UTMB NewsleTTer • JUlY 2015UTMB NewsleTTer • JUlY 2015

Health care behind bars

Summer of Science

EMPowering Mothers

Spotlight on our Health System COO

Regents’ Outstanding Teachers

J U LY 2 0 1 5 impact

Gracie Vargas, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, has received a grant for more than $862,000 over three years from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to develop a novel optical imaging approach for identifying early cancer and treatable precancers having a high chance for malignancy in the oral cavity and oropharynx. Oral and oropharnygeal cancer is a significant global health problem, accounting for about 400,000 reported new cases per year.

Dr. Matthew Hay won “Best Pediatrician” in the Galveston County Daily News Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015. Hay is co-director of UTMB’s new Primary and Specialty Care Clinic in Texas City. UTMB’s Dr. Brian Wong won for “Best Cosmetic Surgery.” Wong specializes in oculoplastics, a wide variety of surgical procedures that deal with the eye socket, eyelids, tear ducts and the face. The Daily News has been collecting readers’ input on the best of the best in Galveston County since 1990.

Majorie M. Kovacevich joined the TDCJ Hospital Galveston team as director, effective July 1. Her UTMB tenure began in 1998 as a management analyst within the Faculty Group Practice. She rose to become the senior practice manager and physician service manager, and in 2014, Kovacevich was promoted to director of business operations for UTMB’s Ambulatory Operations.

UTMB GSBS student Justin Drake has been appointed by Governor Greg Abbott as the student regent for The University of Texas System for a term expiring May 31, 2016. Drake is pursuing a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology with a concentration in computational biophysics. He received a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. This is the second time in the past five years that a UTMB student has held this prestigious position. Drake will participate with the Board of Regents, but hold a non-voting position during his one-year term. He was one of five finalists selected by UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven.

working wondersKudos on the following accomplishments

The Angleton Danbury Campus has had an epic month. After months of training and teamwork, the campus is now running EPIC, which combines all information about a patient’s care in one electronic record, accessible throughout UTMB Health. It allows all providers and staff to efficiently retrieve complete, up-to-date information and to easily document the care they provide. ADC also implemented Bar Code Scanning and Lab Systems and sailed through a mini disaster drill as their community prepared for the potential impact of Tropical Storm Bill. The ADC Leadership Team extended their appreciation for their staff as well as the Galveston Campus: “The ADC team is officially EPIC! Everyone at ADC rose to the occasion, and we appreciate and thank everyone who has supported us 24/7 over the last several months.”

Check out the new marquee at the Angleton Danbury Campus! The new sign includes a digital “billboard” that will soon provide the community information on services and events.

ANGleTON DANBUrY CAMPUs UPDATes

EMPowering mothers

Page 4

JuLY 2015

Health care behind bars

Page 6

Summer of science

Page 8

Summer sun tips

Page 12

Impact is for and about the people who fulfill UTMB’s mission to improve health in Texas and around the world. We hope you enjoy reading this issue. Let us know what you think!

ON THE COVER:Nurse Manager Bryan Hicks with some of his nursing staff at TDCJ Hospital Galveston.

Back row (L to R): Dora Richard, Shirley Hulgan, Michael Wood, Johnathan Carpenter, Joy Berends and Anita Caballero Front row (L to R): Brenda Locke, Sharon Hicks, Bryan Hicks and Tammy Fontnette.

Vice President Marketing & Communications Steve Campbell

Associate Vice President Marketing & Communications Mary Havard

Editors Kristen Hensley KirstiAnn Clifford

Art Director Mark Navarro

CONTACT usEmail: impact.newsletter@utmb.edu Phone: (409) 772-2618

Campus mail route: 0144 u.S. Postal address: UTMB Marketing & Communications 301 University Boulevard Galveston, TX 77555-0144

FROM THE PRESiDEnT

Welcome to the new Impact. The newsletter—for and about the people who fulfill UTMB’s mission every day—has been online-only since 2009. In response to employee input and as part of a larger effort to improve internal communication, Marketing and Communications will now publish the newsletter monthly, in print and online.

