What's New at GWUMC

WASHINGTON – Faculty members from The George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences taught genomics and molecular biology at “Go Girl Camp,” a Loudoun County summer camp for young girls who are interested in science, June 22-26. The program was created by a joint partnership of GW’s SMHS, Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy and Loudoun County Public School and was so popular that a second week of camp has been added on July 6-10.

“It is an amazing opportunity for young women to get involved in science and have role models who are women,” said Nancy Skacel, PhD, assistant professor in GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), Department of Pharmacology & Physiology. “The interest in this camp that is being offered for the first time is astounding.”

Dr. Reiner was a guest on Dr. Nancy Snyderman's new show on MSNBC, titled Dr. Nancy, to discuss sudden cardiac arrest, heart disease risk factors and warning signs in light of Michael Jackson and Billy Mays' deaths.

Dr. Joseph O'Brien was a guest on the same show on MSNBC to discuss children and chiropractic therapies.

Both faculty members appeared live.

• Capacity Building

• Technical Expertise and Innovation

• Collaboration

• Leadership

• Impact

• Commemorative Plaque
• Opportunity to participate in three select PAHO capacity-building activities for malaria prevention and control
• Support  from a George Washington University Global Health Service Fellow for approximately three months to aid in research and field work
• US$2,500 cash award for malaria-related capacity-building efforts (e.g. staff training / education; research; project proposal development; or other activities that enhance skills and abilities to achieve goals and targets)

WASHINGTON – The GW Medical Center will host 20 college or university bound Washington, D.C. graduating public or charter high school seniors, who are interested in pursuing a health career, as part of a four-week DC Health and Academic Prep Program (DC HAPP) starting July 6. DC HAPP aims to engage student scholars in various medical professions as possible career paths and provide them with committed mentors to guide them through college and career decisions.  

Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director, Homeland Security Policy Institute, submitted an Op-Ed on the emergency response during the recent DC Metro Incident. The Op-Ed was printed in the Washington Post on Sunday, June 28, 2009. 

Click here to read this article or copy and paste the following URS into your Web browser: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702257.html

Dan's perspective was also featured in the DC City Paper (www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/) the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0624/p02s21-usgn.html)


About the Homeland Security Policy Institute:
Founded in 2003, The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) is a nonpartisan “think and do” tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach. By convening domestic and international policymakers and practitioners at all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and academia, HSPI creates innovative strategies and solutions to current and future threats to the nation.

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Dr. Christina Puchalski and the FICA assessment that Dr.  Puchalski  developed as a quick tool to obtain a spiritual history from a patient were featured in the Washingtonpost.com 

Click here to read this article or copy and past the following URL into your Web browser: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/faithandhealing/2009/06/how_physicians_deal_with_spirituality.html

GWish was established in May 2001 as a leading organization on education and clinical issues related to spirituality and health. Under the direction of Founder and Director Christina M. Puchalski, MD, associate professor of Medicine and Health Care Sciences, GWish is changing the face of healthcare through innovative programs for physicians and other members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team, including clergy and chaplains. Dr. Puchalski’s pioneering work has had a major impact on medical education, professional education, and clinical programs locally, nationally, and internationally.

WASHINGTON—The George Washington University Department of Health Policy, Center for Health Policy Research, released a policy brief that examines Medicaid’s non-emergency medical transportation assurance and the role played by the assurance as policymakers debate national health reform. The brief reviews the origins and evolution of the assurance and presents the results of a 2009 survey of state Medicaid programs regarding the current state of Medicaid transportation.  

• While non-emergency medical transportation represented 1% of total Medicaid spending in FY 2006 (slightly more than $3 billion), Medicaid expenditures for transportation make the program the second largest federal funder of public transportation, behind only programs administered by the United State Department of Transportation. As such, Medicaid-funding is crucial to the availability of medical transportation services for receipt of medically necessary health care.

• The assurance of medical transportation is one of several basic program features that set Medicaid apart from traditional concepts of health insurance. The non-emergency transportation assurance has been part of Medicaid since its enactment and is one of the features that sets Medicaid apart from traditional health insurance for the poor.  

• As of 2009, nearly all states recognize non-emergency medical transportation as a fundamental program component, but three states, have eliminated non-emergency transportation, as part of their “benefit flexibility” programs under the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA).  An important issue in this regard is the recent proposal from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider 2008 regulations  permitting the elimination of non-emergency transportation option, as well as changes to  the state benefit flexibility option that were enacted by Congress in 2009 as part of CHIPRA. 

