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A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL<br />
<strong>Robert</strong><strong>Wood</strong><strong>Johnson</strong><br />
SPRING 2007<br />
MEDICINE
That you can make a difference in finding<br />
real cures, educating new healthcare<br />
professionals, and improving patient care.<br />
That you can choose the specific area of<br />
medical research, education or healthcare<br />
you wish to support.<br />
That 100% of the dollars you contribute<br />
go directly to the program you wish<br />
to sponsor, with no administrative fees<br />
diluting their power.<br />
That your generosity will work miracles for<br />
so many people right here in New Jersey.<br />
Now, imagine how fulfilling it would<br />
be if your donation could do all of<br />
these things. Through the Foundation of<br />
UMDNJ it can, by funding research,<br />
education and patient care programs<br />
at UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School.<br />
For more information, call Denise Gavala,<br />
senior director of development, toll-free<br />
at 866-44-UMDNJ or reach us online<br />
at www.umdnj.edu/foundation.<br />
Imagine the differ ence<br />
you can make<br />
Newark, New Brunswick, Stratford
l e t t e r f r o m t h e d e a n<br />
Dear Colleague,<br />
The articles in this issue of <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medicine</strong> reflect the breadth of our endeavors at<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School. Individually, each feature brings new insights into<br />
our programs. Together, the articles demonstrate our quest for excellence in four intersecting missions:<br />
education, clinical care, research, and community health.<br />
I hope that as you read this issue, you will share my deep appreciation for the people who work to<br />
advance our medical school. Their dedication, skills, and spirit make RWJMS a wonderful place to teach,<br />
study, and learn.<br />
Our cover story on global medicine, The Neighborhood 8,000 Miles Away, explores an RWJMS campus<br />
that stretches across the world. Here, you will meet our faculty who provide much-needed care in<br />
Africa, India, and Latin America. And you will meet our students, as they gain the skills of culturally competent<br />
physicians and prepare to care for patients worldwide.<br />
New Frontiers in Cardiac Surgery examines our cardiac programs, which offer the full range of cardiac<br />
support, from simple catheter-based assistive devices to artificial-heart implantation. Completing that<br />
spectrum of programs, our heart-transplantation team, led by Mark Anderson, MD, was among the first<br />
in the United States recently approved to implant the artificial heart.<br />
I was pleased, in Rx for Excellence, to have the opportunity to reflect<br />
on my experience in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>. We found that good business decisions can drive academic<br />
growth, which we are attempting to achieve school-wide.<br />
At RWJMS, we continue to conduct world-class translational research<br />
in the basic sciences. Patient-focused research is also under way in our<br />
clinical departments. A Cornerstone of Orthopaedic Surgery presents the<br />
research of Charles Gatt, Jr., MD ’89 — a department chair and<br />
physician-scientist who is making impressive strides in tissue engineering.<br />
Family medicine is another area in which we are conducting important<br />
patient-centered research. Social Science Evolves into Practice Jazz introduces<br />
you to Benjamin Crabtree, PhD, who leads his department’s<br />
research division in work that is improving the dynamics of family practices<br />
nationwide.<br />
Our alumni profile, Comrade-in-Arms, portrays Joseph S. Costabile, MD ’86, a vascular surgeon who<br />
led a U.S. Navy <strong>Medical</strong> Reserves surgical unit in the Iraq War, helping to save the lives of many coalition<br />
soldiers.<br />
As always, we are pleased to recognize the outstanding people who make us proud of this school. I<br />
hope you will enjoy learning about their achievements in medicine here and across the world.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD<br />
Interim Dean<br />
JOHN EMERSON<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 1
S p r i n g 2 0 0 7<br />
D E P A R T M E N T S<br />
Letter from the Dean 1<br />
RWJMS News 4<br />
Research News 6<br />
Education Highlights 8<br />
New Appointments 10<br />
Letter from the Alumni<br />
Association President 43<br />
RWJMS Alumni News 44<br />
Class Notes 48<br />
Last Page 52<br />
<strong>Robert</strong><strong>Wood</strong><strong>Johnson</strong><br />
MEDICINE<br />
A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF<br />
UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL<br />
Spring 2007 • V olume 10, Number 1<br />
Interim Dean<br />
Peter S. Amenta,<br />
MD, PhD<br />
Executive Editor<br />
Patricia M. Hansen<br />
Director,<br />
Communications<br />
and Public Affairs<br />
Editor<br />
<strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner<br />
Writers<br />
Kate O’Neill<br />
Rita M. Rooney<br />
Copy Editor<br />
Richard Slovak<br />
Art Director<br />
Barbara Walsh<br />
Cover Composite<br />
Illustration<br />
Barbara Walsh<br />
Alumni Association<br />
Officers:<br />
President<br />
Geza K. Kiss, MD ’95<br />
Vice President/<br />
President-Elect<br />
Nancy Sierra, MD ’89<br />
Secretary<br />
Tamara LaCouture, MD ’94<br />
Treasurer<br />
Hank Lubin, MD ’83<br />
Chair, Membership<br />
Committee<br />
Andrew Stefaniwsky, MD<br />
’77<br />
Chair, Development<br />
Committee<br />
Ravi Goel, MD ’97<br />
Co-Chairs, Reunion<br />
Committee<br />
Geza K. Kiss, MD ’95<br />
Francine E. Sinofsky, MD<br />
’81<br />
Editorial and Advertising Office<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School<br />
<strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner, Editor, <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medicine</strong><br />
335 George Street • Suite 2250 •<br />
New Brunswick, NJ 08903<br />
Telephone: 732-235-6310 • Fax: 732-235-9570<br />
Email: ribnerrs@umdnj.edu<br />
Contents<br />
F E A T U R E S<br />
Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, Interim Dean:<br />
Rx for Excellence 11<br />
During his decade as chair of the Department of<br />
Pathology and Laboratory <strong>Medicine</strong>, Dr. Amenta led the<br />
development of an extraordinary business plan. He hopes to<br />
expand that plan into a blueprint for growth at RWJMS.<br />
By Kate O’Neill<br />
New Frontiers in Cardiac Surgery 15<br />
From the first totally implantable artificial heart to a<br />
new procedure for treatment of artrial fibrillation, and<br />
with a world-class team directed to pediatric cardiac surgery,<br />
RWJMS leads the way in advanced surgical solutions<br />
to serious cardiac disease.<br />
By Rita M. Rooney<br />
Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD:<br />
Social Science Evolves into Practice Jazz 20<br />
Under Dr. Crabtree’s leadership, the Department<br />
of Family <strong>Medicine</strong>’s division of research has earned<br />
$6 million from the National Institutes of Health<br />
to study and improve patient care in family practices<br />
nationwide.<br />
By Kate O’Neill<br />
Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Initiative<br />
Hailed as Model Program 23<br />
The New Jersey Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Program<br />
has been recognized as a model for other states to follow.<br />
The Department of Pathology and Laboratory <strong>Medicine</strong><br />
oversees this initiative, which is the largest of its kind<br />
in the nation.<br />
By Patricia M. Hansen<br />
The Neighborhood 8,000 Miles Away 25<br />
From Africa to India and Latin America,<br />
global medicine is strengthened through a cohesive<br />
foundation of medical practitioners dedicated to<br />
world health.<br />
By Rita M. Rooney<br />
Research: A Cornerstone of Orthopaedic Surgery 38<br />
Tissue engineering and other orthopaedic breakthroughs<br />
characterize the practice of orthopaedic medicine specialists<br />
at RWJMS.<br />
By Rita M. Rooney<br />
Alumni Profile:<br />
Joseph P. Costabile, MD ’86: Comrade-in-Arms 46<br />
U.S. Navy <strong>Medical</strong> Reservist Dr. Costabile spent<br />
eleven months in the Iraq War acting on his commitment<br />
to “giving back,” by providing superior medical care to<br />
coalition soldiers.<br />
By Kate O’Neill<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 3
NEWS<br />
r w j m s<br />
The American<br />
Academy of Family<br />
Physicians (AAFP)<br />
has named Steven J. Levin,<br />
MD, associate professor of<br />
family medicine, its 2007<br />
Family Physician of the Year.<br />
The award was presented at<br />
the academy’s Annual<br />
Scientific Assembly. The<br />
AAFP annually honors an<br />
outstanding American family<br />
physician who has provided<br />
patients with compassionate,<br />
comprehensive care<br />
and serves as a role model<br />
professionally and personally<br />
to his or her community, to<br />
other health professionals,<br />
and to residents and medical<br />
students.<br />
Dr. Levin was the first<br />
full-time physician at St.<br />
John’s Clinic in New<br />
Brunswick, which provides<br />
care for the medically underserved.<br />
He has held this<br />
position for 18 years and<br />
serves as the clinic’s medical<br />
director and primary physician.<br />
The center was created<br />
by Catholic Charities and<br />
receives substantial funding<br />
from St. Peter’s University<br />
Hospital.<br />
Dr. Levin mentors and<br />
educates family medicine residents<br />
and medical students<br />
at St. John’s. In 1992, a<br />
group of his students founded<br />
the Homeless and<br />
4 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
Dr. Steven Levin Named Family Physician of the Year<br />
“Caring for patients with<br />
diverse backgrounds and<br />
complex medical illnesses<br />
is consistent with the<br />
mission of the clinic and<br />
my own desire to provide<br />
health care to people who<br />
are having difficulties<br />
accessing quality health<br />
care services,” says<br />
Dr. Levin.<br />
Indigent Population Health<br />
Outreach Project (HIPHOP),<br />
the student outreach group<br />
that he continues to advise.<br />
More recently, Dr. Levin<br />
helped medical students start<br />
The Promise Clinic, which<br />
provides medical care to<br />
low-income and homeless<br />
people who receive meals at<br />
Elijah’s Promise Soup<br />
Kitchen. Physicians from<br />
the Department of Family<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong> take turns super-<br />
The Center for Clinical<br />
and Translational Sciences<br />
(CCTS) opened<br />
this past summer. Newly appointed<br />
as medical director is<br />
Ronald A. Morton, Jr., MD,<br />
professor of surgery, chief, division<br />
of urology, and director<br />
of urologic oncology, The<br />
Cancer Institute of New Jersey<br />
(CINJ). Dr. Morton’s own research<br />
focuses on prostate cancer<br />
genetics and the use of biosensors<br />
in the diagnosis of<br />
genitourinary malignancies.<br />
Dr. Morton hopes that by<br />
centralizing and streamlining<br />
the translational research<br />
vising The Promise<br />
Clinic students one<br />
night a week.<br />
“Caring for patients<br />
with diverse backgrounds<br />
and complex<br />
medical illnesses is consistent<br />
with the mission<br />
of the clinic and my<br />
own desire to provide<br />
health care to people<br />
who are having difficulties<br />
accessing quality<br />
health care services,” says<br />
Dr. Levin.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
Mission Expands at Center for<br />
Clinical and Translational Services<br />
COURTESY OF STEVEN J. LEVIN, MD<br />
process, the time will shorten<br />
between a basic science discovery<br />
and the moment when<br />
that discovery becomes a drug<br />
available for patient care. “The<br />
center will provide an RWJMS<br />
core facility for translational<br />
research,” he says. “It offers<br />
improved opportunities not<br />
just for our student researchers<br />
and seasoned investigators,<br />
but also our partners in<br />
the pharmaceutical industry.”<br />
The CCTS is designed exclusively<br />
for clinical and translational<br />
research and serves<br />
all RWJMS clinical and translational<br />
researchers. Its regular
NIH Awards $19 Million to Develop Measures Against<br />
Chemical Terrorism: Dr. Laskin to Direct Collaborative Center<br />
The National Institutes<br />
of Health (NIH) has<br />
awarded a five-year,<br />
$19.2 million grant to<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School and<br />
Rutgers, The State University<br />
of New Jersey, to support the<br />
creation of a new Center of<br />
Excellence. The center, which<br />
is funded under CounterACT,<br />
a special NIH program, will<br />
focus on the development of<br />
medical countermeasures<br />
against chemical threats. It<br />
will be named the <strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School / Rutgers University<br />
CounterACT Research Center<br />
of Excellence.<br />
Jeffrey Laskin, PhD, pro-<br />
users include<br />
CINJ medical<br />
oncologist<br />
Antoinette R.<br />
Tan, MD ’96,<br />
assistant professor<br />
of medicine. Dr. Tan is a<br />
principal investigator on a<br />
phase I clinical trial that involves<br />
a novel chemotherapy<br />
drug given as a continuous<br />
24-hour infusion; the goal is<br />
to determine the maximum<br />
tolerated dose. The CCTS provides<br />
overnight facilities where<br />
her patients receive the drug.<br />
The nurses at the CCTS observe<br />
patients for side effects,<br />
fessor of environmental and<br />
occupational medicine and<br />
chief, division of toxicology,<br />
will direct the center. Its<br />
research team will include faculty<br />
from the Environmental<br />
and Occupational Health Sciences<br />
Institute (EOHSI), the<br />
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy<br />
at Rutgers University,<br />
and Lehigh University.<br />
“This is a massive effort<br />
designed to coordinate many<br />
different research groups,”<br />
says Dr. Laskin. “We will develop<br />
drugs that can be used<br />
against actual chemicals that<br />
could be used in a terror<br />
attack.”<br />
The researchers will work<br />
to identify targets of sulfur<br />
Ronald A. Morton, Jr., MD<br />
take frequent vital signs, and<br />
draw blood samples to assess<br />
drug levels. “The CCTS is an<br />
important resource, as the ability<br />
to conduct clinical trials is<br />
important to the mission of<br />
CINJ,” says Dr. Tan. CINJ is<br />
the state’s only National Cancer<br />
Institute–designated Comprehensive<br />
Cancer Center.<br />
This past summer, a multi-<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
mustard in the human body<br />
that can be exploited for therapeutic<br />
drug development.<br />
The team will also evaluate<br />
drugs that are currently available<br />
in pharmacies for use to<br />
treat various types of poisoning<br />
caused by an attack. “We<br />
have excellent leads, and we<br />
disciplinary team of leading<br />
RWJMS research faculty and<br />
other translational research<br />
stakeholders submitted a proposal<br />
to the NIH titled “The<br />
New Jersey Center for Clinical<br />
and Translational Science.”<br />
