To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.1.0 or greater is installed.
28 combat sorties. “In the Philippines, I worked
with the medical civil-action program, and it was
great because you really got to interact with the
local people, giving clinical aid to those who really
needed it,” he says. “When I was in Afghanistan, in
2010, I worked with the critical-care air-transport
team, dealing with the aeromedical evacuation of
casualties. So I have been able to see firsthand how
far we have come since then in relation to trauma
and patient care, and it is quite phenomenal.”
In 2010, Dr. Tobin switched to the U.S. Navy
Reserve and became a diving medical officer
for SEAL Team Seventeen, based at Coronado,
California. “Basically, my job with them is taking
care of diver fitness and making sure no one gets
the bends,” Dr. Tobin says. “I love doing it and
consider it an honor to work with the SEALs.”
At UCLA, Dr. Tobin’s research interests are
closely aligned with his military experience. He
co-authored a checklist for trauma anesthesia and
published a paper on a novel critical-care transport
approach for evacuating wounded combatants
from the battlefield; his methodology, involving the
use of trauma bays in evacuation helicopters, has
been adapted from Great Britain. “The British have
demonstrated better outcomes with sicker patients
with the Medical Emergency Response Teams
(MERT) method,” Dr. Tobin says. “Some colleagues
and I are pushing to have the U.S. military adopt
the MERT method of critical-care transport.”
Dr. Tobin says he feels lucky to serve his country
and is glad he can apply the knowledge he’s gained
from his military service to improve civilian trauma
care. “I am very fortunate to be able to see both
sides, civilian and military, of the treatment of
patients and critical care,” he says. “Advances
in medicine have always been at the end of war.
The lessons we are learning from war-time medicine
will definitely help the overall improvement of
trauma care on the civilian side.”
“I’ve worked out of
tents on forward
deployments, but
here we have X-ray
machines and CT
scanners. It’s not
fully electronic like
you’d see back
home, but it is
pretty darn close.”
Kim Kowsky is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.
Awards/Honors Dr. Jamil Aboulhosn (MD
’99, RES ’02, FEL ’05, ’06),
director of the Ahmanson/
UCLA Adult Congenital Heart
Disease Center, received the
Streisand/American Heart
Association Endowed Chair in
Cardiology from the Division of
Cardiology at the David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA.
Dr. David T. Feinberg (RES ’92,
FEL ’94), president of UCLA
Health System, was named
among the “50 Most Influential
Physician Executives and
Leaders” by Modern Healthcare
in its June 2014 issue.
Dr. David Jentsch, professor of
psychiatry and psychology, and
Dr. Dario Ringach, professor of
neurobiology and psychology,
received the 2014 Biomedical
Research Leadership Award
from the California Biomedical
Research Association for
biomedical research and
advocacy on the issue of
humane use of animals in
biomedical research.
Dr. Samuel A. Skootsky
(RES ’82, FEL ’83), chief
medical officer for UCLA
Faculty Practice Group &
Medical Group, received the
2014 Healthcare Executive
Leadership Award from the
Los Angeles Business Journal.
Dr. Gary W. Small, Parlow-
Solomon Professor on Aging
and director of the UCLA
Longevity Center, received the
Arthur Cherkin Award from
the Multicampus Program
in Geriatric Medicine and
Gerontology and the Veterans
Affairs-UCLA Geriatric
Medicine Fellow Program.
Dr. Paola A. Suarez,
postdoctoral fellow in the
Cultural Neuropsychology
Initiative of the Jane and
Terry Semmel Institute
for Neuroscience &
Human Behavior at UCLA,
and Dr. April Thames, assistant
professor-in-residence in the
Department of Psychiatry
& Biobehavioral Sciences,
received Tony Wong Diversity
awards from the National
Academy of Neuropsychology.
Dr. Christopher Tarnay (RES
’98, FEL ’00), associate clinical
professor of obstetrics and
gynecology and urogynecology
and reconstructive pelvic
surgery, received the Serge
& Yvette Dadone Clinical
Teaching Award.
Dr. Owen N. Witte, UCLA
Presidential Chair in
Developmental Immunology
and director of the Eli and
Edythe Broad Center of
Regenerative Medicine
and Stem Cell Research at
UCLA, received the 2014
Rowley Prize from the
International Chronic Myeloid
Leukemia Foundation.
Dr. Isaac Yang (MD ’04),
assistant professor of
neurosurgery, received the
2014 Leonard Tow Humanism
in Medicine Award from
the David Geffen School
of Medicine at UCLA.
In Memoriam
Dr. John L. Fahey, emeritus
professor in UCLA’s
Departments of Microbiology,
Immunology, and Molecular
Genetics and Medicine, died
August 19, 2014. He was 89
years old. As a researcher
at the National Institutes of
Health, he discovered IgD and
delineated and characterized
the important classes and
subclasses of human and
murine immunoglobulins.
In 1971, he joined the faculty
of UCLA, where his lab was
responsible for initial work on
immune-system changes in
HIV infection; he published
nearly 100 papers on HIV/
AIDS. Dr. Fahey helped
to found and was the first
president of the Clinical
Immunology Society, and
for 30 years he was an
advisor for immunology to
the World Health Organization,
among other global-health
leadership roles.
Dr. Carol Newton, emeritus
professor of biomathematics
in the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA, died July
16, 2014. She was 88 years
old. Dr. Newton served as
chair of the UCLA Department
of Biomathematics from
1974 to 1985. She was
instrumental in establishing
the biomathematics PhD
program. Dr. Newton was
recognized as an excellent
teacher, and she received
the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA Award
for Excellence in Education
in 2012.
U MAGAZINE
39