A sample of what you’ll find in this issue about our people and our mission:

• A day in the life of Bryan Hicks, TDCJ Hospital Galveston nurse manager

• A profile of Deb McGrew, chief operating officer for the growing UTMB Health System

• Lactation Consultant Tina Carter and UTMB’s journey toward Baby-Friendly USA designation

• UTMB faculty giving second-year medical students a glimpse of the research world

• Practical tips from Dermatologist Erica Kelly for summer sun safety

• Six faculty who will be honored with a prestigious UT System teaching award

• Accomplishments and kudos in the Working Wonders column

We have a lot to be proud of at UTMB, and the pages of Impact will reflect that. I hope you enjoy this and future issues. To offer story ideas or other feedback, contact the staff at the email and phone listed below. And thank you for everything you do in service to our communities.

Dr. David L. Callender UTMB President

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PATIENT CARE

With more than 5,000 babies entering the world each year at UTMB’s Galveston

Campus, providing the best possible care to mothers, babies and their families is of the upmost importance.

UTMB was recently selected as one of 100 hospitals across the country to join the EMPower Initiative to enhance maternity care practices and work toward achieving the Baby-Friendly USA designation. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, EMPower is aimed at increasing breast-feeding rates throughout the U.S. and promoting and supporting optimal breast-feeding practices toward the ultimate goal of improving the public’s health. As part of this effort, UTMB will receive training and resource support in lactation education.

Over the past few years, UTMB has made great strides in emphasizing practices that promote breast-feeding among patients. That includes placing infants in “skin-to-skin” contact with their mothers immediately after childbirth, encouraging “rooming-in” or keeping babies in the room with their mothers and out of the nursery, and providing breast-feeding support to all new moms.

In 2014, UTMB was named a Texas Ten Step facility, a key step in acquiring Baby-Friendly status.

Tina Carter is one of five lactation consultants at UTMB. She has seen the percentage of mothers who exclusively breast-feed from the time their baby is born at UTMB to when they leave the hospital go from 5 percent to 25 percent over the past three years.

“The results have been huge,” said Carter. “However, the national

benchmark is 50 percent, so we are going to keep working. And we need to

support mothers after they leave the hospital, too. While about 80 percent of babies born here are breast-fed for some period of time, we see breastfeeding rates fall even more after three, six, nine months. Breast-feeding is a huge health initiative—study after study has shown that breast milk beats formula not only for baby’s health but for mom’s, as well.”

Carter says she sometimes sees nine moms in one day, providing encouragement and helping them overcome any difficulties they may be having with breast-feeding.

EMPowering MothersUTMB a step closer to achieving gold

standard of maternal, infant care

B y K I R S T I A N N C L I F F O R D

Lactation consultants Julia Tomlinson (left) and Tina Carter.

impact J U LY 2 0 1 5 5

Yuri Villarreal, a third-time mom from Hitchcock, was grateful for all the support she received

at UTMB after her son was born “tongue-tied.” This means that the frenulum, or the band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth, is too short and tight, which affected her baby’s ability to breast-feed. At 3 weeks old, the baby underwent a small procedure to release the frenulum.

Carter will meet with moms anywhere in the hospital—from the labor and delivery unit to the emergency room. On this day, she went to the recovery room where Villarreal’s infant was immediately placed on her chest after the procedure. After a few moments of uncertainty and a few tips from Carter, Villarreal noticed immediate improvement in both her comfort level and the baby’s ability to nurse.

“I am so happy — he hasn’t had a drop of formula,” said Villarreal. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to continue breast-feeding because he had a hard time latching on, but the support has been amazing and now I feel like he’ll be able to breast-feed for a long time.”

Her first two children were born at other hospitals, and she said she didn’t get the support she needed to succeed at breast-feeding.

