Pulse: A Message from Interim Dean Mark Pfeifer

You might think of summer on a college campus as a quiet period with a slower pace, but this summer the School of Medicine has been anything but quiet and slow.

We have a record number of medical students in our Summer Research Scholar Program. This includes 55 students who have completed their first year of study and 22 incoming medical students who are working with faculty members on original research.

This growth represents an increased student interest in enhancing medical education through research experiences. While only a minority of our graduates will pursue research careers, hands-on participation in research adds fundamental scientific knowledge and helps these future practitioners understand the discovery process that will change medical practice throughout their careers.

There are also 16 undergraduates on campus in the Summer Research Opportunity Program directed by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research.

The program provides undergraduate students with an individualized 10-week research experience in one of our departments that offers graduate degrees, with a view toward encouraging the students to consider graduate or medical education.

Summer is also the time when we ramp up programs designed to get young people interested in, and prepared for, health careers. The Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, welcomed an absolutely outstanding class of rising undergraduate sophomores and juniors to our campus. These summer scholars came from under-represented ethnic groups or from rural backgrounds to a program offering academic enrichment, learning skills seminars and clinical experiences, as well as career-development and financial-planning information.

The 75 students -- 27 from Kentucky -- formed a highly motivated group whose members will make promising medical and dental professionals in the future. A national site-visit team scrutinized our program and hailed it as among the best in the country.

But the true satisfaction will be in watching these students complete their professional degrees, many right here in our own medical and dental schools.

If the campus weren't already busy enough, three other summer "pipeline" programs have been taking place. The Professional Education Preparation Program targets graduating high school seniors interested in medicine, while the MCAT/DAT Preparation Program helps candidates from under-represented groups prepare for these important standardized 
exams.

And our Prematriculation Program helps build up the qualifications of promising applicants who have finished their college degrees but may not yet have had the opportunity to develop their study skills and gain an adequate background in the basic sciences.

All these efforts focus on producing an outstanding and diverse physician workforce.

At the beginning of July we also welcomed our newest class of interns and residents - a truly outstanding group - bringing our total to 615 residents in 55 accredited programs and specialties. This is the largest and best-qualified group in our history, and it means that more than 1,200 students and physicians will be in medical training this year at UofL.

In addition, our graduate programs for training research scientists are at their largest point, with almost 200 Ph.D. students working in research laboratories this summer, along with an additional 200 master's students and postdoctoral research associates.

Faculty also have been making news this summer. Dr. Fred Roisen's research treating spinal cord injury with adult nasal stem cells has been in the headlines, as has Dr. Ben Jenson and Dr. Shin-je Ghim's contribution to the highly effective HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Meanwhile, Dr. Kerri Remmel's team has just received recognition from the American Stroke Association for its work at University Hospital's primary stroke center -- one of only five organizations nationwide to receive an award this year.

Other major faculty accomplishments:

-- Dr. Mariusz Ratajczak and his team from the James Graham Brown Cancer Center have published additional results on the embryonic-like stem cells they discovered in adult bone marrow. Their research has now been replicated in several laboratories, and we are moving forward to discover how these cells may be used to treat several types of childhood leukemia and their possible role in the body's inflammatory and immune responses. This exciting research has tremendous potential for treatments in a variety of diseases.

-- Dr. Manuel Casanova of the Department of Psychiatry has authored an important paper pointing to structural explanations for the symptoms of autism-spectrum disorders in the brain.

-- Dr. Kelly McMasters, chair of the Department of Surgery, was named physician of the year by the local chapter of the American Cancer Society and continues his leading work in surgical oncology.

-- Dr. James O'Brien, recently named as our region's geriatrician of the year, and his team in the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine have launched a program, funded through the generosity of Mrs. Jean Frazier, aimed at educating health care providers about the dangers and safe use of medications being prescribed for older adults.

-- Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar and his research team are leading us to new understandings of the impact of the environment on cardiovascular disease, using a new inhalation lab that will precisely control and measure the influence of pollutants on living systems.

-- Dr. Gerard Rabalais has accepted the position of chair of the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Rabalais has served as acting chair since July 2004 and is an accomplished clinician, educator and administrator.

Finally, this issue of Medicine highlights the fine work of some of our gratis faculty, without whose help our educational mission would be significantly curtailed. We thank every one of them for their generosity in teaching the next generation of doctors.

While space doesn't permit a full review of all of our school's programs and accomplishments, I hope these few examples illustrate the outstanding work being done by our students and faculty. This issue of Medicine magazine should give you a sense of the excitement and pride that we feel -- and want you to feel -- in the School of Medicine.

It is, after all, a school that belongs to all of us.

Mark Pfeifer, M.D.
Interim Dean, School of Medicine