Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10 - The Russell Berrie Foundation

FALL 2008
in this Issue:
CTSA: New Research
Paradigm
Students: Learning
How to Teach
Graduate School:
New Structure for
Ph.D. Students
Living With Diabetes
as Students
Vol. 28 No. 3 FALL 2008
Chairman, Editorial Board
Thomas Q. Morris, M.D.
Alumni Professor Emeritus of
Clinical Medicine
Editor
Bonita Eaton Enochs
Assistant Vice President,
communications
Director of Publications
Science Editor
Anna Sobkowski
Contributing Writers
Susan Conova
Robin Eisner
Matthew Harrison
Sneha Mantri’11
Adar Novak
Richard B. Robinson, Ph.D.
Meagan Scales
Gina Shaw
Editorial Board
Ron E. Drusin, M.D.
Kenneth Forde, M.D.
Bruce Forester, M.D.
Oscar Garfein, M.D.
Lee Goldman, M.D.
Cornelia Griggs’10
Hadi Halazun’09
Leonard C. Harber, M.D.
Edgar Housepian, M.D.
Geoffrey Konopka’10
Jonathan LaPook, M.D.
Jay Lefkowitch, M.D.
Lisa A. Mellman, M.D.
Stephen E. Novak
Carmen Ortiz-Neu, M.D.
Richard Polin, M.D.
John Schullinger, M.D.
Daniel Stephens’09
Joseph Tenenbaum, M.D.
Alumni News Editor
Marianne Wolff, M.D.
Alumni Writer
Peter Wortsman
Design and Art Direction
Claudia Brandenburg
P&S is published three times a year for alumni, faculty, students,
and other supporters of the College of Physicians & Surgeons.
It is published by the college and the P&S Alumni Association
through the Department of Communications.
Lee Goldman, M.D.
executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences
and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine
Rosemary Keane
Chief Communications Officer
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Dear P&S Readers,
This issue’s profile of the Naomi
Berrie Diabetes Center, which is
celebrating its 10th anniversary
this fall, shows what happens
when top science, cutting-edge
clinical care, and philanthropic
vision converge. The Center’s
primary benefit to patients and their families is obvious
from your first visit: care delivered in modern facilities
that even include a kitchen to help educate families about
the importance of diet in managing the disease. Another
benefit is the Center’s ability to stimulate patients’ interest in the science of their disease. Eli Bunzel, the high
school student featured in the cover story, worked in the
Berrie Center labs, as did Diana Arnold Miller and Lindsay
Knable, the two women in the cover photo. With Lindsay
a pre-med student at Cornell, Diana a first-year medical
student in New Jersey, and Eli contemplating a career in
medicine, the potential of the Berrie Center to influence
diabetes care in future generations is real and impressive.
In the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, the late Russ
Berrie realized a legacy that bears his mother’s name
in a building that bears his own. The Berrie Center’s
10 years of accomplishments and its promise for continued eminence are tributes to what he envisioned and
what his foundation and many other friends and supporters have joined in perpetuating. Strong leadership
by Robin Goland and Rudy Leibel (above) and hard work
by many dedicated clinicians, scientists, staff members,
patients, and families will guide the Center toward its
critical goal — care until the cure, when the Center will
no longer be needed.
Congratulations to all involved with the Berrie Center
on this milestone anniversary.
With best wishes,
On The Cover: Diana Arnold Miller, left, and Lindsay Knable have a lot in
common: Both are students considering careers in medicine, both have
worked in Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center labs, and both have diabetes.
As patients of Robin Goland’80, they took advantage of the center’s offer to
study their disease under the guidance of renowned diabetes researchers.
Highly regarded patient care, research, and family-oriented education have
built the Berrie Center into New York City’s leading destination for patients
with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Article, Page 20. Photo by Robert Bean.
Lee Goldman, M.D., Dean
[email protected]
The College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University
2
P&S News
11
Vascular Surgeons Offer Latest Technique in Aortic Aneurysm Repair
Adrenal Center Stresses Advanced Care, Team Approach
Comprehensive Treatment for Children with Spasticity Disorders
14
CTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research
Clinical Advances
To break down the silos that have defined the biomedical research process for decades, NIH has enlisted medical
schools, through Clinical and Translational Science Awards, to change the research paradigm. P&S was one of
the inaugural schools to receive funding for collaborative, interdisciplinary research intended to speed the translation
of science to treatment.
20
The Berrie Center, launched with a naming gift, sustained with further gifts, and strengthened with large gifts this year,
is an example of the power of philanthropy when it teams up with scientific and clinical excellence.
26
P&S Students
The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10
P&S is parting ways with the traditional notion that house staff pick up teaching skills by modeling their teachers. Formal ways to teach residents how to teach while they are still medical students are growing in popularity.
28
Graduate School Life
A new doctoral education structure encourages interaction and collaboration.
30
In Memoriam
33
Alumni News and Notes
Rx for Travel: Greenwich Village
Profile: Keith Brodie’65
Alumni Association Activities
Class News
Alumni in Print
48
P&S Club Corner
www.cumc.columbia.edu/news/journal/
P&S News
News from around the
College of Physicians & Surgeons
Commencement
2008
The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award presented by
the Arnold P. Gold Foundation was given to Joseph Haddad Jr., M.D., P&S Distinguished Service Awards were presented to Vincent P.
professor of clinical otolaryngology/head and neck surgery.
Butler Jr., M.D., professor emeritus of medicine, for preclinical years,
The Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award in basic sciences
and Ralph M. Richart, M.D., professor emeritus of pathology, for was given to Boris Reizis, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology.
clinical years.
Daniel C. Salzman, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry,
Charles W. Bohmfalk Awards were presented to Ann-Judith
received the Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award in Silverman, Ph.D., professor of pathology & cell biology, for pre-clinical clinical sciences.
years, and to Wendy K. Chung, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of
The Distinguished Teacher Award was given by the Class of 2008 to
pediatrics, for clinical years.
Michael S. Yuan, D.D.S., Ph.D.
P&S fall 2008
photo credit: Michael Dames
Faculty Awards
Student Awards and Prizes
Dr. Harry S. Altman Award (outstanding achievement in pediatric ambulatory care) Marcel A. Green
Alumni Association Award (outstanding service to P&S) Carlton S. Prickett, Jason P. Sulkowski
Virginia P. Apgar Award (excellence in anesthesiology) Thomas E. Lo
Michael H. Aranow Memorial Prize (best exemplifying the caring and humane qualities of the practicing physician) Elizabeth C. Oelsner
Herbert J. Bartelstone Award (exceptional accomplishments in pharmacology) Adefolakemi M. Oni
Behrens Memorial Prize in Ophthalmology (outstanding graduate entering ophthalmology) Jonathan S. Chang
Edward T. Bello, M.D., Listening Award (to a graduating student who best portrays the art of listening to patients, colleagues, and self in practicing the chosen field of medicine) Adefolakemi M. Oni
Robert G. Bertsch Prize (emulating Dr. Bertsch’s ideals of the humane surgeon) Beth R. Hochman
Coakley Memorial Prize (outstanding achievement in otolaryngology) Tom T. Karnezis
Titus Munson Coan Prize (best essay in biological sciences) Lisa M. Bebell, Susan E. Mackie
Thomas F. Cock Prize (excellence in obstetrics and gynecology) Adefolakemi M. Oni
Rosamond Kane Cummins’52 Award (graduate entering orthopedics with academic excellence, sensitivity, kindness, devotion to patients, and the fine human qualities she exemplified) Bob Yin
photo credit: Michael Dames
Louis Gibofsky Memorial Prize Matthew J. O’Rourke
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the medical center Ellen J. Ezratty, Arun P. Wiita
Endocrine Society’s Medical Student Achievement Award Andrew T. Turk
Glasgow-Rubin Achievement Award (presented to the woman graduating first in her class) Elizabeth C. Oelsner
Glasgow-Rubin Achievement Awards (presented to women students graduating in the top 10 percent of their class) Lisa M. Bebell, Jennifer T. Chang, Kim Jain, Daniela J. Lamas, Susan E. Mackie, Moira M. McCarthy, Mary R. Mulcare, Adefolakemi M. Oni, Jessica A. Simms, Sarah G. Sliva, Maya K. Stowe, Karen Kai-Lun Wong
Izard Prize in Cardiology Janice Yu-Hsin Chyou
fall 2008 P&S
P&S News
Janeway Prize (the highest achievement and abilities in the graduating class) Jason W. Harper
Jerry Jacobs Prize in Pediatrics Matthew J. O’Rourke
Albert B. Knapp Scholarship (awarded at the conclusion of the third year to the medical student with highest scholarship in the first three years) Jason W. Harper
John K. Lattimer Prize in Urology (outstanding essay in urology) Catherine R. Whitman
Samuel and Beatrice Leib Memorial Prize in Ophthalmology (outstanding graduating student entering the field of ophthalmology) Patrick Chan
Barbara Liskin Memorial Award in Psychiatry (empathy, scholarship, and excellence exhibited by Barbara Liskin) Ellen L. Goldstein
Robert F. Loeb Award (excellence in clinical medicine) Matthew I. Tomey
Admiral David W. Lyon Award (outstanding academic achievement by a student serving in the Armed Forces of our country) Emily HeeEun Shin
Alfred M. Markowitz Endowment for Scholars (exemplifying Dr. Markowitz’s dedication to patient care, teaching, and scholarship) Ronald J. Shonkwiler II
Dr. Cecil G. Marquez, B.A.L.S.O. Student Award (outstanding contribution to the Black and Latino Student Organization and the minority community) Adler J. Perotte
Edith and Denton McKane Memorial Award (outstanding research in ophthalmology) Susan Koreen
Medical Society of the State of New York Community Service Award Alexander J. Koppel
Dr. Harold Lee Meierhof Memorial Prize (outstanding achievement in pathology) Elizabeth C. Oelsner
Drs. William Nastuk, Beatrice Seegal, and Konrad Hsu Award (demonstrating successful laboratory collaboration between student and faculty) Catherine A. Cox
Marie Nercessian Memorial Award (exhibiting care, unusual concern, and dedication to helping sick people) Jessica I. Rubin
New York Orthopedic Hospital Award Samuel A. Taylor
Office of Student Affairs Outstanding Service to P&S Award (outstanding contribution to improving the quality of life of his or her peers while at P&S) Carlton S. Prickett
Outstanding Student in Family Medicine (for the student who demonstrates academic achievement in family medicine, has shown initiative in community health service, and has an understanding of and commitment to the principles of family medicine) Erin K. Ferenchick
Donald M. Palatucci Prize (awarded to a student in the fall of his or her fourth year for excellent academic performance; interactions with patients
reflecting kindness, humor, compassion, candor, and zest for life; and activities in art, music, and literature exemplifying that living and learning go together) Kristin L. Checchio
Joseph Garrison Parker Award (exemplifying, through activities in art, music, literature, and the public interest, that living and learning go together) Kim Jain
Samuel W. Rover and Lewis Rover Awards for outstanding achievement in:
Anatomy and Cell Biology: Jin-Wu Tsai
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics: Barbara Noro
Genetics and Development: Jacqueline H. Barlow
Drs. Robert A. Savitt and George H. McCormack Award (exemplifies Dr. McCormack’s medical skill, consideration, understanding, and compassion) Lisa M. Bebell, Richard L. Weinberg
Rebecca A. Schwartz Memorial Prize (achievement in pediatric cardiology) Adam J. Bograd
Helen M. Sciarra Prize in Neurology (outstanding achievement in neurology) Karen A. Spencer
Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Award (excellence in the specialty of emergency medicine) Mary R. Mulcare
Miriam Berkman Spotnitz Award (excellence in research of neoplastic diseases) Marsha Laufer
Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award (excellence in science and compassion in patient care) Bram Welch Horan
William Perry Watson Prize in Pediatrics (excellence in pediatrics) Kim Jain
Dr. William Raynor Watson Memorial Award (excellence in psychiatry throughout four years of medical school) Maya K. Stowe
Dr. Allen O. Whipple Memorial Prize (outstanding performance in surgery) Matthew I. Tomey
Sigmund L. Wilens Prize (excellence in pathology) Adedamola Ogunniyi
P&S fall 2008
photo credit: Michael Dames
Aura E. Severinghaus Scholar (superior academic achievement) Adefolakemi M. Oni
State of the
School 2008
A Year in Review: 2007-2008
By matthew harrison
P&S Dean Lee Goldman began his second annual State
of the School report with a simple statement that drew
immediate applause: “The state of the school is strong.”
Elaborating on this statement, he described the
achievements of P&S students and faculty, the school’s
financial and administrative health, and its challenges and
goals for the next year and beyond.
Students and the curriculum: “More flexibility with a real opportunity to focus”
or academic project in one of five areas: research, medical
P&S continues to have an outstanding student body, rank-
medicine, or community service.
education, international health or global medicine, social
ing in the five most selective U.S. medical schools in MCAT
The P&S graduate program is being updated to bring
scores, GPA, and acceptance rate. A third of the class of
individual department programs together into five broad
2008 received fellowships from prestigious organizations
programs. In the first phase of this change, admissions
(Howard Hughes, Doris Duke, Fogarty, and others); nearly
standards have been made consistent across programs,
half took an elective abroad, half in developing countries;
and collaboration in teaching and research will increase. In
and 30 percent matched at CUMC for their residencies.
later stages, the curricula will be revised.
Dr. Goldman outlined four goals to improve the
caliber of education and the student experience at P&S,
which he called the “four betters”: better educational
Clinical care: “The largest faculty practice on the East Coast”
space, through the ongoing renovations in the Hammer
In its 2008 list of “Best Doctors,” New York magazine
building and a future new education building; better hous-
included 192 P&S faculty members, a 14 percent increase
ing through a “new or gut-renovated Bard Hall;” better
over the prior year. As Dr. Goldman noted, “That’s almost
financial aid; and a better curriculum. For financial aid, he
one in six of the doctors who practice here as full-time fac-
announced a new plan, funded by several anonymous
ulty.” Fourteen P&S doctors, including four from Harlem
alumni, “that will match today $1 for every $3 that P&S
Hospital, were listed in Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Best
alumni put into their wills for the medical school.”
African American Doctors” nationwide, making up nearly a
A new curriculum for M.D. students will be intro-
tenth of that list.
duced starting in the fall of 2009 for the class of 2013.
Over the past year, the Faculty Practice Organization
The new curriculum will reduce the two-year pre-clinical
continued to make significant gains in billing and collec-
block at the beginning of their program to 18 months, to
tions, while improving care for patients and quality of
give students more patient contact earlier in their educa-
life for Columbia’s doctors. The FPO developed a web
tion. The major clinical year, roughly comparable to the
and print directory for its brand, “ColumbiaDoctors, the
current third year, will consist of 12-week blocks of clinical
Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University,” estab-
exposure with one-week classroom intersessions, “so our
lished a new structure to help Columbia-affiliated phy-
students see right from the beginning how the classroom
sicians with their contracts and to ease referrals, and
science and the clinical component intermesh.” In their
launched an ambulatory electronic medical record system.
last year, students will complete a more-focused “major”
A major area of improvement has been in patient safety
fall 2008 P&S
P&S News
and malpractice. A new patient safety officer has been
hired, and improved malpractice claims management has
cut malpractice claims payments in half.
Dr. Goldman announced several important goals for
clinical practice in the coming years, including developing better ambulatory space, further improving billing
and collections, making preparations to increase capacity to support the Milstein Heart Hospital being built by
NewYork-Presbyterian, replenishing the pipeline of young
campus and the development of another Audubon build-
doctors in ambulatory practices, increasing market share
ing for wet-lab research. Space needs are not limited to
in New York, and continuing to develop the electronic
the research enterprise: Dr. Goldman also described the
medical record.
need for a new education building and a total renova-
Research: “There’s nothing quite like space”
for money to build buildings.” Other issues that impact
Dr. Goldman presented three major research themes
research productivity include mouse space, bridge sup-
that describe successes and areas of strategic growth:
port for researchers between grants, and start-up pack-
a transplant initiative to develop strength in immunol-
ages for new hires.
tion of Bard Hall. “P&S needs to redouble efforts to look
ogy research to match NewYork-Presbyterian’s clinical
expertise in transplants, a cardiovascular research initia-
Philanthropy: “Pushing onward”
tive, and a stem cell initiative. To support the stem cell
Under the leadership of Roy Vagelos’54, the capital cam-
initiative, P&S will pursue renaming the Department of
paign has raised $740 million in four years, just $10 million
Rehabilitation Medicine to the
shy of the initial seven-year campaign goal. Over the next
Department of Rehabilitation
three years, Dr. Goldman said, “We think we can get to
and Regenerative Medicine
well over a billion dollars.”
Roy Vagelos’54
to “symbolize an additional
Major gifts in the past year include $21 million from
direction for the department”
Angelica Berrie and the Russell Berrie Foundation in
under its new chair, Joel
further support of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center,
Stein. A new Department of
$5 million from Michael Jaharis for the new cardiovascu-
Neuroscience has been cre-
lar research initiative and $5 million from Louis Gerstner
ated, and the possibility of
for the Department of Ophthalmology to establish the
creating a systems biology
Gerstner Young Clinical Investigators program, and con-
department is being explored.
tributions from Lynn Shostack, Clyde Wu, and Herbert
P&S remains the leading institution in New York in
Irving to the Dean’s Priorities Fund. The campaign has
NIH funding, totaling $342 million, compared with $176
led to the establishment of 14 new professorships,
million for Mount Sinai and $132 million for Einstein, the
bringing the P&S total to 176. “Professorships really are
two closest competitors. Nationally, Columbia remains a
a coin of the realm for a medical school, and there is
leader in NIH funding, with five departments in the top
no higher priority than trying to increase the number of
six in NIH funding (dermatology, neurology, OB/GYN,
professorships.”
pathology, and physiology), but the medical center’s
Goldman estimates that the amount of space dedicated
Budget, facilities, and staffing: “A strong platform to move forward”
to the research enterprise must increase by two times
Perhaps the biggest applause during the presentation
or more to take advantage of increased research fund-
came with the announcement that the schoolwide effort
ing. Potential space gains in the next few years include a
to re-engineer the financial planning process has paid divi-
science building under construction on the Morningside
dends with a projected balanced budget for FY 2009. The
space constraints limit its ability to increase funding. Dr.
P&S fall 2008
Leading the effort to improve facilities and operations
while controlling costs is a new administrative team, led
by Chief Operating Officer Lisa Hogarty, Chief Financial
Officer Joanne Quan, and Associate General Counsel
Patsy Catapano. “We are committed to the highest of
service standards,” Dr. Goldman said. He also identified
several potential facilities improvement projects, including
redevelopment of part of Haven Avenue to create more of
projected budget of $1.3 billion will make up 44 percent of
a campus feel at the medical center.
the University budget. The balanced budget came as the
result of the hard work of department chairs, directors,
A roadmap for our future
faculty, and staff to implement the new AIM HI financial
In conclusion, Dr. Goldman emphasized the importance
model. But while breaking even is an impressive accom-
of strategic growth to enable P&S to improve on its
plishment, Dr. Goldman acknowledged the work that
strengths, to recruit talent, and to continue to improve its
remains, estimating that P&S needs a 3 percent to 4 per-
financial footing. “The best way for us to deal with our
cent margin for investment.
financial problems is to grow. The best way for us to make
Dr. Goldman anticipates that “in the coming years we
will all be spending a lot less time trying to balance the
budget and a lot more time thinking about great ways to
use our resources to benefit everybody.”
Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellows
The incoming class of Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellows began its
year of clinical research at P&S on July 1. Chosen from a pool of 129
applicants, the fellows have taken a year away from medical school to
conduct clinical research under the supervision of P&S faculty. Eighteen
P&S students will join four from other medical schools in the program.
As participants in a new Doris Duke international initiative, three of the
students will conduct their research in other countries: Mozambique,
Nicaragua, and South Africa. P&S has awarded Doris Duke fellowships
since the program began in 2001. This class marks the beginning of
the third grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, this one a
renewal of three years. Under the direction of Donald W. Landry, M.D.,
Ph.D., professor and interim chair of medicine, P&S remains a popular
destination for Duke Doris fellows. Columbia received more applications
than any of the other 11 sites and yielded the largest class.
the medical center better is to grow. The best way to keep
and recruit great people is to grow.
“Together,” he said, “we will continue to push the
limits of what’s possible.”
Playing to Win Against
Pediatric Brain Tumors
Neurosurgeons from 16 of
the nation’s top medical
schools battled it out in
Central Park in June at the
5th Annual Neurosurgery
Charity Softball Tournament
(www.ColumbiaKidsNeuro.
org). Hosted by Columbia
University and sponsored by
George M. Steinbrenner III
and the New York Yankees,
the tournament benefits
pediatric brain tumor
research and has raised
more than $150,000 since
its inception. Organized by Ricardo Komotar, a resident at Columbia University, the
annual tournament has evolved rapidly into a national competition. Competing teams
this year represented neurosurgery departments from Columbia, Emory, Harvard,
Duke, Yale, Thomas Jefferson, Cornell, NYU, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Albert
Einstein, Mount Sinai, Pittsburgh, Utah, Northwestern, and Dartmouth universities.
