UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public

Few topics are more controversial than nutrition. With new scientific findings published daily and discussed widely in the media, with vast amounts of media advertising about what food to eat and what supplements to take, with enticing food wherever we turn, and with a biologic environment that makes us hungry three times a day, how do we know how to eat to stay healthy? This course, presented by an interdisciplinary team of UCSF clinicians and scientists, will explore the concept of healthy eating and explain the molecular and hormonal basis of energy balance and appetite control. You will learn why it is so hard to keep pounds off, what supplements and vitamins to take and which ones to avoid, and why certain diets work and others don’t.

COURSE CO-CHAIRS:
Robert B. Baron, MD, MS, Director, Mini Medical School for the Public; Professor of Medicine; Associate
Dean, Graduate and Continuing Medical Education
Marieke Kruidering-Hall, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology;
Co-director, Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship Program

May 5
Obesity 2009: Ten Things You Thought You Knew
Robert B. Baron, MD, MS, Director, Mini Medical
School for the Public; Professor of Medicine;
Associate Dean, Graduate and Continuing Medical
Education

May 12
Fad Diets: Do They Really Work?
Andrea Garber, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor, Division
of Adolescent Medicine

May 19
Cholesterol and Fats in Your Blood: Chemistry, Control, and Chaos
Tracy Fulton, PhD, Professor, Department of
Biochemistry and Biophysics

May 26
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Robert H. Lustig, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Division
of Endocrinology

June 2
Regulation of Appetite: Is it Genetic?
Christian Vaisse, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, UCSF
Diabetes Center

June 9
Nutrition in a Bottle: A Scientific c Review of Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements
Ellen Hughes MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of
Medicine; Former Director of Education, Osher
Center for Integrative Medicine

What can be done now to set our children on the right track? This course, taught by UCSF pediatric specialists and surgeons will focus on a wide range of topics that pertain to children and teens and how intervention and treatment now can have major consequences for their future lives well beyond just their health. Topics will include up-to-date discussions of vaccination, childhood obesity, probiotics, and pediatric emergencies, as well as explorations of how hearing, speech, and the mind both develop and go awry.

COURSE CO-CHAIRS:
Anna K. Meyer, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Department of
Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
Peggy S. Weintrub, MD, Professor of Pediatrics; Chief, Pediatric Infectious Disease

May 6
Watch The Lion King 50 Times and Never Get Bored? Insights Into the Mind of the Child
Andrea Marmor, MD, Assistant Professor,
Department of Pediatrics

May 13
Supplements for Children: Is There a Friendly Bacteria?
Michael D. Cabana, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics,
Epidemiology & Biostatistics; Chief, Division of
General Pediatrics

May 20
The Bermuda Triangle of Pediatric Obesity: More Than Just the Calories
Kristine Madsen, MD, Assistant Professor,
Department of Pediatrics

May 27
Vaccine Controversies: Fact Vs Fiction
Peggy S. Weintrub, MD, Professor of Pediatrics; Chief,
Pediatric Infectious Disease

June 3
Don’t’ Panic! The ABCs of Pediatric Emergencies
Christine Cho, MD, Assistant Professor, Department
of Pediatrics; Division of Emergency Medicine,
Children’s Hospital Oakland

June 10
The Critical Early Years of Language Development: You Can’t Say What You Don’t Hear
Anna K. Meyer, MD, Assistant Professor, Division
of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Department of
Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery

Healthcare reform is back on the political agenda in Washington and in California. In this course leading health policy researchers at the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies will serve as guides to health reform. What’s wrong with healthcare? How can we fix x it? How might we get care and pay for it in a reformed system? And can healthcare reform really make us more healthy? No one can predict which side will win the health reform battle, but this course will help understand what’s at stake.

COURSE CHAIR:
Daniel Dohan, PhD, Associate Professor & Associate Director for Training, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health
Policy Studies

May 7
Health in America: What’s Health Reform Got to Do with It?
Laura Schmidt, PhD, Associate Professor, Philip R. Lee
Institute for Health Policy Studies

May 14
Creating a 60 Mile Per Gallon US Health Care System
Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH, Associate Clinical
Professor, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy
Studies

May 21
Health Reform and Primary Care: A Medical Home for All Americans?
Diane R. Rittenhouse, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor,
Department of Family and Community Medicine,
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies,
Center for Excellence in Primary Care

May 28
Better Ways to Pay for Health Care
Harold S. Luft, PhD, Director, Palo Alto Medical
Foundation Research Institute; Professor Emeritus of
Health Policy and Health Economics

June 4
Quality and Performance: Know What You’re Getting in Health Care
R. Adams Dudley, MD, MBA, Associate Professor,
Medicine and Health Policy; Associate Director for
Research, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy
Studies

June 11
The Limits for Reform: Why More Insurance Won’t Cure Health Inequalities
Claire Brindis, DrPH , Professor of Pediatrics and
Health Policy; Interim Director, Philip R. Lee Institute
for Health Policy Studies

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US. How far have we come in our
understanding of what cancer is and how to treat it?