WASHINGTON— David M. Stevens, MD, research professor, Department of Health Policy, GW School of Public Health and Health Services, and director of the Quality Center, National Association of Community Health Centers, has been chosen to be a part of a panel of leading experts on Medicaid managed care that will convene to consider updates to the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) Accreditation program for Medicaid health plans. NCQA Accreditation is the health care industry’s most rigorous and utilized yardstick for health plan quality. 
 
“It is an honor to be a part of this prestigious panel of experts. The Medicaid Advisory Committee is part of a transparent and rigorous process to build consensus, refine standards and scoring, pilot test and consider suggestions from stakeholders. I am confident that this process will result in a Medicaid  managed care accreditation program that will improve the quality of care for the nation’s most vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Stevens.  

Washington - Prof. Peter Hotez, MD, PhD was named today an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (RSHTM). The award has been a tradition of RSHTM for more than 100 years and is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions towards the objectives of the Society. RSHTM's mission is to promote and advance the study, control, prevention and treatment of tropical diseases, to facilitate discussion, exchange of information and promotion of the health of those affected by tropical diseases.

 Click here to view video or cut and paste the following Web address into your browser:

About the Homeland Security Policy Institute
Founded in 2003, The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) is a nonpartisan “think and do” tank whose mission is to build bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through an interdisciplinary approach. By convening domestic and international policymakers and practitioners at all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors, and academia, HSPI creates innovative strategies and solutions to current and future threats to the nation.

Washington Times:
Click here to read this article or cut and paste the following Web address into your browser: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/24/cheneys-save-hearts-in-dc/

An exerpt from the DC City Paper:
"Cheneys—yes, those Cheneys—to donate automatic external defibrillators to District groups. ‘The ReStart DC program of the Cheney Cardiovascular Institute at George Washington University already has distributed 50 Philips HeartStart AEDs to local groups where large numbers of people gather, such as houses of worship and senior and community centers. Another 150 are expected to be delivered this year.’" Mike DeBonis, DC City Paper, June 24, 2009

Click here to read this article or cut and paste the following Web address into your browser: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571387059539071.html

Click here to read this article or cut and paste the following Web address into your browser: http://www.slate.com/id/2221157/

Track Program is an educational program designed to enrich students' experiences and opportunities, and expose them to various concentrations of study. GW SMHS believes this program will further students' medical careers by providing a broader healthcare perspective and exposure to leadership opportunities.

• Community/Urban Health
• Emergency Management
• Environmental Health
• Global Health
• Health Policy
• Integrative Medicine
• Research
• Medical Education Leadership
• Medical Humanities
• MD/MPH Program

For more information please refer to www.gwumc.edu/oso or you can call 202-994-2295.

On June 15-16, 2009, HSPI Deputy Director Daniel Kaniewski was featured in a conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Emergency Physicians titled "A Tale of Our Cities: Planning for Interdisciplinary Response to Terrorist Use of Explosives Events.

The conference built upon the success of previous “Tale of Cities" conferences that identified and proposed solutions to fill gaps in preparing and responding to terrorist bombings. Such conferences, comprised of delegations from large cities, afford invaluable opportunities to exchange ideas and information with counterparts from other cities who have had real world experience responding to terrorist bombings. This event included senior Metro Boston officials involved in medicine, emergency management and planning who collectively discussed lessons learned, identified gaps in Boston readiness, and proposed how to cogently plan and address identified issues.

WASHINGTON - A new report from The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy challenges the notion that fraud is a problem only in public health insurance markets and finds that fraud is a system-wide problem affecting private and public health insurance alike. The report finds that some of the most striking examples of fraud come from fraud committed directly by the private insurance industry itself. In 2007, when the U.S. spent nearly $2.3 trillion on health care and public and private insurers processed more than 4 billion health insurance claims, fraud was estimated to reach as much as 10 percent of annual health care spending. At this rate, the losses in 2007 alone –over $220 billion – would have been enough to cover the uninsured. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) has estimated conservatively that 3 percent of all health care spending—or $68 billion—is lost to health care fraud.  

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a journal based at GW, was recently rated the top tropical disease journal by ISI Web of Knowledge Journal of Citation Reports when sorted by “impact factor.” The journal, one of 15 ranked tropical disease journals, also scored highest on “immediacy index” and “article influence.” Peter Hotez, MD, PHD, FAAP, the Walter G. Ross Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, and professor of Global Health at The George Washington University and the President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, serves as the editor-in-chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.  

