Susman to become Dean at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy
Jeff Susman, MD, chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, will become Dean at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) effective Sept. 7, 2010. Susman will also serve as a professor of family medicine at NEOUCOM. Susman has served as chair of Family and Community Medicine since November 1999. Prior to coming to UC, he served as a professor of family medicine at the University of Nebraska and was the associate dean for primary care and faculty development at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. Susman currently serves on the board of the Health Alliance and is a workgroup leader and steering committee member of the Robert Wood Johnson, Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality effort.

College of Medicine Dean David Stern, MD, says he is disappointed to lose Susman, but "thrilled he has this tremendous opportunity." In a message released today, Stern thanked Susman for "all of the hard work he’s contributed to making the family medicine program at UC visible nationally and a leader locally." Stern anticipates naming an interim chair for the department within the next few weeks.
 

Woodle to Speak at FDA Workshop
E. Steve Woodle, MD, professor of surgery in the division of transplantation, has been invited to speak at the Food and Drug Administration public workshop, "Issues in the Development of Medical Products for the Prophylaxis and/or Treatment of Acute Antibody Mediated Rejection (AMR) in Kidney Transplant Recipients,” held June 28-29 in Silver Spring, Md. Woodle was asked to participate as a panelist and speaker because of his expertise in AMR and designing trials for highly sensitized transplant patients. The FDA workshop is intended to provide information for and gain perspective from health care providers, researchers and industry on the development of medical products for prophylaxis and treatment of acute AMR in kidney transplant recipients, including clinical trial design and endpoints.
 

Air wins Dunsker Award for Clinical Research
Ellen Air, MD, PhD, who graduated from UC’s six-year residency program in neurosurgery June 4, is the 2010 winner of the Ellen and Stewart B. Dunsker, MD, Award for Clinical Research. Air, who has a special interest in functional neurosurgery, won the $2,000 annual prize with her paper, "Longitudinal comparison of pre- and postoperative diffusion tensor imaging parameters in young children with hydrocephalus.” The imaging study, the first of its kind, was published in the April 2010 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Air will continue her training at the University of California San Francisco, where she will be a fellow in functional neurosurgery. Co-authors of the award-winning paper are Weihong Yuan, PhD, Scott Holland, PhD, Blaise Jones, MD, Karin Bierbrauer, MD, Mekibib Altaye, PhD, and Francesco Mangano, DO. All are affiliated with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
 

Ahmed Wins 'Research to Prevent Blindness' Award
Ahmed Wins ‘Research to Prevent Blindness’ Award
Zubair Ahmed, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology and researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, was awarded a $200,000 Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Career Development Award to fund research with Usher syndrome, a condition characterized by both blindness and deafness. Ahmed is developing a strategy to slow development of vision and hearing loss in individuals with the disorder while investigating potential genetic interventions to prevent progressive impairments in affected individuals. The RPB Career Development Award Fund was established in 1990 to attract young physicians and basic scientists to eye research.
 

Hematology Oncology Grand Rounds June 25
Jaroslaw Maciejewski, MD, PhD, Case Western Reserve University professor of medicine, will be the featured presenter at the Friday, June 25, hematology oncology grand rounds. He will present "Genomics of Myelodysplastic Syndrome" at 8 a.m. in Medical Sciences Building Room 2351. Maciejewski is also Chairman of Translational Hematology and Oncology Research at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center. His clinical areas of expertise include bone marrow failure syndromes and myeloid malignancies. For more information, e-mail crossen@uc.edu or call (513) 558-0120.
 

'Fit to Fight' Supports Cancer Research, Patient Care
The 2010 Fit to Fight triathlon, duathlon and 5K run/walk event will benefit cancer research and patient care initiatives related to ovarian cancer at the UC Health Barrett Cancer Center. The event is sponsored by Venus, a fitness studio for women, and will be held Sunday, July 18, 2010, at the Mason Community Center. Billed as the area's "most family-friendly triathlon," the event features races for men, women and children. Event organizers are also seeking volunteers for event day activities. For more information, call (513) 984-4437.

Register online for Fit to Fight }