The American Association of Medical Assistants installed Sherry Bogar, CMA (AAMA), CN-BC, as a 2021-2022 Trustee at its annual conference in Houston. Bogar works in the UTMB Health breast cancer and surgical oncology clinic in League City and is certified as a breast cancer and oncology patient navigator. She is a founder of the medical assistant advisory council at UTMB Health. “Medical Assistants have worked for years to prove that they are an essential part of the health care team that provides compassionate and quality patient care,” Bogar said. “The past two years in the COVID-19 era have proven how invaluable we are to every part of healthcare and how many roles we are able to fill.”

Engineers have determined proper heating will eliminate the virus that causes COVID-19 from a standard disposable surgical mask without degrading the mask itself. The work by Rice University engineers and collaborators at the University of Texas Medical Branch shows masks can be decontaminated and reused multiple times before degrading.

By finding this virus early, scientists now have time to study it, create tools to diagnose it and understand what it might take to stop it. Although it's not a cause for deep concern at this time, there's always the risk the virus could evolve and become a bigger problem. “We need to find these novel viruses well before they fully adapt to humans and become a pandemic problem,” wrote epidemiologist Gregory Gray, from the University of Texas Medical Branch, in an email to NPR. “Fortunately, today we have the tools to both detect and evaluate the risk of such novel viruses. We just need the political will and financial support to do so.”

Houston continues to heal from the events of last Friday's Astroworld Festival. Host Ernie Manouse talked to experts including Dr. Jeff Temple, director of the Center for Violence Prevention at UTMB. Temple fielded audience questions about psychological trauma.

The American College of Surgeons elected surgeon Dr. Linda G. Phillips as vice-chair of its board of regents in October. Phillips is the Truman G. Blocker Jr., MD, Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Medicine and chief of Department of Surgery, division of plastic surgery. As vice-chair, Phillips will become vice-chair of the Board of Regents Finance Committee, the Executive Committee, and Regental Liaison to the Board of Governors Executive Committee.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston School of Nursing has been named an Apple Distinguished School for 2021-2024. The award comes in part thanks to the school’s iLead—or Innovative Learning Environment Accelerating Discovery—program. Through iLead, students are issued an iPad and Apple Pencil upon orientation.