JOINED: Weirton native Dr. Raymond Hinerman, DDS, is now on the staff of the ear, nose, throat, head and neck surgery at Medical Park in Wheeling.

Certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology, he is a graduate of the West Virginia University Dental School with an additional residency in hospital dentistry. He had a general dentistry practice in the Elkins area before graduating from WVU Medical School. During a five-year residency in otolaryngology at WVU Hospitals, he researched and authored several publications concerning the outcome of endoscopic sinus surgery in children with allergies as well as smoke exposure.

As an assistant professor in otolaryngology at WVU hospital, he received the B.G. Slaughter Fitz-Hugh Research Award for the southern section Triological Society and has presented and an eight-year review of frontal sinus fractures at WVU.

Hinerman previously was an associate at Morgantown ENT with surgery privileges at Ruby Memorial Hospital and Mon General Hospital. He comes to Wheeling from Abingdon ENT in Bristol, Va., and is presently a member of American Academy of Otolaryngology, American Medical Association and American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy.

Hinerman, a 1987 graduate of Weir High School, can be reached at (304) 234-2060.

DIRECTOR: Shane T. Stack is now the full-time director of alumni relations at West Liberty University.

Stack graduated from WLU in 2010 with a degree in business administration. He previously was employed with the WLU Research Corp. as program director.

While an undergraduate, Stack served two terms as student body president and was the student representative and voting member on the WLU board of governors. A native of Powhatan Point, he has served as treasurer for the town of West Liberty for three years. He resides in Wheeling.

PROMOTED: Anne Grealy is now executive director of state government affairs for FirstEnergy.

In this role, she will oversee legislative strategies in the company's Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland service areas as well as in areas where the company's competitive subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, is active, including Illinois and Michigan. She also will act as the company's liaison with public utilities commissions.

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Quick Takes

Big Pharma is going back to school.

To help reverse a decline in drug pipelines, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and Harvard Business Schools Health Industry Alumni Association host a conference today chronicling both the complexities of bringing drugs to market, and how collaborations between academia and Big Pharma are giving the drug developers a much-needed shot in the arm.

Innovation and drug discovery and development is happening in academia and in biotech, and Boston is a renowned center for biotech, said conference co-chairman Wolfgang Klietmann, a lecturer on pathology at Harvard Medical School. The two sides have to reunite to achieve innovation in drug discovery and overcome the attrition of the pipelines, which is a major concern overall in the drug development industry.

The conference will be held at Harvard Medical Schools Joseph P. Martin Conference Center.

Klietmann, citing a recent gene transfer partnership between Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania, said its essential for academic physician-scientists to think past the notion of industriophobia, as new drugs can cost up to $1.5 billion and take an average of 12 years to develop.

There is a necessity for a more natural collaboration, and medical schools and also the industry are very well aware of it, he said. I sense here a new climate for openness.

Along with panel discussions, guest speakers include Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, who will discuss the role of social entrepreneurship in the future of medicine. Wojcicki is the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Conference co-chairman Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos of Pfizer will discuss the companys Centers of Therapeutic Innovation, which unite scientists from academia with Pfizer drug hunters in order to translate novel ideas into efficient medicines.

Pfizer, which has research units in Kendall Square, currently has CTIs in San Diego, New York and Boston that work with 23 academic medical centers, including nine in the Hub.

Gutierrez-Ramos, Pfizers senior vice president and head of biotherapeutics research and development, said another goal of the conference is to generate more entrepreneurs from the venture capital world or Big Pharma who can focus on drug development for the long-term.

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Unclogging the drug pipeline

MICHIGAN CITY Eight new teachers have joined the ranks at Michigan City High School this year. Four of these teachers are assigned to special education classes, one to physical education, one to English, one to German and one to industrial technology.

Valerie Beglin was born and raised in Evansville, Ind., and recently relocated to Michigan City after completing her education and special education degrees at Indiana University. She taught at Knapp Elementary as a special education and a second grade teacher.

After taking time off to raise her children, Beglin is returning to the classroom to as a co-teacher of English 10.

Charles Brennan was raised in La Porte County and attended Michigan City Area Schools. He is a Rogers High School graduate of the class of 1988.

Brennan decided to go back into teaching this year and said he is looking forward to a long career teaching autoCad and life and careers at MCHS.

