Volume 6, Issue 9 n May 16, 2011

www.usuhs.mil

The Official USU Newsletter
On the cover

Air Force 2nd Lieutenants Chase Rogers, 

Jeffrey Sorensen, Matthew Cellini, Corinne 

Harvey, Pansy Uberoi and Courtney Hintz 

took part in a unique training program 

called Top Knife during their summer 

learning experience following the 

completion of the MS-1 schedule. 

(See story, page 2)

Courtesy Photo

Sharon Willis

Deputy Vice President for External 

Affairs and Managing Editor

Ken Frager

Public Affairs Specialist

Staff Sgt. Matthew Rosine

Production Editor

MC1 Chad Hallford

Writer

Christine Creenan-Jones

Contributing Writer

Lori Fields

Layout and Design

Production

Editorial content is edited, prepared 

and provided by the USU Office of 

External Affairs unless otherwise 

indicated. The Pulse staff may 

include or exclude articles based 

upon news value, impact on the 

university and space availability.

Submissions

The Pulse will be published 

bi-weekly on Mondays. The 

deadline for submissions is at 4 p.m. 

Tuesday prior to the publication 

date. Submissions can be sent to 

usunewsletter@usuhs.mil or by 

calling 301-295-0895.

2 the pulse May 16, 2011

Air Force 2nd Lt. Jeffrey Sorensen 

wanted to be a doctor since early in 

college, but his desire to care for those 

in need of medical care was intensified 

by the prospect of serving our military 

men and women as a uniformed physician. Two years ago he left Utah – the 

only home he’d ever known – to begin 

a new journey thousands of miles away 

at USU.

Sorensen found what he was looking 

for in Bethesda. The university’s 

military-focused medical curriculum 

has been both challenging and exciting.

“The workload is difficult, and it can 

be a little overwhelming at times, but 

there are some really incredible aspects 

to USU’s curriculum as well,” he said.

The summer learning experience 

is one of them. First-year medical 

students without prior military experience choose from a variety of two-week 

courses, many of which give students 

like Sorensen the opportunity to explore 

a unique side of military medicine.

 “I went to Top Knife last summer 

at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, 

which is an Air Force training 

program designed for flight surgeons 

who are assigned to squadrons of 

high performance aircraft such as the 

F-16. While there, my classmates and 

I learned how a fighter base functions 

and how flight surgeons contribute to 

fighter operations.” he said. “It was an 

amazing experience I’ll never forget.”

Sorenson was accompanied by fellow 

2013 Air Force classmates, Chase Rogers, 

Matthew Cellini, Corinne Harvey, Pansy 

Uberoi and Courtney Hintz.

The classrooms at Top Knife combine 

didactic instruction with hands-on learning in topics such as cockpit and airframe 

familiarity, the use of night vision goggles, 

and how to properly egress an aircraft on 

the ground or in the air. 

“We learned a lot about flight physiology and aircraft safety before stepping 

foot on the jets,” Sorensen said. “But 

I still wasn’t prepared for how intense 

and thrilling my ride would be. The 

best roller coaster in the world doesn’t 

compare to flying an F-16, I even got to 

take the stick for a minute and perform 

a barrel roll and some turns.” 

The experience also gave Sorensen 

a new outlook about what it means to 

serve and protect.

“Top Knife really opened my eyes to 

the operational side of the military,” he 

said. “I observed the intricacies of Air 

Force operations, and was impressed 

with the character of those I met. It 

increased my desire to do well in school, 

as I gained respect for those on the 

operational side of the military and the 

job they do. I want to be well prepared to 

serve them once I graduate.”

Courtesy Photo

Top Knife takes medical education 

to new heights

by Christine Creenan-Jones

Air Force 2nd Lt. Jeffrey Sorenson took advantage of his two-week summer 

course to experience military medical training for flight surgeons.
The Official USU Newsletter 3

Muldoon awarded Carol Johns Medal

by Ken Frager

Sheila Muldoon, M.D., professor and 

former chair, Department of Anesthesiology, has been named as the recipient of the 2011 Carol Johns Medal. Dr. 

