President’s Cabinet Awards 

Dr. Karen Szauter
UTMB Professionalism Committee
Educational Affairs

Difficult conversations are always challenging and most people hesitate even if it is likely to help the person involved. While education can provide the foundational knowledge to conduct such conversations, there is a great need to anticipate and rehearse for these onerous situations. Through a series of simulations, based on real situations, UTMB faculty and staff will learn to master the skills needed to engage in difficult conversations with their peers, executive management and students while being coached and receiving feedback in a confidential setting.

Deana M. Gehring
Cancer Center

Patient navigation has become critical to the success of UTMB’s breast cancer programs. These navigators assist patients with overcoming socioeconomic obstacles, maneuvering the health care system, coordinating diagnostic follow-up, investigating financial resources and providing continuity of services. In order to provide navigation services for uninsured and medically underserved women, the UTMB Cancer Center will extend this program to satellite clinics and allow for the creation and administration of a comprehensive patient database to manage demographic, clinical, coding and billing information.

Erin Kearney
Ann Ross
Elizabeth Ginn
Martha Norris
Pediatrics

Childhood and adolescent obesity are among the most important public health problems in the United States. Obesity during adolescence increases the risk of disease and premature death during adulthood. In order to combat obesity rates among Galveston County children and adolescents, this program will partner with the Teen Health Center, Inc. to identify children aged 10 or older who are overweight or obese and provide family counseling, weight loss education and nutritional skills in addition to screens for dyslipidemia. Patients will be tracked over a two-year period.

Dr. Christine Arcari
Lynda Chowdhury
Preventive Medicine and Community Health

Each year, UTMB students volunteer to organize and work at health fairs across Galveston County in order to promote health and prevent disease to a large number of people at a low cost. Educational exhibits, displays, and other resources are lacking and are needed in order for students to effectively communicate the necessary messages for a successful fair. By expanding the current collection of Health-Fair-Kits-to-Go, this project will allow students to effectively assemble kits and utilize strategies to target a chosen client population and focus on specific promotional messages such as oral health, healthy eating, maintaining good posture, etc. Additionally a website will be created to facilitate discussion of health fair experiences and obtain constructive feedback and evaluation from kit users and fair attendees.

Dr. Cara Pennel
Dr. Juliet McKee
Naiomi Jamal
Preventive Medicine and Community Health

Data from the 2014 Galveston Youth Risk Student Survey indicated that 44.7% of the student respondents in grades 9-12 reported being sexually active. While research shows that parents have the most influence on teens regarding their decisions about sex, parents report being uncomfortable talking to their school-aged children about sex. To increase parent-adolescent communication regarding sexual health, this project will develop and implement a parent-based teen pregnancy prevention program. Classes will be held for parents of children, ages 11-16, with UTMB residents and students overseeing and facilitating each session. Topics will cover teen pregnancy, communication, parental values and teen support. Educational materials will be provided and skills will be taught through group discussions, presentations, videos, role playing and take-home exercises.

Dr. Giulio Taglialatela
Ashley Nilson
Michele Comerota
Andrea Dimet
Neuroscience

For the past three years, UTMB neuroscience students in the Galveston Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) have hosted a Brain Fair to inspire and foster the scientific creativity of Galveston’s youth. At this year’s fair, more than 230 high school and middle school students observed anatomy demonstrations of the brain, rode in a drunk-driving simulator and participated in phantom-limb demonstrations. To continue building upon it’s success, the group will develop more sustainable activities, create reusable materials, build more games, add new events and demonstrations, and conduct a special fair for the children and families at Shriner’s Hospital in Galveston. Community outreach programs with College of the Mainland, Galveston’s Own Farmer’s Market and the High Island School District will also be expanded.

Jaquelyn Svoboda
School of Nursing

The Baby and Mother Bonding Initiative (BAMBI) at UTMB offers pregnant offenders the opportunity to live with their babies after delivery, rather than sending them away to family or foster care. Typically, mothers in this program have had inadequate breastfeeding education and resources and therefore have low rates of breastfeeding. This School of Nursing initiative seeks to improve maternal bonding through student-led educational sessions that will improve the offender mother’s knowledge of prenatal health and infant care. Nursing students will be paired with mothers to provide support during labor, delivery and postpartum and assist with the facilitation of bonding and breastfeeding.

