Dartmouth Medical School Digest
April 2009

News for our community

In this issue

Health leader is president-elect
Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a physician and anthropologist acclaimed for his contributions to world health, will be Dartmouth's 17th president. He is an educator and humanitarian dedicated to improving global health care and policy. His appointment, which the Board of Trustees announced March 3, is effective July 1.

The envelope, please
DMS seniors celebrated Match Day, the annual medical school equivalent of March "madness," when graduating students across the country learn where they will head for residency training. The March 19 ceremonies at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center featured hushes and hollers as students opened envelopes to reveal their program. Nationally, it was a record-breaker, with almost 30,000 applicants including 62 of the 63 DMS final year medical students.

Smoke gets in your eyes
Teens who see smoking in movies are likely to try it, but those who watch more at a younger age are more likely to take up the habit as they get older, DMS researchers report. A long-term survey of teens and pre-teens by Dr. Madeline Dalton and colleagues indicated that adolescents with the highest level of movie smoking exposure were twice as likely to become established smokers. The study appeared in the April Pediatrics.

Gold standard
Young or old, for chronic kidney disease, the preferred portal for life-sustaining dialysis is the same, according to DMS radiologists. Arteriovenous fistulas remain the gold standard for maintaining needed access to the circulatory system, they found, and there was no difference between the age groups when it comes to fistula openness. The results were reported at the Society of Interventional Radiology's annual scientific meeting in March by Dr. Andrew Forauer.

Genetics honor
A DMS researcher received the Genetics Society of America's 2009 George W. Beadle Medal for outstanding contributions and service to the genetics community. Dr. Jay Dunlap was lauded for his pioneering biological clock studies that have advanced understanding of what makes cells tick. A tribute to his work appears in the March issue of Genetics.

Teens and alcohol items
Owning alcohol brand merchandise increases the risk of young people taking to alcohol, DMS researchers found. Their study adds to evidence that exposure to alcohol branding influences teens to use alcohol, according to a report in the March Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine by Dr. James Sargent and colleagues.

Pfefferkorn professor
The inaugural holder of an endowed chair that honors a popular DMS teaching icon has been selected. Dr. William R. Green is the Elmer Pfefferkorn, PhD, Professor of Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, named for the internationally recognized parasitologist and award-winning educator who has been at DMS for more than four decades.

In the media
Highlights of March news coverage about Dartmouth Medical School programs.


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