The NIH responded in September<br />
with the full $233,000<br />
requested. The grant will support<br />
the team’s primary, twofold<br />
goal for CCTS: to provide<br />
the infrastructure necessary<br />
for training young investigators<br />
and to sustain a robust,<br />
multi-disciplinary translational<br />
research program at<br />
RWJMS. — K.O’N.<br />
Jeffrey Laskin, PhD, professor of<br />
environmental and occupational medicine<br />
and chief, division of toxicology, will<br />
direct the new <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School/Rutgers University<br />
CounterACT Center of Excellence.<br />
LOWELL HANDLER<br />
are quite hopeful that drugs<br />
will be available in the foreseeable<br />
future,” adds Dr.<br />
Laskin.<br />
Deborah Cory-Slechta,<br />
PhD, professor and chair,<br />
Department of Environmental<br />
and Occupational <strong>Medicine</strong>,<br />
and director, EOHSI, says,<br />
“This award adds strength to<br />
the ongoing commitment of<br />
both <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School and Rutgers<br />
to research in the area of<br />
security, which is so important<br />
to our nation and particularly<br />
to the citizens of our<br />
state.”<br />
In addition to Rutgers’<br />
Donald Gerecke, PhD, who is<br />
co-director of the center, other<br />
Rutgers faculty working on<br />
the project are Marion<br />
Gordon, PhD; Joshua Gray,<br />
PhD; Diane Heck, PhD;<br />
Debra Laskin, PhD; and<br />
Patrick Sinko, PhD.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 5
w j m s<br />
NEWS<br />
Dean Amenta Hosts Reception at<br />
Annual Meeting of AAMC<br />
The dean’s reception at<br />
the 2006 annual meeting<br />
of the Association<br />
of American <strong>Medical</strong> Colleges<br />
(AAMC) in Seattle was a<br />
highlight for members and<br />
friends of the RWJMS community.<br />
Hosting the event<br />
for the first time was Peter S.<br />
Amenta, MD, PhD, interim<br />
dean.<br />
Dr. Amenta warmly wel-<br />
The following UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School faculty were<br />
recently awarded grants of approximately<br />
$1 million or more:<br />
The National Institutes<br />
of Health: Joseph P. Dougherty,<br />
PhD, professor of molecular genetics, microbiology,<br />
and immunology: a three-year,<br />
$1,595,632 grant titled “High Throughput<br />
Screening to Identify Antagonists of HIV-1<br />
Latency.” • Masayori Inouye, PhD, professor<br />
and chair, Department of Biochemistry: a fiveyear,<br />
$1,084,045 grant for his study titled<br />
“Signal Transduction by Histidine Kinases and<br />
Their Response Regulators.” •<br />
Sunita G. Kramer, PhD, assistant<br />
professor of pathology and laboratory<br />
medicine: a five-year, $1,219,350<br />
grant for her study titled “Myotube<br />
Guidance in Drosophila Melanogaster.”<br />
• Grace Lu-Yao, PhD, MPH,<br />
associate professor of environmental<br />
and occupational medicine: a fouryear,<br />
$916,684 award for a study<br />
6 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
comed the crowd and commented<br />
how pleased he was<br />
to have as his guests fellow<br />
deans and other leaders from<br />
the world of academic medicine.<br />
Among those singled<br />
out for a special introduction<br />
were Darrell G. Kirch, MD,<br />
president, AAMC; Harold L.<br />
Paz, MD, dean, College of<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>, Pennsylvania State<br />
University; and Harvey<br />
Research News<br />
titled “Evaluation of Palliative Prostate Cancer<br />
Care among Elderly Men.” • Jianjie Ma, PhD,<br />
university professor of physiology and biophysics:<br />
a five-year, $2,131,176 grant titled “Ca<br />
Sparks in Muscle Aging and Dystrophy.” • Kiran<br />
E. Madura, PhD, professor of biochemistry: a<br />
five-year, $1,462,988 grant from the NCI for his<br />
study “Functional Analysis of RAD23 Protein.<br />
Industry Funding: Hoffman-<br />
La Roche awarded $1,286,684 to Moti L. Tiku,<br />
MD, associate professor of medicine, for a longterm<br />
study of safety during treatment with<br />
tocilizumab (MRA) in patients completing<br />
treatment in MRA core studies.<br />
Published<br />
Research:<br />
Left to right: Kathleen W. Scotto, MD,<br />
senior associate dean for research;<br />
David E. Swee, MD, associate dean for<br />
education; and Cheryl A. Dickson, MD,<br />
MPH, assistant dean for student affairs.<br />
By Kate O’Neill<br />
The following is a representative<br />
sample of articles in leading<br />
biomedical journals by RWJMS<br />
faculty members.<br />
Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, professor of<br />
medicine, senior author of “Combina-<br />
Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD,<br />
interim dean (right), greets<br />
Darrell G. Kirch, MD,<br />
president, AAMC.<br />
torial Activities of Akt and B-Raf/Erk<br />
Signaling in a Mouse Model of Androgen-<br />
Independent Prostate Cancer,” an article published<br />
in the Proceedings of the National<br />
Academy of Sciences of the United States of<br />
America 2006:103(39):14477–14482. The<br />
article’s co-authors included Xuesong<br />
Ouyang, PhD, adjunct instructor of medicine,<br />
and Michael M. Shen, PhD, professor<br />
of pediatrics. • Chavela M. Carr, PhD, assistant<br />
professor of pathology and laboratory<br />
medicine, senior author of “Specific SNARE<br />
Complex Binding Mode of the Sec1/Munc-18<br />
Protein, Sec1p,” an article published in<br />
November 2006 in the Proceedings of the<br />
National Academy of Sciences of the United<br />
States of America. • An article titled<br />
“Subcutaneous Unfractionated Heparin vs.<br />
Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin for Acute<br />
Thromboembolic Disease: Issues of Efficacy<br />
and Cost,” by Jeffrey L. Carson, MD,<br />
Richard C. Reynolds Professor of <strong>Medicine</strong>,<br />
was published in the Journal of the American<br />
<strong>Medical</strong> Association 2006:296(8):991–993. •
Dr. Amenta welcomes Johanna Vidal-<br />
Phelan, MD ’01.<br />
Masayori Inouye, PhD, professor and chair, De-<br />
partment of Biochemistry, author of “Signaling by<br />
Transmembrane Proteins Shifts Gears,” published in<br />
the September 8, 2006, issue of Cell 126(5):829–<br />
831. • Estela Jacinto, PhD, assistant professor of<br />
physiology and biophysics, first author of “SIN1/<br />
MIP1 Maintains Rictor-mTOR Complex Integrity and<br />
Regulates Akt Phosphorylation and Substrate<br />
Specificity,” published in the October 6, 2006,<br />
issue of Cell 2006:127 (1):125–137. • Terri Goss<br />
Kinzy, PhD, professor of molecular genetics,<br />
microbiology, and immunology, a co-author of<br />
“Structure of eEF3 and the Mechanism of Transfer<br />
RNA Release from the E-site,” published in Nature<br />
2006:443:663–668. • Michael P. Matise, PhD,<br />
assistant professor of neuroscience and cell biology,<br />
senior author of “Wnt Signaling Inhibitors<br />
Regulate the Transcriptional Response to Morphogenetic<br />
Shh-Gli Signaling in the Neural Tube,”<br />
published in the September 11, 2006, issue of<br />
Developmental Cell 11(3): 325–337. • Yufang Shi,<br />
DVM, PhD, professor of molecular genetics, micro-<br />
biology, and immunology, senior author of “Pivotal<br />
Roles of CD8+ T Cells Restricted by MHC Class<br />
PHOTOS BY PATRICIA HANSEN<br />
Holzberg, former president<br />
and CEO, <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital.<br />
Among the guests was<br />
alumna Johanna Vidal-<br />
Phelan, MD ’01, a pediatrician<br />
practicing in Seattle.<br />
Dr. Vidal-Phelan greeted<br />
Dr. Amenta and shared<br />
memories with him of her<br />
student years in Piscataway.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
Babar K. Rao, MD,<br />
clinical assistant professor<br />
of medicine,<br />
was appointed acting chair<br />
of the newly established<br />
Department of Dermatology.<br />
Dr. Rao joined the Depart-<br />
I–like Molecules in Autoimmune Diseases,” published<br />
in the November 6, 2006, issue of Journal<br />
of Experimental <strong>Medicine</strong>. Co-authors included<br />
Gobardhan Das, PhD, adjunct assistant professor<br />
of molecular genetics, microbiology, and immunol-<br />
ogy. • Vasily M. Studitsky, PhD, associate pro-<br />
fessor of pharmacology, senior author of “Nucleosomes<br />
Can Form a Polar Barrier to Transcript<br />
Elongation by RNA Polymerase II,” an article published<br />
in Molecular Cell 2006:24(3):469–479. •<br />
Harvey R. Weiss, PhD, professor of physiology<br />
and biophysics, senior author of “Importance of<br />
Ryanodine Receptors in Effects of Cyclic GMP Is<br />
Reduced in Thyroxine-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy,”<br />
an article published in the May 10, 2006,<br />
issue of the European Journal of Pharmacology<br />
537(1–3):45–51. The article’s co-authors included<br />
Peter M. Scholz, MD, professor of surgery. •<br />
James Q. Zheng, PhD, associate professor of<br />
neuroscience and cell biology, senior author of<br />
“An Essential Role for Beta-actin mRNA<br />
Localization and Translation in Ca2+-Dependent<br />
Growth Cone Guidance,” an article published in<br />
Nature Neuroscience 2006:10:1265–1273.<br />
RWJMS Establishes<br />
Department of Dermatology<br />
ment of <strong>Medicine</strong> in 2000<br />
and established the Dermatology<br />
Residency Program in<br />
2002. The program not only<br />
trains dermatology residents,<br />
but also hosts RWJMS residents<br />
in internal medicine<br />
and pediatrics and<br />
teaches medical<br />
students on clinical<br />
rotations.<br />
Dr. Rao’s practice<br />
focuses on skin<br />
cancer protection<br />
and prevention.<br />
He is a specialist<br />
Babar K.<br />
Rao, MD<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
in melanoma<br />
and also a noted<br />
teacher of dermatoscopy,<br />
which<br />
distinguishes<br />
between benign and malignant<br />
patterns in pigmented<br />
lesions. In addition, he is<br />
working on the development<br />
of computer-assisted technology<br />
that may reduce the need<br />
for invasive biopsies.<br />
<strong>Medical</strong> dermatologist<br />
Amy S. Pappert, MD ’89,<br />
assistant professor of medicine,<br />
serves as program director<br />
in the new department;<br />
David A. Wrone, MD, clinical<br />
assistant professor of<br />
medicine, is director of dermatologic<br />
surgeries. The<br />
department is supplemented<br />
by the services of a pediatric<br />
dermatologist and by a<br />
dematopathologist at <strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University<br />
Hospital.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 7
HIGHLights<br />
BY<br />
KATE<br />
O’NEILL<br />
8 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
E D U C A T I O N<br />
Dean’s Scholars<br />
The Dean’s Scholars Program,<br />
inaugurated in 2006, will provide<br />
full four-year scholarships<br />
for seven exceptional students in the<br />
Class of 2010:<br />
■ Biochemistry major Michael<br />
DiGiacomo is a Phi Beta Kappa<br />
graduate of the College of Holy<br />
Cross, where he did research on<br />
neurofibromatosis type 2. He worked<br />
as both a biochemistry lab assistant<br />
and a pharmacy technician.<br />
■ Biology major Marie Kim completed<br />
her studies at Swarthmore<br />
College in three years. As an intern,<br />
she did prostate cancer research at<br />
Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer<br />
Center, leading to her co-authoring a<br />
manuscript.<br />
■ Alan Marcus is a Phi Beta Kappa<br />
graduate of Rutgers, The State<br />
University of New Jersey. As an<br />
undergraduate, he used the flatworm<br />
C. elegans to do research on environmental<br />
health. He mentored children<br />
in the AIDS Club at <strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital.<br />
■ Lauren Pallone graduated from<br />
the University of Notre Dame, where<br />
her research in cellular biology<br />
focused on cystic fibrosis. She was a<br />
pastoral care intern at Jersey Shore<br />
<strong>Medical</strong> Center and also cared for a<br />
seven-year-old child with autism.<br />
■ Shanon Peter’s undergraduate<br />
work at Harvard included meiosis<br />
research. After graduating cum laude<br />
in 2005, he participated in the<br />
Harvard Initiative for Global Health,<br />
Above: Carol A. Terregino, MD ’86, associate<br />
professor of medicine and associate dean<br />
for admissions, and Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD,<br />
interim dean (center), congratulate<br />
the Dean’s Scholars (left to right):<br />
Shanon Peter, Marie Kim, Julianne Pupa,<br />
Michael DiGiacomo, Lauren Pallone,<br />
Alan Marcus, and Emily Porch.<br />
including what he described as an<br />
“amazing” few weeks in Guatemala<br />
volunteering at a health clinic.<br />
■ Emily Porch graduated from Yale<br />
University with Distinction in Biology<br />
and conducted research at both Yale<br />
and Mt. Sinai <strong>Medical</strong> Center. She<br />
also was principal flutist in both the<br />
Yale Symphony Orchestra and Yale’s<br />
Berkeley College Symphony<br />
Orchestra.<br />
■ A James Monroe Research Scholar<br />
from the College of William and<br />
Mary, Julianne Pupa doublemajored<br />
in chemistry and biology.<br />
With the <strong>Wood</strong>s Hole Oceanographic<br />
Institute, Julianne explored the ocean<br />
floor at 3,000 meters. She also participated<br />
in a mission trip to Trinidad.<br />
The Class of 2010<br />
The UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School Class<br />
of 2010 is the largest ever —<br />
156 members strong. It was<br />
selected from 3,170 applications,<br />
which was 13 percent<br />
higher than last year’s applicant<br />
pool, according to Carol<br />
A. Terregino, MD ’86, associate<br />
professor of medicine and<br />
associate dean for admissions.<br />
Dr. Terregino reports that<br />
women constitute a majority<br />
of this highly diverse class.<br />
The students’ MCAT scores<br />
broke previous RWJMS<br />
records, and their average<br />
undergraduate GPA was the<br />
highest ever for an incoming<br />
class.<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
Class of 2010 Pioneers New Two-Year Course<br />
Over the summer, the Class of<br />
2010 was launched into Patient-<br />
Centered <strong>Medicine</strong> (PCM), a new<br />
two-year course. The incoming students<br />
completed their first assignment, immersing<br />
themselves in recommended reading or<br />
film-watching. In addition, they wrote and<br />
posted the first round of required journal<br />
entries.<br />
They began Orientation well prepared to<br />
White Coat Ceremony Welcomes Students<br />
into <strong>Medical</strong> Community<br />
During the White Coat Ceremony,<br />
students are transformed into a<br />
unified, white-coated cadre of<br />
future physicians. The ceremony marks the<br />
end of Orientation and is the first RWJMS<br />
event celebrated by incoming classes.<br />
This year, Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim<br />
dean, introduced special guests and welcomed<br />
students, their families, and friends.<br />
He underscored the sanctity of the social<br />
contract between doctor and patient and<br />
emphasized the medical school’s focus on<br />
humanism.<br />
The keynote speaker was Jeffrey P. Levine,<br />
develop the skills and mind-set that are the<br />
focus of PCM. “The new course helps<br />