Dr. Karen Aranha
Jacob Moran
Elizabeth Wright
Alison Kelly
Schools of Health Professions and Medicine

The Student Healer Association, an interprofessional student organization at UTMB, plans to teach mindfulness meditation techniques for the management of stress, chronic pain and various life changes to patients at St. Vincent’s occupational therapy and psychiatry clinics. Students will be trained on how to help patients become more present, aware and non- judgmental using this affordable and accessible practice of focused attention. Suggested meditation exercises will be provided to users via free phone/web applications or digital CD recordings.

Dell Roach
Dr. Jillian McLaughlin
Nursing APS and Surgery

Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs), commonly known as bed sores, affect more than two million people each year and cause significant physical and emotional pain for patients and economic burdens for healthcare facilities. This special surgical intensive care unit quality- improvement intervention program will provide hospital staff, patients and their families with visual cues such as checklists, signage, patient risk bracelets and color pictures in an effort to promote awareness of HAPUs and decrease the number of incidents.

Maurine Nichols
Rebecca Trout
Moody Medical Library and Health Policy and Legislative Affairs

Due to the success of the MakerNurse Medical MakerHealth Space Lab, supported by a 2015 President’s Cabinet grant, this project seeks to create a similar lab at Galveston’s Ball High School to provide higher level learning experiences to the next generation of healthcare, research and biomedical science workers. This fabrication laboratory (Fab Lab) will combine tools and materials for woodworking, metalworking, electronics, robotics, textiles, computers and soft circuits and will become part of the school’s career and technology education program. This dedicated space will also be accessible to middle school students.

Dr. Kanika Bowen-Jallow
Surgery

Contributing factors of the growing adolescent obesity epidemic include biological, behavioral, cultural and sociopolitical aspects. While there are currently no pediatric clinics dedicated to the workup, management and implementation of a weight loss program for children (ages 12-17), this project proposes the establishment of a single location multidisciplinary clinic at UTMB where adolescents and their parents can meet with a nutritionist, pediatric gastroenterologist, pediatric surgeon, and a personal fitness instructor. Participants will also receive consultations to psychiatry and pediatric endocrinology when necessary.

Dr. Theresa Smith
Karen Ratcliff
School of Health Professions - Occupational Therapy

Cancer is a prevalent disease in our society and has a profound impact on a person’s ability to participate in everyday activities and commonly results in mild cognitive impairment. Since cognitive deficits are not currently being addressed in local cancer support groups, this program aims to close this gap by offering a series of group sessions to provide attention and memory strategies, compensation techniques, planning and organization, problem solving skills, and cognitive training. Master’s level students in the UTMB occupational therapy program will run the classes and gain valuable experience in developing, implementing and measuring cognitive rehabilitation outcomes.

Manuel Higginbotham, Administrative Manager
Martha Livanec, Director of Patient Services
Patient Services

When Limited English Proficient patients do not have access to the services of a qualified trained interpreter they are most likely to not understand their diagnoses, treatment options and plans, self-care instructions and required follow-up care. To better provide and integrate language access services at all UTMB locations, a Language Access Plan will be created to align needs and services among all stakeholders in healthcare by providing new and accurate data to leadership, improve the response time of interpreters to where they are needed, reduce recidivism by allowing patients to fully understand their plan of care, and improve UTMB’s compliance with regulatory entities. Technology components of the plan will include dispatching software, translation software, video remote interpreting devices and assistive devices as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

David Marshall, JD, DNP, RN, CENP, NEA-BC
Hospital Administration

The UTMB MakerNurse Program and MakerHealth Space have provided faculty, staff and students the creative ability to make their ideas for new health devices a reality. Additionally, a similar lab was created at Ball High School in Galveston to introduce these tools to high school students. To celebrate and showcase the outstanding innovations spawned from these labs, a Galveston Maker Week event will be created and will include Mini-Maker Fairs at UTMB and the Galveston Children’s Museum. The week long event will also feature community events and workshops and will conclude with a forum to discuss extending the culture of “making” into our community.

