Blogs

Daylight Saving Time starts on Sunday, March 14, 2010 @ 2:00 a.m.

Set your clocks AHEAD one hour.

The Department of Psychiatry's Grand Rounds this week will be on a topic of interest to pediatricians.

James McCracken, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UCLA, will present "Autism Controversies: What Do We Really Know?" on Tuesday, March 9 at 3:00 in the Parlow Auditorium.

Dr. Jennifer Yee (Faculty, Div. of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism) has been named the recipient of the 2010 Liu Young Investigator Award and the 2010 Weitzman Award.

These awards are given annually to an outstanding young investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA. Dr. Yee completed her pediatric endocrinology fellowship training here at Harbor-UCLA and became a faculty member in 2007. Her main research interest is in the mechanisms of the development of obesity. She is currently using stable isotope techniques to study the fatty acid metabolic pathways in a rat model of prenatal nutritional programming of adult obesity. In parallel, she is also studying the plasma fatty acid composition of infants exposed to in utero nutritional imbalance. The goal of these projects is to evaluate fatty acid pathways as potential targets for obesity prevention. Dr. Yee is also studying the timing of development of cardiovascular disease in young adults with Type 2 Diabetes.

Congratulations!

From Nancy McGrath

Hi all. I volunteer with Working Wardrobes, an organization that empowers men, women, and young adults in life crises to confidently enter the workforce with career development and wardrobe services. Each year they sponsor a day for deserving high school girls in need of formal wear for their prom, called "Cinderella for a Day". I'm collecting old dresses (long and short, all sizes), purses, shoes, and accessories (jewelry, wraps). They're especially in need of size 12 and above! Please ask your friends, daughters, sisters and moms to check the far reaches of their closets as I'm sure there's an old bridesmaid or prom dress hiding back there! I'm happy to collect everything for drop off at WW. The deadline is Wednesday, February 24th so they'll have time to clean and repair things as needed.

We can all remember how much fun we had at our high school proms, so let's try and make it a memorable day for these young ladies! My daughter and I have volunteered at this event for 10 years and are so moved by the joy on these young faces! Please call or email me with any questions!

Thanks so much!

From Videth Mak:

Hello Everyone-

I am putting together a bakesale: this Friday Feb 5th around 1030 am to 2pm in the elevator lobby at Harbor. 100% of proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders towards their Haiti efforts. I figured if we can't go and help, why not donate to Drs that are there!

Show off some of your baking skills (or you can buy an already baked item to sell) and bake for this cause. Your donated baked good would be greatly appreciated!

Feel free to also come by and buy a treat from the booth.
Attached is a link on the DWOB website to show some of the work they have done in Haiti. I have already called to make sure I can donate to DWOB specifically their Haiti efforts.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=31

Thanks, Videth

I wanted to comment on another experience I had while on the Child Advocacy rotation, specifically going to the Boys and Girls Club in Gardena. The kids and teens there were like any other in the country, but I came to realize the pressures they often faced and how the often lack of education/support from parents influenced their growth, development and futures.

The Pediatric Critical Care fellowship program at Harbor-UCLA was commended by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The program was held up as an example for incorporating activities that teach competencies to fellows, specifically those related to professionalism, cultural competency and bioethics, and interpersonal skills and communication. The ACGME has posted information about the Harbor Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship’s learning programs in the notable practices section on their website.

The newsletter can be viewed by clicking on the attachment.

I have to say that I have really found the child advocacy rotation to be beneficial. As residents, we are trained to focus on learning how to address and manage medical issues related to patients, but the advocacy rotation helped me to appreciate the bigger role we have which is to address the social, psychological and legal aspects of a patient's lives which incidentally often affect their health, medical compliance.

In particular, I enjoyed going to the Alliance for Children's Rights office. I had no idea there was an agency that fought on children's behalf to help with things like identity theft, learning disability resources, obtaining SSI and much more. These are issues that often times graduates of "the system" (ie foster children) have to face. I now know that there is a place I can refer my patients for legal services should they ever need that.

Harbor-UCLA Pediatrics will once again be well-represented at the Western Society for Pediatric Research Annual Meeting January 27-30, 2010, in Carmel, CA.

On Friday, Jan. 29, Dr. Jennifer Yee (faculty, Div. Pediatr. Endocrinology) will speak on "In vivo and ex vivo models of enhanced adipocyte differentiation in intrauterine growth restricted neonatal rats" at 8:45 am at the Carlson Hall (Church of the Wayfarer).

Dr. John Torday (Faculty, Div. Neonatology) will lecture on "Evolutionary biology as a cipher for neonatal lung biology and disease" at 9:15 at Sanctuary (All Saints Church).

Dr. Nghia Truong (fellow, Div. Neonatology) will present his research, "Postnatal rosiglitazone administration to neonatal rat pups does not alter the adult metabolic phenotype" at 11:45 at Sanctuary. Dr. Truong's research mentor is Dr. Virender Rehan (Div. Neonatology).

Nine faculty members of Harbor-UCLA's Deparment of Pediatrics have been named Southern California Super Doctors by the Los Angeles Magazine. The list appears in the January 2010 issue. Pediatric faculty made up nearly 1/4 of the 37 physicians at LA BioMed/Harbor-UCLA who were named to the list.

They are:

Carol D. Berkowitz, M.D.
Kenneth R. Huff, M.D.
Adam J. Jonas, M.D.
Margaret A. Keller, M.D.
Wai-Nang Paul Lee, M.D.
ChrisAnna M. Mink, M.D.
Lance Sieger, M.D.
Joel I. Ward, M.D.
Kenneth M. Zangwill, M.D.

Congratulations!