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Improving Awareness of Skin Cancer in Organ Transplant Recipients of Color
No full textOrgan transplant recipients are at high risk for skin cancer. Currently, more than half of the transplant waiting list is composed of skin of color patients. Skin cancer in skin of color is associated with higher morbidity and mortality and has a different clinical presentation and risk factors. Yet, skin cancer prevention resources and efforts are primarily focused on non-skin of color patients. A cross-sectional pilot survey was administered to assess and compare skin cancer attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge especially risk factors and features specific to skin of color between skin of color and non-skin of color organ transplant recipients. Patients from a patient list obtained from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center organ transplant center were randomized on Excel and contacted by phone with the choice to participate by phone or online. 219 of 403 patients completed the survey. Skin of color organ transplant recipients was significantly more likely to never practice recommended skin cancer preventative behaviors (p = 0.002, 0.006, 0.02), to hold a lower perceived self-risk (p = 0.02), to worry less about getting skin cancer (p = 0.003), and to have false perceptions about risk factors (p = 0.001, 0.005) in either univariable or multivariable analysis. However, they were more likely (38%, p = 0.02) to recognize human papillomavirus as a risk factor. The knowledge gaps identified can guide the development of skin cancer educational resources that are more comprehensive and relevant to skin of color recipients. This can lead to improved skin cancer awareness and better outcomes and reduce racial health disparities
Deep Learning and Radiomics Based Outcome Prediction for Cancer Patients
Full text linkThe accurate prediction of cancer patient treatment outcomes is essential for personalized treatment planning and improved treatment outcome. The use of machine learning methods, such as deep learning (DL) and radiomics, has been gaining attention in the field of cancer research for predicting treatment outcomes. In this dissertation, we present a comprehensive study on developing deep learning and radiomics-based models for outcome prediction in various types of cancer patients.
The first part of this study focuses on developing a deep learning model for joint vestibular schwannoma enlargement prediction and segmentation using initial diagnosis MR images to assist in patient management when a tumor is first discovered. The second part of the study aims to identify high-risk head and neck cancer (HNC) patients for locoregional recurrence (LRR) before radiotherapy using clinical data and PET/CT imaging. In addition, we developed a DL segmentation model to guide the extraction of radiomics features for HNC recurrence-free survival (RFS) prediction using data collected pre-treatment. These approaches allow for efficient and accurate prediction of LRR and RFS, which is essential for patient counseling and have the potential to enable clinicians to tailor treatment plans accordingly. The third part of the study focuses on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a highly aggressive form of cancer. We developed delta-radiomics (DRF) based models for overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and surgical margin prediction for PDAC patients using clinical and imaging data collected after neoadjuvant therapy. These models can assist clinicians in intra-treatment decision-making about pancreas tumor surgery. Finally, we developed an HNC locoregional recurrence prediction method using early surveillance images and investigated a prediction uncertainty estimation method to quantify the reliability of predictions with the AI model. This method helps to identify HNC patients at risk of recurrence and provides clinicians with useful information for planning follow-up care.
Overall, the deep learning and radiomics-based models developed in this dissertation offer promising tools for predicting outcomes in various types of cancer patients. These models have the potential to provide clinicians with important information for treatment planning and can aid in improving patient treatment outcomes
Post-Migraine Awareness
Full text linkI've been visited by migraines for as long as I can remember, an inheritance passed down from my mother, and from her mother before her, like a quiet heirloom engraved in my genetic code. Through the years, I found solace in art, like a sanctuary of color and form where the pain could soften, where I could meet it with brushes and ink instead of resistance. In some strange, sacred way, art taught me to live alongside the ache, to texture it into my being rather than fight it. And then, after a severe migraine episode, when my body is still humming with the ghost of pain, when the echoes haven't quite faded, I find myself intensely present. Every detail around me sharpens, as though the universe has turned up the contrast, as though I've been reminded of time itself, of what it means to be human, finite, fragile. In that threshold, where suffering has just loosened its grip, I'm overcome by a strange, glowing gratitude. Not just for the relief, but for the very act of feeling. And in that moment, there's nothing I want more than to create, to write, to draw, as if expression is the only true language left, as the only offering that makes sense in the quiet after the storm
Novel and Ultra-Rare Heterozygous Mis-Sense LMNA Variants Causing Familial Partial Lipodystrophy
Full text linkThe attached file includes case descriptions and supplementary tables. This submission meets the Extended Data Sets and Supplemental Materials requirements that are included in author guidelines for the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Print ISSN 0021-972X, Online ISSN 1945-7197).Figure references for two patients needed to be corrected. A revised version of the file was uploaded on 2025-05-14 at the author's request
The Development and Validation of a Spanish Verbal Memory Test for Children (SVMT-C): A Pilot Study
Full text linkAs acknowledged by the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) Relevance 2050 Initiative, there is a growing need in the field of clinical neuropsychology to develop new assessment methods that are inclusive of the rising heterogeneous population in the U.S. There is a scarcity of measures available to evaluate verbal memory in Spanish-speaking, Hispanic children in the U.S. Available verbal memory measures in Spanish, such as word lists, were developed and standardized in other countries but have limited clinical use in the U.S. because of vernacular differences that may invalidate results. The purpose of the overall project is to help address this problem by developing and norming a new measure, the SVMT-C in the U.S.