advance our goal of training culturally<br />
competent physicians,” says Carol A.<br />
Terregino, MD ’86, associate professor of<br />
medicine and associate dean for admissions.<br />
“From the start, they will learn to work<br />
collaboratively with their patients and will be<br />
prepared to do so throughout the life cycle.”<br />
Dr. Terregino serves as course co-director<br />
Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean,<br />
leads the Class of 2010 in the Hippocratic Oath.<br />
MD, MPH, associate professor of family<br />
medicine and associate professor of obstetrics,<br />
gynecology, and reproductive sciences.<br />
The White Coat Ceremony, an initiative of<br />
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation for Humanism<br />
in <strong>Medicine</strong>, was initiated at RWJMS in<br />
1994. It has succeeded and evolved under<br />
the leadership of Susan Rosenthal, MMS<br />
’75, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics<br />
and assistant dean for student affairs.<br />
Erin Edwards ’09 was student coordinator<br />
for the event.<br />
“The new course helps advance<br />
our goal of training<br />
culturally competent physicians,”<br />
says Carol A. Terregino,<br />
MD ’86, associate professor<br />
of medicine and associate dean<br />
for admissions.<br />
with Norma B. Saks, EdD, associate professor<br />
of psychiatry and assistant dean for<br />
educational programs.<br />
Designed by an interdisciplinary faculty<br />
committee, the course incorporates a wide<br />
range of issues related to patient-centered<br />
care. In addition to covering the material<br />
previously taught in physical diagnosis, the<br />
new course addresses humanistic, legal, and<br />
ethical concerns. “We will use multiple<br />
modalities and scenarios,” says Dr. Terregino,<br />
explaining that the course will meet in a<br />
large-group conferences and in Objective<br />
Structured Clinical Exercises (OSCEs) with<br />
standardized patients. The class also will<br />
meet in small groups that will be longitudinally<br />
monitored and evaluated by the same<br />
physician faculty member. Students will<br />
regularly don their white coats and observe<br />
the physician-patient relationship in clinical<br />
and private-practice settings.<br />
To build a foundation of cultural and<br />
professional competency, students will be<br />
assigned to community sites and will work<br />
with end-of-life treatment settings and<br />
people with disabilities. They will learn how<br />
patients access social services, and all<br />
students will have a service learning activity.<br />
“We hope not only to train a more<br />
competent group of MDs,” says Dr.<br />
Terregino. “We expect also to better prepare<br />
our medical students for their third and<br />
fourth years, where they will bring more to<br />
the team of residents and fellows in clinical<br />
rotations.”<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 9
NEW<br />
Appointments<br />
BY<br />
KATE<br />
O’NEILL<br />
10 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
Dr. Stephen Lowry Appointed<br />
Senior Associate Dean for Education<br />
Stephen F. Lowry, MD,<br />
professor and chair,<br />
Department of Surgery,<br />
has been appointed senior<br />
associate dean for education.<br />
Dr. Lowry, who will continue<br />
to chair the Department of<br />
Surgery, says he looks forward<br />
to working with his colleagues<br />
on the senior management<br />
team: “Each of us has passion,<br />
Dr. Izaguirre Appointed<br />
Director of Information<br />
Technology<br />
In a newly created RWJMS<br />
position as director of<br />
information technology,<br />
Alexander Izaguirre, PhD, is<br />
working to improve and<br />
enhance information systems<br />
throughout the medical<br />
school. By consulting<br />
with the four<br />
senior associate<br />
deans — in education,<br />
research,<br />
community health,<br />
and clinical affairs<br />
— he is advancing<br />
the medical school<br />
in each mission area.<br />
Dr. Izaguirre initially<br />
focused on information technology<br />
needs at the Child<br />
Health Institute of New<br />
Jersey and helped develop<br />
demonstrations of patientcentered<br />
treatment at the<br />
Clinical Skills Center. He<br />
looks forward to acquiring,<br />
developing, and deploying<br />
not just for our specific area,<br />
but for the medical school’s<br />
goals in undergraduate,<br />
graduate, and continuing<br />
education.”<br />
Preparation for reaccreditation<br />
is an immediate goal, says<br />
Dr. Lowry. “During the coming<br />
year, we will analyze all<br />
aspects of our teaching mission<br />
in an effort to optimize<br />
new IT services designed to<br />
meet the needs of RWJMS.<br />
Dr. Izaguirre earned his<br />
PhD in viral immunology at<br />
the UMDNJ-Graduate School<br />
of Biomedical Sciences. As a<br />
graduate student, he cofounded<br />
a computer<br />
consultant<br />
firm supporting<br />
the biomedical<br />
community, with<br />
clients including<br />
the Department of<br />
Microbiology and<br />
Pathology at<br />
UMDNJ-New Jersey <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School (NJMS).<br />
Prior to joining the RWJMS<br />
staff, he worked with the senior<br />
associate dean for research<br />
at NJMS and with the director<br />
of the NJMS-University<br />
Hospital Cancer Center,<br />
where he developed the first<br />
storage solution built exclusively<br />
for research.<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
our educational effectiveness<br />
and competitiveness.<br />
“To ensure academic<br />
excellence and professional<br />
competence, we must<br />
become a true electronic<br />
community,” he adds.<br />
“Preparing our trainees to<br />
become lifelong learners by<br />
accessing and integrating<br />
information has become a<br />
very high priority.”<br />
Dr. Lowry joined the<br />
RWJMS faculty in 1997.<br />
One of his most significant<br />
achievements as chair has<br />
been the creation and development<br />
of the division of<br />
surgical sciences. Dr. Lowry’s<br />
research team, funded by the<br />
National Institutes of Health<br />
(NIH), has focused on gaining<br />
molecular-level understanding<br />
of inflammation<br />
and surgical infection.<br />
His pioneering work was<br />
rewarded in 2003, when he<br />
received the Flance-Karl<br />
Award from the American<br />
Surgical Association in recognition<br />
of his research contributions<br />
to the field of surgery.<br />
In 2005, he was elected<br />
an Honorary Fellow of the<br />
Royal College of Surgeons of<br />
Edinburgh.<br />
JOHN EMERSON
P ETER S. AMENTA,<br />
MD, PHD,<br />
I N T E R I M D E A N :<br />
aA BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF A FAMILY PHARMACY<br />
in Cromwell, Connecticut, hangs directly above the computer<br />
in the dean’s office at UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School. “Growing up working in my father’s pharmacy was a<br />
major influence on my career development,” says Peter S.<br />
B Y K A T E O ’ N E I L L Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean, referring to a career that has<br />
combined a love of medicine and basic research with a respect<br />
for sound business principles and practices.<br />
Rx for<br />
Excellence<br />
JOHN EMERSON<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 11
dDR. AMENTA GRADUATED FROM TRINITY<br />
College in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned both<br />
a medical degree and a PhD in anatomy from<br />
Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. “I feel very<br />
fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend<br />
both medical and graduate school, chair a department,<br />
become the chief of staff and quality officer<br />
of a major medical center, and serve as a dean of a<br />
medical school,” he says. “I truly enjoyed all of<br />
these positions and am happy and honored to continue<br />
to serve our academic medical center.”<br />
Named interim dean in April 2006, Dr. Amenta<br />
brings considerable experience and enthusiasm to<br />
his new job. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the<br />
RWJMS Department of Pathology and Laboratory<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>, which was then chaired by <strong>Robert</strong><br />
L. Trelstad, MD. Dr. Amenta was attracted by the<br />
prospect of joining a pathology department known<br />
for its interest in extracellular matrix and cell biology.<br />
“At the time, I was being recruited to other<br />
institutions. However, I would have been isolated,<br />
with my research interests,” he says. “Anyone<br />
would much rather work with other similarminded<br />
investigators.”<br />
Five years later, Dr. Amenta was offered the<br />
position of chief of the clinical service at <strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital (RWJUH).<br />
He accepted the challenge with optimism and within<br />
three years was named chair of the Department of<br />
Pathology and Laboratory <strong>Medicine</strong> at RWJMS.<br />
12 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
A Model for Growth<br />
DR. AMENTA BELIEVES THAT THE DEPARTMENT’S<br />
subsequent steady growth may provide a blueprint for<br />
expansion of the entire medical school. “It did take the<br />
department several years to see substantial, measurable<br />
progress,” he says, “and it came about because we<br />
developed a brisk clinical enterprise, while growing our<br />
research and academic programs.<br />
“We doubled the number of faculty, doubled our NIH<br />
[National Institutes of Health] dollars, and quadrupled<br />
our total grant funding. Today, our educational, residency,<br />
and graduate programs are as strong as ever and<br />
are continually improving.” Dr. Amenta emphasizes his<br />
immense appreciation for the efforts of the faculty, staff,<br />
residents, and graduate students who believed in the<br />
pathology program, as well as for the confidence and<br />
support of Harold L. Paz, MD, then dean.<br />
“The faculty deserves tremendous credit for the<br />
department’s growth,” says Dr. Amenta. “This is especially<br />
true for those who were present early on. They<br />
Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean, enjoys talking to<br />
members of the Class of 2010 at the White Coat Ceremony.<br />
have a great business sense, and they think outside of the<br />
box.” The department began expanding its revenue<br />
stream by developing departmental services at other hospitals’<br />
laboratories, overseeing specimen processing and<br />
diagnosis. These outside sites include RWJUH at<br />
Hamilton, Bayshore Community Hospital, and Southern<br />
Ocean County Hospital, where the RWJMS Department<br />
of Anesthesiology will soon provide services as well.<br />
“I believe this plan has worked well in our department,”<br />
says Dr. Amenta. “Nonetheless, there is always an opportunity<br />
for improvement. We are currently attempting to<br />
add additional hospitals and further extend the enterprise.”<br />
Administration:<br />
The Fourth Leg of the<br />
Academic Stool<br />
DR. AMENTA NOTES THAT, TYPICALLY, PEOPLE<br />
refer to the “academic three-legged stool” of education,<br />
research, and clinical service — which, at RWJMS, also<br />
involves community health. “Many people think it’s<br />
unseemly to talk about administration in an academic<br />
context, but I consider it the fourth and stabilizing leg,”
he says. “Success at the administrative level will allow<br />
the school to retain and recruit the best faculty, staff,<br />
and students, to build programs, and to purchase stateof-the-art<br />
equipment.<br />
“Ultimately,” he adds, “we are evaluated on making the<br />
right decisions, making the right business move, doing the<br />
right experiment, making the right interpretation of a clinical<br />
situation, and recruiting the right faculty.”<br />
Dr. Amenta will rely heavily on his strong, six-member<br />
senior executive team in the decision-making process. He sees<br />
the team members’ support as critical to building excellence in<br />
each of the medical school’s four mission areas: education,<br />
research, clinical care, and community health. “I look to<br />
them to guide those missions, to support our efforts to<br />
build strategic plans, and to work with the chairs and institute<br />
directors to develop their programs and departments.”<br />
Thinking Like a Pathologist<br />
DR. AMENTA HAS ALWAYS APPRECIATED HOW<br />
pathologists approach diagnostic issues, having the<br />
unique capacity to review macroscopic, microscopic,<br />
ultra-microscopic, and molecular data in a clinical situation<br />
and provide the definitive answer to a diagnostic<br />
dilemma. “This approach of drilling down to the solu-<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
tion is also useful in experimental work and even<br />
in business decisions. It has been very helpful in<br />
addressing a variety of issues,” he says.<br />
“My greatest frustration is coping with my<br />
impatience to complete projects quickly. Some<br />
issues you can take care of quickly,” he said, noting<br />
that he had a short checklist of items that he<br />
would try to complete promptly. “But some problems<br />
are long-term. The pathology department<br />
developments did not occur in one month, four<br />
months, or one year. It took two or three years to<br />
see substantial change, and we needed a lot of<br />
hard work by a lot of good people to get us there.<br />
“I can see this same growth school-wide and hope<br />
that the entire faculty appreciates their crucial contribution<br />
to the development of this academic medical<br />
center. Not many years ago, the footprint and<br />
programs here resembled those of a community hospital<br />
and a fledgling medical school. We should all<br />
be very proud of the developments that have<br />
occurred since then. We owe a great debt not only to<br />
the faculty but to Dean Paz; to our partner, <strong>Robert</strong><br />
<strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital; and to Harvey<br />
Holzberg, the hospital’s former CEO. I look forward<br />
to working with the hospital’s new leadership.<br />
Vision and Strategy<br />
WHEN DR. AMENTA FIRST TOOK OVER THE<br />
Department of Pathology and Laboratory <strong>Medicine</strong>,<br />
someone asked him to describe his vision for<br />
the department. “I responded by saying I was trying<br />
to put together enough money to afford one,” he<br />
says. “In summary, it is no secret that a major component<br />
of success is a strong financial margin. We are<br />
working very hard to develop a strong financial foundation.<br />
Strategic plans are not of much value unless you<br />
can actually implement them, and that requires adequate<br />
funding.”<br />
A key component to the success of the majority of<br />
leading academic medical centers is philanthropic support,<br />
he says, noting that he is working closely with the<br />
Foundation of UMDNJ to set priorities and implement<br />
programs to raise funds for the school.<br />
How long does Dr. Amenta expect to serve as dean?<br />
Characteristically, he wants to take the job step-by-step:<br />
“I prefer considering myself the current dean. I don’t<br />
want any excuse to inhibit our progress.” So, with no<br />
finale in sight, Dr. Amenta dives into his new job, as he<br />
