News & Events
University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine
• Caroline Cobine Ph.D., assistant professor, department of physiology and cell biology, and a team of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) were recently awarded a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore the mechanisms controlling motility in the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).
• Northern Nevadans who are uninsured, underinsured or without a social security number can receive free medical care at upcoming University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) Student Outreach Clinics at a new clinical location on Moana Lane in Reno.Two rural Outreach Clinics will be offered in Lovelock and Silver Springs, Nevada in November and December. UNR Med offers the free clinics in a continuing effort to assist the region's medically uninsured with needed health care services.
• The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) has named Kristina Deeter, M.D., MBA, FAAP, as vice chair of Pediatrics at UNR Med and associate physician-in-chief of Renown Children's Hospital.
• University of Nevada, Reno President Brian Sandoval announced that Melissa Piasecki, M.D., a longtime member of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) senior leadership team and professor of psychiatry, was recruited to the role of acting dean at UNR Med. With this appointment, she will also serve as the Chief Academic Officer for Renown Health under the recently-formalized affiliation agreement between UNR Med and Renown, effective September 1, 2021. As acting dean, Piasecki will provide leadership continuity following the retirement of Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D., who served as dean for 10 years before stepping down on August 31.
• Dean’s Reflections: Gratitude
• Northern Nevadans who are uninsured, underinsured or without a social security number can receive free medical care at upcoming University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) Student Outreach Clinics and Rural Outreach Clinics, in Lovelock and Yerington, Nevada. UNR Med offers the free clinics in a continuing effort to assist the region's medically uninsured with needed health care services.
• The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) welcomed 70 new first-year medical students today with a white coat ceremony at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in Reno, during which students received their first white coats to mark the beginning of their educational journeys toward becoming physicians.
• Kerac Falk, M.D., FACOG, board-certified obstetrician gynecologist and fellowship-trained subspecialist in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery has joined University Health and the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med), bolstering urogynecology services in northern Nevada.
• The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) has named Tami Brancamp, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, as interim chair for the department of speech pathology and audiology. Dr. Brancamp served as assistant professor of speech pathology and audiology from 2008-15, and was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure in 2015.
• The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) hosted a completion ceremony today for the 23 graduates of the Physician Assistant (PA) Studies Program. Northern Nevada’s newest PA’s earned the Degree of Master of Physician Assistant Studies after completing the 25-month long full-time master's degree program.
• The rural town of Winnemucca, Nevada is located 165 miles northeast of Reno, nestled next to the Humboldt River. Known as Nevada's "friendliest town," Winnemucca's primary employers include the mines and the school district. You can't go far without noticing the area's Basque influence or the beauty of the cowboy lifestyle. The main road is full of quaint shops and family-run businesses; it has that quintessential small town charm, where everyone knows everybody else, and they genuinely care about their community and its residents.
• Dean’s Reflections: Reaching the end of the beginning
• Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D., has announced his plans to step down as Dean of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) and Vice President of Health Sciences following a decade at the helm. Schwenk's final day as dean and vice president will be Aug. 31, 2021.
• Leaders from Renown Health, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents, University of Nevada, Reno and UNR Med converged for an affiliation agreement certificate signing event.
• Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Nevada's Medicaid health plan has committed $75,000 to fund a new University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) initiative called See It To Be It. This initiative will connect aspiring physicians from populations that are underrepresented in medicine and from medically underserved communities with medical students and physicians from similar backgrounds. By supporting pre-med students as they navigate the medical school admissions process, the program will support UNR Med and Anthem's shared commitment to preparing a diverse workforce of physicians. In turn, a more diverse medical workforce will be positioned to deliver more equitable health care services to multicultural and socioeconomically diverse populations, as well as to medically underserved communities.
• Jennifer Carson, Ph.D., Dementia Engagement, Education and Research (DEER) Program director, School of Community Health Sciences, envisions a world in which people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias can live well and thrive. "A diagnosis of dementia is so stigmatized and so misunderstood, that people living with dementia and their families often withdraw from their social lives, exacerbating isolation and diminishing well-being," said Carson.
• Dean’s Reflections: Refocusing on wellness
• The Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents voted today at its monthly board meeting to approve an affiliation agreement between the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) and Renown Health that will establish the first fully integrated health system in Nevada.
• Today, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed Senate Bill 342 into law. The bill authorizes the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents to enter into an agreement to affiliate with a publicly or privately owned medical facility or related entity, whether for profit or not for profit, to further promote and enhance a medical education or health education program at a university.
• Dean’s Reflections: Match Day results reveal new opportunities to learn and do good
• UNR Med hosted its first-ever hybrid (in-person and virtual) hooding ceremony, conferring Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees to 64 fourth-year medical students of the Class of 2021, graduating as northern Nevada's newest physicians. The live-streamed virtual ceremony is now available for on-demand viewing on UNR Med's YouTube channel.
• Medicine has long been considered both an art and a science. Albert Einstein said “all religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree” because they all serve the same larger purpose – to uplift the lives of human beings – a principle with roots in the Renaissance. This is a message that is often shared by David J. Skorton, M.D., the president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), who served as the keynote speaker for UNR Med’s Class of 2021 Doctor of Medicine Academic Hooding. The AAMC is a not-for-profit association that represents the nation’s 155 accredited medical schools, 17 accredited medical schools in Canada, as well as more than 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, and more than 70 academic societies.
• The transition from medical school to residency is notoriously one of the hardest of our career. As an intern, you work long hours and have an immense amount to learn. It's very common to feel overwhelmed, judged and generally cynical. And now with an entirely uprooted health care landscape from a global pandemic, you may find yourself with many difficult days ahead.
• According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, all Americans 16-years or older are now eligible to get vaccinated. However, as COVID-19 vaccines roll out, many marginalized communities, nationally, are falling behind on receiving the vaccine. Nevada's Latino community is no exception.
• In response to the global need for effective sterilization techniques, researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) collaborated on a study evaluating the efficacy of a dry-sanitizing device. Subhash Verma, Ph.D., associate professor, department of microbiology and immunology at UNR Med, led the study. Verma, Timsy Uppal, Ph.D., research scientist, department of microbiology and immunology, UNR Med; Antoine Snijders, Ph.D., biologist staff scientist, Berkeley Lab; and Amir Khazaieli, Fathhome, Inc., collaborated on the study on inactivation of coronavirus by a dry sanitization device, published in the journal, Pathogens.