“I was 16 when I had my first child, so I was clueless,” said Villarreal. “When the nurse asked me if I was going to breast-feed or bottle-feed, I said I wanted to breast-feed. She said, ‘OK, well good luck with that.’ I’m not kidding. So this experience at UTMB has been so much better.”

Carter said she’s happy that she could help Villarreal have a better experience this time around, but stresses that becoming Baby-Friendly is truly a team effort, with UTMB leadership, Regional Maternal Child Health Program clinic partners, and hospital physicians and nurses all playing important roles. The Sasser Family Foundation has also provided funds to support ongoing breast-feeding efforts.

And while breast-feeding is a large component of becoming Baby-Friendly, Tracey Santiago, Mother-Baby nurse manager, says it’s more about supporting family-centered care by providing information and letting families make their own decisions.

“We don’t tell mothers that they have to breast-feed, but we want

to give them the tools to make the best decisions,” said Santiago. “It’s what’s best for each individual patient and their situation.”

Santiago said more changes are in the works to help UTMB become the third Baby-Friendly hospital in the Houston/Galveston area, including providing more “couplet

care” by having one nurse take care of both the mom and baby, rather than having a post-partum nurse taking care of the mom and a nursery nurse taking care of the baby.

UTMB plans to be ready for Baby-Friendly designation by September 2017.

Villarreal has exclusively breast-fed her 3-week old baby

Villarreal thanks Carter for her support

Becoming Baby-Friendly is truly a

team effort, with UTMB leadership,

Regional Maternal Child Health

Program clinic partners, and

hospital physicians and nurses

all playing important roles. The

Sasser Family Foundation has also

provided funds to support ongoing

breast-feeding efforts.

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B y K I R S T I A N N C L I F F O R D

“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.

impact J U LY 2 0 1 5 7

HG is the only maximum security prison hospital operating on an academic campus anywhere in the world and is attached to the John Sealy Hospital by a long hallway on the fourth floor. I know I’ve arrived at HG when I come to a security area with multiple layers of bars blocking the entrance.

Hicks gives me a stern handshake and warm welcome. He’s excited to show me around – it’s not that often they have visitors from the “free world,” as they say.

Each floor of the hospital has different wings separated by heavy-duty gates – a security picket in the middle controls the movement between the wings. Hicks yells out to the security officer to open the gate and we walk right into the middle of a busy ophthalmology clinic, with offenders dressed in white and wearing handcuffs being escorted to and from exam rooms. They wait for their appointment in a holding tank with a television. As a nurse manager, he oversees outpatient ambulatory care, which includes 42 rotating specialty clinics.

“Today, we are holding an eye clinic, gastroenterology clinic and an ENT clinic in this area,” said Hicks. “Yesterday this was oncology. Tuesday it was neurology and Monday it was general surgery. There’s lots of activity and it looks like chaos, but it’s not. I know exactly what’s going on and so does everybody else.”

For many offenders, the care they receive at HG is the most comprehensive care they’ve ever received – many have never had health insurance or gone to see a doctor before.

Hicks is called to the GI clinic, where he advises one of the physicians to admit a patient directly from the clinic into one of the open beds in the hospital. Then, he helps a nurse who is having trouble getting patients called down from the holding tank to their appointment.

His phone beeps and rings almost constantly, and he floats between the different clinics to answer questions,

keep patients moving smoothly, and troubleshoot any issues. He says he spends his days “putting out fires,” and that was almost a literal part of his job description this day—a loud voice suddenly booms over the intercom, announcing smoke and an electrical smell coming from the third floor. I follow him as he jumps on the elevator to check it out – luckily, it’s a false alarm. Construction workers were welding together a broken gate.

“Well, that problem’s solved,” said Hicks smiling. “There’s never a dull moment around here!”

It’s clear that Hicks loves his job. He’s been at HG since 1988 and seems to know every single person, whether they are a security guard, nurse or physician. And although he’s busy, he takes time out to ask an employee about a new grandchild and say hi to a physician he hasn’t seen in a while – it’s the little things like that that probably led to him receiving “Employee of the Month” at the hospital in June. He takes pride in his job and the work done at HG, saying the standard of care is just the same as it is in the John Sealy towers or

anywhere else on campus.