Stefani Garcia, School of Medicine Student
Norma Perez, MD, DrPh
Jonathan Teran, School of Medicine Student
School of Medicine

Cigarette smoking and alcohol abuse are high among teenagers and young adults in Galveston County according to surveys and court data. In order to gain an understanding of what high school students already know about the negative health outcomes that result as a consequence of engaging in these behaviors, a survey will be created and administered at Ball High, La Marque and Texas City high schools. Data collected from the survey will be presented to school administrators, parents and the community. To conclude the project health fairs will be held at each school to focus on the negative effects of smoking and drinking and how teens can prevent the addictive behaviors.

Robert Beach, MD
Paul Bui, School of Medicine Student
Sarah Butler, School of Health Professions Student
Transon Vu Nguyen, School of Medicine Student
Kendrick White, School of Medicine Student
Internal Medicine

Hepatitis C is a viral infection acquired from various sources including contaminated blood or blood products. The St. Vincent’s Student Run Clinic will address chronic hepatitis C in vulnerable populations by establishing a support group and hepatitis clinic in Galveston. Student volunteers will utilize patient assistance programs offered by pharmaceutical companies to provide free medications to persons without health insurance. Protocols will also be established for treating patients while barriers to successful treatment will be identified and addressed (i.e. lack of transportation, alcohol consumption, etc.). Project funds will be used for laboratory testing, addressing barriers and providing social support and behavioral counseling to promote sustained cure and quality of life.

Kanika Bowen-Jallow, MD, MMS
Surgery

Childhood obesity has become a nationwide health crisis and clinicians have found that minority children are particularly susceptible to the epidemic. To combat this issue, an after school program with a parental involvement component will be established to target children (ages 2 – 11) with a body mass index greater than the 95th percentile. The Tough and Tiny Program will be held after school twice per month for qualifying children and their parents. During each one-hour session, parents will meet with physicians and UTMB students, eat a healthy dinner and learn about nutrition, diet and exercise while their children participate in fitness activities and group play facilitated by a certified instructor. Participants demonstrating weight loss will be rewarded with gift cards to a local sports store.

Adam Booth, MD
Barbara Bryant, MD
Judy Trieu, MD, MPH
Chris Zahner, MD
Pathology

The ongoing shortage of blood supply in the United States continues to remain a critical issue particularly when an increase in the number of blood components are being wasted through inappropriate transfusions. With a goal to reduce the number of inappropriate blood product orders by clinicians, the PocketPath mobile application was created by three UTMB residents in an effort to provide guidelines and suggestions regarding the utilization of blood products and services at the bedside. Year one of the project will focus on launching, promoting and assessing the platform, while year two will focus on expanding the application to create two-way communication between clinicians and pathology residents in order to facilitate questions not available via the application.

Keegan Collins, School of Health Professions Student
Kelly Drago, School of Health Professions Student
Barbara A. Slusher, MSW, PA-C
Physician Assistant Studies

Developed by physician assistant students and faculty in 2015, this interprofessional community outreach program provides underserved community members access to preventive health screening and counseling on healthy lifestyle choices while also affording UTMB students the opportunity to interact and counsel patients. Health screenings – done at monthly food distribution sites throughout Galveston – include blood pressure, body mass index, point-of-care cholesterol and blood glucose screenings. Due to the popularity of the program and lack of funding, supplies have been greatly depleted and new equipment is needed. President’s Cabinet funds will allow for the purchase of basic health screening materials (cholesterol test strips, glucometer, lancets, wipes, bandages, gauze pads, gloves, etc.) to ensure continuity of the program.

Matthew S. Johnson, Administrative Fellow
C. Joan Richardson, MD
Health Systems Administration

Beds for Babies is a two-fold program designed to ensure that new mothers receive fundamental education and that newborns have a safe and comfortable place to sleep in their home. Baby boxes, outfitted with firm mattresses and fitted sheets are designed to provide maximum security while guarding against the risks of newborns sleeping with adults. To promote the distribution of “community baby boxes” and video-based educational materials to new mothers at UTMB, this program will fill the boxes with supplemental information on proper sleeping practices and newborn starter supplies for parents. Participants will be tracked and surveyed throughout the program.