Harvard claimed its first championship by defeating Emory 4-2 in the finals. The
championship trophy, named “The J. Lawrence Pool Memorial Trophy” in honor of the
former Columbia chairman of neurosurgery, will be housed at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital for the upcoming year. Brandon Jacobs of the Super Bowl Champion New
York Giants and Jeremy Schaap of ESPN threw out the honorary first pitches this
year, and rock musician Julian Casablancas of the Strokes made a guest appearance.
Supported by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the day of the tournament
was declared “Neurosurgery Charity Softball Tournament Day.” Planning has begun
for next year’s tournament, with up to 24 teams expected. In this photo Dr. Komotar,
the event’s organizer, has his turn at bat.
fall 2008 P&S
P&S News
Edward S.
Harkness
Eye Institute
75 Years
of Eye Care
the eye service of the new
medical center. Commonly
regarded, according to news
re po rts at th e tim e, a s the
75
th
A N N I V E R S A R Y
By Matthew Harrison
best “eye man” in New York, Dr.
The first patient admitted to the newly completed nine-
Wheeler achieved fame by successfully
story Edward S. Harkness Institute of Ophthalmology on
performing a cataract operation on the king of Siam. The
Jan. 16, 1933, was Columbia University President Nicholas
importance Dr. Wheeler put on patient treatment is leg-
Murray Butler. Over the 75 years since, the Harkness Eye
endary: Not only would he detect his assistants’ slightest
Institute, as it has been known for most of those years,
errors in diagnosis, he would also point out grammatical
has preserved the sight of generations of patients and
and spelling mistakes in patient histories. In his private
made important contributions to understanding and treat-
practice in the 1920s, reports Newell Giles, one of his early
ing diseases of the eye, from the development of laser
assistants, Dr. Wheeler became so bothered by the poor
surgery to new treatments for glaucoma.
quality of his staff’s drawings of patients’ eye anomalies
that he hired an artist to give mandatory drawing lessons
“A separate eye hospital”
two days a week. When the Institute opened, a full-time
When Columbia University and Presbyterian Hospital
artist was on staff.
came together to create a medical center, no one knew
In this, as in his other hires, Dr. Wheeler took advan-
quite what services a medical center should offer. The
tage of the creation of the Eye Institute to develop his
Neurological Institute, Babies Hospital, and the New York
vision of what a department of ophthalmology should do.
State Psychiatric Institute opened their buildings at the
In the late 20s and early 30s, most departments were con-
Medical Center in 1929.
cerned largely with the diagnosis and treatment of eye
In 1930 Dean Sage, president of Presbyterian, drew
disease in patients, with research at the bottom of the
up a wish list of services and submitted it to medical cen-
agenda, if on it at all. For the new Eye Institute, he hired
ter benefactor Edward Harkness. One of the last items
a number of researchers, “with the purpose of attacking
on the list was a “separate eye hospital.” On seeing the
any ocular problem which seemed feasible.”
list, Mr. Harkness asked how much an eye hospital would
Dr. Wheeler’s precision, along with his skill as a surgeon
cost. He agreed to donate the $6 million needed for con-
and diagnostician, made him well-regarded as a teacher.
struction and endowment.
Time magazine wrote that “to be trained by Wheeler is to
Albert Lamb, a 1907 graduate of P&S who wrote an
be assured of success.” Among the first scientists attracted
early history of the medical center, says the Eye Institute
by his teaching skill was Ramon Castroviejo, M.D., who in
“surpass[ed] any other building at the Medical Center for
February 1933 completed the first corneal transplant in the
its intended purpose.” The pride of the facility was the
United States. Even among Europeans, his “square graft”
operating room, equipped with a sealed upper level from
technique attracted many converts.
which up to 16 visitors could observe a procedure, watching with opera glasses through a clear skylight.
The new Eye Institute held 96 patient beds, along with
“The largest and most diverse research unit...in this country”
many amenities for those working or being treated: In addi-
In 1940, the Knapp Memorial Hospital, where P&S staff
tion to the offices, conference rooms, and operating rooms,
held appointments before the move uptown, shut its doors
the building had living quarters for nurses and residents,
and moved its 12 endowed beds into the Eye Institute.
two lounges for patients, and a shop for grinding lenses.
The resulting funds helped create the Knapp Memorial
Laboratory of Physiological Optics, a major upgrade to the
“To be trained by Wheeler is to be assured of success”
Eye Institute’s research capacities.
Responsible for much of the planning of the new building
After World War II, Al Reese, M.D., raised $50,000
was John Wheeler, M.D., who had been hired to direct
to purchase radiotherapy equipment to establish radio-
P&S fall 2008
therapy and retinoblastoma clinics, which quickly became
In the early 1980s, scientists at IBM theorized that the
world-renowned in the treatment of ocular tumors. This
excimer lasers the company used to etch semiconductors
clinic pioneered outpatient examinations for retinoblas-
were also suitable for delicate human surgery. Working
toma. Other clinics, focusing on glaucoma, the retina,
with IBM and Dr. L’Esperance, Steven Trokel, M.D.,
reconstructive surgery, children’s sight, orthoptics, and
M.S.D.’66, realized the excimer laser could revolutionize
muscles, were established to treat patients, to train resi-
corneal surgery. In 1987, he performed laser eye surgery
dents, and to research the conditions.
that led the way to modern LASIK. “Ninety percent of all
To allow the Eye Institute to grow, staff dining rooms
lasers used in ophthalmology, and in medicine worldwide,
and housing were turned into offices and laboratories but
were developed at the Harkness Eye Institute,” says Dr.
ultimately this space was not enough, and a new wing
L’Esperance.
was constructed. By the end of 1971, Arthur DeVoe, M.D.,
M.S.D.’40, then head of the Eye Institute, wrote that the
A vision for the future
Institute had “the largest and most diverse research unit of
Since 1995, the Eye Institute has been under the direction
any eye department in this country and possibly the world.”
of Stanley Chang’74, a leading clinician and researcher
whose research into the use of perfluorocarbons has sig-
First to use lasers in medicine
nificantly improved retinal surgery. Under his leadership,
One of most productive areas explored in research was
the Eye Institute undertook major capital renovations,
retinal photocoagulation: using light to seal tears in the
improving patient areas and outfitting labs with state-of-
retina to avoid retinal detachment, a major cause of blind-
the-art equipment to attack diseases such as age-related
ness. In 1959, the Institute purchased the best photocoag-
macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma.
ulator available. Though a significant advance for patients
The fifth floor, once housing for nurses, has become the
over older methods of coagulation, the machine gave out
Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Clinical Research Center, which
light at a wide angle and caused large lesions. The iris con-
includes the Russell Berrie Diabetic Retinopathy Research
tracted during the half-second operation and caused pain.
Unit and the Starr Foundation Retinal Research Unit.
Recognizing that better treatment required a light with
Among the benefits already reaped in these labora-
a tighter, more powerful beam that operated on a more lim-
tories is the discovery by Rando Allikmets, Ph.D., of two
ited wavelength, the faculty saw potential in the first laser
genes for age-related macular degeneration and the devel-
completed in 1960 with synthetic ruby. Less than a year
opment of new screening technology for glaucoma. Nine
later, Charles Campbell, M.D., M.S.D.’57, made medical
new endowed professorships support these efforts.
history by treating a patient’s tumor with a ruby laser.
The Eye Institute continues to provide extraordinary
Improvements in laser technology came rapidly. In
patient care. The overnight patient beds are long gone,
1965, Francis L’Esperance, M.D., who had been inves-
replaced by laboratories and offices as modern ophthalmo-
tigating the potential of the ruby laser in treating dia-
logic procedures made eye treatments outpatient visits,
betic retinopathy, observed at a conference that doctors
but patients are still seen in the original building, whose
needed a blue-green laser for more effective light absorp-
first floor has become the Flanzer Eye Center. Under Dr.
tion. He learned from a patient that Bell Laboratories had
Chang’s leadership, the faculty practice has expanded
developed such a laser, and by 1968 the argon laser was
widely beyond 165th Street to five more locations in New
first used for human treatment. When Dr. L’Esperance
York and New Jersey.
sought funding to design an argon laser for clinical use,
While the technological equipment in use in today’s
he approached the John A. Hartford Foundation. Echoing
Harkness Eye Institute might not be recognized by John
Edward Harkness nearly four decades earlier, the founda-
Wheeler, its guiding spirit — and the generosity of its
tion’s director told him: “Forget all the preliminary stuff.
many benefactors — certainly would. At the end of 1933,
All I want is the budget.” Dr. L’Esperance published his
Dean Sage assessed the institute’s first year, writing,
designs, and the argon laser soon replaced the ruby laser
“There is a thrill about a new venture into an uncharted
as the medical standard.
realm with success the only goal.”
fall 2008 P&S
P&S News
New Chairs for
Radiation Oncology,
Rehabilitation
Medicine
Rehabilitation Medicine
P&S has appointed two new department chairs who also
Joel Stein, M.D., a leading figure in
will oversee their correlate Weill Cornell Medical College
stroke research and patient care,
programs.
became chair of the Department
ship in the Department of Radiation Oncology at ChungGung University in Taipei, Taiwan; a fellowship in the
Department of Surgery in the Cancer Research Institute
in Tokyo, Japan; and residency and fellowship in the
Department of Radiation Oncology at the Mallinckrodt
Institute of Radiology in St. Louis.
of Rehabilitation Medicine in
Radiation Oncology
September. He also serves as chief
K.S. Clifford Chao, M.D., a pre-eminent
of the Coordinated Program in
expert in the use of image-guided tar-
Rehabilitation Medicine at Columbia
geted radiotherapy and intensity modu-
University Medical Center, Weill
lated radiation therapy to treat cancer,
Cornell Medical College, and NewYork-Presbyterian
is the new chair of the Department of
Hospital. He also is director of the rehabilitation medical
Radiation Oncology. He also serves
service and physiatrist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian
as director of the Combined Program
Hospital and chief of the rehabilitation medicine division
in Radiation Oncology at Columbia
at Weill Cornell Medical College. As chair of rehabilitation
University Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College,
medicine at P&S, he directs Columbia’s degree programs
and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and chief of Weill
in physical therapy and occupational therapy.
K.S. Clifford Chao
Cornell’s radiation oncology division. Dr. Chao joined
Dr. Stein joined P&S from the Department of Physical
P&S in May from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard, where he was
Cancer Center in Houston.
chief medical officer for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Dr. Chao also will serve as radiation oncologist-in-
and an associate professor.
chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and supervise the
Internationally regarded for his expertise in clinical
Department of Radiation Oncology at New York Hospital
care for stroke survivors and patients with other neuro-
Queens, an affiliate of Weill Cornell and part of the
logical disorders, Dr. Stein’s research explores the use of
NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System.
robot-aided rehabilitation for weakness after stroke and
Dr. Chao’s research focus includes intensity modulated
other neurological conditions, the use of electrical cortical
radiation therapy (IMRT) and combining the use of PET and
stimulation to facilitate motor recovery, and the develop-
CT images to direct customized radiation treatment plans
ment of wearable sensors to monitor daily activity levels
tailored specifically to individual patients and the molecu-
of recovering stroke patients. He has written two books
lar characteristics of each tumor. His pioneering work in
for stroke survivors and their families and is editing a com-
IMRT (he is author of the widely read textbook, “Practical
prehensive medical text on stroke recovery and rehabilita-
Essentials of IMRT”) and functional image-guided therapy
tion, due to be published this year.
earned him the Radiological Society of North America’s
prestigious Annual Oration Award in 2005.
10
Joel Stein
After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Columbia,
Dr. Stein received his M.D. degree from Albert Einstein
Before joining M.D. Anderson in 2002, Dr. Chao
College of Medicine. He trained in physical medicine and
was an associate professor at Washington University
rehabilitation at Columbia, serving as chief resident. Since
School of Medicine in St. Louis. He received his medi-
1993, he has served on the faculty of Harvard Medical
cal degree from Kaohsiung Medical School in Taiwan.
School, where he has practiced at Spaulding, Brigham and
His postgraduate training included residency and fellow-
Women’s, and Massachusetts General hospitals.
P&S fall 2008
Clinical Advances
New procedures, devices, guidelines for clinicians
Vascular Surgeons
Offer Latest
Technique in
Aortic Aneurysm
Repair
By Susan Conova
When an aortic aneurysm lies close to the arteries that
supply the kidneys and intestines, some patients are sent
home with little more to hold onto than hope that they
won’t suffer a lethal rupture.
Although most abdominal aortic aneurysms can easily be repaired with a minimally invasive technique that
installs a flexible plastic and metal stent to reinforce the
arterial wall, a stent inserted into an anatomically complex
aneurysm would cut off blood flow to other organs.
“About 5 percent to 10 percent of patients with
abdominal aortic aneurysms have such anatomy, and it
graft’s manufacturer, which designs and builds a custom-
has been a struggle to treat them,” says James McKinsey,
ized graft.
M.D., associate professor of clinical surgery and interim
Inserting the graft also takes sophisticated inter-
bicampus chief of vascular surgery. “Often they are older
ventional skills to properly align the graft’s fenestrations
and more debilitated than patients with simple aneurysms
with the patient’s arteries. Dr. McKinsey and Nicholas
and don’t fare well after open surgical repair, which has
Morrissey, M.D., assistant professor of surgery, have com-
been their only option until now.”
pleted additional training to insert these types of grafts.
P&S vascular surgeons can now offer these patients
“Inserting a fenestrated graft takes more time and
a better option: a new experimental stent with holes
skill than the repair of standard aneurysms, but since both
punched in the sides that can seal off the aneurysm while
are minimally invasive, there is not much difference from
preserving blood supply to other organs. The device,
the patient’s point of view,” Dr. McKinsey says. “Patients
called a fenestrated graft, has been approved by the FDA
will usually be able to leave the hospital in a few days and
for use only at both the Columbia and Cornell campuses
return to normal activities in two to three weeks.”
of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and two other hospitals
in the country.
Because the fenestrated graft has not yet been
approved by the FDA for general use, patients must enroll
“The new stent gives these patients a new lease on
in a clinical trial to receive one. The trials will help doctors
life,” says Dr. McKinsey, who in July performed the proce-
learn more about which patients will benefit most from
dure, the hospital’s first, on a 93-year-old man.
the procedure and about any complications that might
The procedure itself took about three hours, but the
preparation for it took several months. Because locations
arise postoperatively. The device has been approved for
use in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
of the aortic branches are unique to each patient, every
graft must be custom-made. First, a special spiral CT
For more information on the clinical trial or to refer a
machine measures the patient’s anatomy so that holes
patient for evaluation, contact Diana Catz at 212-342-4102.
in the graft can be positioned. Data are then sent to the
fall 2008 P&S
11
Clinical Advances
Adrenal Center
Stresses
Advanced Care,
Team Approach
Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, heads the
genetic screening and counseling section and provides
evaluation for a variety of rare familial syndromes. Under
the direction of senior radiologists Rashid Fawwaz, M.D.,
By Adar Novak
professor of clinical radiology, and Jeffrey Newhouse, M.D.,
Minimally invasive procedures and state-of-the-art
professor of radiology, the Adrenal Center is also one of the
scans are just some of the tools physicians at the Adrenal
few places in the region that offer PET scans and MIBG
Center offer patients suffering from adrenal disorders.
scans, a radiologic test used to detect pheochromocytoma.
The center, established in September 2006 by William B.
In addition, Nicholas Morrissey, M.D., assistant professor
Inabnet, M.D., associate professor of clinical surgery, and
of surgery, is one of the few vascular surgeons in the region
Tom Jacobs, M.D., professor of clinical medicine, provides
who performs selective venous sampling. This highly spe-
advanced, comprehensive care under one roof. The center
cialized procedure allows physicians to measure blood lev-
integrates medical and surgical care of patients with adre-
els of certain hormones directly from the adrenal glands
nal disorders ranging from Cushing’s syndrome and adre-
themselves, all through a small needle stick in the leg.
nocortical cancer to various adrenal tumors.
The center’s surgeons — John Allendorf, M.D., assis-
The team is now headed by James Lee, M.D., assis-
tant professor of surgery, John Chabot, M.D., associate
tant professor of surgery, who was recruited back to
professor of clinical surgery, Dr. Inabnet, and Dr. Lee —
Columbia from UCSF to become the center’s director. The
perform about 90 percent of adrenalectomies using a lapa-
center’s staff includes world-class endocrinologists, endo-
roscopic or minimally invasive approach. Drs. Inabnet and
crine surgeons, radiologists, cardiologists, hypertension
Lee gained valuable experience in Germany, where they
specialists, and geneticists.
mastered a novel technique for the laparoscopic removal
“Treating adrenal disease often requires specialized
of the adrenal gland without having to enter the abdominal
knowledge and skill to provide superior care,” Dr. Lee
cavity. “With this method, patients have less pain, bet-
says. “Since the Adrenal Center provides the spectrum of
ter cosmetic results, fewer complications, and undergo a
services from special radiologic tests to minimally invasive
much faster procedure.”
surgery to genetic counseling, patients and referring phy-
Center physicians are planning clinical trials, includ-
sicians can come to one place for the specific expertise
ing a randomized controlled trial to compare the trans-
that they need.”
abdominal and retroperitoneal methods of performing
Though adrenal disorders are uncommon (for exam-
adrenalectomies. The center collaborates with UCSF on a
ple, pheochromocytoma, a tumor of the medulla of the
research project that evaluates genetic mutations in adre-
adrenal gland, affects one person in a million), center phy-
nal cancers. The center plans to create a national database
sicians are busy. In the first year of operation, they saw
to compile data on adrenal disorders and tumors, so phy-
about 40 patients and performed operations on 23 patients.
sicians may offer patients more precise information on
In the center’s second year, physicians evaluated about 60
prognosis, recurrence rates, and where appropriate clini-
patients and the number of operations doubled. Columbia’s
cal trials may be under way.
volume now rivals that of more established centers.
“Patients like coming to a center such as ours where
The center also sets itself apart with state-of-the-art
they can find expertise in every aspect of their disease,”
diagnostic tests and screening. Thomas Pickering, M.D.,
Dr. Lee says. “The response to the center has been over-
professor of medicine, is a hypertension specialist with
whelmingly positive.”
specific expertise in screening for adrenal tumors that may
cause high blood pressure. Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D, the
12
P&S fall 2008
The Adrenal Center can be reached at 212-305-0444.
Comprehensive
Treatment
for Children
with Spasticity
Disorders
therapists, nurses, specialists in fitting braces, and social
workers, treat motor disorders characterized by tight or
stiff muscles that may interfere with voluntary muscle
movements.
“It can be a tremendous burden on the family to
try to coordinate care for a patient,” Dr. Anderson says.
“Communication among doctors is also not as good when
a family member is the one trying to organize the care. It’s
much more efficient for everyone if one center handles
the action plan.” That’s why the Columbia spasticity team
meets regularly to evaluate and develop treatment plans
for patients with spasticity from cerebral palsy, spinal cord
injuries, or other brain injuries. Dr. Anderson’s interdisciplinary team has grown from initially caring for about five
or six patients when the center was launched three years
ago to caring for more than 180 children today.
The spasticity center is the only center of its kind in
the Northeast in which pediatric neurosurgeons perform
the selective dorsal rhizotomy using a minimally invasive
one-inch incision. This method, performed at only a few
hospitals in the country, reduces postoperative pain and
healing time, allowing children to begin postoperative rehabilitation in two or three days instead of waiting for weeks.
The center is collaborating with the Mailman School
of Public Health to create a database that collects and analyzes data about patients, such as the range of motion of
their joints, muscle tone, and gait. “Our goal is to identify
By Adar Novak
preoperative predictors of who would be the best candi-
When Richard C.E. Anderson, M.D., assistant professor
dates for selective dorsal rhizotomy, as well as to develop
of neurosurgery and pediatric neurosurgery, performs a
better functional outcome measures for these children,”
minimally invasive selective dorsal rhizotomy, a procedure
Dr. Anderson says.
used to sever nerves in the spinal cord that cause spastic-
Other modalities the center uses for treating spasticity
ity in a child with cerebral palsy, he relies on the help of
include intramuscular injections of Botox, oral medications,
physical and occupational therapists and neurophysiolo-
physical and occupational therapy, bracing, and orthopedic
gists. The therapists are present in the OR to palpate the
surgical procedures. Dr. Anderson also surgically implants
patient’s muscles while the neurophysiologist monitors
specialized pumps that provide a more powerful way to
the nerve impulses, helping the surgeon to determine pre-
deliver a muscle relaxant directly into the spinal fluid to
cisely which nerves to cut and which to preserve.
avoid unwanted side effects of the medication.