“We are delivering cutting-edge, evidence-based, research-supported care to this population,” said Hicks. “These offenders have been found guilty by a jury and they are paying their debt to society. I don’t care why they are in prison. I care about why they are here in my clinic today.”

The clinics close every day at 4:30 p.m., with the last patients escorted back to the buses for the trip “home” to their unit. Hicks walks me back to the front security area, where he talks about how great his nursing staff is – and how they are always looking for more people to join their tight-knit family.

“It really is a very pleasant place,” says Hicks. “If you came tomorrow, you wouldn’t notice the bars so much. It’s amazing how quickly they just go away.”

Bryan Hicks oversees outpatient ambulatory care, which includes 42 rotating specialty clinics

For many oFFenders, tHe care tHey receive at HG is tHe most compreHensive care tHey’ve ever received – many Have never Had HealtH insurance or Gone to see a doctor beFore.

For many oFFenders, tHe care tHey receive at HG is tHe most compreHensive care tHey’ve ever received – many Have never Had HealtH insurance or Gone to see a doctor beFore.

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ReseaRcH

MANy Of uTMB’s MEDiCAl sTuDENTs HAVEN’T BEEN sPENDiNg THE HOT DAys Of suMMER AT THE BEACH. Rather, they spent much of their time inside laboratories conducting research.

The Medical Student Summer Research Program matches students who have successfully completed their first year of medical school with UTMB faculty research mentors for an elective research project. This year, 56 students participated in the two-month program. Lisa Cain, Ph.D., serves as MSSRP director, and Monique Ferguson, Ph.D., and George Kramer, Ph.D., are co-directors. The program coordinator is Driana Urbina.

Ferguson, an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, said this was the first time many of the students had conducted any type of research.

“This program is an excellent opportunity for students to get exposure to working in a laboratory setting so they can decide whether this is something they want as part of their career path,” said Ferguson. “Students start

looking at medicine from a different perspective — not just working with patients, but also working in a laboratory and experiencing the science behind the medicine. It’s a bench-to-bedside approach.”

The program ran May 4 through June 26, with students presenting their research projects at a competitive poster forum in Levin Hall during the final week.

Thomas Ksiazek, DVM, Ph.D., a professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology, and director of high-containment laboratory operations for the Galveston National Laboratory, served as guest speaker at the closing ceremony, sharing his experiences studying infectious diseases around the world and giving students words of wisdom. He said chance played a large role in his education and the positions to which he was assigned and that his career took several turns to end up where he is today.

“The military played a large role in my career — I spent 21 years with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army,” said Ksiazek. “I didn’t sit down and plot out my career path; rather, it depended more upon dipping my feet in and getting my toes wet in different areas and using those experiences to my advantage and the country’s advantage in the long-run.”

Medical student Athena Zhang decided to dip her toes into research during this year’s MSSRP. Under the guidance of faculty from the Department of Surgery, Zhang studied burn scar assessment and the use of laser speckle imaging to analyze changes in blood flow to burn scars over time. She helped recruit 44 patients with burns covering at least 30 percent of their body for the study.

“This is my first research project and it’s been a great experience,” said Zhang. “It really builds on your prior knowledge, and I’ve learned that I really like the clinical aspect of research because I like having some sort of patient interaction.”

Zhang plans to continue working on the project to get a better understanding of how burns heal and what therapies and long-term medications may be used to improve cosmetic and functional outcomes. She received two awards at a ceremony following the poster session, including “Best Patient Care Poster” and the “Faculty Women’s Caucus Award for Excellence in Research.” For a complete list of award winners, visit www.utmb.edu/impact.