The current pilot study was conducted to: 1) examine the psychometric properties of the SVMT-C, 2) examine the relationship between the SVMT-C and established neuropsychological measures, and 3) derive a normative sample that is representative of the Spanish-speaking pediatric population of the current Southwest geographical region, Dallas, Texas. Preliminary findings revealed the SVMT-C is an unbiased measure across sex and age, contains familiar and appropriate terms for all groups, and shows excellent emerging reliability (i.e., internal consistency). Support for emerging validity was evidenced by participants' learning over trials (i.e., slope), significant correlation with the related construct of verbal retention span (i.e., convergent validity), and non-significant correlation with the construct of vocabulary (i.e., discriminant validity). The current study sample consisted of 26 healthy, neurotypically developing children ages 6 through 16, most of whom were Spanish-English bilingual (92%). Five countries of Hispanic origin were represented with Mexican heritage accounting for the majority, which aligns with Dallas, Texas' demographics. A multivariate linear regression model was generated to derive normative data for the SVMT-C. Due to sample size limitations, the final model for this pilot study included age only (p < .05). Overall findings provide preliminary support for the validity and cultural appropriateness of the test, but a larger sample is still needed to confirm this and provide normative data. Recruitment challenges that impacted sample size included the COVID-19 public health crisis and lack of funds to support participation
Exploring the false dichotomy of secular and religious approaches to bioethics
Full text linkTuesday, September 9, 2025; noon to 1 p.m. (Central Time); via Zoom. "Exploring the False Dichotomy of Secular and Religious Approaches to Bioethics". Michael McCarthy, Ph.D., HEC-C, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Healthcare Mission Leadership in the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Healthcare Leadership at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.The move towards a clearer separation between religious and secular bioethics works against the interdisciplinary and pluralistic context in which bioethics itself originated. This presentation explores the origins of bioethics and describes bioethical issues that led to a divergence of secular and religious approaches. Rather than maintain separate approaches to bioethics, I propose a dialogical approach. This approach does not aim to convert a secular thinker to religious thinking but creates opportunities to come to a deeper understanding of the position of the other, oneself, and the complex bioethical challenges that confront us both inside and outside the clinical space. Bioethics is a social ethic and needs complex thinking from a variety of approaches that reach beyond a secular and religious divide.UT Southwestern--Program in Ethic
Promotion of women in academic medicine: a unique pathway to achieve health equity
Full text linkDetailed formal protocol with illustrations and extensive bibliography.A recording of the protocol presentation is available on UT Southwestern’s Mediasite. Note: Access to the video is restricted to authorized UT Southwestern users only.UT Southwestern--Internal Medicin
The Dragon's Curse
Full text linkThe author submitted this entry in the Fictional Short Story category (Amateur division) for the 2025 On My Own Time™ (OMOT) Art Show.A simple tale with a new style of telling it
Ethics Grand Rounds Calendar: 2025/2026
No full textThe published schedule of Ethics Grand Rounds events for fiscal year 2026 (i.e., September 2025 - August 2026).This document lists the schedule of Ethics Grand Rounds events for September 2025 through May 2026
Nurse: A Special Person
Full text linkThe author submitted this entry in the Open Verse Poetry category (Amateur division) for the 2025 On My Own Time™ (OMOT) Art Show.Inspired by nurse's work and callin