COMP Professor to retire after 30+ years
College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Professor Emeritus Rafi Younoszai, PhD, is retiring after serving Western University of Health Sciences for more than 30 years. Along the way he helped countless students and created community service student clubs that continue to thrive today, and he continues to inspire others to travel abroad to learn more about international medicine. He came to the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in its infancy, driven by a great desire to teach. Osteopathic medical colleges were known to support good teaching, Younoszai said, and he also wanted to return to California, having earned his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. Nadir Khan, PhD, then Dean of Sciences, hired Younoszai and Gayle Nelson, PhD, on July 1, 1979. They both taught gross anatomy to first- and second-year students.
Community Memorial Hospital in California Starts Osteopathic Residency Program
Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, Calif., is starting an osteopathic residency program geared toward family and internal medicine and orthopedics. The hospital hopes to bring new physicians to the area through the new residency program to offset the growing physician shortage in the area. The program is affiliated with the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., and had four family medicine, four internal medicine and two orthopedic medicine slots available its first year.
COMP-Northwest
"Nutrition Made Easy" was the topic for a Library After Hours discussion at the Lebanon Public Library on May 13. Students from Western University of Health Sciences presented the latest information on eating well to live well. This session focused on sorting nutrition myths from facts, as well as tips for shopping with good nutrition in mind. The event was open to the public and free of charge.
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Alumni News
Wendy Cozen, DO '82, has been promoted to Professor of Preventive Medicine and Pathology with tenure at USC's Keck School of Medicine.
Ronald Liskanich, DO '83, is in private practice in Upland, CA. He is double-board-certified in Dermatology and Anesthesiology.
Charles Hooper, DO '83, is a CDR MC USNR / Medical Officer 4th Tank Battalion, USMC Twenty-nine Palms.
Brian Laufer, DO '83, Chief Health Information Officer for the Alaska VA Healthcare System, was featured in a short NPR Morning Edition story on May 29. The story is about getting care to rural Alaskan Veterans. His department is responsible for everything from EHR to Tele-health (they have about 15 active programs from tele-mental health to tele-dermatology), and they will soon be starting tele-primary care. Dr. Laufer's department is also responsible for the VA personal health record (My Health e Vet), Health Information Exchange with the State of Alaska (the sharing of medical information across private, public and federal sectors), and home tele-health (they monitor high risk patients with CHF, Diabetes etc with in home equipment that monitors and transmits medical data on a daily basis to a group of RNs who coordinate their care). He also oversees interagency informatics issues with the Department of Defense and the Alaska Native Tribal Healthcare Consortium.
Jeff Stone, DO '83, is with Wound Care Consultants of Dallas, Texas, a practice he founded. Dr. Stone treated some of the first casualties from the Gulf War with Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care. Dr. Stone is board certified and is in charge of one of only six ACGME approved Hyperbaric Fellowships in the country.
Ronald Hedger, DO '84, is currently serving as chairman of the Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. He is board certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians and is a Diplomate of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners. Dr. Hedger has been a medical/technical consultant to television and motion pictures, where he was set physician for productions such as: CBS – "The Amazing Race," Walt Disney – "Honey, I Blew Up the Kids," Warner Bros – "Fools Rush In" and NBC's – "Las Vegas," among others. Dr. Hedger was also the executive producer and program host for "Health Quest" and "Medical Minute," both syndicated television programs on ABC television. Dr. Hedger is currently an associate professor of primary care, the course director for the OSCE course/training facility, assistant dean for clinical skills training, medical director of the physician assistant studies program and Institutional Health Services. He was the chairman of the Faculty Senate and executive committee of the Faculty Senate.
Neal Seth Lux Archer, DO '86, passed away on May 21, just before noon, secondary to complications to Malignant Melanoma. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Renee Archer Lux, DO '90, and his 2 children, Devon, 20, and Sophia, 18. All 3 were bedside at his passing which was peaceful and without pain. Dr. Archer was proud to have been a speaker at his graduation from COMP. For years he worked in, with, and for the OMM department (then known as the opp department), He even directed the department during vacancies and transitions. He spent time practicing at the Mission clinic and working in the Emergency Department at the now ARMC Medical Center till 1999. Thereafter, he directed a successful industrial medical clinic in Ontario east of the airport. Dr. Archer was also well known at COMP for his getting acquainted lectures and many fine DO's owe him for their initial inspiration. He won people by his fine and generous heart and gentle sense of humor and humility. Most recently on campus he was active helping teach the art of differential diagnosis. There will be a memorial birthday party on June 15, his 60th birthday, at the family home.
