The Official USU Newsletter

Volume 7, Issue 14 • December 4, 2012

www.usuhs.mil
On the cover

Col. (Dr.) Michael J. Sundborg, chief, 

gynecological oncology, Womack Army 

Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., speaks 

with Navy Lt. (Dr.) Mae Wu, a third year 

obstetrics and gynecology resident at Walter 

Reed National Military Medical Center, 

during a mentorship moment in an exam 

room at the medical center Oct. 29. (U.S. 

Army photo by Sgt. A.M. LaVey)

Sharon Willis

Deputy Vice President for External 

Affairs and Managing Editor

Gwendolyn Smalls

Chief, Media Affairs

Tech. Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson

Deputy Chief, Media Affairs

MC2 Brittney Cannady

Contributing Editor

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 brittney.cannady@usuhs.edu or 

301-295-0895.

2 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

Photo by Navy Cmdr. Adam Saperstein

Members of the USU Family Medicine Interest Group prepare to interview members of 

the homeless community as part of the “100,000 homes” campaign.

FMIG teams up to fight homelessness 

and medical vulnerability

By Cmdr. Adam Saperstein, Dept. of Family Medicine

More than 35 members of the USU 

Family Medicine Interest Group hit 

the streets recently, interviewing 

members of the homeless community in Montgomery County as part 

of the “100,000 Homes” campaign 

(www.100khomes.org), a national 

movement of communities working 

together to find permanent homes for 

100,000 of the country’s most vulnerable and chronically homeless individuals and families. 

Working as volunteers for Bethesda 

Cares, a local non-profit organization 

whose mission is to serve the working 

poor and homeless population in 

Montgomery County, students and 

Family Medicine faculty conducted 

a homeless vulnerability index—an 

essential component of prioritizing 

the needs of each individual. 

John Mendez, outreach specialist 

for Bethesda Cares, best explained the 

importance of this survey. 

“Previous approaches to homelessness have missed the mark,” he said. 

“While well-intentioned, efforts 

have been focused on shelters and 

temporary solutions to a permanent 

problem. Realizing that ‘housing 

is health’ we now understand that 

this is the first key step to improving the quality of life of those who 

are homeless, while simultaneously 

decreasing the economic impact of 

homelessness on the community.” 

He went on to explain, “Studies 

have demonstrated that homeless 

people are more likely to use an 

emergency room for their health 

care, and utilize fire department and 

police services. If we can put them 

into supportive housing, programs 

have shown up to 90 percent will 

remain, at a substantial cost savings 

to the community.” 

Having USU medical students 

involved in the program has been a 

boon for Bethesda Cares. “They are 

awesome,” said Mendez, “the students 

come with interview skills which put 

our clients at ease. They are also able 

to use their observations to recognize 

medical problems the clients may not 

reveal. Having this cadre of volunteers has a tremendous impact on our 

ability to accomplish our mission.”

Driven by the same altruistic spirit 

and belief in the greater good that led 

them to USU, the students enthusiastically embraced this opportunity. 

“I know I have exams coming up, so 

I thought I would just come out on 

Tuesday morning, but after seeing 

what an impact we are having, I had 

to come back [the next day],” said one 

first-year student. 

Continued to page 4
December 4, 2012 3

Army Col. (Dr.) Michael J. Sundborg 

knows women.

And it’s this knowledge that 

brought him back to Fort Bragg after a 

long professional absence. Sundborg, 

an obstetrician and gynecologist specializing in gynecological 

oncology, is the director of graduate medical education for Womack 

Army Medical Center and was tasked 

with initiating an OB-GYN residency 

program here.

“This residency selects medical 

school graduates and trains them 

over a four-year period to become 

obstetrics-gynecology physicians,” 

said Dr. Y. Sammy Choi, chief, clinical investigation service, WAMC. 

“(Sundborg’s) job is to foster a 

culture of teaching and scholarly 

activities that are required by the 

Accreditation Council for Graduate 

Medical Education, the accrediting 

body for physician training programs 

in the U.S.”

Setting up the new program at 

Womack was no easy task; the entire 

process took about ten years. In order 

for Womack to have a complete training program, the hospital must have all 

the departments for a resident to rotate 

through, like: general gynecology, 

urogynecology, pelvic reconstruction, 

gynecologic oncology, reproductive 

endocrinology and infertility, and 

maternal-fetal medicine. 