“A team approach is central to the way we care for
“The center’s use of the latest treatments, along with
our patients, both during regular visits and in the operat-
coordinated, centralized care, helps patients and their fam-
ing room,” says Dr. Anderson, director of the Pediatric
ilies cope with what are often very difficult disorders,” Dr.
Spasticity Center at the Morgan Stanley Children’s
Anderson says.
Hospital of New York.
Center specialists, including pediatric neurosurgeons,
neurologists, orthopedists, physical and occupational
To schedule an appointment at the Spasticity Center, call Genevieve
Chirelstein at 212-305-9606.
fall 2008 P&S
13
CTSA:
A
Revolution
in
Clinical
Research
Spurring the Change: The Irving Institute for
Clinical and Translational Research
By Robin Eisner
rehabilitation needs, explains Dr. Kaufmann, assistant
For years, neurologist Petra Kaufmann, M.D., has been
professor of neurology. Some children develop bone and
working to improve the lives of her young patients who
spine deformities that require surgery. Others need ven-
have spinal muscular atrophy. The rare genetic condition
tilatory support to help them breathe. Most people with
causes extreme weakness and deterioration of the arm
SMA require physical therapy.
and leg muscles in infants and children, preventing them
from walking, standing, sitting, or moving.
Due to a mutation in a gene that codes for a protein
14
Since joining Columbia in 2000, Dr. Kaufmann has
treated dozens of patients and conducted clinical research,
including trials to test new drugs. Throughout, she also
vital to spinal neurons that control movement, babies with
has helped her patients to be functionally more indepen-
the most severe form of spinal muscular atrophy, type I,
dent. “These are smart kids,” she says. “Their cognitive
have breathing and swallowing problems and cannot sit
abilities are fine but they often are limited by arm weak-
without support. Type II patients have milder symptoms
ness. It is very important for a child to interact with the
but never walk. Type III is the least severe: Individuals can
environment and for the brain’s nerve cells to develop and
live until adulthood but have muscle weakness.
understand space.”
A range of health care professionals treat SMA
One day, in the late spring of 2007, Dr. Kaufmann had
patients by addressing their nutritional, respiratory, and
an epiphany. She called Elisa Konofagou, Ph.D., assistant
P&S fall 2008
A study of collaboration patterns among Columbia obesity researchers resulted in figures that show
collaborations across seven departments (top) and collaborations between one department
and a hospital partner through only one bridge (center and left). Nodes in the figures represent obesity
experts and edges signify collaborations. Departments are indicated by colors. Figures courtesy
of Chunhua Weng, Ph.D.
professor of biomedical engineering, to discuss designing
solicit public input in the process. He also called attention
a device that would enable her SMA patients to use their
to the importance of research about how clinical research
arms. She had seen pulley systems some children used at
progresses.
home to move their arms to read a book or work on a com-
Columbia was an inaugural recipient of a five-year,
puter. These devices, however, were not widely available.
$51 million CTSA grant because of the accomplish-
It never occurred to Dr. Kaufmann to reach outside
ments of its clinical research program under the leader-
her discipline to find a collaborator to build an apparatus to
ship of Henry Ginsberg, M.D., the Herbert and Florence
help children with SMA until she saw an announcement
Irving Professor of Medicine and Irving Institute director.
for an interdisciplinary pilot grant funded by the Irving
The strength of Columbia’s basic research laboratories,
Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. It inspired
the collaboration that exists among the medical, nursing,
her to expand her scientific outlook.
public health and dental schools, its renowned biomedical informatics program, and its strong connection to the
What is the Irving Institute?
surrounding Washington Heights community were other
Getting Columbia scientists to find novel ways to do col-
factors in Columbia’s favor.
laborative and interdisciplinary research to accelerate the
“The goal of CTSA is to find ways to move from pre-
development of new diagnostics, treatments, and disease
clinical to clinical applications and develop therapies for
prevention approaches for human health is the goal of the
patients at a faster rate,” Dr. Ginsberg says. “But to be
Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
able to make the transformation, the culture of science
Formerly the Irving Center for Clinical Research, the pro-
has to change, from its training of young researchers and
gram evolved into the Irving Institute in October 2006
clinical investigators to the development of new technolo-
as one of the first 12 clinical and translational science
gies that foster change.”
centers funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Today, the Irving Institute has 10 resources that
The Irving Institute has become a transformative agent
support clinical and collaborative research. The edu-
for research innovation at Columbia and for the national
cation initiative, for example, is called TRANSFORM,
consortium of 37 other CTSA — Clinical and Translational
(Training and Nurturing Scientists for Research that is
Science Award — recipients nationwide, including those
Multidisciplinary), led by Melissa Begg, Sc.D., professor
that have joined the original 12. NIH aims to fund 60 cen-
of biostatistics and co-director of the Irving Institute, and
ters. The Irving Institute, with 40 members and affiliated
Karina Davidson, Ph.D., the Irving Associate Professor of
faculty, also receives substantial support from Herbert
Medicine and Psychiatry. TRANSFORM offers a master’s
and Florence Irving.
degree in patient-oriented research for postdoctoral fel-
In 2003, NIH director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., decided
lows and junior faculty, a certificate in clinical/translational
that revamping clinical research was a key component of
research for predoctoral students, an NIH-supported grant
his Roadmap for Medical Research, his blueprint for trans-
program, called K12, for young investigators, and other
forming research in the United States. The goal of the
short-term courses and career development opportunities
clinical research overhaul, he wrote in the New England
in clinical research.
Journal of Medicine in 2005, is to more quickly move
The Irving Institute affects many other aspects of
findings from basic science laboratories into the clinic, in
clinical and translational research at Columbia: It has
what is called translational research, and to hasten clini-
web-based services to help researchers design and exe-
cal research applications. To do so, he said, young clinical
cute a clinical research project. It offers expert advice
investigators need more support to do patient-oriented
about research subject protection, Institutional Review
research and institutions need to revise their education
Board requirements, ethical considerations, and statis-
of the next generation of clinical investigators. To spur
tical and data analysis. It has mentoring programs for
the revolution, he said, institutions should develop new
young investigators writing clinical and collaborative
information and biomedical technologies, employ inter-
grants. Its clinical research center is expanding clinical
disciplinary approaches to answer clinical questions, and
research throughout the medical center. Its biomediCTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research fall 2008 P&S
15
cal informatics resource helps scientists use computerbased information technologies to facilitate clinical
research and performs original research about the nature
of research and how information technology can improve
the translational research enterprise. Its competitive pilot
grants program, such as the one to which Dr. Kaufmann
and Dr. Konofagou applied, provides different levels of
funding for clinical and collaborative research. Its community resource engages Washington Heights’ residents
in research projects. Its core facilities offer scientists an
array of biochemical assays and imaging technologies for
research purposes. A self-evaluative program measures
the success of the CTSA, in terms of resulting grants,
suspending their arms in a frame they are able to move
publications, and collaborations, and recommends strate-
their arms sideways so they don’t have to fight gravity.”
gies to push improvements further. Institute leadership
The team members and engineering students, who
also engages with the CTSA consortium members to
met with family members at Columbia and at patients’
share challenges and achievements in transforming the
homes and schools, soon realized a wooden frame was not
clinical research nationwide.
flexible enough. A plastic version allowed adaptability for
individuals of different ages and with varying mobilities.
Reaching outside of one’s discipline
The group also came up with a way to objectively eval-
Dr. Kaufmann was primed to contact Dr. Konofagou
uate the extent of movement of the arms of a person in the
because the two had attended meetings the Irving Institute
device. They could measure the distance a person’s arms
convened to foster cross-disciplinary clinical research.
moved using two accelerometers, one on each arm. A sen-
Both are members of the Institute’s Development of
sor in each accelerometer communicates with the other to
Novel Clinical/Translational Methodologies Resource and
calculate distance. A video camera in a laptop also could
are Irving Fellows, faculty ambassadors for the Institute’s
record motion. “The accelerometer has to be sensitive to
mission. They met, wrote a proposal, and their team
catch small movements,” Dr. Kaufmann says. “These peo-
was one of the four winners of the first stage of CTSA’s
ple are not strong, but if the device works, then we have
interdisciplinary pilot grant: $25,000 for six months begin-
the beginnings of a measure of success for reimbursement
ning in September 2007 to plan their project. The second
by health insurers or for monitoring the effectiveness of
phase awards $125,000 each to two of the four first-
future device treatments or drug treatments.”
phase winners.
During their “planning phase,” Drs. Kaufmann
16
Supporting young clinical investigators
and Konofagou and Jessica O’Hagen, formerly clinical
Besides cultivating Drs. Kaufmann and Konofagou and
coordinator and clinical evaluator in physical therapy of
other junior faculty members to do collaborative and clini-
Columbia’s SMA Clinical Research Center, and other col-
cal research with pilot grants, the Irving Institute nurtures
laborators created a prototype. Dr. Konofagou engaged
young faculty as they pursue a clinical research career.
seniors in Columbia’s engineering department on the
David Lederer, M.D., assistant professor of clinical medi-
Morningside campus to participate during the design class
cine, says he would not have been able to do clinical
of their senior year.
research if not for the Irving Institute.
Their starting point was a wooden pulley system
Dr. Lederer, who received his medical degree in 1999
devised by physical therapist Linda Tomkow who had built
from State University of New York, Downstate, was a pul-
one for Dr. Kaufmann’s patient. “These kids do not have
monary fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia
the strength to lift their arms because they cannot over-
from 2003 to 2005 and research fellow from 2005 to
come the force of gravity,” Dr. Konofagou explains. “By
2006. Between 2005 and 2007, he enrolled in a program
P&S fall 2008 CTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research
CTSA support resulted in a prototype of a device to help spinal muscular atrophy patients use
their arms. Faculty in neurology and biomedical engineering and Columbia engineering students were
involved in its development, and a team of 20 is now at work on five prototypes for patient testing.
Data measured by the device and outcomes research will allow Mailman School of Public
Health faculty to develop a cost/benefit analysis for use by a manufacturer considering production
and by health insurers considering reimbursement.
It never occurred to Petra Kaufmann
to reach outside her discipline to find
a collaborator to build an apparatus
to help children with SMA until
she saw an announcement for an
interdisciplinary pilot grant funded
by the Irving Institute for Clinical and
Translational Research. It inspired her
to expand her scientific outlook.
“A doctor who sees patients nine to 10 hours a day
and is involved in clinical responsibilities does not have
time to write grants or have free time to think and write
papers,” Dr. Lederer says. “The Irving Institute K12 grant
gave me a salary and protected time to develop as a clinical investigator and to obtain subsequent grants to support my research.”
His next step will be to obtain an NIH R01 independent investigator grant, for which he can apply in his K23’s
last two years. The Irving Institute will, no doubt, help him
as they have helped other young faculty members with K
grants writing their first R01 grants. Institute staff review
the applications and mentor researchers through the
bureaucratic process.
to earn a master’s degree in patient-oriented research,
Expanding where clinical research occurs, too
jointly run by the Mailman School of Public Health and the
Expanding clinical research at the medical center is another
Irving Institute. For his master’s project, Dr. Lederer was
key goal of the Irving Institute. Fulfilling that mandate is
interested in studying racial disparities in survival rates
Karen Marder, M.D., clinical research center resource leader
of people with pulmonary fibrosis, a condition character-
and the Sally Kerlin Professor of Neurology (in psychiatry,
ized by lung tissue scarring. The lung damage can cause
the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, psychiatry, and the Taub
severe breathing problems and in severe cases patients
Institute on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain).
need lung transplants.
“No one had looked at race as a predictor of out-
“The GCRC used to be discrete units with adult
and pediatric inpatient and outpatient capabilities in the
come for people with pulmonary fibrosis before,” says Dr.
Presbyterian and Vanderbilt Clinic buildings,” Dr. Marder
Lederer, who had discussed researching health disparities
explains. “Now clinical research with the help of the Irving
in advanced lung disease patients with Olveen Carrasquillo,
Institute-funded staff members is occurring throughout
M.D., at Columbia’s Center for the Health of Urban
the hospital in the intensive care units, the emergency
Minorities. “In our clinic, we had observed and reported
departments as well as at our original sites.”
that Hispanics and blacks had more advanced disease and
Soon after Columbia received the CTSA award, Dr.
declined more rapidly than whites.” In a subsequent study
Marder met the directors of the various ICUs and the
of 2,500 pulmonary fibrosis patients waiting for lung trans-
emergency departments to ask them what they needed
plants, Dr. Lederer validated that Hispanics and blacks also
to do research. “These places are so busy doing clinical
fared more poorly in a larger, nationwide population.
work, they often don’t have time to develop protocols and
At the end of 2006, Dr. Lederer applied for a K12 grant
administer a research project,” she says.
administered by the Irving Institute to expand his research
To help, the CTSA eventually provided coordinators
into understanding the risk factors responsible for the
for the adult neurological and neurosurgical ICUs, surgical
racial disparities. The CTSA provides funds for 10 to 12 K12
ICU, coronary care unit, pediatric ICU, and neonatal ICU.
positions at CUMC. He received the K12 intramural grant
Coordinators were also provided to the adult and pedi-
in January 2007 and then applied extramurally to the NIH’s
atric emergency departments. The coordinators submit
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for the more pres-
Institutional Review Board applications for approval to per-
tigious K23 grant, which he received in April 2008, replac-
form human research, recruit participants, collect data, and
ing his K12. He also applied for and received a physician
educate participants and staff about ongoing research.
scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
to study racial disparities in pulmonary fibrosis.
As of June 2008, Dr. Marder’s team was working with
40 new investigators managing 73 new protocols. More
CTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research fall 2008 P&S
17
than half are projects in the ICUs or emergency departments. Research topics range from anesthesia use in the
surgical ICU to the effects of temperature in serious brain
injury patients.
“Ultimately, we would like to go to inpatient floors
to work more closely with nursing, physician assistants,
and residents as they conduct research,” Dr. Marder says.
“The more people who understand research, the better
in the network to obtain advice on an experimental design
able they are to perform it.”
or to collaborate on developing a grant proposal. Areas of
the social network can be restricted to protect information
How does research that benefits patients actually succeed?
when appropriate.
Although the NIH’s vision for CTSA is to transform clinical
says Dr. Johnson. “It will be used not only to model people
research, how to do it most effectively is not completely
and activities in clinical and translational research within
understood. A significant focus of the Irving Institute
Columbia University, but also in the Clinical Trials Network,
is to study the clinical research process with the goal of
a network of community practices in the tri-state area. Our
enhancing it.
current network contains nodes of 3,500 Columbia investi-
Understanding and facilitating collaboration are goals
gators, 230 departments that engage in some kind of clini-
supported by WorkWeb, an online software system under
cal or translational research, 300 centers, 900 grants, and
development for investigators engaged in clinical and
the publications of all the investigators involved in these
translational research. “This project is itself a collabora-
organizations and activities.”
tive research project among the faculty in the Biomedical
WorkWeb also may be used as a tool to support daily
Informatics Resource within the Irving Institute,” says
tasks of clinical research by combining elements of a
Stephen Johnson, Ph.D., director of the biomedical infor-
Wiki (web pages that can be edited) with those for proj-
matics resource and associate professor of clinical bio-
ect management and protocol tracking. “The Wiki plat-
medical informatics. When fully functional the system will
form allows users to collaboratively author and edit web
connect investigators to experts, mentors, collaborators,
pages and documents and to participate in online discus-
service providers, and other campus resources that will
sion forums,” says Dr. Johnson. The system also includes
enable them to carry out their research.
features for scheduling visits in clinical trials and manag-
“We envision that WorkWeb can help address some
ing to-do lists to track research activities. “For example,
of the information processing needs of the clinical and
a clinical research coordinator will be able to track future
translational research enterprise, both at the organizational
and completed patient visits, populate the calendar, and
level (by modeling networks and their activities directly)
generate quarterly reports.”
and by providing tools to conduct daily tasks required by
the research.”
18
“The WorkWeb model is simple but very powerful,”
Irving Fellow Chunhua Weng, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical informatics, studies collaboration pat-
Similar to a social network but with important dis-
terns among obesity researchers across the organizational
tinctions, WorkWeb will connect individuals through their
and disciplinary boundaries at Columbia to see how they
relationships within departments, grants, publications, tri-
might be improved. “We chose obesity research for a
als, and other entities. Each investigator will be a “node”
variety of reasons,” Dr. Weng explains. “It is a major soci-
within the network with links to other entities, and each
etal health issue; we thought we could tackle the prob-
entity, such as a grant or publication, will be modeled as
lem by leveraging the resources of the CTSA throughout
a set of links to individuals, such as staff working on the
Columbia; we didn’t know how many Columbia obesity
grant or co-authors of the paper. Users of the system will
researchers there were; and we hoped ultimately with our
navigate the social network to access their own informa-
findings we might facilitate new ways of bringing together
tion to update or track status of requests or to find others
people to work on the topic.”
P&S fall 2008 CTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research
The Irving Institute’s director, Henry Ginsberg, right, and Lee Goldman, EVP and dean, left, with
Herbert and Florence Irving, who provide significant support to the Irving Institute
Today, the Irving Institute has 10
resources that support clinical and
collaborative research.
ers may establish connections through meetings. Some
may collaborate with peers, while others might prefer to
strengthen collaboration with mentees. Each finding may
suggest ways to improve future collaborations. Mentor/
mentee success stories, for example, may become role
models for the training of the next generation of clinical
By searching the PubMed medical literature data-
investigator.
base and Google, and choosing a wide range of obesity
research-related search terms, Dr. Weng found 113 indi-
Wiki for Collaboration
viduals engaged in obesity research in 17 academic depart-
Dr. Kaufmann and Dr. Konofagou’s team also recorded a
ments, 53 research divisions, and 20 centers throughout
narrative of their collaboration as a requirement of the pilot
Columbia, including Teachers College and the urban plan-
grant program, intended to help others learn from their
ning department. She also found that these investigators
experience. They built a wiki, a collection of web pages
published in 136 peer-reviewed journals, a finding, she
that allows team members to contribute files, images, and
says, that implies a need for more interdisciplinary jour-
continuing commentary about the project.
nals that more multidisciplinary researchers would share,
read, and publish in.
Now, the spinal muscular atrophy device team will
have a chance to push their project further. The group
Once the obesity researchers were identified, she
won one of the two second-phase pilot grant awards in
surveyed them about their collaborators at Columbia.
May 2008. With the new resources and more engineering
Using social network analysis computer software to map
undergraduate and graduate students, its team of approxi-
linkages from her survey results, she investigated how
mately 20 hopes to build five prototypes to be tested by
the collaboration patterns were correlated with factors
patients in their homes. The accelerometer data and other
such as academic ranks, shared organizational affiliations,
outcome measurements will allow a Mailman School of
and shared research topics among obesity researchers.
Public Health consultant to develop a cost/benefit analysis
Example research questions: “Do collaborations occur
of the device, which a potential manufacturer would use
more often between peers than between a senior and
to justify making the device and a health insurer would use
junior investigator?” and “Do collaborations occur more
for possible reimbursement. Columbia holds patent rights
often among [those] who share the same MeSH terms
to the devices, which it would license to interested firms.
in their published manuscripts?” Her analysis led to the
The team also plans to apply for federal funding to expand
discovery of weak ties between communities in obesity
the project. Related devices may assist others with dis-
research. Based on the survey data, for example, Dr.
abilities, such as the elderly and disabled veterans.
Weng found only one bridge that links the Department
“The key to this project was the interdisciplinary
of Surgery and the Institute of Nutrition. This result sug-
approach,” Dr. Kaufmann says. “A university is a unique
gests that the ties between surgery and nutrition could
environment that allows for the collaboration of a large num-
be expanded and researchers forming the bridge are key
ber of excellent people in different departments, but they
research brokers across the two communities. “If there
need ways in which to work together. Without the Irving
were more relationships and collaborations, there might
Institute, this project never would have materialized.”
be more benefits for patients,” Dr. Weng says.
Dr. Konofagou echoes Dr. Kaufmann’s assessment.
She is now surveying the 113 experts to ask about
“Before, I only worked in cardiac and cancer imaging,”
the factors associated with sustained collaboration within
she says. “I never came across the engineering prob-
Columbia, challenges for identifying collaborators and
lems raised by patients with spinal muscular atrophy. This
initiating the first contact, and areas where researchers
project pushed me outside my comfort zone, which was
would benefit from tools such as WorkWeb to identify col-
great. It also was a great experience for the engineering
laborators or sustain collaboration. She hypothesizes that
students. Hopefully, we’ll soon know whether our efforts
some researchers may connect via a colleague, while oth-
will help people with spinal muscular atrophy.”
CTSA: A Revolution in Clinical Research fall 2008 P&S
19
Studying Diabetes
As Patients
Pre-med student Lindsay Knable, left, and first-year medical student Diana Arnold Miller began their association
with the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center as patients but also completed internships in Berrie Center labs. Ms.
