September 2015
9/11: Mother Nature is the World's Biggest Bio-terrorist
George Risi, MD
Infectious Disease Specialists, PC
Dr. Risi is an infectious disease specialist, who runs Infectious Disease Specialists, PC, an infectious disease clinic located on the campus of St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana. The clinic participates in clinical trials of novel therapies for disease treatment and vaccines for disease prevention, as well as provides education for both providers as well as the public throughout Western MT. Additionally, Dr. Risi is the Infectious Disease Clinical Consultant to the Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton, a federally funded research facility studying a variety of bacterial and viral infections; plus he is the medical director of the Friday Medical Conference.
9/18: Treating Chronic Hep C: The Dark Side of the Moon
Claude Tonnerre, MD
Providence Health and Services/St. Patrick Hospital
9/25: Evolving concepts in the Staging, Evaluation, and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
Paul Hanson, MD
Providence Group
Learn the current evaluation and staging of pancreatic cancer; boarderline resectable pancreatic cancer; and the indications for neoadjuvant chemotherapy and XRT.
Dr. Hansen is the director of surgical oncology for Providence Cancer Center, medical director of Providence Hepatobiliary and Pancratic Surgery Program, and medical director of Providence Liver Cancer Clinic.
October 2015
10/2: Traumatic Brain Injury’s Progressive Outcomes: One Thing after Another
Richard Felix, MDMedical Director, Psychiatric Services, PSPH
As well as being the Medical Director for Psychiatric Services at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Dr. Felix's other accomplishments include:Member of Governor’s Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Council; MD: The Ohio State University College of Medicine; Residency: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Certified: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; Distinguished Life Fellow of American Psychiatric Association, plus Member of American Neuropsychiatric Association.
10/9: Salmonella: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Olivia Steele-Mortimer, PhD
Rocky Mountain Laboratories
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Salmonella Typhimurium) is one of the most common causes of food borne gastroenteritis in the developed world. In other parts of the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, it is responsible for high rates of mortality, primarily because of the large number of people with HIV-AIDS, malaria or malnutrition. In the absence of a fully functional immune system Salmonella Typhimurium causes systemic disease, which is often not diagnosed, and can lead to infection of the central nervous system. Consequently, Salmonella Typhimurium is now one of the most common causes of bacterial meningitis in some parts of Africa, although in the developed world this is very rare. The seminar will focus on some of our recent work on how Salmonella Typhimurium establishes its intracellular niche as well as a new mouse model for meningitis.
Dr. Olivia Steele-Mortimer grew up in Ireland and Wales. She studied microbiology at the University of London and then spent several years working in research laboratories in Munich, Germany, and Birmingham, Alabama. She did her Ph.D. research on Rab5 and endocytosis at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laboratory of Dr. Jean Gruenberg. Subsequently, she has used her backgrounds in basic cell biology and microbiology to study how bacterial pathogens interact with host cells. She started working on Salmonella while a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of B. Brett Finlay in Vancouver, Canada. Since then her research has focused on understanding how this facultative intracellular pathogen interacts with mammalian cells. Dr. Steele-Mortimer joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as a tenure-track investigator in 2001 and was awarded tenure in 2007.
10/16: Particulate Matter and Lung Disease
Paul Smith,DO
Community Medical Center
Paul Smith D.O. received his Doctorate of Osteopathy at Kirksville College of Medicine in 1980 and is presently Director of Pediatric Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Community Medical Center. Dr. Smith moved to Missoula 5 years ago from Cleveland, Ohio, where he completed his Pediatric Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowships at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in 1991. He remained at Case Western as Associate Professor of Pediatrics, plus served as Director of Pediatric Critical Care at Metrohealth Hospital. Currently, through the University of Montana, Dr. Smith researches wood smoke exposure and how it relates to respiratory tract disease in Native Americans.
