News Briefs

100 Percent Pass

Students in two nurse practitioner programs at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston posted 100 percent pass rates for national certification exams. One program was the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program, directed by Susan Ruppert, Ph.D., division head for Acute and Critical Care and also director of Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Programs. The other program was the Adult Nurse Practitioner program, directed by Kathleen Reeve, Dr.P.H., associate professor and division head for Adult Health. Both divisions are in the Department of Acute and Continuing Care, led by Joanne Hickey, Ph.D., interim chair and coordinator of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

Award for Service after Hurricane Katrina

The AAMC has awarded national recognition to The University of Texas Medical School at Houston – as a member of the Alliance of South Texas Academic Health Centers – for the assistance it provided to the Tulane University School of Medicine and to the academic community at-large following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The Award of Exceptional Service to Academic Medicine honors the UT Medical School’s outstanding leadership in providing facilities, resources and personnel to support displaced Tulane University medical students and faculty.

Other members of the alliance also received awards for their exceptional service: Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine and the UT Medical Branch at Galveston.

Building Garners National Design Award

The School of Nursing and Student Community Center, home of The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston, has been selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Committee on the Environment, for the national organization’s “Top 10 Green Projects Award” for 2006. BNIM Architects, in partnership with San Antonio-based Lake Flato Architects, designed the facility with a focus on energy efficiency, increased air quality, improved natural daylighting, reduction of polluting emissions and run-off, and increased user satisfaction.

Patricia L. Starck, D.S.N., dean of the UT School of Nursing at Houston, attended the May 3 awards reception in Washington, D.C., where the winning projects also were presented at the National Building Museum. Project displays will be shown at the AIA national convention in Los Angeles, June 8-10, and are being featured in a traveling exhibit.

Distinguished Alumnus Award

J. Chris Farmer, M.D., a 1982 graduate, is the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The award is the highest honor given to an alumnus and recognizes outstanding contributions to medical science and education or the prevention and treatment of disease.

After earning his medical degree, Farmer began his military career with the U.S. Air Force. He was director of critical care for Wilford Hall Medical Center, chief consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General for Critical Care Medicine, and medical director of the Critical Care Aeromedical Transport Teams Global Program. He received the National Air Force Physician of the Year Award in 1996.

Retired from the Air Force in 2002, Farmer is now professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., and is a consultant at the Mayo Clinic in the Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

Visitors from China

A delegation from Sichuan University in western China visited The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, as part of the China-USA Medicine and Public Health Initiative project, funded by the China Medical Board. Sichuan University is one of China’s “Key Universities” with a broad regional and research mandate. The university has more than 3,500 faculty members.

“The delegation to our school is interested in how we provide public health education in practice and research. They will tell us about their contemporary view of the ever-dynamic health and public health situation in western China,” said Jay H Glasser, Ph.D., professor in the UT School of Public Health, president of the Medicine and Public Health Initiative, and past president of the American Public Health Association.

Childhood Literacy

Reach Out and Read-Texas continues to gain support throughout the state. As part of the program, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison read to children at the Scott & White Hospital Pediatric Center in Temple, and Congressman Louis Gohmert visited the program at The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler.

Susan Cooley King, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, is project director for Reach Out and Read-Texas. The program promotes childhood literacy by providing books to children and highlighting the importance of reading aloud.