Knable, a sophomore at Cornell, worked in the Berrie labs this summer. Ms. Miller, a student at UMDNJ’s Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School, interned in the labs two summers ago while attending Columbia’s engineering
school. She also spent the past year in a full-time research position at the Berrie Center while waiting to begin
medical school. Like many patients who have taken their turns at research benches studying a disease they
have, Ms. Knable and Ms. Miller could use their experiences as patients and researchers to help others.
The
Naomi Berrie A unique, family-centered
Diabetes clinical care program and
its diabetes research
Center at 10 laboratories mark special
anniversary
“I remember thinking it would be
cool to work here.”
photo credit, facing page: robert bean
photo credit, this page: Karl Crutchfield
— Eli Bunzel
By Robin Eisner
Eli says. “It was great to see how the biology I learned in
Eli Bunzel, 17, first came to the Naomi Berrie Diabetes
school was really being used in the real world. I discov-
Center for treatment when he was 10 years old, soon after
ered that I love research [and] I may want to pursue medi-
being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He toured the cen-
cine and to help patients one day.”
ter’s research laboratories on the second and sixth floors
For the past 10 years, the Naomi Berrie Diabetes
of the Russell Berrie Medical Science Pavilion on the east
Center has been inspiring patients living with diabetes, like
side of St. Nicholas Avenue and 168th Street, as many other
Eli Bunzel, to live life to the fullest while keeping diabetes
Berrie Center patients and family members do. “I remem-
under optimal control and staying healthy. Both type 1 and
ber thinking it would be cool to work here,” Eli says.
type 2 diabetes are chronic conditions requiring life-long
This past summer the junior at Riverdale Country
treatment, so the unique, family-oriented care provided at
School in the Bronx had the opportunity to intern for a
the Berrie Center has allowed more than 10,000 patients
month and a half at a Berrie Center laboratory. He is one of
to not let their condition get in the way of school, good
several high school and college students who have worked
food, sports, love, having babies, work, vacations, and life.
in the Berrie labs, including the women pictured at left
With more than 40 clinical staff members, the center in its
and on the cover, Lindsay Knable and Diana Arnold Miller.
location on the second floor of the Berrie Pavilion offers
During his internship, Eli analyzed DNA and looked at brain
its patients the medical care they need: adult and pediatric
cells with fluorescence microscopy in the laboratory of Lori
endocrinologists, dieticians, nurse educators, social work-
Zeltser, assistant professor of clinical pathology.
ers, psychologists, and ophthalmologists.
Dr. Zeltser studies in mouse models how a pregnant
The center also is dedicated to researching better
woman who is obese increases the likelihood that her child
ways to prevent and treat diabetes with an ultimate goal
may become overweight and develop type 2 diabetes. She
of curing diabetes. More than 50 scientists in Berrie
and her students also are characterizing in mice the cells
Center laboratories investigate the causes and con-
and molecular circuitry in a brain region called the arcuate
sequences of diabetes. The NIH-funded Diabetes and
nucleus of the hypothalamus that controls appetite, energy
Endocrinology Research Center at Columbia University
metabolism, fertility, fat deposition, and lactation. A related
supports Berrie Center and collaborating scientists
area in human brains regulates similar functions.
doing related research throughout Columbia University.
“The experience of working in the laboratory was
Through the center’s Program in Cellular Therapies for
eye-opening, and by the end I could work independently,”
Diabetes and the Naomi Berrie Award for Outstanding
fall 2008 P&S
21
Lab day during the
Summer Fun Program
Achievement in Diabetes Research, the Berrie Center
also funds research outside Columbia.
Opened in October 1998, the center is named for
Naomi Berrie, the mother of Russ Berrie, a philanthropist and founder of Russ Berrie and Company Inc., a
toy and gift manufacturer. In the late 1990s, Mr. Berrie
donated $13.5 million to partially fund the building where
the center is housed and to help launch the clinical and
bers also may visit a patient’s school to educate nurses,
research programs of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.
teachers, coaches, and classmates about diabetes.
Both mother and son (Russ Berrie died in 2002) had dia-
To help underserved children with diabetes, the Berrie
betes. The Russell Berrie Foundation has provided more
Center in 2001 began offering a free week-long Summer
than $63 million to support the Berrie Center’s clinical and
Fun Program each summer for 20 youngsters with type 1
research programs.
diabetes. Participants have traditional activities but also
tour Berrie Center laboratories.
“Care the way it is supposed to be”
“The center provides humanistic medical care the
Strong philanthropic support from the Berrie Foundation
way it is supposed to be,” says Angelica Berrie, Russell
and other donors has been critical for the center’s success
Berrie Foundation president and widow of Russ Berrie.
in meeting the challenge of caring for diabetes, says Robin
“When you walk into the center, it is a happy environ-
Goland, M.D., founding co-director of the center and pro-
ment, where kids are playing and parents and adults are
fessor of clinical medicine. “We can provide clinical care
smiling.”
without completely relying on the often inadequate reimbursement from insurance companies,” she says.
Having clinical facilities near research laboratories also
was part of the center’s design. “People with diabetes can
A significant amount of time in caring for people with
see the laboratories where research is going on that can
diabetes involves education about the disease and commu-
and will help them,” says Rudolph Leibel, M.D., co-direc-
nication to patients over the telephone and through email
tor of the center and professor of pediatrics and medicine.
and fax about blood sugar levels and how to match insu-
“Scientists also regularly meet patients.” Proximity also
lin and other medications to blood sugars, food, exercise
allows scientists to interact routinely with clinicians, “with
and level of stress, all services that are not compensated.
the goal of getting the basic research results into the clinic
But health care providers at the center spend as much
as quickly as possible,” he says, and to study in more
time with patients and their family members as necessary.
detail promising clinical findings.
“Diabetes management can be improved dramatically if
those who live with and support the patient understand
diabetes and its management too,” Dr. Goland says.
22
Access to the latest clinical research
Ultimately, Dr. Goland says, the goal of the Berrie Center
Berrie Center clinicians have particular expertise in the
is to put itself out of business. Toward that end, the Berrie
care of children. A diagnosis of diabetes is life-changing
Center offers opportunities for patients to participate in
for an adult, but it can be overwhelming for a youngster.
clinical trials that aim to prevent or delay onset of disease
Children want to be like their peers; a chronic disease can
or prevent the disease’s complications.
be alienating and isolating. Pediatric diabetes nurse educa-
One international trial involving Berrie patients is test-
tors and nutritionists explain the disease in age-appropriate
ing whether the drug, abatacept, can reduce the immune
ways, while social workers work with the young person
destruction of beta cells and preserve insulin production in
and their families to talk about their feelings.
people recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The trial
“I felt that the nurse educator who talked to me really
is placebo-controlled, randomized, and masked so neither
understood what I was going through and spoke to me in a
patient nor staff know which participants are taking the
way I could understand,” says Eli Bunzel, recalling his ear-
drug (approved by the FDA in 2005 for rheumatoid arthri-
liest experiences at the center. Berrie Center staff mem-
tis, another autoimmune disease) or the placebo.
P&S fall 2008 The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10
The Power of Philanthropy
“The trial requires quite a commitment because subjects receive 27 intravenous drug infusions during a twoyear period and are followed for two more years,” explains
Ellen Greenberg, type 1 diabetes research coordinator.
“We get to know the patients extremely well.”
The ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk
in Diabetes) trial seeks the best ways to decrease the
high rates of heart attack and stroke in patients with type
2 diabetes. The eight-year NIH-funded study involves
more than 10,000 patients between 40 and 79 years old
who either have cardiovascular disease or are at very high
risk for it. Because study results in June 2008 revealed
that extreme levels of glucose control increased the risk
of death in this population, the trial investigators stopped
that aspect of the trial but are continuing to test moderate
glucose control and other parameters: cholesterol-lowering medications, lipid-lowering agents, and blood pressure
control drugs. This unexpected finding of adverse consequences associated with extremely “tight” glucose control emphasizes the importance of such studies and of the
Berrie Center as a major venue.
Strong philanthropic support from the
Berrie Foundation and other donors
has been critical for the center’s
success in meeting the challenge of
caring for diabetes
“A mission of the Berrie Center is to give the best
care to the patients and improve their lives,” says Pat
Kringas, clinical research nurse coordinator for type 2 diabetes. “One way to do that is give them the opportunity to
take advantage of research.”
Moving from the laboratory to the clinic
Berrie Center scientists are leaders in uncovering the mysteries of diabetes and routinely collaborate with scientists
at Columbia University and at other institutions so that
promising findings can benefit patients.
Husband and wife team Paul Harris, Ph.D., and
Antonella Maffei, Ph.D., research scientists at the Berrie
Center, have been studying PET imaging as a way to
The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center became New York City’s only
comprehensive diabetes center after other diabetes centers
closed because of the financial burdens of treating the disease.
A concept for a multidisciplinary center with clinical and
basic research components was developed by Robin Goland,
M.D., who would become the center’s founding director.
Russell Berrie, a philanthropist and toy manufacturer, and others donated funds to build the second building in the Audubon
Research Park in Berrie’s name, which would house a diabetes
center. Mr. Berrie, who had type 2 diabetes and was Dr. Goland’s
patient, provided resources to help establish the Naomi Berrie
Diabetes Center in honor of his mother, who died of complications of type 1 diabetes. Other donors who helped and continue
to help are honored with plaques at the entrance to the center on
the second floor of the building and throughout the facility.
“We raised a lot of money then, and knew we would continue to have to do so because of the clinical and research needs
of the center,” says Joseph M. Murphy, emeritus co-chair of the
Berrie Diabetes Advisory Committee with his wife, JoAnn. Mr.
Murphy, who has type 2 diabetes, served on an advisory committee during the center’s planning stages in the mid-1990s. In
2007, he established the Christopher J. Murphy Professorship
in Diabetes Research to honor his son who died in 2001 from
cardiovascular complications of type 1 diabetes. The Murphys’
daughter also has type 1 diabetes. The Murphy family has given
$3.5 million to date and pledged an additional $1 million in support for clinical and research needs.
John and Josephine (Jodie) Eastman, current co-chairs of
the Berrie Diabetes Advisory Committee, decided to get involved
after their granddaughter, Merrill, was diagnosed with type 1
diabetes. “We knew she was going to be able to get good care,
but we wanted to make sure others also get good care,” says Mr.
Eastman. “Diabetes hasn’t slowed Merrill down a bit; it shouldn’t
slow anyone else down either. As we looked at the various
diabetes efforts, we concluded that a cure was scientifically a
most complex undertaking, which possibly was decades away. In
the meantime, increasingly sophisticated advances in care and
related research are critical and we felt were underfunded. This
led us as a family, including Merrill’s parents, uncles and aunts
and cousins, to support Robin and Rudy’s extraordinary efforts at
the Berrie Center, beginning with funding the J. Merrill Eastman
Professorship in Diabetes, designated for the clinical co-director
of the Berrie Center.”
To further support the center, the Russell Berrie Foundation
donated $21 million to Columbia University and $7 million to New
York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in March 2008. The funding to the University goes toward non-reimbursed clinical care,
a new professorship, new pilot research, the Berrie Center’s
endowment, and a continuation of the Berrie Program in Cellular
Therapies of Diabetes, started in 2003, to use cell biology, molecular genetics, and stem cells to develop means of treating and
preventing diabetes. The hospital’s funding will establish a heart
center to focus on the disease’s cardiovascular complications.
The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10 fall 2008 P&S
23
directly monitor the loss of insulin-producing cells that
is part of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center. “Diabetes is a
occurs in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. “A method to quantify
miscommunication among different organs. To understand
the change in number of pancreatic beta cells would help
the disease you have to understand which organ(s) are the
assess the progression of diabetes and the effects of inter-
main offenders in any particular person. There can be insu-
ventions such as beta cell transplants, a drug, or a lifestyle
lin resistance in the liver, fat cells, brain, and pancreatic
change,” says Dr. Harris. Beta cell mass is now indirectly
beta cells. Each individual might be more insulin-resistant
inferred by measuring glucose and insulin in the blood.
in one of different organs, and in an individual, the disease
PET produces three-dimensional images of the pancreas by detecting radiation released from a radioactively
may change. Therefore, we need different treatments for
different people.”
labeled tracer that binds to VMAT-2, a protein Dr. Harris
Dr. Accili hopes his laboratory’s research will lead to
found is a marker for beta cells of the pancreas. “The
a drug that targets the liver in diabetes. For the past 10
marker had already been identified in the brain and used
years, his research focused on the protein FOX01, which
to study the brain. We now point the PET camera to a
regulates insulin shut-down of liver glucose production.
person’s abdomen and use the same brain tracers.” After
“We think drugs targeting FOX01 would be beneficial for
performing PET studies in animal models, he is validating
people with diabetes because they have too much glu-
the work in humans. “We have to make sure what we are
cose production in their liver,” he says. FOX01, however,
seeing over time really reflects real changes in beta cell
was not amenable to usual small-molecule pharmaceutical
mass,” says Dr. Harris.
approach. Now, he is using RNA interference technology,
Ten years ago, beta cell loss seemed an inevitable
consequence of diabetes. But during that time clinicians
involving small pieces of RNA, to dampen the activity of
the FOX01 gene.
at the Berrie Center and elsewhere had some success in
reducing insulin dependence in patients with type 1 diabetes who received a transplant of donor islet cells from
pancreases of recently deceased donors. (Islets include
insulin-producing beta cells.) In time, though, the need for
insulin administration returned. However, even if the procedure were more successful, expanding its application
would have been difficult: Each patient would need two to
four donor pancreases, which are in short supply.
A mission of the Berrie Center is to give the best care to the patients
and improve their lives. One way to
do that is give them the opportunity
to take advantage of research.
With advances in stem cell technology, scientists have
started to try to create beta cells de novo, from adult stem
24
Currently, diagnosing the involvement of the different
cells, from embryonic stems cells, or by reprogramming
organs in diabetes is not possible, but Dr. Accili notes that
other cells in the body to become a stem cell and then a
Dr. Harris’s PET studies may allow clinicians to monitor
beta cell. “With stem cell technology you could potentially
pancreatic beta loss and response to interventions.
have an unlimited source of beta cells,” says Lori Sussel,
Dr. Accili likens diabetes treatment today to cancer
Ph.D., associate professor of genetics & development,
treatment 40 years ago, when the same cocktail of che-
who studies the molecules that guide the formation of the
motherapeutic agents was given to people who had breast
different cells in the pancreas during mouse development.
or colon cancer. “Today different drugs are given to treat
Her research goal: to identify beta cell-promoting regula-
specific cancers in different organs,” Dr. Accili says. “In
tory factors for colleagues who can use them to turn stem
the future, we will have better drugs to treat the different
cells into beta cells for treatment of diabetic patients.
organ systems affected in diabetes.”
Although the pancreas is a major organ involved in
Because obesity is a significant risk factor for type 2
diabetes, it is not the only organ affected, says Domenico
diabetes, Berrie scientists also study the biological mecha-
Accili, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the NIH-
nisms that regulate body weight, appetite, and energy
funded Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center that
metabolism. Reduction in body weight can prevent and
P&S fall 2008 The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10
help to stimulate the immune or inflammatory response,
increase in adipose tissue with increasing obesity. Dr.
Ferrante also has shown in animal models of diabetes that
tamping down the macrophage inflammatory response
can reduce blood sugar levels and fat accumulation in the
liver, another diabetes complication. Dr. Ferrante is workeven reverse type 2 diabetes and today represents the
ing with pharmaceutical companies to develop agents to
most effective means of preventing and ameliorating the
counter the macrophage action because such drugs might
disease. However, sustained weight reduction is very dif-
reduce diabetes complications.
ficult to achieve.
While more is learned about obesity and its role in
Dr. Leibel, Berrie Center co-director, has studied obe-
diabetes, other researchers are studying the effect of edu-
sity for more than 25 years. He and his associates cloned
cational programs in helping to prevent type 2 diabetes.
the gene for leptin, a hormone that regulates body weight,
Michael Rosenbaum, M.D., associate professor of clinical
and they continue to identify and study other genes
pediatrics and medicine, collaborates with other medical
involved in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Understanding how
centers in New York to assess the effectiveness of a nutri-
these genes and their protein products act and interact with
tion and exercise curriculum in reducing type 2 diabetes
environmental factors may lead to new interventions that
in metropolitan area youngsters. The five-year initiative,
could prevent obesity. Dr. Leibel and his associate Michael
called ROAD (Reduce Obesity And Diabetes), is targeted
Rosenbaum (see more about Dr. Rosenbaum below) are
to children in the sixth through eighth grades (before type
investigating use of the protein leptin to help people who
2 diabetes usually shows up).
have lost weight to maintain their weight loss.
Dr. Rosenbaum has developed a unique method to
Research is ongoing about leptin and its role in the
monitor both ability to make insulin and insulin sensitivity and
neural circuitry of the brain’s hypothalamus. Dr. Zeltser
is coupling this method to multiple biochemical, historical,
is making significant progress in mapping the neurons in
and clinical measures to characterize who is at risk for type
the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus which regulates
2 diabetes and how the interventions help. These uniquely
body weight and energy metabolism. She also is studying
detailed assessments are already providing valuable insights
in animal models how these neurons might be affected in
into how diabetes develops and what can be done in school
utero because they are probably involved in the physiologi-
to reduce fatness and diabetes risk in all students.
cal mechanism that leads to the increased risk of obesity
photo credit: Karl Crutchfield
in the offspring of obese pregnant women.
The future
The increasing body weight of pregnant women in
As the Berrie Center looks forward, it plans to continue to
recent years may be partially responsible for the increased
provide the best care for its patients and to do the most
rates of obesity now seen in children. This so-called “mater-
exciting research, training the next generation of clinicians
nal effect” might be due to insulin resistance associated
and scientists. “If I cannot execute all the ideas in my pro-
with obesity and an exaggerated inflammatory response,
fessional lifetime, there needs to be bright young people
which occurs in the placenta during the pregnancy of obese
in academic medicine to focus on diabetes in the future,”
mothers. Dr. Zeltser and her students are studying in mice
says Dr. Accili.
how these biological phenomena might be communicated
Ten years ago, Dr. Ferrante was just starting his
to offspring. Her findings could be extended to pregnant
career at the Berrie Center, says Dr. Accili. “Look what
women to try to prevent the maternal effect.
Tony [Ferrante] has accomplished.” Perhaps someday, Eli
That a cell -- the macrophage -- is partially causing the
Bunzel, Diana Arnold Miller, or Lindsay Knable as physi-
inflammation associated with obesity was discovered in
cian-scientists will return to the Berrie Center and help to
2003 by Berrie Center scientist Anthony Ferrante, M.D.,
transform the lives of others through medicine or research,
Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine. He found that the
as their own lives were transformed by the dedicated staff
numbers of macrophages, cells that fight infection and
at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.
The Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10 fall 2008 P&S
25
P&S Students
Student Life and Times
Teaching to Teach:
P&S Leads the
Way in Medical
Student Teaching
By Gina Shaw
“See one, do one, teach one.”
For years, that has been the mantra of residency
first years are hungry, and fourth years are in a unique
position to excite and inspire new medical students,”
they wrote. “But wait, you also receive as you give! [Back
to My Classroom] is a phenomenal opportunity to learn
about teaching, both experientially in the classroom and in
monthly meetings in which we have educational experts
and strong clinical teachers come in for talks, panels,
or Q&A sessions about all aspects of teaching.”
During his year off during the 2007-08 academic year
to do cancer research, Ben Kennedy taught classroom
education. Interns and residents move from the pro-
sessions and helped to organize Back to My Classroom.
tected atmosphere of medical school into the hurly-burly
He’s returning to participate more extensively this year
of residency, where they learn new procedures and skills
and calls the experience “one of the most valuable I’ve
by watching more senior residents and then take on the
had in medical school.”
teaching role themselves as younger graduates move up.
Mr. Kennedy still recalls his first case-based lesson in
But when do they actually learn to teach? For the
Back to My Classroom. “There were about four of us pre-
most part, newly minted medical school graduates enter
senting on infectious diarrhea, and we had put together
their residencies with little, if any, experience or instruc-
some silly PowerPoint slides to break the ice,” he says.
tion in pedagogy, and not all are naturally good at teaching.