Summer of ScienceProgram gives medical students

research experience in a laboratory settingB y K I R S T I A N N C L I F F O R D

Medical student Athena Zhang won two awards for her poster on burn scar assessment

Thomas Ksiazek speaks to MSSRP students

RESEARCH BRiEFS

Luca Cicalese, M.D., and Giulio Taglialatela, Ph.D., have revealed that a treatment taken daily by organ transplant recipients to prevent organ rejection also protects against Alzheimer’s disease. The data shows that the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s in the transplant patient group was significantly lower, in fact almost absent, when compared to national data from the general population. The findings were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Mariano Garcia-Blanco, M.D., Ph.D., is an integral member of a collaborative group that is the first to explain the how the Dengue virus has optimized its ability to cause outbreaks as it travels across the globe.

The investigators examined the different types of Dengue virus-2 circulating around Puerto Rico in 1994 when a severe epidemic broke out. Looking at the differences between the virus strain most commonly seen from 1986 to 1995 and the new, more potent viral strain that was first isolated in 1994 was the key to figuring out why this outbreak occurred. The findings were published in Science.

Michelle Meyer, Ph.D., and Alex Bukreyev, Ph.D., in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health, have developed an inhalable vaccine that protects primates against Ebola. The study’s findings provide the basis for advancing this experimental vaccine to an NIH phase I clinical study. Pending

impact J U LY 2 0 1 5 9

EDUCATION

Kimberly Brown, M.D.Associate Professor of Surgery, Director of Surgical Simulation Surgery Clerkship Director, Associate Program Director for the General Surgery Residency, Medical Director for the Physician Assistant Studies Program and holder of the James Edwin Thompson Family Distinguished Professorship for Surgical Simulation

Lisa Cain, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Director of Medical School Enrichment Programs and Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs

Mark Holden, M.D., FACPProfessor of Internal Medicine, Vice Chair for Undergraduate and Continuing Medical Education, Director of General Internal Medicine and holder of the Edna S. and William C. Levin Professorship in Internal Medicine

Regents honor six UTMB faculty members for outstanding teaching

The University of Texas System Board of Regents has awarded six UTMB

faculty members with the top teaching prize in the UT System: the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.

“These amazing educators are responsible for helping to prepare the next generation of great leaders,” Regents Chairman Paul Foster said. “The efforts of these faculty members significantly enhance the educational experiences of our students.”

Susan McCammon, M.D.Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Otolaryngology, Residency Program Director, Scholar in the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine and holder of the Jehu Matthew Robison Distinguished Professorship in Otolaryngology

Victor Reyes, Ph.D.Professor of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology

Carolyn Utsey, PT, Ph.D.Associate Professor and Chair of Physical Therapy and holder of the Jeanette Winfree Professorship in Physical Therapy

approval through an Investigational New Drug Application, the aerosolized form of the vaccine will be evaluated for a study in adults. The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Sanjiv Sur, M.D., has uncovered a mechanism involving neutrophils that is central to the formation and continuation of allergic responses to inhaled ragweed pollen in people suffering from asthma or seasonal nasal allergies. The research suggests a unique strategy for preventing pollen-induced allergic disorders. The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.

Lucas Blanton, M.D., has found that after decades with little activity in Galveston County, murine typhus may be making a comeback. While there were more than 5,300 cases in the U.S. in 1944, the disease was nearly eradicated by the mid-1950s thanks to the use of DDT to kill fleas on rats (the original reservoir of the bacteria). Blanton worked with Galveston County animal control officers to collect blood and flea samples from trapped opossums and found that nearly 2 out of 3 opossums tested positive for the disease.

Research Briefs were compiled from UTMB Health news releases written by Donna Ramirez and Christopher Smith Gonzalez. Find out more at www.utmb.edu/newsroom.

Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations of a candidate’s teaching performance, including classroom expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and

student learning outcomes.

The regents’ award is among the nation’s most competitive teaching awards, and each recipient will receive a $25,000 award.