did in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>, with an ambitious plan and huge enjoyment<br />
of the task at hand. M<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 13
JOHN EMERSON<br />
NewFrontiers<br />
Surgery<br />
When it comes to<br />
heart replacement<br />
procedures, as well as<br />
innovative approaches<br />
to the treatment of<br />
common cardiac defects,<br />
Peter M. Scholz, MD,<br />
James W. Mackenzie<br />
Professor of Surgery<br />
and chief, division of<br />
cardiothoracic surgery,<br />
and his team, Sherry<br />
Smith (left) surgical<br />
technician, and Mary<br />
O’Brien, CRNFA,<br />
employ only the newest<br />
and best technology<br />
to save lives.<br />
in ◆ c ardiac<br />
By historical measurements,<br />
thirty-eight years isn’t very<br />
long. However, in the annals of<br />
medicine, it might well be recorded<br />
as a lifetime. it was in 1968 that famed<br />
surgeon Denton Cooley, MD, first transplanted a human heart into<br />
a patient who then lived 204 days. Today, more than 3,000 heart<br />
transplants are done annually on people who have lived as long as<br />
20 years afterward. Now, through a technology that the U.S. Food<br />
and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in September 2006, a<br />
selective number of those who need heart transplantation, but are<br />
not eligible for the surgery, are being offered an alternative: an artificial<br />
heart available at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital<br />
(RWJUH) / UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School.<br />
B Y R I T A M . R O O N E Y<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 15
The new “heart” is the result of more than 25 years<br />
of research and may well be the most complex<br />
medical device ever designed. The AbioCor heart is<br />
the first self-contained and fully implantable artificial<br />
replacement heart developed with the support<br />
of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. It<br />
is designed to sustain the body’s circulatory system<br />
and extend the lives of patients who otherwise<br />
would die of heart failure. Unlike artificial hearts<br />
of the past, it is totally implanted within the body;<br />
The AbioCor heart patients are not connected to an air-pumping con-<br />
operates by moving sole and do not have wires or tubes piercing their<br />
skin.<br />
blood through<br />
Mark Anderson, MD, associate professor of sur-<br />
the lungs and to the<br />
gery, chief of cardiac surgery, and director of car-<br />
rest of the body, diopulmonary transplantation at RWJUH, reports<br />
while it simulates that the artificial heart replacement is not an<br />
option for most heart failure patients.<br />
the rhythm of a<br />
“Heart transplantation remains the gold stan-<br />
heartbeat. It dard,” Dr. Anderson says. “The AbioCor heart is<br />
consists of an inter- intended for patients with severely damaged hearts<br />
who, because of age or medical circumstances,<br />
nal thoracic unit<br />
are not candidates for a transplant, and have<br />
that weighs about no other treatment alternative. It’s a lifesaving<br />
two pounds and procedure that gives end-stage patients mobility to<br />
enjoy a satisfactory lifestyle.”<br />
has two artificial<br />
The FDA granted approval of the AbioCor heart<br />
ventricles with under a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE),<br />
corresponding which allows Abiomed, Inc., a Massachusetts-based<br />
company, to sell up to 4,000 in the United States<br />
valves and a motor-<br />
annually. However, the company plans to have a<br />
driven hydraulic<br />
controlled roll-out of this sophisticated technology at<br />
pumping system.<br />
five to ten centers, including: RWJUH, The Johns<br />
Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore,<br />
and the Jewish Hospital/<br />
University of Louisville,<br />
Kentucky. Dr.<br />
Anderson says<br />
other sites may be<br />
added, but RWJUH<br />
will remain the only<br />
center in the Northeast.<br />
COURTESY OF AbioCor<br />
The AbioCor heart operates by moving blood<br />
through the lungs and to the rest of the body, while<br />
it simulates the rhythm of a heartbeat. It consists of<br />
an internal thoracic unit that weighs about two<br />
pounds and has two artificial ventricles with corresponding<br />
valves and a motor-driven hydraulic<br />
pumping system. An internal battery continually<br />
recharges from an external console carried by the<br />
patient, and an implantable electronics package<br />
monitors and controls the pumping speed of the<br />
heart based on the patient’s needs.<br />
Heart<br />
Transplantation<br />
Survival<br />
A<br />
Improves<br />
s exciting as the availability of the artificial<br />
heart is to cardiac surgeons and<br />
patients alike, it doesn’t stand alone in the arsenal<br />
of advances available to RWJMS patients. As<br />
the result of national donor shortages, there are<br />
probably 10,000 patients on a national waiting<br />
list for transplantation. Wait-listed patients in<br />
New Jersey fare better than the average, though,<br />
since the state has its own organ donor procurement<br />
organization, and they do not compete with<br />
those in other states. As survival rates for transplanted<br />
patients have improved dramatically in<br />
recent years, this is clearly good news for New<br />
Jersey.<br />
“The transplantation technique itself has had<br />
only minor modifications,” Dr. Anderson reports.<br />
“However, real progress has been made with<br />
immuno-suppression drugs used to prevent rejection<br />
following surgery. Drugs are much better than<br />
they were a few years ago, with far fewer side<br />
effects. Rejection is uncommon today, and that<br />
translates to improved outcomes.”<br />
He adds that ten-year survival after transplantation<br />
is in the 60 to 70 percent range, and that 20year<br />
survival is becoming more common. Except<br />
for the continuing need to take anti-suppression<br />
drugs, the lifestyle of post-surgical transplant<br />
patients is quite good. Many return to work, and<br />
some even begin families.<br />
Dr. Anderson says that at RWJMS, cardiologists<br />
and cardiac surgeons become interactive partners
COURTESY OF RWJUH<br />
in the evaluation and medical/surgical treatment of<br />
patients.<br />
“In addition to conventional techniques for<br />
bypass and valvular surgery, and the more extraordinary<br />
transplantation and artificial heart procedures,<br />
we have implantable ventricular assist<br />
devices that serve as circulatory support for<br />
patients who need immediate assistance, possibly<br />
while waiting for a transplanted heart,” he says.<br />
Finding A<br />
A<br />
Better Way<br />
nother instance of surgical leadership<br />
is a procedure to treat atrial fibrillation,<br />
modified by Peter M. Scholz, MD,<br />
James W. Mackenzie Professor of Surgery and<br />
chief, division of cardiothoracic surgery.<br />
Dr. Scholz reports that of the two to three million<br />
Americans with atrial fibrillation, approximately<br />
400,000 are candidates for mechanical or surgical<br />
correction of the condition. The primary complication<br />
of atrial fibrillation is stroke, and many<br />
patients take drugs to prevent this. Other treatment<br />
options exist, including a major procedure during<br />
which the surgeon creates an electrical corridor for<br />
the electricity to be controlled and prevented from<br />
setting up re-entry circuits that perpetuate the fibrillation.<br />
The operation is highly successful but<br />
incurs a risk of bleeding and other complications.<br />
For many years, medicine has sought a modification<br />
that would be equally effective but without<br />
risk. That is exactly what Dr. Scholz succeeded in<br />
doing by performing a corrective procedure that<br />
was the first of its kind in New Jersey.<br />
Mark Anderson,<br />
MD, associate<br />
professor of<br />
surgery, chief<br />
of cardiac surgery,<br />
and director of<br />
cardiopulmonary<br />
transplantation<br />
at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> University<br />
Hospital, says<br />
that implantation<br />
of an artificial<br />
replacement heart<br />
is “a lifesaving<br />
procedure that<br />
gives end-stage<br />
patients mobility<br />
to enjoy a<br />
satisfactory<br />
lifestyle.”<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 17
Peter M. Scholz,<br />
MD, James W.<br />
Mackenzie Professor<br />
of Surgery and<br />
chief, division of<br />
cardiothoracic<br />
surgery, performs<br />
a corrective<br />
procedure — the<br />
first of its kind<br />
in New Jersey —<br />
to treat atrial<br />
fibrillation.<br />
18 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
“The procedure involves three small incisions<br />
on the right side of the chest,” he says.<br />
“A video camera is inserted through one incision.<br />
We open the sac around the heart and<br />
insert an antenna around the back of the heart<br />
to form an electrical isolation line that isolates<br />
the pulmonary veins from the rest of the left<br />
atrium.”<br />
He says that’s done by opening the heart sac<br />
without a major incision and putting two<br />
catheters behind the heart, then making a hole<br />
on the left side to connect the two guiding<br />
catheters. That creates a loop around the<br />
heart.<br />
“The antenna is tied to this loop, and the<br />
new antenna is snaked around the heart,” he<br />
adds. “The antenna uses microwave energy to<br />
create scar tissue that forms to prevent the<br />
abnormal electrical impulses from affecting<br />
the rest of the heart.”<br />
Dr. Scholz says anyone who has atrial fibrillation<br />
without structural heart disease for<br />
more than six months is a candidate for this<br />
minimally invasive procedure.<br />
“The reason it is so important to correct<br />
atrial fibrillation is that it can lead to changes<br />
in the heart muscle, and that leads to more<br />
persistent fibrillation, which can lead to<br />
stroke,” he says.<br />
When it comes to heart replacement procedures,<br />
as well as innovative approaches to the<br />
treatment of common cardiac defects, the bottom<br />
line at RWJMS is a cutting-edge mind-set<br />
in which leading clinicians in an academic medical<br />
environment are willing to employ only the<br />
newest and best technology to save lives. M<br />
JOHN EMERSON
Surgery<br />
for special people<br />
Youngsters<br />
requiring complex<br />
cardiac surgery<br />
now have the skills of a world-class<br />
pediatric cardiac team in their corner,<br />
thanks to the Children’s Heart<br />
Program of New Jersey, an initiative<br />
that pairs RWJMS and the Bristol-<br />
Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> University<br />
Hospital (RWJUH) with the Morgan<br />
Stanley Children’s Hospital of New<br />
York–Presbyterian Columbia University<br />
<strong>Medical</strong> Center.<br />
The program on the New Brunswick<br />
campus, which is the first in<br />
central New Jersey and the third in<br />
the state, is headed by a dedicated<br />
surgery faculty with extensive experience<br />
in all types of congenital and<br />
acquired cardiac defects.<br />
One patient, a 13-month-old baby<br />
boy, underwent surgery a year ago<br />
for an abnormal connection between<br />
the main artery from the heart and<br />
the main artery to the lungs. The<br />
defect was corrected, and the child is<br />
developing normally.<br />
Ralph S. Mosca, MD, clinical associate<br />
professor of pediatrics and<br />
director of the pediatric cardiac surgery<br />
program at RWJUH, who performed<br />
the procedure with Jonathan<br />
Chen, MD, clinical assistant professor<br />
of pediatrics, reports, “When<br />
this congenital abnormality occurs,<br />
blood circulates between the lungs<br />
and the heart, forcing the heart to<br />
overwork and leading to congestive<br />
heart failure.”<br />
A state-of-the-art pediatric catheterization<br />
laboratory is another<br />
previously unavailable advance at<br />
RWJMS/RWJUH. William E.<br />
Hellenbrand, MD, clinical professor<br />
of pediatrics and director of the<br />
pediatric cath lab at RWJUH, is an<br />
internationally regarded interventional<br />
pediatric cardiologist responsible<br />
for the design of such labs<br />
worldwide.<br />
“The lab is a cutting-edge center<br />
featuring the newest technology, two<br />
dedicated anesthesiologists, and an<br />
impeccably trained support team<br />
that combines to provide New Jersey<br />
families with services they once had<br />
to leave the state to receive,” he says.<br />
Joseph W. Gaffney, MD, associate<br />
professor of pediatrics, chief,<br />
division of pediatric cardiology, and<br />
Joseph W. Gaffney, MD,<br />
associate professor of pediatrics,<br />
chief, division of pediatric<br />
cardiology, and director of<br />
pediatric cardiology at RWJUH<br />
director of pediatric cardiology at<br />
RWJUH, adds, “Catheterization for<br />
young children is a high-level procedure<br />
often requiring general anesthesia<br />
and close monitoring. At<br />
RWJMS, we employ a coordinated<br />
team approach with intensive care<br />
from sedation and pain management<br />
to post-procedure intensive care,<br />
provided by skilled specialists trained<br />
in the cardiac management and care<br />
of infants and children.” M<br />
JOHN EMERSON<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 19
Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD:<br />
Like an anthropologist studying a subculture,<br />
Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD, professor<br />
of family medicine and director, division of<br />
research, studies primary care practices<br />
and patient care delivery. Working in a<br />
variety of settings — large and small practices,<br />
rural and urban groups, and independent and<br />
health-system affiliates — Dr. Crabtree and his colleagues<br />
gather comprehensive data and observe the<br />
dynamics that influence practice operations. His<br />
researchers use this information to form improvement<br />
teams, where ideas are shared among practice members<br />
in the hope of helping the practice evolve and improve<br />
its delivery of patient care.<br />
Dr. Crabtree’s office is filled with clues to his energetic,<br />
team-based style of leadership. Here, he regularly<br />
gathers project leaders to update their colleagues,<br />
employing the same interactive Reflective Adaptive<br />
Process (RAP) that they use to elicit ideas in their studies.<br />
Adorning the walls are poster-sized sheets of paper,<br />
covered with bright, handwritten columns listing investigators’<br />
names, deadlines, and funding sources. Project<br />
names such as ULTRA, SCOPE, and STEP-UP stand<br />
out, hinting at the group’s informality and creativity.<br />
20 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
Social Science<br />
Evolves into<br />
Practice<br />
Jazz<br />
B Y K A T E O ’ N E I L L<br />
Hours of brainstorming have produced fresh ideas,<br />
reflected in notes that slant between the columns of<br />
information, while the unmistakable scent of permanent<br />
markers lingers in the air.<br />
A trained anthropologist, Dr. Crabtree initially<br />
planned for a career in public health. He worked on<br />
eradicating smallpox in Ethiopia and controlling tuberculosis<br />
in South Korea. During a break to teach English<br />