“The students had probably never heard a case presentation
Medical students have increasingly become interested in
before, and we said, ‘This is how you’ll be learning medi-
developing a teaching competency, so P&S has become
cine, to a large extent, for the rest of your life.’ And since
part of a leading wave of medical schools with programs
GME (graduate medical education), from what I’ve seen on
designed to teach students to teach.
the wards, is very similar to what we’re doing in this class,
The largest organized program that offers such teaching
opportunities at P&S is “Back to My Classroom,” launched
it’s also preparing us for the way that we’ll be presenting
and educating each other for the rest of our careers.”
by Marc Dickstein, M.D., course director for Science Basic
Although Back to My Classroom may be the larg-
to the Practice of Medicine (SBPM), and Abigail Ford’06, a
est organized effort at P&S to actively teach students to
student at the time and now an obstetrics/gynecology resi-
teach, it is not the only opportunity. The Student Success
dent at Columbia. Structured in a case-based format, this
Network (SSN), which has been active at P&S for more
elective allows fourth-year students to share what they’ve
than 15 years, provides academic support for first-year
learned with first-year students by leading small groups in
students via small-group exam review sessions and tutor-
discussion of cases relevant to the SBPM curriculum. They
ing facilitated by second-year students who “know what
also teach clinical skills such as blood pressure measure-
to learn and remember how to learn it.”
ments, basic ECG interpretation, and physical exam.
The program began in 2004 with about 30 fourth-year
26
“Fourth years have a great wealth of experience for which
When it was created in 1991, SSN had as its primary
goal “to eliminate unnecessary failure,” says the program’s
students; for the 2008-09 year, Dr. Dickstein and student
founder, Mindy Fullilove, M.D., professor of clinical psychi-
leaders of Back to My Classroom have recruited more than
atry and sociomedical sciences in public health. “SSN was
60 “teachers.” A number of them, including the program’s
based on a program at U.C. Berkeley, which was based on
leaders, are staying for their fifth year of medical school
the idea that you really learn something by teaching some-
after taking a year off for research or other educational
one else. So once the leadership of SSN had solved the
opportunities.
basic problem of preventable course failures, they pursued
A letter from rising fourth-year students Benjamin
other initiatives, including teaching to teach, by creating
Kennedy, Maxwell Merkow, and Katie Greenzang to pro-
things like a teaching guide and a teacher training module
spective participants summed up the program this way:
done at the beginning of the school year.”
P&S fall 2008
education and teaching, because it offers no course credit.
“Usually there are about 14 fourth years involved in a
given year,” says Dr. Lee. “They are put into pairs and run
one or two sessions per week, and they find patients that
are clinically relevant to what the second years are learning
“SSN was very much a groundbreaking organiza-
that week. Then they lead them through a very directed his-
tion in medical schools,” says Megan Jessiman, Ph.D., a
tory-taking and a very directed physical exam and continue
member of the Class of 2011 and the program’s coordina-
the discussion outside the patient’s room afterward.”
tor. As a student-run organization that serves students, it
Each pair must take one clinical topic and repeat it at
anticipated the move toward peer teaching. “Our priority
least four times that month — four different patients but
is always the academic well-being of the first years but
the same essential topic. “They learn through repetition
we pay close attention to the SSN staff’s development
that every group of students behaves differently,” says Dr.
as educators. This year we’ll provide the opportunity for
Lee. “And they see that bedside teaching is very different
more than 70 second years to reflect on their teaching and
from classroom teaching.”
to improve it as the year progresses.”
Students in these electives are also helping to advance
Dr. Jessiman and Dr. Ford also have worked with
pedagogical research. For example, “Attending Physician
the Center for Education Research and Evaluation (CERE)
and Medical Student Perception of Medical Jargon in
to develop a dialogue among medical students and resi-
Bedside Presentations,” a research project conducted by
dents on teaching. PRACTICE (P&S students and NYP
three successive years of students in the elective (Eva
residents conversing about teaching in the context of
Turek’06, Peter Chung’07, and David Shen’08), produced
medical education and practice) hosts weekly meetings
an abstract that won the medical education category at the
that students and residents can attend as their schedules
2008 American Medical Student Association conference.
permit. “We want to develop a sustained, open-ended
Much of the discussion about teaching residents to
conversation that will permit people to reflect on both the
teach has taken place at the residency level, says CERE’s
teaching experiences they’ve had and their experiences as
Dr. Richards. “The national effort to look at programs for
learners,” says Dr. Jessiman. “We hope to view the devel-
residents as teachers only now seems to be trickling down
opment of learning and teaching skills as more of a seam-
to the medical school level. But wouldn’t it make sense to
less process, as opposed to one where medical students
have this become more of a part of the medical school
become extremely good at being students only to discover,
curriculum? With P&S now in the process of curricular
upon graduation, that residency demands teaching skills.”
reform, I think this could play an important role.”
Boyd Richards, Ph.D., CERE’s director, praises the ini-
Most students agree. Katie Greenzang’09 was one of
tiative P&S students have taken in Back to My Classroom,
the first to go through the Back to My Classroom program
SSN, PRACTICE, and other programs. “The thing that
as a first-year student. “Fourth years have a better sense
impressed me in coming here is the enthusiasm stu-
of what it feels like to know nothing, what it is a first-year
dents have about teaching and how much they want to be
student might know and not know, than someone who’s
involved in the process of teaching their peers,” he says.
been practicing for 40 years.”
A perfect example of this is the clinical correlation
Ms. Greenzang, who spent the past year completing
elective. Launched by Paul Lee, M.D., director of the hos-
a master’s degree in education, looks forward to imple-
pitalist program and associate director for the medical
menting what she’s learned, such as teaching by the case
house staff training program at NewYork-Presbyterian, in
method. “I hope to provide the first years with a lot of the
2000 when he was a senior resident, it is organized and
things I gained from Back to My Classroom: the language of
run by fourth-year students. Fourth-year students take sec-
medicine and the excitement of how what you’re learning
ond-year students to patient floors and show them the rel-
will connect down the line. What can sometimes seem like
evance of what they are learning in the classroom. Most
discrete medical facts that don’t connect can in fact be orga-
of the fourth-year students take on this task for the love of
nized into what you’ll see in living, breathing patients.”
fall 2008 P&S
27
Graduate School Life
Evolution of
Graduate Education
at P&S
particularly with regard to core curriculum requirements,
that provided the potential for synergistic cooperation. We
have therefore created two umbrella structures which,
while not degree-granting programs themselves, provide
By Richard B. Robinson, Ph.D.
a framework for the programs under them to interact and
Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs
work together. This creates a cohort of students within
The doctoral programs at P&S have undergone continual
each umbrella that, as they take classes together and
change since the establishment of the first program, in
interact in other ways, should begin to think of themselves
microbiology, in 1893. To a large extent the changes mir-
as true classmates. This in turn will benefit recruiting for
ror the changing nature of biomedical research. Initially,
new students by creating a whole that is greater than the
change meant expansion of doctoral education through
sum of its parts. As part of this consolidation, individual
the addition of new programs, with each based in a tradi-
program names have been updated to accurately reflect
tional medical school department, such as physiology or
the current focus of each program (for details: gsas.cumc.
biochemistry.
columbia.edu/).
A new, less rigidly structured pattern began to
One umbrella emphasizes cellular and molecular biol-
emerge in the latter half of the 20th century, represented
ogy and includes programs in biochemistry and molecu-
initially at Columbia with the formation in 1958 of the grad-
lar biophysics; cell biology; genetics and development;
uate program in nutrition within the Institute of Human
and microbiology, immunology, and infection. The other
Nutrition, the first P&S Ph.D. program not based on a for-
umbrella emphasizes translational biology and contains
mal departmental structure. More recently, as biomedical
programs in cellular physiology and biophysics; nutritional
research has become more interdisciplinary, we recog-
and metabolic biology; pathobiology and molecular medi-
nized the need to provide graduate education that cut
cine; and pharmacology and molecular signaling.
across multiple disciplines. This was addressed in part by
The graduate programs remaining outside these
faculty from one department joining another department’s
umbrellas are biomedical informatics; the integrated pro-
training faculty, but also by the creation of new programs
gram in cellular, molecular, and biomedical studies; and
outside the department structure.
neurobiology and behavior.
At P&S this took the form of the Integrated Program
The two umbrella groups worked together in Spring
in Cellular, Molecular and Biophysical Studies (established
2008 to coordinate interviews of applicants and to agree
in1987) and the Program in Neurobiology and Behavior
on offers of admission. We also added an admissions
(established in 1996).
committee, with representatives from each of the reorga-
In early 2007 Lee Goldman, M.D., executive vice
nized programs, to review and approve all recommenda-
president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of
tions for admission to assure that the same high standard
the faculties of health sciences and medicine, asked us
was applied uniformly across all programs.
to re-examine the existing doctoral educational structure.
Curriculum changes implemented this fall include
The goal: to ensure a uniform admission standard across
a complete revamping of the two-semester course in
all programs and to create an operational structure that
biochemistry and molecular biology, including the incor-
further encouraged interaction and collaboration, both in
poration of aspects of cell biology that were previously
teaching and research.
The initial changes, affecting admissions, were imple-
28
In examining our existing programs, we realized that
subsets of programs had common interests and needs,
covered by the course in cell, membranes, and organelles. The new course is known as “Biochemistry, Cell,
mented in the fall of 2007. Initial curriculum changes
and Molecular Biology” and will be a required course for
related to the reorganization go into effect this fall as part
all students in both umbrellas. We also have expanded
of a two-year phase-in plan. Additional changes and refine-
“Microbial Molecular Biology” to include non-microbial,
ments are ongoing.
but very important genetic organisms, such as Drosophila,
P&S fall 2008
Graduate Students Awards,
Fellowships, Honors, 2007–2008
(student name in italics; mentors noted by parentheses)
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research: Ellen J. Ezratty,
“Regulation of Microtubule-Induced Focal Adhesion
Disassembly” (Gregg Gundersen); Arun P. Wiita, “Probing
Chemistry and Catalysis in Single Protein Molecules with
Mechanical Force” (Julio Fernandez)
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics: Barbara Noro, Samuel
W. Rover & Lewis Rover Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Biochemistry (Richard Mann)
Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical
Studies: Belle Chang, NIH-NINDS Fellowship, “Regulation
of PIP2 Metabolism in Nerve Terminals” (Gilbert Di Paolo);
Barry Fine, Dean’s Day Steiner Award for Research, “Analysis
of PTEN Function and Regulation” (Ramon Parsons); Hasina
Outtz, NIH-NHLBI Fellowship, “The Connection between Notch
Signaling and VEGFR1 in Angiogenesis” (Jan Kitajewski); JinWu Tsai, Samuel W. Rover & Lewis Rover Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Anatomy and Cell Biology (Richard Vallee)
Genetics and Development: Jacqueline H. Barlow, Samuel W.
Rover & Lewis Rover Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Genetics and Development (Rodney Rothstein); Katherine Lelli,
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, “An in
vivo Structure-function Analysis of Exd, the Drosophila Homolog
of the Mammalian Proto-oncogene Pbx” (Richard Mann)
Microbiology, Immunology and Infection: Teresita Arenzana,
Richard C. Parker Graduate Student Award (Boris Reizis)
Graduate dean
Richard Robinson with
2008 Dean’s Award
recipients Arun P. Wiita
and Ellen J. Ezratty at
commencement
Impact of Background Music Types on Word-pair Recall and
Arithmetic Computation after Controlling for Personality Traits
and Effects of Arousal”; Catherine Jensen, NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, “Maternal Care and
Oxytocin Regulation of Dopamanergic Neurons in the VTA”;
Benjamin Matthews, NIH-NINDS Fellowship, “Dscam Diversity
and Circuit Formation in the Drosophila Nervous System”
(Wesley Grueber); Sara Morrison, NIH-NIMH Fellowship,
“Neural Mechanisms Underlying Simple and Complex
Reinforcement Learning” (Daniel Salzman); Christopher Ortiz,
NIH-NIDCD Fellowship, “Analysis of Functional Diversity in the
Chemosensory System of C. elegans” (Oliver Hobert); Rebecca
Schoer, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention,
“Neural Representations of Relative Value in the Orbitofrontal
Cortex and Amygdala” (Daniel Salzman); Carl Schoonover,
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award, “Determining the
Synaptic Anatomy of the Thalamocortical Synapse”; Yevgeniy
Sirotin, NIH-NINDS Fellowship, “Physiology of Contour
Integration” (Aniruddha Das); Gregory Wayne, NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship Award, “Neurobiology and the Emergence
of Cooperation”
Neurobiology and Behavior: Mohsin Ahmed, Dean’s Day Steiner
Award for Research, “Low Efficacy of Presynaptic Function at
Perforant Path Inputs to Hippocampal CA1 Pyramidal Neurons
is Enhanced by Long-term Potentiation” (Steven Siegelbaum);
Irene Ballagh, International Fulbright Science and Technology
Award; Elaine Budreck, NIH-NIMH Fellowship, “Distinct
Function of the Neuroligin 3 Postsynaptic Adhesion Complex”
(Peter Scheiffele); Andrew Fink, NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship Honorable Mention, “The Modulation of Sensory
Input by Neuronal Circuits” (Thomas Jessell); Angela Gee,
NIH-NINDS Fellowship, “The Activity of V4 in Free Viewing
Visual Search” (Michael Goldberg); William Hinkle, NSF
Graduate Research Fellowship Award, “Impact of Background
Music on Cognitive Task Performance: An fMRI Study on the
Nutritional and Metabolic Biology: Stephanie Padilla, NIHNIDDK Fellowship, “Effects of Maternal Insulin Resistance on
Hypothalamic Feeding Circuit in Progeny” (Rudy Leibel)
C. elegans, and mice. This course is known as “Molecular
redundancy in our teaching efforts while further fostering
Genetics” and will be required of all students in the cell
cohesiveness among the programs within each umbrella.
Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine: Li-Chun Cheng, Brunie
Prize in Neural Stem Cell Research (Fiona Doetsch); Susan
White, NIH-NINDS Fellowship, “Mechanism of Spastin-mediated Microtubule Severing” (Brett Lauring)
Pharmacology and Molecular Signaling: Erin Harleton,
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology
Graduate Student Best Abstract Award, “Inhibitory
Phosphorylation of TASK-1 is Associated with Atrial Fibrillation”
(Steven Feinmark/Richard Robinson)
and molecular group. In addition, a new course is cur-
The one constant in biomedical graduate education
rently under development called “Mechanisms of Human
is the absence of constancy. To remain on the cutting
Disease” that will be required of all students in the transla-
edge of research and education, doctoral programs must
tional group. It will focus on a number of human diseases
repeatedly reassess and reinvent themselves, adapting to
that involve different organ systems and will expose stu-
the advancing state of knowledge and resulting changes
dents to a complete understanding of these diseases,
in priorities. The revisions in our organizational structure
encompassing pathobiological characteristics, physio-
and curriculum are simply another stage in a process that
logical basis, and underlying molecular mechanisms. The
has been ongoing since the formation of the first doctoral
revision of the core courses will eliminate some of the
program at P&S more than 100 years ago.
fall 2008 P&S
29
In Memoriam
Remembering the faculty and alumni of Columbia
University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons
Faculty
Jeffrey Rosecan, M.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, died May 6, 2008.
Albert P. Rosen, M.D., retired pediatrics faculty member, died Nov. 18, 2007.
30
Alumni
2007. Dr. Bergen and his late wife, Marjory,
established a scholarship fund in his Physicians, Dr. Spotnitz was honorary presi-
Class of 1935
name at P&S. In retirement, he enjoyed
dent of the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic
Erwin T. Michaelson, former chief of the
orchard farming.
Studies, the Boston Graduate School of
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Warren W. LaPierre, a retired ophthalmolo-
Psychoanalysis, and Mid-Manhattan Institute
at Doctors Hospital in Freeport, N.Y., died
gist, died March 16, 2008. Dr. LaPierre served
for Psychoanalysis. He was the author of
April 22, 2008, at age 95. In the course of a
as a base and flight surgeon in the U.S. Air
more than 100 articles and numerous books,
career that spanned more than 30 years, he
Force during World War II. He pursued a pri-
including “Psychotherapy of Preoedipal
delivered thousands of babies. Retiring to
vate ophthalmology practice for many years
Conditions” and “The Couch and the Circle.”
Tamarac, Fla., he was the recipient in 2007
in Norwich, Conn. He had been affiliated with
He was preceded in death by his first wife,
of the Silver Circle Community Leadership
William W. Beacon and Norwich hospitals.
Miriam, and by his second wife, Dorothy.
Award from the Jewish Federation of
Preceded in death by his wife, Frances, he is
Survivors include three sons who graduated
Broward County, where he was active in the
survived by a daughter and two grandchildren.
from P&S: Henry’66 (professor of surgery at
Genesis Society. Dr. Michaelson served in
Henry Saltonstall, a retired internist and
P&S), Alan’70, and William’77.
the U.S. Army. Preceded in death by his wife,
surgeon revered by his patients for the quality
Class of 1942
Vera, he is survived by three daughters, three
of his care and a genial bedside manner, died
from the American Society of Psychoanalytic
Harry B. Neal Jr., a
grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Feb. 24, 2008. He served on the medical staff
retired general practitio-
Class of 1937
of the U.S. Air Corps and Army during World
ner, died May 6, 2008, at
Stephen M. Schwartz, a retired internist and
War II. After returning to the United States, Dr.
age 92. Dr. Neal served
former member of the clinical faculty in the
Saltonstall helped found the Exeter Clinic in
Department of Medicine at NYU, died March
Exeter, N.H. In 1979 he was honored with the
1, 2008. Dr. Schwartz served with the U.S.
Granite State Award of the University of New
War II. Following his military service, he joined
Army Air Forces during World War II and saw
Hampshire. Dr. Saltonstall was a loyal alumnus
his father’s general medical practice in rural
combat in the North African, Middle Eastern,
and supporter of P&S. He is survived by his
Pennsylvania where he practiced until his
Harry B. Neal Jr.’42
as a medical officer in the
U.S. Army during World
and European campaigns. He also partici-
wife, Cecilia, two daughters, two sons, nine
retirement in 1989. He was affiliated with the
pated in the Normandy Invasion and was dec-
grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Indiana Regional Medical Center in Indiana,
orated with the Bronze Star, Soldiers Medal,
Class of 1939 MSD
Pa. In 1992 he was honored with a testimonial
Croix de Guerre, New York State Conspicuous
Hyman Spotnitz, a distinguished research
from the Pennsylvania Medical Society in rec-
Service Medal, and Distinguished Flying
psychiatrist and neurologist and longtime
ognition of 50 years of medical service.
Cross. He pursued a private medical practice
researcher at the New York State Psychiatric
W. Clifford Smith, a retired pediatrician,
for more than half a century in New York City,
Institute, died April 18, 2008. Dr. Spotnitz
died March 28, 2008. Dr. Smith served as an
where he maintained affiliations with New
earned his M.D. from Friedrich Wilhelms
Army doctor in Guam and the Pacific Theater
York Infirmary, Cabrini, Doctors, and Midtown
University in Berlin, pursuing advanced train-
during World War II, rising to the rank of
hospitals. He is survived by his wife, Doris, a
ing in psychiatry and neurology at Columbia.
major. A former pediatrics faculty member
son, and two grandchildren.
Trained in psychoanalysis, Dr. Spotnitz
at the University of Massachusetts Medical
Class of 1939
believed that narcissistic disorders were
School in Worcester, Dr. Smith maintained
Harold G. Bergen, a retired obstetrician/
treatable and that schizophrenia was revers-
affiliations with Hahnemann, St. Vincent,
gynecologist in Yakima, Wash., died Aug. 1,
ible. Recipient of the Sigmund Freud Award
University of Massachusetts, and Worcester
P&S fall 2008
months before his death. Dr. Iezzoni also
Memorial hospitals. Survivors include his
Hospital for Special Surgery and Roosevelt
wife, Margie, two daughters, a granddaugh-
Hospital, where he served as chief of the
made time to volunteer for more than ter, and two step-grandsons.
Orthopedic Clinic. He served as an orthopedic
a decade at Valley Hospital’s pediatric clinic.
