Statement from Chancellor Davis on LCME Letter to Medical College

Yesterday the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accrediting body for the country's medical schools, informed the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) that in the LCME’s assessment, MCG had adequate resources to move forward with plans for a four-year campus in Athens in partnership with the University of Georgia (UGA).

Following the notification by LCME of its decision, University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. issued the following statement:

“This confirmation by the LCME is the result we have been working so diligently these past months to obtain, and it is a testament to all involved that just 18 months after the Board of Regents approved a plan to expand medical education in Georgia, we have received this positive news. This strategic plan to increase the number of physicians in Georgia is of critical importance to our state and its citizens. We could not be at this point if not for the critical and strong support we have received from Governor Sonny Perdue and the members of the General Assembly. This support, expressed through funding in both Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010, has been and continues to be essential, and we are appreciative of this support.”

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Exercise Helps Overweight Children Reduce Anger Expression

Regular exercise seems to reduce anger expression in overweight but otherwise healthy children, researchers said.

The first published study on the topic looked at 208 typically sedentary 7- to 11-year-olds who participated in a 10-15 week afterschool aerobic exercise program or maintained their usual inactive routine. The Pediatric Anger Expression Scale, used to gauge common anger expressions such as slamming doors and hitting, was given before and after the program.

"Exercise had a significant impact on anger expression in children," said Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine. "This finding indicates that aerobic exercise may be an effective strategy to help overweight kids reduce anger expression and aggressive behavior."

The finding fits with evidence that exercise reduces depression and anxiety in children and with what's considered common knowledge that exercise helps adults manage anger, she said.

It also gives parents and other caregivers another reason to get and keep children moving. "I think it's reasonable to encourage children to exercise for a lot of good reasons," said Dr. Davis whose research on overweight children has shown regular physical activity not only reduces fatness but improves cognition and reduces insulin resistance – which can lead to diabetes.

"I think if teachers could see that exercise helps kids control their behavior and get along, they would be the top proponents of physical activity for kids," said Dr. Davis, noting that other studies suggests overweight children are more likely to be bullies and to be bullied. High levels of anger and hostility have been associated with delinquency in children, cardiovascular disease in adults and metabolic syndrome - which can lead to heart attack, stroke and diabetes - in adolescents.

The new finding, published in the November issue of Pediatric Exercise Science, appears to apply to overweight children generally, regardless of factors such as race, gender, socioeconomic status or even fitness or fatness levels, the researchers wrote. In fact, even though all participants in the exercise portion lost a significant amount of weight, they remained overweight at the study's conclusion.

With help from a five-year $3.6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Dr. Davis already is looking to see if the finding holds in a similar group of children, who are part of a study on the impact of exercise on cognition. The goal is to determine if it was the exercise or participation in an after-school program that made the difference.

Extra attention from adults and time away from usual routines that could include disagreements with siblings and watching violence on television definitely could have a psychological impact. "With a psychological outcome like cognition or anger control, positive interaction with adults can make a big difference," Dr. Davis said.

In the published study, only the exercising children came to MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute after school. In the new study, both groups are coming to the institute, with non-exercisers enjoying arts, crafts and games. "We are trying to make it so the only difference is exercise," said Dr. Davis.

By Toni Baker
Medical College of Georgia

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Schizophrenia Research Forum at MCG September 14

The Medical College of Georgia will sponsor a free public forum on schizophrenia research from 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 14 in the first-floor auditorium, room EC 1218, of the Health Sciences Building, located at 987 St. Sebastian Way.

MCG is one of 48 universities selected nationally to host the inaugural forum, part of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression’s Healthy Minds Across America, a national day of free public forums on mental health research. The alliance is the world’s leading charity dedicated solely to mental health research.

Speakers at the MCG conference, all alliance award winners, will be Dr. Clare M. Bergson, an assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and associate professor of graduate studies, who researches the brain chemistry of schizophrenics; Dr. Brian Kirkpatrick, professor and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior in the School of Medicine, who researches obstacles to recovery; and Dr. Lin Mei, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, chief of developmental neurobiology, professor of neurology in the School of Medicine and professor of graduate studies, who studies genes and brain development in schizophrenia. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Peter F. Buckley, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior and associate dean for leadership development in the School of Medicine.