in Japan, he met his future wife. Dr. Crabtree completed<br />
his doctorate in medical anthropology at the University<br />
of Connecticut, where a research position in the<br />
Department of Family <strong>Medicine</strong> first “got him hooked,”<br />
he says, on studying and improving health care delivery<br />
in primary care settings, where Americans receive many<br />
of their clinical services.<br />
Building the Division<br />
In 1999, David E. Swee, MD, professor and thenchair,<br />
Department of Family <strong>Medicine</strong>, recruited Dr.<br />
Crabtree from the University of Nebraska to establish,<br />
develop, and coordinate a family medicine research<br />
division at UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School. In six years, Dr. Crabtree has built a 30-person<br />
division that is now engaged in 12 research projects.<br />
Among 120 academic family medicine departments<br />
nationwide, the RWJMS division of research is ranked<br />
NAT CLYMER
11th in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)<br />
for family medicine research. In 2005, the National Cancer<br />
Institute (NCI) approved the division’s newest R01 (investigator<br />
initiated) proposal, Dr. Crabtree’s third straight R01<br />
to receive funding on first submission. The award brought<br />
his current NIH support to $6 million. In addition, the<br />
Centers for Disease Control and the <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
Foundation have awarded major grants to the division.<br />
“Dr. Crabtree’s approach has<br />
been emulated by many<br />
up-and-coming departments. It is<br />
fair to say that our department<br />
has achieved national eminence in<br />
large part due to the fantastic<br />
team he has built.”<br />
– Alfred F. Tallia, MD ’78, MPH<br />
Dr. Crabtree, whose extensive publications set the bar<br />
high, reports that “the division has come of age.” At the Fall<br />
2005 annual conference of the North American Primary<br />
Care Research Group, 14 members made podium or poster<br />
presentations. “What was especially impressive was the<br />
diversity and scope of the research presented, from sophisticated<br />
biostatistical methods to complex theoretical perspectives,”<br />
he says.<br />
“Ben’s idea of building diverse research teams was operational<br />
long before it was in the literature,” says Alfred F.<br />
Tallia, MD ’78, MPH, associate professor and acting chair,<br />
Department of Family <strong>Medicine</strong>. Dr. Tallia, who helped<br />
recruit Dr. Crabtree, has become not only a colleague, but<br />
also a friend. He says of Dr. Crabtree, “His approach has<br />
been emulated by many up-and-coming departments. It is<br />
fair to say that our department has achieved national eminence<br />
in large part due to the fantastic team he has built.”<br />
Practice Jazz and MAP/RAP<br />
In 2001, Dr. Crabtree and several colleagues coauthored<br />
“Practice Jazz: Understanding Variation in<br />
Family Practices Using Complexity Science,” published<br />
in the Journal of Family Practice. In the article, the authors<br />
equate integrated performance in a medical practice to<br />
listen-and-respond communication among jazz musicians.<br />
When practice members do not all communicate effectively,<br />
solve problems, and collaborate to optimize each patient<br />
visit, clinical care suffers. In addition, a practice may be<br />
overwhelmed by the tasks of communicating with commu-<br />
22 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
nity and government organizations, pharmacies, and insurance<br />
companies.<br />
Intentionally or not, clinicians and patients have issues that<br />
impede the delivery of good health care. “Within the time limits<br />
of patient visits, clinicians want to address their own priorities,<br />
such as smoking, obesity, and depression,” says Dr. Crabtree.<br />
The broad focus and competing demands of primary care can<br />
also restrict clinicians’ ability to translate evidence-based strategies<br />
such as cancer screenings into routine preventive services.<br />
Normal human resistance to change creates challenges for<br />
practices trying to evolve, says Dr. Crabtree. One case study<br />
discusses a practice that introduced electronic medical<br />
records (EMR). Problems with planning, communication,<br />
and decision making inhibited the applications of the EMR,<br />
leaving the practice no better equipped to deliver excellent<br />
patient care than when it used paper records.<br />
Complexity science is a novel approach for understanding<br />
complex adaptive systems. It provides the research division<br />
with an ideal theoretical framework for organizing and<br />
interpreting its observations and, ultimately, for harnessing<br />
improvements in a medical practice. Starting with the multimethod<br />
assessment process (MAP), research teams gain initial<br />
insights into the unique structure and function of family<br />
practices from a variety of sources, including medical<br />
charts and interviews with employees and patients.<br />
Next, in 12 one-hour sessions, RAP teams meet, eliciting<br />
the ideas of a physician, office manager, nurse, receptionist,<br />
and, if possible, a patient. A member of the research division<br />
serves as RAP facilitator, drawing out each participant’s perspective,<br />
helping develop conflict resolution techniques, and<br />
establishing a process by which practice members can plan<br />
their organization’s evolution.<br />
Growing Collaborations<br />
and Grant Support<br />
Collaborations link the division to family medicine<br />
departments at the state and national levels, while<br />
international ties further broaden the scope of its<br />
work. The division is a member of the National Center for<br />
Research in Family <strong>Medicine</strong> and Primary Care, headquartered<br />
at Case Western Reserve University. It serves as the<br />
qualitative center of this five-department research collaboration,<br />
which is supported by a research enhancement initiative<br />
of the American Academy of Family Physicians.<br />
Each of the division’s projects focuses on improving particular<br />
areas of care. Its first study, funded by the National<br />
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, targeted diabetes, cholesterol,<br />
cardiopulmonary health, and disease prevention. With<br />
partial funding from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey at<br />
RWJMS, the division established the New Jersey Family<br />
— Continued on Page 50
Rapid<br />
HIV/AIDS<br />
Testing Initiative<br />
Hailed as aModel<br />
Program<br />
By Patricia M. Hansen<br />
When the State of New Jersey<br />
calls and asks for help, who can say<br />
no? Not the Department of<br />
Pathology and Laboratory <strong>Medicine</strong>,<br />
and certainly not Professor<br />
Evan M. Cadoff, MD, or Associate<br />
Professor Eugene G. Martin, PhD.<br />
Dr. Cadoff and Dr. Martin oversee<br />
the Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Program<br />
that recently won a prestigious<br />
ASTHO (Association of State<br />
and Territorial Health Officials)<br />
Vision Award for the New Jersey<br />
Department of Health and Senior<br />
Services, Division of HIV/AIDS<br />
Services.<br />
Along with Sindy Paul, MD,<br />
medical director of the Division of<br />
HIV/AIDS Services, Dr. Cadoff and<br />
Dr. Martin have taken a fledgling<br />
program statewide. Perhaps even<br />
more importantly, due to this<br />
award, the program may become a<br />
model for other states to duplicate,<br />
helping to save countless numbers<br />
of lives.<br />
The citation for the ASTHO<br />
award, which was presented at the<br />
annual meeting of state and territo-<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
rial health officials, reads in part,<br />
“This innovative program will<br />
serve as an outstanding example to<br />
the public health community and<br />
will encourage replication of such<br />
initiatives in other states.”<br />
It was only three years ago, in<br />
November 2003, when rapid<br />
HIV/AIDS testing became available<br />
in New Jersey. The advantages of<br />
rapid testing are obvious: instead of<br />
waiting a week or more for test<br />
results, patients could have results<br />
in as little as 20 minutes. “The new<br />
test was dramatically better. We<br />
saw a 25 percent increase in testing<br />
during the very first year,” says Dr.<br />
Cadoff.<br />
Because of state regulations designed<br />
to protect New Jersey’s citizens<br />
from quality problems at clinical<br />
laboratories, state officials<br />
needed help with the oversight and<br />
implementation of the proposed<br />
program. “That is when the state<br />
asked for help. They needed a<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 23
licensed site, and we already had one<br />
in place at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School,” Dr. Cadoff adds.<br />
That site became one of six in the<br />
state, funded by grants, to offer confidential,<br />
free rapid HIV/AIDS testing.<br />
The success of this program<br />
prompted state officials to approach<br />
the doctors again, this time for help<br />
in expanding the program statewide.<br />
“Today every county in New Jersey<br />
is covered,” explains Dr. Martin.<br />
“There are now 106 sites licensed by<br />
the New Jersey Department of Health<br />
and Senior Services that provide this<br />
test.”<br />
The Proof Is<br />
in the Numbers<br />
The return rate for patients undergoing<br />
traditional HIV/AIDS testing<br />
at counseling and testing facilities<br />
has always been problematic. According<br />
to Dr. Cadoff, “Approximately<br />
35 percent of the patients never came<br />
back for their results. Now the results<br />
are immediate.”<br />
The numbers for this highly successful<br />
rapid-testing model program<br />
are staggering: more than 50,000<br />
tests are expected to be performed<br />
this year throughout New Jersey.<br />
With 88 locations, 18 licensed mobile<br />
facilities, and over 70 trained counselors,<br />
this is the largest centralized<br />
24 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
HIV/AIDS testing program in the<br />
United States.<br />
The laboratorians retain records of<br />
every test and monitor each aspect of<br />
the testing to ensure accuracy and<br />
credibility. The established protocols<br />
allow for benchmarking studies that<br />
can provide data for laboratories<br />
worldwide.<br />
The Test<br />
HIV/AIDS testing began as a blood<br />
test that required a trained phlebotomist<br />
to collect the specimen and<br />
a trained laboratory technologist to<br />
perform the test. Rapid HIV/AIDS<br />
testing allows a single drop of blood<br />
to be used for testing, leading to the<br />
use of finger-stick samples. Today,<br />
even an oral version of the test is<br />
available. Trained counselors administer<br />
the test by swabbing between the<br />
patient’s upper and lower gums and<br />
cheek. The sample collected on the<br />
testing device (referred to as an oral<br />
mucosal transudate) is placed into a<br />
solution. The solution passes up<br />
through the device, revealing the<br />
result; the answer becomes perfectly<br />
clear in much the same way that a<br />
pregnancy test can be read.<br />
If this test is positive, more testing<br />
follows. Today, confirmation of a<br />
positive screening result requires an<br />
additional complex, labor-intensive<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
Eugene G. Martin, PhD, associate professor of<br />
pathology and laboratory medicine (left), and Evan M.<br />
Cadoff, MD, professor of pathology and laboratory<br />
medicine, oversee the Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Program<br />
that recently won a prestigious ASTHO (Association of<br />
State and Territorial Health Officials) Vision Award for<br />
the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior<br />
Services, Division of HIV/AIDS Services.<br />
procedure. Most commonly, laboratories<br />
perform a Western blot before<br />
reporting a confirmed positive result<br />
to a patient. This improves the reliability<br />
of the screening procedure and<br />
reduces the possibility that the result<br />
is a false positive.<br />
Because approximately one to two<br />
tests per 1,000 result in a false positive,<br />
any discordant results — a difference<br />
between the screening test<br />
and the confirmatory test — are<br />
cause for review by one of the<br />
pathologists. Because these events are<br />
rare, the experience gained by the<br />
whole program is available each and<br />
every time it happens, assuring the<br />
best possible outcome and the rapid<br />
resolution of any ambiguity.<br />
“We want anyone who receives a<br />
positive result to speak with a physician<br />
and begin treatment immediately,”<br />
explains Dr. Cadoff. “Statistics show<br />
that once individuals receive their diagnosis,<br />
they take extra precautions with<br />
their own health and the health of others<br />
by reducing risky behavior.” The<br />
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)<br />
concur with this approach and have<br />
undertaken a major initiative to help<br />
make individuals more aware of their<br />
HIV status as early as possible.<br />
Looking Ahead<br />
What’s in the future? Manufacturers<br />
are beginning to explore<br />
the feasibility of making over-thecounter<br />
rapid HIV tests available, but<br />
the likelihood is that for the time<br />
being, testing will continue to be provided<br />
at locations where trained<br />
counselors are available whenever a<br />
result positive for HIV is discovered.<br />
— Continued on Page 50
portraits by john emerson<br />
name was<br />
Nundemesa, and she<br />
was about nine years old,<br />
with chronic lung disease<br />
and all the symptoms of HIV<br />
infection. She stood out<br />
among others in the South<br />
African hospital ward<br />
because she looked much too<br />
comfortable there.<br />
Scurrying about, like a little mother’s<br />
helper, she took younger children<br />
by the hand, and was seen<br />
feeding an infant. This place, where<br />
HIV-infected youngsters were cared<br />
for, was home to her. Her mother<br />
lay in a nearby bed, in the final<br />
stages of AIDS and tuberculosis.<br />
By Rita M. Rooney<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 25
Amisha Malhotra, MD, assistant<br />
professor of pediatrics, division of<br />
infectious diseases, one among many<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School physicians and allied health<br />
professionals volunteering on<br />
global medical missions to under -<br />
developed countries.<br />
26 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
undemesa was overheard crying herself<br />
to sleep at night, but during the day,<br />
she kept herself useful — one might even<br />
think happy. Then the time came for hospital<br />
rounds. The children lined up to be seen by the<br />
doctor, their mothers close by. Nundemesa was<br />
alone, because her mother was too sick to join her<br />
for the routine checkup. With bravado, the child<br />
stood tall and waited. Big brown eyes darted left<br />
and right, looking for a friendly face. The American<br />
woman they told her was a doctor saw her and<br />
smiled. Nundemesa managed a big, toothy grin in<br />
response. It never took much to make her smile.<br />
