By UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH
Professor Kenneth Ottenbacher has been appointed to a five-year term to serve on the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He will be one of 18 members.
The board makes recommendation to the NIH on policies related to rehabilitation and training programs. Ottenbacher is director of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s division of rehabilitation sciences in the School of Health Professions. He holds the Russell Shearn Moody Distinguished Chair in Neurological Rehabilitation and is associate director for the Sealy Center on Aging.
Hector P. Garcia award winners
Medical student Ali Mohamed Mahmoud, MS2, is the winner of this year’s Hector P. Garcia essay contest on cultural competence and will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Medical student Paige Hoyer represented a team that won the new abstract/poster contest for the poster “Kato Katz versus Lumbreras Rapid Sedimentation Test to Evaluate Helminth Prevalence in the Setting of a School-Based Deworming Program.” The winners will share the $500 scholarship. Keynote speaker Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, chief medical officer for the American Heart Association, called for health care professionals to better understand cultural competence and health disparities.
Saavedra honored for starting Garcia awards
Rebecca Saavedra, vice president for strategic management, was recognized for starting the Hector P. Garcia Awards in 1997. Garcia, a 1940 graduate of the School of Medicine, also was a civil rights advocate who in 1948 founded the American GI Forum after he saw that benefits under the GI Bill were being denied to Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics.
Urgent care clinic in Texas City
A new Urgent Care Clinic is now open in Texas City. Located in the same building as UTMB’s Primary and Specialty Care Clinic, 10121 Emmett F. Lowry Expressway, the Urgent Care Clinic will treat adults and children and will be open evenings and weekends. Hours will be from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit utmb health.com/urgentcare.
LeDuc to serve on CDC advisory board
Jim LeDuc, director of the Galveston National Laboratory, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Office of Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The board is a federal advisory committee of 17 infectious disease experts who advise federal officials on strategies, goals and priorities for infectious disease research. The board also collaborates with representatives of other federal agencies such the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health as well as the Mexico Ministry of Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Adult primary care in Webster
A new Adult Primary Care Clinic in Webster opened this week. The clinic, at 17448 Highway 3, Suite 200, is at the same location as the current Women’s and Surgical Specialties Clinic. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 832- 505-1748.