Dean Neutens Holds First Town Hall Meeting
"Into the Future: By Building on the Past" was the title of the presentation by Dean James J. Neutens, PhD, at his First Town Hall meeting with UTGSM employees on May 30, 2007. Dr. Neutens stressed the value of the quality of current GSM employees as we move forward into the future.

Mission:
Dean Neutens’ presentation confirmed that the GSM principal mission is to focus on education, research, service, and patient care.

Strategic planning initiatives to support the mission statement would include:

• Education
  Establish a mentoring program and a coordinated recruitment process for residents and faculty positions
• Research
  Establish an integrated strategy for growing/redirecting the research enterprise by identifying new funding opportunities; facilitation of grant applications; a research coordinator responsible for relations with UTHSC and funding agencies
• Service/Administration:
  Expand GSM Outreach services to the community; plan and implement programs for alumni; establish a GSM Community Advisory Board
• Patient Care:
  Promote a culture of "customer" service; support UHS primary care initiatives; develop a system in concert with UHS that appears as a cohesive multispecialty, group practice to partners and patients

Vision:
“We need to ask ourselves, ‘What can the GSM be best in the world at?',” said Neutens.  “Part of answering that demands an understanding of what drives the GSM economic engine and what we are passionate about.  Then, we can arrive at our vision of being the very best in medical education and medical education research.”

Exciting new goals include:

• Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars
• Fellowship in Medical Education and Medical Education Research
• Office of Medical Education and Research
  • The Teaching Commons
  • Residents as Teachers Program
  • Faculty Development Program
  • Resident Recruitment Committee
  • Dean's Council
  • GSM Research Day
  • Mentoring Programs
• Work with UHS, private practices, and GSM clinical entities to take clinical care to the next level

Target for the First 120 Days
Positions to be filled, restructuring to meet the mission and to development new committees.

• Positions
  • Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
  • Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical/Dental Education (GMDE)
  • Assistant Dean for Finance & Administration
  • Academic Chair Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Academic Chair Diagnostic Radiology
  • UTHSC Faculty Senate Representation (2)
  • Chair of the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars (Dr. Mitch Goldman)
    
• Restructuring GSM Administration
  • Continuing Medical/Dental Education becomes Office of Communications and Outreach
  • GMDE--Explore the roles of the Designated Institutional Official, the Assistant Dean, GMDE Committee, and the GMDE Office
  • Committee on Faculty Affairs
    
• New Programs and Committees:
  • Initiation of the Academy of Teaching Scholars
  • Resident Recruitment Committee
  • Philanthropy Committee
  • Management Team

Dr. Neutens was appointed Dean of the UT Graduate School of Medicine in April 2007 following a national search led by Search Committee Chair, John Neff, MD, Professor and Director of the Pathology Residency Program. Dr. Neutens had served as interim dean of UTGSM since 2005.

A Glance Back in Time: The 1970s
The UTGSM enters the 1970s studying prenatal, neonatal, children’s health, leukemia, cancer, anemia and birth defects. Genetic research is growing. Transplants, technology and dramatic medical breakthroughs grab the public’s attention, and research emphasis changes from biomedical to clinically applied research. UT researchers develop a test for bowel cancer that is quick and inexpensive. They discover a breakthrough in the use of antigens for immunization against cancer. In 1973, Tennessee’s first Clinical Education Center—the predecessor to the UT Graduate School of Medicine—opens in Knoxville to train physicians for rural areas. For the next 10 years, research centers around cancer, anemia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, cardiovascular incidents, strokes, and neurological diseases.


1475 Years of Life with Diabetes
A group of special people met on Friday, March 9, 2007 - longtime Diabetes Type 1 Survivors. One thousand four hundred seventy-five years of living with Diabetes Type 1 was represented.

A banquet was held at the Riverside Tavern to honor those guests who have lived with Diabetes Type 1 for 50 years or more and for those who have lived with diabetes 38-49 years. John Eaddy, MD, Professor Emeritus, UTGSM Department of Family Medicine, is a 55-year survivor himself.

George J. King, MD, of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, was the invited guest speaker. According to Dr. King, of the approximately 2 million Type 1 diabetics living in the U.S. today, only 400-500 of them have lived with juvenile diabetes more than 50 years. Dr. King was in Knoxville to speak at the UTGSM CME conference, "Managing and Motivating for Diabetes Survival: Third Annual Diabetes Regional Conference."