“Because of Fort Bragg’s population, we’re now the only medical 

center in the region that has all the 

subspecialties for women’s health,” 

said Sundborg. “When I was a resident 

here in the 90s, we had to go to [the 

University of North Carolina at Chapel 

Hill for additional training.] Having 

all the subspecialties here will really be 

the key ingredient needed to make our 

program successful.”

Sundborg was born into an Army 

family at Fort Campbell, Ky., and 

came to Fort Bragg as an enlisted 

medical specialist in the 82nd 

Airborne Division in 1978. After 

completing a degree in biology on a 

ROTC scholarship at then-Methodist 

College, Sundborg was commissioned and spent time as a field artillery officer with the XVIII Airborne 

Corps, as well as in Korea. He transferred over to the medical corps after 

completing his doctorate in medicine 

at the Uniformed Services University 

of the Health Sciences in 1994.

It was during a tour in Iraq as the 

commander of the 1st Forward Surgical 

Team that Sundborg said he really felt the 

need to give back to military medicine.

“Our medical training program for 

military gynecologists became very 

important to me and I really saw a 

new role for me and that was to start 

mentoring doctors-in-training,” he 

said. “These are the doctors who will 

be taking care of our wives, daughters 

and mothers.”

A medical residency is a graduate-level study of medical practices 

under the tutelage of a more senior 

doctor in the specialty of the 

student’s choice. These programs are 

post-doctoral, usually paired with an 

internship, and are generally required 

for medical licensure. 

Currently, Womack has five 

residents who are rotating through 

all the OB-GYN departments, spending time in each subspecialty in order 

to increase medical knowledge within 

their chosen specialty.

“This is one of the only places 

in the military that provides such a 

program,” said Sundborg. “Now other 

medical centers have to send their 

people here, while ours get to stay in 

one place during their training period. 

This is the only program in the 

Army and maybe the [Department of 

Defense] that has that ability.”

Not only does the Womack program 

top the chart when it comes to curricular training, but with 10 percent of the 

Army’s active-duty force, Fort Bragg’s 

unique population provides access to a 

wide variety of cases for the residents 

to be exposed to.

“Here at Fort Bragg, we can offer 

all the services that they’ll need 

throughout their lifetimes,” said 

Sundborg. “The Army is now 15 to 

20 percent female and we are able to 

provide them with the medical care 

they need as professional warfighters. 

Our patients’ ages range from young 

children to a growing number of 

veterans and retirees.” 

Many people may not realize that 

Womack’s OB-GYN department 

is the busiest in the Army and the 

second busiest in the entire DoD 

in terms of volume and the types of 

services offered. 

“Fort Bragg is a natural place for 

me to mentor young doctors,” said 

Sundborg. “We are afforded many 

training opportunities and are now 

able to share them with other people 

through this program. It really is a 

point of personal satisfaction that I get 

to mentor these doctors.” 

Residents come to Fort Bragg 

from Walter Reed National Military 

Medical Center, Portsmouth Naval 

Hospital, Madigan Army Medical 

Center and numerous other medical 

centers throughout the Department 

of Defense.

Sundborg’s mentees seem to be 

more than satisfied with his performance as a women’s health mentor. 

Two former residents, Air Force 

doctors trained at Walter Reed, 

recommended him for the Armed 

Forces District of the American 

College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Professor of the Year award.

“It was immediately evident that 

Dr. Sundborg has a love for the 

profession ... and a sincere interest in resident education,” said Air 

Force Capt. (Dr.) Kristen Zeligs, an 

OB-GYN at Walter Reed. “He has 

proven to be not only a talented 

teacher, but also a dedicated mentor.”

Zeligs studied under Sundborg as 

both a medical student at the USU and 

as a resident at Fort Bragg. 

USU Alumnus sets up world-class residency program

By Sgt. A.M. LaVey

Continued to page 7
4 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

A number of USU medical students participated in this year’s 

Marine Corps Marathon recently. This year the students 

added a slight twist, by carrying ruck sacks the entire 26.2 

miles for charity. For every $20 donated a pound was added 

to their ruck sacks. The team raised more than $4,200.