10/23: Radiation Oncology Fundamentals
Michelle Proper, MD
Community Medical Center
Dr. Michelle Proper has an undergrad degree in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her medical degree is from University of Chicago and she is a member of AOA. She did her residency at University of Colorado, where she was chief resident in her last year. Her first position was as an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonweath University. During her short one-year stay, she was teacher of the year. From there she joined Billings Clinic in 2013, and then moved to Missoula in June 2014. Currently, she is the Cancer on Commission Physician Liaison for CMC, and the Montana Cancer Consortium Principle Investigator for the NRG (newly formed collaboration between NSABP, RTOG, and GOG).
10/30: Medical-Legal Hot Button Issues
Peter J. Stokstad, JD and Elizabeth Lowrance Hausbeck, JD
Galington/Lohn/Robinson
The presentation begins with a reminder that the two most important things providers can do reduce their risk is effective bed side manner/communication and documentation. Peter and Elizabeth will then focus on four other areas: 1)EMR issues; 2) issues dealing with incompetent providers/criticism of providers; 3) being too busy; and 4) the new Montana statute shortening medical malpractice statute of limitations.
November 2015
11/6: Update on Ebola Virus Vaccines
Andrea Marzi, PhD
Rocky Mountain Laboratories
Andrea Marzi, Ph.D. is a Staff Scientist in the Disease Modeling and Transmission Section in the Laboratory of Virology of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH located at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. Dr. Marzi received her Ph.D. 2007 from the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, Germany before joining Dr. Heinz Feldmann’s laboratory as a postdoc in Winnipeg, Canada. Throughout her still young career she has worked with a number of viruses including HIV, SARS-CoV, HCMV and filoviruses and has authored more than 50 publications. She has more than 10 years of research experience with cell culture and animal models (mouse, hamster, guinea pig, nonhuman primate, pig) including cell culture and animal work in high containment (BSL-4) laboratories (National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Canada; Integrated Research Facility, RML, Hamilton, Montana). Her research at RML focuses on vaccine development for hemorrhagic fever viruses and the pathogenesis of Ebola and Marburg viruses.
11/13: What's New in Total Hip Arthroplasty-What Works and What Doesn't
Gary Willstein, MD
Missoula Bone and Joint
11/20: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients
Jeremy Smith
Jeremy N. Smith is the author of the new book, Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients, the true story of a 20-year, 500-scientist, $100-million moonshot attempt to track and quantify every illness, injury, and death for everyone on Earth: the biggest of Big Data ever. He writes regularly on health for the New York Times, The Atlantic, and Discover, and he and his work have been featured by CNN, NPR News, and Wired, among many other outlets. His first book, Growing a Garden City, was one of Booklist’s top 10 books of 2011
11/27: NO FMC-Holiday
December 2015
12/4: The Clincial Utility of Ankle-Foot Orthoses for Improving Walking Ability of Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease
Ryan Mays, PhD, MPH, MS
University of Montana
Dr. Mays is a Research Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology in the School of Physical Therapy at the University of Montana and is the Director of the Montana Peripheral Artery and Cardiac Exercise (PACE) Laboratory where he is a Research Scientist with the International Heart Institute. Dr. Mays received his Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as well as a Master of Science degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology. He went on to complete a Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Research Exercise Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a 3 year NIH-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he also completed a Master of Public Health degree. He also holds an Adjoint Assistant Professor of Medicine position in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado. Dr. Mays is currently the principal investigator for two NIH funded clinical trials that seek to improve the health and walking outcomes of patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). The first project, a 5-year NHLBI K01 career development award, aims to determine the effect of a community-based exercise program with detailed training, monitoring, and coaching that is enhanced by PAD patient’s perspectives. The second funded project, and the topic of today’s talk, is designed to learn more about the effect of ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) for improving walking ability in patients with PAD.
