On November 21, 2013, the Library is sponsoring a Health Policy Forum presentation entitled Rethinking Healthcare-Associated Infections: Getting to Zero, which will be given by Pranavi Sreeramoju, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Medicine-Infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern and Chief of Infection Prevention at Parkland Health & Hospital System. The program will be held from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in McDermott Plaza Lecture Hall (Room D1.602), and Mark Swancutt, M.D., Ph.D., Interim Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, will host the event.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one out of 20 hospitalized patients will acquire a healthcare-associated infection (HAI). Beyond the significant suffering of patients and their families, the overall direct medical costs to U.S. hospitals of HAIs may be as high as $45 billion annually. Yet researchers have estimated that up to 70% of HAIs could be prevented using currently available evidence-based practices.  By CDC calculations, such prevention efforts could save up to $31 billion annually. What barriers keep hospitals from preventing HAIs?  How can Parkland and other hospitals reduce HAIs to a minimum?

Dr. Sreeramoju led the effort to bring Parkland into full compliance with Medicare Conditions of Participation for infection control beginning in 2011, and she is uniquely qualified to address the challenges facing hospitals trying to bring HAIs to zero.

Pre-registration is not required, and attendance is open to all. Light lunch will be served but is limited so everyone is encouraged to come early!

For information, contact John Fullinwider by phone at 214-648-3801 or by email at john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu.

Notes: CDC figures are from the CDC’s HAIS: The Burden page, as well as the following references:

• Scott RD. The direct medical costs of healthcare-associated infections in U.S. hospitals and the benefits of prevention [Internet]. Washington, D.C.: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2009 Mar [cited 2013 Nov 1]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/hai/pdfs/hai/scott_costpaper.pdf
• Umscheid CA, Mitchell MD, Doshi JA, Agarwal R, Williams K, Brennan PJ. Estimating the proportion of healthcare-associated infections that are reasonably preventable and the related mortality and costs. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol [Internet]. 2011 Feb [cited 2013 Nov 1];32(2):101-14. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/10.1086/657912.

Photo: Garett Fisbeck/The Dallas Morning News

Robert McClelland, M.D., has a unique perspective on the Kennedy assassination from his service in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital on that fateful day 50 years ago. On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, the Library and the Department of Surgery will sponsor a reception in Dr. McClelland’s honor, during which Dr. McClelland will share his reflections on the Kennedy presidency and its tragic end in Dallas.

Dr. McClelland went on to have an outstanding career as an instructor and then full professor in the UT Southwestern Department of Surgery where he held the Alvin W. Baldwin Chair in Surgery from 1977-2007.  Dr. McClelland has been Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery since 2007 and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, since 2008.

Daniel Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern, will introduce Dr. McClelland.  Michael Choti, M.D., Chair, Department of Surgery, will host the event, which will be held in the McDermott Lecture Hall, Room D.1.602. The reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., and Dr. McClelland’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m.

Preregistration is not required, but seating is limited; so please come early!  For more information, contact John Fullinwider, by phone at 214-648-3801 or by email at john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu.

About 40 watercolor art works by members of the Southwestern Watercolor Society (SWS) are now on display in the South Campus (main) Library. Topics include city streetscapes, nature scenes, portraits, animals, and abstracts. The works will remain on display through the end of the year. On Saturday, October 19, 2013, from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m., the Watercolor Society will be hosting a reception on the Main Floor of the South Campus (main) Library to open their art show.

Southwestern Watercolor Society, a non-profit organization celebrating its 50^th anniversary, was founded in 1963 to promote fine arts in our community, and to provide artists with opportunities for education, exhibition, and interaction with other artists. SWS meets monthly, offering informational and educational demonstrations by local and nationally recognized artists.

Featured artworks from artists (L to R) by Pam Wilson, Anne Turner Beletic, and Teta Smith

On August 22, 2013, everyone is welcome to attend a special presentation entitled Rethinking Medical Education: Community Service Learning & Community Health, which will be given by Ruth Berggren, M.D., Director, Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The program will be held from 12 to 1 p.m. in McDermott Plaza Lecture Hall (Room D1.602), and it is co-sponsored by the Library and the Department of Family & Community Medicine. Lynne Kirk, M.D., Toni and Tim P. Hartman Distinguished Teaching Professor Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, will host the event, and lunch will be provided.

