“Adventure Travel: How to Deal with Common Ailments” is the title for the next Healthy-U presentation at the REI downtown Seattle store. The talk is from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 28, and is free. Dr. Elaine Jong, co-director of UW Medical Center’s Travel and Tropical Medicine Service and the UW’s Travel Medicine Clinic, will offer advice on what to bring when venturing off the beaten track, essential health information for tropical travel, and how to avoid bringing infectious diseases home. Jong is also director of Hall Health Primary Care Center.

2000 Salute Harborview! Gala: Dr. H. Richard Winn, professor and chair of the School of Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery, who practices at Harborview Medical Center, is the honorary faculty chair for this year’s fundraising event. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, Winn has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for almost two decades, the longest term for grants to any neurosurgeon in the nation. This eighth annual gala will be held Friday, March 10, in the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Hotel. The Pointer Sisters and the band City Life will entertain and guests will have the opportunity to win a glass piece donated by artist Dale Chihuly. Tickets are still available at $250 per person. Call 521-1666 for more information.

The Public Health Genetics Program at the UW, one of the original University Initiatives Fund projects, will give pilot grants to encourage multidisciplinary research broadly related to public health genetics in the context of law, ethics and policy. Applications should come from faculty members at the UW or the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and should pursue new ideas, data and research opportunities that could form the basis for a major research grant application. The funding period will begin July 1, 2000 for a year. Two pilot grants of maximum $20,000 each will be awarded. The application deadline is April 3. Contact Kay Collins at 616-3473 or kcollins@u.washington.edu for an application.

“Shall We Dance? Encouraging Mobility for Seniors,” is the title for the next workshop offered by the Puget Sound Forums for Aging on Tuesday morning, March 7 at the Meany Hotel. Dr. Gregory Gardner, UW associate professor of medicine, is one of the presenters. The workshop fee is $45 before Feb. 28. The forum series for professionals is sponsored by the VA’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center and the UW’s Northwest Geriatric Education Center and Northwest Prevention Effectiveness Center. Call 685-7478 for a registration form.

Communication Using Computers is the theme for the seminars offered winter and spring quarters by the Health Sciences Center for Educational Resources. Web site self-tests and surveys, Web site management, FrontPage 2000, PowerPoint large displays and presentations, Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop (a three-part series) are among the seminars. Cost is $50 per session. For more information, call 685-1186 or see the Web site at http://www.hscer.washington.edu/csseminars

The Healthy-U, a program of health and fitness talks sponsored by UW Physicians and presented by UW Academic Medical Center physicians at the REI downtown store, has received a finalist award in the national Telly Awards competition for non-network television. The specific program, among a number of others braodcast on UWTV, was “Outdoor Natural Hazards: Venomous Bites and Stings,” from last August. Michelle Mansfield is the UWTV producer. The Healthy-U is a project of Health Sciences and Medical Affairs News and Community Relations in conjunction with the UW’s two teaching hospitals, Harborview Medical Center and UW Medical Center.

Environmental Health News, the newsletter of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine’s Department of Environmental Health, received the award for the best newsletter submitted this year to the publication competition of the Society for Technical Communication’s Puget Sound Chapter. The newsletter will automatically be submitted to the STC’s international competition.

Dr. Curtis Omiecinski, professor of environmental health in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, is one of two Burroughs Wellcome Fund Toxicology Scholars who will present lectures at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting next month in Philadelphia. The lecture marks the end of Omiecinski’s term as a Burroughs Wellcome scholar. He will speak on “Gene Induction by Phenobarbital and Cell Signaling in the Hepatocyte.” He has been studying how the liver processes the sedative drug phenobarbital.

Dr. Frank Roberts, assistant professor in the School of Dentistry’s Department of Periodontics, has received the Bed and Linda Tarrson Fellowship from the American Academy of Periodontology Foundation. The fellowship, a career development award for periodontists, was established to recognize scientific and clinical talents with a demonstrated facility for teaching. Roberts will receive $10,000 annually for three years.

Dr. Christopher Blagg, UW professor of medicine and executive director emeritus of the Northwest Kidney Center, will receive the fifth annual Medal of Excellence Award from the American Association of Kidney Patients at the group’s award dinner March 26. The event is held in conjunction with the Renal Physicians Association annual meeting. Blagg was one of the first physicians to support the use of home dialysis and was director of the Northwest Kidney Center for many years. He was chosen because of his dedication to improving the daily lives of all kidney patients. ¶

Tips for midlife women

Staff at the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study, based in the UW School of Nursing, have created a Web site to contribute to the health information available to women who are entering the second half of life. The site includes preliminary results of the study, information about menopause, tips for working with your health care provider, book reviews and a section on “fun stuff.” The URL is http://www.son.washington.edu/departments/fcn/smwhs