Laura Diemer is a resident of Michigan City and a 2006 graduate of Michigan City High School. As a beginning teacher, she will teach first-year German to high school students.

Diemer graduated from Valparaiso University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in German and secondary education. She spent a year studying abroad in Tuebingen, Germany while at Valparaiso University.

Diemer is hoping to assist with the German Club activities at the high school and help out during the foreign exchange program this spring.

Andrew Eubank comes to Michigan City High School as a physical education, health and strength training teacher and assistant football and track coach, and will be the JV basketball coach this spring. He is originally from Logansport, Ind.

Eubank holds a Bachelors of Science from Purdue University in West Lafayette in physical education. He has coached basketball for seven years at four schools and also coached football and track for three years.

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Three MCAS alumni among new teachers at high school

After graduation students ultimately have two options: enter the workforce or continue their education. Though students can wait to start sending out job applications, several graduate programs require planning and forethought.

Medical schools and law schools require that applicants take the MCAT or LSAT either the summer before or the fall of their senior year. But one of the first things students can do to prepare for graduate school is to have a strong GPA.

I wish someone wouldve reiterated that your GPA matters, said Emily Pence 10, a current student at Indiana Universitys Maurer Law School. She, like many of the panelists at the Life after DePauw forum on Thursday, encouraged the use of the Kaplan Prep courses for their respective graduate school tests.

About 24 percent of DePauw students typically enter further post graduate education, said Bill Tobin, director of Institutional Research. Six percent of those students head to either law school or medical school with the other 18 percent pursuing post-graduate education in a variety of fields, according to Tobin.

Michelle Sollman Sharp08, who went studied occupational therapy post-grad at Marian University, said students should be your own advocate meaning that it is ultimately the students responsibility to search out deadlines and the processes that are required for their respective graduate schools.

Adrienne Cobb 09 wishes that she had followed preparation more closely while she was at DePauw.

Since we dont have a set pre-med major, I didnt have someone to spell it out for me, Cobb said.

As a result, she and several of the other panelists, especially those who went into the medical field, nearly missed deadlines to apply for graduate school.

Although the application process to graduate school is in many ways similar to the application process for undergraduate institutions, the differences end there. According to the panelists, the biggest changes between life at DePauw and graduate programs are the class size and the specialty necessarily involved in graduate studies.

You are focused on one area, Sharp said. The fun sociology class no longer exists.

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Graduate school alumni offer advice to hopefuls

Steve Marcus

Dr. Aimee Fleury confers with Dr. Nick Spirtos, medical director of the Womens Cancer Center of Nevada, at the center Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. Fleury, a gynecologic oncologist, joined the center thisAugust.

By Conor Shine (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012 | 2 a.m.

When the Veterans Affairs Medical Center opened last month in North Las Vegas, it was hailed by local and national leaders as a major step forward for delivering healthcare in the valley.

The $600 million, 1-million-square-foot building, which is stocked with state-of-the-art technology and provides a centralized location for a variety of specialized clinics, is expected to improve the quality of care for veterans and will allow the VA to increase the number of Southern Nevada patients it serves by a third to 60,000.

The only problem: There arent enough doctors on staff to handle the influx of new patients.

A doctor shortage has long been plagued Nevada, which consistently ranks near the bottom nationally in doctor-to-patient ratios. In 2011, the most recent figures available, Nevada had 171 physicians for every 100,000 of its residents.

With affordable housing, good weather and a medical industry thats easier to break into than in older, more-established cities, Las Vegas is an attractive option for many doctors.

But a lack of residency and fellowship programs especially in specialty areas like gastroenterology and head and neck surgery makes it difficult to train enough doctors in state to meet the demand, forcing hospitals to look out-of-state when recruiting physicians.

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Shiny, new VA hospital suffers from longtime Nevada malady: doctor shortages

As the Ateneo de Naga HS Class 62 celebrates its 50th graduation anniversary, it is but fitting that our class pays tribute to one member who turned out to be our brightest star and one of the schools most outstanding and most accomplished alumni.

Uldarico V. Brizuela is better known by his nickname Rico.