Congratulations to the following USU M.D. program 

alumni who were recently selected for promotion to 

Colonel, Medical Corps, U.S. Army:

Bailey, Edward - Class of 1997 - Selected Below Zone

Bojescul, John - Class of 1996

Cable, Benjamin - Class of 1996

Choi, Yong - Class of 1996

Crum, William - Class of 1996

Davis, Alan - Class of 1996

Eccles, Thomas - Class of 1999

Edwards, John - Class of 1996

Gates, Daniel - Class of 1996

Geracci, James J. - Class of 1996 - Selected Below Zone

Goodwin, George R. - Class of 1996

Grammer, Geoffrey - Class of 1996

Gray, Sharette - Class of 1996

Hsu, Daniel - Class of 1996

Malik, Jamil - Class of 1995

Malish, Richard - Class of 1996

Mysliwiec, Angelia - Class of 1996

Mysliwiec, Vincent - Class of 1996

Pitney, Aaron - Class of 1996

Rice, Matthew - Class of 1997

Rosen, Irene - Class of 1999

Singh, Niten - Class of 1997

Soltis, Christopher - Class of 1999

Tanaka, Joel - Class of 1996

Overall, 102 officers were considered for promotion 

IN ZONE. Of those, 74 were non-USU (72.5%) and 

28 were USU graduates (27.5%). Of the 74 non-USU 

officers considered, 45—or 60.8%—were selected for 

promotion. Of the 28 USU alumni considered for 

promotion in zone, 20—or 71.4%—were selected. 

Two USU graduates were also selected for promotion 

above zone. 

In addition, USU graduates accounted for 100% of the 

BELOW ZONE selections.

Navy Capt. (Dr.) Mark Stephens, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine, was quick to recognize the value 

of this experience. “Medical school is intense and has the 

potential to be socially isolating. Given this reality, it is 

important for our students to engage with the wider Bethesda 

community to gain an understanding of healthcare issues 

occurring ‘outside the gates.’” 

The FMIG looks forward to a continued relationship with 

Bethesda Cares, and is collaborating with local leaders to 

expand its community involvement, which currently includes 

“Get Up, Get Out, Get Fit,” “Tar Wars,” and support for local 

running events. 

For anyone interested in these and other FMIG 

opportunities, contact the FMIG co-presidents: Mark 

Pratt (mark.pratt@usuhs.edu) and Steve Warner (steven.

warner@usuhs.edu) or FMIG faculty advisors: Army Maj. 

Chris Bunt (christopher.bunt@usuhs.edu ) and Navy 

Cmdr. Adam Saperstein (adam.saperstein@usuhs.edu).

100,000 homes..

continued from page 3

Congratulations
HPRC Health Tips

USU’s Human Performance 

Resource Center Health Tips are 

intended to provide the USU 

community with information to 

help develop and maintain a healthy 

lifestyle. Check out the HPRC 

website at: http://hprc-online.org.

Set your calorie goals

Chubby cheeks on little ones 

are cute, but you want your child 

to outgrow them. The number of 

obese and overweight children has 

almost tripled since 1980, resulting in an increase in cardiovascular 

disease and other health issues—

a trend reflected in the body-fat 

condition of today’s military trainees. Doing activities as a family not 

only gets kids moving, but also gets 

you moving! Children need at least 

60 minutes a day of play involving 

moderate to vigorous exercise. This 

can be done throughout the day— at 

December 4, 2012 5

Elster selected as new surgery department chair

By Gwendolyn Smalls, USU External Affairs Media Affairs Officer

Navy Capt. Eric Elster, a transplant 

surgeon and researcher at the Naval 

Medical Research Center, was selected 

as the new chair of the Norman M. 

Rich Department of Surgery for the

 F. Edward Hébert School of 

Medicine, Uniformed Services 

University of the Health Sciences.

Elster, who formerly served as 

director of surgical services and chief 

of surgery at the Role 3 hospital in 

Kandahar, Afghanistan, will retain 

his position as a senior investigator in the Regenerative Medicine 

Department at NMRC in Silver 

Spring, Md., where he actively 

pursues research in combat casualty 

care and wound failure.

“Dr. Elster is an established leader 

in transplant surgery and military 

medicine. He is an internationally recognized clinical scientist, 

academic scholar and educator, said 

Larry W. Laughlin, M.D., Ph.D., 

F.Edward Hébert School of Medicine 

dean. “Doctor Elster was the 

outstanding choice for this prestigious and critical position.”

Elster earned his undergraduate 

degree in interdisciplinary studies 

from the honors program of the 

University of South Florida. He 

followed with his Doctor of Medicine 

degree from USF through the Armed 

Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program. Elster completed his 

residency training in general surgery 

at the National Naval Medical Center 

here and a transplant fellowship at the 

National Institutes of Health.

