Issue #709, July 14, 2009

Topics at a glance: Living Well Health Manager – Get a Free Stainless Steel Water Bottle ... Benefits Annual Enrollment Meetings ... PeopleSoft 9.0 ... Minimum Wage Update ... Bursar Office Updates: Insurance Coverage ... Workers' Comp for Out-of-State Employees ... Hostile Intruder Awareness ... Academic Technology Offers Web Publishing Classes ... Internal Medicine Grand Rounds ... Recreation Center 25th Anniversary ... Holocaust Memorial Museum Exhibition ... Burroughs Wellcome Fund Grant Programs ... Summer Research Program ... Family & Community Medicine Grand Rounds ... HAM-TMC Library Classes ... SoCRA Live Webinar ... Houston Dynamo Tickets ... Traffic Alerts ... Getting Around ... TMC Parking System Conversion Update ... Procurement Services HUB Vendor ... UTPD News ... HOOP Updates

Living Well Health Manager - Get a Free Stainless Steel Water Bottle

The UT System has teamed up with WebMD, one of the nation’s most trusted consumer health information Web sites, to create a new online resource available to all UT SELECT members.

This Web site, called the Living Well Health Manager, helps you take charge of your health so you can start feeling and living well using a variety of personalized and powerful tools including the WebMD HealthQuotient (HQ). This health risk assessment helps identify your personal risk factors and provides a plan to reduce them. Complete your HQ by Aug. 14, and receive a free eco-friendly stainless steel water bottle.

Learn how UT staff members are ‘Living Well’ with ‘Up & At ’Em,’ a wellness program. Follow the Team CommQuest blog, only available on the intranet.

For more information, contact Sam.Hester@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3013.

Benefits Annual Enrollment Meetings

Learn about changes to the upcoming Annual Enrollment for Benefits 2009-2010 plan. Make changes, add or drop coverage and set up your new budget for the UT Flex medical reimbursement and dependent care accounts, through midnight, July 31. Plan to attend one of the upcoming Benefits Annual Enrollment Training sessions:

For more information, contact Stephanie.S.Jones@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3942.

PeopleSoft 9.0 Employee Self Service

Peoplesoft 9.0 Employee Self Service is now live. This is the first opportunity for employees to view their payroll information online. Please note: if you participate in Direct Deposit, you will receive your last printed pay statement, Thursday, July 16. After July 16, direct deposit statements for employees will be available only online. Your direct deposit information can be printed whenever necessary.

Employee Self Service allows employees with an active UTHSC-H user ID and password to view and update personal information such as home address, W-4, direct deposit and more. It is accessible from any computer that has Internet access. Look for the “Employee Self Service” icon at the top of the UTHSC-H home page.

Online training is available:

• Log in to the Training and Resource Center
• Click ‘Training Center’ on the left
• Click on ‘Course Catalog’
• Type ‘Self Service’ in the ‘Keywords’ search box.

For more information, contact Payroll@uth.tmc.edu.

Minimum Wage Update

Beginning July 24, the minimum wage will increase from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston adheres to the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Departments with employees earning below $7.25 per hour will receive a list requesting a Personnel Action (PA) change form to be submitted effective July 16. Please note the PA cutoff date is July 23.

For more information, contact Jennifer.Smith-Anderson@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3133.

Bursar Office Updates: Insurance Coverage

Students who would like to waive their university health insurance coverage because they are covered already under another policy, must submit their request by the following deadlines:

• 3rd and 4th year Medical Students – July 15 ($1,100 fee)
• 1st and 2nd year Medical Students – Sept. 1 ($1,100 fee)
• Dental Students and Dental Hygiene – Sept. 1 ($1,100 /$392 fee)
• Dental PostGrads – Sept. 10 ( $401 fee)
• MDA Students – Sept. 10 ($398 fee)
• Academic Students – Sept. 16 ($395 fee)

Please review your bill closely on UTLINK. To make changes, fill out your Student Health Insurance Confirmation form. Do not complete this form if you are purchasing United Health Insurance as assessed on your student fee bill.

For more information, contact student-insurance@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-8400.

Workers' Compensation Coverage for Out-of-State Employees

Health science center faculty or staff stationed out of state or in another country may require Workers’ Compensation insurance coverage under a separate workers' compensation policy since some states or countries do not accept the UT System self-administered plan. Out-of-state employees are those whose permanent home and work address are located in another state or nation, regardless of the state they were hired in. In-state employees are those who travel outside of Texas for limited assignments, but keep Texas as a home base and intend to return (even if an out-of-state residence is set up temporarily).