Muldoon arrived at USU in 1977 from 

Dublin, Ireland via a postdoctoral 

fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, where 

she had completed her anesthesiology 

residency and served as staff anesthesiologist for a number of years.

In her long, distinguished tenure at 

USU, Dr. Muldoon has embodied the 

three criteria upon which this honor is 

awarded: furthering the welfare and excellence of USU faculty, promoting outstanding educational programs for students and 

advancing the reputation of the University 

locally, nationally and internationally.

The award namesake, Carol J. Johns, 

MD, was a professor at the Johns 

Hopkins School of Medicine, where she 

was a distinguished clinician, academician and teacher. She was a member of 

the USU Board of Regents from 1985 

until her death in 2000 and long-time 

enthusiastic and effective supporter of 

the USU. The University established 

an annual award in her name, presenting the first medal during the 2001 

commencement exercises.

Dr. Muldoon’s nomination for this 

recognition included references from 

several academic anesthesiologists 

whom she has mentored and guided to 

be first-class researchers and educators. 

Her nomination states that she “not 

only recruited outstanding faculty, but 

helped procure logistical and financial 

support and promoted some of the first 

translational research done at USU. 

To maintain clinical credibility, she 

ensured that her faculty practice at the 

hospitals at least three days a week.”

Dr. Muldoon established a stimulating and outstanding anesthesiology 

experience for USU students and was 

one of the first to introduce simulation 

methodology. She tirelessly worked 

to establish strong relations with the 

DOD and services, fostering acceptance of USU students into servicewide anesthesiology programs.

Dr. Muldoon’s long record of cuttingedge research has established her as one 

of the world’s leading experts on the 

potentially lethal anesthetic complication of malignant hyperthermia. She 

established her testing center at USU 

as a center of excellence recognized 

worldwide. From the early invasive 

caffeine-halogen contraction tests 

involving muscle biopsy, she moved to 

the forefront of less-invasive lymphocyte testing to screen at-risk individuals. Most recently Dr. Muldoon has 

been leading cutting edge research on 

the ryanodine receptor gene, which has 

been linked with the condition.

Photo by Thomas Balfour

University Media 

Services offers 

design and 

graphic services

by MC1 Chad Hallford

With space on the USU campus at 

a premium, some services have been 

moved off-site over the last few months, 

including University Media Services 

- USU’s graphics, photography and 

videography division. While availability 

of services was not impacted, offering a 

convenient drop-off point on-site that 

also had limited resources available was 

seen as a priority for University leadship. 

Now reopened in its original 

location on the ground floor, Mr. 

Patrice Bolte and his team of visual 

illustrators are ready and able to 

provide the best in graphics capabilities, including medical illustration to 

USU faculty, staff and students.

“We are set up to provide a full-range 

of services including design and publications, medical illustration, lamination, 

mounting and framing and, of course, 

large scale printing, including multiple 

print mediums available for display,” 

said Mr. Bolte. “We also are available to 

provide consulting services before you 

begin a project that requires design, 

graphics or printing. It’s much easier 

to accommodate needs when we are 

involved in the planning from the beginning. We can help before the projects 

become difficult and costly to correct.”

A list of services and general prices 

and practices is available on the UMS 

homepage www.usuhs.mil/avc/. The web 

site also offers links to provide information and hints for poster designs, 

business cards and other templates, along 

with tips for maintaining USU branding 

and avoiding copyright infringement. 

“If there is a service that isn’t 

included on the site don’t assume it 

isn’t available,” said Mr. Bolte. “If we 

don’t have the resources in-house we 

can help to identify vendors who can 

help you get the job done and stay 

within your budget.”

USU Faculty Senate President Dr. Gary Wind presented Dr. Sheila Muldoon with the 

2011 Carol Johns Medal.
4 the pulse May 16, 2011

Nobel Laureate to present Presidential Lecture

by Ken Frager

Stanley B. 

