Advanced Rhinology Concepts CME scheduled for November

Mark your calendars for the 2009 Advanced Rhinology Concepts (ARC) CME event, scheduled for Nov. 6–8, at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and the Medical School. The continuing medical education course will focus on the comprehensive medical and surgical management of diseases of the nose and paranasal sinuses.

Specific topics to be discussed at the event include the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and medical treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis, sinonasal polyposis, and allergic rhinitis. The course will feature sessions on contemporary frontal sinus surgical techniques and the latest advances in treating fungal rhinosinusitis. Postoperative care and management strategies for the general otolaryngologist will be discussed, and advanced technology, including image-guided surgery and innovative techniques in management of sinonasal neoplasia, also will be featured. A hands-on laboratory session — featuring endoscopic surgical and video equipment, image-guidance technology, powered instrumentation, and cadaveric specimens — will be available.

The event’s guest of honor will be Dr. David Kennedy, professor of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, who is considered a father of modern rhinology in the United States. Dinner keynote speaker will be Dr. Daniel Hamilos, chief of the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Other faculty include Dr. Seth Kanowitz, Morristown Memorial Hospital; Dr. Stilanos Kountakis, Medical College of Georgia, Department of Otolaryngology; and Dr. Jin Keat Siow, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore.

“A CME course dedicated to rhinology and sinus surgery for practicing physicians has not previously been offered in Texas,” said Dr. Martin Citardi, chief of otorhinolaryngology at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. “We believe that 2009 ARC represents a great educational opportunity for practicing otolaryngologists to improve the care that they offer their patients. We anticipate that our attendance will include physicians from across Texas and the entire country, as well as a few international guests.”

Along with Citardi, Dr. Samer Fakhri and Dr. Amber Luong, both of whom are full-time faculty at the Medical School and rhinologic surgeons at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, are serving as directors for 2009 ARC.

“We’ve assembled an impressive faculty for the CME event, which will be the first sinus course of this magnitude in this region of the United States,” Fakhri said.

“We hope to present an evidence-based approach for common diseases of the paranasal sinuses,” Luong said. “Our goal is to link scientific information with the practical provision of care.”

For more information about 2009 ARC, call 713.500.5410, or visit www.sinuscourse.com.

Children's Learning Institute awards pre-k certifications

More than 2,000 pre-kindergarten teachers were rewarded last month for their dedication to preparing their students for kindergarten with the Texas School Ready! certification.

For the 2009–2010 school year, 2,084 classrooms received certification through a state-funded evaluation system led by the Children's Learning Institute (CLI). Last year, 1,123 classrooms were certified.

Barrick Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) is one of 19 HISD schools recognized with the honor.

“Being Texas School Ready! certified shows parents that we are providing the best possible early childhood education available,” said Yolanda Garrido, Barrick Elementary School principal. “The road to college begins in pre-k. If we prepare our students to be school ready, we also prepare them for lifelong learning and success.”

To achieve certification, licensed childcare care providers, Head Start, or public pre-k classrooms can all voluntarily apply to CLI for the certification. CLI then studies information provided by Texas public school districts to assess those students' early reading and social development skills after they advance to kindergarten. The annual certification demonstrates that children who graduated from these pre-k classrooms went to public kindergarten with the fundamental skills in place to be successful.

“This certification recognizes the strong leadership of local community leaders in implementing the Texas School Ready! Project and in taking a proven, focused approach to ensure that all children, including those at-risk, receive the support they need to enter school ready to learn,” said Dr. Susan Landry, Albert and Margaret Alkek Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education and executive director of CLI. “This project continues to succeed for children because of the support of not only parents, teachers, and community leaders but the support of our elected and appointed leaders in Austin.”

For information, to apply, or to find out which classrooms are accredited with Texas School Ready! certification, log onto www.texasschoolready.org, or call 1.800.315.7204.

— Melissa McDonald, Office of Institutional Advancement, Media Relations

Goldman receives Belgium honor

Dr. Stanford Goldman, professor of diagnostic and interventional imaging, is to receive an honorary membership in the Royal Belgium Radiological Society Nov. 14 in Ghent, Belgium.

This award is given annually to an internationally acclaimed radiologist and is being awarded to Goldman for his outstanding achievements in the field of uroradiology.

Goldman joined the Medical School faculty in 1993 and chaired the Department of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiology until 2000. Since then he has continued on the Medical School faculty as a full professor working in the fields of chest and abdominal imaging and as section chief of uroradiology at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. He also serves as an adjunct professor of radiology and urology at Baylor College of Medicine and as a clinical professor of radiology at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

In 2006, he received the Gold Medal Award from the American Society of Emergency Radiologists for outstanding contribution to the field of emergency radiology. Goldman received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Uroradiology at the Abdominal Radiology Course, a combined meeting of the Society of Uroradiology and Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists in 2008.

His research focuses on uroradiology and obstetrical radiology, evaluating pregnancy and women in traumatic situations. He is considered a world expert in the field of genitourinary trauma.

Medical students seek to raise Dollars for Scholars Oct. 23

Medical School students will be taking to the Leather Lounge again this year in an effort to raise Dollars for Scholars Oct. 23.

Last year, the Student Ambassadors and Student Senate solicited funds from fellow students to raise $1,600 to help fund a scholarship for a first-year medical student. This year, the group plans to have two events — one in the fall and one in the spring — to raise scholarship funds.

“We will be giving out ice cream sandwiches, and our big push this year is to see if we can attract alumni, faculty, and staff to match funds that are raised,” said Jason Bourland, a third-year student. “The overall purpose of the event is to foster a spirit of investment in the current student body that will be carried forward into the future when we become alumni and can contribute more substantially, as well as demonstrate to the current alumni that students at UT Houston care enough to invest in the future of this institution.”

This fall’s Dollars for Scholars event will take place at noon, Oct. 23 in the Leather Lounge. All donations will go toward student scholarships.

Award helps Scott-Gurnell make transformation to clinician/researcher

Dr. Kathy Scott-Gurnell, assistant professor of psychiatry and clinical director at UT-Harris County Psychiatric Center, recently was selected as a scholar mentee with the African American Mental Health Research Scientist Consortium (AAMHRS).

The goals of the AAMHRS include increasing competitive grant applications to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from African American research scientists and advancing the participation of African American mental health researchers in NIMH programs.

Mentees must be African American research scientists who have not received an independent NIMH or NIH grant and who demonstrate a clear interest and commitment to mental health research.

“I am honored to have been selected as a scholar mentee with the African American Mental Health Research Scientist Consortium,” Scott-Gurnell said. “I just completed a three-day training and was assigned a senior level scientist with prior NIH/NIMH grants as well as a program officer from NIMH who will work with me over the next year to prepare the grant application.”

Scott-Gurnell received her medical degree from UTMB and completed postgraduate training at the Medical School with an internship, an adult psychiatry residency, and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship.

She joined the Medical School faculty on a full-time basis in 2007. Her research interests include bipolar disorder and child behavior.

— Darla Brown, Office of Communications, Medical School

Interview day