As the title of this course illustrates, clinical practice informs basic science research,
and that research in turn informs clinical practice. The fi eld of oncology is an excellent
example of this – discoveries in molecular biology and genetics have revolutionized clinical
care for patients with cancer. New genomic technologies are allowing us to understand
molecular changes that underlie cancer development, with the promise of more specific
diagnoses and individualized treatment options. In this course, we will begin at the “bench”
describing genomic alterations that occur in cancer cells and how applications of genomic
technologies use this information for diagnostic and therapeutic management. Throughout
the rest of the course, several common cancers will be discussed – colon, breast, skin
and prostate, along with familial or inherited cancer syndromes, with an emphasis on how
research and advances in technologies are impacting clinical care.

Course chair: Katherine Hyland, PhD, Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics;
Affiliate Member, Institute for Human Genetics, Professional School Course Director

May 7
Frontiers in Cancer Diagnostics: Chipping Away at Cancer
Katherine Hyland, PhD, Associate Professor,
Biochemistry and Biophysics
Joseph DeRisi, PhD, Professor, Biochemistry
and Biobiophysics; Howard Hughes Medical
Investigator

May 14
Oncology 101 & Colon Cancer in 2008: Raising the Bar for Success
Andrew H. Ko, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor
of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology,
UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center

May 21
All in the Family: Inherited Cancer Risk
Amie M. Blanco, MS, CGC, Certified Genetic
Counselor, UCSF Cancer Risk Program, UCSF
Hellen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer
Center and UCSF Department of Medicine,
Division of Gastroenterology

May 28
Breast Cancer 2008: Can We Tailor Treatment?
Judith Luce, MD, Clinical Professor of
Medicine; Director, Oncology Services,
San Francisco General Hospital

June 4
Skin Cancer: To Tan or Not to Tan, That is the Question
Ervin Epstein, MD, Scientist, Children’s
Hospital of Oakland Research Institute (CHORI)

June 11
Prostate Cancer: What Every Man (and Woman) Should Know
Charles Ryan, MD , Assistant Clinical Professor
of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology

With emergency department visits increasing every year, acute healthcare has come to
play a larger role in outpatient medical care. This course will overview questions about your
acute healthcare needs such as warning signs of a stroke or heart attack, what to watch
out for during your wilderness travels or if you are taking care of children, as well as agents
of bioterrorism and emerging infections that have been most recently covered in the media.
We will also discuss how these acute care needs are met through our emergency response
system and medical disaster relief.

Course Chairs: Malini K. Singh, MD, MPH, Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
School of Medicine; Clinical Attending, San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Services
Christopher W. Barton, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine; Medical Director, Emergency
Services, San Francisco General Hospital

May 8
First Response: Emergency Medical
Service From 911 to Disaster Relief
John F. Brown MD, MPA, FACEP, Assistant Clinical
Professor of Medicine, SFGH Emergency Services;
Medical Director, San Francisco EMS Agency
Clement Yeh, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor
of Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine; Medical
Director, San Francisco Department of Emergency
Management

May 15
Into the Wild: Backcountry
Medicine 101
Judith Klein, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of
Medicine , UCSF School of Medicine; Section Editor,
Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine

May 22
Kids Care: Common Maladies and
Misadventures in Children
Ronald Dieckmann, MD, Professor of Emergency
Medicine and Pediatrics, UCSF School of Medicine;
Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine

May 29
Bug Attack: From Emerging
Infections to Agents of War
Malini K. Singh, MD, MPH, Assistant Clinical
Professor of Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine
Craig Smollin, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of
Medicine, UCSF School of Medicine; Assistant
Medical Director, California Poison Control System,
San Francisco Division

June 5
Stroke Strikes: Understanding
Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and
Treatment of Stroke
Steven K. Polevoi, MD, Associate Clinical
Professor of Medicine, Division of Emergency
Medicine; Director, UCSF Emergency
Department

June 12
Don’t Leave Your Heart in San
Francisco: Understanding
Cardiac Emergencies
Jeffrey A. Tabas, MD, Associate Professor,
UCSF School of Medicine; Director,
Performance Improvement, San Francisco
General Hospital Emergency Services