Prusiner, MD, 

Director of the 

Institute for 

Neurodegenerative Diseases 

and Professor 

of Neurology at 

the University 

of California, 

San Francisco 

(UCSF), and 1997 Nobel Laureate in 

Physiology or Medicine, will present 

the 2011 Presidential Lecture during 

USU’s Research Week, May 18, 2011. 

Dr. Prusiner’s lecture, Therapeutic 

Approaches to Neurodegeneration 

in Head Trauma, will offer an early 

perspective into a potentially new way 

to identify and treat traumatic brain 

injuries (TBIs).

“We are thrilled to have someone 

of Dr. Prusiner’s caliber take the time 

to share his thoughts about an issue 

of critical importance to our faculty, 

staff, students and to those we seek 

to serve,” said USU President Charles 

L. Rice. “His early work in the field 

of protein research, combined with 

the expertise of our research teams 

here at USU, could have potentially 

breakthrough effects on the study 

of traumatic brain injuries and post 

traumatic stress disorder.”

Dr. Prusiner was awarded the 

National Medal of Science in 2009 – an 

honor bestowed by the President of the 

United States to individuals in science 

and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement 

of knowledge in the fields of behavioral 

and social sciences, biology, chemistry, 

engineering, mathematics and physics. 

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his 

discovery of an unprecedented class 

of pathogens that he named prions. 

Prions, infectious proteins that cause 

neurodegenerative diseases in animals 

and humans, cause disorders in humans 

that manifest as sporadic, inherited 

and infectious illnesses. Dr. Prusiner 

demonstrated that prions are formed 

when a normal, benign cellular protein 

acquires an altered shape. At the time 

of discovery, his proposals of multiple 

shapes or conformations for a single 

protein and the concept of infectious 

proteins, were considered heretical. 

Prior to Dr. Prusiner’s discoveries, 

proteins were thought to possess only 

one biologically active conformation. Remarkably, the more common 

neurodegenerative diseases like 

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases 

have been found over the past two 

decades to be, like the prion diseases, 

disorders of protein processing. Dr. 

Prusiner’s current research focuses on 

determining the atomic structure of 

prions, deciphering the mechanism of 

replication and defining how biological properties are enciphered in prion 

strains. Additionally, he is developing 

drug discovery aimed at producing 

therapeutics that retard neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s 

and prion diseases, and in frontotemporal dementias, including those 

found in patients with TBIs.

Dr. Prusiner received his undergraduate and medical training at 

the University of Pennsylvania and 

his postgraduate clinical training at 

UCSF. From 1969-72, he served in 

the U.S. Public Health Service at the 

National Institutes of Health. Editor 

of 12 books and author of more than 

350 research articles, Dr. Prusiner’s 

contributions to scientific research 

are internationally recognized. 

Courtesy Photo

Stanley B. 

Prusiner, MD

Continued to page 6

USU Sweeps presentations at Public Health Conference

by Staff Sgt. Matthew Rosine

Three USU graduate students took 

top honors for poster presentations 

during the 2011 Armed Forces Public 

Health Conference. 

Navy Lt. Anton Shufutinsky took 

first place in the Occupational Health 

category with his poster titled, The 

Potential for the Application of Metallic 

Copper Surfaces as a Method for Preventing Surface and Airborne Microbial 

Contamination in Military Healthcare 

Facilities, Food Handling Operations and 

Other Occupational Settings. 

Navy Lt. Nicholas Martin took 

first place in the Environmental category with his poster titled, 

T A Novel Thermal Desorption Gas 

Chromatography-Mass Spectometry 

Method for the Discovery of DDT 

in Air. 

Navy Lt. Carlis Brown took first 

place in the Industrial Hygiene category 

with his poster titled, T A Novel Application of Tracer Gas Dilution for Evaluating Indoor Air Quality. 

In fact, USU Preventive Medicine 

and Biometrics (PMB) students have 

now taken first place five times at 

this conference over the past three 

years. This year was the inaugural 

joint Armed Forces Public Health 

Conference. 

