Thursday, December 18, 2008

UA Vice President Dr. William Crist to Lecture on Childhood Cancer

[Source: East Valley Living] - Conquering Childhood Cancer: A Paradigm for Translational Research; Lecture to be Held Wednesday January 14, 2009 at Virginia G. Piper Auditorium

PHOENIX - The advances in treatment of childhood cancer in the last generation have been nothing less than life-changing, says William M. Crist, MD, the new vice president for health affairs for The University of Arizona.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University and the Flinn Foundation will host Dr. Crist, who will talk about his experience in a presentation titled, “Conquering Childhood Cancer: A Paradigm for Translational Research,” on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009, 5:30 p.m., in the Virginia G. Piper Auditorium, 550 E. Van Buren, in downtown Phoenix. The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking in the College of Medicine lot, with entrance on Seventh Street, also is free. (Dr. Crist also will speak in Tucson on Thursday, Jan. 15, 5 p.m., at DuVal Auditorium at University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave.)

Dr. Crist is among the scientists credited with dramatically improving our understanding of childhood leukemias and their treatments. He spent much of his career from the 1970s through the 1990s in the field of pediatric hematology and oncology first at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Memphis, and St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis before becoming chairman of pediatric and adolescent medicine at Mayo Medical Center in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Crist had been serving as dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri before being named UA vice president for health affairs last summer. He began his new duties Oct. 31.

The Donald K. Buffmire Visiting Lectureship in Medicine, begun in 1997, continues the Flinn Foundation’s commitment to bringing to Arizona leading practitioners and thinkers in the medical field. The lectureship aims to offer to physicians, students and community members opportunities to hear from distinguished leaders in the field of medicine and medical education. In 2008, the annual lecture was expanded to a biannual basis and includes presentations in both Phoenix and Tucson.

The lectureship is named for late Donald K. Buffmire, MD, in recognition of his distinguished career as a medical practitioner in Arizona and his leadership role with the Flinn Foundation in supporting the College of Medicine. Dr. Buffmire, who died this year, served as a board director from 1965-99, including 15 years as president and chairman.

The Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed organization that awards grants to nonprofit organizations in Arizona, primarily to improve the competitiveness of the state’s biomedical-research enterprise.

The UA College of Medicine is the only MD degree-granting college in Arizona. Beginning in 1967 with a class of 32 students on its Tucson campus, the college today encompasses full, four-year medical-education programs in Tucson and since 2007, in Phoenix.

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