The friendly face belonged to Amisha Malhotra,<br />
MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, division of<br />
infectious diseases, one among many UMDNJ-<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School physicians<br />
and allied health professionals volunteering on<br />
Amisha Malhotra, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics,<br />
division of infectious diseases, volunteered at a clinic<br />
in South Africa through a program sponsored by Bristol-<br />
Myers Squibb.<br />
global medical missions to underdeveloped countries.<br />
Dr. Malhotra was in South Africa for three<br />
weeks through a program sponsored by Bristol-<br />
COURTESY OF AMISHA MALHOTRA, MD
Myers Squibb. Her days were long and hard.<br />
“Conditions at the hospital and in the clinics were<br />
very bad,” Dr. Malhotra says. “There weren’t<br />
enough doctors, nurses, or HIV counselors. Ancillary<br />
services were lacking as well. We had to ship blood<br />
by car, over rough terrain, to another city. A child’s<br />
life often depended on that one vial that was at risk<br />
of being mislabeled or improperly collected.”<br />
Patricia N. Whitley-Williams, MD, professor of<br />
pediatrics and chief, division of pediatric allergy,<br />
immunology, and infectious diseases, spent almost<br />
six weeks on the same Bristol-Myers Squibb tour<br />
to South Africa.<br />
“There was one hospital covering 15 clinics, none<br />
of which were equipped to handle pediatric disease<br />
of any kind,” Dr. Whitley-Williams says. “Clinics<br />
linics were housed in mobile homes<br />
with one waiting room. When it filled, people<br />
had to wait outside in 90-degree heat,<br />
followed by heavy downpours. Many were<br />
very sick and had walked for miles,”<br />
says Dr. Whitley-Williams.<br />
were housed in mobile homes with one waiting<br />
room. When it filled, people had to wait outside in<br />
90-degree heat, followed by heavy downpours.<br />
Many were very sick and had walked for miles.”<br />
Prior to the program for the prevention of mother-<br />
Patricia N. Whitley-Williams, MD,<br />
professor of pediatrics and chief,<br />
division of pediatric allergy,<br />
immunology, and infectious diseases,<br />
spent almost six weeks on the<br />
Bristol-Myers Squibb tour<br />
to South Africa.
Sunanda Gaur, MBBS, professor of pediatrics<br />
and director of the RWJMS AIDS program,<br />
has always had a global mind-set when it comes<br />
to the treatment of infectious diseases.<br />
n this program, one dose of an inexpensive<br />
anti-HIV drug taken by a pregnant woman,<br />
28 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
and another dose given to her infant<br />
at birth, was enough to reduce the probability<br />
of transmission of HIV to the<br />
child by 50 percent,” says Dr. Gaur.<br />
to-child transmission of AIDS, conducted by volunteers<br />
such as Dr. Malhotra and Dr. Whitley-Williams,<br />
three or four children died each week from AIDSrelated<br />
causes. Most were malnourished. Many had<br />
respiratory illnesses. When the American doctors<br />
weren’t treating children, they were training nursecounselors<br />
to recognize the first signs of HIV in<br />
Sunanda Gaur, MBBS, professor of pediatrics and<br />
director of the RWJMS AIDS program, counsels children<br />
at a homeless shelter in India.<br />
infants and administer Bactrim, a drug to prevent the<br />
pneumonia that is the leading cause of mortality in<br />
HIV-infected children during the first year of life.<br />
COURTESY OF SUNANDA GAUR, MBBS
Was it worth it to leave home and family, and<br />
spend their vacations in an underdeveloped country<br />
where a devastating illness claims the lives of so many<br />
women and children? Both women say it was, and<br />
that they are exploring the possibility of another tour.<br />
“It was challenging, but I think we made a difference,”<br />
Dr. Whitley-Williams says. “That makes it<br />
worthwhile.”<br />
Sunanda Gaur, MBBS, professor of pediatrics and<br />
director of the RWJMS AIDS program, has always<br />
had a global mind-set when it comes to the treatment<br />
of infectious diseases. Dr. Gaur has worked<br />
extensively with HIV-infected youngsters, so when<br />
she had an opportunity to travel to South Africa,<br />
through a program sponsored by the Columbia<br />
University Mailman School of Public Health, she<br />
eagerly packed her bags.<br />
“The program was designed to train physicians<br />
and nurses in South Africa in the use of antiretroviral-class<br />
medications to treat HIV infection,”<br />
Dr. Gaur reports. Subsequently, she traveled to<br />
southern India, where she worked in a program to<br />
prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.<br />
“In this program, one dose of an inexpensive anti-<br />
HIV drug taken by a pregnant woman, and another<br />
dose given to her infant at birth, was enough to<br />
reduce the probability of transmission of HIV to the<br />
child by 50 percent,” she says.<br />
She adds the group was there to evaluate what the<br />
local medical authorities were doing, and to help<br />
them improve their methods. She reports being<br />
impressed by what had already been accomplished<br />
with minimal resources. Part of her work involved<br />
testing and counseling patients, while educating<br />
local clinic staff about the importance of counseling.<br />
“There is such an enormous stigma attached to<br />
AIDS in India,” she says. “The number of suicides<br />
by people diagnosed with the disease is tragic. There<br />
have been instances of entire families jumping into<br />
the river and drowning to escape the shame.”<br />
Asked about her motivation for such global<br />
involvement, Dr. Gaur says simply, “It’s just one<br />
way of giving back.”<br />
A Small World<br />
globalization of health has led to<br />
a collaborative network among<br />
the world’s nations, a sharing of<br />
intellect and technology to cure diseases. In July,<br />
leaders of a global Alzheimer’s study among 100<br />
centers in 21 countries announced positive results<br />
How Her Garden Grows<br />
Margaret Kilibwa, PhD<br />
When she describes her work in the rural Kenyan clinic<br />
she founded, her enthusiasm is as contagious as<br />
laughter. The animation in her eyes says what it’s<br />
like — exhilarating — and the listener understands it must be all<br />
that and more. Characteristically, she refers to the single entity<br />
“clinic” as plural.<br />
“We call them Tropical Clinics,” says Margaret Kilibwa, PhD,<br />
clinical assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive<br />
sciences, and clinical nutritionist at the Women’s Health<br />
Institute. “There’s only one now, but there will be more soon.”<br />
Never doubt it. Dr. Kilibwa radiates a resolve that impresses even<br />
Bill Gates, whose foundation is donating vaccines so she can reach<br />
a goal of immunizing 80 percent of area children within five years.<br />
Dr. Kilibwa participated in a <strong>Johnson</strong> & <strong>Johnson</strong> program<br />
several years ago in which individuals could apply for medical<br />
supplies to send to underdeveloped countries. She personally<br />
took the drugs to Nairobi, Kenya, and recalls that it was a fulfilling<br />
adventure — just not fulfilling enough.<br />
“The medications were being disbursed all over the country,”<br />
she says. “I decided I could do better, and provide more direct<br />
help, from a central location.”<br />
Not only did she do better, she has done a great deal more.<br />
The clinic she directs opened in 2003 in the heavily populated<br />
— Continued on Page 50<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 29
Janusz J. Godyn, MD, professor of pathology<br />
and laboratory medicine and chair of the<br />
pathology departments at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital at Hamilton,<br />
Bayshore Community Hospital, and Southern<br />
Ocean County Hospital, participated in a<br />
collaborative exchange of information and<br />
experience with Narutowicz City Specialty<br />
Hospital in Kraków, Poland.<br />
30 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
urs is a valuable collaboration, one<br />
that is evenly balanced,” Dr. Godyn says.<br />
“We have learned as much from medical<br />
leaders in Poland as they have from us.”<br />
from a transdermal patch used on 1,100 patients. In<br />
August, international experts gathered in New Delhi<br />
to explore the potential for e-health, ranging from<br />
wireless solutions for telemedicine to mobile ehealth<br />
for developing nations. Such partnerships are<br />
landmark programs with reciprocal benefits for all.<br />
At RWJMS, Janusz J. Godyn, MD, professor of<br />
pathology and laboratory medicine and chair of the<br />
pathology departments at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
University Hospital at Hamilton, Bayshore<br />
Community Hospital, and Southern Ocean County<br />
Hospital, participated in a collaborative exchange<br />
of information and experience with Narutowicz<br />
City Specialty Hospital in Kraków, Poland.<br />
“Ours is a valuable collaboration, one that is<br />
evenly balanced,” Dr. Godyn says. “We have<br />
learned as much from medical leaders in Poland as<br />
they have from us.”<br />
He cites discussions on the issue of quality of<br />
care, and reports that they focus primarily on<br />
maintaining and improving the quality of medical<br />
outcomes, and that certain patient comforts are
secondary items in their budgets.<br />
“I think some of our shared experience may lead<br />
to questions regarding the organization of our own<br />
health care,” Dr. Godyn reports. “For instance, the<br />
ratio of nurses to patients in Polish maternity units<br />
is significantly lower than in U.S. hospitals.<br />
Nevertheless, infant mortality per pregnancy is similar<br />
in both countries. Therefore, it seems that indicators<br />
other than hospital staffing may influence<br />
results of medical outcomes.”<br />
International<br />
Consortium<br />
strong advocate<br />
for global medicine is Javier Escobar, MD, professor<br />
and chair, Department of Psychiatry. Dr.<br />
Escobar recently took a year’s sabbatical to work as<br />
senior adviser to the director of the National Institute<br />
of Mental Health (NIMH), where he helped create<br />
an office of global health and, as a result, was specifically<br />
involved in collaborative studies with foreign<br />
countries. He participated in the development of an<br />
international consortium in psychiatric epidemiology,<br />
and has been a liaison between the NIMH and the<br />
World Health Organization in Geneva.<br />
“One project we developed was with the Inter-<br />
American Drug Abuse Control Commission<br />
(CICAD), an agency of the Organization of<br />
American States (OAS), which has oversight for<br />
drug control programs in all Latin American countries,”<br />
Dr. Escobar reports. “I talked to CICAD officials<br />
in Washington and showed them how RWJMS<br />
could help them develop estimates of the cost of<br />
drug use — on economy, health, disability, and<br />
police services — in Latin American countries.”<br />
He explains that the argument always had been<br />
that these are drug-producing but not drug-using<br />
countries. The study included Barbados, Chile,<br />
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and Uruguay, and<br />
while statistics varied from one country to another,<br />
they showed an overall increase in drug use for all.<br />
The program brought people from Latin America to<br />
New Brunswick to acquire expertise, resources, statistical<br />
reports, and methodologies, giving the medical<br />
school visibility in the OAS, a critically important<br />
group for the Americas.<br />
Following his NIMH stint, Dr. Escobar coordinated<br />
a collaboration involving the Pan American<br />
Another Perspective<br />
As globalization makes health care more internationally<br />
interactive than ever before, an<br />
awareness of cultural competency has grown.<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> C. Like, MD, MS, professor of family medicine<br />
and director of the Center for Healthy Families<br />
and Cultural Diversity, defines this as treating<br />
patients with a respectful attitude toward people<br />
from different cultures.<br />
Regarded internationally as an expert on the treatment<br />
of diverse populations, Dr. Like is a consultant<br />
to the European Union’s Migrant-Friendly Hospitals,<br />
and he contributed to the nine-module physician<br />
training course on cultural competency developed by<br />
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’<br />
Office of Minority Health.<br />
“Whether they are treating patients in underdeveloped<br />
nations or their own offices, American physi-<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> C. Like, MD, MS<br />
cians need to practice in a culturally competent environment<br />
that recognizes differences in cultures that<br />
go beyond language to history, customs, religious<br />
beliefs, family relationships, and more,” he explains.<br />
“Such awareness needs to be within a human relations<br />
and social justice framework designed to eliminate<br />
health care inequities around the world.” M<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 31
Javier Escobar, MD, professor and chair,<br />
Department of Psychiatry, is another strong<br />
advocate for global medicine.<br />
hat does this mean to the concept of<br />
global medicine?” Dr. Escobar asks.<br />
“Here in New Brunswick, more than<br />
40 percent of city dwellers are immigrants<br />
from more than 11 Latin American countries.<br />
... So what we learn from other countries can<br />
32 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
be applied here.”<br />
Health Organization, NIMH, and several U.S. universities.<br />
As a result, he received NIMH funding to<br />
lead the <strong>Medical</strong>ly Unexplained Physical Symptoms<br />
in Primary Care Research Center, located on the<br />
RWJMS New Brunswick campus. This multi-disciplinary<br />
collaboration that includes international colleagues<br />
is researching the important problem of<br />
patients with common mental disorders who present<br />
with physical symptoms, and how these patients<br />
might be treated within a primary care environment.<br />
“What does this mean to the concept of global<br />
medicine?” Dr. Escobar asks. “Here in New
Brunswick, more than 40 percent of city dwellers<br />
are immigrants from more than 11 Latin American<br />
countries. A majority of these immigrants speak<br />
only Spanish. So what we learn from other countries<br />
can be applied here.” That, he says, is the<br />
essence of international health liaisons — the<br />
blending of research and clinical knowledge across<br />
borders to serve patients throughout the world.<br />
Personal Mission<br />
was to be the family vacation of a lifetime,<br />
the kind held precious in photos<br />
and memory. In 2000, James Aikins, Jr., MD,<br />
associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and<br />
reproductive sciences, Camden campus, and his<br />
wife, Charletta Ayers, MD, associate professor of<br />
obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences<br />
and chief, division of general obstetrics and gynecology,<br />
took their two children to Cape Coast,<br />
Ghana, to meet his 100-year-old grandmother for<br />
the first time.<br />