Risk Management and Insurance must be alerted if someone in your department falls within out-of-state or out-of-country categories so the health science center can provide the correct insurance coverage for its employees.

Please contact Sondra.K.Faul@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-8127, by August 3, with information about employees who may fall into an out-of-state or out-of-country category.

Academic Technology Offers Web Publishing Classes

Academic Technology will present classes in Web publishing in July. The schedule includes:

• Dreamweaver I – 8 a.m. – noon, July 21
• Dreamweaver II – 8 a.m. – noon, July 23

Both classes will be held in the HAM-TMC Library's street-level classroom. Attendance in Dreamweaver I is required for admittance to Dreamweaver II. Seating is limited.
To reserve a seat, contact Marc.McDonald@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3512.

Hostile Intruder Awareness

The university community is invited to attend a viewing of “Shots Fired – When Lightning Strikes.” This presentation provides the individual employee, staff member, faculty member and/or associate with critical guidance on how to recognize and survive an active shooter situation. Learn courses of action, how to adopt a survival mindset and learn the difference between an active shooter situation and a hostage situation. For a preview of the video, visit http://www.shotsfireddvd.com/.

Scheduled Presentations:

• July 16: 10:30 a.m., UT M. D. Anderson, Main Building B2.4750 (1515 Holcombe)
• July 21: 11:30 a.m., UT M. D. Anderson, South Campus Research Building, Rooms 1-2 (7455 Fannin)

For directions, visit M. D. Anderson’s access tool. For more information, contact Officer Leston at mjleston@mdanderson.org, 713-563-7794.

Internal Medicine Grand Rounds

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston presents the Department of Internal Medicine Grand Rounds, noon – 1 p.m., Tuesdays throughout July, in MSB 2.103. The schedule includes:

• July 21 – “Sleep Disordered Breathing and Heart Failure: Emerging Concepts in Identification and Treatment,” presented by Rami Khayat, M.D., assistant professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, Ohio State University.
• July 28 – “Current State of Evidence Based Medicine,” presented by Donald Molony, M.D., professor of Medicine, Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, UT Medical School at Houston.

All lectures are accredited for CME credit unless otherwise noted. For more information, contact Vera.S.Jones@uth.tmc.edu.

Recreation Center 25th Anniversary

The Recreation Center will host an open house and member appreciation day from 5:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., July 22, for all UT & TMC faculty, staff and students to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Activities will include facility tours, group fitness classes, music and fun by the pool, water games, inner tube relays and spin the wheel to win giveaways throughout the day. The schedule includes:

• 5:30 – 9 a.m. – Morning Munchies
• 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Lunch Bunch Brunch
• 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. – Main Event, Refreshments on Pool Patio

Bring your institutional ID and feel free to use the facilities or just stop by for the festivities. For more information, call 713-500-8420.

Holocaust Memorial Museum Exhibition

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition, Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, is currently on display at the HAM-TMC library through Aug. 24. The exhibition examines how the Nazi leadership, in collaboration with individuals in professions traditionally charged with healing and the public good, used science to help legitimize persecution, murder and, ultimately, genocide.

The exhibition contains reproductions of historical photographs, films and testimony from Holocaust survivors. It is a self-guided tour that takes approximately 20-30 minutes to see.

For more information, contact 713-799-7169.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Grant Programs

Burroughs Wellcome Fund has announced they will not be accepting grant applications for the following programs during the 2009-2010 cycle:

• Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational Research
• Clinical Scientist Awards in Infectious Diseases
• Clinical Scientist Awards in Interfaces in Science
• Career Awards in Biomedical Sciences
• Career Awards for Medical Scientists

The Office of Research will continue to monitor the BWF Web site and will provide additional information regarding future cycles as it becomes available. For more information, contact Deanne.M.Hernandez@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3192.

