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	Excellence in education awards honor faculty
	Benign blood disorder treated with minimally invasive surgery

Excellence in education awards honor faculty

Baylor College of Medicine honored faculty members for excellence in educational leadership in recent ceremonies at the College.

Four faculty members received the Barbara and Corbin J. Robertson Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, including Sheila Goodnight-White, MD, associate professor of medicine; Rebecca T. Kirkland, MD, professor of pediatrics; Theodore G. Wensel, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; and Andrew P. Wilking, MD, associate professor of pediatrics.

The Robertson awards recognize faculty members who have made long-standing, consistent and highly valued contributions to the educational mission of the College. Recipients become members of the Baylor Society of Presidential Educators, receive a crystal award and $10,000.

Seven faculty members received the Fulbright and Jaworski L.L.P. Faculty Excellence Award for educational leadership: F. Charles Brunicardi, MD, professor and chair of surgery; Anne Gill, BSN assistant professor of pediatrics; Charleta Guillory, MD, associate professor of pediatrics; William Y. Huang, MD, associate professor of family and community medicine; Faisal Masud, MBBS, associate professor of anesthesiology; Charles H. McCollum, MD, professor of surgery and Amy B. Middleman, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics.

Fourteen faculty members received awards for teaching and evaluation including: Prasad V.D. Atluri, MBBS, associate professor of anesthesiology; Julie A. Boom, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics; Ruth Falik, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Adriana E. Foster, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences; Aimee D. Garcia, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Mary Victoria Gresik, MD, professor of pathology; Namieta Mody Janssen, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Oluyinka Olutoye, MD, assistant professor of surgery; Mary E. Paul, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics; Bradford G. Scott, MD, assistant professor of surgery; Amir Sharafkhaneh, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Hardeep Singh, MD, assistant professor of medicine; Kathleen A. Smalky, MD, assistant professor of medicine and John F. Sweeney, MD, associate professor of surgery.

Four faculty members received awards for development of enduring educational materials including: Diane M. Anderson, MD, associate professor of pediatrics; David H. Berger, MD, associate professor of surgery; Julie A. Boom, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and Nancy R. Kelly, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics.

Two faculty members received the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Awards including Gabriel B. Habib, MD, associate professor of medicine for excellence in pre-clinical sciences and Jeffrey S. Dungan, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, for excellence in clinical sciences.

Second, third and fourth-year medical students choose the recipients of the John P. McGovern Teacher Awards, established in 1986 based on outstanding teaching of clinical and pre-clinical medical school curriculum. The nominees are then forwarded to the Faculty Awards Committee for approval.

Benign blood disorder treated with minimally invasive surgery

Laparoscopic removal of the spleen may be the best treatment option for individuals with certain blood disorders, say experts at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Traditional splenectomies are performed through an invasive surgical procedure that prolongs hospital stay and recovery. Recently, however, a laparoscopic method of the surgery has gained popularity.

"A splenectomy is a procedure that is ideally suited to be done laparoscopically," said John Sweeney, MD, associate professor of surgery and chief of the General Surgery Division of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at BCM. "Unlike other procedures that remove and reconstruct tissue, a splenectomy only entails extraction of the spleen."

During the operation, four small incisions are made under the left rib cage. Using long surgical instruments, a camera and a video monitor, the spleen is removed and the incisions are closed.

"The patient is usually back to normal activities within a couple of weeks," said Sweeney.

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