The Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology and the Wayne State University Physician Group have announced the addition of Alice C. Watson, M.D., to the department as a new faculty member and practicing physician.

Dr. Watson comes to WSU from the Henry Ford Health System, where she served in a variety of positions, including residency program director. She brings extensive knowledge in general dermatology, with a special focus in pigmented lesions, skin cancer treatments and connective tissue disease.

She joined the department Oct. 1, and is open for new patient referrals at the Sterling Heights office and the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

She can be contacted at (586) 939-6400 in Sterling Heights, (313) 576-8477 in Detroit, or by e-mail at awatson@med.wayne.edu.

St. Joseph Mercy Oakland will host its 52nd annual Allen Silbergleit, M.D., Clinic Day on Nov. 18 in the Anthony M. Franco Communications Center on the SJMO campus.

This year’s topic, “21st Century Trauma Care,” includes presentations on advances in medicine and surgery given by four distinguished visiting professors.

The program begins at 7:30 a.m. with registration and continental breakfast and concludes with a luncheon and a discussion with speakers at 12:30 p.m.

Speakers at this year’s Clinic Day and their topics are:

James. Tyburski, M.D., professor of Surgery, Wayne State University; chief, Department of Surgery, Detroit Receiving Hospital; program director, General Surgery Residency, Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center, “What’s New in Trauma?”

Charles E. Lucas, M.D., professor of Surgery, Wayne State University, “Controversies in Fluid Management of the Severely Injured Patient”

Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., physician-in-chief, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center; Francis X. Kelly professor of Trauma Surgery; director, Program in Trauma, University of Maryland, “Trauma Management in the Elderly”

Mark D. Pearlman, M.D., S. Jan Behrman professor in Reproductive Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School; professor, Departments of Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Health System; service chief, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, “Obstetric Aspects of Trauma Management.”

“Clinic Day has always been the flagship program of the academic year at SJMO,” said Allen Silbergleit, M.D., Ph.D., program director emeritus of the Department of General Surgery and chair of the Division of General Surgery. He also is the Cancer Liaison Physician for the Commission on Cancer.

In 2005, SJMO renamed the annual Clinic Day program in honor of Dr. Silbergleit, the long-serving chair of the Clinic Day committee and 40-year director of the surgery residency program. For his accomplishments in graduate medical education, Dr. Silbergleit was awarded the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

For more information, call Debra Reid at (248) 858-3234.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine will present the latest in the faculty development series, a conference titled “Using Technology in Education.”

The Nov. 2 conference will take place in the Margherio Family Conference Center, located within the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons. The conference is open to all faculty and physicians.

The goals of the conference, said Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D., vice chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine, include learning to design instruction for distance and on-site education, utilizing multimedia for instruction, designing interactive presentations for on-site education and designing interactive educational Web sites based on sound learning theory.

The conference schedule includes:
7:45 - 8:15 a.m. Registration and breakfast
8:15 - 8:30 a.m. Welcome and overview - Suzanne White, M.D., Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
8:30 - 9:10 a.m. Technology is Wonderful: Where is the Learner? - Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
9:10 - 9:50 a.m. Jazzing the Lecture: Embedding Technology in Your Presentation - LaCesha Clark, M.Ed.
9:50 - 10:30 a.m. Simulation Debriefing: Technology Can Help - Rose Fernandez, M.D., Rick Lammers, M.D.
10:30 -11 a.m. Simulation on a Shoestring - Rick Lammers, M.D.
11 - 11:45 a.m. Lunch
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Challenging Learners: How Do We Motivate Them - Shirley Lee, M.D.
12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Web 2.0: More than a Cultural Shift: It’s a Revolution - Adam Rosh, M.D.
1:15 - 2 p.m. Creating a Web World: Sharepoint - John Marshall, M.D., Steve Horng, M.D.
2 - 2:15 p.m. Break
2:15 - 2:45 p.m. Low Cost, High Impact Models - Mary Jo Wagner, M.D.
2:45 - 3:30 p.m. Engaging Your Students in Large Lectures - Shari Lynn Robinson, M.A.
3:30 - 3:45 p.m. Wrap Up - Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
4 - 5 p.m. Web 2.0 for You: Hands-on Web Practice - Adam Rouse, M.D., or Tour of the Simulation Center, Rose Fernandez, M.D.

Conference organizers strongly encourage all participants bring a laptop computer.

The cost for physicians and faculty members is $85. There is no charge for residents, fellows or medical students.

For more information, call (313) 745-5492.

Saurabh Sethi, M.D., a second-year Internal Medicine resident with the Wayne State University School of Medicine, presented research findings this week at the 2009 annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course of the American College of Gastroenterology in San Diego, Calif.

Dr. Sethi is the lead author of the study “A Review of ACE-Inhibitor Associated Hepatoxicity.” The study’s other authors include Milton G. Mutchnick, M.D., professor and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at Wayne State University; Robert G. Fontana, M.D., associate professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan; and Elizabeth J. May, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Wayne State University.

The team’s review of previously published literature found that the use of ACE inhibitors may bring with it a risk of hepatotoxicity (toxic damage to the liver), and that toxicity may be more widespread than commonly thought.