12/11: Advances in Interventional/Structural Cardiology
Michael Reed, MD
Providence Health and Services/St. Patrick Hospital
12/18: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS): Its Potential to Affect Global Health Care
George Risi, MD
Infectious Disease Specialists, PC
Dr Risi is an Infectious Disease specialist in Missoula who has been here since 1990. He practices clinical ID and also works at the wound care center of St Patrick Hospital. He also is the Infectious disease clinical consultant to the Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton, a federally funded research facility studying a variety of bacterial and viral infections. Dr. Risi is also medical director of Friday Medical Conference.
12/25: No FMC-Holiday
January 2016
1/1: No FMC-Holiday
1/8: Understanding the Role of Human G-I Microbiome in Health & Disease
Finn Petersen, MD
Dr. Petersen is a world-renowned Hematology expert and the program director for the Intermountain Center for Hematological Malignancies, which includes the Intermountain Blood and Marrow Transplant and Acute Leukemia Programs at LDS Hospital. To date, Dr. Petersen has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on topics related to blood and marrow transplantation and high-risk hematological malignancies.
1/15: The Liver Bomb: Cirrhosis Complications
Kevin Kolendich, MD
Western Montana Clinic
Dr. Kevin Kolendich is a gastroenterologist practicing at the Western Montana Clinic. He came to Missoula from the University of New Mexico where he was an assistant professor of medicine and the assistant director of the gastroenterology fellowship training program. He completed his medical school training and internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. He then spent time on the faculty at the University of Washington prior to accepting a fellowship position in Gastroenterology at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Kolendich completed an externship in GI motility at Wake Forest University sponsored by the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society and has a special interest in esophageal and gastric motility disorders. He currently is the Director of Quality for Endoscopy at the St. Patrick’s Hospital where he oversees the motility program.
1/22: Transgender Medicine: The Basics of Providing Care in Montana
Joey Banks, MD
Blue Mountain Clinic
Joey Banks attended medical school at Indiana University and received specialty training at the Alaska Family Medicine residency. She's worked as faculty at both the Alaska Family Medicine Residency and the CMMC Family medicine residency in Maine. Additionally, she has been a physician for Indian Health Service in Alaska, the director of Planned Parenthood in Alaska, and more recently a physician in Tanzania Africa for three years. Currently, she precepts Missoula Family Medicine Residences in Missoula during women's health rotation, is a primary care family physician and the medical director of reproductive services at Blue Mountain Clinic. She began working with trans* populations 3 1/2 years ago to serve a growing medical need in Montana. She attended the Gender Expansion conference and AAFP FMX conferences to improve her knowledge and skills for the transhealth* care community.
1/29: Go Red or No Red? Meat Risk in Cardiovascular Disease: Is it Real?
Michael Fenster, MD, FACC, FSCA&I, PEMBA
U of M College of Health Professions
Michael S. Fenster is a board certified interventional cardiologist and professional chef. He has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia, NEOUCOM and currently serves with the University of Montana. He has participated in numerous clinical trials as well as published original cardiovascular research that has appeared in peer reviewed scientific and medical journals. Starting as a dishwasher in college, he worked his way up through the kitchens to the rank of executive chef. He went back to culinary school achieving a culinary degree with honors. In addition to clinical practice, Dr. Fenster writes, speaks and lectures worldwide on food and health. He co-directed, in conjunction with the American Culinary Federation (where he presented at their national meeting) and the University of Virginia, an educationally accredited program for health professionals, culinary professionals and the lay public. He serves as a national contributor to Fox News among many other outlets; his latest book on ancient cuisines will be released Spring 2016.
