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BULLETINProceedings of the HMS Faculty CouncilAt the Feb. 6 Faculty Council meeting, HMS dean Joseph Martin welcomed Cam Enarson, associate dean at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and a participant in the AAMC Council of Deans Visiting Fellows Program, designed "to assist in the development of future medical school deans." In noting that the meeting would address issues of student life, Martin cited the extraordinary diversity of the student body and said that of the 30 annual fellowships provided by the Soros Foundation to first-generation Americans in academic pursuits, 20 percent went to students at HMS. Student Affairs, Enrichment ProgramsNancy Oriol, HMS associate dean for student affairs, provided an overview of the medical student experience at HMS and the role her office plays. Functions of the office include oversight of general career advising, the residency application process (including the match process), and classwide events. She noted the changes at University Health Services and said it has developed into a role model for the interaction of a university health service and its student body.Carla Fujimoto, special assistant in student affairs, described the many student-run resources, such as the Student Council and the more than 50 groups associated with it. Laurie Raymond, director of the Office of Advising Resources (OAR), an arm of student affairs, told the council that her office provides both psychological and academic advising for students in both preclinical and clinical years. She urged council members to encourage fellow faculty to remain alert for students with performance problems and to refer them to OAR. Audrey Bernfield, director of the Office of Enrichment Programs, described the wide range of offerings sponsored or organized by her office. Since the establishment of the office, student participation in extracurricular activities has increased significantly. In 1990, prior to the involvement of the office, there were only 13 participants in the Soma Weiss Research Day program. Now an average of 80 students participate. Division of Medical SciencesThomas Fox, associate dean for graduate education, said that the 530 students enrolled in the Division of Medical Sciences (DMS) represent 18 percent of Harvard graduate students. Forty percent of the students choose Quad-based departments in which to do their thesis work. Fox noted that DMS tries to ensure that each student interacts with a variety of faculty members, that the thesis committees are not chaired by the student's PI, and that each student develops mentoring relationships with more than one faculty member. With the economic downturn, Fox said, in contrast to recent years when many prospective students were lost to dot-coms, this year applications rose by 15 percent. He also said that while the MD-PhD program is separate, 10 to 15 percent of DMS students are in it. Further, 10 to 15 percent of the students are foreign and 10 to 12 percent are underrepresented minorities.Diversity and Community PartnershipJoan Reede, recently appointed dean for diversity and community partnership, told council members that the goal of this office includes providing resources for faculty, house staff, fellows, and students, particularly underrepresented minorities (URM), to strengthen requisite skills for success in academic and professional life; enhancing the recruitment and advancement of URM students, trainees, faculty, and staff; increasing the pool of minority students who choose to pursue careers in science and medicine; and constructing collaborative interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, and interinstitutional program models for the career development and professional advancement of minority and women faculty. She said that her office is currently reviewing and assessing its current programs.Reede noted the positive outcomes resulting from existing programs, such as the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowships in Minority Health Policy Program and the visiting clerkship program for fourth-year underrepresented minority medical students.
Nominations Sought for Public Health AwardThe Division of Public Health Practice and the Office for Professional Education are accepting nominations for the Gareth M. Green Award for Excellence in Public Health Practice for 2002. The award includes a plaque and a $500 prize. The deadline for submissions is April 19. The award recognizes the student or student team whose project in public health practice contributes to the improvement of health of a defined population and makes a significant contribution to the public health practice field. All graduating students are eligible to apply. Applications are available online at www.hsph.harvard.edu/php/Gareth%20Green%20home.htm. For more information and an application, contact Roberta Gianfortoni at 432-3530 or e-mail rgianfor@hsph.harvard.edu.
MGH President Mongan to Become Partners CEOPartners HealthCare recently announced that Massachusetts General Hospital president James Mongan will take over as CEO and president when Samuel Thier steps down from the position January 1, 2003. Thier, who has been an officer at Partners since 1994 and in his current position since 1996, announced his decision last month. Mongan, HMS professor of health care policy, has been president of MGH since 1996. Prior to that he served as the executive director of Truman Medical Center in Kansas City as well as dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. He also has held various senior-level health policy positions in the U.S. Congress and the Carter Administration, including assistant surgeon general. "I believe that what we have worked to create is greater than the sum of its parts and represents a lasting benefit to our patients," Thier said. "I am equally convinced that under Jim's leadership, Partners will continue to build on our record of accomplishment in patient care, teaching, and research."