Upon their arrival, there was a joyous welcoming<br />
from aunts, uncles, and cousins. They<br />
joked about a cousin of Dr. Aikins who was<br />
about to have her first child, laughing that the<br />
two physicians had gotten there just in time.<br />
The next day, however, there was little joy in the<br />
family: the young woman had been rushed to<br />
the local hospital, and she died giving birth, as<br />
a result of a postpartum hemorrhage. The midwives<br />
in attendance couldn’t control the bleeding,<br />
and they couldn’t find a doctor.<br />
“I had talked for years about doing something<br />
in Africa, but that day it was in my face,”<br />
Dr. Aikins says.<br />
The family returned to the United States, and<br />
Dr. Aikins talked to his students and residents<br />
about putting together a group of volunteers for a<br />
two-week mission to rural Africa the following<br />
year. Ricardo Caraballo, MD, assistant professor<br />
of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences<br />
and chief, division of female pelvic medicine<br />
and reconstructive surgery, was on that first tour<br />
and now serves as deputy medical director of the<br />
volunteer organization. He says that out of respect<br />
for Dr. Aikins, all the residents and students signed<br />
on, enlisting an anesthesiologist and support staff.<br />
“A year later, with a group from both the New<br />
Brunswick and Camden campuses, we made our<br />
first trip to Cape Coast,” Dr. Caraballo says. He<br />
GLOBAL FOCUS IN THE<br />
L ABORATORY<br />
Chlamydia is a bacterium that knows no geographic boundaries,<br />
and while it affects people worldwide, there is reason<br />
to assume its impact is more devastating to women in<br />
underdeveloped countries.<br />
“The disease is transmitted sexually,” says Huizhou Fan, PhD,<br />
assistant professor of physiology and biophysics. “Women infected<br />
with chlamydia often have no symptoms, so they remain undiagnosed<br />
until the infection reaches a severe stage with irreversible<br />
complications such as infertility.”<br />
The most realistic preventive measure, according to Dr. Fan,<br />
would be a topical medication, with no serious side effects, that can<br />
be administered by women themselves. Solutions, however, can be<br />
elusive in the laboratory.<br />
Dr. Fan, who began his research as a PhD candidate, says the<br />
pathogen for chlamydia is different from other bacteria in that it<br />
grows only inside the cell of a higher organism. For that reason, he<br />
decided to study how chlamydia interacts with human cells.<br />
He found a family of compounds with strong anti-chlamydial<br />
activity. Although the compounds were known to inhibit some cellular<br />
events, experimental<br />
findings didn’t prove the<br />
events had anything to do<br />
with the prevention of<br />
chlamydia. Ultimately, he<br />
discovered that the compounds<br />
inhibited growth of<br />
chlamydia by blocking a<br />
chlamydial enzyme.<br />
“This is exciting to us<br />
because it appears that the<br />
compounds can be modified<br />
to target only the<br />
chlamydia, and not human<br />
cells or good bacteria that<br />
normally protect the reproductive<br />
tract,” Dr. Fan says.<br />
His laboratory currently<br />
is conducting animal studies,<br />
and so far the results<br />
look promising. The next<br />
Huizhou Fan, PhD<br />
step is to determine whether<br />
some of the small molecules remain effective when put into a<br />
topical medication.<br />
The relevance to global health initiatives is significant in that<br />
chlamydia causes ulcers in the reproductive tract, and that assists<br />
the transmission of HIV, which causes AIDS — a worldwide health<br />
crisis, which is most prevalent in Africa, but is gaining momentum<br />
in Asia as well.<br />
Dr. Fan appears to be a prime example of the reverse of the norm:<br />
sometimes, laboratory solutions are not as elusive as they seem. M<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 33
James Aikins, Jr., MD, associate professor<br />
of obstetrics, gynecology, and<br />
reproductive sciences, Camden campus<br />
34 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
adds that they did so at their own expense —<br />
although, since then, Dr. Aikins has founded<br />
International Healthcare Volunteers, an organization<br />
that helps underwrite expenses for the annual trip.<br />
Dr. Ayers reports that 28 volunteers went on the<br />
2005 medical mission, including a pediatrician, cardiologist,<br />
general surgeon, gynecologic sub-specialists,<br />
and a urologist. They evaluated 1,500 patients and<br />
performed 66 surgeries during their two-week stay.<br />
“There is such a need for experienced medical personnel,”<br />
Dr. Ayers says. “It’s unlikely my husband’s<br />
cousin would have died in a hospital in this country.<br />
There, blood supplies are extremely low, and technically<br />
trained people are not available around the clock<br />
as they are in the U.S. Most good physicians and welltrained<br />
nurses go to Europe and the United States,<br />
where there is access to the technology they need.”<br />
James Aikins, Jr., MD, associate professor of obstetrics,<br />
gynecology, and reproductive sciences, Camden campus,<br />
founded International Healthcare Volunteers. In 2005,<br />
28 volunteers went on a medical mission to Ghana.<br />
The shortage of physicians and nurses makes the<br />
mission a dual one. Dr. Aikins, who hopes the group<br />
soon will be able to make two trips annually, says<br />
COURTESY OF JAMES AIKINS, JR., MD
education is a major component in what they do.<br />
“We are training nurses to evaluate conditions<br />
in the absence of trained doctors,” he says. “We’re<br />
showing them how to recognize abnormalities.<br />
There are no Pap smears available, and we’re trying<br />
to change that.”<br />
Another educational goal is to encourage young<br />
physicians to specialize in critically needed medical<br />
disciplines. A program established by International<br />
Healthcare Volunteers assists OB/GYN residents at<br />
Ghana <strong>Medical</strong> School by bringing them to the<br />
Camden campus for three-month observational<br />
rotations each year. Dr. Aikins hopes it soon will be<br />
possible to expand the program to both campuses<br />
and to include residents from other much-needed<br />
specialties, such as pathology, surgery, and medicine.<br />
Dr. Caraballo says, “One of the big problems we<br />
face is that we see patients much later in the pathological<br />
process. Last year, we treated a woman<br />
with an ectopic pregnancy. Her tube had ruptured,<br />
and she was bleeding into the abdomen. Our team<br />
e are training nurses to evaluate<br />
conditions in the absence of trained doctors.<br />
We’re showing them how to recognize<br />
abnormalities. There are no Pap smears<br />
available, and we’re trying to change that,”<br />
Dr. Aikins says.<br />
Charletta Ayers, MD, associate professor of<br />
obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences<br />
and chief, division of general obstetrics and<br />
gynecology
Ricardo Caraballo, MD, assistant<br />
professor of obstetrics, gynecology,<br />
and reproductive sciences and<br />
chief, division of female pelvic medicine<br />
and reconstructive surgery<br />
36 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
r. Caraballo says, “Truth is,<br />
we get as much as we give. We come<br />
back exhausted but revitalized.”<br />
wound up donating blood to save her life. That<br />
happens often. Truth is, we get as much as we give.<br />
We come back exhausted but revitalized.”<br />
“We live in a global world,” Dr. Escobar says.<br />
“RWJMS is already in the international arena,<br />
and is working in different ways toward the crossfertilization<br />
of ideas from around the world.<br />
“We have as much to learn from people in other<br />
parts of the globe as they do from us. A mechanism<br />
linking us with other countries is, I believe,<br />
critical to our identity as a leading player in medical<br />
education.”<br />
If there is one collective element that drives<br />
these varied medical missions, it is compassion.<br />
Each one of the RWJMS physicians who boards a<br />
flight to some underdeveloped country instead of<br />
taking the kids to Disney World has a different<br />
way of expressing it. The source, though, is always<br />
an intrinsic kind of caring, which makes a health<br />
crisis 8,000 miles away a very personal one.<br />
Someone asked Dr. Aikins why he took his children<br />
to Africa each year, instead of giving them a<br />
“real” vacation. He says his grandmother always<br />
told him that whatever you give, you get back in<br />
multiples.<br />
“I used to argue with her about that,” he says.<br />
“Now that I’m older, I know she was right.” M
STUDENTS ON A MISSION<br />
As a fourth-year student at RWJMS, Guesly Delva,<br />
MD ’05, participated in an international health<br />
elective at the Community Hospital of Mirebalais<br />
in Haiti. While he was there, a 27-year-old man was<br />
admitted with moderately impaired breathing. He was<br />
given antibiotics, but before he could be adequately cared<br />
for, his family insisted on his release so they could take<br />
him to a local voodoo priest. Later, tests came back showing<br />
a significantly increased white blood count. The<br />
patient was again admitted, this time in very serious condition,<br />
suffering from high fever and chills. He was<br />
placed on oxygen and intravenous antibiotics, but in spite<br />
of intensive efforts, the young man died several hours<br />
later.<br />
“The patient was about my age, and his death affected<br />
me very deeply,” Dr. Delva says. “I knew that if he had<br />
been treated at a hospital in a developed country, he<br />
would not have died. The closest hospital with facilities<br />
to deal more appropriately with his condition was more<br />
than an hour away. The ambulances there were not<br />
equipped with oxygen, and he would not have survived<br />
the trip without it. We could only do our best, and it<br />
wasn’t enough.”<br />
As heartbreaking as the experience was for Dr. Delva,<br />
it cemented his goals to get further training in infectious<br />
diseases and tropical medicine, following his residency in<br />
internal medicine and pediatrics at Tulane University<br />
School of <strong>Medicine</strong>.<br />
Such international experiences are available through a<br />
parallel program at the New Brunswick and Camden campuses<br />
of RWJMS. Last year, students served in countries on<br />
every continent, with the exception of Antarctica.<br />
Sponsorship, from several sources, provides third- and<br />
fourth-year students with invaluable global insights about<br />
medical care administered with extremely limited resources.<br />
Paul R. Mehne, PhD, associate professor of family<br />
medicine and associate dean for academic and student<br />
affairs, Camden campus, says, “We believe, if we are<br />
going to prepare physicians as the health leaders of<br />
tomorrow, these global experiences are important to the<br />
health systems they will design.”<br />
The significance is reflected by students themselves<br />
who report that they have become more culturally competent<br />
as a result of their travel to underdeveloped<br />
nations. They say, too, that the experience underlines the<br />
critical need for public and community health programs,<br />
and is a dramatic lesson in the importance of preventive<br />
care and early diagnosis.<br />
Susan Rosenthal, MMS ’75, MD, clinical professor of<br />
— Continued on Page 51<br />
payback where it counts<br />
Sukumar Nagendran, MD ’94, acquired considerable<br />
knowledge about health care internationally,<br />
and he wants American medical school students to<br />
have the same advantage. Add to that his gratitude for<br />
the training he received at RWJMS and with Edward D.<br />
Viner, MD, professor and chief, Department of <strong>Medicine</strong>,<br />
Camden campus, and his group, and the result<br />
became the Nagendran Scholarship for International<br />
Studies. This scholarship has benefited 15 students in<br />
the past three years.<br />
Dr. Nagendran says that when he was in medical<br />
school, he had concern about access to health care issues<br />
in this country.<br />
“After I became a doctor, I traveled to places<br />
throughout the world, and I realized that our system<br />
here is one of the best worldwide,” he says. “American<br />
students have no idea of the advantages we have. They<br />
can’t imagine working in a hospital where a bone marrow<br />
aspirate needle is boiled and used for a year.”<br />
He says he hopes the scholarships provide an appropriate<br />
way to show his appreciation for his own medical<br />
education. He hopes, too, that the global studies he is<br />
making possible for students will give them an appreciation<br />
for medical capabilities in this country, and will<br />
help them do their best for their patients.<br />
Susan Rosenthal, MMS ’75, MD, clinical professor of<br />
pediatrics and assistant dean for student affairs, says Dr.<br />
Nagendran’s scholarships have made a significant<br />
humanistic impact on the international experiences<br />
offered to students.<br />
“His support of the international program continues<br />
to provide very important experiences for our students,”<br />
she says. “And his own commitment to the globalization<br />
of health care and to underdeveloped countries makes<br />
him a role model as well.”<br />
A strong advocate of global health, Dr. Nagendran<br />
believes U.S. medical schools should do as much outreach<br />
in populous countries as possible.<br />
“We live in a global business community, and health<br />
care is becoming the same,” he says. “The medical<br />
problems of one country become the problems in all<br />
countries. I would like to see medical schools set up a<br />
presence in foreign countries and have an exchange of<br />
both students and doctors. This could become an intellectual<br />
consortium in which we help each other across<br />
inter-national borders. But this is costly and complex,<br />
and it would take a huge investment of social conscience.”<br />
Dr. Nagendran has received letters and emails from<br />
— Continued on Page 51<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 37
Both bench and clinical research have long<br />
38 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
Research:<br />
A Cornerstone of<br />
Orthopaedic<br />
Surgery<br />
been the underpinnings of orthopaedic<br />
medicine, a discipline that continually<br />
probes new and better ways of repairing broken<br />
bodies, stimulating the regeneration of tissue and<br />
bone, and generally furthering advances in surgery.<br />
Recently, orthopaedic studies have reached a<br />
remarkably promising crossroads in the development<br />
of the relatively new field of tissue engineering. They<br />
include technologies being developed at UMDNJ-<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School, in the<br />
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery laboratories.<br />
By Rita M. Rooney ■ Photos by John Emerson<br />
Charles J. Gatt, Jr., MD ’89,<br />
associate professor and<br />
chair, Department of<br />
Orthopaedic Surgery, reports:<br />
“Most orthopaedic surgeons<br />
today believe the future<br />
of surgery lies in tissue<br />
engineering strategies<br />
to replace tissue.”