In two-thirds of the cases of toxicity studied, the condition was detected within eight weeks of the start of ACE inhibitor therapy. Most of those patients improved within a week of the withdrawal of the drugs.

Reports about the findings were published in Today in Medicine by the American Gastroenterological Association (http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2009102701aga&r=3700225-fa30) and MedPage Today News (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACG/16615).

The findings of a Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher related to finding doses of an anti-angiogenic drug that could enhance treatment of kidney cancer have been published as a feature article in an international journal for cancer research.

Gilda Hillman, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology for the School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute, served as principal investigator for "Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Vascular Changes Induced by Sunitinib in Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma Xenograft Tumors." The article was published as the cover story in the September 2009 issue of the journal Neoplasia.

The goal of the study, Dr. Hillman said, was to investigate the effect on tumor vasculature of lower and potentially less toxic doses of Sunitinib, a drug used in the treatment of renal cancer that acts to stop tumors from making new blood vessels. Tumor angiogenesis involves a proliferation of abnormal vessels that are enlarged, disorganized and leaky. The condition impairs blood and oxygen supply to tumors, which, in turn, compromises the delivery and efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy.

While Sunitinib has proved effective and has helped prolong patients’ lives, long-term control of renal carcinoma has not been achieved. Dr. Hillman wanted to determine what doses of the drug could induce regularization of tumor vessels by reducing the growth of inefficient blood vessels and thereby improving blood flow. Dr. Hillman had previously established a pre-clinical model of metastatic renal cell carcinoma in her laboratory and used it to treat kidney tumors with various doses of Sunitinib. Dr. Hillman’s team then studied the vascular changes in murine kidney tumors associated with each dose. The team used dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI imaging, a technology that can be used in humans.

The study assessed the effect of Sunitinib on both the right cancerous kidney and the left normal kidney in mice. The team then compared the data obtained from DCE-MRI imaging of tumors to the data produced by histological staining of tumor sections and determined a dose of Sunitinib that caused regularization of blood flow and thinning of vessels while producing milder effects on blood vessels in the normal kidney.

“These studies have established the feasibility of using DCE-MRI in animal models to assess early vascular changes in tumors induced by anti-angiogenic therapy that could be helpful for scheduling chemotherapy or radiotherapy and increase the efficacy of anti-angiogenic therapy,” said Dr. Hillman, who works with department Chair Andre Konski, M.D., M.B.A., in designing clinical trials of radiotherapy and anti-angiogenic drugs. “This approach using DCE-MRI imaging can be applied to treatment of human cancer.”

The research team included Vinita Singh-Gupta, Ph.D.; Hao Zhang, M.D.; Christopher Yunker and Amit Patel, who was instrumental in data organization and presentation. Mark Haacke, Ph.D., director of the MR Research Facility and a professor of Radiology, collaborated on the study for consulting on imaging parameters conditions and interpretation of MRI data and analysis. He was assisted by Yimin Shen, Ph.D., and several students involved in data analysis. Dr. Haacke’s Ph.D. student, Areen Al Bashir, is participating in imaging data analysis and is using this research as the major topic of her thesis.

Pfizer funded the two-year study with a $264,468 grant.

For more than 20 years, Wayne State University has supported the community through the Combined Charitable Contributions Campaign. This year’s campaign, which began Oct. 14, runs through Nov. 20.

On Nov. 5, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., an agency fair for the campaign will take place in the cafeteria in Scott Hall. Visitors to the fair will have the opportunity to speak with representatives of a number of the benefitting agencies, including United Way for Southeast Michigan, the Black United Fund, Matrix Human Services, Gleaners Community Food Bank, The Detroit Institute for Children and the Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit.

“Times are difficult for everyone in Michigan, but they are much tougher for those who had even less before the economic downturn,” said Robert Frank, M.D., executive vice dean of the School of Medicine, who serves as chair of this year’s campaign. “The faculty, employees and students of Wayne State University have a strong legacy of reaching out to the community, and I know they will do so again through this year’s campaign.”

United Way provides our community with an independent safety net of health and human services by supporting a number of community service agencies. The Black United Fund is a community-based resource center that assists community efforts through referrals, funding, consultation and/or technical assistance. Both organizations provide numerous community service programs through a large network of volunteers and donors. These programs include drug abuse counseling and education, job training and placement, services for the elderly and for victims of domestic violence, recreational activities for children, small business support and services, and many other community outreach activities.

This year’s campaign has set a goal of raising $125,000.

You can become a member of the Wayne State University Combined Charitable Contributions Campaign’s 240 Club by commit to contributing $10 or more per pay period or $240 or more for the year. Members of the 240 Club will be entered into a drawing for one of two airline vouchers redeemable for round trip airfare to anywhere in the continental U.S. Additional prizes may be added throughout the campaign. Drawings will be held at the Wayne State holiday party on Dec. 2 at the McGregor Conference Center. You need not be present to win.

To donate to the campaign, log in to pipeline.wayne.edu, click the employee tab and then click the campaign poster.