February 2016
2/5: Essentials of Professional Resilience
Eric Gentry, Phd
Compassion Unlimited
J. Eric Gentry, Ph.D. is a Board-Certified Expert and internationally recognized leader in the study and treatment of traumatic stress and compassion fatigue. His doctorate is from Florida State University where he studied with Professor Charles Figley—a pioneer of these two fields. In 1997, he co-developed the Accelerated Recovery Program (ARP) for Compassion Fatigue—the world’s only evidence-based treatment protocol for compassion fatigue. In 1998, he introduced the Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist Training and Compassion Fatigue Prevention & Resiliency Training. These two trainings have demonstrated treatment effectiveness for the symptoms of compassion fatigue and he published these effects in several journals. Dr. Gentry was original faculty, curriculum designer and Associate Director of the Traumatology Institute at Florida State University. In 2001, he became the co-director and moved this institute to the University of South Florida where it became the International Traumatology Institute. In 2010, he began the International Association of Trauma Professionals—a training and certification body—for which he is vice-president. He has trained thousands of professionals to more effectively treat traumatic stress. In 2005, Hogrefe and Huber published Trauma Practice: Tools for Stabilization and Recovery—a critically acclaimed text on the treatment of traumatic stress for which Dr. Gentry is a co-author. The third edition of this text was released in 2015. He is the author of numerous chapters, papers, and peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of traumatic stress and compassion fatigue. Dr. Gentry is a licensed psychotherapist with over 33 years of clinical practice. He is the CEO and owner of Compassion Unlimited-- a private psychotherapy, training, and consulting practice—in Sarasota, FL.
2/12: Vitamin D: The Hype and The Hype
Tim Caramore, MD
Providence St. Patrick Hospital
2/19: Omics at Providence
Carlo B. Bifulco, MD
Dr. Bifulco is currently the Medical Director of Oncological Molecular Pathology and Pathology Informatics at the Providence Oregon Regional Laboratory and the Director of Translational Molecular Pathology at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute. Dr. Bifulco is a surgical pathologist, with sub-specialty training and expertise in Molecular Genetic Pathology and Hematopathology. Prior to joining Providence Pathology, Dr. Bifulco was on the Pathology faculties at the University of Florida and Yale University. He completed fellowships in Oncologic Surgical Pathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and in Hematopathology at Yale University. His current work is focused on supporting the characterization of tumor's genomics features through next generation sequencing and of the tumor’s immune microenviroment via immunohistochemical and image analysis techniques.
2/26: The Behavioral Health Burden in Primary Care in Montana: What can Be Done About It?
Jennifer S. Robohm, Ph.D.
Jennifer S. Robohm, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who relocated to Montana from New York City in 2003. She currently works as behavioral science faculty for the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana (FMRWM) and as a clinical associate with the University of Montana Department of Psychology. Dr. Robohm directed the UM Clinical Psychology Center (CPC) for close to 12 years before leaving that position in mid-January to focus on the residency program. In 2015, she completed a certificate program in “Primary Care Behavioral Health” through the UMass Center for Integrated Primary Care. Together will colleagues from the Psychology Department, she recently received a Montana Healthcare Foundation grant to develop an “integrated behavioral health” training curriculum. Dr. Robohm received her bachelor’s degree from Yale College and her doctoral degree from the University of Michigan.
March 2016
3/4: Advance Care Planning: Goals of Care & Shared Decision Making
Christopher Jons, MD
Dr. Jons is St. Patrick Hospital Inpatient Palliative Care Medical Director. This presentation will review the historical landscape for 'Dying in America' and present an overview of the three 'Conversation-Based Interventions' including Advance Directives, Living Wills, and POLST. It will also include practical demonstration of the conversations, as well as review of a patient case and the benefits of the interventional tools for patients, family members, caregivers, and health care facilities.