MCG is at the forefront of schizophrenia research with several federal grants to study the disease. Research includes Dr. Mei’s $1.6 million National Institutes of Health grant to study neuregulin-1, a gene that when mutated could cause problems with neuron communication and possibly lead to schizophrenia; and Dr. Buckley’s supplemental grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health to study a potential biomarker for schizophrenia relapse. Dr. Kirkpatrick also has received federal funding to study whether schizophrenia increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.

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Program Targets School Bus Fumes

When the bell rings signaling the end of the school day, students race to the buses waiting to take them home. Some of those buses sit with their engines running, churning up dangerous diesel exhaust particles.

Inhaling diesel exhaust can worsen or cause asthma, the most common childhood chronic lung disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical College of Georgia researchers aim to reduce that risk in Richmond County through Clean My R.I.D.E. - A Coalition to Reduce Inhalation of Diesel Exhaust.

"We'll assess the particulate exposure at schools, educate parents, teachers and bus drivers about the associated dangers and current idling policies and ultimately help develop a plan to decrease exposure to diesel exhaust," says Kitty Hernlen, assistant professor in the School of Allied Health Sciences Department of Respiratory Therapy and principal investigator of the $6,400 East Central Health District grant funding the program.

Bus and carpool practices will be monitored in five Richmond County schools: A. Brian Merry Elementary, Willis Foreman Elementary and Meadowbrook Elementary Schools, SpiritCreek Middle School and Butler High School. The research team will spend three days at each school to observe bus configurations, count idling vehicles and count airborne particles in the transportation pick-up areas 30 minutes before and after the dismissal bell rings.

"Every day, kids are walking through a diesel cloud to buses that are filling with diesel fumes and particulates," says Dr. Randy Baker, co-principal investigator and chair of the respiratory therapy department. "Buses at some schools will be in a straight line and others in a bus farm, where buses wait side by side. We want to determine if the bus configuration makes a difference in the concentration of particles and how long the particles hang around after the buses leave."

Diesel exhaust contains carbon particles and more than 40 hazardous air pollutants. Researchers will use a portable airborne particle counter to measure those that reach the lungs. Approximately 94 percent of particulate matter emitted through diesel exhaust is small enough to penetrate a child's narrow airways, which can inflame lungs and trigger asthma.

Pediatric deaths due to asthma are rare, but the Central Savannah River Area has seen a dramatic increase in asthma deaths in recent years – from three deaths between 1999-2004 to four deaths in a three-month period in 2006, says Ms. Hernlen.

"That cluster of deaths prompted the CDC to investigate the Augusta area," she says. "They didn't find one specific cause, but a whole list of things, and recommended asthma education for the entire community."

Ms. Hernlen is counting on the school community to do its part.

"We want to educate the schools through the parent-teacher associations, show them our findings and see if they can help change the idling policy. It's ultimately up to the school board whether they want to pursue a no-idling policy," she says.

The Richmond County Board of Education is already taking steps to eliminate unnecessary idling with a new directive to conserve fuel and lessen accumulation of fumes in and around the buses, says spokesperson Louis Svehla.

A no-idling policy would reduce diesel exhaust and save gas and money, says Dr. Baker. Other steps are more costly, such as buying new buses or retrofitting the old fleet with a particle scrubber, which can cost up to $10,000 per bus.

"We're trying to give parents some knowledge they may not have had about their children's safety and how it can be addressed now," says Dr. Baker. "Parents may think about fights on the bus, but not necessarily what their child is breathing at the bus stop."

By Paula Hinely

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MCG School of Allied Health Sciences Video Receives Telly Award

A video celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Medical College of Georgia School of Allied Health Sciences has earned MCG videographer Tim Johnson a Bronze Telly Award.

Mr. Johnson directed, edited, co-produced and served as videographer of Remembering 40 Years of Excellence, which debuted during MCG Homecoming in April. Dean Shelley C. Mishoe was executive producer, Dr. W. Kent Guion, associate dean for student, faculty and community affairs, producer and Grace Miller, the school's director of advancement, co-producer.

The video features historical footage and photographs and interviews with the school's founding dean, the late Raymond Bard, via archival footage, Dean Emeritus Biagio Vericella and Dean Mishoe. MCG President Daniel W. Rahn and Provost Barry D. Goldstein also are featured.

