News in Brief

Access to records

UCLA has launched several initiatives following breaches of patient privacy by former employees. In a letter to UC President Robert C. Dynes, Chancellor Gene Block expressed UCLA's regret over the incidents and outlined steps being taken by UCLA Health System to prevent reccurrences. To review and strengthen UCLA's guidelines on access to medical records, a high-level panel of hospital system and campus executives has been appointed. In addition, several information technology efforts are underway to provide greater patient protection. Deans and vice chancellors campuswide will conduct a thorough review of practices designed to prevent and identify inappropriate employee access to information. Earlier, the campus had hired an outside consulting firm to audit UCLA's information security policies and procedures.

A diverse class admitted

UCLA, the most popular campus in the nation, with 55,397 freshman applicants, has admitted 12,579 prospective freshmen for this fall. Of these students, 18.1%, or 2,164, were underrepresented minorities — a 1.5 % increase over last year. The number of African-American freshmen admitted rose to 440 (3.7%), up from 407 (3.5%) last year, while the number of Latino/Chicano admitted freshmen increased to 1,682 (14.1%), from 1,474 (12.7%) in 2007. Native American freshmen numbered 42 (0.4%), compared with 45 (0.4%) last year. UCLA administrators, along with students, alumni, faculty and staff, are now working to encourage the talented students who were admitted to enroll for Fall Quarter.

Guggenheim winners

Six faculty members were awarded 2008 Guggenheim Fellowships for their stellar achievements and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. They are Susanna Hecht, urban planning professor; Chandrashekhar B. Khare, mathematics professor; Glen MacDonald, geography professor; Katherine Stone, law professor; Marc Suchard, assistant professor of biomathematics, biostatistics and human genetics; and Roger Waldinger, Distinguished Professor of Sociology.

The value of fairness

The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money and eating chocolate, UCLA scientists reported April 21. Being treated fairly turns on the brain's reward circuitry. "We may be hard-wired to treat fairness as a reward," said study co-author Matthew D. Lieberman, associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience. "Receiving a fair offer activates the same brain circuitry as when we eat craved food, win money or see a beautiful face," said Golnaz Tabibnia, a postdoctoral scholar at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and lead author of the study, which appears in this month’s issue of the journal Psychological Science. The activated brain regions include the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Humans share the ventral striatum with rats, mice and monkeys, Tabibnia said. "Fairness is activating the same part of the brain that responds to food in rats," she said. This is consistent with the notion that being treated fairly satisfies a basic need, she added.

Start living healthy

So far, only 11% of eligible UCLA employees and their family members have taken the health assessment made available by StayWell Health Management. Don’t miss out. Invest in your health by taking 15 minutes to complete the survey and receive immediate, personalized feedback with simple and easy health recommendations for making positive lifestyle changes. For completing the assessment, you will receive a $75 gift certificate that you can use at more than 350 stores. You can now register for and access the StayWell Online Web site by using only the last six digits of your SSN and your date of birth. Because the Web site is personalized for each member, the last six digits of your SSN must be used to identify you the first time you log into the Web site. Once you have been identified as eligible to participate, you will be able to create your own unique ID and password for all future logins. Go to https://uclivingwell.online.staywell.com. Questions? Call the StayWell HelpLine at (800) 721-2693. Kaiser members and certain union members who have opted to not participate in this program are not eligible.