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PathWays
A monthly newsletter focusing on UW Medicine Pathology faculty, trainees and staff
January 2008
Volume 4, Issue 1
Meeting and Event Calendar, News and Seminar Announcements
Please visit the UW Medicine Pathology homepage or the MyPath intranet site for information on public and internal Pathology news and events.Save the Date Announcements
2008 Holiday Party: Thursday, December 18, 2008 at the
2008 UW Medicine Pathology Retreat: Friday-Saturday, September 12-13, 2008
Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat, Leavenworth
2008 UW Medicine Dermatopathology Conference: Saturday, May 17, 2008 time and location to be confirmed
Special Guest Speaker
Professor Peter Soyer
Department of Dermatology
2008 Haggitt Lecture: May 1, 2008 time and location to be confirmed
Henry Appelman, M.D.
Professor, Department of Pathology
University of Michigan Health System
9th Annual UW Career Discover Week
January 28 - February 2
2008 Alvord Lecture: April 23, 2008 time and location to be confirmed
Arie Perry, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology
Washington University School of Medicine
State of UW Medicine Address: Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 4 PM Hogness Auditorium
Dr. Paul G. Ramsey, CEO, UW Medicine, executive vice president for medical affairs, and dean of the UW School of Medicine, will present the annual State of UW Medicine Address on Thursday, January 31 at 4:00 PM in Hogness Auditorium, Room A-420 in the Health Sciences Center. Highlights will include an overview of progress in the past year, challenges and opportunities facing UW Medicine, and plans and strategic initiatives for the coming year.
All faculty, staff, students, residents, and trainees are invited to attend. Archive video of this lecture will be on the UW Medicine Web site beginning Feb. 1, 2008.
Updated information on the events listed above will be available in the next issue of PathWays.
UWMC News
UW Medicine Pathology Annual Holiday Party
UW Medicine Pathology hosted the department-wide holiday party on December 18th with well over 200 faculty members, students and staff stopping by to spread a little holiday cheer. Once again our colleagues supported a local charity by generously donating nearly forty pounds of supplies and $140 to ROOTS, a University District homeless shelter. Special thanks to Stephanie Brown and Eric Broeren for their help organizing the event and for picking out the always popular raffle items. Former Pathology student assistant Nicole Barnes and her saxophone quartet provided the music.Please visit the holiday party photo gallery to view pictures of the joyous occasion. And click here to view the UW Medicine Pathology presentation that ran at the party.
HMC News
Holiday Party Recap
HMC faculty and staff hosted its annual holiday party on December 19th. The festive occasion featured delicious food, creative decorations, fabulous entertainment and interesting gifts. Kudos to the holiday committee (Sara Burns, Antoinette Swensson, Tyler Hansen, Kim Howard, and Leah Washington) for putting together such a wonderful event. Special thanks also to all of the folks who helped with the beautiful decorations and cleanup, including Toni Baullinger and De Lora Archer.
New HMC Employees
Leah Washington and Josh Goetsch
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Please welcome Leah Washington and Josh Goetsch to the HMC Pathology team. Leah’s primary responsibilities are: accessioning outside referrals/consults, processing payroll and human resource functions as well as tracking department compliance and training requirements. She has learned a lot and met many wonderful people since she started last fall. Leah comes from a family who has always worked in the medical field. In fact, her first job at UW was six years ago during her junior year of high school. Leah is currently taking pre-requisite classes for a future in nursing.
Josh comes to us after ten years in the Costco Wholesale Bakery and Meat departments. Josh attended the University of Washington, majoring in English, and is currently enrolled in the Editing certificate program at UW. Working at Harborview appealed to Josh because it was an opportunity to work in a field that was centered around helping people get well. Josh’s primary job responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following: maintaining the materials room and shipping and receiving fixed specimens.
SLU News
Please visit the UW Medicine at 815 Mercer website for information on South Lake Union news and events.In the News
UWMC Autopsy Services
UWMC was mentioned in a recent Men’s Health Magazine item on the dramatic decrease in autopsy rates in US hospitals. UWMC has the second highest autopsy rate in the country, performing this important diagnostic and educational procedure 31% of the time. Under the direction and leadership of Dr. Corrine Fligner, and combined with the support of clinical colleagues and hospital administration, Dr. Fligner and her Autopsy Services staff perform over 200 autopsies annually. The primary function of the Autopsy Service is to help families and clinicians better understand the UWMC patient’s disease and death. Any suggestions for improvement would be welcomed by Dr. Fligner at fligner@u.washington.edu.
Path People
Zhang Receives Grant from Fox Foundation
UW Medicine Pathology Associate Professor Jing Zhang was recently selected as one of five scientists receiving a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to study biomarkers in Parkinson's disease. The five projects will receive a total of $2 million in support.
Biomarkers are biological compounds that could provide a sort of fingerprint for a disease, allowing patients to be diagnosed earlier and more definitively, and physicians to monitor the progression of the disease.
Dr. Zhang will receive about $400,000 from the Fox Foundation for his project, which will attempt to identify various biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma. Zhang's work will focus on variants of a Parkinson's-related protein called alpha-synuclein. His previous research has found several variants of alpha- synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid and plasma of Parkinson's patients.
Dr. Zhang has received more than $1 million in support from the Fox Foundation for the study of biomarkers.
Employee of the Quarter Nominations
Please visit the Employee of the Quarter website to submit your nomination for the Summer 2007 Employee of the Quarter. The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, January 18th. The winner will be announced in the February edition of PathWays.
- Dianne Willis
- Anthony Trotter
- Chiyen Miller
- Heechun Huh
- Amanda Thomson
- Ellen Seagren
- Stephanie Brown
Combined Fund Drive Update
UW Medicine Pathology raised raised more money than ever this year, increasing participation levels to a new high with 13% of the department getting involved and donating over $13,000. In total, 18% of University Washington employees raised $1.8 million. Many thanks to UWCFD coordinators Stephanie Brown and Gloria Fontelera for their efforts to make this the most successful department campaign yet.
HR News: Work/Life Events
W-2 Forms
W-2 Forms will be available for pick up in C-516 on January 25, 2008.W-4's and January 10th Payday
Form W-4's affecting the January 10, 2008 payday must be received by the Payroll Office by January 3, 2008. US Citizens and immigrants can update W-4 information through Employee Self Service. The University of Washington will not refund federal withholding taxes due to either a late or an incomplete W-4 form. If the employee's filing status or withholding allowances have changed since the last filing of a W-4, the employee should also file a new Form W-4, "Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate".Exempt Status and the W-4
If the employee claimed "exempt" status on the federal income tax withholding during 2007 and is eligible to renew the claim for 2008, he or she MUST submit a new Form W-4, "Employees Withholding Allowance Certificate", to the Payroll Office by February 15, 2008. If this new form is not received, University is required by law to withhold federal income taxes from the employee's wages (at the maximum tax table rate of single, with a zero withholding allowance). US Citizens and immigrants can update W-4 information through Employee Self Service.
Annual Attendance Incentive Program (aka "Sick Leave Buy-back Program") forms are due by 5:00 pm on January 31, 2008. Please visit the UW HR website for eligibility and procedures.
PCS News
Powerpath Reminder
Before working on reports in Word w/PowerPath, please open a blank Word document and make sure that all the boxes are unchecked under Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat tab and AutoFormat As You Type tab. This only needs to be done once and may help prevent the issue of missing header/footer on addendum reports that some of you have experienced occasionally.