“I think the success of all of our 

posters at the conference is based 

on a combination of factors,” said 

Shufutinsky, whose poster research 

focuses on the use of copper surfaces 

to reduce secondary infections 

in hospitals, ventilation and food 

handling facilities. “The environment at USU encourages good 

research and good science. We read 

each other’s work, discuss it and give 

quality feedback in open, honest 

discussion with other scientists.” 

This approach to quality scientific 

research provides USU presenters with 

a different look than their competition. 

“From the perspective of the conference, I believe that a lot of the work 
The Official USU Newsletter 5

HPRC Health Tips

The Human Performance 

Resource Center Health Tips is a 

new column intended to provide the 

USU community with information to 

help develop and maintain a healthy 

lifestyle. Check out the HPRC website 

at: http://humanperformancere

sourcecenter.org.

Mix up your training routine

If you are bored with your training or find yourself stuck in a rut, 

consider adding some variety to 

your program.

Maintaining a physically fit body 

requires consistent training and 

motivation. It’s common for individuals to get stale or fall into a training 

rut. Consider cross-training, adding 

new activities and exercises, or just 

doing something physical for fun!

Avoid smoking around children 

and the places they reside

Secondhand smoke can impact 

the mental health of those 

around you, so be especially 

careful not to smoke in areas 

inhabited by children.

It’s well known that smoking is 

harmful to your physical health. 

What is less well known, however, 

is that secondhand smoke has an 

impact on the mental health of 

others. A recent study in Archives of 

Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 

shows that children exposed to 

secondhand smoke have a higher 

risk of developing mental conditions 

such as depression, anxiety, attention-deficit disorder (ADD), and 

conduct disorders.

Positive Mental Time Travel

“Positive mental time travel” is 

when an individual vividly remembers a positive event or vividly 

anticipates a future positive event. 

Individuals who are able to remember past positive events (or look 

forward to future ones) and savor 

those happy moments are more 

likely to be happy in general.

Family medicine program receives 

national recognition

by Ken Frager

The American Academy of Family 

Physicians (AAFP) recently named 

the Uniformed Services University 

of the Health Sciences as one of the 

top 10 family medicine programs in 

the U.S., presenting Navy Capt. (Dr.) 

Mark Stephens and his faculty with an 

Achievement Award.

“We were quite pleased to receive this 

recognition from the AAFP because 

it recognizes our continued efforts to 

develop those who will care for not just 

America’s warfighters, but also for their 

families around the world,” said Dr. 

Stephens, associate professor and Chair, 

Department of Family Medicine at USU. 

According to the AAFP, the award 

recognizes USU’s efforts to foster 

student interest in family medicine 

and produce graduates who enter 

the specialty. Based on a three-year 

average, for the period ending October 

2010, 15.8% of USU graduates have 

entered an ACGME-accredited family 

medicine residency program. 

Dr. Sandra Kimmer, assistant 

professor in the department of Family 

Medicine, accepted the award on behalf 

of the USU from AAFP President 

Dr. Roland Goertz during the recent 

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine 

(STFM) Annual Spring Conference, 

which was held in New Orleans.

Showcase highlights teaching innovation 

by Ken Frager

Faculty and staff looking for 

new ways to connect with medical 

students at USU are invited to stop 

by the Education & Technology 

Innovation (ETI) Showcase, May 26, 

27 and June 2 from 1130 – 1330, 

outside of the cafeteria across from 

the elevators in B building.

“The showcase is a show and tell of 

sorts, where faculty and staff can share 

ideas about how to best reach our 

medical students, develop modernbased teaching methods to reach the 

next generation of medical students, 

and who in many cases may have 

different ideas about the best way 

to teach and learn,” said Dale Smith, 

Ph.D., USU senior vice president who 

oversees the department. 

“The showcase also can serve 

to identify potential collaborators 

or expand existing relationships in 

an environment that encourages 

sharing,” said Dina Kurzweil, deputy 

director for ETI. “This is an informal 

setting, but one that we feel allows 

for free discussion and interaction.”

The services of the ETI are 

available to USU faculty without 

direct charge. Members of the ETI 

team will be available to discuss 

innovative instructional techniques 

and technologies that can be used to 

advance course learning objectives 

and support curriculum reform.