Tosteson Award to Be Presented for Leadership in Medical EducationThe Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has announced that Scott Obenshain, associate dean for undergraduate medical education at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, will receive the second annual Daniel C. Tosteson Award for Leadership in Medical Education. The award will be presented in April at the Shapiro Institute and Association of American Medical Colleges Millennium Conference II, on the clinical education of medical students. Named in honor of Tosteson, former HMS dean of the Faculty of Medicine, the award recognizes an individual for major contributions to medical education at a national level.
In Memoriam
Kenneth Ryan, the Kate Macy Ladd professor emeritus of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, died Jan. 5 at the age of 75. A native of New York, Ryan served in the Navy during World War II before graduating from HMS in 1952. He joined the HMS faculty in 1960 after teaching at the University of California, San Diego, and Case Western Reserve University. In 1973, he was named the Kate Macy Ladd professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology and became professor emeritus in 1996. Ryan served as chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital from 1973 to 1993. He was well known for his discovery in the late 1950s of how the placenta synthesizes estrogen. His research focused on steroidogenesis, which plays a role in treating breast and prostate cancers, and on the treatment of infertility. Ryan also was a prominent medical ethicist, and from 1974 to 1978, he served as chairman of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. He also served on the President's Committee on Mental Retardation, the NIH Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Panel, and the Training Committee for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He was a past president of both the Society for Gynecological Investigation and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. Ryan was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Hastings Center. He is survived by his wife, Marion; two sons, Kenneth Jr. of Weston, Mass., and Christopher of Chicago; a daughter, Alison Glassey of Willits, Calif.; and five grandchildren. Donations in his memory may be made to the Kenneth J. Ryan Scholarship Fund, c/o Harvard Medical School, Office of Resource Development, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02115.
Neil Ghiso, HMS '01, died Feb. 11 at the age of 31. Ghiso graduated from HMS with honors last June. He received his BS from the University of Michigan and his MS from Stanford University.
Neil Ghiso He was an active member of the Medical School community, serving on the student council, the LIFE committee for incoming class orientation, and performing in the second-year show. His research explored the genetic regulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and the novel use of nitric oxide to suppress VEGF. As a result of his own post-operative experience during his clerkships, he began to develop computer-assisted memory aids to help those with memory loss due to disease and illness. Speaking to the graduating class of 2000 about the important lessons he had learned from becoming a patient, Ghiso told them, "Caring for your patients--just caring--is the most important part of medicine." In 2001 he was voted by his classmates to receive the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey Humanism in Medicine Award. The Neil Samuel Ghiso Foundation (858 W. Armitage Ave., #111, Chicago, IL 60614) has been established in his honor. The foundation is dedicated to fostering compassionate care for chronically and terminally ill patients and their families through medical education and training.
