American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting

We congratulate the many individuals from the Department of Anesthesiology that have been asked to participate in the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. The meeting will take place October 18-22, 2008 in Orlando, Florida. READ MORE

Congratulations to Ms. Kathy Lee Foon

Congratulations to Ms. Kathy Lee Foon, who serves as Medical Student Adminstrator for the Department of Anesthesiology. Her hard work and dedication on behalf of the medical students was recognized by her selection for a STAFF APPRECIATION AWARD by the 2008 Graduating Class of the School of Medicine. She was presented with the award by Emily Moriarty, class president, at the 2008 Senior Awards Ceremony of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, this past Friday. We have always appreciated Kathy's contributions to the well-being of our medical students, and are delighted that they did the same.
Well done Kathy! READ MORE

Simulator Training Article Published from WISER

Brand new 1st year anesthesiology residents received a 3-day simulator course prior to clinical training.  Focus areas were operating room preparation, airway management, induction and maintenance of general anesthesia and post-operative transfer of care.  Residents completed a questionnaire about performing these basic anesthesia skills, in addition to a knowledge test, before and after the course. Confidence in performing each of the six anesthesia skills increased numerically after completion of the course; achieving statistical significance (P<0.01) in all skills except bag-mask ventilation.  Mean percentage correct on the knowledge test also increased significantly, from 53% before to 69% after training (P<0.001).  We concluded that a brief 3-day simulator course can improve new 1st year anesthesiology resident confidence and competence to begin clinical training.

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Dr. Brandom Recommends Stratified Genetic screening may help in the diagnosis of MH

Recently, the federal government has taken a big step to encourage our patients to utilize genetic testing. Passage of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act will protect patients from discrimination in health insurability due to genetic findings, making genetic testing a much more viable and attractive option as part of routine health maintenance.

Third Annual Pennsylvania Resident Research Conference Hosted by the Department

The 3rd annual PARRC was hosted by the department at the WISER Institute on Saturday, May 10th. Congratulations to CA-1 resident Dr. Brian Bane who was awarded first place for his case report entitled "Anterior Cervical Osteophytes: Two Case Reports of a Common Condition Leading to Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality" and to CA-3 resident Dr. Mauricio Del Rio for his original research presentation entitled "Hypoxic Induction of Xanthine Oxidoreductase is mediated by both the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase and the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathways". READ MORE

PITT E-MBA MD Program

Your interest and response to the EMBA-MD program has made an impact.  At our first two informational sessions, many of you inquired about the potential of extending the program for an additional term to reduce the required course credit hours per term in order to more easily accommodate your clinical responsibilities.  Our colleagues at Katz have been very responsive and have agreed to extend the program so that students will take 6 credits per term, rather than 9 as originally planned.  Thus, the program will run over seven terms, beginning in September 2008 with graduation in December 2010. 
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Three Recent Education Publications Come from Resident Education Committee Faculty

Steve Orebaugh, MD, Joseph Talarico DO and Todd Oravitz MD have recently published manuscripts in the area of resident education. We congratulate them on their accomplishments. READ MORE

Dr. Cope Interviewed by ABC News Unit

Lauren Cahoon of ABC News Medical Unit recently wrote the article "Healing Meals: Foods That May Fight Pain." Dr. Cope of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Pain Medicine Program gives her take on this interesting topic.

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Residency Match Results

This year we were able to match with 12 of our top 20 applicants, which was an outstanding feat. Thank you to everyone that assisted with the interview and selection process. READ MORE

University of Pittsburgh Ranks Sixth in Nationwide NIH Funding
Pitt moves up on benchmark of research excellence in 2006

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 15 – In an era when the federal budget for biomedical research is failing to keep up with inflation, the University of Pittsburgh has improved its ranking to sixth in the nation among academic institutions and their affiliates in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – a universally recognized benchmark of research excellence. Newly released data for fiscal year 2006, shows that Pitt received $447 million in NIH research support, with almost 95 percent of this funding coming to the university’s six health sciences schools (Medicine, Public Health, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health and Rehabilitation Sciences). In addition, Pitt ranks fourth nationally in the number of individual grants received. READ MORE

Gregg Homanics Paper Included in ‘Year in Review’ Article

Starting this year Anesthesiology has instituted a ‘Year in Review’ article which highlights a dozen papers published in 2007. Effect of Isoflurane and Other Potent Inhaled Anesthetics on Minimum Alveolar Concentration, Learning, and the Righting Reflex in Mice Engineered to Express [alpha]1 [gamma]-Aminobutyric Acid Type A Receptors Unresponsive to Isoflurane authored by Gregg Homanics and collaborators appears in the January 2008 issue.

Dr. Doris Cope on ABC News On Call + Pain Management

ABC News has included the expertise of Dr. Doris Cope in a health learning tool called On Call + Pain Management that looks into ways of dealing with chronic pain.

VIEW FEATURE at abcNews.com