Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

• The Centers for Disease Control has contracted with the School of Medicine to accelerate the real-time ability of local, state and regional entities to share data and information in rapidly responding to potentially catastrophic infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies. The initial $2.6 million award is renewable and could increase to nearly $10 million over five years.
• The School of Medicine received a $750,000 grant award from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation to search for molecular clues to enable better detection and treatment of multiple myeloma, a blood-borne cancer.
• The Indiana University-Kenya Partnership was selected by the National Institutes of Health to join the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research. A five-year, $5 million grant will allow IUSM and Moi University School of Medicine faculty to conduct research to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of simple, community-based health-care interventions, such as protein supplementation for infants and training of traditional birth attendants in the proper care of obstetrical and neonatal emergencies.
• A National Institutes of Health grant of $11.5 million will support IUSM researchers studying the cause and treatment of heart failure in children. Loren Field, Ph.D., professor of medicine and of pediatrics, and six other IUSM faculty are affiliated with the Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research and the Pediatric Cardiology Division of the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children.
• The IUSM Division of Nephrology was awarded a five-year, $6 million George M. O'Brien Kidney Research Center grant from the National Institutes of Health. It is one of just six such centers funded in the United States.
• AMPATH, a program that grew out of the partnership between the School of Medicine and the Moi University Teaching and Referral Hospital, received a five-year, $60-million grant to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in Kenya . IUSM will augment this with $6 million over the five years of the grant.
• JAMA Commentary Says No to Dementia Screening in Primary Care: Primary care physicians should focus on "dementia red flags," rather than routinely screening individuals with no dementia symptoms just because they have reached a certain age, according to Malaz Boustani, M.D., M.P.H., of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and colleagues from the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in a commentary published in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
• Successfully altering an institution’s culture can be accomplished without massive amounts of funding or strict administrative edicts. A study published in an advance online issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine reported that dramatic change in the organizational culture of IUSM, the nation’s second largest medical school, is being achieved through a process called relationship-centered care. Senior author Thomas Inui, M.D. is associate dean for health services research at the School of Medicine and president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
• Indiana University School of Medicine researchers isolated biomarkers in the blood that identify mood disorders, a breakthrough that may change the way bipolar illness is diagnosed and treated. The report was published in the February 26 online edition of Molecular Psychiatry. Alexander B. Niculescu III, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, medical neurobiology and neuroscience at the IUSM Institute of Psychiatric Research, was the lead author.
• The largest survey ever of American physicians' opinions on health care financing by Aaron E. Carroll, M.D., M.S., an assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, and Ronald T. Ackermann, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine and associate director of CHPPR, found that 59 percent of doctors support government legislation to establish national health insurance, while only 32 percent oppose it. A similar survey conducted in 2002 found 49 percent of physicians supporting national health insurance and 40 percent opposing it.

Teaching and Learning

• A $662,000 five-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute will allow the School of Medicine to encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue careers in science.
• The IUSM began expanding in August 2007 with an entering class of 294, an increase of 14 students, in response to projected physician shortages. The school plans to expand its student body by 30 percent by 2012.

Civic Engagement

• For the thirteenth consecutive year, IUSM students replaced their schoolbooks and stethoscopes with rakes and shovels for a day of community service. Nearly 150 medical students, faculty, and family members participated in this year’s Spring House Calls.
• Evening of the Arts: IUSM students and the Crispus Attucks Step Team entertained to raise money for free medical clinics at the 2008 Evening of the Arts.
• A unique program, the IUSM Center for Youth and Adults with Conditions of Childhood (CYACC), helped many youths spread their wings and live more independently. Mary Ciccarelli, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical medicine and pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, is medical director of CYACC.
  

Diversity

• Diversity Week 2008 activities were observed January 14-25, 2008 at IUSM. Organizers and sponsors included the Student National Medical Association, the IU School of Medicine Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the IU School of Medicine Society of Latinos.
  

