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UW Hospital and Clinics Earns National Honor for Reducing Infections
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 University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics was recognized for taking a major step forward in reducing health care-associated infections (HAI), as it received the 2013 Partnership in Prevention Award through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The hospital received the award during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. “It’s a huge honor, and we are very pleased,” said Nasia Safdar, MD, PhD, Infectious Disease, and the hospital’s infection-control chief. “It’s recognition of the hard work the entire organization has put in for several years to reduce infections. In that sense, it is very gratifying to be recognized for your efforts.”
"Proper hand hygiene is the underpinning of all our initiatives to reduce infections," Safdar said. "Without it, we would not have achieved the successes we had in the other interventions. Once the hand hygiene campaign gained momentum, and everyone bought into it, it took on a life of its own."
Safdar commended the work of the infection preventionists at UW Hospital and Clinics and the many front-line staff that led the infection prevention initiatives. For more information, see the full article on the UW Health web site.
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Many Still Need to Register for WeTALK
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Physicians, PAs, NPs, residents, and fellows don't forget to register for WeTALK. These sessions not only teach us better ways to communicate with our patients and colleagues, they are also MANDATORY for Department of Medicine faculty, residents, fellows, APPs and NPs and PAs. Please go to the website and sign up for a class as soon as possible.
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Checking on the Elderly During the Holidays
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Both Steven Barczi, MD, and Cynthia Carlsson, MD, Geriatrics, spoke with the media about checking on elderly family members during the holiday season. They noted that it is often the adults who live far away and see their parents or other family members infrequently who notice changes and health declines more than others who see family on a day-to-day basis. Some suggestions include:
- Watch to see if they are moving slower or having more difficulties with balance or arising from a chair
- Look for any problems with memory or new challenges in accomplishing familiar tasks
- Check to see if they are taking their medication properly and query if they need all of the medications they're taking?
- Observe if they choke on food, clear their throats frequently at meal time or have problems swallowing their pills
- Talk to them about their sleep quality and level of restoration
- Make sure they can manage their home well, including cleaning and groceries
To learn more, watch WMSN Fox 47 or read the lastest story in Health Canal.
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Abernethy Stars in Untold Stories of the ER
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Michael Abernethy, MD, clinical associate professor, Emergency Medicine, is featured on Discovery Health Channel's Untold Stories of the ER. "These are some of the most interesting cases I've seen in my 25 years in community and academic Emergency Medicine," said Abernethy. "It was a very interesting process. As medical professionals, we have to remember what we think are great cases can be pretty boring to the average layperson. Conversely, something we find mundane can be utterly fascinating to someone who has never experienced it. Good medicine does not always make good entertainment. It's all about finding the middle ground." The show airs Friday, December 6 at 9 pm.
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A recent patient comment from Hematology/Oncology: "Dr. Robins is a very caring and attentive physician. He makes home phone calls to check on his patient's condition and to personally explain test results when they are known. That's fantastic! He also is supported by a friendly and caring staff of nurses and medical professionals—Nancy and Suzanne are gems."
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 December 13, 2013
"The Diagnosis and Prognosis of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) - Pitfalls and Opportunities"
Richard J. Glassock, MD, MACP, Emeritus Profess of Medicine, Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles
 December 20, 2013
"Multidisciplinary Management of HCC: The UW Experience"
Parul Agarwal, MD, Assistant Professor (CHS), Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Department of Medicine
AND
 "Understanding the Options in the Management of Hepatocellular Cancer: It Takes a Village"
Joshua D. Mezrich, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery
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Next Advanced Practice Practitioner (APP) Grand Rounds December 17
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APP Grand Rounds will be held quarterly, with the second event scheduled for December 17, 2013, from 7 to 8 am in room 1345 in the HSLC with Scott Springman, MD, Department of Anesthesiology presenting on “Patient Pre-procedure Evaluation.” Participants can attend the presentation at the lecture hall or view in real time on their computer.
