Issue #710, July 21, 2009

Topics at a glance: Recreation Center 25th Anniversary ... Videoconference on UT System Copyright Clearance Center ... iPhone support is coming soon ... Team CommQuest: Week 2 ... Living Well Health Manager – Get a Free Stainless Steel Water Bottle ... UT Physicians Online Patient Survey ... Internal Medicine Launches Customized Blackboard Site for Residents ... Academic Technology Offers Classes ... Benefits Annual Enrollment Meetings ... Minimum Wage Update ... Internal Medicine Grand Rounds ... Clinical Research Budgeting and Billing Compliance Program ... Holocaust Memorial Museum Exhibition ... Burroughs Wellcome Fund Grant Programs ... Child Volunteers Needed for Eye Movement Study ... Summer Research Program ... Family & Community Medicine Grand Rounds ... HAM-TMC Library Classes ... Houston Dynamo Tickets ... Traffic Alerts ... TMC Parking System Conversion Update ... Procurement Services HUB Vendor ... HOOP Updates

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., Wednesday, 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 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.

Videoconference on UT System Copyright Clearance Center

All are welcome to attend the videoconference on the UT System Copyright Clearance Center on Friday July 24. Held at various points around campus to connect with Austin, this date is the final of three System-wide online meetings about a new annual license to help reduce copyright issues for faculty’s use of content for instruction. This is a repeats of the July 6 videoconference. To find out the rooms, agenda and times, visit Copyright Clearance Center's Annual Academic License .

iPhone Support Coming for Faculty and Staff

iPhone support is coming soon for UT faculty and staff. If you would like to take a look at comparisons between BlackBerrys and iPhones with regard to UT connectivity, please visit: iPhone Support

Team CommQuest: Week 2 – The road to health is paved with good…excuses

Join the Communications Team as they plunge into health, feet first, kicking and screaming the whole way. Each week, members of Public Affairs’ Team CommQuest will inspire you to get fit or at least get out of the way as they try. This week, Karen Kaplan discovers that feet don’t have to travel in pairs.

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.

UT Physicians Online Patient Survey

Share your experience with UT Physicians Clinics using the online patient survey. In order to help better serve patients, UT Physicians invites its patients to participate in an online survey. Using the survey, patients can let UT Physicians know about its performance on various aspects of their medical care experience in UT Physicians clinics.

The survey takes about five minutes to complete and also provides patients the opportunity to offer comments and suggestions. Share your medical care experience by participating in the UT Physicians Online Patient Survey.

For more information, contact Donald.E.Meade@uth.tmc.edu, 832-325-7314.

Internal Medicine Launches Customized Blackboard Site for Residents

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston Internal Medicine Residency Program announces a newly customized Blackboard Web site that offers one stop for locating medical education goals and objectives, announcements, rotation schedules and residency program details, plus links to key medical articles and Web sites. The newly customized site will continue to expand features and functions throughout the academic year to help IM residents quickly access information. Users may offer anonymous feedback to help improve processes, procedures and overall operations. The Internal Medicine Blackboard Web site may be accessed at Internal Medicine Blackboard.

For more information contact Harbes.A.Charity@uth.tmc.edu at 713-500-6536.

Academic Technology Offers Classes in Web Applications

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

Dreamweaver

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.

Academic Technology will present classes in Flash in August. The schedule includes:

Adobe Flash

Flash Intro - 8 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Aug. 14
Flash I - 8 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Aug. 17

Both classes will be held in the HAM-TMC Library's street-level classroom. Attendance in Flash Intro is required for admittance to Flash I. Seating is limited.

To reserve a seat, contact William.C.Daffin@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-3540.

Benefits Annual Enrollment Meetings

Learn about changes to the upcoming Annual Enrollment for Benefits 2009-2010 plan year. 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.

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 Thursday, July 23.

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

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 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.

Clinical Research Budgeting and Billing Compliance Program

The Clinical Trials Resource Center will host a course in clinical research budgeting and billing from 9 a.m. – noon, Aug. 11, in the UT Professional Building, Room 1100.55, for clinical research investigators, research nurses, coordinators, clinical research administrative and support staff.

The goals of the Clinical Research Budgeting and Billing Compliance program are to simplify and clarify the clinical research billing processes, ensure full cost recovery of clinical research studies and reduce the risks of inappropriately billing patients and/or third parties. Topics will include budget development, utilization of clinical research budget worksheet template, identification of all clinical trials costs and UT research billing account set-up.

Participants must register to attend.

For more information, contact Kimberly.Wilson@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-7911.

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.

Child Volunteers Needed for Eye Movement Study

An eye movement research study by the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston needs child volunteers. Child volunteers are needed for simple eye movement computer games and completion of questionnaires for two hours or less at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. If your child is 10 - 16 years old, healthy and not taking neurological medications, he or she may be eligible. Appointment times include weekends and holidays. Qualifying volunteers will be compensated for their time and parking.

To schedule a pre-screen or for more information, contact Cameron.B.Jeter@uth.tmc.edu, 713-500-5551.

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 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 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.

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

Texas-Sterling Construction will be closing northbound traffic access to E. Cullen Street between John Freeman Boulevard and Ross Sterling Avenue through August 16. During this time, traffic will be open to southbound traffic only. All northbound traffic on E. Cullen Street will be directed to turn west on John Freeman Boulevard toward Fannin Street and then north to Ross Sterling Avenue. All accesses and driveways on E. Cullen Street will remain open via Ross Sterling Avenue. The contractor will provide all traffic control during the closure.

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

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 the 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 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.

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.