Throughout his teaching career, Dr. José D. Rojas has stressed the importance of interprofessional education in better preparing his respiratory care students for careers in the medical field. Rojas, associate professor and chair of UTMB’s Department of Respiratory Care in the School of Health Professions, saw firsthand the value of students working in interdisciplinary teams when he taught at Midland College in the late 1980s.

Facilities construction continues across UTMB, including the new Health Education Center on the Galveston Campus and expansion on the League City Campus. Here’s a closer look at the construction projects ongoing at UTMB.

February is American Heart Month. Cardiovascular disease—including stroke and heart disease—claims more lives in the U.S. than any other illness. Making healthy diet choices is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce your risk of heart disease.

This heart was preserved by an individual who was a pioneering cardiology researcher and past UTMB president using the “injection-and-corrosion” method. This method involved injecting a colored plastic material into the heart. After the injection, the heart was then submerged in concentrated hydrochloric acid.

Happy New Year, and welcome to the latest issue of Impact! The beginning of a new year gives us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the accomplishments of the previous months and plan ahead for the many opportunities to come in 2018.

Dr. Nisha Jain Garg, professor in the departments of Microbiology and Immunology and of Pathology, was awarded $2.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to examine the previously unknown role of a DNA repair protein called PARP1 in increasing the risk of heart damage that often accompanies Chagas disease.

On any given day, all 110 acute care beds in UTMB Hospital Galveston are full. While some patients are preparing for discharge, new patients are brought in by bus, ambulance and vans from prison units all over the state. As the state’s aging prison population requires increased medical care, the maximum security hospital on UTMB’s Galveston Campus often faces a challenge: there aren’t enough beds to go around.

When Irene Slovak, who was an otherwise healthy 74-year-old woman, began experiencing stomach pain and fatigue, she knew something wasn’t right.

A parent who spanks a child may be teaching them the wrong lesson. A new study by UTMB researchers found a link between children who experience corporal punishment and those who later perpetrate acts of dating violence.

Scientists at UTMB have discovered a promising developing drug that has been shown to selectively shrink excess fat by increasing fat cell metabolism. The drug significantly reduces body weight and blood cholesterol levels without lowering food intake in obese mice.

UTMB Stroke Coordinator Brenda Yanez lives and breathes the mantra “Time is brain.” “Every minute counts after a person has a stroke,” she says.

Christine Wade joined UTMB in 2012 and has spent the majority of her career managing high-volume trauma centers. In addition to support services, she oversees two emergency departments (Galveston and League City campuses), including a level 1 trauma center, level 1 burn center, two medical-surgical units, nursing house supervisors and the designated emerging infectious disease biocontainment unit and program—which she spearheaded.

The Texas City Primary and Specialty Care Clinic and the Dickinson Regional Maternal and Child Health Program (RMCHP) clinics are happy to be back doing what they do best—serving patients and the community.

Three UTMB employees were honored as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award recipients at the annual luncheon in January on the Galveston Campus.

Preparing students for clinical rotations provided an ideal opportunity for interprofessional practice at the Clinical Skills Experience held recently in UTMB’s Interprofessional Nursing Simulation Center. Nursing students served as instructors and coaches for medical students gaining skills for basic procedures and learning to manage high-acuity situations.

The 2018 flu season is shaping up to be a nasty one, as a severe strain of the flu—H3N2—has spread to most U.S. states, including Texas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by the end of the first week in January, the entire continental U.S. reported widespread flu activity.

I’d like to wish you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season as we come to the conclusion of another calendar year—one that has been very eventful to say the least!

UTMB Correctional Managed Care employees Gary Eubank, chief nursing officer, and Paul Brown, Region 3 director of nursing, co-wrote several chapters in the fourth edition of the book “Financial Management for Nurse Managers: Merging the Heart with the Dollar.” The book addresses the financial management issues faced by nurse leaders in a variety of settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics and home care.

Eighty years ago, infections like tuberculosis and pneumonia were leading causes of death in the U.S. Thanks to the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, that’s not the case anymore. However, these drugs have been used—often overused—for so long that the bacteria the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective.

UTMB’s 10th Annual Preemie Reunion on Oct. 21 was the first time Wendy Lentino was able to take her baby, Liliana, out in public. “Lily finally gets to experience things that most of us take for granted, like the sun shining and the wind blowing,” said Lentino.