External Awards and Appointments

• Eighteen physicians with the Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center were recognized as the best in their field in the 2007 edition of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer.
• A humanitarian response to the African HIV/AIDS pandemic by IUSM and its education partner in Kenya, Moi University School of Medicine, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
• The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) announced that Thomas S. Inui, M.D., president and CEO of Regenstrief Institute Inc. and associate dean for health care research at IUSM, was elected to a second four-year term as a member-at-large of the NBME.
• Dean T. Maglinte, M.D., professor of radiology at IUSM, received the 2008 Walter Bradford Canon Medal, a lifetime achievement award presented by the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists for outstanding contribution to gastrointestinal radiology.
  IUSM neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D., a tireless advocate for the value of creativity and balance—and brain donations for purposes of research—was selected as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2008.
• D. Craig Brater, M.D., IUSM dean and IU vice president with responsibility for life sciences, received the Indiana Public Health Foundation’s 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service in Health Advancement. Dr. Brater was also selected as the first president of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.
• Malaz Boustani, M.D., M.P.H., received the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research from the American Federation for Aging Research, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the National Institute on Aging.
• Steven Counsell, M.D., Mary Elizabeth Mitchell Professor of Geriatric Medicine at IUSM, received the 2007 American Geriatrics Society Dennis W. Jahnigen Memorial Award at the AGS Annual Meeting.
• Joseph Dynlacht, Ph.D., was invited to serve as a member of the Radiation Therapeutics and Biology Study Section, National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review.
• Alexander (Bob) Niculescu, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, was named the 2007 recipient of the Theodore Reich Young Investigator Award of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.
• Attaya Suvannasankha, M.D., was selected by the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation as a 2007 MMRF Fellows Award recipient. Dr. Suvannasankha’s proposal was rated among the top ones by a panel of expert reviewers participating in the MMRF grant review process, which meets the same rigorous scientific standards that the NCI applies to its own research grant review process.
• Richard Frankel, Ph.D., professor of medicine and a Regenstrief Institute researchscientist,and Howard Bechman, M.D., Rochester, N.Y.received the 2007 Lynn Payer Award from the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.
• Little Red Door Cancer Agency presented Robert J. Goulet, Jr., M.D., the 2007 Lawrence H. Einhorn M.D. Award, for his exceptional impact on the lives of breast cancer patients in Central Indiana.
• Miriam Davis, B.S., clinical research assistant in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology/ Hepatology/Nutrition at Riley Hospital, was awarded the Endoscopy Award by the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.
• Jean Molleston, M.D., was honored as a Physician Mentor by the American Medical Association Women’s Physicians Congress. This program is designed to recognize physicians who have contributed to the achievements of women in the medical profession.
• IU Simon Cancer Center breast cancer specialist George Sledge, M.D., was named to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Scientific Advisory Board. The board designs new research grant awards that focus on translational research.
• The work of J.T. Finnell, M.D, associate professor of emergency medicine and Regenstrief Institute research scientist,earned Wishard Health Services a meritorious award from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for the effective administration of flu and pneumonia vaccines, using a computer reminder system, in Wishard's emergency department.
• Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D., director of the IU Center for Bioethics and associate dean for bioethics at IUSM, was awarded the "Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite" (Knight ofThe National Order of Merit).
• Bruce Molitoris, M.D., was named an American Society of Nephrology Councilor. Dr. Molitoris is a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Nephrology at IUSM and director of the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy.
• Indiana University Distinguished Professor Hal E. Broxmeyer, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of umbilical cord blood transplantation for the treatment of leukemia and anemia, was honored with the 2007 E. Donnall Thomas Prize at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in Atlanta.
• Daniel R. Meldrum, M.D., associate professor of surgery and cellular and integrative physiology, was named the associate editor of two journals: the Journal of Surgical Research and SHOCK. The terms on these associate editorships are 3 years and open-ended. Dr. Meldrum recently completed terms as an editorial board member for each of these journals.
• David Flockhart, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and of medical genetics and chief of the division of pharmacology, was selected to participate in the Global Alliance for Pharmacogenomics, a collaboration among scientists in the United States and Japan.
• Mary C. Dinauer, M.D., Ph.D., the Nora Letzter Professor of Pediatrics, and Michael P. Econs, M.D., professor of medicine and of medical and molecular genetics, are two of the 55 physician-scientists elected in 2007 to the prestigious Association of American Physicians, a professional organization founded to advance science and practical medicine.
• Willis Tacker, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., has been awarded the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Foundation Laufman-Greatbatch Prize.