Class of 1943M
surgeon in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. A Following his retirement, he heeded the
Ruth K. Russell, a distinguished retired
middle distance and track star in his youth
call of the outdoors, co-founding the Bel
internist and author, died April 10, 2008. Dr.
and a long-distance runner well into middle
Lago Winery on the Leelanau Peninsula,
Russell was the co-author, along with her
age, he finished the Boston Marathon at age
Mich., becoming involved in the environ-
mother, Dr. Josephine Kenyon, of the popular
46. Dr. Campbell is survived by his wife, Kim,
mental efforts of the Leelanau Conservancy,
book, “Healthy Babies are Happy Babies.”
two daughters, two sons, two step-children,
and serving as a scientific adviser to the
Outside of her medical practice, she managed
10 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Michigan cherry industry, helping to evaluate
to apply the experience gleaned from raising
Henry D. Shapiro, a retired internist and
the potential health benefits of tart cherries
11 children to many articles on childrearing.
hematologist, died Feb. 5, 2008. Dr. Shapiro
for the treatment of heart disease. He was Preceded in death by her second husband,
pursued a private practice for more than three
a long-time class chairman and loyal alum-
William F. Russell’45, and one daughter, she
decades in Paterson and Fair Lawn, N.J., and
nus. Survivors include his wife, Ruth, and
is survived by 10 children, 23 grandchildren,
maintained affiliations with Paterson General
four daughters.
and 19 great-grandchildren.
and Wayne General hospitals, where he The Alumni Office has
Class of 1944
also served as director of medical education.
learned of the death on
Shepard Krech, a retired general practitioner
An internist of the old school, Dr. Shapiro
July 13, 2004, of Thomas
based in Easton, Md., died Feb. 11, 2008. Dr.
made house calls until the day of his retire-
J. Petrick, a retired
Krech was former chief of staff at Memorial
ment. Outside of his professional practice,
Hospital in Easton. He was inducted into the
Dr. Shapiro served on the Fair Lawn Borough
French Legion of Honor for 30 years of oversee-
Council and Board of Education. He was
He also had been a member of the clini-
ing the operations of the American Memorial
an impassioned advocate for school library
cal faculty in the Department of Obstetrics
Hospital in Reims. Devoted to his patients,
funding. He is survived by his wife, Lillian,
and Gynecology at the University of North
Dr. Krech once in a reunion questionnaire
a daughter, a son, 11 grandchildren, and 27
Carolina Medical School. Dr. Petrick served in
bemoaned the passing of the family doctor,
great-grandchildren.
the Korean War, earning a Bronze Star. He is
“a dying treasure and a personal relation-
Class of 1947
survived by his wife, Marjorie, two daughters,
ship with patients and their families, which
Word has been received of the Nov. 29, 2006,
and two sons.
seems to have vanished in favor of defensive
death of Margaret Miller Junker, a retired
Class of 1949
medical practice brought about by a litigious
general practitioner and former director of
William R. Fifer, a retired
society.” Among his most memorable post-
the Student Health Service at Southampton
internist and academic
medical school experiences, he recalled the
College of Long Island, where she was also medical administrator,
moment “when that first patient walked into
a member of the faculty. Survivors include
died April 30, 2008. Dr.
the office.” Following his retirement he joined
two daughters and a son.
the Governor’s Chesapeake Bay Critical Area
Class of 1948
Commission and the Maryland Chapter of
Domenic G. Iezzoni, a pediatrician who
the Nature Conservancy, among other groups
supervised medical research in pharmaceuti-
involved with environmental issues and
cals, died of lymphoma Jan. 20, 2008, at age
Korean War. Following 15 years of medi-
problems. He is survived by his wife, Nora, a
84. Dr. Iezzoni served as a physician with the
cal practice at the St. Louis Park Medical
Thomas Petrick’48
obstetrician/gynecologist
based in Cypress, Texas.
William R. Fifer’49
Fifer served in the U.S.
Army during World War
II and was recalled into
service as a battalion surgeon during the
daughter, a son, and four grandchildren.
U.S. Army. Returning to civilian life, he held
Center, he turned to medical administration,
Class of 1945
positions in major pharmaceutical concerns,
serving as director of the Regional Medical
Rolla D. Campbell, a retired orthopedic
including Pfizer, DuPont, and Schering-
Program and Area Health Education Center at
surgeon, died Feb. 16, 2008. Dr. Campbell,
Plough, where he was in charge of global
the University of Minnesota, where he was
who pursued a private orthopedic practice in
medical affairs and drug safety and served
a member of the clinical faculty in internal
New York City, was long affiliated with the
as consulting medical director until seven
medicine and public health. Dr. Fifer was the
fall 2008 P&S
31
In Memoriam
author of more than 100 scientific papers. In
where he helped found the Long Island Eye
Class of 1958
1980, he launched a third career, founding
Physicians & Surgeons, P.C., an association
Werner J. Edelmann, a retired urologist,
Clayton, Fifer Associates, an educational con-
of ophthalmic specialists. In the course of
died Feb. 18, 2008.
sultant to hospitals, healthcare institutions,
his career he taught on the clinical faculty in
Daniel L. Weiner, former associate professor
and professional societies. He is survived by
the Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology)
and chairman of the Department of Plastic
his wife, Anne, four daughters, a son, and
at the State University Hospital at Stony
Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
nine grandchildren.
Brook and served as chief of ophthalmology
and chief of plastic surgery at the Bronx
Class of 1953
at St. Charles and Mather hospitals in Port
Municipal Hospital Center, died June 3, 2007.
Word has been received of the 2004 death
Jefferson. He helped pioneer on Long Island a
He also volunteered as medical director of the
of F. Pearl McBroom, an internist with a
technique of cataract extraction and implan-
International Rescue Committee and served
strong commitment to holistic and preven-
tation of a plastic lens which he first learned
on the board of directors of Children’s Medical
tive medicine. The cause of death was heart
in Holland. Dr. Tulevich is survived by his
Relief International. He helped establish and
and respiratory failure. Dr. McBroom was
wife, Margaret (Peggy), a daughter, two sons,
operate the Children’s Plastic Surgical Center
one of the first African-American women to
and seven grandchildren.
in Saigon. Dr. Weiner served with the U.S. Air
train at UCLA and the first African-American
Donald J. Watt, a retired
Force in Fairbanks, Alaska. Survivors include
to pursue a fellowship in cardiology at the
psychiatrist who prac-
his wife, Carol, a daughter, and two sons.
University of California. Dr. McBroom served
ticed in Katonah, N.Y.,
Class of 1968
on the board of directors of the Frederick
died July 5, 2007. Dr.
Matthew Kirby Gale Jr., a retired neurolo-
Douglas Child Development Center. In 1977,
Watt also held an M.S. in
gist from Mill Valley, Calif., died March 15,
administrative medicine
2008, at sea when his boat disappeared
from Columbia’s School
during a charity race outside San Francisco
she pursued a path of study in preventive
Donald J. Watt’56
medicine that included homeopathy, reflexology, Chinese medicine, and nutrition. Dr.
of Public Health. In retirement he mentored
McBroom also conducted research on human
students in local schools. Survivors include
Permanente and was renowned as a diagnos-
growth hormone. Among her honors she
his wife, Barbara, a daughter, a son, and four
tician of neurological conditions. He is sur-
was recognized as one of 1001 Women of
grandchildren.
vived by his wife, Anna, a daughter, and a son.
Achievement. She had been a concert pianist
Class of 1957
Class of 1978
in her youth. She is survived by two daughters
Ronald M. Linsky, a
Jeffrey S. Rosecan, a psychiatrist, died May
and a grandson.
former member of the
6, 2008. Also a graduate of Columbia College,
Class of 1954
surgical faculty at North
Dr. Rosecan, a pioneer in the treatment
Arnold Mittelman, a surgical oncologist
Shore University Hospital
of substance abuse, created a treatment
formerly affiliated with the Roswell Park
in Manhasset, N.Y., died
program at Columbia for cocaine abuse. He
May 14, 2008. He was a
also co-edited one of the first comprehensive
respected breast surgeon. Dr. Linsky served
clinical guides to the psychiatric treatment of
Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., where he
was also chief of the colorectal service, died
Ronald M. Linsky’57
Feb. 3, 2008. He was also an emeritus mem-
as a captain in the U.S. Army. In his retire-
cocaine addiction.
ber of the faculty at the University of Buffalo.
ment, he served as a docent at the Norton
Class of 2001
Preceded in death by his wife, Edith Sproul, a
Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla. He is
Jameson G. “Jamey”
1931 graduate of P&S, he is survived by two
survived by his wife, Muriel, two daughters,
Thissell died of injuries
daughters and two granddaughters.
two sons, and seven grandchildren.
following a motorcycle
Class of 1956
Samuel Raymond, a former member of the
accident May 21, 2008.
Charles B.
Tulevich Jr.’56
32
Bay. He had been affiliated with Kaiser
Charles B. Tulevich Jr.,
Department of Pathology at the University
a retired ophthalmologist,
of Pennsylvania, died of Alzheimer’s disease
died of kidney failure on
Dec. 24, 2007, at age 87. In addition to his
March 23, 2008. He was
M.D. he held a Ph.D. in chemistry from the
80 years old. Dr. Tulevich
University of Pennsylvania. A pioneer in the
served with the 6817th
application of computers to clinical pathology,
Special Service Battalion
Dr. Raymond was renowned for his research
Jamey Thissell
with daughter
Rebecca at his 2001
commencement.
Dr. Thissell’s mother
made the matching
commencement
outfit for Rebecca,
who was born
April 2, 2001.
He was 35 years old.
Dr. Thissell was an
emergency room physician at Concord Hospital
in Concord, N.H. He is
survived by his wife,
Sarah (who worked in
in the European Theater during World War
leading to the development of polyacrylamide
II. Originally intending to pursue a career in
gel electrophoresis, a technique now com-
her husband was at P&S), a son, and two
music, his war experience moved him to study
monly used to separate proteins and other
daughters. An obituary and guestbook for Dr.
medicine instead. He practiced ophthalmol-
molecules. He is survived by his wife, Mary
Thissell can be found online at legacy.com
ogy for many years in Port Jefferson, N.Y.,
(Nish), a daughter, Elizabeth’85, and a son.
until June 2009.
P&S fall 2008
the alumni office while
Alumni News and Notes
Alumni News Editor: Marianne Wolff, M.D.
Alumni News Writer: Peter Wortsman
Alumni Profile
Keith Brodie:
Musings of a
President Emeritus
By Peter Wortsman
It has been 15 years since Keith Brodie’65, the James B.
Duke Professor of Psychiatry and president emeritus of
Duke University, left office to return to teaching, clinical
consults, writing, and research, yet his attachment to the
Keith Brodie’65 in front of a statue of Washington Duke
celebrated school in Durham, N.C., and to the cause of
higher education still runs strong. “You leave the presi-
and splendor of this intellectual oasis, a city within a city,
dency, but it never leaves you,” he says.
comprising some 8,611 acres of fields, woods and gardens
Dr. Brodie is a rare M.D., and perhaps the only psy-
— the envy of any urban university — with scattered clus-
chiatrist to have headed up a major American university,
ters of Gothic revival, Georgian, and contemporary struc-
a position more often held by lawyers and politicians.
tures and seemingly infinite room to grow. People wave
In his compelling new book, “The Research University
greetings along the way and a poker-faced security guard
Presidency in the Late Twentieth Century,” a study based
breaks into a smile, waving us down a restricted driveway
on in-depth interviews with eight other former university
in front of the landmark Duke Chapel, where such visionary
presidents and jointly published by the American Council
speakers as Dr. Martin Luther King and Bishop Desmond
on Education and Praeger, he brings the savvy of his expe-
Tutu moved hearts and changed minds.
rience at the helm and a psychiatrist’s insight to the study
of academic leaders and leadership in America.
A visionary in his own right, Dr. Brodie is credited during his 11 years of leadership, 1982-1993, the first three
P&S caught up with Dr. Brodie over lunch at the ele-
years as chancellor, with having been instrumental in rais-
gant Washington Duke Inn on campus and during a per-
ing the school’s academic profile from that of a respected
sonal tour of the university in January 2008.
regional contender to one of the country’s top-ranked
Moving Hearts and Changing Minds
and promoted interdisciplinary research. Among other ini-
Photo credit: Peter Wortsman
research institutions. He doubled Duke’s endowment
Driving around Duke’s sprawling bucolic campus with a
tiatives, he helped fold a sleepy School of Forestry into
former president gives the visitor a privileged perspective
a top-ranked School of the Environment and launched
on the weal of academe. The past rewinds in the rearview
the interdisciplinary Institute of Statistics and Decision
mirror, one building at a time, as the future unfurls in the
Sciences. He recruited provost Phillip Griffiths from
fast forward of construction, bypassing the present at the
Harvard, and together they brought in such bold thinkers
speed of dreams. Dr. Brodie takes pride in pointing out a
as Stanley Fish to chair the English department, who in
few of the programs and projects he shepherded, like the
turn hired Henry Louis “Skip” Gates to bring an African-
School of the Environment, the Terry Sanford Public Policy
American perspective. Keen to make the culture of the
Institute (modeled after the Woodrow Wilson School at
university more inclusive, Dr. Brodie pushed through a
Princeton), the Levine Science Research Center (the largest
Women’s Studies Program, launched a Black Faculty
single-site interdisciplinary research facility of any American
Initiative, championed the Program for Preparing Minorities
university), and the jogging trail that weaves it way through
for Academic Careers, and hired an assistant dean to help
the Duke Forest, well trodden by walkers, bicyclists, and
boost undergraduate minority enrollment from 3 percent to
baby carriages. It’s hard not to be dazzled by the sheer size
9 percent. Also committed to fairness, he extended Duke’s
fall 2008 P&S
33
Alumni News and Notes
generous college tuition benefits, reserved for the children
of faculty, to all employees of the university.
In 1986, a year into his presidency, Dr. Brodie made
headlines when he invited Bishop Desmond Tutu to speak
and subsequently, on the bishop’s urging, spearheaded
Duke’s divestment from South Africa-related companies.
While a few of the trustees and some alumni initially
balked at his more controversial decisions, Dr. Brodie gently
nudged the venerable Southern school into the national spotlight, where it has sparkled ever since. By 1993, the year he
Keith Brodie’65 pointing to his portrait in the Duke University library
stepped down, Duke had become the nation’s hottest pick
for undergraduate admission. Duke’s medicine, law, and
business schools are among the nation’s finest. Applicants
are beating their way to the door in record numbers.
chiatric inquiry, Dr. Brodie’s scientific focus would prove
prophetic. His emphasis on the basic biology, genetics,
pharmacology, and neurochemistry of such debilitating
Emeritus Yes, Retired No
conditions as bipolar disease heralded a subsequent shift
“A university presidency is a very heady, very seductive
in the field.
experience,” Dr. Brodie, 69, concedes. It wasn’t easy
In 1970 he joined the faculty in the Department of
decompressing and rediscovering himself after stepping
Psychiatry at Stanford, where he tested the clinical effec-
down. “The trick to thriving post-presidency is to develop
tiveness of a newer and cleaner generation of anti-depres-
other identities.”
sive drugs and served as program director of the General
In the years since leaving office, while continuing to
Clinical Research Center. In this capacity, he revealed an
advise his successors and pitch in when asked, he chaired
untapped ability to rein in the egos of scientific thorough-
a federally mandated commission on the behavioral aspects
of AIDS, co-authored the commission’s report as well as
two other books, and headed up the first Durham Police
Review Board. He also served as a clinical consultant to
“The trick to thriving post-presidency
is to develop other identities.”
Duke’s champion Blue Devils basketball team and helped
pioneer the burgeoning field of sports psychiatry as an early
breds on the faculty — a sine qua non of leadership — and
member of the International Society of Sports Psychiatry.
to foster a cooperative and productive working environment in which research in diverse disciplines thrived.
34
“And so then, if you do those things well, the next
thing you know you’re given more responsibilities. I was
Born in New Canaan, Conn., Brodie majored in chemistry
elected to the Faculty Senate and then I was asked to chair
at Princeton. At P&S he became fascinated by the bio-
it, which at Stanford Medical School is a big deal, because
chemistry of mental illness after participating in a landmark
you run Admissions and Financial Aid, the key to the door.”
clinical study of lithium on a third-year elective. He interned
After turning down offers to chair departments of psy-
at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, his
chiatry at the University of Texas in Houston, Rush Medical
first taste of the South, and returned to Columbia and the
School, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he
New York State Psychiatric Institute to pursue a residency
arrived at Duke, attracted by the challenge of bringing sci-
in psychiatry. Like many of his medical contemporaries, he
entific rigor to a respected, albeit largely Freudian, depart-
fulfilled his selective service at the NIH, as a clinical asso-
ment and the appeal of a family-friendly environment in
ciate at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he
North Carolina. (Dr. Brodie and his wife, Brenda, a graduate
studied the use of lithium in manic-depression. In an era in
of the Columbia School of Nursing, have four grown chil-
which Freudian theory and psychoanalysis dominated psy-
dren, all raised in Durham.) Streamlining the department’s
P&S fall 2008
Photo credit: Peter Wortsman
From the Biochemistry of Mental Illness to the
Chemistry of Leadership
clinical program, he recruited biologically oriented faculty
working on psychopharmacological treatments and such
innovative behavioral modification methods as biofeedback, introduced brain imaging and, in conjunction with the
Department of Neurology, started a sleep disorder center.
His success brought him to national attention, and in
1982, at age 43, he was named president of the American
Psychiatric Association, the youngest president ever.
During the Carter administration, he turned down an offer
to head up the National Institute of Mental Health, preferring the academic life. As he put it at the time, “The chal-
Keith Brodie’65 on steps in front of Duke Chapel
lenge is in the creation of a climate wherein intellectual
inquiry and scholarship can flourish.”
Meanwhile, Duke President Terry Sanford, the former
munity when his wife remained in New York and he too
opted to live there part time.
governor of North Carolina, appointed Dr. Brodie to repre-
Another frank and eloquent respondent, former
sent the medical center as a member of the Long-Range
Brown president Vartan Gregorian, described the perpetual
Planning Committee for the university. Sanford subse-
intellectual balancing act of the job: “Since most trustees
quently named him chancellor, with responsibilities akin to
come from the corporate culture, presidents are forced to
those of a chief operating officer. And when Sanford left
develop a schizoid language; they defend their [policies] to
the presidency to become a U.S. senator, the Duke board
the trustees in corporate language and to the faculty and
of trustees selected Dr. Brodie to succeed him.
students in academic language…It’s hard to keep the two
cultures talking without telling two different things to the
The Presidency: From Honeymoon to Exit Phase
inhabitants of those two worlds.” The composite picture
In his book, “The Research University Presidency in the Late
Brodie paints in the book of the effective president is per-
Twentieth Century,” co-authored with Leslie Banner, Dr.
haps best exemplified by Gregorian’s unapologetic decision
Brodie applies an Eriksonian life-cycle model to the profes-
to bypass the trustees and offer emergency aid to Brown
sional path of the university president: from the “courtship”
students whose parents lost jobs in the recession of the
or selection process to “the honeymoon period,” when he
90s: “…in my opinion, when they [the trustees] hired [me],
or she can do no wrong, to the “plateau or settled period of
they hired me as a leader rather than a manager.”
an administration,” and, finally, to the “exit phase.”
Photo credit: Peter Wortsman
The book reads in parts like a Ken Burns documen-
“You Have to Have a Vision”
tary, with “talking heads” like Michael Sovern, president
To succeed as a university president, Dr. Brodie insists, “you
emeritus of Columbia, and Benno Schmidt, erstwhile pres-
have to have a vision. If you become a reactor, constantly
ident of Yale (and, like Sovern, former dean of Columbia
reacting, without a sense of where you want to take the
Law School) taking an “under the ivy” look at the work-
place, then you become a manager and the job runs you.”
ings of academe. Anyone who has ever wondered about
As president of Duke, he was not averse to using
the decision-making process at America’s elite institutions
the bully pulpit afforded by his position. “I think university
of higher learning will be intrigued by Sovern’s revelation
leaders still carry a certain level of respect and an aura of
of the two defining moments of his presidency: the deci-
authority. They need to weigh in and exert that authority
sion to open Columbia College to women and the sale
when asked to provide their views. I realize that, well, if
of the land under Rockefeller Center. In his interview,
I’m not going to speak, the air will be filled with someone
Schmidt recalls putting Yale under the microscope, exam-
else who will, and you don’t know who that will be.”
ining everything from leaky pipes in the library to academic
Case in point: After educating himself about the pros
strengths and weaknesses, pruning where necessary. A
and cons of divestment in South Africa, he invited Bishop
successful fundraiser, he aroused the ire of the Yale com-
Desmond Tutu to speak on campus. The bishop’s historic
fall 2008 P&S
35
Alumni News and Notes
appearance at the Duke Chapel, which drew an overflow
recent developments in most fields outside the medical
crowd, helped persuade the president that it was the
center,” his listening and trust paid off. A 1993 academic
social responsibility of a great university to take a stand.
survey placed 18 of Duke’s departments in the top 20 and
At the risk of losing one of his board members, who was
eight in the top 10 of the country. The rise of the English
initially very much opposed but later conceded that it was
department under his tenure from 28th to fifth place (tied
the right thing to do, Dr. Brodie decided in favor of divest-
with Stanford) in the national ranking — a point of lasting
ment. That decision, a calculated risk, proved a defining
pride to Dr. Brodie, an avid bookworm — landed Duke on
moment of his presidency.
the front page of the New York Times.
His broad vision ran the gamut from academic hires
and programs to bricks and mortar. The School of the
Hoop Shots and High Performance Anxiety
Environment that he helped shape, taking elements of
Though not much of a sports buff before taking office,
the old School of Forestry, melded with geology (arts and
President Brodie became a big fan of the Blue Devils,
sciences), toxicology (medical school), environmental law
Duke’s winning basketball team, and never missed a game.
