Karam Appointed Assistant Dean for Baton Rouge Medical Education

We are pleased to appoint Dr. George Karam as Assistant Dean for Baton Rouge Medical Education.  Dr. Karam is a graduate of LSU School of Medicine New Orleans, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society.  He did his residency in internal medicine, a year as Chief Resident, and his fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  He joined the full time faculty at LSU School of Medicine in 1983, and achieved the rank of Professor of Medicine in 1994.  In 1990, Dr. Karam became the Head of Internal Medicine at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge and has been the Program Director for the internal medicine residency since that time.  In 2001, he was awarded the endowed Paula Garvey Manship Chair of Medicine.  He built an outstanding educational program in Baton Rouge, and became the Chief of LSU Internal Medicine at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in 2013.

Dr. Karam is truly a gifted teacher.  He received awards for teaching excellence as both a resident and fellow at UAB.  As a faculty member, he has received the Aesculapian Award as an outstanding professor 19 times, and the graduating senior class named him the best clinical professor 15 times.  He has also been the recipient of the Copping Award, the Shelby-Bourgeois teaching award, the Van Dyk teaching award, the Humanism in Medicine award, and he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.  He has received numerous visiting professorship and lectureship awards.  He is an internationally recognized expert on antibiotic resistance and the judicious use of antimicrobials.

Dr. Karam has served the school of medicine with distinction for more than 30 years.  He has touched the lives of countless students and residents.  He is fully deserving of this appointment and we are grateful that he will continue to serve LSU School of Medicine.

 

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Lucio Miele Invited to Present Keynote Speech

Lucio Miele, M.D., Ph.D., Department Head of Genetics was invited to present the keynote address at the Second International Conference or Oncology and Radiology, held in Rome, Italy, September 17 – 19, 2018.  The title of his talk was “Opportunities and Challenges in Cancer Precision Medicine.”

 

JMC Medical Symposium to be Held in New Orleans

The Jeffrey Modell Center for Primary Immunodeficiencies at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans (JMC) is one of 196 of its kind in the world, and 40 in the USA focusing on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of people suffering with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDD). It has faculty members running specialized clinics for children and adults with suspected PIDD and consulting services at hospitals affiliated with the LSUHSC. The JMC mission includes patient care and also training of physicians in the diagnosis and care of PIDD. Its continuing medical education programs for subspecialists and general practitioners are designed to familiarize more physician groups with this complex group of diseases.  

JMC is hosting its seventh medical education symposium in New Orleans titled “Newborn Screening in Louisiana: Impact on Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Immunodeficiency”. The meeting will be held at Harrah’s New Orleans Hotel on November 30th and December 1st, 2018. We plan to host national and locally recognized speakers. We expect approximately 80 – 100 physicians and medical school faculty to be present. The program will familiarize an audience of subspecialists and general practitioners in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine on neonatal screening and primary immunodeficiency diseases. Our target audience includes general physicians, pulmonologists, immunologists, allergists, infectious disease specialists, scientists, and organizations and individuals involved in new and upcoming diagnostic and treatment possibilities. All levels of interested trainees in science and medicine are welcome to attend. 

Tsien Named New Orleans Magazine Top Female Achiever

Each year New Orleans Magazine profiles women from the community who continue to make a difference.  This year, Fern Tsien, Ph.D. (Department of Genetics) was honored to be named one of these women.   

Dr. Tsien received this honor partly because of her research into the genetic causes of hearing loss in the Louisiana Acadians and Mexican Mayan populations.  Her research has been presented to local, national and international audiences and may ultimately lead to unlocking new diagnostic tests or therapies for deafness caused by genetic mutations.  

In addition to her research, Tsien provides extensive community outreach programs to regional schools.  She serves as the co-director of the Science Youth Initiative (SYI) program, which works to engage local elementary and high school students in the sciences. Enlisting the help of medical students and public health graduate students, SYI works with schools to reinforce lessons through hands-on experiments.  The SYI creates a wider exposure to science while raising standardized test scores in science.  

She also provides programs for middle and high school students where they are provided the chance to spend a day at LSU doing STEM experiments with academics.  The goal of SYI’s work is to create a pipeline for the third part of the program which includes paid, eight-week summer internships for high school students, many of whom advance to college and science or health-related careers. 

Congratulations Dr. Tsien! 

