Aug. 17, 2018
The latest news and updates from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Dr. Cato Varlack Appointed Assistant Dean
We are pleased to announce that effective Aug. 1, Janice Cato Varlack, MD , assistant professor of pediatrics, has been named assistant dean for student and multicultural affairs. In this new position, Dr. Cato Varlack will foster an inclusive, culturally sensitive and diverse learning environment where students from all backgrounds can excel and achieve their personal goals. She will advise and counsel the student body, develop and implement student programs designed to enhance awareness of and sensitivity to race, gender, religion, ethnicity, culture, and other dimensions of diversity, and take responsibility for the medical school’s enrichment programs for high school and college students.
 
Dr. Cato Varlack obtained her medical degree and completed her pediatric residency training at Weill Cornell Medical College. It was there that she began her professional and personal lifelong commitment for diversity and inclusion, working as a student-recruiter and serving as the secretary for the Student National Medical Association.

In 2005, Dr. Cato Varlack joined Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics. As a faculty member, she served as the medical director at the pediatric clinic at University Medical Center of Princeton from 2005 to 2010, and was a resident preceptor at the medical school’s Eric B. Chandler Health Center, as well as Neighborhood Health Center Plainfield, also a Federally Qualified Health Center.

As a pediatrician in the outpatient and inpatient settings, Dr. Cato Varlack cares for medically complex patients from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. As an educator, she facilitates regular discussions with students and residents on topics of race, gender, religion, ethnicity and culture, while caring for patients and in the classroom as a patient-centered medicine facilitator. Pediatric residents awarded her the Lawrence T. Taft, MD Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Cato Varlack on her new appointment!
Medical Training for Combat Medics
Earlier this month, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School partnered with the United States National Guard to provide hands-on medical training to combat medics. The two-part session helps prepare military personnel for the traumatic and often devastating injuries they will encounter when deployed. The idea for the training was that of Army Specialist Brian Ruane, who suggested the training to fellow serviceperson Captain Justin Howe and his wife Cailtin Howe, PhD , who is an instructor in the medical school's Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology .

During the one-hour classroom portion, Captain Howe showed the group slides of individuals wounded during combat, and a discussion took place on how these victims are treated while in the field with minimal supplies. Next, the team moved to the medical school's cadaver lab for a four-hour hands-on training designed to teach medical techniques such as tourniquet application, wound packing, airway maintenance, needle chest decompression and chest tube placement, as well as an overview of general anatomy. The cadavers were military personnel who committed to donating their bodies to science prior to their first deployment.

Specialist Ruane's unit, pictured above, expects to be deployed in January 2019.
 
Students Present Summer Research
On Aug. 8, more than 50 medical students presented research posters at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Summer Research Program Symposium. The keynote address was given by  Sally Radovick, MD , senior associate dean for clinical and translational research, and chair of pediatrics, who shared with students her personal history, research and mentorship. Calling research the "backbone of all progress in medicine," Dr. Radovick encouraged students to pursue research here at the medical school and take advantage of all the opportunities for mentorship. To learn more about student research, contact  Celine Gélinas, PhD , senior associate dean for research and chair of biochemistry and molecular biology.
 
View the student's research projects  here . Congratulations to all who participated, and many thanks to the nearly 90 faculty mentors who supported our students in the summer research program over the past three years. View the list of the faculty mentors here
Department of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery
Appoints New Chief
Matin Imanguli, MD, DDS , has been named chief of head and neck oncologic and reconstructive surgery and assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, led by Chair P. Ashley Wackym, MD .
 
A board-certified, fellowship-trained head and neck surgical oncologist, Dr. Imanguli specializes in a broad range of open and minimally invasive procedures related to head and neck cancers. He joins us from the University of Alabama Medical Center, where he completed fellowship training in head and neck oncologic and microvascular surgery. He also completed research fellowships at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and National Cancer Institute.
 
As chief, Dr. Imanguli will guide the division in the provision of comprehensive management of benign and malignant head and neck pathology, performing a full range of procedures, including transoral robotic surgery (TORS), transoral laser microsurgery, thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and open and endoscopic skull base surgery. The division also performs reconstructive procedures, including microvascular free flap construction, for head and neck defects. In conjunction with medical and radiation oncologists at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Dr. Imanguli and his team seek to provide the most comprehensive head and neck cancer care possible.
 