Rico is one Atenean who has brought honor, glory and goodwill to his alma mater. He joins a long list of distinguished alumni who had done the same thingthe late Raul S. Roco perhaps the most notable of them all, owing to his 2004 run for the Philippine presidency; as well as Sandiganbayan Chief Justice Francis Garchitorena; former Comelec chair Ramon Felipe Jr.; former PCGG chair Ramon Diaz; Camarines Sur Gov. Lray Villafuerte; constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas, SJ; and the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

These people had one thing in common. They were all involved in politics and public service.

But Rico is of a different mold. He feels he can contribute more to society by being a productive, caring and law-abiding private citizen, far from the temptations of graft and corruption, which is the bane of most politicians.

Humble beginnings

From humble beginnings in his hometown, Pili, Camarines Sur, he went to high school in Naga City and college at the Mapua Institute of Technology. Through sheer determination and hard work, he found entrepreneurial success in the business of cargo international airfreight forwarding, as chair of Airlift Asia Inc. (AAI). He also became one of the biggest benefactors of Ateneo de Naga.

Even before Rico institutionalized his philanthropy in 2002 by establishing his R.V. Brizuela Foundation Inc., and registering it as a non-stock, nonprofit corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he had already manifested and demonstrated his generosity to his AAI management team and employees by providing them a very competitive salary structure, a fair and objective employee performance appraisal system, and mid-year and Christmas bonuses equivalent to one months salary every time AAI hit its targets and improved the bottom line.

He was also the catalyst behind the formation of an AAI Employee Multi-Purpose Cooperative, because he believed that some of the needs of AAI employees could be met through this type of organization.

And he opened a scholarship program at the Ateneo de Naga for indigent but deserving high school students, as a way of giving back to the school for the valuable education he received from it.

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Living the Atenean ideal

The Moffat County Future Farmers of America Alumni Tailgate BBQ takes place at 5 p.m. today in the parking lot at Moffat County High School.

Burgers, beans, chips, a drink and dessert can be purchased for $5 before the MCHS varsity football team battles Rife High School at the Bulldog Proving Grounds.

The Colorado Mountain Housing Coalition is sponsoring Mountain Housing Workshop Day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Ramada Inn, 124 W. 6th Street, Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Families with school-aged children at any grade level can apply for assistance in clothing and supplies from several local programs.

The deadline for applications is today.

For more information contact (970) 826-4400 from 9 a.m. to noon or 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. today.

The Love INC program includes necessities such as backpacks, pencils and paper as well as two full sets of clothing and one pair of shoes.

American Legion bingo will take place Saturday at the Elks Lodge, 43 W. Victory Way.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and bingo begins at 5:45 p.m.

The Augusta Wallihan Chapter of Daughters if the American Revolution will host it's monthly meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday in the basement of the Museum of Northwest Colorado.

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Moffat County news round-up for Sept. 7, 2012: FFA Alumni Tailgate BBQ tonight

Thursday, September 6, 2012

CEBU-BASED AWG Group of Companies, the company operating University of Cebu (UC), is going to spend P2 billion to build the University of Cebu Medical Center (UCMC), a Level 4 General Hospital in North Reclamation Area (NRA) in Mandaue.

UC president Augusto Go said in a press conference on Tuesday that up to P1 billion is allotted for the construction of the building and P1 billion for the acquisition of high-end medical equipment.

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The UCMC will be an 8,000 square meter building that sits on a 1.3 hectare property in NRA. It will be the first Level 4 hospital in Mandaue City.

According to the National Center for Health Facilities Development of the Department of Health (DOH), a Level 4 hospital is a teaching and training hospital that provides clinical care and management on the prevalent diseases in the locality, as well as specialized and sub-specialized forms of treatment, surgical procedure and intensive care.

UCMC is a 12-storey medical facility that will have a total of 300 beds. Aside from being a medical center, Dr. Lito Almendras said the medical facility will also have four specialized treatment centers like Center for Cancer, Center for Women, Center for Minimal Evasive Surgery and Center for Aesthetic and Reconstruction.

Go said the firms foray into medical school and medical service business is meant to provide affordable education and medical services for the UC System and Mandaue.

Go said the medical facility will link all the UC schools and campuses and will cater to the medical requirements of its over 44,000 students, benefiting merchant marine students who will need medical accreditation for foreign ship deployment and nurses for their medical training and employment.

Go said UC students and alumni will be entitled to special discounts. The UC System has four campuses located in Sanciangko, Banilad, Mandaue and Mambaling.

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UC to spend P2B to build hospital