Congratulations to Avinash Kumar, M.B.B.S., FCCP, Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesia.  Dr. Kumar is featured on the home page of Carver College of Medicine's web site within their Faculty Focus section as a physician of interest.  He states this, "In any endeavor, at any point in time, strive to be a cut above the rest."  When asked his advice to the medical students, Dr. Kumar says, "Depth of knowledge will keep you ahead of the pack. Always respect your patients. Seek to make your family proud."

The Department of Anesthesia at The University of Iowa is very proud to claim Dr. Avinash Kumar as one of our own. To view the poster on display throughout the hospital, click here.  Read more about Dr. Kumar online at www.medicine.uiowa.edu/

The 2011-2012 Margaret V. Lunsford Award recipients are Brant Rustwick, Abe Sheffield, Genevieve Staudt, and Suraj Yalamuri. Congratulations to each of these individuals.

This honor, which includes a monetary gift, is awarded to outstanding senior medical student externs annually, and the selection committee considers strongly those externs who have expressed an interest in pursuing anesthesiology as their medical career specialty.

Dr. Lunsford was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1911, received her medical degree from The University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1941, and completed one year of residency training in anesthesiology here at Iowa from 1942-43. She married and moved east with her husband, practicing anesthesiology until her retirement in 1977. A bequest from the estate of Dr. Lunsford was established according to her wish, which was to provide scholarships for medical students interested in entering the field of anesthesiology, based on academic achievement and financial need.

At their graduation dinner held on June 26th, 2011, the graduating Anesthesia Residents announced the recipients of the "Resident Teacher of the Year Award" and the "Resident Excellence in Teaching Awards." These awards were established to pay tribute to those faculty members that excel in resident education. The residents vote on these awards based on teaching inside and outside of the operating room. The winners of these honors do a wonderful job of combining multiple realms of education. 

Esther Benedetti, M.D., received the "Resident Teacher of the Year Award."  Three faculty members were selected as recipients of the 2010-11 “Residence Excellence in Teaching” awards.  They are Sundar Krishnan, M.B.B.S., Sarah Titler, M.D., and Ken-ichi Ueda, M.D.  Each of these faculty members holds an appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor.

 

Esther Benedetti	Sundar Krishnan	Sarah Titler	Ken-ichi Ueda

The annual Midwest Anesthesia Residents Conference (MARC) took place in Chicago, IL on April 1-3, hosted this year by our department. It was a smashing success! The meeting was both educational and enjoyable. On behalf of Debra Szeluga, M.D., Ph.D., Resident Program Director, a sincere thank you goes out to the many people who made this conference such a success. Twenty-eight residents attended this meeting. Twenty-four residents made presentations at this meeting. Four medical students made presentations at this meeting. Twenty-two faculty members attended this meeting. Twenty-one faculty members helped out as judges. Three faculty members were tri-chairs of this meeting, Drs. Mazen Maktabi, Esther Benedetti, and Brent Hadder. In addition, William Hamilton, M.D. (BA '43, MD '46, R '51, Chair '58-'67) spoke at the meeting, presenting the history of MARC, which HE founded, organizing its first meeting held in Iowa City in 1961. How appropriate that 50 years later, the Department of Anesthesia at The University of Iowa again hosted the meeting, a meeting now too large to be held in Iowa City.

Many residents and medical students were awarded prizes for their presentations: Drs. Jessica Jameson, Jessica Kelley, Tejinder Singh, Somchin Puangsuvan, Kathryn Reed, and Brenton Freeman; medical students, Julianne Lee and Brian Cheney. Special congratulations are in order for these individuals.

Others to thank for their hard work and enthusiastic support of this meeting: Drs. Robert From, Javier Campos, Michael Todd; all residents, faculty, CRNAs, SRNAs, and fellows who helped man the operating rooms and other clinical areas so that many of the trainees and faculty could participate in the meeting; Donna Merck, Gwen Christenson, Abbey Gilpin, and Lorri Barnes, who helped plan and prepare this meeting.

Visit the Association of Midwest Academic Anesthesia Chairmen website. (AMAAC is the organizing body for MARC.)

4th year medical students at accredited United States Medical Schools may apply for a 1 month elective in Anesthesia at the University of Iowa.  We have a limited number of positions during the months of July, August, September, and October. Check out our great program and get to know our residents and faculty! Please contact Lorri Barnes for more information.

We congratulate Emine Bayman, Ph.D., Associate, who has been named a member of the Editorial Board for Neurosurgery. Neurosurgery is a monthly journal and the Official Journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The Journal has an impact factor of 3

Congratulations to Dr. Toshihiro Kitamoto, Ph.D., Associate Professor, who has been named a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurogenetics The Journal of Neurogenetics is a quarterly journal that publishes papers on behavioral, biochemical, or cellular aspects of neural function, plasticity, aging or disease. The Journal also publishes analyses in the traditional genetic-model organisms, C. elegans, Drosophila, mouse and the zebrafish.