3/11: TechnoToys to Support Aging-at Home
Richard Caro, PhD
Dr. Richard G. Caro is co-founder of Tech-enhanced Life, a Public Benefit corporation with the mission of improving the quality of life of the aging and their families. He is also CEO of TangibleFuture, Inc., an interventional management consultancy. Richard’s prior experience includes operational roles in high tech companies in Silicon Valley and Boston. He was CEO (founder) of Vital Insite, a venture-backed, medical device start-up, developing noninvasive monitoring products; Engineering Program Manager at Coherent, one of the world’s largest laser manufacturers; and CTO (employee #5) of Summit Technology, a pioneer in the laser refractive surgery (LASIK) business. Before entering industry, he was a member of the research staff at Stanford University. Richard has been responsible for development of a number of successful products; has 24 issued patents; and received a Ph.D in Physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is an active member of several Silicon Valley angel investor groups, with a particular focus on the intersection of healthcare, aging, and technology.
3/18: PrEP: A New Frontier in HIV Prevention
Amy Matheny, MD & Kerry Haney, PharmD
Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana
PrEP, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, is a prevention strategy critical to reducing new HIV infections in the United States and worldwide. Approved in 2012, PrEP has strong evidence for its efficacy and is generally well-tolerated, but it remains underutilized. This presentation will provide context for HIV in Montana, evidence for the efficacy of PrEP, and resources to empower health care providers to identify candidates for PrEP and manage this preventive treatment.
Amy Matheny serves as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, sponsored by the University of Montana and affiliated with the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network. She practices Family Medicine at Partnership Health Center, including HIV Primary Care and Hepatitis C care, and precepts residents and medical students. She received her BA in Biology and Chemistry from Providence College, MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, and MD degree from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Matheny completed her Family Medicine residency training at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in 2012.
Kerry Haney is an Assistant Professor at the UM Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana . Her clinical practice site is located Partnership Health Center where she coordinates pharmacy student rotations and assists with precepting family medicine residents. Since 2011, she has worked with the Partnership Ryan White Care team to assist with medication related care issues. She received a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Wyoming and a PharmD degree from the University of Montana. Dr. Haney completed a general pharmacy practice residency at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in 1998.
3/25: Strategies For Improving the Health of Homeless Patients
John B. Miller, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Partnership Health Center
Dr. Miller is Medical Director of Partnership Health Center in Missoula, which runs a satellite medical clinic at the Poverello homeless shelter. He is also the Associate Director for Clinical Operations at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, which is based at Partnership. He is a member and past chair of the Global Public Health External Advisory Council at the University of Montana where has spoken on global health issues relevant to Montana including traffic safety, the Indian Health Service, community health, food insecurity, and homelessness. He worked with the Indian Health Service in Zuni, New Mexico from 2003-11
April 2016: Ethics Month
4/1: What Up with the New; and New with the Old. Cases in Diabetes Management
Elizabeth Paddock, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana
4/8: The Perils of Informed Consent
Stewart Justman, PhD
University of Montana
Stewart Justman, Director of the Liberal Studies Program at the University of Montana, is a recipient of that institution’s Distinguished Scholar Award and the author of numerous medical and other books and articles. Two of his books have been reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine. Among other writing awards, he received the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay for Seeds of Mortality: The Public and Private Worlds of Cancer. He has been an invited speaker at the Clinical Pharmacology division of the FDA.
What about informed consent could possibly be perilous? Isn’t informed consent a moral imperative? How could a moral imperative have any kind of untoward effect? This presentation will show that informed consent changes the power of the placebo and thereby influences the results of clinical trials in ways that were unforeseen in 1962, when the law requiring “adequate and well-controlled investigations” of test drugs went on the books.
4/15: Health & Healthcare Inequalities: What Professionals, Institutions, and Communities Can and Should Do
John R. Stone, MD, PhD
Creighton University Medical Center
John Stone was a co-founder and original board member of the Institute of Medicine and Humanities (IMH) that is now the Institute of Health and Humanities (IHH). He practiced cardiology in Missoula from 1976 to 1992, also earning a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Montana. He then earned a PhD in philosophy with a justice/bioethics focus from Brown University. John is now Professor at Creighton University, the Center for Health Policy and Ethics, School of Medicine. He is also Graduate Faculty, the Master's Degree in Health Care Ethics of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics; and Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Creighton's Center for Promoting Health and Health Equality. John’s focus is unjust inequalities in health and healthcare. His work includes teaching, scholarship/writing, grants, and programs.