Welcome, Dr. Imanguli!
Dr. Wackym and Colleagues Contribute to Letter in JAMA
P. Ashley Wackym, MD , professor and chair , Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, is one of 10 physicians and scientists to contribute letters in the recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, critiquing the methods and outcomes of a controversial study published in the journal earlier this year. The study discussed mysterious symptoms of several U.S. diplomats in Cuba, which were identified as "concussions, without the head trauma." The letters, published this week from multiple and unrelated organizations, are critical of the accuracy of the study, with each looking at the symptoms from a different perspective and potential causes.

In Dr. Wackym's letter, published along with colleagues from the Ear and Balance Institute, Covington, La., the physicians question the lack of data and appropriate testing completed in the
study to support the provided conclusion. Instead, they say, "In the study of 21 US government personnel who experienced a suspected sonic weapon attack in Cuba, the patients’ symptoms could be explained by unilateral or bilateral peripheral labyrinthine injury, and further investigation is warranted." In addition, they noted, "A presumed sonic weapon attack would affect the inner ear more preferentially than any other part of the body, including the brain. Given that 71% of the patients had audiovestibular symptoms, lack of objective audiovestibular testing is disappointing."

Read more about the study and letters here.
Surgical Care for Kids Invites You to Its Open House  
Rutgers Health's  Surgical Care for Kids at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has moved to a new home! Join us in celebrating the newly refurbished space with a ribbon cutting and Open House on Thursday, Sept. 6!
 
Designed specifically with children's and their families' comfort and care in mind, the new space enhances and expands the services we provide, including the addition of a fetal counseling center, intestinal care center, coordinated trauma care, special procedures rooms and larger consultation areas for multidisciplinary care of children with more advanced surgical needs.

Pediatric Surgery Open House masthead
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018
5 - 7 p.m.

Surgical Care for Kids
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
 Clinical Academic Building, Suite 3300
125 Paterson Street
New Brunswick, NJ
 
Welcome to New Employees!
Welcome to the new team members who attended New Employee Orientation in July! Pictured s itting from left to right: Sonika Puri, MD ; Bethany Mancuso ; Deepshikha Mishra ; Nordia Chambers ; Vanessa Gutierrez ; Ji Hae Park, MD ; and Rachel Borne . Pictured standing from left to right: Anna Sliwowska, MD ; Ankit Shah, MD ; Vivian De Los Santos ; William Beckerman, MD; Charles Kistler, MD ; Vamsee Chaguturu, MD ; Ruby Greywoode, MD ; and David Cohen, MD.
Social Media Post of the Week
Earlier this week, our medical students offered a friendly dance challenge to students at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine . We are anxiously waiting to see if dental students can "floss" as well as medical students. Follow the pages on Facebook to see our students, (from left to right) Pooja Patel, Jason Yang, Nicholas Arcomano and Akshay Desai, floss and find out!
Save the Date: Faculty and Staff Photo Sessions
Photographer
Faculty and staff of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are invited to take part in one of two free professional photo shoots planned this spring. Photos are used in the school’s print and online communications.
 
No appointment  is necessary.
 
Digital copies of the photos are available upon request from the Department of Communications and Public Affairs approximately one week after your sitting. Please contact Lauren Marshall for a digital copy of your photo.
 
The shoots will be held:  
Piscataway Campus
Monday, Oct. 22
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Great Hall
675 Hoes Lane West
Piscataway, NJ

New Brunswick Campus
Monday, Oct. 29
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Pre-function area of CAB 1302
Clinical Academic Building
125 Paterson St., New Brunswick, NJ
In addition to the previously announced resumption of weekly Grand Rounds, please note that monthly Grand Rounds also will be resuming in early September for this academic year.  
 
A particular highlight is the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health's  inaugural session, which will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 11, from 8 - 9 a.m.,  in a special location- -the NJ Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health  on the George H. Cook Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The topic is "Medical Management of Obesity" by Jeanne M. Ferrante, MD, MPH .

Click here to view all upcoming CME activities.

-- Paul Weber, MD, RPh, MBA , associate dean, Continuing Medical Education
In the News
What Caused Cuba's Sonic Attacks?  -- P. Ashley Wackym, MD -- Slate

Nanda to head neurosciences at Rutgers, RWJBarnabas -- Anil Nanda, MD -- NJBiz and TheJerseyTomatopress.com

Free Health Screenings, Nutritional, Dental, Lifestyle Info Offered -- Eric B. Chandler Health Center -- TAPinto.net


Metformin Protective Against Pancreatic Cancer? -- XiangLin Tan, MD, PhD -- U.S. Pharmacist

Indian American Babies Suffer Lowest Rate of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, Notes New Rutgers Study -- Barbara Ostfeld, PhD; Thomas Hegyi, MD; and Sunanda Gaur, MD -- indiawest.com, littleindia.com
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