The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recently honored UK HealthCare's Kentucky Neuroscience Institute (KNI) with the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award and the Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Award. This achievement recognizes UK HealthCare’s commitment and success in adhering to the most current evidence-based stroke treatment guidelines for stroke patient care and outcomes. To receive the Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, hospitals must achieve 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke achievement i

A groundbreaking ceremony for the University of Kentucky College of Medicine-Bowling Green Campus was held Tuesday, June 6 at The Medical Center at Bowling Green.

A new book co-written by Nathan Vanderford, University of Kentucky assistant professor in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology, guides STEM graduate and postdoctoral students in their career planning by evaluating goals and finding the steps to be taken to achieve them.

The Third Annual Appalachian Research Day was held May 24 in Hazard, Ky., hosted by the University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health (CERH). The event invites researchers and community members to “come sit on the porch” and share research findings with the local communities involved in the studies.  

Rural Appalachian communities experience some of the most severe health disparities in the nation, and community-based research is an effective method to identify problems and develop collaborative, effective solutions.

Katy Brewer, a doctoral student in the University of Kentucky Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, was chosen as one of 100 doctoral students in the United States and Canada to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood. She was sponsored by Chapter C of Lexington, Kentucky. Brewer was a National Merit Finalist and a Patterson Scholarship recipient and graduated summa cum laude from UK in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She is now pursuing a doctorate in Matthew Gentry's lab at UK.

The Barnstable Brown Kentucky Diabetes and Obesity Center hosted its seventh annual Obesity and Diabetes Research Day on Thursday, May 18 at the Lee T. Todd Biomedical Pharmaceutical Complex Building. The purpose of Research Day is to focus on current findings in diabetes and obesity related research.

The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) presented several awards during the Association’s Awards Luncheon on May 19, at the 88th Annual KHA Convention in Lexington. KHA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, was bestowed upon University of Kentucky’s Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Michael Karpf who has given untiring and exceptional service to their hospital, community, the state and the Association. Since coming to UK in 2003, his leadership has led to unprecedented growth and expansion.

Each day brings something different for Dr. Christian Lattermann; that’s one of the things that keeps him passionate about his job. As director of the Center for Cartilage Repair and Restoration at UK Sports Medicine, Lattermann treats patients, does community outreach, conducts research and mentors students.

Even though he’s a leader in the field, he’s not done learning; he says his patients teach him every day.

If you’ve driven along Virginia Avenue, toward main campus, you’ve seen the steel skeleton of the new research building under construction. This is Research Building 2 (RB2), a precious resource and a vehicle for the University of Kentucky to reduce the health disparities that most impact Kentucky.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center Research Day is an opportunity for researchers to share their work, and receive feedback from colleagues across campus. An estimated 400 people were in attendance at the event, with about 45 staff members tasked with judging posters. While many posters are presented by seasoned researchers, high school, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, as well as junior researchers and staff, can also submit work and have their poster presentation judged by faculty members.

 Colorectal cancer incidence rates have declined by 25 percent in Kentucky in less than 10 years. Death rates have dropped by 30 percent.

Why?

Among other reasons, screenings have increased significantly, led by University of Kentucky researchers along with changes in state policy.

University of Kentucky Surgical Oncologist Dr. Mark Evers was recently elected into the Association of American Physicians (AAP). AAP is a nonprofit organization founded for the purpose of advancing scientific and practical medicine and is composed of members who are leading senior physician-scientists. Its goals include the pursuit of medical knowledge and the advancement through experimentation and discovery of basic and clinical science and their application to clinical medicine.

Pulling away the seal of a fresh aromatherapy patch, Dr. John Daniel took a deep inhalation as the fragrance of lavender and chamomile essential oils permeated his surroundings. Daniel was ending an overnight shift in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and one waft of lavender was enough to calm his senses and induce a state of relaxation.

Even when it’s your job, it’s not easy to ask people about substance use. Kalea Benner’s current research is based on this fact.

The utility of emergency medical services in the healthcare delivery spectrum is undisputable, as speedy access to medical intervention increases survival for desperately sick people. However, factors such as a shrinking supply of primary care doctors have increased the burdens on emergency rooms and the EMS personnel tasked with responding to 911 calls. Emergency departments are overcrowded and waits to see a provider can be long.

Celebrating 10 years of continued success and commitment to the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas community in Ecuador, the University of Kentucky’s Shoulder to Shoulder Global (STSG) and the Hombro a Hombro Foundation are hosting a health care brigade from May 12 to May 21 at their clinic in Santo Domingo, Ecuador.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently hosted their sixth annual "Meet the Researcher Day" on April 27- 28. Meet the Researchers Day is a field trip given as a prize to schools in the region who successfully raise more than $1,000 for the LLS's Pennies for Patients campaign.

University of Kentucky College of Medicine Dean Dr. Robert DiPaola, in conjunction with UK Provost Dr. Tim Tracy, has announced the appointment of two key positions at the new UK College of Medicine - Bowling Green Campus. Longtime UK faculty member and administrator Dr. Todd Cheever will serve as the first associate dean for the Bowling Green campus. Cheever has been serving as the college’s associate dean for student affairs for the past 16 years. Dr.

By Vice President for Research Lisa Cassis 

Recently, we celebrated a new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), within a program called the Institutional Development Award (IDeA), for a Center for Cancer and Metabolism. This Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), which is headed by Daret St. Clair in collaboration with Peter Zhou, is anticipated to have an amazing impact on our ability to fight the cancer scourge that plagues Kentucky.

The Barnstable Brown Kentucky Derby Eve Gala, internationally recognized as the “premier” Kentucky Derby gala, and counted among the “Ten Best Parties in the World” by Condé Nast, has announced the celebrity lineup for its 29th annual gala being held Friday, May 5 in Louisville.