SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS RELEASE
Five University of Nevada School of Medicine faculty earned honors at Nevada Business magazine’s 7th Annual Healthcare Heroes award dinners last week in Las Vegas and Reno.
The annual award program honors Nevadans making significant contributions to health care across 10 categories in both the northern and southern regions of the state. Proceeds from both banquets benefit students pursuing careers in health care education.
At the southern Nevada banquet on Aug. 1, trauma surgeon John Fildes, M.D., and Ann Diggins, director of recruitment, were honored in the research/technology and community partner categories, respectively.
In Reno on Aug. 2, Kenton Sanders, Ph.D., chair of the department of physiology and cell biology, garnered the honors in the research/technology category; Carl Sievert, Ph.D., anatomy professor, was honored in the educator category and David Lupan, Ph.D., senior associate dean for basic sciences and research, was recognized posthumously in the lifetime achievement field.
John Fildes has garnered more than 20 grants in the areas of motor vehicle crash outcomes, domestic violence, emergency medical services for children and traffic safety.
While building one of the strongest trauma and critical care programs in the country at the School of Medicine and University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, he pioneered the Trauma National Data Bank, which is a prospective clinical database that is now used nationwide.
Most recently, he was the point person in obtaining a grant of $2.6 million from the Office of Naval Research for high speed blood and fluid transfusion and a $2.4 million grant from the Office of Army Research for the development of a body warming device for combat casualties.
Ann Diggins works tirelessly creating alliances and collaborations with Clark County School District, higher education institutions in southern Nevada and within the health care community.
The partnerships that she has forged with the East Career and Technical Academy and the Northwest Career and Technical Academy offer science enrichment and medical careers exploration for high school students. Medical students are placed in classrooms to facilitate clinical problems solving using clinical cases.
She also coordinates the School of Medicine’s participation in the partnership with Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada by recruiting medical student volunteers, and coordinating placement and scheduling.
David Lupan served the medical school community for 39 years as a microbiologist. During his early career he was responsible for several major courses for medical students and twice received the University of Nevada, Reno’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award.
Lupan served the past 10 years as senior associate dean for basic science and research of the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
His service on more than three dozen committees has contributed to faculty and chair searches, student admissions, equipment and lab design, building design and construction, student health, biosafety, information technology, personnel and budget issues, student research awards, space allocation and research network administration.
Kenton Sanders focused his research efforts over the last 25 years on the biology of smooth muscle tissue. He has investigated everything from normal movement of stomach contents through the intestinal tract to pathological events in the intestine or muscle lining that block motility, absorption of nutrients and elimination of waste products.
He has been awarded multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health that have brought more than $65 million to the medical school and the University.
Carl Sievert has dedicated his career to the education of medical students, who praise his enthusiasm for the field of anatomy. He has reenergized and reinvented the anatomy program by infusing the curriculum with videos demonstrating dissection techniques and implementing computer technology.
He has been a leader in the School’s educational endeavors, helping guide the construction of the William N. Pennington Health Sciences Building and the anatomy teaching facility within. His skills include integrating clinical medicine into basic science topics has provided a core foundation to the curriculum.
The Nevada Business magazine recognized recipients for their work in the categories of administration, care providing, education, community work, entrepreneurial efforts, humanitarian, innovation, non-profit, technology/research and lifetime achievement at each awards dinner.
The University of Nevada School of Medicine, a research-intensive, community-based, statewide medical school, has served Nevada for more than 40 years as its only public medical school. Our mission is improving the health of Nevada’s diverse population through world-class biomedical research, an innovative curriculum integrating basic and clinical sciences, and highly competitive residency and fellowship programs that complement a statewide network of urban and rural clinical facilities. Through targeted growth and investment in research, clinical services and education, we are a resource for improving health care regionally and across the country.