The Telly Awards honor video and film productions and local, regional and cable commercials and programs and are considered premier awards for the industry. This year's 29th annual competition received 13,500 entries from all 50 states and across the world. Entries don't compete against each other, but against a high standard of excellence, with only 18 to 25 percent of entrants receiving a Bronze Telly Award for outstanding achievement.

Mr. Johnson earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Augusta College (now Augusta State University). He has worked for production houses in California, Augusta and Aiken, S.C., and spent 10 years in cable television as a video producer and freelancer before coming to MCG's Department of Visual and Instructional Design in 2004.

He has garnered five national awards at MCG, including two Telly Awards for other School of Allied Health Sciences videos: a 2005 Silver Telly, the highest honor, for To Teach, Discover and Care, and a 2007 Bronze Telly for If Given the Opportunity. He received the Health and Science Communications Association’s Silver Award and the Admissions Advertising Award for his video, A Closer Look: MCG Admissions. In Augusta's Southern Fried Flicks Film Festival, he received the 2005 award for Best Short Feature and the 2006 award for Best Local Feature.

Dr. Dodani Receives Community Service Award

Dr. Sunita Dodani, assistant dean for research in the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing, has received a community service award for a program using churches to disseminate healthy lifestyle information.

Her Fit Body & Soul study promoted behavioral lifestyle change through weight loss, exercise and nutrition through 12 weeks of sessions in black churches.

Dr. Dodani will receive the 2008 Community Service Award from the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks at a July 18 awards ceremony during the society's annual conference in New Orleans. She also will present findings from the study and two studies of coronary artery disease in South Asian immigrants at the conference.

Dr. Dodani, an epidemiologist and cardiologist, came to MCG in 2006 from the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a doctoral degree in epidemiology and a certificate in global health. She earned her medical degree from The Aga Khan University in Pakistan and completed a cardiology fellowship at the University of Colorado Denver. She earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

In 2001, Dr. Dodani received the National Gold Medal as the youngest researcher in Pakistan. She is a reviewer for nine journals, including American Journal of Public Health, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Globalization & Health. She is a fellow of the American Heart Association and a corresponding member of the Cardiovascular Diseases Expert Group for the World Health Organization’s new Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study.

Dr. DeLeon Named American Board of Orthodontics Director

Dr. Eladio DeLeon Jr., Goldstein Chair of the Department of Orthodontics in the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry, has been selected to represent the Southern Association of Orthodontists as a director of the American Board of Orthodontics.

The board is managed by eight directors, one from each region that comprises the constituent organizations of the American Association of Orthodontists. Dr. DeLeon will serve an eight-year term and become the board president in May 2015. He serves on the board's Written Examination and Technology Committees and is a liaison to its College of Diplomates.

Dr. DeLeon joined the faculty in 1998 after 22 years of service in the U.S. Army Dental Activity. At MCG, he also serves as director of the graduate orthodontic program and consultant on the Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Team.

In 2001, he received the Advancement of the Dental Profession Award from the Georgia Section of the American College of Dentists. While serving in the Army, he received two Army Commendation Medals, four Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit Medal.

Dr. DeLeon is a fellow of the International College of Dentists and American College of Dentists. He serves as a consultant to the American Dental Association Council on Dental Education and Licensure and Commission on Dental Accreditation.

After earning his dental degree from the University of Kentucky, he completed a one-year general dentistry residency at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso. He completed an orthodontics residency and earned a master's degree in oral biology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Finalists Named for MCG-UGA Medical Partnership

Four finalists have been identified for the new position of dean of the Medical College of Georgia-University of Georgia Medical Partnership. They will visit the UGA campus in July and each will present a seminar open to the public.

The dean will oversee a partnership in which MCG and UGA will jointly conduct medical education programs in Athens. The programs are tentatively scheduled to begin in 2009.

Following are the finalists and the dates of their seminars, all of which will be at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel at 9:15 a.m.

–Barbara L. Schuster, professor of medicine, professor of geriatrics, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Schuster’s seminar will be July 9.

–Bruce M. Koeppen, dean for academic affairs, University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Koeppen’s seminar is July 11.

–Stephen J. Spann, professor and chair of the department of family and community medicine, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Spann’s seminar is July 17.

–Thomas P. Malan Jr., vice dean for academic affairs, University of Arizona College of Medicine. Malan’s seminar is July 25.