Janene Madras, PharmD, Director of Admissions and Student Services, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Erie, earned certification as an ambulatory care specialist. Bojana Stevich, MS, PharmD, Assistant Professor, Erie, earned certification as an oncology pharmacist. Danielle DeBias, PharmD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Erie; along with Adjunct Assistant Professors of Pharmacy Practice Jenna Banner, PharmD, and Danielle Stitt, PharmD, earned certifications as pharmacotherapy specialists.
School of Dental Medicine Francis M. Curd, DDS, DMD, Associate Dean for Preclinical Education, Bradenton, co-authored “The Declining Number of practicing African American dentists in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 1970-2010” in the Journal of the American Dental Association.
Article Published by LECOM Pharmacy Faculty stirs up FDA reporting issues. A study on the effectiveness of US Food and Drug Administration medication reporting policies has generated a new debate of the FDA policies. The prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine published an article written by Abby Powers, PharmD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, LECOM School of Pharmacy in Erie and former faculty member Elliott Cook, PharmD. Once the article appeared on the Archives web site, the story was picked up by the New York Times and other publications. Since 2007, federal law requires the FDA to review adverse drug reports bi-weekly and issue a quarterly report on any new safety information or potential signal of a serious risk. Dr. Powers and Cook studied the quarterly reports between 2008 and 2010. They determined that half of the reported risks resulted in label changes, which meant the drug manufacturer had to report the risk on the medication, and in at least one case, the drug was removed from the market. They noted that concern exists because the FDA does not recommend physicians take action on the potential signal of risk in these quarterly reports. According to the authors, this leads to confusion among health care providers. “It is time we better recognize the importance these are signals for the safety of the public even if it they are just a ‘potential’ signal,” the authors concluded.
Alumni Notes Class of 1999
Jarrod Frydman, DO is the owner of private family medicine practice in Plantation, Fla. He has two children: Corey (8) and Hannah (7). Joseph A. Racanelli, DO was selected as one of the Top Docs in New Jersey Magazine 2011. He received the Patient’s Choice and the Most Compassionate Doctor awards.
Class of 2000 Michael A. DiGiorno, DO is an attending nephrologist at a private practice in Yonkers, NY. Stanley J. Gorski, DO has been with the Integrated Medical Group for eight years in Pine Grove, Pa. He has two sons, Stanley (7) and Alek (5).
She is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology. Jason Rigoni, DO completed an American College of Surgery Fellowship and specializes in trauma and breast surgery. While with the US Army he served two tours in Afghanistan. He is currently a general surgeon in Lima, Ohio and teaches medical students from University of Toledo as an Associate Professor of Surgery. Dr. Rigoni is married for 13 years and has four children. Olga Selioutski, DO completed an epilepsy fellowship at Strong Epilepsy Center and has accepted a position of Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester, N.Y.
Class of 2003
Frederick C. Raiser, DO just transferred to Alegent Lakeside Hospital Emergency Department in Omaha, Neb.
Dana Rose Ambler, DO is specializing in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in Wilkes Barre, Pa.
Class of 2001
Geoffrey Ouma, DO is a Vascular Fellow at the University Of Pennsylvania Medical School Department Of Medicine Cardiovascular Division Vascular Medicine. He served as section editor of the Atlas of Vascular Medicine.
Paul C. Konitzky, DO recently was named medical director of the hospitalist group Butler (Pa.) Hospital Care Associates. David Skolnick, DO is currently a practicing anesthesiologist in Cheyenne, Wyo.
Class of 2002 Jacqueline Weaver-Agostoni, DO is the program director at UPMC-Shadyside’s Osteopathic Family Medicine Residency in Pittsburgh, Pa. Shirley Jayakumar Dopson, DO is the Medical Director of Davita Oak Springs and Paris Southwestern Nephrology in Washington, Pa.
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Jeffrey Louis Pay, DO is an Emergency Medicine physician and part owner of North Central Emergency Association. The company staffs two Ohio ERs: Fisher Titus Memorial Hospital in Norwalk and The Bellevue Hospital in Bellevue. He also works at St. John’s Westshore Medical Center in Westlake and is a flight physician with Cleveland Metro Life Flight. He is married with three children.
Gaurang Shah, DO practices integrative anti-aging and preventative medicine at BodyLogicMD of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2006, he completed his residency at the Akron City Hospital in family medicine. He is an active member of the American Academy of Antiaging Medicine and the Institute for Functional Medicine. Michael Tunick, DO completed a sports medicine fellowship. He is the team doctor for SUNY Binghamton University athletics. He practices outpatient family medicine, OMT and patient medicine at UHS Wilson Hospital, Johnson City, N.Y.
Class of 2004 Ted W. Parcel, DO is the first DO surgeon with privileges at Carolinas Medical center in Charlotte, N.C. Jason P. Tomsic, DO was elected President of the Washington County (Pa.) Medical Society. Dr. Tomsic is a general surgeon who resides in Washington County. Michael Peter Verdon, DO is a Neurosurgeon with Tristate Neurological Surgeons in Erie, Pa. Michelle Victain, DO recently graduated with a West Penn Allegheny Hospital (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Gastroenterology Fellowship. She also spent an additional year during fellowship learning endoscopic ultrasound, which is a new procedure in GI. Andrew Mark Wilhem, DO is a member of the Pulmonary Critical care staff at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Miss. He