(law school), and environmental engineering (engineering
After he left office, Coach Mike Krzyzewski approached
school), now ranks among the top five in the country. He
him for help in addressing the players’ “tremendous pres-
expanded public policy from a department to an institute
sure to perform” as well as their concomitant performance
and built a building to house it. Attuned to the burgeon-
anxiety and related issues of stress. As a clinical consul-
ing field of integrative medicine, he assigned 30 acres to
tant to the team for the past decade, Dr. Brodie has been
an Integrative Health Center that has since grown into a
conducting psychological profiles to find and treat prob-
campus of its own.
lems before they get out of hand and applying visualization
techniques to diffuse the players’ pent-up tension. In the
“I realized that a research university
is far too complex an entity — too
filled with individual and maverick
genius — to achieve dramatic change
under conditions of authoritarian
control and micromanagement.”
process, he helped pioneer a new field. An early member
of the International Society of Sports Psychiatry, he is also
associate editor of the Journal of Sports Psychology.
While he still attends basketball games regularly, he
gets most of his own exercise these days walking his labrador and playing tennis at his summer home in Maine.
“I Guess That’s Why They Put Paintings on the Wall”
While deeply committed to the future of Duke, Dr. Brodie
36
As a psychiatrist, he favored close listening. In an
wastes no time on wistfulness. Among the greatest lux-
earlier book, “Keeping an Open Door, Passages in a
uries of leaving the presidency is the free time to write
University Presidency,” a collection of his commencement
personal notes by hand or take phone calls from the many
and other public addresses, also co-authored with Leslie
friends he made along the way.
Banner, his former speechwriter, Dr. Brodie characterized
With his tousled hair, baggy green sweater, and ever
his own leadership style as “synergistic.” “I realized,” he
youthful smile, the former chief executive is not one to
wrote, “that a research university is far too complex an
stand on ceremony. Pointing to his own likeness in the
entity — too filled with individual and maverick genius —
portrait gallery on the second floor of the library — it’s the
to achieve dramatic change under conditions of authoritar-
only presidential portrait in shirtsleeves — he chuckles:
ian control and micromanagement.” Trusting his instinct,
“My wife wanted me to show you this to give you a sense
he was willing to hear all sides of an issue and to delegate
of my leadership style. With each passing year there are
leadership in specific areas to his hand-picked team of
fewer and fewer people who remember you. Universities
administrative appointees. And though he readily admits
are always in a state of flux, with people coming and going.
that, early in his presidency, “I was not well versed in the
I guess that’s why they put paintings on the wall.”
P&S fall 2008
P&S Alumni
Campaign
Goal Set at
$100 Million
CUMC Capital Campaign Chair Roy Vagelos’54 with Class of 2011 students,
from left, Christina Cho, Tracy Paul, and Catherine Chang
P&S alumni are paving a better way for current and
future students who follow in their footsteps through
the steering committee: Robert O. Baratta’66, Stanley
participation in a multi-million dollar campaign that is an
Edelman’53, Richard A. Elias’55 (co-chair), Kenneth A.
integral component of the CUMC Defining the Future
Forde’59 (honorary chair), Andrew Gibson Frantz’55,
campaign. Almost $44 million in alumni gifts and pledges
Marc D. Grodman’77, Burton J. Lee III’56, William M.
has been raised toward the $100 million goal set for
Manger’46, W. Jost Michelsen’63, Thomas Q. Morris’58,
December 2011.
Donald O. Quest’70, Alfred L. Scherzer’63, Richard J.
Alumni Campaign Chairman Richard J. Stock’47 com-
Stock’47 (chair), Judith Sulzberger’49 (honorary chair),
mended class chairs and other alumni donors during an
P. Roy Vagelos’54 (CUMC campaign chair), George A.
Annual Fund meeting. “This is a terrific accomplishment
Violin’67, Ralph N. Wharton’57, and Clyde Wu’56 (honor-
for our class chairs who are directing the effort. This is an
ary chair).
important time to reconnect and be part of a great, lasting
Alumni participation in the campaign will go far
initiative. It is heartening to know that our alumni partners
toward securing the P&S tradition of excellence in edu-
are dedicated to improving the future of P&S and we are
cation as the school continues to produce innovators in
grateful for their support.”
medicine and research. Many giving opportunities are
“P&S will always lead the way,” says P. Roy
available for alumni who wish to create their own legacy
Vagelos’54, a member of the P&S Alumni Campaign
at P&S. In addition to scholarships, alumni can support
Steering Committee and chair of the CUMC Defining the
young and mid-career faculty members through endowed
Future campaign and of the CUMC Board of Visitors. “As a
assistant professorships. Because many P&S alumni have
group, our alumni have strong vision and strength. We have
expressed interest in making gifts through their estate
all benefited from those who came before us; now we, in
plans, the P&S Legacy Challenge was created with the
turn, can make P&S a better place for those who follow.”
support of several anonymous alumni. For a limited time,
“We can, and should, do better for our students
P&S alumni and their spouses who make planned gift com-
in the future,” said Lee Goldman, whose plans as dean
mitments to P&S between $30,000 and $1 million, des-
include augmenting the endowment to bolster scholar-
ignated for scholarships, are eligible for the P&S Legacy
ships and financial aid and creating a new education and
Challenge. This new initiative will provide one matching
student life building.
dollar for every three committed through a planned gift to
“Dr. Goldman has a wonderful vision to place P&S
create a named scholarship in honor of the donor. The P&S
among the top five medical schools in the nation,”
Legacy Challenge provides an extraordinary opportunity
said Associate Dean and Executive Director of Alumni
for alumni to help current students and provide a legacy of
Relations and Development Anke Nolting, Ph.D. “The
support for P&S.
driving force of our alumni family will provide the momen-
Gifts may be made by check or credit card, transfer
tum for making his vision a reality. Our alumni care deeply
of stock or real estate, or through planned or deferred giv-
about Columbia, about health care, and about our students
ing. To learn more, contact the Office of Development,
and have a strong desire to leave a lasting mark on the
P&S Alumni Campaign, 630 W. 168th St., P&S 2-421, New
medical college.”
The leadership behind the campaign’s success is
York, NY 10032, call 212-304-7200, or go online at www.
giving.columbia.edu.
fall 2008 P&S
37
Alumni News and Notes
Rx for Travel
Greenwich Village:
Take a Walk
on the Wild Side
By Peter Wortsman
Few know that when they walk through Washington
Square, the fabled green in the heart of New York’s
Greenwich Village immortalized by Henry James in a
novel of the same name, they are walking on bones. Long
before the landmark townhouses now owned by New York
University went up on the northern edge, the park was a
potter’s field in the shadow of a municipal gallows. A tree
Washington Square Park
known as Hangman’s Elm still towers over the northwest
corner. The Square is currently laid bare by a renovation
poets Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and friends reclaimed
project with bulldozers plowing through the past.
the countercultural heritage in the late 1950s. And the
The Manahata Tribe called the area radiating round
folk revival of the 1960s was jump-started and strummed
the park Sapokanikan (tobacco field). The Dutch dubbed
by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, and others at
it Noortwyck. The English renamed it Greenwich Village.
music clubs still hopping on Bleecker Street.
Once an independent hamlet to the north of New York
The Village was also the incubator for various politi-
City, its population swelled with New Yorkers fleeing the
cal and social avant-gardes, including the radical cote-
yellow fever epidemic of 1822. A sense of independence
rie around writer John Reed (immortalized in the movie
survived, thanks to building ordinances that forbade sky-
“Reds”) and the Gay Liberation Movement symbolically
scrapers and the influx of artists and literati attracted
launched in 1969 when patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a
by its charm and cheap rents. In 1949 émigré painter
gay bar on Christopher Street, rioted to protest a police
Marcel Duchamp and his friends let loose balloons from
raid. Pop Artist George Segal’s life-sized sculpture “Gay
the Washington Square Arch, declaring the surrounding
Liberation” stands in the park across the street.
cluster of twisted streets “The Independent Republic of
Greenwich Village.”
A bastion of bohemia, The Village, as it’s popularly
38
St. Vincent’s Hospital on 13th Street, a teaching hospital founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1849, was one of
the first institutions to treat HIV and AIDS in the 1980s.
known, was the sometime stomping ground of Edgar Allen
In recent years, skyrocketing real estate prices have
Poe, who vented his spleen in “The Cask of Amontillado,”
scattered artists and bohemians to the far-flung corners
penned on Third Street, and was treated for a winter cold
of the outer boroughs, but the neighborhood’s feel of
at the Northern Dispensary, a small triangular orange
an enchanted elsewhere survives. The charms of The
brick clinic serving the working poor, still standing, albeit
Village can best be savored on evening strolls through its
defunct, at the fork of Christopher and Grove streets.
winding tree-lined streets. Precious pockets of the past
Mark Twain and Emma Lazarus (whose poem “The New
include MacDougal Alley, allegedly the last street to be
Colossus” graces the base of the Statue of Liberty) plied
lit by gas lamps; Washington Mews, a string of erstwhile
their pens on 10th Street. e.e. cummings famously dis-
stables now part of NYU; and Grove Court, the setting of
pensed with capital letters at Patchin Place. Dylan Thomas
O’Henry’s story, “The Last Leaf.” For more information on
dreamed, drank, and died at the White Horse Inn, a popu-
The Village and other New York City neighborhoods, visit
lar watering hall still pouring drinks on Hudson Street. Beat
http://nycvisit.com.
P&S fall 2008
Alumni Reunion Weekend
Alumni Day Scientific Session
Alumni Day Program chairman Andrew G. Frantz’55
opened the scientific session by welcoming to the
podium Gerard M. Turino’48, the 2008 Honorary Alumni
Day Chair. A nationally recognized leader in the basic and
clinical scientific study of lung disease, Dr. Turino is the
John H. Keating Professor Emeritus of Medicine at P&S
and chairman emeritus of the Department of Medicine
at the Columbia affiliate, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital,
where he was founding director of the Mara Lung Center.
Dr. Turino’s earliest studies focused on cellular and biochemical predispositions to lung injury, specifically the
role of connective tissue elements in pulmonary mechan-
2008 Honorary Alumni Day Chairman Gerard M. Turino’48 (left); Jane Salmon’78 (right)
“Orphans and Vulnerable Children in the Urban Slums of
ics. He helped demonstrate the potency of elastases in
Africa,” John R. Bryant’53, former dean, Columbia
degrading the elastic matrix of the lung and was a major
University School of Public Health, and former Joseph R.
contributor to the protease anti-protease imbalance
hypothesis as a cause for parenchymal destruction in pul-
Delamar Professor of Public Health
“A Pre-Hippocratic Atlas of Wounds and Wound Healing,”
monary emphysema. His more recent research on animal
Horton A. Johnson’53, retired professor of pathology,
models has led to the development of a promising poten-
P&S
tial therapy for pulmonary emphysema. A past president
“Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: There’s Hope
of the American Thoracic Society, he was the recipient of
on the Horizon,” Gerard M. Turino’48, the John H.
countless honors, including the 2003 Edward Livingston
Keating Professor Emeritus of Medicine, P&S
Trudeau (P&S 1871, MS 1899, Hon. D.’13) Medal of the
American Thoracic Society and the P&S Alumni Gold
P&S Reunions
Medal for Outstanding Achievements in Medicine.
The following papers were presented:
“The Diversity of Escherichia Coli Infections: Molecular
Mechanisms, Clinical Outcomes, Future Therapies,”
Michael S. Donnenberg’83, professor of medicine,
microbiology and immunology, University of Maryland
School of Medicine
“Improving the Treatment of Depression: Results and
Implications of the STAR*D Trial,” A. John Rush’68,
professor of psychiatry and clinical science, University
of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Thomas Q. Morris’58, Dean Lee Goldman, and Sheldon H. Cherry’58 (left);
Donald’58 and Mary Lindberg at Class of 1958 reunion (right)
“Antiphospholipid Syndrome Revisited: A Disorder
Initiated by Inflammation,” Jane Salmon’78, professor
P&S alumni from anniversary classes reunited at venues
of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
around town, most of the parties evenly divided between
“Corneal Transplants-Past, Present and Future,” George
the Cosmopolitan and the Harmonie clubs. The Class of
J. Florakis’83, clinical professor of ophthalmology, P&S
1948 gathered at the Century Club and the Classes of
“How Should a Modern Medical Library Act?”
1993 and 2003 marked the moment in familiar climes at
Donald A. Lindberg’58, director, National Library of
the Donald F. Tapley Faculty Club on the CUMC campus,
Medicine, former clinical professor of pathology,
where they had officially been welcomed years before at
University of Virginia
receptions for incoming students.
fall 2008 P&S
39
Alumni News and Notes
50th Reunion
Alumni Gold Medal in 2006. For another illustrious mem-
“Time is the longest distance between two places,” wrote
ber of the class, Donald Lindberg, director of the National
playwright Tennessee Williams. Tell that to the members
Library of Medicine, in town with his wife, Mary, the 50th
of the Class of 1958 who leapt 50 years in a single bound
class reunion mingled memories of medicine and romance.
at the Harmonie Club, reconnecting with their shared past.
Mrs. Lindberg, a Columbia School of Nursing graduate who
Most of them are still busy doing what they love best: prac-
ran the treatment room in the Vanderbilt Pediatric Clinic
ticing and teaching medicine and pursuing medical research.
when the Class of 1958 rotated through, recalled her first
Howard Roffwarg’58
flew in from Jackson, Miss., where he
encounter with her husband-to-be, “this very tall, handsome
is professor of psychiatry at the University of Mississippi. He
medical student,” over the blood tests of a patient. “We just
runs a research lab, studying the role of REM sleep in the
celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.”
development of the brain. His one concession to seniority
is passing on the directorship of the Sleep Disorder Center.
Dean’s Day Program
He and his wife, Joy, have a son, Samuel, age 8. Gerard
After a welcome from Dean Lee Goldman, Kenneth
came up from Miami, where he is chief medical
Forde’59 officiated as master of ceremonies for the
Kaiser
officer for the Jackson Memorial Health System. A cardiac
Dean’s Day Program.
and thoracic surgeon, he taught on the faculty at P&S and
ing the transition to full-time administration. Harry Delany, a
Award to Pioneering African-American Transplant Surgeon
general surgeon and professor at Albert Einstein College of
The 2008 Virginia Kneeland Frantz’22 Distinguished
at the University of Miami School of Medicine before mak-
Medicine and Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, had less
Women in Medicine Award went to Velma Scantlebury’81,
of a distance to travel but was no less excited: “It’s nice to
professor of surgery and associate dean for community
see some buddies from the old days.” Stanley Korenman,
education at the University of South Alabama Medical
professor of medicine at UCLA, teaches research ethics.
Center in Mobile. Dr. Scantlebury, past director of kid-
“I’m still working real hard,” Dr. Korenman, an endocrinolo-
ney transplantation there, was the first African-American
gist, affirmed. Fellow California resident, Byong Kim, a pul-
woman transplant surgeon in the country. The award was
monologist, is based in San Diego. A native of Korea, Dr.
presented by her classmate Rita Louard’81, associate pro-
Kim recalls the experience of having been the only foreign
fessor of clinical medicine at Albert Einstein College of
student in his class. He had already started medical school
Medicine. “For me this is a particularly delicious moment,”
in Korea. Stephen Malawista is professor of medicine at Yale
said Dr. Louard, “in that I get to celebrate a friend-
University School of Medicine. Dr. Malawista, who discov-
ship over three decades and to honor a woman I have
ered Lyme disease and the Lyme vaccine, received the P&S
long admired.” Pointing out the similarities between Dr.
Scantlebury and the late Dr. Kneeland
Class of 1958
Frantz, a distinguished professor of
surgery at P&S, she added that both
women faced hurdles and “pursued a
path less traveled.” Dr. Scantlebury, a
native of the Caribbean island nation
of Barbados, remarked: “It has been a
long road since medical school. Seeing
a fellow Barbadian, Dr. Forde, and all
that he has accomplished, I felt I could
do it too!” Dr. Scantlebury, who has
performed more than 200 living donor
kidney transplants and more than 800
cadaveric donor transplants in children
40
P&S fall 2008
2008 Virginia Kneeland Frantz’22
Distinguished Women in Medicine
Award recipient Velma Scantlebury’81
with Dean Lee Goldman and
Rita Louard’81
M.D., MPH, stroked P&S medical and musical history
on string instruments built by the late Virginia Apgar’33,
renowned anesthesiologist and inventor of the APGAR
Score for evaluating the physical condition of newborn
infants. The Quartet’s revolving membership includes
faculty and students. Instrumentalists John Austin,
M.D., Marc Bastuscheck, Ph.D., Dr. Cunningham, Albert
and adults, as well as countless other complicated organ
Novikoff, Ph.D., and Arnold Simmel, Ph.D., performed
transplants, was the subject of an alumni profile in the
George Onslow’s “Bullet” quintet.
Spring/Summer 2007 issue of P&S.
Exercising their vocal cords, the Ultrasounds, the student a capella group, sang three numbers from their reper-
MDs Concertize and Harmonize
toire, including “Good ol’ A Cappella.”
Matt Tomey’08 and Leela Joshi’08, two members of the
Following intermission, pianist June Wu’96, assistant
Bard Hall Players, the P&S answer to Broadway, kicked
professor of surgery at P&S, and violist John Austin, pro-
off the morning program, “A Musical Salute to Medicine,”
fessor of radiology at P&S, played the “First Movement of
with “Wunderbar,” a rousing number from the musical
the Viola Sonata (Op. 120, No. 1)” by Johannes Brahms.
“Kiss Me Kate.” The two graduating seniors captured the
And singer-songwriter-medical student Scott Fruhan’10
moment with the chemistry of their performance.
performed his own composition, “Yellow Shoes,” dedicat-
The first keynote speaker, Dr. Samuel Wong, an oph-
ing the performance to Kathy Couchells, former director of
thalmic surgeon in private practice who did his house staff
alumni relations, who in her retirement planned this year’s
training at P&S, spoke on “Musical Healing Powers.”
reunion weekend.
Also a symphony conductor, he combined his two passions, music and medicine, as the founding president
of the Global Music Healing Institute. Dr. Wong showed
excerpts from a documentary he produced on music and
healing. Perhaps the most memorable moment in the film
was when Dr. Wong performed Bach on a piano in the
OR while a surgeon performed surgery on a patient, the
first documented experiment of music performed in the
OR. Recalling that the earliest record of musical therapy
is the biblical account of David playing his harp to soothe
the nerves of the troubled King Saul, Dr. Wong suggested
that “music can be the most powerful and effective medi-
Shanti Serdy’98 (left); Lamont Barlow’09 (right)
cine.” In the course of his career Dr. Wong has harnessed
the power of music in rehabilitating stroke victims, evoking memories, and alleviating pain.
The celebrated neurologist and bestselling author,
Oliver Sacks, M.D., who recently joined the Columbia fac-
Shanti Serdy’98, instructor in medicine at Harvard
ulty as professor of neurology and psychiatry, wrapped up
Medical School and virtuoso violinist, performed portions
the morning program with the second keynote address on
of the “Violin Sonata in G Minor” by J.S. Bach. Next up,
“Musicophilia: Clinical Tales of Music and the Brain,” the
Lamont Barlow’09, a member of the P&S Musicians Guild,
title of his recent book. “I’m going to talk as a physician
riveted the audience’s attention from the very first note of
today who has been concerned with music one way or
his powerful rendition of “Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor,
another with his patients. Mostly music is delicious and
Op. 1” by Sergei Prokofiev.
puts us in a good mood. But sometimes the imagery of
Back by popular demand, the Apgar Memorial String
music can go wrong and become unstoppable.” Dr. Sacks
Quartet, under the direction of Nicholas Cunningham,
described cases of musical obsession in which certain
fall 2008 P&S
41
Alumni News and Notes
tunes literally take over consciousness, calling it “musical imagery which has gone berserk.” One of his patients
described the endless loop of a rather banal tune as his
“intracranial jukebox.” On the brighter side, however,
Dr. Sacks said “musical memory does not seem to be
affected by amnesia and dementia.”
At a luncheon at the Donald F. Tapley Faculty Club,
English Sticky Toffee Pudding with Fig Armagnac Ice
Cream was whipped up by master dessert chef Thomas
Lo’08 and wines were selected to accompany each course
by P&S resident oenophile Dr. Norman Kahn. Dr. Lo, who
took a break between college and medical school to pursue his culinary passion at the French Culinary Institute,
founded An-aesthetic Cuisine (he can be reached for catering at [email protected]). He is the special events
chef at Graffiti Food and Wine Bar in New York. He will be
training in anesthesiology at Columbia.
Gala Dinner-Dance at Tavern on the Green
Graduating seniors and their dates joined forces with 25th
Honors and Award Committee chairman Kenneth Forde’59 (left) and Dean Lee Goldman
(second from right) with 2008 Gold Medal recipients Marvin M. Lipman’54, Jason
Sulkowski’08, and Jay Levy’65 (top); Newly minted doctors (bottom)
and 50th anniversary class members and their significant
others at the New York landmark restaurant Tavern on the
of more than 400 scientific papers and 13 books, including
Green for the 149th annual Alumni Gala Reception and
the seminal work “HIV and the Pathogenesis of AIDS.”