The topics will vary for each session and alternate to cover acute care, primary care, and general topics. Erika Fehrenbach Prell, NP, and Muggs Helin, NP, the co-chairs of this series, have been working with the Office of Continuing Professional Development to provide 1.0 AMA Category 1 credits™. The University of Wisconsin-Medical Foundation is sponsoring the event with administrative support provided by the Department of Surgery.
Accreditation Statement
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Credit Designation Statement:
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
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East Side Clinic Receives MVP Avatar Quarterly Award
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Congratulations to our East Clinic nurses, medical assistants, schedulers and providers for the exceptional care you provide to our patients. The East Clinic has received a MVP Avatar Quarterly Award for the April – June 2013 quarter. The award is for achieving 100 percent on “Providers office staff tried their best to help me if there was a problem.”
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Ewer Speaks at Women's Night Out
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Steven Ewer, MD, assistant professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, recently gave an educational presentation entitled “Women and Heart Disease” during the 6th Annual Juneau County Women’s Night Out. Ewer explained the scope of the problem for women and said, “If you think heart disease is a man’s disease, you’re wrong. It’s never too early, or late, for a woman to make changes to protect her heart.” Hundreds of women gathered in Mauston, Wisconsin, to learn about women’s heart health.
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Wisinski Presents at Cancer Research Group Symposium
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Kari B. Wisinski, MD, assistant professor, Hematology/Oncology, was selected to present at the 2013 Fall ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group Young Investigator Symposium on November 14. This is a cancer research cooperative group that was formed by the merger of the the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN). Her talk was titled: “Cytochrome P450 Interacting Medication Use in Adults with Advanced Solid Tumors and a Framework for Standardizing Assessment of Drug Interactions in Clinical Trials With Investigational Anti-Cancer Agents.”
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McGorey Sings for Tornado Victims
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 Thomas McGorey, MD, clinical assistant professor, and site director for Hospital Medicine in Watertown, Wisconsin, spent the night singing at the Great Dane in Hilldale on December 3, as a fundraising effort for the people of Washington, Illinois, a town devastated by a recent tornado. McGorey, who previously worked as a high school teacher in Washington, will be performing a tour of 25 shows in 25 days at several venues throughout Wisconsin and Illinois to raise money for the Washington Tornado Relief Fund.
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James Stein, MD, Robert Turrell Professor in Cardiovascular Research, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, is Co-Chair and Core Ultrasound Lab Director for a new NHLBI-sponsored clinical trial, "Effect of Reducing Inflammation with Low Dose Methotrexate on Inflammatory Markers and Endothelial Function in Treated and Suppressed HIV Infection" (ACTG Study 5314). It is open to accrual, effective, December 2, 2013. This is a limited-site study open only to select Clinical Research Sites.
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Gregory Gauthier, MD, Infectious Disease, received funding from NIH for his R21 titled: “Regulation of Morphogenesis in Dimorphic Fungi by a GATA Transcription Factor.” The proposed research, which dissects how dimorphic fungi convert between yeast and mold, will impact human heath by providing novel insight on genes important for temperature adaptation; this, in turn, has the potential to identify new drug targets, guide the development of novel antifungals, and discover innovative strategies to treat patients with serious fungal infections.
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 Peter S. Rahko, MD, FACC, FASE, professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, is editor of “Heart Failure: A Case-Based Approach,” recently published by Demos Medical Publishing, New York, 2014. This book includes several case studies by faculty and fellows from the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. These doctors include: Salman Allana, MD, fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine; Steven M. Ewer, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Ryan Kipp, MD, fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine; Nancy K. Sweitzer, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine; Elaine Winkel, MD, associate professor of medicine, Heart Failure and Transplant program; Kari B. Wisinski, MD, assistant professor of medicine, division of Hematology and Oncology. In addition, the book includes several case studies from physicians at prominent academic institutions across the country.
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James Cleary, MD, associate professor, Hematology/Oncology, was involved in a research survey that reveals more than four billion people live in countries where regulatory barriers leave cancer patients suffering excruciating pain due to a lack of access to inexpensive and effective essential opioids. These results have just been published in the Annals of Oncology and include an introduction, five research articles and next steps. The articles are listed below.
