The COMISS Network - The Network on Ministry in Specialized Settings -awarded Rev. William C. Gaventa, M.Div., its prestigious COMISS Medal for his significant contribution to pastoral care during 30 years of ministry in developmental disability. The medal is the organization's highest honor, and Rev. Gaventa is only the fifth recipient of the award since its inception in 1988.
Rev. Gaventa is the director of Community and Congregational Supports at the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities and an associate professor of pediatrics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
The UMDNJ-School of Public Health and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, which is jointly sponsored by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University, have been selected to help oversee the implementation of a vast new federal research project targeting children's health.
The National Children's Study will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information that will uncover new ways to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing childhood health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It will be the largest long-term study of environmental and genetic effects on children's health ever attempted in the United States.
Dr. David Goteiner, a clinical professor in the Department of Periodontics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, and his research team have determined that people over age 60 with a specific genetic component may be predisposed to acute coronary artery disease/angina, gum disease and tooth loss.
The team identified 137 patients who suffered heart attacks, unstable angina or angina. It concluded that patients with acute coronary syndrome and angina are more likely to have poorer oral care, fewer teeth, and bone loss as a result of periodontitis or gum disease. Their findings are published in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Periodontology
Researchers at the Tobacco Dependence Program at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health have found that more than half of smokers who tried to quit using the school's Tobacco Dependence Clinic said they sometimes woke up at night to smoke and that those individuals were significantly more likely to resume smoking within six months. The study analyzed the outcomes of more than 2,300 smokers attending the Tobacco Dependence Clinic in New Brunswick.
The study, which is the first of its kind to identify the characteristics and outcomes of night-smokers in a real-world patient population, appears in the February issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice.