Dinner Dance. From cocktails in the garden on the edge of
John B. Mulliken’64, a renowned pediatric plas-
Central Park, festivities moved into a glasshouse setting
tic surgeon, received the Gold Medal for Excellence in
for the dinner dance and awards ceremony.
Clinical Medicine. Professor of surgery at Harvard Medical
Master of ceremonies Kenneth Forde’59 addressed
School and director of the Craniofacial Centre at Children’s
the graduates: “We welcome you, the Class of 2008, into
Hospital in Boston, Dr. Mulliken is best known for a single-
the fold of the P&S Alumni Association.” Class of 1958
stage procedure he devised to repair bilateral complete
chair Sheldon Cherry spoke on behalf of the 50th anni-
cleft lip and nasal deformity. He was also a member of the
versary class. He reminded the newly minted M.D.s how
Harvard team that developed a technique of using spe-
different medicine looked in his day. “In 1958 there were
cially treated bone powder to help the body regenerate
no organ transplants, no birth control pills, no HMOs, no
damaged or congenitally misshapen bone tissue. He was
MRIs…but we did have Virginia Apgar’33, Dana Atchley,
co-founder and past president of the International Society
Robert Loeb.”
of Vascular Anomalies.
Gold Medalists
for Meritorious Service to the College of Physicians and
The Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievements in
Surgeons and its Alumni Association. A respected endo-
Medicine was awarded to Jay Levy’65. Co-discoverer of
crinologist with a private practice in Westchester County,
the AIDS virus, Dr. Levy also developed heat treatment as
Dr. Lipman is clinical professor of medicine at New York
Marvin M. Lipman’54 was awarded the Gold Medal
42
a method of inactivating the virus in clotting factor prep-
Medical College, chief medical adviser of the Consumers
arations and was the first to report its presence in brain
Union, and medical editor of Consumer Reports. As chair-
and bowel cells. Professor of medicine and director of the
man of his P&S class for three decades and counting, he
Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the UC-
made fundraising history by spurring his classmates to
San Francisco School of Medicine, Dr. Levy is the author
100 percent participation in their 50th anniversary cam-
P&S fall 2008
paign. An active member of the Alumni Association, he
has served several terms as a director and been an active
participant in the Student/Alumni Relations Committee.
Carlton Prickett’08 and Jason Sulkowski’08 shared
the Gold Medal to Graduates in Recognition of Interest in
and Devotion to the College of Physicians and Surgeons
and its Alumni Association.
The Class of 2008 takes the dance floor by storm
Alumni Association Activities
Alumni Council
Parents’ Day Program
The dinner speaker at the council dinner in March was
On April 12, 2008, the proud progenitors, loved ones,
Ron Cohen’81, president, CEO, and founder of Acorda
and significant others of P&S students packed Alumni
Therapeutics Inc., a public biotechnology company devel-
Auditorium for a privileged peek at medical student life.
oping therapies for spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis,
Outgoing P&S Alumni Association president Jacqueline
and other disorders of the central nervous system. Having
A. Bello’80 introduced Dean Lee Goldman for welcom-
observed the “dramatic progress in certain areas of neu-
ing remarks. It was a three-act program, with members
roscience that were not being tapped by industry,” Dr.
of the administration, the faculty, and the student body
Cohen decided to fill the medical market void. Founded
offering diverse perspectives. The dean’s office was
in 1995 as what he described as a “virtual company, i.e.
represented by Lisa A. Mellman, M.D., senior associate
me and my laptop in my second bedroom,” Acorda went
dean for student affairs; Andrew G. Frantz’55, associate
public in February 2006 and currently occupies offices
dean for admissions; Hilda Y. Hutcherson, M.D., asso-
in Hawthorne, N.Y., with a staff of 147. The company
ciate dean for diversity; Ronald E. Drusin’66, associate
has a drug in the market, Zanaflex, for the symptomatic
dean for education; and Ellen Spilker, director of student
relief of spasticity suffered in various kinds of CNS inju-
financial planning. Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D., a professor
ries, earning $48 million in sales last year. Another drug,
of clinical medicine, described the Narrative Medicine
Fampridine SR, a sustained release tablet, the only known
program, which she founded. Paul Lee, M.D., assistant
compound to improve neurological function in MS, is
clinical professor of medicine, spoke on “The Residency
soon to be released. Three other drugs are under way in
Selection Process.” The most inspirational part of the
the preclinical pipeline. Dr. Cohen sees his company as a
program came from the students themselves. Graduating
bridge between academia and industry and as an effective
senior Eric Black’08 described the ups and downs of
model for others. He hopes that P&S will be in the fore-
“The P&S Experience: from Orientation to Graduation.”
front of educating clinician-scientists on how to work with
Hadi Halazun’09 and Daniel Stephens’09 elaborated on
industry. “Today’s medical training,” he insists, “should
the amazing variety of extracurricular activities offered
include exposure to the principles of industrial drug devel-
under the umbrella of the P&S Club. Louisa Canham’10
opment.” He suggested, furthermore, that people from
took her audience on a thrilling virtual journey in “A
industry should be brought in to teach medical students.
Medical Student’s Excursion to an HIV Clinic in Lima.”
Dr. Cohen is chairman emeritus of the board of the New
And Christopher Hale’09 described the important work
York Biotechnology Association. He is a member of the
of CoSMO, the student-run medical outreach program to
Columbia-Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council.
the Washington Heights community. The student a capella
group, the Ultrasounds, sang at lunch at the Bard Hall
Dining Room. The program included a tour of the medical
center campus.
fall 2008 P&S
43
Alumni News and Notes
Class News
Class of 1958
Donald A. Lindberg gave a presentation at
2008 issue, P&S). These classmates By Marianne Wolff’52
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 39.
represent two of the three awardees in this
recognition was noted in the Spring/Summer
Class of 1964
category; they were selected from among
Class of 1948
John B. Mulliken received an award at
600,000 physicians currently practicing in
See Alumni in Print to read about a book, alumni reunion weekend. See Page 42.
the United States. Nominations were sought
“I Only Dress the Wounds: Notes of a Country
Class of 1965
from leaders at top U.S. medical centers and
Doctor,” by Ted Merrill.
Jay Levy received an award at alumni reunion
specialty hospitals, as well as from physi-
Gerard M. Turino was Honorary Alumni Day
weekend. See Page 42.
cians profiled in Castle Connolly’s America’s
Chair at this year’s alumni reunion weekend
Class of 1967
Top Doctors publications.
and he gave a presentation at the scientific
The 2007 State University of New York
Class of 1975
session. See Page 39.
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in
Director of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery
Class of 1949
Professional Service went to Marcia
at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital
The Society for Hospital and Resources
Gerber, who has been affiliated with SUNY
of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital David P.
Exchange, “SHARE,” founded by Martha
Downstate Medical Center for more than Roye Jr. is also chief medical director “Bobbie” MacGuffie in 1988, honored 40 years.
of the Children of China Pediatric
its founder on the occasion of her retirement
Class of 1968
Foundation. Every year since 1998 this
in March 2008. Originally a surgeon, particu-
John Rush gave a presentation at alumni
foundation has sent a team of physicians
larly interested in burn reconstruction, reunion weekend. See Page 39.
from Morgan Stanley to China to correct
Bobbie spent time in Africa, where she
Class of 1974
birth defects and disabilities of children
in Chinese orphanages. The team includes
helped build hospitals, clinics, clean water
systems, sanitation projects; sponsored the
nurses, technicians, and volunteers; sur-
building of an orphanage; and pioneered geons on the team specialize in pediatric,
projects for treatment of malaria, polio,
plastic, and urological surgery. They have
sleeping sickness, and schistosomiasis. She
done hundreds of cases, treating spina
has received numerous awards, including bifida, polio, cerebral palsy, cleft lip and
the Lions Club International Humanitarian
palate, strabismus, webbed hands, and club
Award, the Helen Hayes MacArthur Award,
and the Virginia Kneeland Frantz Award L. Dade
Lunsford’74
Strathmore’s “Who’s Who” has named from P&S.
Dave the “Professional of the Year” for his
Class of 1953
“outstanding contributions and demon-
John R. Bryant gave a presentation at
strated leadership in his field.” His main
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 39.
interests are in idiopathic scoliosis and
Horton A. Johnson gave a presentation at
other spinal disorders. He has authored
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 39.
numerous articles and textbooks, sits on
Class of 1954
Marvin M. Lipman received an award at
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 42.
editorial committees, and has lectured
Stanley
Chang’74
all over the world. He also serves as CEO
of International Healthcare Leadership.
Class of 1957
The 2008 Castle and Connolly Physician
See Alumni in Print to read about a book,
of the Year Award for Clinical Excellence
Orthopedic Surgery at P&S.
“Freedom to Choose: How to Make End-
was given to L. Dade Lunsford, chairman
Class of 1976
of-Life Decisions on Your Own Terms,” by
of the Department of Neurosurgery at
See Alumni in Print to read about “The
George M. Burnell.
the University of Pittsburgh, and Stanley
Business of Healthcare” in three volumes Chang, chairman of the Department of
by Kenneth Cohn.
Ophthalmology at P&S (Dr. Chang’s 44
feet. In addition, the Worldwide Edition of
P&S fall 2008
He is the St. Giles Professor of Pediatric
Research Chair at the Hospital for Special
Cathy Lee Mendelsohn, who received her
Surgery in New York, where she is also senior
Ph.D. in microbiology from Columbia, has
scientist. She sits on the Board of Directors
been promoted to associate professor of
of the American College of Rheumatology and
urological sciences, with tenure, at P&S; her
is co-editor of Arthritis and Rheumatism. She
appointment spans the departments of urol-
also gave a presentation at alumni reunion
ogy and pathology and the Institute of Human
weekend. See Page 39.
Nutrition. Her areas of special interest lie
Class of 1980
in the formation and development of the
A building in Nigeria was named for Natalia
urological system and urological malforma-
Kanem in May 2008 to recognize her work in
tions in animals and humans. Cathy Lee has
Jerome Groopman was speaker at the the Women’s Action Research Centre in Benin
completed fellowships at the Universite Louis
2008 P&S commencement. See Alumni in
City, Edo State, Nigeria. She is the president
Pasteur and at Columbia.
Print to read about his latest book, “How
of ELMA Philanthropic Services. Natalia
Class of 1991
Doctors Think.”
was formerly a senior director of the Ford
See Alumni in Print to read about a book, “Do
Class of 1977
Foundation. In addition to her M.D. from P&S,
You Feel Like You Wasted All That Training?:
Peter Doubilet and his wife, Carol
she holds an M.P.H. from the University of
Questions from Doctors Considering a Career
Benson, have published a book titled “Your
Washington. Her current work concentrates
Change,” by Michael J. McLaughlin.
Developing Baby: Conception to Birth” (see
on promoting the social development and
Class of 1996
Alumni in Print, Page 46.) The co-authors are
well-being of women in Nigeria.
June Wu gave a performance at alumni
both M.D.s (Carol went to the University of
Class of 1981
reunion weekend. See Page 41.
Pennsylvania); both are radiologists, special-
Velma Scantlebury received an award at
Class of 1998
izing in obstetric ultrasound at Brigham &
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 40.
Shanti Serdy gave a performance at alumni
Women’s Hospital; both are full professors at
Class of 1983
reunion weekend. See Page 41.
Jerome Groopman’76 at this year’s P&S commencement
Harvard Medical School. Between them Michael S. Donnenberg gave a presentation
Class of 2003
they have five children, the last two of whom
at alumni reunion weekend. See Page 39.
The awardee of the 2008 American Society
just went off to college.
George J. Florakis gave a presentation at
of Transplantation’s Astellas Clinical Science
Class of 1978
alumni reunion weekend. See Page 39.
Fellowship Grant, awarded at the American
Added to her numerous past awards, Jane
Class of 1984
Transplant Congress’ annual meeting in July,
Salmon received one of two Carol Nachman
A survey conducted by “Florida Super
was Deirdre Sawinski.
prizes for 2007, the most prestigious inter-
Doctors” asked respondents “If you needed
national award for rheumatology research. It
medical care, which doctor would you
recognizes her innovative research into the
choose?” Among their answers was Arnon
pathogenesis of organ damage in systemic
Krongrad, whose forte is laparoscopic lupus erythematosus and other disorders of
radical prostatectomy. Arnon considers pros-
the immune system. Previous awards include
tate cancer to be a public health issue and
the Henry Christian Award for Excellence
hopes it will be addressed by politicians.
in Research from the American Federation
Class of 1987
for Clinical Research, the Dr. Edmond L.
Michael Rosenberg, attending plastic
Dubois Memorial Lectureship Award from
surgeon at Northern Westchester Hospital,
the American College of Rheumatology, the
has been elected president of the Medical
Eric Bywaters Memorial Lectureship, and
Society of the State of New York. He is also
the Theodore E. Woodward Award of the
a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical
American Climatological Association. Jane
Corps and serves as a trustee at Northern
is professor of medicine at Weill Cornell
Westchester Hospital.
Medical College. She holds the Collette Kean
Class of 1989
New York’s 2008 “Best Doctors”
Of the 1,434 physicians and surgeons named to
New York magazine’s list of the Best Doctors
2008, 22 percent are affiliated with Columbia
University as faculty, P&S alumni, or house staff
alumni: 192 faculty members, 110 house staff
alumni, and 123 P&S alumni.
The full list is available online at www.cumc.
columbia.edu/news/journal/alumni_news_extra/
fall 2008 P&S
45
Alumni News and Notes
Alumni in Print
Freedom to Choose: How to
Make End-of-Life Decisions
on Your Own Terms
Your Developing Baby:
Conception to Birth
How Doctors Think
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007
Baywood Publishing Company,
Peter M. Doubilet’77, Carol
B. Benson, M.D., and Roanne
Weisman
2008
Harvard Medical School Guides,
thought process that physicians must
Inspired by the case of Terri Schiavo,
2008
go through when diagnosing and
Dr. Burnell addresses how to make
Dr. Doubilet’s book helps parents
treating patients. Each chapter uses
informed and effective decisions
and family members know what
real examples to illustrate particular
about end-of-life care. Individual sto-
to expect during pregnancy. The
aspects of the medical decision-mak-
ries demonstrate the kind of choices
authors employ 2-D and 3-D ultra-
ing process and to highlight the chal-
that can help one die peacefully
sound images, with accompanying
lenges, traps, and potential failures
and on one’s own terms. Although
diagrams, to explain the process
of the techniques medical students
end-of-life care is increasingly contro-
of fetal development in clear and
are taught. Dr. Groopman also offers
versial, the book remains non-politi-
simple terms. Each section of the
suggestions for both patient and
cal and sensitive to the needs and
book focuses on a different aspect
physician to change their dynamic
autonomy of the individuals involved
of pregnancy — each of the three
and achieve better quality of care.
in the dying process. With more than
trimesters — as well as what to
This book offers intelligent questions
30 years of experience, Dr. Burnell
expect with multiple pregnancies
patients can ask their doctors.
advises patients and their loved ones
and various screening procedures for
to “take the time to plan.”
fetal and infant health. The last chap-
George M. Burnell’57
ter describes the process of labor
itself and what to expect during the
first few days of an infant’s life. The
book is geared toward a lay audience
but also can be used by childbirth
educators and clinicians involved in
women’s health care.
46
P&S fall 2008
Jerome Groopman’76
Dr. Groopman, a frequent contributor
to the New Yorker, illuminates the
Do You Feel Like You Wasted
All That Training?: Questions
from Doctors Considering a
Career Change
I Only Dress the Wounds:
Notes of a Country Doctor
Michael J. McLaughlin’91
www.homeostasispress.com
Physician Renaissance Network,
Dr. Merrill’s book is more than a
2007
nostalgic memoir of 50 years of
www.prnresource.com
medicine, alternating between
In his book, Dr. McLaughlin discusses
general practice and hospital
Kenneth Cohn’76 and
Douglas E. Hough, Ph.D.
the implications of a career change
emergency departments. In anec-
Praeger Perspectives/Greenwood
for physicians. He combines per-
dotes, narrative, and brief essays,
Publishing Group, 2007
sonal experience and advice to help
Dr. Merrill gives an intimately per-
www.greenwood.com
the reader navigate the five phases
sonal picture of medical education,
The rapid pace of change in the
of career change: introspection,
doctor-patient relations, issues of
healthcare industry is creating
exploration, preparation, acquisition,
trust and responsibility, conflicting
turbulence for just about everyone.
and transition. “Stepping out of a
philosophies and points of view,
In each of this set’s three volumes,
clinical career path can open up an
excursions into other cultures, and
The authors untangle the complexity,
endless set of options with no road
the rapid changes — technological,
provide answers to knotty questions,
map – a seemingly daunting proposi-
economic, political, and bureaucratic
and point the way toward better
tion for the physician mindset,” Dr.
— of the health care field in the
healthcare for all. Features include
McLaughlin says. He uses his book
last half of the 20th century.
commentary, prescriptions, and
Ted Merrill’48
Homeostasis Press 2005
The Business of Healthcare
Volume 1: Practice
Management
Volume 2: Leading Healthcare
Organizations
Volume 3: Improving
Systems of Care
to make this transition less daunting.
insights from leaders in the health-
Dr. McLaughlin evaluates several
care industry, including physicians,
questions about a career transition
attorneys, administrators, educators,
and the accompanying advantages
and business consultants. The
and disadvantages.
result: a landmark set filled with
provocative analysis and practical
recommendations destined to
improve the delivery of healthcare.
fall 2008 P&S
47
P&S Club Corner
New Director of
Student Activities
and the P&S Club: Rosemarie Scilipoti
P&S welcomed
Rosemarie Scilipoti to
her new position in
August 2008. She
most recently worked as an academic adviser in the
Academic and Pre-Professional Advising Center at
Stony Brook University where she earlier was a residence hall director. She has a master’s degree in student
affairs administration from Michigan State University
with a concentration in multicultural education. Her
graduate school intern experience — planning orientation for NYU medical students — should prepare her for
her P&S responsibilities. Welcome aboard, Rosemarie!
TeamWorRx
The transition week between second and third
years of medical school has in recent years
included an afternoon devoted to promoting bonds
among students within clinical rotation groups.
This team-building exercise, called TeamWoRx,
now combines service and learning by giving back
to the community. In June 2008, the P&S Club,
with generous support from the Gold Foundation,
sent more than 150 rising third-year students to
work with organizations such as the Fresh Youth
Initiative, Alianza Dominicana, and NYPH primarycare clinics. From mural painting and gardening
to reading with children, the class of 2010 learned
about each other and the residents of Washington
Heights. — reported by Cornelia Griggs’10
Columbia Student Medical
Outreach (CoSMO)
Orientation for P&S Class of 2012
Orientation week for the incoming class of 2012
had an Olympics theme in August 2008, drawing
inspiration from the summer games in Beijing.
Events included an egg drop, scavenger hunt, trivia
night, and field day. Teams selected favorite countries, including Lesotho, Greece, the Dominican
Republic, and the good old United States, in their
race for gold. The decision was unanimous: Every
member of the class is a champion. — reported by
Dan Pizzarello’11 and Paula Brady’11
48
P&S fall 2008
CoSMO is a free, student-run
primary care clinic at the 21
Audubon UrgiCare Center. Every
Saturday and the second Thursday of each month,
students from all the medical center schools work
together to provide uninsured residents of Washington
Heights and Northern Harlem with comprehensive
services. A fundraising evening for this estimable
student enterprise, scheduled for Nov. 7, 2008, in
Alumni Auditorium, will feature guest speaker Junot
Diaz, the Dominican-American author of the Pulitzer
Prize-winning “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”
— reported by Christopher Hale’09
Good for P&S, Good for You!
Through a Unitrust you can
Charitable Remainder Unitrusts put Columbia’s
� Support the P&S program
you care most about.
Endowment to work, increasing your own
� Receive 5%-7% income for life.
When you create a Unitrust at Columbia, you can
receive annual income for life and make a deferred
gift to the University. The Unitrust can be invested
alongside the Columbia Endowment. Your trust
will benefit from the expertise of the Columbia
University Investment Management Company as
part of an investment pool larger than $7 billion.
Because Unitrust distributions depend on the
annual value of the trust, as the Endowment appreciates in value your income will increase.
� Reduce your income taxes with a
charitable deduction in the year
of your gift.
5-Year Average Total Return
(to June 30, 2008)
10.7%
16.2%
8.6%
income even as you make a gift.
You can establish a Unitrust at Columbia
S&P 500
Growth Portfolio
Columbia
(60% stock, 40% bond) Endowment
The Columbia Endowment Has Outperformed Standard Portfolios
with a minimum gift of $100,000-$150,000,
depending on your age.
To find out more, contact Michelle Cass, Senior
Director of Development, in the Office of Gift
Planning, Columbia University Medical Center
212.304.7200 [email protected]
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