He might be nuts, but for a good cause.

Josh Barton, MD ('04) has developed a way to combine his passion for cycling with his passion for pancreatic surgery. From July 9 to July 18, he will be in France to follow the Tour de France. Josh and friends make this trip every five years or so, but this year they are taking on a new challenge known as the “Nuts of Ventoux”. They ride up Mont Ventoux on bikes over all 3 passes that cross the mountain. Mont Ventoux is considered to be one of them most difficult cycling climbs in the world and they plan to do it three times in one day. This requires 68 km of climbing and will then be eligible to be part of the French club called "The Brotherhood of the Nuts of Ventoux". They will also be raising money for pancreatic cancer.

Does he have his own zipcode?

Gary D Myers, MD ('85) travels near and far, from Stilwell, OK to Haiti for surgical care and Monrovia to train physicians.  He was recently elected to the Board of Directors of 'Arzte Ohne Grenzen', which is the Austrian Board of  Doctors Without Borders thus travels to Vienna, Geneva and Prague four times a year.  Catch him if you can.

Great things to look forward to...

There are alot of great things to look forward to in July; but for every good there is some bad.  As we say good-bye and good luck to the 2010 Chief residents, they look forward to new adventures.

Valerie Jolly, MD and Kristi Prejeant, MD are both going into private practice; San Angelo, Texas and Morgan City, Louisiana. Jay Snow is heading to a minimally invasive fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Tim Vavricka is going the check out his sea legs, as he will be stationed in Norfolk, VA with the Navy.

Beating tumors at their own game

Barish Edil, M.D. (2006), now on the faculty at Johns Hopkins is involved with the development of a pancreatic cancer vaccine.  See the complete story at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Update Newsletter.

Newer news.  (Fall 2010).  The Heat that Healed.
More.  (Winter 2010).  Judgement Day.

A new honor

Dr. Russell G. Postier added another feather to his cap in April, when he was named as a David Ross Boyd Professor, the first in our department to achieve this distinction. 

To qualify for a David Ross Boyd Professorship, a faculty member must have consistently demonstrated outstanding teaching, guidance, and leadership for students in an academic discipline or in an interdisciplinary program within the University.

New kids on the block

Match Day 2010 - Congratulations and welcome to the newest members of the Department of Surgery who will join us July 1, 2010.

To the end of the earth

Twelve runners from the Neurofibromatosis (NF) Endurance family including John Steinberg (1991) and Carl Price (1991) and his wife Kathy took a challenge to help raise money for children's tumors by running a marathon in Antarctica, “End of the Earth for a Cure.”

Carl described it as running in frozen peanut butter. John said it was the hardest thing he had ever done but worth the effort. 

For more about their adventures, see the  NF Endurance blog.