Paul Kalekas, DO '86, is president, Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. He is also an assistant professor with Touro University Nevada and course director for Physical Diagnosis. In addition, he serves as director of medical education for third and fourth year clinical clerkships in the Sunrise Hospital system, and is an internal medicine attending for the internal medicine residency at Valley Hospital Medical Center.
Dale Carrison, DO '87, appeared on a television program called "Ralston Reports" that aired throughout Nevada on the evening of April 15 to discuss the Boston bombing and what Nevada is doing to prevent and prepare for such an attack. Dr. Carrison is Chief of Staff at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, and the state's former chair of their Homeland Security Commission. Here is a link to his television appearance: http://www.ralstonreports.com/tv/41513-dale-carrison. His interview segment begins around four minutes in and continues for about 18 minutes until the end of the program.
Scott Harris, DO '90, joined the faculty of Touro University Nevada, College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2007. He is course director for Public Health and Preventive Medicine.
James Lally, DO '91, MSHPE '93, has been appointed by California Governor Edmund G. Brown to the Osteopathic Medical Board of California.
John Thompson, DO '92, is the founder and medical director of Desert Oasis Clinic in Las Vegas, NV, which offers a holistic approach to medicine.
Scott Hofer, DO '93, is currently practicing orthopaedic surgery with Sports Medicine of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, MO. Having received an Army scholarship for medical school, after internship he was called to active duty where he served as a flight surgeon in S. Korea. Following that he served as a brigade surgeon at Ft. Carson, CO (which included a deployment to Kuwait in support of Operation Intrinsic Action). He was then offered an Army orthopedic residency position at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, TX. He completed his training and was recognized as the distinguished graduate of his class. His first orthopedic assignment was at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, where he was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the chief of orthopedics. His next orthopedic assignment was at Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado Springs, CO. After 12 years on active duty he resigned his commission as Lt. Colonel and practiced in Grants Pass, OR, Lake Charles, LA, and is now located in Osage Beach, MO.
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center emergency room physician Thomas F. Minahan, DO '95, was named as the winner of the San Bernardino County Medical Society's William L. Cover, M.D. Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medicine, and was formally recognized on June 11 during the Medical Society's awards presentation in Fontana. The award is given to a physician member who has displayed "forward-looking, pioneering ideas, enterprise, enthusiasm and prolonged professional stature and abilities," according to the Medical Society. Dr. Minahan is program director of the ARMC Department of Emergency Medicine's American Osteopathic Association-accredited residency program, which he co-founded in 2004. During his tenure as director he has expanded the program from a class of three residents to the current class of 31 residents. The ARMC emergency medicine residency has become the most popular and competitive osteopathic residency program on the West Coast due to Minahan's leadership and personal commitment, said Dr. Rodney Borger, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at ARMC. Minahan has been a member of the San Bernardino County Medical Society and the California Medical Association since 2004. In 2008, Minahan received ARMC's "Teacher of the Year" award.
Farzin Kerendian, DO '96, owns and operates his own cosmetic surgery practice, Desired Beauty, in Century City, CA.
Thang Pham, DO '96, is currently in family practice with Kaiser Permanente in Ontario, CA.
Sean Siler, DO '99, recently assumed command as Lt. Colonel of the 1493rd Medical Detachment (CSC), a Combat Stress Control reserve unit providing behavioral health support to deployed soldiers. He just left his role as the deputy surgeon, US Army Special Operations Command, as the highest ranking reserve physician in special operations in the Army. Outside of the military, he is an assistant professor who teaches Emergency Medicine to residents at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is also the deputy medical director (soon to be publicly named medical director) for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. On the national level, he serves part time running the federal disaster response for US Department of Health and Human Services.
Judy Hwa Tan, DO '01, recently accepted an award for "Hospitalist of the Year" from IPC, a national hospitalist company.
Payam Kerendian, DO '01, is a double board certified physician in family practice and specializing in bariatric medicine. As a bariatric physician and member of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, Dr. Kerendian is currently supervising new sophistication in weight management by providing comprehensive nutritional and medical evaluation, treatment, and strategies for long-term prevention. Dr. Kerendian's practice also includes pain management, utilizing prolotherapy and trigger point injection therapy methods.
