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  July - Apgar Award
Dr. Lo will start an internship with us on July 1st, 2008, continuing with his Columbia residency in Anesthesiology on July 1st, 2009. CA3 Resident’s Graduation On June 13th the residents and fellows graduation party was held at the Carlyle Hotel. Everyone had a wonderful time. 85% of our graduate residents are doing fellowships, many at Columbia. All our residents and fellows leave with very best wishes from the Department and good luck for the future! Here follows a collage of photographs from the dinner taken by Dr. Steve Mercer, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs who was the keynote speaker at the dinner, and very gently “roasted” residents and faculty alike.
Also in the news.... Jessica Kenaston has received a Society for Education in Anesthesia-Health Volunteer Overseas Traveling Residents in our program who have previously received this fellowship award have been: John Tsai, Jesse Raiten, Matthew Doane. June -
Columbia Obstetric Anesthesia Research on the National Scene:
Polymorphisms in the ß2-adrenergic Receptor are Associated with a More Rapid, Less Painful Labor Click here for a copy of the winning abstract. The full set of abstracts is available at http://www.soap.org/ Richard Smiley, Director of the Obstetric Anesthesia Division noted that work involving investigators from his Division has won Best Paper at SOAP in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2008, and Best Paper at ISAP (Int Soc Anesth Pharm) in 2005. After 42 years at Columbia in the Department of Anesthesiology, Jaime Diaz is retiring! On May 13th, the Department and Dr. Margaret Wood hosted a retirement lunch for him. Jaime has been a staunch and absolute friend of the department for so many years, and in so many different ways, ranging from his research, his organization skills, and the tone that he set for what our department is all about to so many visiting professors over the years. We will miss him greatly, and wish him only the best for his retirement!
May -  Dr. Wood is pleased to announce that Dr. Robert Sladen has been appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Anesthesiology Research Society (IARS). Dr Sladen has served as a Trustee on the IARS Board since 1999. The IARS, founded in 1922 as an apolitical organization to “foster progress and research in all phases of anesthesia”, is the oldest anesthesiology society in the United States. It has more than 15,000 national and international members, owns and publishes the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, runs an annual clinical and scientific Congress, and provides numerous research awards. These include the biennial Frontiers Award, four annual clinical and scientific Clinical Scholar Research Awards, and two annual Anesthesiology Teaching Recognition Awards. Since 1983 the IARS has awarded over $8 million to fund 125 research projects. Dr Sladen will serve as Chair of the Board of Trustees through 2010. Dr. Robert Sladen is Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Division Director for Critical Care Medicine, and Program Director of the Anesthesiology Critical Care Fellowship Program. April -  Dr. Margaret Wood is very pleased to announce that Drs. Dean Jones and Brian Egan have been awarded one of the three 2008 Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy grants. The title of their application was "Development of a Novel Patient Safety Curriculum", and they will receive $20,000 over 2 years. A multischool committee of Garvey Academy Fellows and a representative of the Center for Education Research and Evaluation reviewed grant applications and ranked them on the basis of originality, feasibility, and applicability across the medical center. The principal investigators and projects that will receive 2008 Garvey Academy grants: Herbert Chase, M.D., P&S, "Clinical Reasoning Curriculum for Medical Students"Rita Marie John, DNP, Nursing, "Improving the Understanding and Use of Laboratory Values by Graduate Students in the Health Care Sciences"Dean R. Jones, M.D., and Brian Egan, M.D., P&S, "Development of a Novel Patient Safety Curriculum"Please join me in congratulating the grant recipients, who will be recognized at April 1's Thomas Q. Morris Educational Symposium. Congratulations to both of them! March -  Dr. Sansan Lo has earned double congratulations this month! Her abstract Entitled "EEG Coherence Patterns during Isoflurane and Sevoflurane Anesthesia in Infants and Young Children" has been accepted for oral presentation at the SPA/AAP Pediatric Anesthesiology 2008 meeting to be held April 3 - 6, 2008 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, San Diego and she has also been selected as the second place winner of the American Aademy of Pediatrics John J. Downes Resident Research Award. Congratulations!
February -
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Unger went on to attend Harvard University where he majored in engineering sciences. After college, Dr. Unger was a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras where he worked as a civil engineer on water and sanitation projects. He earned his M.D at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and went on to complete his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty of Columbia University in August of 2006. Dr. Unger is also a captain in the United States Air Force Reserves. He was married in May of last year to his wife, Kelly Murphy Mason. Dr. Ben Unger has also been appointed Director of Anesthesia Clinical Support Staff, effective February 1st, 2008, and will work with the anesthesia technicians to improve the OR infrastructure and support for the clinical anesthesia staff. "I think what has impressed me most in working with Ben Unger is that he has tackled each assignment with genuine enthusiasm and a clear focus on problem solving. He is an outstanding clinician and has demonstrated real insight into the challenges faced by the Department of Anesthesiology at the Allen Pavilion. I am gratified, after more than a decade of leadership there, to see the Directorship placed in such capable hands. The organization, energy, and poise he will bring to Allen Pavilion will significantly benefit our patients and staff." says Charlie Cain. “The Allen Pavilion plays a special role for our department and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital System. Bringing world class anesthesia patient care to a community environment presents its own unique challenges. They are challenges imbued with opportunity, however, and ones I am thrilled to work with”, explains Dr. Unger. January -  In December, New York City hosted the New York State Society Post Graduate Assembly (PGA) meeting of anesthesiologists. Dr. Steve L. Shafer gave the Rovenstein Lecture at the PGA on Monday, December 10, 2007 entitled “Critical Thinking in Anesthesia”. Dr. Shafer is a member of the Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Anesthesia & Analgesia. More news from the PGA: Dr. Minjae Kim won first place at the PGA resident research competition. Minjae has spent a year in Dr. HT Lee's laboratory as a research fellow. His research project focused on the anti-inflammatory and anti-necrotic mechanisms of inhalational anesthetics. The title of his research presentation at the PGA was "Isoflurane mediates protection from renal ischemia-reperfusion injury via sphingosine kinase and sphingosine-1-phosphateDecember -
Dr. Wood is proud to announce that Dr. Hannah Wunsch has received the prestigious FAER RFG-Research Fellowship Grant entitled “Evaluation of long-term outcomes for intensive care patients”. It is for $50,000 and will start September 1, 2008. Her mentor is Dr. Guohua Li. Congratulations to Hannah!
News on the Pain Medicine front- | Home | |
May 20th was Columbia Medical Students Class Day, and Dr. Wood was proud to present the Apgar Award to Thomas Lo for excellence in Anesthesiology and Critical Care.
Fellowship for the upcoming academic year 2008/09. She was one of 38 applicants from 22 institutions who applied for this fellowship. She will spend four weeks in EsSalad, Peru teaching anesthesia residents and nurses at two hospitals in Peru. This fellowship provides a wonderful opportunity for U.S. Anesthesia Residents to see first-hand how anesthesia services are provided and to teach anesthesia to students in overseas countries.
Dr. Margaret Wood is pleased to announce that at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Obstetrics, Anesthesiologists and Perinatologists (SOAP) in Chicago in May 2008, the Best Paper Award for 2008 went to:
Dr. Wood is pleased to announce that Dr. Ben Unger has been appointed Director of Anesthesia at the Allen, effective February 1st, 2008. He will take over this position from Dr. Charlie Cain who now becomes Vice Chair for Compliance and Regulatory Affairs.