Telemedicine makes global connections

UC Davis' telehealth team does not just connect health system medical specialists with rural physicians, community hospitals or patients and their doctors. On Jan. 24, it brought Iraq-based soldiers together with their families in the Sacramento region.

The Sherman Building was the location for a Freedom Calls videoconferencing session when several different families saw and talked with their loved ones stationed around Iraq. The New York-based Freedom Calls Foundation makes the arrangements overseas to schedule soldiers. Sites like UC Davis then provide their local facilities and play host to the heartwarming meetings.

The sessions in the Center for Health and Technology's conference room in the Sherman Building included showing off a newborn baby that one soldier had not seen yet. Another session allowed a Hmong mother to proudly see her son for the first time in almost a year and sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

This is the second year that UC Davis has participated in the Freedom Calls program. For more information about this free service to military personnel, visit www.freedomcalls.org.

Former migrant worker talks aboout becoming physician

Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, who arrived in the United States 20 years ago as an illegal migrant farmworker and now is an award-winning neurosurgeon and oncologist, will speak at 3:30 p.m. today at the Education Building on the UC Davis Sacramento campus, 4610 X St.

His talk, "Terra Firma — A Journey From Migrant Farm Labor to Neurosurgery," is Quinones-Hinojosa's personal story of growing up in Mexico, migrating to California's San Joaquin Valley and embarking on an educational path that eventually took him to Harvard Medical School. The talk is part of School of Medicine Dean Claire Pomeroy's Lecture Series.

Quinones-Hinojos attended UC Berkeley, where he was a lab assistant and a calculus and physics tutor for students from low-income backgrounds.

While at UC Berkeley, Quinones-Hinojosa decided to pursue a career in medicine, inspired by the example of his grandmother, a village healer in his home in Mexico. In 1999, he delivered the commencement address at Harvard Medical School, where he graduated cum laude and became an American citizen.

Quinones-Hinojosa completed a residency in neurosurgery at UC San Francisco and is now an assistant professor of neurosurgery and oncology at Johns Hopkins University, and director of the Brain Tumor Program at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Campus. He focuses on the surgical treatment of primary and metastatic brain and pituitary tumors, with an emphasis on intraoperative motor and speech mapping.

Quinones-Hinojosa conducts research on the role of stem cells in the origin of brain tumors and the potential role stem cells can have in fighting brain cancer, and subsequently regaining neurological function.

Biophotonics conference

The UC Davis Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology is hosting the 1st International Congress on Biophotonics from Feb. 3 to 7 in Sacramento.

About 150 international participants from academia, industry and government agencies will gather to develop a strategic roadmap for the future of biophotonics research, technology development and education. Participants will learn about the major scientific achievements in advanced microimaging, probes, sensors and assay, and clinical application of biophotonics.

Search for nursing school leader

UC Davis officials have launched a nationwide search to appoint the first associate vice chancellor for its anticipated Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

The search for a founding leader comes in the wake of an unprecedented $100 million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to establish a new school of nursing at UC Davis. The $100 million grant, announced last year, is the largest grant to any school of nursing in the country.

"We are looking for a dynamic and visionary nursing leader who will direct the creation of our transformative nursing science program and incorporate UC Davis' long-standing commitment to diversity and community throughout the new school," said Ann Bonham, executive associate dean at UC Davis School of Medicine and team leader for the new school of nursing.

— from the UC Davis Health System's The Insider. See intranet.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/ucdhs/index.shtml.