Community service learning (CSL) holds great potential for medical education and for community health promotion and research.  At UT Southwestern, the Community Action Research Track (CART) and Community Action Research Experience (CARE) provide students and residents the opportunities to work in underserved communities and to participate in community-based participatory research.

Dr. Berggren will explore current best practices and the future of CSL, which can help students to:

• Address complex problems in complex settings rather than simplified problems in isolation.
• Engage in problem-solving by requiring participants to gain knowledge of the specific context of their service learning activity and community challenges, rather than only to draw upon generalized or abstract knowledge.
• Develop critical thinking: the ability to identify the most important issues within a real-world situation.
• Experience deeper learning because results are immediate and uncontrived.  There are no “right answers” in the back of the book.

As a consequence of this immediacy of experience, CSL is more likely to:

• Be personally meaningful to participants
• Generate emotional consequences
• Challenge values as well as ideas
• Support social, emotional, and cognitive learning

Dr. Berggren is also Professor of Internal Medicine and the Marvin Forland, MD, Distinguished Professor in Medical Ethics. Prior to being appointed Director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, she directed the second-year medical school course on infectious diseases and designed a new elective course — “Poverty, Health, and Disease” — that she continues to direct.  Dr. Berggren’s internal medicine training was at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Colorado, where she was a Division of AIDS Fellow funded by the NIH. She then took a faculty position at UT Southwestern, where she pioneered a program for the treatment of Hepatitis C in persons co-infected with HIV. During Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Berggren was the teaching physician assigned to the Infectious Disease ward of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital. She remained at Charity for six days and nights after Katrina struck, working with medical staff to care for critically ill, abandoned patients. After all patients were evacuated from Charity Hospital, Dr. Berggren and her team were rescued by a private jet from Texas. She has subsequently published two articles in the New England Journal of Medicine about this experience and about the impact of hurricane Katrina on health care infrastructure in New Orleans. Dr. Berggren grew up in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti, just one hour away from Mirebalais, at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Following the January 2010 earthquakes in Port au Prince she led relief efforts along the Dominican Republic/Haiti border.

Dr. Kirk is a general internist and geriatrician and has served on several committees relating to the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). She has served on the council of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). Dr. Kirk was President of the American College of Physicians, the national specialty organization for internists, in 2006-2007. She has published on medical professionalism, faculty development, clinical guidelines, and patient education.  She chairs the Internal Medicine Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and is an Associate Program Director in the internal medicine residency training program at UT Southwestern.

For more information about the forum, please contact John Fullinwider by phone at 214-648-3801 or by email at john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu.

On April 23, 2013, this event was cancelled.

On April 30, 2013, everyone is welcome to attend a special presentation entitled Rethinking Medical Education: Community Service Learning & Community Health, which will be given by Ruth Berggren, M.D., Director, Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The program will be held from 12 to 1 p.m. in McDermott Plaza Lecture Hall (Room D1.602), and it is co-sponsored by the Library and the Department of Family & Community Medicine. Lynne Kirk, M.D., Toni and Tim P. Hartman Distinguished Teaching Professor Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, will host the event, and lunch will be provided.

Community service learning (CSL) holds great potential for medical education and for community health promotion and research.  At UT Southwestern, the Community Action Research Track (CART) and Community Action Research Experience (CARE) provide students and residents the opportunities to work in underserved communities and to participate in community-based participatory research.

Dr. Berggren will explore current best practices and the future of CSL, which can help students to:

• Address complex problems in complex settings rather than simplified problems in isolation.
• Engage in problem-solving by requiring participants to gain knowledge of the specific context of their service learning activity and community challenges, rather than only to draw upon generalized or abstract knowledge.
• Develop critical thinking: the ability to identify the most important issues within a real-world situation.
• Experience deeper learning because results are immediate and uncontrived.  There are no “right answers” in the back of the book.