John's post-graduate training included residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in internal medicine. He trained in cardiology at the University of Missouri Medical Center-Columbia and was chief resident in medicine. He served two years in the US Public Health Service. After doctoral work in philosophy at Brown University and prior to his work at Creighton, he was Associate Professor with the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, Tuskegee University, Alabama. Tuskegee is a historically black university. At Tuskegee, John taught, conducted research and scholarship, and collaborated in NIH-funded programs to address health inequalities (cancer, cardiovascular disease) with colleagues at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), and Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta).
This presentation and discussion will explore why and how community-professional-institutional-agency collaborations should work to improve the inferior health and healthcare of community members with the greatest disadvantages. The speaker will address specific strategies and concrete models that Missoula can apply. He will also consider practical and ethical rationales. Discussion will conclude the session.
4/22: The Ethics of Advance Directives and Proxy Decision-making
Mark Hanson, PhD
University of Montana
Dr. Mark Hanson is a Lecturer in Liberal Studies and Philosophy at The University of Montana in Missoula. He also teaches in the Health Professions Program of Missoula College and is a member of the ethics committee of St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center. He holds a doctorate in ethics and religious studies from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of St. Olaf College (B.A.), and Yale Divinity School (M.A.R.). Prior to moving to Montana, Dr. Hanson was Associate for Ethics & Society at The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York. Dr. Hanson continues to conduct research and write in various areas related to ethics and society.
4/29: The Right to Health (Care)
Liz Rantz, MD
Dr. Rantz has done variety of doctor jobs: Emergency medicine; primary care with NHSC; public health; nursing homes and for the last 20 years; ans serving as Medical Director for the Montana Dept of Corrections. Her interest in the right to health care stems from a background in ethics, and working with the underprivileged for her entire career.
May 2016
5/6: NO FMC
5/13: Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional
Mark Mentel, DO
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT (FMRWM)
A graduate of Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine with a Navy Scholarship. He Interned at the Navy Hospital of Charleston and went on to serve as an Undersea Medical Officer with Navy after attending Dive School and Submarine School. After completing his Navy obligation, he returned to Residency training in Aurora Colorado and became Board Certified in Family Medicine. His initial practice site was with the National Health Services Corp in a Health Profession Shortage area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Once completing this obligation as well, he completed Fellowship Training in OB/GYN in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. Since then he has practiced in Colorado and for the last 12 years practiced in Montana. He has served as the Medical Director for Community Physician Group in Missoula, and has been active with the MMA as a board member and with the “Know Your Dose Campaign”. He is now here to represent the Montana Pain Initiative as the planning board Chairman.
5/20: Concussion: Thinking Outside the Brain
Sarjubhai A. Patel, PhD
University of Montana
Sarjubhai A. Patel is an Assistant Research Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Montana, where he has been on the faculty of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy since 2011. After completing an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology at the University of Sunderland, UK, Patel received a M.Sc. in Neuroscience from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London in 1994 followed by a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Montana in Missoula in 2000. Following a postdoctoral position at John Hopkins Hospital in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Patel returned to the University of Montana as a Research Associate in the NIH-COBRE Center for Structural and Functional Neuroscience. He is the recipient of two GE-NFL Head Health Challenge I awards and a Montana Research & Economic Development Initiative award for his work on traumatic brain injury.
Research in the Patel lab group focuses on the regulation of amino acid membrane transport proteins that facilitate the movement of signaling molecules into and out of cells within the brain and spinal cord in diseases such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), ALS and brain tumors. Recent work by the Patel group has identified microRNAs as potent regulators of transport protein expression following TBI, which may serve as potential blood-based biomarkers for the development of novel diagnostic tests and potential therapeutics for TBI.