Steve S. Lee, DO '02, is a board-certified rheumatologist, practicing with Kaiser. He also practices internal medicine, and has lectured numerous times on campus.
Greg Gates, DO '04, is currently a LCDR in the Navy and chief resident for the pathology program at Naval Medical Center San Diego. He is deployed to Iraq with the marines and has been the medical department head on USS Comstock (LSD-45).
Cuong Nguyen, DO '04, is a staff pathologist, 60th MDTS/SGQC DGMC, Laboratory Medical Director of Central Operations and Chemistry, Medical Director of Beale AFB Clinical Laboratory, and Deputy Course Medical Director, Phase II training.
Marjan Pedarsani, DO '04, is board-certified in family medicine, and is currently practicing with Memorial Care Medical Group in Mission Viejo.
Lawrence Huang, DO '05, is currently practicing physical medicine and rehabilitation with Sutter Health. He was chief resident during his final year at Stanford, and completed an anesthesia pain medicine fellowship at University of Iowa.
Matthew Hoyt, DO '06, is the recipient of two Air Force commendation medals. He has been stationed at Eglin AFB, is currently at Hill AFB, and will be moving this summer to Aviano AB Italy. He has between 1250 and 1500 patients under his care, and works with other providers on a PCMH team; often seeing their patients as well. He has been on active duty for 7 years.
Jake Hollingsworth, DO '07, is an active duty psychiatrist in the U.S. Air Force, and will be pinning on Major this June. He is currently serving as the Medical Director of the Randolph Air Force Base (Texas) Mental Health Clinic. He recently returned from being deployed to Afghanistan for 6 months, where he was the OIC of the FOB Fenty Combat Stress Clinic. While deployed, he provided psychiatric care to soldiers in over 20 locations in Eastern Afghanistan in various Forward Operating Bases, Combat Outposts and Observations Posts, and was the only psychiatrist for over 5000 Soldiers. He recently published an editorial in Military Medicine (April 2013) based on some of his experiences while deployed. The title of the article is "Managing Acute Suicidal Ideation in a Forward Deployed Location in Afghanistan." His most recent interest is in forensic work.
Melanie Leadley, DO '07, is currently stationed at Ft Bragg, NC. She has served in the Army for 6 years and was promoted to Major in May. She has served in N. Carolina, S. Korea, and Hawaii as a psychiatrist who cares for active duty, retirees, and dependent patients. She has received two ARCOMs and the Espirit de Corps award.
Matthew Nichols, DO '07, is currently deployed to a Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan as part of a forward surgical team (FST). He completed his emergency medicine residency at Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft Sam Houston, TX. Following that he was stationed in Fort Carson, CO as the Brigade Surgeon for 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. After a year as Brigade Surgeon he was selected as the sole EMS Fellow for the Army for 2011-2012, returning to San Antonio. Following the EMS Fellowship he was named as the Deputy Director of the new US Army Critical Care Flight Paramedic Program at the Army Medical Department Center and School (AMEDD C&S). He has deployed from that position and will return to AMEDD C&S at Ft Sam Houston, TX this summer to take over as Director of the program. He will promote to the rank of Major in June. Dr. Nichols is married to a former Air Force emergency nurse, who now flies in helicopters as a flight nurse. The couple has a three year old daughter.
Alexys Hillman, DO '11, is a captain in the Army, stationed at Fort Benning, GA in the Family Medicine Residency, where she serves a large population of active duty and reserve soldiers and their families. She is currently preparing a seminar on Physician Abuse, Suicide and Wellness for the residency program, which she hopes to make a recurrent lecture series.
Victoria Belle Shin, DO '12, received the rank of Captain in the US Air Force at the Commissioning Ceremony. She has a civilian internship assignment for her internship year at Broward Health Medical Center in Ft Lauderdale, FL, and plans on finishing up her family medicine residency afterwards.
Faculty News
The Ob-Gyn Department hosted Dr. Lawrence D. Platt as their Visiting Professor in January. Dr. Platt is The Director of the Center for Fetal Medicine and Women's Ultrasound in Los Angeles & Professor of Ob-Gyn at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He lectured at WesternU on "Advances in Prenatal Diagnosis" and gave a hands on practicum to students and residents at ARMC demonstrating the most recent advances in prenatal ultrasound. The Department has also rolled out a revised Ob-Gyn didactic week experience with the assistance of Sandra Garner and her team in the Office of Medical Simulation. All students are now able to practice a supervised simulated delivery on NOELLE. In addition they are exposed to a standardized Ob patient encounter and rotate through stations that include topics such as the new and return Gyn visit, the performance of breast and pelvic exams, and the interpretation of fetal heart rate tracings. We look forward to adding additional stations as the year progresses. If any alumni are interested in assisting with didactic week and supervising one or more of these stations for a few hours or even the whole day please contact Dr. Lony Castro at lcastro@westernu.edu.