Faculty and Staff Showcase TalentThe 2002 On My Own Time exhibit will run from March 25 through May 24 in the third floor atrium of Gordon Hall. In its 12th year, the exhibit is an opportunity for faculty and staff to share their talents and after-work interests with colleagues. A reception, open to the public, will be held March 26 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Honors and AdvancesThe Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation has awarded two HMS research teams (out of six teams nationally) with grants of approximately $1 million each. Christiane Ferran, HMS associate professor of medicine and of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received one of the grants for research on "Protective effect of A20 against transplant-associated vasculopathy" as did Koichi Shimizu, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, for "Source of intimal smooth muscle-like cells in aortic allograft arteriopathy." Eugene Braunwald, the Hersey distinguished professor of theory and practice of physic at HMS and chief academic officer at Partners HealthCare, has been named co-winner of the 2002 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine by the King Faisal Foundation of Saudi Arabia. Braunwald is being honored for his research in congestive heart failure and acute coronary heart syndromes. The foundation noted Braunwald's development, with colleagues, of a novel animal model for congestive heart failure to evaluate pathophysiologic studies and effects of therapy; his delineation of the importance of idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis and the physiologic abnormalities of this myopathic process; and, with Richard Kloner, his development of the concept of post-ischemic left ventricular dysfunction after temporary reduction and coronary flow. In November, the Longwood Medical Research Center was renamed the Eugene Braunwald Research Center, in honor of the chair of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and HMS from 1972 to 1996. The American Academy of Ophthalmology honored B. Thomas Hutchison, HMS associate clinical professor of ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, with the Distinguished Service Award at its annual meeting in November. The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awarded 12 Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowships in November. Among the recipients was William Clemons, a research fellow in the lab of Tom Rapoport, Howard Hughes investigator and HMS professor of cell biology. The fellowships are awarded to outstanding young scientists conducting cancer research. Clemons's research is on the structure of the bacterial translocation channel. The Association for Academic Psychiatry has awarded Don Lipsitt, HMS clinical professor of psychiatry at Mount Auburn Hospital, with its Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes Lipsitt's contributions to the field of academic psychiatry and committed leadership within the organization. The Society for Biomaterials has named Myron Spector, HMS professor of orthopedic surgery (biomaterials), as the recipient of its 2002 Clemson Award for Applied Biomaterials Research. The award is the highest the society gives for career achievement in this field. Barbara McNeil, the Ridley Watts professor and head of the Department of Health Care Policy, has been elected to a four-year term as a member-at-large for the section on social, economic, and political science for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A supplement to The Journal of Arthroplasty was recently published containing the abstracts presented at a Festschrift Scientific Meeting held in May 2001 to honor William Harris, the Alan Gerry clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and his 50 years in orthopedics. Morris Karnovsky, the Shattuck professor emeritus of pathological anatomy, has won the 2002 Chugai Award for Meritorious Mentoring and Scholarship given by the American Society for Investigative Pathology. Karnovsky will receive a cash prize and plaque and will present the keynote lecture and chair the Chugai Symposium for Young Investigators at the society's 2002 annual meeting. Paula Johnson, HMS assistant professor of medicine, has been named executive director of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology and chief of the Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital. William Kaelin, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and HMS associate professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was among four recipients of the first Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research presented by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York on Dec. 18. Kaelin and the other winners were singled out for being under age 45 and having made significant contributions to the basic understanding and treatment of cancer. In December, Jeffrey Sutton, HMS associate professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, was named director of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a consortium of leading biomedical institutions. As director, he will be responsible for the overall scientific direction of the institute's research and education programs. He also heads the institute's smart medical systems and technology teams. Sutton will leave his positions at HMS and MGH to lead the institute. In December, Marie McCormick, the Summer and Esther Feldberg professor and chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health at HSPH, was named among the first to receive the honorary title of national associate of the National Academies. This lifetime appointment recognizes extraordinary service to the National Academies.
News BriefsNominations for the 2002 Dean's Award for the Support and Advancement of Women Staff are due April 18. The award recognizes members of the HMS community who consistently demonstrate excellence in the support of career development, professional advancement, mentoring, and career/ life balance of women staff. Nominations may be made at www.hms.harvard.edu/jcsw/award. The Medical Foundation, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that supports and conducts biomedical, social, behavioral, and other medical research, is administering brain tumor research awards from the Goldhirsh Foundation. Grants of $600,000 and $100,000 will be awarded to faculty members, instructor rank or higher, to conduct research relevant to astrocytic brain tumors. Letters of intent are due April 12. Application guidelines and forms are available online at www.tmfnet.org/grantmake.html. For more information, call 617-451-0049 ext. 702 or e-mail mail@tmfnet.org.
Posters Point to Better Public Health
Liza Makowski, a student in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH, explains her research on the role of fatty-acid binding proteins in insulin resistance and lipid metabolism at the 16th annual HSPH Poster and Exhibit Day in the Kresge Cafeteria Feb. 28. The event featured more than 50 research projects, 25 of them by students at the School. The HSPH Faculty Council chose two student exhibits to each win a $500 award: Eva Schernhammer in the Department of Epidemiology studied the risk of colorectal cancer among nurses with rotating night shifts; and Seema Thakore in the Department of Biological Science presented a novel HIV-1 sub-subtype found in a population of women in West Africa. "When we think about medication, we think about doing the same thing everywhere," Thakore said, but different forms of the virus may require different treatment approaches. Photo by Steve Gilbert |
