@musc.edu.

Short-term housing needed Do you have an apartment or house that you could rent on a monthly basis? Or, do you need extra income and would like to rent out a furnished room in your own home?

Visiting MUSC students and faculty are in need of monthly rentals.

To list your property, visit http://www.musc.edu/housing and click on “Add a Property.”

If an entire property is available, list as a “short–term.” If it is a room in your home, list as a “short–term roomate.”

For information 792-0394.

The CaTalysT, July 18, 2014 11

PEBA changes modes of communication

Rental Properties

Dntn Bull St. Charming Completely Renovated 1br, 1ba, LR, sunroom, Porch, Kitchen w./ new appliances.

W/D, Off street parking, hvac, hdwd flrs. 843-795-1333

Furniture

Furniture

Full Mattress Set with Euro Pillow Top New $140. Please Call: 843-270-4283

A-Queen Pillowtop that is Brand New in Plastic. Will take $150. Please call 843-270-4283

King Size Plush Set New, will sacrifice for $275 843-270-4283

The South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority (PEBA), the agency that administers the state’s employee insurance programs and retirement systems, will be changing the way it reaches out to members as of Sept.1.

The primary means of communicating general information and updates to its membership will from that day forward be through the agency’s news feed and social media sites.

You may have received an email from PEBA’s Communications Department staff alerting you to the fact that they will sign you up for the agency’s news feed unless you reply to that email by 5 p.m., Friday, July 25, with the following text in the subject line of your reply: “DO NOT ADD ME TO PEBA’S NEWS FEED.” Otherwise, you will be signed up. If you did not receive the email alerting you of this change, send an email to Pamala Jackson at pjackson@peba.sc.gov to add your email address to the list.

The agency’s news feed will provide you with the latest information and updates regarding your insurance and/

or retirement benefits automatically.

You will receive emails that provide an overview of the latest news and, in some cases, links to important details that are located on their websites.

Once PEBA staff has signed you up for the news feed, you will receive a confirmation email from Google’s Feedburner (http://feedburner.google. com). You will need to open this email and click on the link provided to activate your subscription. Once you have clicked on the activation link, the Feedburner window shown below will appear to confirm activation of your news feed subscription. PEBA will not collect or use any information from you through this news feed.

Along with the news feed, PEBA’s primary means of communicating information and updates about your insurance and/or retirement benefits will include the agency’s Facebook and Twitter pages. “Like” PEBA on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SCPEBA) and “follow” PEBA on Twitter (www. twitter.com/scpeba).

12 The CaTalysT, July 18, 2014