An interprofessional WesternU team published an article in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association: "Use of the SMART Balance Master to Quantify the Effects of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment in Patients With Dizziness," by Marcel Fraix, DO '03; Ashlynn Gordon, DO '13; Victoria Graham, DPT '06, OCS, NCS; Eric Hurwitz, DC, PhD; and Michael A. Seffinger, DO. Drs. Fraix and Seffinger are College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific faculty members. Dr. Graham is a former College of Allied Health Professionals faculty member now with Cal State Northridge. Click here to view the article.
Dr. Brian Kraatz recently published a new genus and species of rodent discovered during his work in the United Arab Emirates. The paper is published in the journal Naturwissenschaften (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-013-1043-4). More information about the study and overall project can be found here: http://fossilsofarabia.wordpress.com/
Dr. Gail Singer-Chang spoke to American Medical Student Association (AMSA) students at Cal State Fullerton on April 12, 2013. Singer-Chang was an invited lecturer on "An Autism Primer for Undergraduate Health Professions Students." The audience consisted of undergraduate students planning careers in medicine and dentistry.
Student News
Second-year COMP student Priya Rao's case report "Subacute thyroiditis presenting as toxic adenoma," was accepted to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists national meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. She presented her work at the meeting in early May. Her faculty adviser was Airani Sathananthan, MD, MSHS, FACE.
COMP-Northwest student Rebecca Corbett, OMS III, had her paper, "Teaching a Sonographically Guided Invasive Procedure to First-Year Medical Students Using a Novel Finger Transducer," published in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine with the help of her mentor, Brion Benninger, MD, MSc. The paper was published in the April 1, 2013 edition of the journal. COMP-Northwest student Taylor Delamarter, OMS II, was also listed as an author.
Second-year COMP student Sarah Wolff, 2015 Class President, was recently elected secretary of the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents (COSGP) Executive Board.
Two Medford students studying osteopathic medicine at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest in Lebanon have received scholarships that could ultimately provide $60,000 in financial aid. Krista N. Jensen was named an Arthur O. Rott, DO, Scholar and Andrea K. Mytinger was named a J. Scott Heatherington, DO, Scholar. The scholarships were created last year when FamilyCare Health Plans, of Portland, donated $2 million for an endowed scholarship fund to support osteopathic medical students interested in primary care. Five second-year students attending the Lebanon campus affiliated with Western University of Health Sciences will be honored with the scholarships annually. The students are eligible to receive additional $20,000 scholarships their subsequent two years.
Read the latest updates from the students themselves in the latest Student Government Association Newsletter.
Events & Conferences
August 1-4: American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians of California's Annual Scientific Seminar in Anaheim, CA. WesternU/COMP exhibit table on August 1 and 2 in the Disneyland Hotel, Magic Kingdom Ballroom (1150 W Magic Way)
August 30-September 1: Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California's Annual Fall Conference in Monterey, CA. WesternU/COMP exhibit table on August 30 and 31 in the Intercontinental The Clement Monterey (750 Cannery Row)
September 20-22: Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon's Fall CME Conference in Portland, OR. WesternU/COMP-Northwest exhibit table on September 20 and 21 in the Embassy Suites, Downtown Portland (319 SW Pine Street). WesternU/COMP reception, Saturday, September 21, 5:45 p.m., Embassy Suites
September 30-October 4: American Osteopathic Association's OMED Convention in Las Vegas, NV. WesternU/COMP exhibit booth (#708) on September 30-October 2 in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center Shorlines A. WesternU/COMP reception, Wednesday, October 2, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Border Grill Las Vegas (inside Mandalay Bay)
October 24: WesternU's Pumerantz Lecture in the evening on campus. Details to follow.
November 9: WesternU's A Tribute to Caring at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA. Save the date!
See a full list of upcoming events on the Online Alumni Events page.
For more information or to RSVP for these events, please contact the Alumni Office at (909) 469-ALUM or alumni@westernu.edu.
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