Summer Research Program Seminar Series

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston presents the weekly 2009 Summer Research Program Seminar Series, noon - 1:15 p.m., in MSB 2.006. The series is open to all health science center faculty, staff and students, as well as the Texas Medical Center community. The July schedule includes:

• July 16 – “Stem Cells in Biomedicine: From bench to bed,” presented by Yong-Jian Geng, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, Division of Cardiology, Internal Medicine, UT Medical School at Houston.
• July 20 – “Environment and Human Genetic Causation of Disease,” presented by Thomas Caskey, M.D., FACP, The George & Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences, director and CEO, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases. *Lunch will be provided to the first 50 attendees.
• July 23 – “Stroke Research,” presented by James Grotta, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Neurology, director, Stroke Program Memorial Hermann Hospital.

For more information, contact Linda.Guardiola@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-5334.

Family & Community Medicine Grand Rounds

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston presents the Family & Community Medicine Grand Rounds, 1 – 2 p.m., Wednesdays throughout July, in MSB 2.135. The schedule includes:

• July 15 – “The Place for Angioplasty in the World of Potent Statins/Aggressive Medical Management: What is the Evidence?” presented by Stefano Sdringola, M.D., associate professor, Weatherhead Distinguished Chair of Heart Disease, division of cardiology, UT Medical School at Houston.
• July 29 – “Interventional Cardiology,” presented by Richard Smalling, M.D., professor, Jay Brent Sterling Professor and James D. Woods Distinguished Chair in cardiovascular medicine, UT Medical School at Houston.

HAM-TMC Library Updates

Classes

The HAM-TMC Library offers these upcoming classes:

• PubMed – 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., July 21
• Excel 2007 Basic – 2 – 4:30 p.m., Aug 5

All classes are free and offered in the library classroom. Click here to view the complete class schedule and register.

SoCRA Live Webinar

The Association of Clinical Research Professionals and Thompson Interactive will host a free live Webinar titled, “BiMO Inspections: What You Need to Succeed” from noon – 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 15, in The Methodist Hospital, Brown 462 Auditorium. This webinar is sponsored by TMHRI. No reservations are required and 1.5 hour of CE credit is offered.

For more information, contact Mariana Pope at mpope@tmhs.org, 713-441-1791.

Houston Dynamo Tickets

As a special offer, all employees, students, staff and friends of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston can now purchase discount tickets to watch the 2009 Houston Dynamo at Robertson Stadium.

Visit Houston Dynamo Tickets and enter password uthsc. New users will be required to create an account before purchasing tickets.

For more information, contact Cedric Mills at cmills@houstondynamo.com.

Traffic Alerts

Garage 1

The motorcycle parking area will be reduced in the current motorcycle and bicycle parking area on the south side of Garage 1, though April 30, 2010, due to the construction on Garage 1 exterior cladding. The motorcycle parking area will be reduced by 40 percent and the bicycle rack will be relocated to the main entrance of the garage.

For more information, contact Texas Medical Center Security, 713-795-0000.

Getting Around

The Getting Around section of the intranet provides all the information you’ll need to get around the Texas Medical Center.

• Traffic Alerts – UT Shuttle notices, TMC area road closures, construction notices and METRO notices.
• Commuter Options – Discover transportation options serving your area.
• Submit a Vanpool – Post or view vanpool openings.

For more information about mobility, visit the Mobility Program. For more information about parking and shuttle services, visit the Auxiliary Enterprises Parking/ Shuttle Services.

TMC Parking System Conversion Update

TMC is continuing their parking equipment conversion. Over the next several weeks and months, those of you who park in a TMC lot or garage will receive a new access card. Some of you have already received your new card. Your access card will arrive via interoffice mail. Please see the list below for conversion dates.

Please remember to keep your old parking card during the transition of the entire campus as it will be needed when parking on campus at nights and on weekends. This has been one of biggest issues the conversion process has faced.

If your parking area is scheduled for conversion within the next week and you have not received your new parking card, please contact parking@uth.tmc.edu or call the Texas Medical Center at 713-747-7275.

If you have any questions regarding this schedule change or the conversion process, contact Eve Grubb at 713-791-6149.

Procurement Services HUB Vendor

Each month, the Procurement Services HUB program will profile a new HUB vendor. This month’s featured HUB vendor is Burnett's Package Express. For more information, contact Nina.Lahasky@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-4862.

UTPD News

News and announcements from The University of Texas Police Department can be found on the Workplace page of the intranet. This section includes crime alerts, safety tips and security reports.

HOOP Updates

Several policies in the Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOOP) have been revised and updated. Please check out HOOP What's New? for specifics on new policy changes or the HOOP 2009 What’s New Archive for all 2009 policy changes.

For general HOOP information, visit HOOP online.