Author: Diane Duke Williams

Nominations are now open for the 2012 Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Student Education. A $5,000 prize will be awarded to up to three WUSM faculty members who demonstrate leadership in medical student education.

A study by Brooke Winner, MD (pictured), and Jeff Peipert, MD, to evaluate birth control methods has found dramatic differences in their effectiveness. Women who used birth control pills, the patch or vaginal ring were 20 times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than those who used longer-acting forms such as an intrauterine device (IUD) or implant.

Washington University School of Medicine students Nathan Moore and Elisabeth Askin collaborated to produce a clear and concise guide to the U.S. health-care system called the Health Care Handbook. The book is a topical overview of the system, aimed primarily at undergraduate and graduate health professions students.

​Training in England gives Jane Garbutt, MBChB, a unique perspective on medical issues in the United States and how care can be provided differently. Garbutt strives to help pediatricians in private practice find the most effective treatments for everyday medical problems.

John C. Morris, MD, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, will deliver the 2012 Friedman lecture at 3 p.m. April 30, in Graham Chapel. His lecture is titled “The Aging Mind: Realities and Myths.”

For Lewis Wall, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a dream has come true. For almost 20 years, he worked doggedly to build a hospital in one of the world’s poorest countries to treat women with a devastating childbirth injury. His dream became reality in February, when a 42-bed hospital opened in Niger, Africa. The facility is dedicated to repairing fistulas, wounds inflicted by prolonged labor, which leaves women — and often girls — steadily leaking wastes.

Louis W. Sullivan, MD, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the administration of President George H. W. Bush and president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine, will lead a public forum on the future of health care at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center, 320 S. Euclid Ave., at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Emergency physician Chris Carpenter, MD, is conducting a study of patients in the emergency room who are older than 65 and at increased risk of having dementia. He wants to determine if referring suspected Alzheimer’s patients to an outreach agency will reduce frequent returns to the emergency department and help them remain independent longer.

The Division of Emergency Medicine is offering a two-year fellowship designed to allow emergency medicine trainees and others interested in clinical, translational or basic research careers to develop the skills to become successful, independent investigators. The program, which is coordinated through the Clinical Research Training Center, culminates in a master’s degree of science in clinical investigation.

If Debbie Monolo, assistant dean for academic affairs and registrar at the School of Medicine, stands in Forest Park, she can almost see both of her worlds. To the east lies the School of Medicine, where she has worked for 38 years. And if she looks south, she can see “The Hill,” where she co-owns a boutique and plays an integral role in the vibrant local Italian community.