As a consequence of this immediacy of experience, CSL is more likely to:

• Be personally meaningful to participants
• Generate emotional consequences
• Challenge values as well as ideas
• Support social, emotional, and cognitive learning

Dr. Berggren is also Professor of Internal Medicine and the Marvin Forland, MD, Distinguished Professor in Medical Ethics. Prior to being appointed Director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, she directed the second-year medical school course on infectious diseases and designed a new elective course — “Poverty, Health, and Disease” — that she continues to direct.  Dr. Berggren’s internal medicine training was at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Colorado, where she was a Division of AIDS Fellow funded by the NIH. She then took a faculty position at UT Southwestern, where she pioneered a program for the treatment of Hepatitis C in persons co-infected with HIV. During Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Berggren was the teaching physician assigned to the Infectious Disease ward of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital. She remained at Charity for six days and nights after Katrina struck, working with medical staff to care for critically ill, abandoned patients. After all patients were evacuated from Charity Hospital, Dr. Berggren and her team were rescued by a private jet from Texas. She has subsequently published two articles in the New England Journal of Medicine about this experience and about the impact of hurricane Katrina on health care infrastructure in New Orleans. Dr. Berggren grew up in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti, just one hour away from Mirebalais, at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Following the January 2010 earthquakes in Port au Prince she led relief efforts along the Dominican Republic/Haiti border.

Dr. Kirk is a general internist and geriatrician and has served on several committees relating to the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). She has served on the council of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). Dr. Kirk was President of the American College of Physicians, the national specialty organization for internists, in 2006-2007. She has published on medical professionalism, faculty development, clinical guidelines, and patient education.  She chairs the Internal Medicine Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and is an Associate Program Director in the internal medicine residency training program at UT Southwestern.

For more information about the forum, please contact John Fullinwider by phone at 214-648-3801 or by email at john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu.

The UT Southwestern Library is co-sponsoring a presentation by Rashmi Shetgiri, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, entitled Rethinking Gun Violence: Perspectives from Pediatrics and Public Health on Wednesday, March 20, 2013. This spring Health Policy Forum will be held from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in the McDermott Plaza Lecture Hall, Room D1.602, and will be hosted by Raul Caetano, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Dean, UT School of Public Health/Dallas Campus. Light lunch will be provided so please come early!

The tragic murders of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, last December have riveted the attention of the nation on the issue of gun violence, particularly in the context of mental illness. Can insights from the fields of pediatrics and public health inform our national conversation about guns? Dr. Shetgiri, whose research focuses on youth violence and violence prevention, will address the full range of issues surrounding gun violence in America.  As Congressional hearings convene and lawmakers debate, join us for an opportunity to rethink this urgent issue of preventing gun violence.

Dr. Shetgiri received her undergraduate degree in biology from Drew University and her medical degree from the New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark, through a combined seven-year medical program. She completed her pediatrics residency in the Community Health and Advocacy Training Pprogram in Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her fellowship in the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. She cares for pediatric patients and teaches pediatric residents at Children’s Medical Center and Los Barrios Unidos Community Health Center in Dallas. Her research focuses on adolescent violence prevention, bullying prevention, racial/ethnic health disparities, and partnered research with Latino communities. She has presented her research at several local and national meetings and has been interviewed by national and international media outlets for her research on bullying and violence prevention.

The forum is free and open to all. Pre-registration is not necessary. For more information, contact john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu, 214-648-3801.

Co-sponsors:  UT School of Public Health/Dallas Campus, UT Southwestern Dept. of Pediatrics/Division of General Pediatrics, Latino Medical Students Association, Medical Humanities Interest Group, Dallas county HHS Public Health Advisory Committee, UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, UT Southwestern Dept. of Family Medicine/Division of Community Medicine, and UT Southwestern Clinical and Translational Alliance for Research (UT-STAR).

The Black History Month poster exhibit honors the many contributions of African Americans in science and in the field of medicine. Nine of the 18 posters are displayed on the Main Floor of the South Campus (main) Library; the remaining posters are on D1 across from the Food Court.

The exhibit is sponsored by the UT Southwestern Chapter of the Student National Medical Association in conjunction with the Office of Minority Student Affairs and the Office of Faculty Diversity and Development. It will remain throughout the month of February.