Congratulations to our 2015 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award recipients:

J U LY 2 0 1 5 impact10

LEADER SPOTLIGHT

What does the road ahead look like for you?UTMB has undergone tremendous growth, which has been good financially and is creating a clear footprint for UTMB within the market. When the League City Campus opens, we’ll become a three-hospital health system and this, along with the new clinic sites, will require a strategic approach to determine what services are offered at each location, ensure consistency of quality of care across all sites and preserve what makes each of these sites special while integrating and solidifying a common UTMB approach to care delivery.

Most importantly, all of this growth is really about our patients and families — providing them convenient access to exceptional health care and being their partners in managing their own health. We must continue to ask patients and families what’s best for them and provide services when, how and where they want them.

What do you enjoy most about your job?What gets me excited about my work is serving our patients, staff and faculty. So the best part of my job is when we do something that improves patient care or makes things better for our faculty or staff. Every week I spend two hours shadowing our staff, and this is always the best part of my week because I get to meet our faculty and staff and learn so much. The weekly shadowing helps me understand how to best support our faculty and staff.

you recently had an article published in Jama internal medicine, which is pretty unusual for an administrator. What’s the article about?yes, most administrators don’t spend a great deal of time on publications like our faculty colleagues do. After going through rounds of rejection and rewrites I have sincere admiration for our faculty who are balancing publications, grant applications and patient care. The article demonstrates that an Acute Care for the Elderly Unit (ACE) is more efficient than usual care. What is

Deb McGrew has been at UTMB since 2013 and serves as vice president and chief operating officer of the UTMB Health System. She is responsible for leading, planning and integrating numerous aspects of the Health System, including its hospitals, clinics and ancillary services, as well as Correctional Managed Care.

McGrew shared what life is like as COO of a growing academic health center.

really interesting about the article is that it shows using the same staffing complement organized as an intra-professional team operating in a patient- and family-centered model actually saves money while demonstrating better patient outcomes.

What career advice would you give future leaders in health care administration?When I work with graduate and undergraduate students I always encourage them to get a part-time job as a patient care tech or a patient services specialist in a clinic to help ground their classroom learning in reality. It helps them appreciate that trying to implement simple things to help patients are sometimes complicated by bad process, poor equipment choices, poor communication, poor change management, etc. I also advise them to find mentors inside and outside the field to serve as advisors throughout their career.

describe what you were like at age 10.I was a tomboy with a really bad Dorothy Hamill haircut. I loved science, reading and playing soccer and softball. I consulted my mom on this question and she said I “was a challenge at age 10!”

What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?

I’d love to have formal culinary training. I love to cook and to have time to actually learn the technical skills and foundations would be a lot of fun.

if you were stuck on an island what three things would you bring? I’m a very practical person. Assuming I can’t choose a boat so I could leave when I was ready or Les Stroud from the show “Survivorman,” I would say a survival knife, a well-stocked first-aid kit and a survival guide because, while I have watched quite a bit of “Survivorman,” having a guide to collect water, find edible plants and build shelter would come in handy.

The best part of my job is when we do something that improves patient care or makes things better for our faculty or staff.

The best part of my job is when we do something that improves patient care or makes things better for our faculty or staff.

impact J U LY 2 0 1 5 11

EAC UPDATE

• Concealed gun carry legislation—In general, the legislation would allow concealed guns to be carried on campus, although university presidents will have some discretion on areas where guns will be prohibited. At UTMB, President David Callender stated: “The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, working with the UT System administration, has begun a careful review of the legislation. When the legislation is signed by the governor, UTMB will work with the leadership of the UT System and other UT institutions, and will seek input from our faculty, students, staff and patients, before proposing policies and procedures that comply with the intent of the law. The law is not scheduled to become effective before August 2016.”

• Positive higher education funding:

— $3.1 billion increase in construction projects (for all public university systems within the state); $40 million of that is earmarked for research-related projects.

— $138 million seed money in matching grants for research—this will bring more research into our Texas higher education community.

news from the ut system Quarterly eac meeting

B y M A R y A N N H E L L I N G H A U S E N

Members of The UT System Employee Advisory Council from 15 institutions, including UTMB, recently met at UT Dallas to discuss issues of importance to employees across the UT System.