Congratulations to Timothy J. Brennan, M.D., Ph.D., Samir D. Gergis Professor of Anesthesia, Vice Chair for Research, who was awarded an American Academy of Pain Medicine/Pfizer Visiting Professorship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, February 15-17, 2011.

The American Academy of Pain/Pfizer Visiting Professorship is awarded to up to eight individuals per year.  Award recipients are selected by an independent academic advisory board of experts in the field of Pain Medicine.

The list below denotes the most recently published articles representing researchers within The Department of Anesthesia, The University of Iowa.

Vaidya JG, Block RI, O’Leary DS, Ponto LB, Ghoneim MM, Bechara A: Effects of chronic marijuana use on brain activity during monetary decision making. Neuropsychopharmacology 2012; 37:618-29

Howard MA, Utz M, Brennan TJ, Dalm BD, Viljoen S, Kanwal JK, Gillies GT: Biophysical attributes of an in vitro spinal cord surrogate for use in developing an intradural neuromodulation system. J Appl Phys 2011; 110:074701

Howard MA, Utz M, Brennan TJ, Dalm BD, Viljoen S, Kanwal JK, Gillies GT: Intradural approach to selective stimulation in the spinal cord for treatment of intractable pain: design principles and wireless protocol. J Appl Phys 2011; 110:044702

Wilson S, Howard MA, Rossen JD, Brennan TJ, Dalm BD, Dahdaleh NS, Utz M, Gillies GT: Pulsatile spinal cord surrogate for intradural Neuromodulation studies. Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology 2012; 36:22-5

Campos JH, Ueda K: Lung separation in the morbidly obese patient. Anesthesiol Res Pract 2012;2012:207598

Dexter F, Witkowski TA, Epstein RH: Forecasting preanesthesia clinic appointment duration from the electronic medical record medication list. Anesth Analg 2012;114:670-3

Epstein RH, Dexter F: Influence of supervision ratios by anesthesiologists on first-case starts and critical portions of anesthetics. Anesthesiology 2012; 116: 683-91

Dexter F, Marco AP: Rationale for anesthesia groups to run additional flexible operating rooms for multiple surgeons who have scheduled more than 8 hours of cases. Anesth Analg 2011; 113:1295-7

Dexter F, Ledolter J, Davis E, Witkowski TA, Herman JH, Epstein RH: Systematic criteria for type and screen based on procedure’s probability of erythrocyte transfusion. Anesthesiology 2012; e-pub ahead of print

Ishimoto H, Lark A, Kitamoto T: Factors that differentially affect daytime and nighttime sleep in Drosophila Melanogaster. Front Neurol 2012; 3:24

Inagaki HK, Ben-Tabou de Leon S, Wong AM, Jagadish S, Ishimoto H, Barnea G, Kitamoto T, Axel R, Anderson DJ: Visualizing neuromodulation in vivo: TANGO-mapping of dopamine signaling reveals appetite control of sugar sensing. Cell 2012; 148:583-95

Ituk U, Constantinescu OC, Allen TK, Small MJ, Habib AS: Peripartum management of two parturients with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency. Int J Obstet Anesth 2012; 21:90-93

Kumar AB, Suneja M: Hetastarch-induced osmotic nephrosis. Anesthesiology 2012; e-pub ahead of print

Laur JJ, Bayman EO, Foldes PJ, Rosenquist RW: Triple-blind randomized clinical trial of time until sensory change using 1.5% mepivacaine with epinephrine, 0.5% bupivacaine, or an equal mixture of both for infraclavicular block. Reg Anesth Pain Med 2012; 37:28-33

Todd MM: Another intriguing application of hypothermia: And some words of caution. Anesthesiology 2012; 116: 246-7

Lee LA, Roth S, Todd MM, Posner KL, Polissar NL, Neradilek MB, Torner J, Newman NJ, Domino KB, Lauer KK, Budithi R, Gollapudy S, Pajewski TN, Scalzo DC, Avitsian R, Brown MJ, Buenvenida S, Mashour GA, Moore LE, Samra SK, Lieberman J, Lane RK, Ramani R, Wagner J, Tempelhoff R, Monsey CM, Robicsek SA, Vu MM, Weeks J, et. al.: Risk factors associated with ischemic optic neuropathy after spinal fusion surgery. Anesthesiology 116:15-24

Udomtecha D: Airway tube exchanger techniques in morbidly obese patients. Anesthesiol Res Pract 2012;2012:968642

Ueda K, Goetzinger C, Gauger EH, Hallam EA, Campos JH: Use of bronchial blockers: A retrospective review of 302 cases. J Anesth 2012; 26:115-7

Willemsen-Dunlap A, Leonard PA, Cutkomp JL: Thyroid storm precipitated by stress in an undiagnosed hyperthyroid patient. Simul Healthc 2012; 7:48-53