Robert P. Moser appointed dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine–Salina

The University of Kansas Medical Center named Robert P. Moser, M.D., dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Salina. Moser replaced William Cathcart-Rake, M.D., who retired from his role as dean in June. Moser will lead the Salina campus of the KU School of Medicine, which opened in 2011 to address the critical shortage of physicians in Kansas. A 1985 graduate of the KU School of Medicine, Moser has been executive director and chief medical officer of the Kansas Clinical Improvement Collaborative at The University of Kanas Health System since 2014. He will continue to support the collaborative, which focuses on quality improvement, patient safety and rural health transformation as a part of its goal to improve the health of Kansans, in a limited role once he transitions to his position as dean. Moser also has been an associate clinical professor in the KU School of Medicine, where he served as a case-based collaborative learning facilitator in the ACE curriculum. Moser completed his family practice residency at Smoky Hill in Salina, and he spent nearly 20 years as chief of the medical staff at Greeley County Health Services, where he frequently served as a preceptor for third- and fourth-year KU medical students. He also served four years as secretary and state health officer at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

KU hosts inaugural symposium on concussion management

Concussions took center stage at a symposium this spring presented by the University of Kansas Medical Center and The University of Kansas Health System. The inaugural Current Concepts in Concussion Management: Team-Based Interventions symposium helped expand the knowledge base of practitioners across the region who treat concussion. Featuring KU experts from neurology, neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and family medicine, as well as a local optometrist, the day-long event at the Health Education Building on the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City drew nearly 250 registered participants, including physicians, athletics trainers, nurses, EMS personnel, therapists and other practitioners. The goal of the symposium was to share evidence-based expertise on treating concussion and to highlight the importance of taking a multidisciplinary, team-based approach to caring for patients with concussion.

KU Medical Center joins Time’s Up Healthcare

The University of Kansas Medical Center has joined a movement to end sexual harassment and gender bias in health care. Time's Up Healthcare, an effort to address the issues of sexual harassment and gender inequality in health care, was launched this spring. It is the health care-focused arm of the Time's Up Now organization that was created in 2017 and first focused on the entertainment industry. Kimberly Templeton, M.D., professor of orthopedic surgery and orthopedic residency director at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, is an advisor to the national initiative. The University of Kansas Medical Center is one of the first organizations to support Time's Up Healthcare and has chosen to become a signatory organization. The medical center includes the schools of Health Professions, Medicine and Nursing, as well as a sizeable research enterprise.

KU Medical Center and University of Kansas Health System screen documentary on physician suicide

This mental health epidemic among physicians is the subject of "Do No Harm: Exposing the Hippocratic Hoax," a new documentary that was shown recently at the University of Kansas Medical Center. More than 200 students, residents, faculty, physicians, counselors and administrators, as well as representatives from the Kansas Medical Society, attended the screening. The event was hosted jointly by the KU Medical Center and the University of Kansas Health System. "Do No Harm" chronicles Hawkins Mecham, a first-year resident whose suicide attempt during medical school in Iowa was thwarted by a call from his wife just before he nearly bled to death, and John and Michele Dietl, grieving parents whose son killed himself just three months before graduating from medical school in Missouri. Through these personal stories, as well as interviews with medical faculty and a physician activist who runs a retreat for physicians struggling with mental health issues, the film takes a hard look at a stressful, often unforgiving culture that leads some doctors to become depressed or take their lives.

Roy Jensen named president of Association of American Cancer Institutes

Roy Jensen, M.D., director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, has been named president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), an organization of 98 leading academic cancer centers in North America, which includes the 70 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated centers. Jensen plans to spearhead the development of a comprehensive, clearinghouse of cancer-specific model legislation for AACI cancer centers to share with their state legislators. Jensen has been the director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center (KU Cancer Center) since 2004. He also is the William R. Jewell, M.D. Distinguished Kansas Masonic Professor, the director of the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Under his leadership, KU Cancer Center earned designation as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer center in 2012 and had its designation renewed in 2017. Jensen also has overseen the formation of a research consortium with the KU Cancer Center that includes Children's Mercy and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

Two KU School of Medicine educators honored with Chancellors Club professorships

Two professors from the University of Kansas Medical Center, both well-known as scientists, researchers and educators, now share an additional distinction of being recognized as Chancellors Club Teaching Professors. The honorees are V. Gustavo Blanco and Joseph Fontes, both of whom are at the KU Medical Center campus in Kansas City, Kansas. Blanco is a faculty member in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology; Fontes is a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. Each will receive an annual $10,000 honorarium for each of the next five years.