Honors and awards april

Lazartigues Trainees Receive Awards
Medical Student Wins Research Day Award in Baton Rouge
Avegno Secures Grant to Support Forensics Program
Lazarus Wins NBME Award
Dr. Moreno-Walton 1st Female Elected To Lead AAEM 
Medical Student Leadership Award
Pediatric Endocrinology Division Hosts Annual Meeting
Department of Pediatrics Hosts World-Renowned Speaker
Research Discovers How Some Cancers Resist Treatment
LSU SOM Members Receive State Commendation

Medical Student Wins Research Day Award in Baton Rouge

Congratulations go out to third year medical student Lauren Petit for winning best clinical research poster at LSU-Health Baton Rouge Regional Research day!  Lauren is presently performing third year clinical rotations in Baton Rouge.

Her poster is entitled “Clinical Impact of Shave Biopsy on Surgical Management of Cutaneous Melanoma” and was performed with John Lyons, M.D. in Surgical Oncology.

 

Avegno Secures Grant to Support Forensics Program

Congratulations to out to Jennifer Avegno, M.D., of the section of Emergency Medicine for securing at $10,000 grant from the Junior League to support the UMC Forensics program!

Dr. Moreno-Walton 1st Female Elected To Lead AAEM

 Leslie Capo, Director of Information Services 

Lisa Moreno-Walton, MD, FAAEM, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Director of Research and Director of Diversity for the Section of Emergency Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has been elected President-Elect of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). She is the first female to hold the position. After serving a two-year term as President-Elect, Dr. Moreno will serve a two-year term as President of the specialty society of emergency medicine, followed by a two-year term as Past-President. 

Dr. Moreno also serves as Director of the Latino Scholars Program at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and Director of Viral Testing at University Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine.  

During her years serving on the AAEM Board of Directors, she has focused on the development of women and underrepresented minorities in leadership positions.  She holds degrees in Medicine and Clinical Research and is a National Institutes of Health Research Scholar.  She is the founder of the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM), an academy of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM).  Her multiple awards include the SAEM Martin Leadership Award, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Professionalism Award, Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine Distinguished Educator Award, and the ADIEM Outstanding Academician Award. She also received the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Healthcare Executive Diversity & Inclusion Certificate. 

The recipient of many research grants, she has also given more than 500 academic presentations and authored or co-authored 45 publications, including 6 book chapters. She is the author of the textbook, “Diversity and Inclusion in Quality Patient Care.” Her second textbook is in press.  

Her research interests include HIV, violence prevention and treatment, diversity, and healthcare disparities.  She participates in LSU Health New Orleans Summer Research Program, mentoring college students who aspire to careers in medicine towards the completion of basic research projects.  She has mentored over 300 students, residents and junior faculty around the world towards successful careers in research and medicine.   

As a global health consultant and educator, she has served in more than 20 countries with a focus on the development of research and elimination of healthcare disparities for women, underrepresented minorities, and the under-resourced.  

 

Pediatric Endocrinology Division Hosts Annual Meeting

 The Pediatric Endocrinology Division hosted the annual regional meeting of the Pediatric Endocrine Society of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas (PESTOLA) in February at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The coordinating team of Ricardo Gomez, MD and Dania Felipe, MD put on a stellar conference with about 90 regional faculty, clinicians, researchers, fellows, residents and medical students. Attendees commented that it was the best PESTOLA meeting yet. The lecturing faculty included the current President of the National Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES), two past presidents of PES and 2 faculty from the NIH.   

Several LSU faculty gave oral presentations:  

• Endocrine Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Treatment, Pinki Prasad, MD, MPH  
• Gonadal Preservation in CAIS, Christopher Roth, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology  

Poster presentations included:  

• Hypophosphatasia – A Spectrum of Disease, Aditya Dewoolkar, MD, Carmen Mironovici, MD, PhD, Dania Felipe, MD and Ricardo Gomez, MD  
• Does Iron Status Explain Racial Disparity in Mean Blood Glucose Independent HbA1c Outcome for Children with Type 1 DM? Mahmoud Hamdan, MD and Stuart Chalew, MD  
• Unexpected Diagnosis in a Female Adolescent Presenting with Primary Amenorrhea Carmen Mironovici, MD, PhD and Peter Tieh, MD  

Dr. Gomez thanked all involved, “On behalf of the PESTOLA organization, I want to thank all the members of the LSU Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital for your great support and participation which made this event possible. All the comments were positive, and the attendees were especially impressed by the quality of the speakers including members of the LSU and Children’s Hospital families.” The division has hosted the meeting in New Orleans about every 10 years but hopes to host more often in the future. 

 

Medical Student, Mirandy Li, Wins Leadership Award

Mirandy Li (MD/PhD student) has been selected as a recipient of the Women in Medicine LGBTQ Leadership Award, which will be given out at the annual conference to be held in Napa, CA August 5 – 9, 2018.  This award recognizes Mirandy’s demonstrated work in and for the LGBTQ community.