Click here to read the article featured on the WashingtonPost.com or copy and paste the following Web address into your browser: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/06/report_urges_preventative_care.html

About the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health at GW SPHHS

The Jacobs Institute of Women's Health (JIWH) was founded in 1990 and became part of the SPHHS in 2006. The goal of JIWH is to improve health care for women through research, dialogue, and information dissemination. Its mission is to:

• Identify and study women's health care issues involving the interaction of medical and social systems;
• Facilitate informed dialogue and foster awareness among consumers and providers alike; and
• Promote problem resolution, interdisciplinary coordination and information dissemination at the regional, national and international levels.

JIWH works to continuously improve the health care of women across their lifespan and in all populations. JIWH promotes environments where an interdisciplinary audience, including health care professionals, researchers, policymakers, consumers, and advocates come together to discuss ways to advance women's health. With its new SPHHS affiliation, JIWH also focuses on educational programs to advance women's health policy as a field of study.

Click here to read the article in the Washington Post or copy and paste the following Web address into your browser: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061701570.html

ReStart DC is a program of the GW Cheney Cardiovascular Institute. The ReStart DC mission is to increase survival rates of sudden cardiac arrest in the national capital area. ReStart DC will donate 200 AEDs to organizations serving low-income communities throughout metropolitan Washington, DC in an effort to increase public access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and increase public awareness about sudden cardiac arrest. In addition to providing free AED devices, the program will provide training, medical oversight and direction. www.ReStartDC.org

WASHINGTON – TheGeorge Washington University Medical Center received a $1.17 million grant over three years from the National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant Program (RO1) to help fill the gap of information on the distribution of prices for cancer care. The research will seek to inform patients, consumers, and third-party payers about the trade-offs in making health care choices on the basis of price or in terms of potential quality of care. The primary investigator on the grant is Dr. Avi Dor, professor of Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Health Policy in the School of Public Health and Health Services. 

Dr. Dor noted, “This is an opportunity for us to identify the dispersion of prices, the impact of insurance on prices, and the role of outcomes aggregated to the level of hospital, by breaking down the pricing of surgical procedures for cancer treatment.”  Through the grant, Dr. Dor will examine the relationship between pricing and outcomes of three procedures, including colectomy (colon resection), lung surgery (resection), and a uterine (endometrial) hysterectomy, when associated with the diagnosis of colorectal, lung, and uterine cancers.

WASHINGTON – Delivering care for women with chronic illness costs the United States billions of dollars and affects countless lives, according to a new report by the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health of The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The report, titled "Women’s Health and Healthcare Reform: The Economic Burden of Disease In Women," highlights the skyrocketing direct and indirect costs of major chronic conditions facing women today. 

“High quality health care, including prevention, during the reproductive years can improve women's health across the lifespan and reduce the burden of disease later in life,” said study lead author Susan F. Wood, research professor at the GW School of Public Health. “With the cost of chronic illness in women so high, we can no longer afford a patchwork of care that is loosely pieced together.”

Washington, D.C. [June 11, 2009] – In an effort to save more lives from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), The Richard B. and Lynne V. Cheney Cardiovascular Institute at The George Washington University will launch the ReStart DC program on June 11. The goal of the ReStart DC program is to place automated external defibrillators (AEDs) where large numbers of people gather throughout all eight wards of Washington, D.C. and to raise awareness about the critical need for broad AED access to help save lives. 

To kick off the program, ReStart DC will present Philips HeartStart AEDs to the leaders of several community organizations that serve D.C. residents. Lynne Cheney will host the event at Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, June 11, 2009. The launch follows the second annual National CPR/AED Awareness Week.  

WASHINGTON – The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in collaboration with the National Committee for Quality Assurance, will launch two new Masters degree programs focusing on Health Care Quality. Students can pursue either an MS in Nursing or an MS in Health Sciences in Health Care Quality, which will prepare them to lead the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of health care quality and patient safety initiatives. The development of the program stems from the growing demand for quality and patient safety specialists who have the capacity and competence to grow and sustain a culture of continuous improvement in the health care delivery system.  

“These new degree programs will give our graduates a unique and needed skill in the forefront of a changing health care market. This coursework will develop graduates who have the capability to vastly improve the quality of health care in our nation,” said Jean Johnson, senior associate dean, Health Sciences programs.