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 Summer is upon us or, at least, it already feels like it outside with Tucson’s triple-digit temperatures. But for those who’ve lived here a few years, that time between college graduations and the July 1 start for new faculty, residents and fellows offers a brief respite before the training begins again with new faces and new roles.
Look for news in the next few weeks of new physicians joining us, including Dr. Juanita Merchant, incoming chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and a renowned physician-scientist. She starts July 2. A big thanks goes to Dr. Steve Goldschmid who done an incredible job as interim division chief.
 We also recently welcomed the new Banner – University Medicine President Larry Goldberg at a reception May 22 (pictured at left) and will welcome our new UA Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Michael Dake with another reception June 6 (see the event listing below to RSVP).
In between, the College of Medicine – Tucson hosted the Strategic Plan Team (May 29) of new UA President Robert Robbins for his effort to reenvision the future of the university for the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Several DOM staff and physicians were present, including Drs. Khadijah Breathett, Steve Goldman, Steve Goldschmid, Yves Lussier, Kevin Moynahan, John Po, and Esther Sternberg. At the meeting, we learned Dr. Dake will oversee that strategic planning process for UA Health Sciences colleges and centers. Also underscored was the importance of the health sciences—a large part of recent research ranking gains and with about a billion dollars in UA/Banner health-related construction coming to a close north of Speedway over the next year—to future initiatives.
The bottom line is more change is coming and, more often than not, that’s a good thing. I believe our department is well positioned for that change and, in many ways, helping to lead the effort.
Please mark your calendars for the next Department of Medicine General Faculty Meeting. It will be Monday, June 25, 5:30-6:30 p.m., in Room 5403. Send your latest awards and accolades to our communications coordinator David Mogollon for inclusion in the slide show. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Monica Kraft, MD
Robert & Irene Flinn Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
The University of Arizona Division of Nephrology, Division of Urology and Department of Nutritional Sciences team up to launch a comprehensive Kidney Stone Clinic—a first for Arizona—that will start to see patients in July, announced division chiefs Drs. Prabir Roy-Chaudhury and Benjamin Lee. It will be in new space opening at Banner – University Medicine North for Urology outpatient clinics. Among care providers will be nephrologists Drs. Sireesha Koppula and Sangeetha Murugapandian and new urologist Dr. David Tzou…
A physician-scientist world renowned for her research on asthma, Monica Kraft, MD, professor and chair of the University of Arizona Department of Medicine and the UA College of Medicine – Tucson's Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair in Medicine, was presented with the American Thoracic Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award on May 20 at the ATS 2018 International Conference in San Diego. The award—one of ATS’ most important—is one of several honors received in the past year by Dr. Kraft, who was ATS president in 2012-13...
For Dr. Norm Beatty, a UA Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program member and principal investigator on a study, “Prevalence of Chagas disease among high-risk individuals in Arizona,” it’s all about kissing bugs. May through July is their most active period of the year and he’s working to enlist citizen input to collect bugs and screen people potentially infected by bites. In addition, he’ll present on his preliminary results June 8 at the IDSA/NIAID Infectious Diseases 2018 Research Careers Meeting in Bethesda, Md. See a photo gallery from recent KVOA4 TV interview…
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The University of Arizona Health Sciences and Banner Health have received a $9 million award from the National Institutes of Health for the All of Us℠ Research Program, for which UA nephrologist Akinlolu Ojo, MD, MPH, PhD, serves as lead principal investigator. The program, that now will total $60 million over five years, represents the largest NIH award in Arizona history and is tied to an effort to enroll 1 million or more participants across the country into a genetic database aimed at creating precision medicine solutions...
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Congratulations to the DOM 2018 Research Academic Half Day poster winners. Among fellows, top posters were from Drs. “Keng” Pineda (Cardiovascular Disease), Michael Insel and Tiffany Ynosencio (Pulmonary & Critical Care).Tucson Campus internal medicine residents Drs. Darien Reed, Phan Saligrama and Ryan Buckley also won. More than 50 posters were on display for the April 26 event. See the photo gallery…
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Hosted by the Graduate Medical Education Office of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – South Campus, the first Jeanne Deinert GME Scholarly Day had enough awards to keep just about everybody happy. Winners included internal medicine residents Drs. Balaji Natrajan, Mahesh Balakrishnan and Roberto Swazo. See the full winners list and a photo gallery…
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Three resident physicians—Drs. Darien Reed, Phan Saligrama and Ryan Buckley—in the University of Arizona Internal Medicine Residency Program – Tucson Campus capped off the Research Academic Half Day poster competition three weeks earlier (see above) with presentations May 16 during Medicine Grand Rounds. Topics included breast cancer biomarkers, HIV and CMV co-infection and aging, and asthma in the desert. Watch the video. See the photo gallery…
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Relocation of support staff and some physicians moving to new office space began May 9, for folks in the University of Arizona Department of Medicine. The shifts into former outpatient clinic space (6OPC and 7OPC) were facilitated by the clinics’ move to Banner – University Medicine North in December and a need to make way for the new 9-story hospital tower at Banner – UMC Tucson. See a mini-photo gallery, the DOM Commons and floor layouts…
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Lights, camera, action! The wait is over for those UA College of Medicine faculty members who filmed interviews for new Banner Health video profiles at the end of 2017. About 25 videos at BannerHealth.com are now linked to DOM physician profiles, including nine cardiologists, two gastroenterologists, two infectious disease specialists, two pulmonologists, a dermatologist, geriatrician, nephrologist, and rheumatologist. See who’s featured and how to get yours posted…
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Dr. Kevin Moynahan wins the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Alumni of the Year Award, Dr. Amy Sussman is presented with Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, and a graduating medial student receives the UA College of Science’s Undergraduate Research Award for work on T cells and aging with UA Center on Aging co-director Dr. Janko Nikolich-Zugich, while two more graduates, one working with the elderly and the other in sports medicine, share UA's Pillars of Excellence Award…
