CBS Evening News. National Public Radio. NBC Nightly News. The New York Times. Univision. The Washington Post. National Geographic. BBC News. KTRK-TV, Ch. 13Houston. KHOU-TV, Ch. 11 Houston. The Houston Chronicle. When it comes to emerging infectious diseases, local, national and international media outlets are turning to UTMB for accurate information

The Sealy & Smith Foundation has awarded $3.87 million in funding to establish a comprehensive eye and ear center, which will allow UTMB to consolidate services at the current Eye Center at 700 University Blvd. in Galveston. Under the proposal, 8,000 square feet of the third floor will be reconfigured and renovated in order to relocate the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic and Audiology and Speech Pathology Clinic.

The Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute on Aging to fund a new MD/PhD program in social and behavioral sciences focused on health disparities in aging. While UTMB has had an MD/PhD combined degree program since 1983 and has educated more than 100 clinician scientists, the new grant will create a similar focus for medical students who want to also become researchers to study public health and social and behavioral sciences.

Philesha Evans has worked at UTMB her entire adult life and has taken on a number of roles and projects since starting off in the Transportation Department and transferring to Human Resources in 1996. She took the time to talk to us about her first impressions of UTMB as a child and the future of UTMB, as well as her extensive shoe collection.

Medical students at UTMB seeking to gain an edge with additional management and finance skills will be able to obtain a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Houston–Clear Lake while working on their medical degree. The MD–MBA program is geared toward medical students who wish to go on to private or group practice, health system administration or into the fields of biotechnology, health system management or entrepreneurship aspects of health care.

UTMB employees and students—as well as the local community—will have their first chance to see the new Jennie Sealy Hospital up close and personal in late February. Several events will mark the completion of construction and opening of the new 765,000-square-foot hospital, which will accept its first patient on April 9.

A recent employee survey about Weekly Relays indicated the program is meeting the goal of strengthening internal communications so that employees are better informed, understand how they fit in the UTMB mission, and have a reliable way to voice concerns and get answers to their questions. Results also pointed to some ways the program can be improved. With the one-year anniversary of Weekly Relays, the ICC and Office of Marketing and Communications will be making additional modifications in response to the survey data to make the initiative even better.

Rakez Kayed, PhD, associate professor of Neurology, and Bridget Hawkins, PhD assistant professor of Anesthesiology, have filled an important gap in understanding the link between traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Previously, UTMB researchers found a toxic form of tau protein that increases after a traumatic brain injury and may contribute to development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition experienced by many professional athletes and military personnel.

President’s “Way to Go” Awards: Dr. David Callender recognized several UTMB employees for their great work during the Jan. 27 Town Hall Meeting.

Strive for a heart-healthy weight. Use a Body Mass Index calculator to find out if you’re at a healthy weight. BMI is an indicator of the amount of body fat most people have. If you can reach and maintain a healthy weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2), not only will you have more energy, you’ll also have a reduced risk of heart disease and other cancers.

Six UTMB employees were honored as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award recipients at the annual luncheon in January. The award is presented annually to individuals who carry out Dr. King’s dream and have made a profound difference through dedication and service to UTMB and the greater community.

UTMB Officer Wesley Braunsdorf is UT System Police Featured Officer of the Month for February, Katrina Lambrecht is the new vice president and administrator for Angleton Danbury Campus, Steve Schuenke is named Photographer of the Year by the Bay Area Photo Club, and much more...

Coffee, lots and lots of coffee. That’s pretty much the only constant in Mark Kinonen’s work day as a photographer at UTMB. So it only makes sense that I find him – surprise! – drinking industrial-strength coffee in his office on a Friday morning, charging camera batteries for a shoot later that day and jamming out to an eclectic mix of music (think Miles Davis/The Black Keys/Bryan Adams) as he answers emails and gets his creative juices flowing.

“Organized chaos.” That’s how nurse manager Bryan Hicks describes most days at the TDCJ Hospital in Galveston. And when I join him shortly after 10 a.m. on a Friday morning, I quickly understand why.The hospital, which is commonly referred to as “HG” or Hospital Galveston, sees between 200 and 300 patients a day. And by patients, I mean offenders that have been brought in by bus, ambulance and van from prison units all over the state.

If you or a family member have ever been a UTMB patient, it’s likely you have interacted with a patient services specialist, or PSS as they call themselves. And if you have been to the Orthopaedic Clinic at the Specialty Care Center in League City, you may have been greeted by a smiling Rosana Gomez.

They’re the smallest and most fragile patients at UTMB’s Galveston campus, and Registered Nurse Norma Salinas has the privilege of providing their care. Some people find their calling, but as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Salinas’ calling found her.

As the vice president for offender health services and the chief physician executive for UTMB’s Correctional Managed Care (CMC) program, Dr. Owen Murray oversees the medical, mental health and dental services for more than 120,000 offenders within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)—that’s 80 percent of the state’s inmate population.

If you haven’t used one recently, you probably soon will. They’re information support specialists, better known as IS (formerly known as IT). They’re the people you’re happy to see coming when you’re computer is on the fritz. Without them UTMB would probably come to a screeching halt, but computers aren’t their only responsibility.

When you hear the word social worker what comes to mind? Do you envision a government employee who makes visits to people’s homes who are in crisis? Do you think of a person who has someone’s child placed in child protective services?