Among his military assignments, 

Elster has served as surgeon with the 

31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in 

Okinawa, Japan; attending surgeon, 

Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan; 

ship‘s surgeon for the USS Kitty 

Hawk; staff senior scientist, NMRC; 

attending surgeon, general and 

transplant, NNMC, WRAMC, and 

the Walter Reed National Military 

Medical Center. In 2005, he was 

assigned as deputy department head, 

Regenerative Medicine department, 

NMRC. He has held an appointment to the USU surgery department 

faculty since 1999.

Elster is a diplomate with the 

American Board of Surgeons, a 

Fellow of the American College of 

Surgeons, a Fellow of the Southeast 

Surgical Congress, and a member of 

the American Society of Transplantation, American Society of Transplant 

Surgeons, Association for Academic 

Surgery, Society of University 

Surgeons, and the Surgical Infection 

Society. He has written 

and published extensively on transplantation, combat wounds and 

regenerative medicine.

Navy Capt. (Dr.) Eric Elster, new chair 

of the Norman M. Rich Department of 

Surgery for the F. Edward Hébert School of 

Medicine, Uniformed Services University 

of the Health Sciences.

recess, during after school activities, 

playing at home—and doesn’t have 

to be done all at once. 

Let’s Move! has a list of simple 

steps you can do to encourage your 

child to live a healthy lifestyle. One 

idea: Have a house rule of doing 

jumping jacks during television 

commercials. For even more ideas, 

check out the CDC’s Strategies and 

Solutions (http://www.cdc.gov/

obesity/childhood/solutions.html)

for parents and communities.
6 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter

Discovery leads to development of vaccine to 

help prevent Hendra virus

Courtesy of USU external affairs

A scientific discovery made in the 

laboratory of Christopher C. Broder, 

Ph.D., professor of microbiology 

and immunology at the Uniformed 

Services University of the Health 

Sciences has led to the development of 

a vaccine to aid in the prevention of 

the deadly Hendra virus. On Nov. 1, 

Pfizer Animal Health announced that 

the new vaccine, called Equivac® HeV, 

is now available for use in Australia.

Since its first appearance in 1994, 

the Hendra virus has killed more 

than 80 horses and four of the seven 

people infected to date. An equine 

vaccine is crucial to breaking the 

cycle of Hendra virus transmission from flying foxes to horses and 

then to people, as it helps to prevent 

the horse from both developing the 

disease and transmitting the virus to 

other horses and people. Experiments 

have shown that vaccinated horses 

survived infection by Hendra virus 

and have shown no evidence of virus, 

disease, replication or shedding of 

the virus, a critical finding to help 

prevent transmission.

The vaccine is derived from original 

work by Broder and Katharine Bossart, 

Ph.D., a USU alumna and assistant 

professor at Boston University School 

of Medicine. Their work was supported 

by the National Institute of Allergy and 

Infectious Disease, part of the National 

Institutes of Health.

“The vaccine component is a 

soluble portion of a Hendra virus 

G glycoprotein, known as HendrasG,” says Broder. Bossart developed 

Hendra-sG while a graduate student 

in Broder’s laboratory at USU. “This 

glycoprotein is critical in mediating viral infection. If you block its 

function, you block virus infection. We have shown it to be highly 

effective in preventing Hendra virus 

and the related Nipah virus infection when it is used as a vaccine in 

animals. Vaccinated animals make 

antibodies to Hendra G, and these 

antibodies will subsequently prevent 

virus infection.”

To date, Hendra virus has been 

found only in Australia. The nation 

experienced an unprecedented 

number of 18 outbreaks across 

Queensland and New South Wales 

in 2011, during which 22 horses 

died or were euthanized. Authorities detected the first case of Hendra 

virus antibodies in a dog within a 

natural environment that same year. 

The virus has appeared seven times 

in 2012, causing equine deaths and 

serious cases of human exposure to 

infection. In July 2012, a woman with 

significant exposure risk was given 

an experimental human monoclonal 

antibody therapy on a compassionate 

use basis. Dimitar Dimitrov, Ph.D., 

of the NIH, working in collaboration 

with Broder, developed the antibody, 

known as m102.4. 

The Hendra virus, and the similar 

Nipah virus, both members of the 

paramyxovirus family, are highly 

infectious agents that emerged from 

flying foxes in the 1990s to cause 

serious disease outbreaks in humans 

and livestock in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Singapore. 