Additional information on the 

showcase and about the ETI is available 

at www.usuhs.mil/eti/services.htm

Courtesy Photo 
6 the pulse May 16, 2011

Continued from page 4

USU sweeps award

Tech Watch

Upcoming Events

The Office of the Chief Information 

Officer (OCIO) wanted to bring you 

up to date on the progress of several 

ongoing projects.

The USU email system (GroupWise) 

will be upgraded to the latest version of 

Groupwise 8.

Enhancements to GroupWise Web 

Access include:

1. Improved interface to include scrollable item lists such as your mailbox 

or sent items.

2. Task list folder.

3. Autosave feature which will save a 

copy of any email being composed 

every 10-60 seconds.

4. Improved spell check and name 

completion.

5. Calendar improvements including 

day, week or year view, creation of 

one or more personal calendars and 

display of personal calendars in the 

main view.

6. Search improvements including date 

range and category search.

7. Contacts folder displays all personal 

address books.

8. Ability to publish personal calendars.

The GroupWise 7 client will continue 

to work and will be updated to GroupWise 8 gradually for both Windows and 

Mac OSX systems (including OS 10.6).

During this time, in order to log 

into GroupWise Web Access, you must 

log into the server where your email 

account is actually located. (i.e. mxb.

usuhs.mil, mxr.usuhs.mil, etc.) or you 

will get an error due to the different 

versions of GroupWise that will exist 

after the first round of upgrades are 

complete.

Reminder about:

1. Software discounts for USU 

employees - An additional feature of 

the University’s annually negotiated 

Microsoft and Adobe licenses is an 

‘employee purchase program,’ which 

allows USU faculty, students, and staff to 

purchase Microsoft and Adobe software 

for personal or home use at significantly reduced prices. A USU Portal for 

personal purchases of Adobe and Microsoft Products was recently established 

and general information can be found at: 

http://e5.onthehub.com/Portal/PortalSelectInstitution.aspx?p=95ad5269-86e1-

dc11-8873-0030485a6b08&JSEnabled=1

The following Adobe products are 

currently included: Acrobat X (personal 

use); Creative Suite 5 Design, Creative 

Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 

Production, Creative Suite 5 Web, Dreamweaver CS5, Adobe Flash CS5, Adobe 

Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Microsoft Products include: Office 

2010, Office 2011 for MAC, Office 2008 

for MAC, Project 2010, Visio 2010, 

Windows 7 (Operating System) Expression Studio 4.

Anyone wishing to take advantage of 

the discounted prices can register using 

their USU email address at http://usuhs.

onthehub.com. This site is powered 

by e-Academy, accepts personal credit 

cards, and is customized for USU 

personal home-use software purchases.

2. USU Service Desk (the replacement for the Heat System) went live on 

1 April meaning online submission and 

tracking of tickets has been restored. 

We emailed a “How-To” sheet, which is 

also available on the Help Desk Website. 

This new program allows you to enter 

your trouble ticket on line, receive email 

updates on progress with the ticket, 

see who it has been assigned to, and 

what the final resolution to the problem 

was. There also is an announcements 

section that, at a glance, will detail 

what changes are occurring across 

the network; where there are outages; 

any upcoming network-wide program 

pushes; anticipated security changes, 

etc. This announcement section will not 

take the place of the emails that come 

out, but will allow you to quickly see 

updates on situations and hopefully 

anticipate any problems you might have 

with upcoming events. This program 

also is being adapted to allow you to 

enter MDL trouble tickets and potentially other support departments.

The OCIO will continue to provide 

updates and notification of changes to 

the university community. If you have 

any problems, Mr. Dennis Stutz, Director, Customer Service, is acting 

as an ombudsman to help communicate 

issues. He can be contacted at 

301-295-9560 or dstutz@usuhs.mil. 

presented there was very qualitative,” 

said Shufutinsky, a PhD student in 

PMB. “Here we do very technical, 

evidence-based science, which gives 

us a bit of an advantage.” 

But all things considered, these 

award-winning students attribute much of their success to good 

old-fashioned hard work. 

