Community Briefs

Thursday, February 25, 1999

Community Briefs

Campaign UCLA past the half-way mark

Earlier this month, Chancellor Albert Carnesale announced
Campaign UCLA has reached 67 percent of its goal of $1.2 billion in
private donations. Since 1996, UCLA has received $805 million in
private gifts and grants.

The campaign has been highly successful in raising the level of
giving to the university, with private gifts exceeding $200 million
in the past two years. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, UCLA
has raised $149 million in gifts.

Carnesale emphasized the importance of faculty and students in
reaching Campaign UCLA’s goal.

"When you’re trying to raise money for a university, you have
two big guns who are most likely to influence donors: faculty and
students. They are what universities are all about," the chancellor
said.

Carnesale also suggested that the faculty support the campaign
by identifying potential donors and thinking of new ways of
exciting donors.

Joint survey shows experience counts

Experienced providers of HIV treatment use more up-to-date
therapies than their less-experienced counterparts, a survey
shows.

A joint project of UC San Francisco and the Community
Consortium, a network of major Bay Area health care providers who
provide care for the majority of HIV and AIDS patients in the area,
shows a positive relationship between the quality of care
HIV-infected patients receive and the provider’s experience.

"Physicians with more experience were more likely to recommend
treatment that reflected the latest standards of care," said Thomas
Mitchell, program director for the consortium.

The 1996 survey compiled information from 524 infectious disease
specialists, internists and family practitioners in over 20 U.S.
cities. Providers with six or more HIV-infected patients tended to
use the most effective treatments available.

Research shows heart attacks undertreated

According to a study by researchers at UCSF and the San
Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the most common test for
heart attacks, the electrocardiogram, is inaccurate for patients
with a condition known as left bundle-branch block (LBBB). Thus,
these patients are consistently under-treated said researchers.

Left bundle-branch block occurs when a small area of damaged
heart tissue doesn’t allow electrical current to pass through in a
normal manner. Due to this anomaly, such patients will always have
abnormal EKG readings and these results make it difficult, if not
impossible, to diagnose a heart attack accurately. LBBB patients
account for 6 percent of heart attack victims in the United
States.

Study results are published in the Feb. 24 issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Society (JAMA).

Questions about majors answered

Last night at the James West Alumni Center, departmental
counselors answered students’ questions about major and minor
programs.

Also this week, the Office of Residential Life is sponsoring
workshops on careers and majors.

Nightly workshops held in the various residence halls and suites
will cover topics such as choosing a major and finding an
internship.

A drawing for prizes will be held at each workshop. Prizes may
be casino cash for Saturday’s Casino Night, to be held in Covel
Commons.

Compiled from Daily Bruin staff reports.

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