Recent Nipah outbreaks have resulted 

in acute respiratory distress syndrome 

and encephalitis, person-to-person 

transmission, and greater than 75 

percent case fatality rates among 

humans. A collaborative group led by 

Broder published its groundbreaking Hendra and Nipah virus work in 

two articles in Science Translational 

Medicine, including the Aug. 2011 

article that describes the Hendra-sG 

vaccine’s ability to completely protect 

nonhuman primates from Nipah 

virus infection, paving the way for 

a potential human-use vaccine, and 

the Oct. 2011 article that describes 

a breakthrough in the development 

of an effective therapy against both 

viruses now in development for use 

in humans. 

Broder and Bossart collaborated 

with a team at the Commonwealth 

Scientific and Industrial Research 

Organization’s Australian Animal 

Health Laboratory in Geelong, 

Australia, to advance the Hendra 

vaccine technology. The bio-security 

facility at AAHL is the only laboratory in the world where Hendra 

virus challenge testing of the vaccine 

in horses could have been accomplished—work under the direction of Deborah Middleton, DVP. 

The technology used to develop 

the vaccine was licensed from The 

Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the 

Advancement of Military Medicine, 

Inc. by Pfizer Animal Health, who 

joined the collaborative effort two 

years ago, bringing its development 

and regulatory expertise to facilitate 

the unprecedented rapid development, approval and deployment of 

the breakthrough vaccine. 

The recent work to develop and 

evaluate the Hendra vaccine was 

jointly funded by CSIRO; Pfizer 

Animal Health; the Australian 

government through its Department 

of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; 

and the Queensland government 

through its Department of Employment, Economic Development and 

Innovation. NIAID provided funding 

to support production of the vaccine 

component in the U.S.
December 4, 2012 7

“Sundborg demonstrates a true 

passion for resident education,” said 

Zeligs. “His unyielding enthusiasm for 

learning and clinical medicine is contagious and is evident by the high praise 

his students have for him after working 

with him.”

Womack colleagues agree that 

he was a good choice to set up the 

Bragg program.

“As a mentor, teacher, researcher 

and writer, Colonel Sundborg embodies the traits needed to establish and 

sustain the rigors of such a residency 

program,” said Choi, who also serves as 

Sundborg’s deputy.

From the earliest of times, one 

has learned a skill or trade from an 

older, wiser person. Whether you are 

a parachute rigger or a brain surgeon, 

the knowledge is acquired over time 

and then passed on.

“Medical residencies are really 

the last bastion of apprenticeship for 

professional services,” said Sundborg. 

“When you go to medical school and 

read your textbooks, you’re getting an 

introduction to medicine, but it’s not 

until you get to your residency that 

you learn to become a doctor.”

Like a genealogist, doctors are able 

to trace their lineage back to great 

doctors of the past times thanks to 

residency programs like Womack’s.

“You are in a true apprenticeship 

and it will be that mentor who will 

share with you his legacy which will 

allow you to practice medicine to the 

fullest degree,” said Sundborg.

USU Alumnus sets 

up world-class 

residency program...

continued from page 3

New portal gives students more access

By M. Cindy Dambreville, James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center administrative office

Twitter

Follow us at

https://twitter.com/

usuhspao

The medical student portal is a 

new website that provides fast and 

convenient access to the Learning 

Resource Center’s top electronic 

resources for medical students. The 

website, which was developed in 

response to user feedback, helps 

medical students quickly locate the 

most commonly used resources 

without navigating the extensive 

holdings managed in the electronic 

resources website. The portal 

also includes specialized tips and 

guides for common medical student 

questions and assignments. 

The portal is best accessed 

through the link on the LRC’s ER 

page er.lrc.usuhs.mil. It can also be 

accessed directly at www.lrc.usuhs.

mil/medstuportal. The landing page 

offers links for exam prep resources, 

E-textbooks, researching medical 

literature, mobile and Smartphone 

resources, the LRC’s training opportunities, and UpToDate. 

Also featured on the portal is a staff 

directory that helps students identify 

and contact individuals in the LRC 

with specific questions. A calendar 

lists the classes offered by the LRC’s 

reference staff. These classes include 

endnote, systematic review tips, and 

many of the LRC’s other resources.

The LRC intends to tailor this site 

to the needs of the medical students. 

Students may log into the site with 

their SSO to post comments and 

feedback. These replies will help the 

LRC improve the website and keep 

it current. 

 A James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center representative tells a medical student 

about the new Medical Student Portal website that provides fast and convenient access 

to the Learning Resource Center’s top electronic resources for students here.
8 The Pulse The Official USU Newsletter