N. I. Cherny, J. Cleary, W. Scholten, L. Radbruch, and J. Torode. The Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI) project to evaluate the availability and accessibility of opioids for the management of cancer pain in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East: introduction and methodology. Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi7-xi13 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt498.
J. Cleary, R. A. Powell, G. Munene, F. N. Mwangi-Powell, E. Luyirika, F. Kiyange, A. Merriman, W. Scholten, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Formulary availability and regulatory barriers to accessibility of opioids for cancer pain in Africa: a report from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI). Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi14-xi23 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt499.
J. Cleary, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Formulary availability and regulatory barriers to accessibility of opioids for cancer pain in Asia: a report from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI). Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi24-xi32 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt500.
J. Cleary, N. Simha, A. Panieri, W. Scholten, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Formulary availability and regulatory barriers to accessibility of opioids for cancer pain in India: a report from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI). Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi33-xi40 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt501.
J. Cleary, L. De Lima, J. Eisenchlas, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Formulary availability and regulatory barriers to accessibility of opioids for cancer pain in Latin America and the Caribbean: a report from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI). Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi41-xi50 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt502.
J. Cleary, M. Silbermann, W. Scholten, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Formulary availability and regulatory barriers to accessibility of opioids for cancer pain in the Middle East: a report from the Global Opioid Policy Initiative (GOPI). Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi51-xi59 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt503.
J. Cleary, L. Radbruch, J. Torode, and N. I. Cherny. Next steps in access and availability of opioids for the treatment of cancer pain: reaching the tipping point? Ann Oncol (2013) 24 (suppl 11): xi60-xi64 doi:10.1093/annonc/mdt504.
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New Department of Medicine Faculty
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New faculty will be listed after their photos are available.
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 Abdul Kenj Halabi, MD
Rheumatology
Clinical Assistant Professor
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New Department of Medicine Staff
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 Shannon Reese, MS
Nephrology
Research Associate
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 Bhawna Sharma
Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Research Associate
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 Pankaj Singh
Geriatrics
Project Assistant
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We have often heard, the healthiest kids are those exposed to life on the farm and all the microbes that come with it. They seem to suffer from fewer allergies and asthma attacks. In a recent article in the New York Times, Moises Velasquez-Manoff asks, "WILL the cure for allergies come from the cowshed?" Her article, A Cure for the Allergy Epidemic?, takes us to a a manure-spattered cowshed in Indiana’s Amish country. I asked James Gern, MD, and professor in Allergy and Immunology to comment on the article.
"This is a well-researched article that reviews recent evidence in support of the hygiene hypothesis. The original iteration of this theory proposed that lack of exposure to infectious diseases in early life predisposes to allergies and asthma. This theory has been tested many times in the past 20 years, and there has been an evidence-based adjustment of the hypothesis. As reviewed in the article by Velasquez-Manoff, it appears that exposure to non-pathogenic microbes in early life provides input that is necessary for normal immune maturation. Farming environments are rich in microbial exposures, and thus children raised on farms have a lower risk for developing allergic diseases. Without this type of exposure, children are at much higher risk for developing allergic diseases, asthma, and possible a host of other immune-mediated diseases. Remarkably, this same effect has been observed in Wisconsin farm families, and I am working with Drs. Matt Keifer and Christine Seroogy to establish a new birth cohort study in Marshfield to study effects of farm exposures on respiratory illnesses in infancy. The mechanisms for beneficial effects of farm microbes are not fully understood, but seem to be related to stimulation and development of tolerance mechanisms. Hopefully, this line of research will eventually lead to the development of novel probiotics for use in the prevention of allergic diseases."
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We want to hear from you!
Please email us at marketing@medicine.wisc.edu and share information about your community service/outreach efforts, grants awarded, papers published, accomplishments in education and clinical work, or anything else which you are proud or think would be of interest to your colleagues.
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