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August 2006
University News
BARNES-JEWISH AND ST. LOUIS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL RANKED AMONG NATIONS ELITE: Barnes-Jewish Hospital was ranked eighth overall among the nation's elite medical centers by U.S. News & World Report. St. Louis Children's Hospital ranked fourteenth on the list of elite pediatric hospitals. Barnes-Jewish and its physician partners at the School of Medicine are the only St. Louis area hospital and medical institution on the magazine's Honor Roll list.
read about Barnes-Jewish Hospital
read about St. Louis Children's Hospital
 SAM FOX SCHOOL OF DESIGN & VISUAL ARTS TO DEDICATE NEW BUILDINGS: In 1960, a Japanese architecture professor named Fumihiko Maki completed his first-ever commission — Steinberg Hall. Now Maki has returned to Washington University as architect of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker Hall, the new buildings for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Both buildings will be dedicated October 25.
NEW DIABETES CENTER: Patients managing diabetes can now get full diagnostics, treatment, and education in one place — the Washington University Diabetes Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The Diabetes Center will provide a new group-care and patient-education approach for patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. In addition, long-time and newly diagnosed patients will have access to the latest technology, treatments, and clinical research.
NEW LOOK FOR BEARS ATHLETICS: Washington University in St. Louis Director of Athletics John Schael has unveiled a new symbol and design for all Bears Athletics. The new symbol features an updated, more realistic Bear mascot and a sharp new typeface that highlights Washington University's red and green colors.
SAME COST FOR SAME PROCEDURE? NOT ALWAYS: Two surgeons at the same hospital perform the same operations on patients with similar medical histories. Their costs to the hospital are similar, right? Not necessarily. The difference in cost could be as much as 45 percent. New research from Washington University finds that even when controlling for complexity of the operation and patient risk, surgeons incurred a wide range of hospital costs.
 COMPLEX, UNIQUE BUSINESS STRATEGIES OFTEN UNDERVALUED: Successful strategies are innovative. They combine resources or businesses in unique or complex ways that other firms may fail to recognize. Yet research from the Olin School of Business finds that the market actually tends to undervalue companies with complex or unique strategies. The reason: they receive less analyst coverage.
CARE OR A CURE? HOW SHOULD ALZHEIMER’S FUNDS BE SPENT? Providing care for people with Alzheimer's disease costs the U.S. more than $100 billion per year, but less than $1 billion is spent by the government for research. Politicians argue that caring for people who already have the disease should be the top fiscal priority, while researchers believe more money should be spent to find better treatments, vaccinations or a cure. Great strides have been made with Alzheimer's research in recent years, and more effective treatment and prevention could save billions in patient care. UV PROTECTION FOR YOUR EYES: We all know the importance of using sunscreen to protect our skin from the sun's harmful rays, but what about protection for our eyes? Prolonged exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays without protection may cause eye conditions that can lead to vision loss, such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.
SCHOOL OF LAW AND ST. LOUIS FIRM HELP SOUTH DAKOTA TRIBE DEFEND ITS SOVEREIGNTY: Washington University School of Law's American Indian Law and Economic Development Program and the St. Louis law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal have garnered an important legal victory concerning the sovereignty of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Working with local attorneys in South Dakota, they helped the tribe defend a federal lawsuit challenging the authority of the tribe's courts to hear a discrimination case brought by tribal members against a non-Indian bank doing business on the reservation.
AROUND THE GLOBE: The George Warren Brown School of Social Work has partnered with Columbia University and the Open Society Institute to educate a select group of students from Central Asia. The students acquire a top-level social work education and return to their countries to develop, in some cases from scratch, a social service infrastructure to address the daunting human needs pervading their post-Soviet states.
"Private institutions, not partisan, not sectarian, not political, not beholden to party or creed, are needed now more than ever in our history to guard without fear or favor a knowledge without bias, and the complete privilege of the search for and the expression of truth. The compelling picture of this responsibility cannot be overdrawn. In a world oppressed by intolerance, by partyism, and other constricting pressures, a free institution is indeed a rock in a weary land."
—George R. Throop, eighth Chancellor of the University, in "A University's Responsibility" address, May 1941.
The Department of Athletics finished seventh in the 2005-06 United States Sports Academy Directors' Cup Division III final standings, as announced by National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), United States Sports Academy, and USA Today. The seventh-place finish marks the Bears fourth consecutive top-10 ranking.
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This newsletter is prepared by Special Development Communications Projects staff in Alumni and Development Programs. It is intended to provide a brief summary of what is happening at the University. Alumni, parents, and friends of the University for whom we have valid e-mail addresses automatically receive @ Washington University in St. Louis.
Copyright 2006, Washington University in St. Louis
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