Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics receives $100,000 endowment

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San Antonio (Jan. 14, 2004) – Stewart Reuter, M.D., former chairman of radiology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and his wife, Marianne, have given a $100,000 endowed professorship to the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the Health Science Center.

“Stewart Reuter has had a distinguished tenure with the school and his unique training in law and medicine has given him a particular interest in what we do,” said Abraham Verghese, M.D., the Marvin Forland Distinguished Professor and director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics. “And because of Marianne Reuter’s training as an art historian and curator, the two of them are very interested in methods of bringing humanities into the traditional medical curriculum. We are honored by this generous gift and by their wonderful and continuing support of the center’s activities.”

One of the center’s goals is to help students preserve their innate imagination and integrity through the rigorous course of scientific training by introducing a humanities and literature curriculum in all four years. The center also aims to arm students with a working knowledge of ethics and the reasoning tools to sort out difficult problems. The center holds an ethics brown bag series, exhibits, lectures, theater performances and literature readings that supplement the humanities and ethics curriculum, and it also offers elective courses.

New state research academy to bolster collaborations

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San Antonio (Jan. 20, 2004) – Research institutions that maximize collaborations with peers stand a better chance of attracting federal funding, said Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, president, who participated in a conference where U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced a major new project to beef up Texas’ research funding.

The Texas Academy of Science, Education and Medicine will focus on increasing collaboration among the state’s researchers with the goal of increasing the federal funds received by Texas research universities. Texas institutions last year garnered $1.26 billion in federal research dollars but trailed California, New York and Pennsylvania in the funding race. Each dollar invested in research nets a $5 return for Texas, Sen. Hutchison said in an opinion piece carried in state newspapers.

The Health Science Center’s share of research dollars awarded by the National Institutes of Health has increased 80 percent since 1999, and Dr. Cigarroa attributed much of the success to collaborative projects.

Sen. Hutchison’s opinion piece cited the work of the Health Science Center’s Dr. Julio Palmaz, who created the first stent to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of diseased blood vessels.

Influenza presentation offers look at disease, past and present

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San Antonio (Jan. 12, 2004) – “Influenza: Past and Present” is the topic of a presentation Thursday, Jan. 15, at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Gregory Anstead, M.D., infectious disease specialist at the Health Science Center, will speak at noon on the fifth floor of the Dolph Briscoe Jr. Library at the Health Science Center’s Central Campus, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive.

The presentation, sponsored by the Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, will address the conditions surrounding the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed more people in a shorter period than any other event in history, and the methods developed since then to control and monitor influenza worldwide.

The presentation also will include information about this year’s early influenza outbreak, which has caused a rush to obtain influenza vaccines. Usually the peak of the flu season is in February. The virus changes every year by small degrees, called antigenic drift, which requires new vaccines to be developed and administered. However, predicting which strain of influenza will be predominant is an imperfect science and this year’s vaccine does not optimally protect against the predominant strain of flu being experienced this season.

Dr. Anstead’s infectious disease interests include zoonotic infections, tropical medicine and the historical epidemiology of infectious diseases. He has received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and an Advanced Research Career Development Award from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

‘Listening to Prozac’ author to speak at Health Science Center

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San Antonio (Jan. 12, 2004) – The Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio will present “A Dialogue with Peter Kramer” at 5 p.m. today (Jan. 12) in Lecture Hall 3.104A near the Health Science Center’s Briscoe Library. The address is 7703 Floyd Curl Drive in the South Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Kramer, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University, wrote the best-selling book “Listening to Prozac” in the 1990s. Abraham Verghese, M.D., director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics, will join Dr. Kramer in the conversation.

Dr. Kramer also will give a lecture, “Against Depression,” at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 13) in room 409L of the Medical School building. Both talks are open to the public. Dr. Kramer currently is writing a novel about

Respiratory care program ranks No. 2 in U.S. survey

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San Antonio (Jan. 12, 2004) – The respiratory care education program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC) is one of the best programs of its type in the country, according to a “coaches’ poll” published recently in the American Association for Respiratory Care Education Section Bulletin.

Respiratory care education program directors were asked to rank their top five picks for best bachelor’s degree respiratory therapy programs nationwide. The directors made their selections from a list of the 54 accredited baccalaureate degree respiratory care education programs in the United States – and program directors were not allowed to vote for their own programs. The survey was not a scientific rating of program quality.

A No. 1 ranking was assigned five points, a No. 2 ranking received four points, a No. 3 was 3 points, a No. 4 was 2 points and a No. 5 was 1 point. Scores were combined from all returned surveys to arrive at a school’s total score. The overall ranking follows:

1. Georgia State University, 42 points
2. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 35 points
3. SUNY Upstate Medical University, 26 points
4. Medical College of Georgia, 16 points
5. Northeastern University, 15 points
6. Ohio State University, 9 points
7. Loma Linda University, 7 points
8. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, 6 points
9. Indiana University, 6 points
10. University of Kansas Medical Center, 4 points

Neonatologist is 1st woman president of Bexar medical society

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San Antonio (Jan. 12, 2004) – Rajam Ramamurthy, M.D., professor of pediatrics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC), was installed Jan. 9 as the first woman president of the 4,000-member Bexar County Medical Society, one of Texas’ oldest and largest medical societies. She said the top priority for her yearlong presidency of the 151-year-old society will be bringing organizations together to examine the issue of health care access, especially for children.

“Naturally my focus will be on children, guaranteeing access so that every child has a ‘medical home,’” Dr. Ramamurthy said. “We need to increase public awareness about the facilities and resources that are available and not fully utilized. We can do this by addressing the lack of understanding of what these resources are and simplifying access to them.”

Dr. Ramamurthy, a neonatologist who joined the UTHSC faculty in 1977, is well known in the San Antonio community for her work with the PREMIEre program for very low birth weight infants and for her involvement in the Indian community including Indian arts.

“For three decades, Dr. Rajam Ramamurthy’s pioneering work has improved the outcome of high-risk premature infants,” said Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., president of the Health Science Center. “For the past two years she has directed the PREMIEre Clinic, which is one of the nation’s foremost programs of care and follow-up of very low birth weight infants. Her work has helped the Health Science Center continue to be a national leader in studying the health and well-being of these precious babies. Dr. Ramamurthy has provided valuable education and training to physicians and medical students, including through the Annual Neonatal Resuscitation Course that she directs. She is conducting important evaluation of neonatal resuscitation training in the South Texas region.”