UT System Associate Vice Chancellor Dan Stewart provided an overview of issues tackled during the 84th Texas Legislative session that could impact UT System employees, including:

UTMB representatives Julie Cantini and Mary Ann Hellinghausen also worked at the UTS EAC committee level on ways to enhance communication efforts between local EAC groups and the UT System (Cantini is co-chair), and on opportunities to promote career development tools for employees across the UT System (Hellinghausen is a committee member).

• No changes were made to the Hazlewood Act, a state benefit that provides qualified veterans, spouses and dependent children with education benefits at public institutions of higher education in Texas.

• No substantial changes were made to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) retirement plan, which serves many of our employees/retirees.

• Any increase in insurance premium costs to UT System employees is expected to stay under 10 percent—probably closer to 7.5 percent. UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven will make that decision.

• Under the federal Affordable Care Act, employees working more than 30 hours a week are eligible for full-time benefits. UT System officials are in the process of identifying employees at UT System institutions who fall into that category. State lawmakers did not appropriate any additional money to cover those benefits, so those dollars will come out of existing budgets.

Two other committees also addressed bullying in the workplace issues, and expanding a culture of wellness/exercise throughout the UT System. Final recommendations from each committee will be made to the Board of Regents at their November 2015 meeting.

news from the ut system Quarterly eac meeting

For more information on the UT System Employee Advisory Council, visit http://www.utsystem.edu/sites/employee-advisory-council/members.

Members of Employee Advisory Councils from all 15 UT System universities gathered on the campus of UT Dallas June 11-12. For more info on UTMB’s Employee Advisory Council, visit https://blogs.utmb.edu/eac/.

J U LY 2 0 1 5 impact

TOP 10sUMMer sUN sAfeTY TiPs

1. Reapply your sunscreen. Sunscreen lasts only about two hours—80 minutes if you are geting wet and using a water-resistant sunscreen. If you towel off at any point, reapply.

2. Use broad-spectrum sunscreen. Two types of UV light harm your skin: UVA rays (wrinkling, age spots and skin cancer) and UVB rays (burns and skin cancer). Protect your skin from both.

3. Avoid mid-day sun. If your shadow is shorter than you are, you should not be outside. The sun’s rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and a light-skinned person can become sunburned in less than 15 minutes.

4. Wear sun-protective clothing. A long-sleeve rash guard can block 98 percent of UV radiation. Add a hat, and you’re well protected.

5. Apply sPf 50. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends SPF 30, but I recommend SPF 50 because the average person doesn’t apply enough, resulting in less effective protection.

TOP 10sUMMer sUN sAfeTY TiPs

Dr. Erica Kelly Associate Professor of Dermatology, UTMB Health

PARTinG SHOT

6. Remember: rays reflect. Remember that the sun reflects up off of water, sand and snow. So, apply sunscreen to your face even if you wear a hat.

7. Don’t forget lips. Use SPF lip balm. We see lots of cancers on lips, ears and noses.

8. Avoid purposefully tanning. There’s no such thing as a healthy tan. If you must, use a self-tanner – there are many types available.

9. Get an annual skin check. The trained eye of a dermatologist can spot abnormal moles and catch possible skin cancers before it’s too late.

10. Take a supplement. As backup to sunscreen, try sun protection in a pill. Look for oral capsules that contain extract of polypodium leucotomos, a tropical fern from South America that’s been shown to provide an SPF of 4 to 8.

“Now I understand why everyone says UTMB is such a special place.” Those are the words of UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven on his first visit to UTMB’s Galveston Campus on July 2. He and other UT System officials, including Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Raymond Greenberg, learned more about UTMB’s education, research and patient care mission, and how the university is growing to serve current and future health needs of Texas and beyond. The visit included a luncheon with UTMB students and a tour of John Sealy Hospital, Old Red and the Galveston National Laboratory. Chancellor McRaven (back row, center) and his wife, Georgeann McRaven (front row, far right), are joined here by several members of the university community during the campus visit.