“I think the personal effort from 

each student is what really determines success. If your work ethic 

is strong, you will be a success,” 

Shufutinsky said. “Me, personally, 

I didn’t submit this poster to win 

an award. Presenting posters is 

not a requirement for us. I put my 

time and effort into this because I 

felt this was beneficial to the science 

community as a whole.” 

While first-place ribbons adorn their 

work and co-workers pat them on the 

back, these USU students find their real 

reward in the impact they are making 

in people’s lives. 

“I think the real success of our 

work is ultimately found in the 

exposure we have developed here. 

We have helped bridge a very large 

gap between hard-core science 

and field operation,” said Martin. 

Martin and his fellow students 

applied hands-on application of their 

research at a field study in Thailand. 

“By being able to take a very scientific process and drop it in the field 

for use, we are able to bridge the gap 

between the scientist in the lab and 

the warfighter in the field.”
Briefs

Using Computer Resources 

Security incidents continue to be 

a drain to limited USU Information 

Assurance manpower. The following 

highlight current DoD policy and 

best practices:

Personnel must not install selfcoded or non-licensed software on 

network resources; add, remove, 

configure, or attempt to modify 

USU computer operating systems 

or programs; move audio/visual or 

network cables, computers or attempt 

to connect personal computers to the 

network including MDL and lecture 

hall spaces; connect personal devices 

except for those previously authorized 

by NOC; download pornographic 

material and store or display offensive material, such as racist literature, 

sexually harassing or obscene language 

or material; store or process classified 

information on any USU system.

Personnel must not permit 

unauthorized individuals access to a 

government-owned or governmentoperated system or program; access 

online gambling, games and social 

engineering sites, dates or times.

Helpdesk Closure 

The NOC helpdesk is closed for training on Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. 

During this time, you can leave 

a voicemail message at 295-9800, 

utilize the HEAT Self Service (http://

www.usuhs.mil/uis/forms/trouble.

html), or email help@usuhs.mil. 

If an emergency should arise, 

please call 295-9870.

Exercise/Fitness Areas 

Physical Fitness training should be 

conducted in designated areas. 

The only authorized space for PT 

within the university is room G060. 

The campus’ Student Community 

Lounge area is also authorized, 

but only during specified PFT dates 

or times.

Professional activities

The Department of Defense and 

USU policy requires that all employees, both military and civilian, receive 

approval for engaging in any activity outside their work environment, 

which involves their professional 

expertise or government occupation, 

and involves compensation.

This approval is required prior to 

engaging in the activity. 

In order to get approval, any 

employee can complete a USU Form 

1004. This completed form must be 

approved and signed by each department chair or activity head. 

These forms are available in the 

General Counsel’s office or online at 

the USU OGC Web site.

Completed forms must be turned in 

to the General Counsel’s office. The form 

will be routed to the appropriate dean, 

brigade commander or USU president. 

Once processing is completed, a copy 

of the approved form will be returned to 

the employee for the employee’s records. 

The Official USU Newsletter 7

 The USU Merit Review 

Committee is accepting applications for the fiscal year 2012 USU 

Intramural Research Funding.

Applications may be submitted for Pilot, Standard and 

Exploratory grant funding. New 

or revised applications will be 

accepted. Competing continuations are no longer funded. These 

applications are for basic, clinical 

or behavioral research.

Projects will be evaluated for 

demonstrated relevance to military 

concerns and/or are specific to the 

USU mission.

Eligibility for funding from the 

University’s intramural program is 

restricted to USU-billeted civilian 

and uniformed faculty members 

with full, associate or assistant 

professor titles.

Late applications will not be 

accepted and incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

Applications must be submitted 

by June 17, 2011. 

For additional information: 

http://www.usuhs.mil/research/

intramuralfunds.html or contact 

the Office of Research at 

(301) 295-3303.

Funding Applications

USU Research Week 2011

USU Faculty Senate 

Education Day 2011

May 17–18, 2011

Celebrating Excellence in Research

Tools for Transformation: How to be a better educator

Thursday 16 June 2011

For more information visit, www.usuhs.mil