Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at 10 - The Russell Berrie Foundation
Transcription
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 Address correspondence to: P&S Editor College of Physicians & Surgeons 630 W. 168th St. New York, NY 10032 e-mail: [email protected] Alumni should update their addresses by writing the Alumni Association at the address above or calling the alumni office at (212) 305-1454. Faculty should contact their departmental administrators to update their addresses, which are obtained through the Columbia University personnel system. P&S is available on the World Wide Web at www.cumc.columbia.edu/news/journal/ 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] Non-Profit Org. US Postage PAID New York, NY Permit No. 3593 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032