Scott Johnson, M.D., associate professor in the division of cardiothoracic surgery, has been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas State Board of Examiners of Perfusionists. The board licenses and regulates approximately 300 perfusionists in Texas.
Dr. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from The University of New Mexico and his doctorate in medicine from The University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Dr. Johnson is an executive board member of the Texas Transplantation Society, an elected member of the Health Science Center faculty senate, and the associate program director of the thoracic surgery residency program. Dr. Johnson has been a guest lecturer at many events, including presentations on lung transplantation and difficult esophageal reconstructions and disorders. He is also a member of the Texas Surgical Society, the Society of Thoracic Surgery, and the Southern Thoracic Society. He was recently selected by his peers to appear in the 2003-04 Best Doctors in America database.
San Antonio public school teachers play the OsCosts® game during a Positively Aging® teacher workshop.
San Antonio (Feb. 3, 2004) – Nelda Charles, a teacher at Nimitz Academy in the North East Independent School District, was about to let her students play a game in class. “The reason we’re playing this game is so you don’t end up with the terrible disease osteoporosis,” Charles said to her young charges. The game, called “Os Costs®: Banking on Healthy Bones,” takes children on a life journey from birth to 100, with different colors on the board showing how bones change as we age.
The player with the most coins at the end of the game wins. Knowing facts taught in class about osteoporosis and its prevention causes players to gain “Osteocoins,” tokens that represent calcium levels. Wrong answers cause them to lose Osteocoins.
The Os Costs® game is part of the Positively Aging® curriculum developed at the Sam and Ann Barshop Center for Longevity and Aging Studies at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “The purpose of Positively Aging® is to bring to the classroom some of the results of aging research, conducted at the Health Science Center, that are relevant to students at this age,” said Linda Pruski, educational development specialist at the Barshop Center. “The students learn about symptoms and risk factors, and they go home and inform their families. It becomes a real network for health promotion and disease prevention.”
The program is so unique that three components of the National Institutes of Health, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), now fund its expansion into more schools and subject areas. In September 2003, the research group, headed by principal investigator Michael Lichtenstein, M.D., professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics and gerontology, received a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the NCRR and NIA to expand the Positively Aging® program to potentially 60 schools in Bexar and adjacent counties by 2007. Proposed new teaching modules will address mobility, obesity, forces and motion, and clinical research. The full curriculum, teaching materials and all activities are available at positivelyaging.uthscsa.edu.
A second five-year, $1.3 million NHLBI grant will be used to develop the Minority Opportunities in Research Education (M.O.R.E.) curriculum program. New science and math teaching modules will be written and evaluated, including units focusing on cardiovascular and pulmonary health and others focusing on clinical research and inquiry skills. Partnerships will be strengthened between researchers and health professionals from the Health Science Center, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, and teachers from 15 San Antonio and South Texas school districts serving minority students.
“These two new projects build on the last 10 years of successful educational research conducted by Health Science Center faculty and staff in collaboration with public school teachers,” Dr. Lichtenstein commented. “The last six years have been supported by Science Education Partnership Awards from the NCRR. We feel very fortunate to have developed a track record and then to have successfully competed for these new five-year grants to sustain and grow our programs.”
The grants ensure that the Health Science Center will continue its commitment to improving public school science, math and health education. “There are tremendous opportunities to enrich teachers’ knowledge and skills through professional development and evaluation – figuring out what does and does not work in the classroom,” Dr. Lichtenstein said. “This will translate into improved inquiry-based learning for their students, giving them the tools to live healthy, productive lives.”
Francisco Cigarroa, M.D., Health Science Center president, joins Dr. Ray Keck, Texas A&M International University president, for the signing of a historic Early Admission Dentistry Program between the two universities Monday. Looking on are members of both universities faculty and administration. (From Left) Kenneth Kalkwarf, D.D.S., Dental School dean; Denee Thomas, Ph.D, associate dean for student affairs in the Dental School; Dr. Daniel Mott, Associate Dean, TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences; Richard A. Garcia, assistant vice president for South Texas Programs and Dr. Dan Jones, TAMIU Provost.
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) students considering a career in dentistry will soon benefit from the launching of a 3+4 dual degree and Dental Early Admission Program (DEAP) between The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and TAMIU.
The joint agreement was signed Feb. 2 in Laredo by representatives of the Health Science Center and TAMIU.
Dr. Dan Jones, TAMIU provost and vice president for academic affairs, said the innovative agreement will provide TAMIU students with an opportunity to receive both a bachelor’s degree in biology from TAMIU and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the Health Science Center within seven years.
“This is a remarkable opportunity for our students and one we feel will generate great interest for students in our region,” Dr. Jones said.
Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., Health Science Center president, said the program is an example of outstanding collaboration that will benefit students. “We are excited about this partnership with TAMIU and are looking forward to expanding the opportunities available to South Texas students,” Dr. Cigarroa said.
Briefly, accepted students complete a curriculum of 103 hours at TAMIU and summer research opportunities in San Antonio between the second and third undergraduate years. The student must take the Dental Admission Test (DAT) before the third undergraduate year and enroll at the Health Science Center contingent upon a variety of criteria related to GPA, DAT score, and positive recommendations.