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Two articles posted as blogposts to “The Healthy Dose” blog by the University of Arizona Health Sciences tackle tough issues over medical bias with minority patients and the nationwide launch May 6 of the All of Us℠ Research Program—at a moment when the Arizona cohort leads the nation in recruitment and received confirmation that the state’s largest award from the National Institutes of Health just got bigger. Authors include Drs. Khadijah Breathett and Ken Ramos…
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Drs. Nancy Sweitzer and Karl Kern, cardiologists and co-directors of the UA Sarver Heart Center, were among 15 UA College of Medicine – Tucson faculty members recognized for their mentorship during the college’s General Faculty Meeting held May 3 in Kiewit Auditorium. See who else was honored and other agenda items that may affect you…
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UA Sarver Heart Center and UA Division of Cardiology spinoff Avery Therapeutics won another recognition—this one global—with a recent announcement it will receive the “Technologies of Tomorrow” award as a BUZZ of BIO winner at the 2018 BIO International Convention in Boston in June. The tissue-engineered heart graft developer is headed by Drs. Steve Goldman, Jordan Lancaster and Jen Watson Koevary…
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Drs. Jeffrey Krase and Marilyn Wickenheiser—both currently third-year residents in the University of Arizona Dermatology Residency Program—will share chief resident duties for the coming academic year. Dr. Krase is chief resident for the first six months, starting June 1—just in time for a grand opening at Dermatology’s new outpatient clinic at the intersection of Skyline, Ina and Pima Canyon Drive. Dr. Wickenheiser will serve in the role after that for six months…
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Two researchers with cross-disciplinary roots, Drs. Christina Laukaitis and Paul Langlais, return to the lineup for the next UA Department of Medicine Research Seminar on Thursday, June 16. They’ll offer an in-depth discussion on the genetics and proteomics of solutions under development at the University of Arizona Health Sciences for a joint hypermobility disorder known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and microtubule-associated proteins impact on insulin control in diabetics…
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Two University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson students—Anthony Maltagliati and John Lee—have been awarded Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program scholarships from the American Federation for Aging Research sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Maltagliati heads to Harvard and Lee to Johns Hopkins for the summer for research projects in geriatric medicine. They bring the number of UA MSTAR Scholars to 25 at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson in little more than a decade…
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Coming from the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Dr. Rachna Shroff will serve as the UA Cancer Center’s new section chief of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, chair of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board and associate professor at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. Here, she describes her prior roots in Tucson and her vision for GI oncology within the UA Cancer Center and throughout the state…
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Head-and-neck cancer specialist Dr. Julie E. Bauman, chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology and director of translational research at the UA Cancer Center, is featured in the May 23 edition of Lo Que Pasa UA employee newsletter in a story headlined as “Home Sweet Home: A Physician's Return to Tucson.” Read about her family’s medical roots in Tucson and at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson…
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The UA Petersen HIV Clinics hosted an annual patient “Meet & Greet” event May 17 at the Neopolitan pizzeria Vero Amore. The event was planned by the clinics’ Consumer Advisory Group, made up largely of patients, to give patients in Southern Arizona a chance to learn more about programs and research developments for HIV, and to get aquainted with their care team. It included door prizes, raffles and refreshments…
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The UA Center for Integrative Medicine—which also functions as the UA Division of Integrative Medicine in the UA Department of Medicine—recently presented its inaugural Alumni of the Year award to Dr. David Kilgore, health sciences clinical professor of family medicine at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine...
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The UA Division of Nephrology hosted a Dialysis Access Education Workshop on Saturday, May 5, in the Arizona Simulation Technology & Education Center (ASTEC) on the UA Health Sciences campus.  The free event for area health-care providers—particularly fellows and residents—was cohosted by LSU-Shreveport. Instructors include LSU’s Dr. Bharat Sachdeva and the UA’s Drs. Chyi Chyi Chong and Gabriel El-Kass. The division also held a Kidney Patient Panel Discussion (above right) May 24...
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The Nogales Cardiometabolic Health and Sleep (NoCHES) Study—with the UA’s Drs. Michael Grandner, Sairam Parthasarathy, Patricia Haynes, John Ruiz and Maia Ingram—won a $3.6 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The research seeks to learn more about sleep health and disorders in the U.S.-Mexico border region, how sleep issues are related to social, behavioral and environmental factors and their potential role as to risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes…
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Dr. Paul Noble, chair of the Department of Medicine, director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute, and the Vera and Paul Guerin Family Distinguished Chair in Pulmonary Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, gave a great presentation as guest speaker May 10 at the DOM Research Seminar Series on the “Fundamentals of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis—Navigating the Patient Journey.” His talk doubled as the last in the 2017-18 UA Winter Series Lung Conference lectures. See the video and a photo gallery here…
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The UA Arthritis Center got extra air time for its 2018 Bear Down Luncheon, held the previous day at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, from KVOA Channel 4 and sports anchor Paul Cicala. Cicala emceed the event and introduced guest speaker UA athletic director Dave Heeke—and spoke on air about the Arthritis Center’s annual fundraiser twice May 10 and twice more May 11. The event helps the center raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for research each year…
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We also recently welcomed the new Banner – University Medicine President Larry Goldberg at a reception May 22 (pictured at left) and will welcome our new UA Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Michael Dake with another reception June 6 (see the event listing below to RSVP).
