AIDS activist Clifton Lee Maxwell 59 of Clairton died Jan. 9 at his home in Wilkinsburg. He was born March 6, 1950 in McKeesport and was a 1968 graduate of Clairton High School. He served on the board of directors of the Southwestern Pennsylvania AIDS Planning Coalition and was the chairman of the corrections committee.

CLIFTON LEE MAXWELL

Also he was awarded the James E. Dixon Humanitarian Award for HIV Prevention. He was a former member of the State Planning Committee in Harrisburg. He also was co-owner of Jus Us in Clairton. He was a Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam war.

Patient race, gender and insurance status influence decisions about who will go on to receive liver transplants, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study. Available online and published in the “American Journal of Transplantation,” the study indicates that women, Blacks and patients with Medicare who are in end-stage liver disease are less likely to be referred and evaluated for liver transplantation.

Out of the 877,000 physicians and surgeons in the United States in 2008, only 6.2 percent, or 54,374, were African-American, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The National Library of Medicine and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture hope to change all that with their traveling exhibit, Opening Doors:  Contemporary African-American Academic Surgeons.

EXHIBIT—The University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System hosts the traveling exhibit, “Opening Doors: Contemporary African-American Academic Surgeons,” through Jan. 28, at Falk Library, 200 Scaife Hall, Oakland. The exhibit is open during regular library hours.

“In 2007, the Health Sciences Library System submitted a proposal to the National Library of Medicine to host this exhibit and, happily, our application was successful,” said Barbara Epstein, director of the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System. “We felt that bringing this exhibit to the health sciences community in Pittsburgh would stimulate interest in learning more about the achievement of these exemplary pioneers and motivate students to follow in their footsteps.”