In Lebanon, WesternU Oregon celebrated a Fall Fest complete with vintage trucks, vintage tractors, pumpkins, ice cream, freshly baked pie, and apple cider on Oct. 3. The highly competitive pumpkin carving contest brought out some master-carvers. Students from CHS-Northwest and COMP-Northwest won cool prizes for their creativity and skills. More than 200 people attended, including WesternU faculty, staff, students, and community members.

The WesternU Office of Humanism, Equity and Anti-Racism (HEAR) in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IRE), launched the WesternU Campus Culture & Climate Survey on Sept. 15, 2022. This survey is part of WesternU’s ongoing commitment to Humanism, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism. Data from this survey will be utilized to develop and implement the 2023-2028 Strategic Diversity Plan at WesternU. Please make your voice heard! 

All students, faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees are invited and strongly encouraged to complete this survey, which will be available until Oct. 15, 2022. Survey administration, analysis of data, and initial reporting is independently completed by external consultants. The external consultants are the only ones with access to the data collected and they guarantee the full protection of the identity, confidentiality, and anonymity for all respondents. 

We want to reassure you that the valid, official, external source email for accessing and completing the survey anonymously and confidentially is labeled as "Office of Humanism, Equity, and Anti-Racism noreply@qemailserver.com." Please do not delete and/or report this email as a “junk” or “phishing” solicitation. If you did not receive your unique survey link, please feel free to contact the CGU Campus Culture & Climate Survey Team at eeda@cgu.edu. 

College of Health Sciences-Nortwhest Assistant Professor Anu M. Räisänen, PT, PhD, was part of an international collaboration that published one of the seven systematic reviews that inform the OPTIKNEE consensus statement (to be published later this year). The OPTIKNEE Consensus is an international consensus exercise aimed at developing evidence-based consensus recommendations for rehabilitation to optimize musculoskeletal health and prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis following knee trauma.

Filbay SR, Skou ST, Bullock GS, Le CY, Räisänen AM, Toomey C, Ezzat AM, Hayden A, Culvenor AG, Whittaker JL, Roos EM, Crossley KM, Juhl CB, Emery CA. Long-term quality of life, work limitation, physical activity, economic cost and disease burden following ACL and meniscal injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis for the OPTIKNEE consensus. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 28 September 2022 (online first). doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2022-105626

College of Podiatric Medicine Professor Jonathan Labovitz, DPM, FACFAS, CHCQM, (pictured, left) and Associate Provost for Online Education Jonathan Daitch collaborated on an article "Educational Technology is Changing Education of Health Professionals” for Educational Technology Insights.

CDM Professor Dr. Q. Quinn Li and his collaborator recently wrote a review on the topic of epigenetic and RNA processing regulation, "Coupling epigenetic and mRNA polyadenylation: missing links," that was recently published in the well-known journal Trends in Plant Science (2021 Impact factor 22.0). Increasing evidence shows that epigenetic marks on chromatins (both in DNA methylation and histone modifications) can have far reaching impacts beyond transcriptional regulation. After critical analysis of recent advancement in epigenetics on co-transcriptional event mRNA polyadenylation, this review identified a number of “missing links” as the future directions of the field. In particular, searching for those connectors (and their functions) to exert the impacts of the state of epigenetic dynamics on pre-mRNA processing would be critical for understanding the molecular mechanism of epigenetic regulations.

COMP Assistant Professor Jeremiah Scott, PhD, published a paper in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology:

Scott, J. E., 2022. Variation in macroevolutionary dynamics among extant primates. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24622 

As part of her PGY2 residency at Greater Los Angeles VA, Dr. Julie Darnell worked with a multidisciplinary team in the homeless primary care clinic which serves as a community-based medical home for Veterans experiencing homelessness. The team conducted a year-long QI project and developed a process to improve digital health access that increased the proportion of video telehealth visits. Their study was just published in the "Innovations in Primary Care" section of the journal Annals of Family Medicine. 

Prince A, Sabio Y, Effron L, … Darnell D, … et al. Facing the digital divide: increasing video visits among Veterans experiencing homelessness. Ann Fam Med 2022;20:486. https://www.annfammed.org/content/20/5/486 

In a great show of interdepartmental collaboration, Drs. Don Hsu, Anandi Law, David Sanchez and Micah Hata had a chapter about the important role of pharmacists in the COVID-19 pandemic published, after a very lengthy publication process. In this chapter, the authors review the ways in which pharmacists stepped up and expanded their roles in the rapidly changing pandemic environment to contribute to patient care in a variety of settings. 

Law AV, Sanchez DF, Hata M, Hsu DI. The Critical Role of the Pharmacist in the Global COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Contemporary Issues in Global Medicine and Moving Toward International Healthcare Equity. IGI Global, June 2022.