Pathology Specimens Arrive From Guyana
The UTGSM Department of Pathology, University Pathologists, PC, Laboratory Corporation of America, and Molecular Pathology Laboratory Network, Inc., will be donating diagnostic laboratory and pathology services to Remote Area Medical in support its Women's Health Project in Guyana, South America . On May 3, a shipment of 620 Pap smears, 90 cervical biopsies and other gynecologic surgical specimens from the Amerindian population of southwest Guyana, arrived for laboratory processing and pathologic evaluation.  This clinical service will provide the Department of Pathology with additional educational materials to support resident and fellowship training in gynecologic pathology. Dr. John Neff, Professor and Director of the Pathology Residency Program, traveled to Guyana in  October 2006, to tour and inspect medical laboratory facilities on behalf of the Knoxville based Remote Area Medical (RAM). This outreach activity, which will continue in the future within the department, is a result of that effort.

CEM Graduate Student Research Symposium Scheduled
The Comparative and Experimental Medicine (CEM) degree program (MS and PhD) at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine and UTGSM announced the First Annual CEM Graduate Student Research Symposium. The event is scheduled for June 27, 2007, from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm in Rooms A117 and A118 of the UT Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Poster sessions will be held from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm and oral presentations will begin at 1:00 pm. Everyone is invited to attend.

Sarena Cleeton, Library Assistant in Preston Medical Library, has been selected to enter the National Library of Medicine Associate Fellowship Program. The NLM program is designed to prepare librarians for future leadership roles in health science libraries and health services research. Cleeton graduated from UTK this May receiving her Master of Science in Information Science. Cynthia Vaughn, Clinical Information Librarian, participated in this same program in 2001-2003.

Douglas D. Wellons, student employee in the Anesthesiology Research Facility, under the direction of Roger C. Carroll, PhD, was recently honored at the Annual Chancellor's Honors Banquet at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Wellons, who graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from UTK this May, received citations for Academic Achievement and for Professional Promise. He has been accepted and will attend UTHSC College of Medicine in Memphis this fall.

Welcome to GSM

Faculty Appointments:
Mazen Y. Khalil, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

K. Paige Kessler-Johnson, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Ob/Gyn

Gregory Mancini, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Bruce E. Woodworth, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Carlos Angel, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

Carol Fowler, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

Stanley Kurek, DO
Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

New Employees:
Sharon Creswell, Department of Ob/Gyn
Brittany M. Beasley, Department of Medical Genetics
Rebecca West, Department of Family Medicine

Goodbye to:
Marcelo Fiszman, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medical Informatics.

HLV Conference Set for September 7-8, 2007
The "Heart, Lung, Vascular: Advances and Basics for the Primary Care Provider" conference, set for September 7-8, 2007, UT Conference Center, will provide primary care physicians and other healthcare professionals the knowledge they need to better help their patients. Experts in the fields of cardiology, pulmonology and vascular surgery will gather to present the latest on new equipment and drugs that primary care providers can use in their daily practices. For more information on the conference, contact the Office of Communications and Outreach via email or call 865-305-9190.

Mark your Calendar for these Upcoming CME Events:

10th Annual Fall Psychiatric Symposium
September 20-21, 2007
Knoxville Convention Center

Inaugural Whittington Lectureship Series: Prostate Cancer (New Series!)
November 1 and 2, 2007
Wood Auditorium and Parkwest Medical Center

Group Discusses Long-term Survival at March Diabetes Conference
A capacity crowd of physicians, nurses, dietitians and other members of diabetes-management teams attended the March 10, 2007, CME conference, "Managing and Motivating for Diabetes Survival: Third Annual Diabetes Regional Conference," held at the UT Conference Center. Conference attendees and presenters discussed the prevalence and long-term outlook of patients and how to modify this outlook using preventive education and motivation and a team approach to managing diabetes. This annual conference, sponsored by the UTGSM and the Department of Family Medicine, is the only one of its kind in the region.

CDE Lecture Presents Dental Implant Techniques
A successful 2007 John E. Sullivan Endowed Lecture: "Surgical and Restorative Strategies for Dental Implant Techniques," was held April 25, 2007. Dentists, oral surgeons, prosthodontists and other dental professionals gained knowledge of the surgical and prosthetic aspects of current implant topics while highlighting anterior esthetics and topics dealing with immediate and delayed temporization of dental implants. This biennial lecture is sponsored by UTGSM and the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Wood Auditorium at Capacity for Child Abuse Lecture
Recognizing child abuse, approaching caregivers to discuss potential abuse, reporting abuse and preventing maltreatment are challenges faced by physicians and other healthcare professionals every day. Emalee Flaherty, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Medical Director, Protective Service Team, Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, helped the capacity group at the 2007 Patterson Lecture: "Overcoming Barriers: Your Role in Recognizing, Reporting and Preventing Child Abuse," held on May 18, 2007, learn ways to recognize, report and prevent child abuse. The Patterson Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Education Gift Fund was established to offer annual educational conferences to help local physicians better understand the destructive forces that target the most vulnerable elements of society.