Following successful completion of the freshman academic year at the Dental School, the students will be granted a B.S. degree in biology from TAMIU. Following completion of the four-year curriculum of the Dental School, the students will be granted a D.D.S. degree by the Dental School.
This is the first Dual Degree-DEAP dental program to be offered at TAMIU.
The Dental School’s mission and goals (education, research, patient care and service) have traditionally focused on South Texas. The school’s provision of dental education programs in the region includes community-based clinical training at affiliated sites that are located in Dental Health Profession Shortage Areas (Dental HPSAs).
San Antonio (Jan. 26, 2004) – Asthma, Hispanic nutrition and myeloma projects of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are included for funding in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill Act approved by the House in December and by the Senate on Jan. 22.
Health Science Center President Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., expressed his great appreciation for the funding. “Asthma is on the rise in South Texas and nationwide, and the $2.5 million that is coming to our asthma disease management study will be used to improve the lives of those who don’t take breathing for granted,” Dr. Cigarroa said. “We thank Congressman Henry Bonilla for his leadership in securing that funding.”
He applauded the work of Sen. John Cornyn in guaranteeing that $994,000 would come to the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) for the country’s first Hispanic Nutrition Research Center. “We are gratified for the leadership of Senator Cornyn as we focus on studying and enhancing the health of Hispanics, who make up the largest sector of the population of South Texas,” Dr. Cigarroa said. The nutrition research center will operate from the RAHC Medical Education Division at Harlingen. The Health Science Center operates that division of the RAHC and the Medical Research Division soon to open in Edinburg. Sen. Cornyn’s leadership earlier helped secure an initial $100,000 for the nutrition center.
Dr. Cigarroa also said the $500,000 obtained for myeloma research through the leadership of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will enhance the strong base of cancer research at the Health Science Center. “Senator Hutchison has recognized the gains made in biomedical research and we are grateful that she has recognized the value of the work being done at the Health Science Center,” he said. Myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow.
San Antonio (Jan. 23, 2004) – The next surgical pioneer could come from San Antonio – a thought not lost on John H. Calhoon, M.D., the chief of thoracic surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. That’s why Dr. Calhoon and three colleagues will take time Monday (Jan. 26) to visit with San Antonio high school students at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and show them the latest surgical gadgetry.
Monday is the first day of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ 40th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, set for Jan. 26-28 at the Convention Center. For an hour at 1:30 p.m. in Convention Hall A, the students will see gee-whiz exhibits ranging from pumps and artificial hearts to robotic surgical technology. Dr. Calhoon will discuss the challenge, but also the fulfillment, of becoming a surgeon.
Dr. Calhoon, who joined the Health Science Center in 1989, is the J. Kent Trinkle Distinguished Professor in the department of surgery. Among his many accomplishments, he has pioneered use of new techniques for correcting congenital heart defects, even in infants just a few days old. The Health Science Center recently appointed him the first holder of the Calhoon President’s Council Chair for Excellence in Surgery, which is named in his family’s honor.
Dr. Calhoon has been called an “artist in the operating room.”
“All students have potential in one field or another, but there are those special youngsters who are inclined to medicine – and to surgery in particular,” he said. “We want to find these future stars and help them get on the fulfilling road to careers as surgeons. We want to tell them what we do and how we got there, and share the thrill of saving a life. Surgery is a great profession, and they can be part of it.”
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has warned that heart surgeons are in short supply. In 2002, the Society noted there were too few medical students applying for heart surgery residencies and some general surgery residencies. It can take nearly a decade to train a heart surgeon. (Source: United Press International article, Aug. 20, 2002)
“South Texas does not have enough surgeons, particularly in the border region, and we want to encourage students from our region to enter the profession and serve this region,” Dr. Calhoon said.
Students will be on hand from Marshall, Taft, O’Connor, Health Careers, Warren and Jay high schools and from the pre-medical program at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Health Science Center and community surgeons Drs. John Calhoon, Marvin Smith, Alfonso Chiscano and Scott Johnson have volunteered to meet with the students.
San Antonio (Jan. 16, 2004) – Texas roadways can be very dangerous places. More than 3,500 people lost their lives on the state’s highways in calendar year 1999 and nearly 3,800 were killed in 2000, according to statistics released last year by the Texas Department of Public Safety. On one day alone – Saturday, July 29, 2000 – 30 people died in motor vehicle accidents.
Traffic violations contributed to the majority of the fatalities during 2000. Speeding was implicated in 1,186 accidents, failure to yield in 371, disregarding stop signs or lights in 104, and so forth. Clearly, driving smart – understanding and following the principles of defensive driving – might have headed off many of the roadway tragedies that year.
As a public service, the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Biomedical Research (CPHPBR) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio now offers a virtual defensive driving course via the Internet. The course can be accessed via a hyperlink in the middle of the CPHPBR Web page atcphpbr.uthscsa.edu/.
An individual who takes the course online can proceed at his own pace from the comfort of his personal computer and pick up where he left off (as long as the entire six-hour course is completed within six months). Completion of the defensive driving course is good for reducing auto insurance premiums or satisfying court-imposed education.
The course is offered by a private Internet training company and the curriculum meets state driver training standards. The online registration fee is $39.99.
