The Western University of Health Sciences Military Medical Student Association held its annual memorial service honoring those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Guest speakers talked about the importance of remembering the sacrifices made and emphasized the importance of the younger generations, who may not have personal memories of that day, continuing to share stories and honor the fallen.

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The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California, has teamed up with WesternU's College of Dental Medicine to advance equity in oral pathology laboratory testing to Tribal and Urban Health Programs across California. The program, titled Oral Biopsies Save Lives, will offer no-cost oral pathology services and continuing education courses to 34 rural and urban dental clinics operated by 107 Tribes.

WesternU Health Oral Pathology Laboratory will help California Tribal and Urban Indian Programs reduce health inequities by providing no-cost oral pathology testing services for low income, uninsured, and underinsured patients including seniors. Oral lesions and oral manifestations of systemic disease are potentially fatal diseases if undiagnosed or untreated.

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WesternU College of Optometry students from Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (sVOSH) volunteered at an event organized by VSP Vision and the Power of Sight Foundation.

More than 100 children from the LAPD Mission PALS program and local community members received free same-day eye examinations, frames and prescription lenses at the Mid Valley Senior Citizen Center in Panorama City Aug. 26.

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Western University of Health Sciences College of Health Sciences is expanding its translational research agenda. CHS Assistant Professor Emilie Orillard, PhD, and CHS Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and Assistant Professor Zachary Travis, PhD, MPH, both incoming faculty in the MSMS program, have been awarded $35,000 each in intramural and seeds grants to pursue their research in Microbiology and Neuroscience, respectively.

WesternU College of Dental Medicine clinical entities and students recently visited the Envista Headquarters in Brea, California for an inspiring day. This followed the approval of a multi-year implant grant in excess of $600,000 from Nobel Biocare, a division of Envista.

The grant will cover the cost of implants for WesternU Dental Center patients who could not otherwise afford these services.

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Senior author Dr. Cynthia Jackevicius and her WesternU and VA colleagues published the following in Annals of Internal Medicine, a journal with an impact factor of 39.2: Ton IT, Moon J, Sengul A, Mody FV, Rahman T, Han J, Jackevicius CA. Evidence-based cardiovascular disease medicines' availability in low-cost generic drug programs in the United States. Ann Intern Med 2023; doi:10.7326/M23-0287. 

Drs. Ivy Ton and Towhid Rahman are WesternU alumni and this study began as their Advanced Elective project. Dr. Jungyeon Moon is Dr. Jackevicius’ current cardiovascular outcomes research fellow. Dr. Anthony Sengul is one of our own PPAD faculty. Drs. Mody and Han are cardiologists at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

In this study, they examined generic cardiovascular medication availability in 19 low-cost generic drug programs in the United States for 6 common cardiovascular conditions (atrial fibrillation, heart failure, hypertension, dyslipidemia, stable angina, and post-acute coronary syndromes) and found variability in drug availability by disease state and program. Heart failure and atrial fibrillation drugs were less available in these programs while antihypertensives and moderate-intensity statins were more available.

CDM Associate Professor and an oral medicine specialist, Dr. Sahar Mirfarsi, in collaboration with her colleagues Dr. Airani Sathananthan from COMP and Dr. Dalia Seleem from CDM, published five articles as part of a book chapter dedicated to "Clinical Decisions in Medically Complex Dental Patients, Part II." The publications are in press and now available to purchase online through ScienceDirect, Elsevier, Dental Clinics of North America.

Dr. Mirfarsi’s vision was to highlight the interprofessional collaboration between WesternU, CDM and COMP. She emphasizes the critical role of oral health care providers in disease detection, management, and interprofessional collaborations in clinical practices with medical health care providers.

1.     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2023.05.007

2.     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2023.05.009

3.     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2023.05.005

4.     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2023.05.006

5.     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cden.2023.05.008

Public Affairs and Marketing is holding an open studio portrait day:

9 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28

Please click on the link above and sign up for a timeslot that works for your schedule if you would like a new studio portrait. We will schedule additional portrait days for those who cannot come to the studio on this day.