'U.S. News & World Report' releases Best Colleges rankings

Johns Hopkins is ranked 15th in U.S. News & World Report's latest tally of the country's Best Colleges. In 2007, JHU was tied at 14, up from 16 in 2006. It was tied at 13 in 2005, 14 in both 2004 and 2003, 15 in 2002 and 16 in 2001. This year's top three spots went to Harvard, Princeton and Yale, with MIT and Stanford tied for 4th.

In the rankings for undergraduate engineering programs among schools whose highest degree is a PhD, Johns Hopkins is tied at 14, as it was the previous three years. In specialty rankings, Johns Hopkins took the top spot in biomedical engineering, followed by Duke, Georgia Tech, UC San Diego and MIT. In environmental engineering/environmental health, JHU is ranked 5th.

In an unranked section called "Programs to look for," Johns Hopkins is recognized for undergraduate research/creative projects.

For complete listings, go to: www.usnews.com/sections/rankings/index.html.

 

JHM and Mexican Society of Neurosurgery hold conference

Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Mexican Society of Neurosurgery last month in Mexico co-hosted a daylong conference on brain tumor management, an unusual joint venture that the planners hope will be a model in that country for continuing medical education programs covering a wide range of medical specialties.

Henry Brem, head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, and four senior colleagues traveled to Puerto Vallarta for the program, developed in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Medicine International and the Continuing Medical Education arm of Johns Hopkins.

"This is the first time that CME credits were made available to Mexican physicians," said Brem, referring to courses accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in the United States.

The curriculum covered brain cancer stem cell research, the biology of primary tumors, minimally invasive brain surgery, brain cancer genomics and spinal cord tumors, among other topics.

Attendees from Johns Hopkins, in addition to Brem, were Alfredo Quinones, Rafael Tamargo, George Jallo and Gregory Riggins.

Quinones, a native of Mexico who worked picking vegetables in California before attending medical school at Harvard, was co-director of the event along with neurosurgeon Rodrigo Ramos Zuniga, a native of Mexico who is a faculty member of the University of Guadalajara. Luis Davila Maldonado of the National Institutes of Health, Mexico, also a native of Mexico, spoke at the event.

 

Nursing students attend event for retail health clinicians

Two family nurse practitioner students from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing received Johnson & Johnson scholarships to attend the inaugural Retail Clinician Education Congress held in August in Orlando, Fla. Stephanie Chen and Virginia Remley were two of only 15 representatives nationwide selected to attend this first-ever conference for retail health clinicians. In addition to completing their degrees in community health at the School of Nursing, both students are pursuing a master's in public health from the Bloomberg School.

Located at large stores such as CVS, Target and Wal-Mart, retail clinics are designed to offer a convenient and cheaper alternative to traditional family practitioners. The clinics, which treat common illnesses from ear infections to sprained ankles, are referred to by the Academy of American Family Physicians as one of the "more profound" trends within the American health care system.

The Orlando event featured experts in the medical profession addressing a variety of issues linked with retail health, including treatment of common illnesses, detecting early symptoms of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and the fundamentals of patient billing and coding.

"I'm interested in retail health because it allows more people to access health care," Chen said. "Retail health is also a great way to [connect] people to state or federal health programs that they might not know about."

 

Presidential music, memorabilia on display at Eisenhower Library

From George Washington to George W. Bush, presidential candidates have captured the American voter's attention with music and memorabilia. In the spirit of the 2008 presidential election, sheet music for campaign songs from the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, and buttons, tie tacks and other souvenirs from some of America's most memorable elections, will be displayed at Homewood's Milton S. Eisenhower Library from Wednesday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Dec. 8.

GO TO SEPTEMBER 2, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE FRONT PAGE.