Fourth-year student Brody Wehman counts his participation on the annual Mission of Mercy Project as one of the most rewarding experiences of his medical school career. So when he was honored for that service by the Medical Society of Virginia, it was an easy decision to make the MOM Project the beneficiary of the $250 check that came with the award.

“The MOM Projects have provided an incredible free service for the underserved populations in Virginia and in addition have allowed so many of us dental and medical students to get early hands-on experience and patient interaction,” said Wehman. “So giving the check to them was the least I could do.”

Read more about Wehman’s involvement with the MOM Project.

What’s best for students with autism? Getting career skills training in a classroom or learning those skills on the job?

The Richmond Times-Dispatch recently featured a research study that is looking for the answer to that question. In a story that ran on the front page of the paper’s Metro section, readers followed three students who are working at Bon Secours Richmond St. Mary’s Hospital as part of the project.

“It’s a very specific plan we have for each of the students,” Jennifer Todd McDonough told the Times-Dispatch. McDonough is the project’s research coordinator. “The goal of this program is to get the students employed.”

The three students featured in the news article were randomly assigned to the work-skills experience. Others are enrolled in classroom career skills training.
Professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation Paul Wehman, Ph.D., is principal investigator of the project that is funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Wehman is also senior administrator of VCU’s Center for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering.

Read the story “Students with autism learn work skills” or watch a slide show with photos and narration.

The Virginia House of Delegates has honored the life of Dr. Everette L. May with a Memorial Resolution, HJR 175. On February 25, the resolution was read aloud by the Clerk of the House from the front of the Chamber.

An accomplished medicinal chemist whose career included stints in industry as well as at the National Institutes of Health, May died on Aug. 9, 2008.

When May retired from the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. in 1977, he joined the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the VCU School of Medicine where he maintained an active role until shortly before his death.

You can learn more about May’s career that was devoted to improving drugs to treat pain in an obituary published by the American Chemical Society, Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame or from a biography on the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology’s Web site.

Neurology Professor Warren L. Felton, III, M.D., answered viewers’ questions about stroke on a recent “Doctors On Call” segment.

Featuring physicians from the VCU Medical Center, the segment airs every other Wednesday, on WTVR-CBS6′s 7 p.m. program Virginia Tonight. That same evening from 7-8 p.m., the specialist participates in an interactive web chat to answer additional questions.

Go to the TV6 Web site to see Dr. Felton’s appearance or watch other faculty members address topics including prostate cancer, heart health and surgical weight loss.

“I think that the Richmond Region has made tremendous progress with diversity in the last 20 years or so.”

That’s M. Imad Damaj, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology, weighing in on Richmond’s international community in the 2010 edition of the Richmond Region’s Official Visitors Guide. A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Damaj is president of the non-profit Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs that promotes understanding of the Islamic faith.

The Visitors Guide is published by the Richmond Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau. With a circulation of 250,000, the guide is distributed via hotels and welcome centers around the state as well as to callers who request a copy.

The article is also available on page 14 of the electronic Visitors Guide, and more information on the Richmond Region is available at www.visitrichmondva.com.

Russell P. Seneca, M.D., saw crumbled highways, flattened buildings and countless injured people during his recent medical relief trip to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Seneca is associate dean of medical education for the VCU School of Medicine’s first regional medical campus at Inova Fairfax Hospital. As such he oversees the education of the 48 VCU third- and fourth-year medical students who are training on the Inova Campus.

He’s also chief of surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital. It was those skills he put to use, spending a week in Haiti as part of a 12-person medical team to offer emergency triage care to the injured.

“Trying to function there, whether as a physician, or a caregiver or even passing out food and water, is difficult,” Seneca said. “Hospitals and roads are damaged, supplies are limited and the system is overloaded. But we accomplished much there.”

Read stories and pictures from the trip in the Washington Post’s coverage published on January 20 and January 31 as well as at the VCU News Center.