C harles J. Gatt, Jr., MD ’89,<br />
associate professor and chair,<br />
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery has<br />
a sub-specialty in sports medicine, and<br />
has been conducting tissue engineering<br />
research related to torn meniscus, the<br />
most commonly injured part of the knee.<br />
“Most orthopaedic surgeons today<br />
believe the future of surgery lies in tissue<br />
engineering strategies to replace tissue,”<br />
Dr. Gatt reports.<br />
The technology employs the use of<br />
biocompatible materials, or polymers<br />
the body will accept. The materials are<br />
shaped as fibers and combined with a<br />
collagen sponge to serve as a scaffold or<br />
temporary device that ultimately stimulates<br />
its own replacement by the body.<br />
“The meniscus is a C-shaped rubbery<br />
shock absorber that fits between the<br />
bones in the knees,” Dr. Gatt explains.<br />
“When it tears, we usually have to<br />
remove the torn part because the tissue<br />
generally doesn’t have the ability to<br />
heal. We’re trying to use tissue engineering<br />
technology developed at the medical<br />
school to repair this condition.”<br />
Michael G. Dunn, PhD, associate<br />
professor of orthopaedic surgery, has<br />
developed a tissue engineering technique<br />
for replacing the primary ligament<br />
in the knee, and now he and Dr.<br />
Gatt are researching the potential of the<br />
same strategy applied to the meniscus.<br />
“As it is today, by removing the torn<br />
part of the meniscus, we lose a big part<br />
of this shock absorber,” Dr. Gatt says.<br />
“Dr. Dunn and I are working to come<br />
up with an implant that will stimulate<br />
the regeneration of the meniscus.<br />
Currently, this can be done with a<br />
meniscus from a cadaver, but the<br />
results are only short term.”<br />
Emphasizing his enthusiasm for the<br />
advances possible through tissue engineering,<br />
Dr. Gatt says that the current<br />
method of performing ligament reconstruction<br />
is to remove part of the patella<br />
tendon or hamstring tendons and<br />
use either to rebuild the torn ligament.<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 39
years from now,<br />
we’ll look back and say<br />
“Twenty<br />
there was never any reason<br />
to do that,” he says. “We’ll be able<br />
to implant something in the knee, and a<br />
new ligament will grow in its place.”<br />
He points as well to numerous other<br />
applications for this relatively new science,<br />
and reports that the orthopaedic<br />
research laboratory is currently collab-<br />
“Something that excites me is<br />
the possibility of working with the<br />
fantastic molecular biologists at<br />
the medical school,” Dr. Gatt says. “One of<br />
my interests is in connecting with<br />
someone doing basic research so that we<br />
might direct that kind of work toward<br />
orthopaedic studies.”<br />
orating with Siobhan A. Corbett, MD<br />
’87, associate professor of surgery, in<br />
research aimed at being able to use collagen<br />
sponges for repair of abdominal<br />
defects, such as hernia. He predicts that<br />
his laboratory soon will attempt to<br />
apply tissue engineering to the restoration<br />
of cartilage lost through trauma<br />
and arthritis. Tissue engineering may<br />
also play a role in replacing bone damaged<br />
by tumors. Instead of replacing<br />
bone with bone from other parts of the<br />
body, collagen or another biocompatible<br />
material could be used.<br />
At present, Dr. Gatt and his colleagues<br />
are developing a prototype for<br />
the meniscus implant. They are studying<br />
a mixture of a collagen sponge reinforced<br />
by biocompatible fibers, and are<br />
trying to optimize the mixture of fiber<br />
and sponge to re-establish normal<br />
meniscus mechanics as closely as possible.<br />
They want a material with the<br />
same properties as the original tissue.<br />
Once they have developed this mixture,<br />
they will do mechanical testing. After<br />
that, they will fabricate a full meniscus<br />
40 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
device for animal implantation.<br />
“Meniscus tearing is a serious medical<br />
problem, resulting from trauma,<br />
the degenerative process, or a combination<br />
of both,” Dr. Gatt says. “It happens<br />
to older people with arthritis as<br />
well as to ‘weekend warriors.’ The<br />
implications of tissue engineering offer<br />
us a method to eliminate the resulting<br />
pain in ways never before possible.”<br />
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery<br />
was developed from the existing<br />
division of orthopaedic surgery in<br />
2003, and its faculty consisting of an<br />
11-member surgical team, is one of the<br />
most prestigious orthopaedic services<br />
in central New Jersey, and one staffed<br />
by physicians representing most subspecialties<br />
within orthopaedic medicine.<br />
Joseph P. Leddy, MD, at the time<br />
a clinical professor of orthopaedic surgery,<br />
was appointed the department’s<br />
first chair; upon his recent retirement,<br />
Dr. Gatt was named chair. Prior to the<br />
creation of the department, the surgeons<br />
had served as volunteer faculty,<br />
responsible for teaching both medical<br />
students and residents.<br />
“We consider this a perfect match,<br />
an opportunity for both the school and<br />
our group,” Dr. Gatt reports. “We<br />
brought with us a strong clinical practice.<br />
In turn, our surgeons enjoy teaching<br />
and wanted to expand their efforts<br />
in that direction. Perhaps most important,<br />
we looked forward to becoming<br />
more involved in research, benefiting<br />
from collaboration with colleagues at<br />
the medical school, as well as from the<br />
stature RWJMS gives to NIH funding<br />
applications.”<br />
“Something that excites me is the<br />
possibility of working with the fantastic<br />
molecular biologists at the medical<br />
school,” Dr. Gatt says. “One of my<br />
interests is in connecting with someone<br />
doing basic research so that we might<br />
direct that kind of work toward<br />
orthopaedic studies.”<br />
He adds that the medical school<br />
association paves the way for the addition<br />
of research personnel in the department.<br />
In private practice, he points<br />
out, there is neither time nor the necessary<br />
resources for follow-up on prospective<br />
studies.<br />
“The medical school has been extremely<br />
helpful in offering us research<br />
assistants, and giving us an opportunity<br />
to collaborate with researchers in<br />
other departments,” he says. “Obviously,<br />
this underlines the capabilities of<br />
department clinicians engaging in<br />
research.”<br />
The growth of the orthopaedic residency<br />
programs became an early priority<br />
of the new department, one subscribed<br />
to by both Timothy P. Leddy,<br />
MD, instructor of orthopaedic surgery<br />
and Dr. Gatt.<br />
“The medical school has a history of<br />
attracting top candidates in its orthopaedic<br />
program,” Dr. Leddy says.<br />
“Those of us on the faculty are committed<br />
to accelerating recruitment efforts to<br />
draw the highest-caliber residents.”<br />
He adds that the department is<br />
becoming more competitive in its recruitment<br />
efforts, and that Dr. Gatt<br />
conducts regularly scheduled meetings<br />
with all residents to review the research<br />
they are doing, and to stimulate brainstorming<br />
for new ideas.<br />
Dr. Leddy’s own research centers on<br />
a bench study evaluation of techniques<br />
for treating forearm fractures. In<br />
adults, surgery is the only treatment for<br />
these fractures, and his research focuses<br />
on techniques that may decrease the
complications of the procedure. His laboratory<br />
has designed an instrument that<br />
tests the procedure for bending and torsion<br />
in cadaver models. After generating a fracture<br />
of the bone, the lab repairs the fracture<br />
and then stresses it to failure. In this<br />
way, the research team is gathering valuable<br />
data comparing surgical approaches.<br />
Another area of research being conducted<br />
in Dr. Gatt’s laboratory focuses<br />
on the mechanical testing of allografts,<br />
or tissue from cadavers used in ligament<br />
reconstruction of the knee. Until<br />
recently, surgeons discarded donor allo-<br />
Just about any autumn Friday<br />
evening, Charles J. Gatt, Jr., MD<br />
’89, associate professor and<br />
chair, Department of Orthopaedic<br />
Surgery, can be found on the sidelines<br />
of a high school football game. As a<br />
sub-specialist in sports medicine, Dr.<br />
Gatt treats injuries incurred by young<br />
athletes as well as by professionals. His<br />
presence at school athletic events<br />
makes it clear that one group is just as<br />
important to him as the other.<br />
“The formalization of sports medicine<br />
has raised awareness of athletic<br />
injuries, and has placed emphasis on<br />
high school and college sports,” Dr.<br />
Gatt says. “My presence at games assures<br />
that a specialist is the first to examine<br />
an injury and decide whether or not<br />
a player should stay in the game, and<br />
what immediate treatment may be<br />
needed to avoid permanent damage.”<br />
An alumnus who graduated from<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School in 1989, and from the orthopaedic<br />
residency program in 1994, Dr.<br />
Gatt says he never left RWJMS for long.<br />
He followed his residency with a fellowship<br />
at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation,<br />
grafts if the donor was beyond 55 years<br />
of age. Dr. Gatt’s group spent more<br />
than two years assessing the impact of<br />
the donor’s age and gender on the<br />
mechanical properties of these tissues.<br />
“Our extensive testing showed that<br />
tissue from a 60-year-old donor is just<br />
as effective as that from a 30-year-old<br />
donor, and donor gender is insignificant<br />
as well,” Dr. Gatt says.<br />
The significance of this research is<br />
that allograft supply doesn’t meet the<br />
demand, and, prior to the study, the<br />
cutoff age was considered to be<br />
Charles J. Gatt, Jr., MD ’89:<br />
At Home, On the Field, and in the Lab<br />
and after two years on staff at Glendale<br />
Adventist Hospital in California, he<br />
returned to RWJMS as a clinical assistant<br />
professor in 1997. In 2003, when the division<br />
of orthopaedic surgery became a full<br />
department, he was appointed associate<br />
professor. Dr. Gatt met his wife, Sandra<br />
Gatt, MD, a plastic surgeon, while completing<br />
his residency at the medical school.<br />
“I enjoyed my residency training<br />
tremendously,” he says. “I know many<br />
doctors say residency is laborious, but I<br />
never thought so. The people who were<br />
my role models were exceptional surgeons<br />
who took great care of their<br />
patients. Looking back, I think I was<br />
attracted to my field because orthopaedic<br />
surgeons seemed to enjoy their work.”<br />
The role models to whom he refers<br />
between 50 and 55. As a result of Dr.<br />
Gatt’s work, which has been presented<br />
at the American Academy of Orthopaedic<br />
Surgeons, an increase in the acceptable<br />
age of the donor is under way,<br />
and that will increase the supply of<br />
appropriate donor allografts.<br />
With its compelling commitment to<br />
research, teaching, and comprehensive<br />
clinical care, the Department of Orthopaedic<br />
Surgery has taken a commanding<br />
leadership position that underlines the<br />
highest caliber of service to the RWJMS<br />
community. M<br />
An alumnus who graduated from<br />
UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong><br />
School in 1989, and from the orthopaedic<br />
residency program in 1994, Dr. Gatt says<br />
he never left RWJMS for long.<br />
include Joseph P. Leddy, MD, now retired<br />
clinical professor and former chair,<br />
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and<br />
Joseph Zawadsky, MD, professor emeritus<br />
of orthopaedic surgery.<br />
Dr. Gatt, who obviously enjoys both<br />
the clinical and the research elements of<br />
sports medicine, is a volunteer coach<br />
for Montgomery High School’s flag<br />
football, recreation basketball, and<br />
baseball teams, and is the team physician<br />
for Rider University and<br />
Hillsborough High School. He also is a<br />
member of the Skyland Conference<br />
Team Physicians’ Association, and is on<br />
the graduate faculty at the School of<br />
Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers, The<br />
State University of New Jersey.<br />
— Continued on Page 51<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 41
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l e t t e r f r o m t h e<br />
a l u m n i a s s o c i a t i o n<br />
p r e s i d e n t<br />
Dear Alumni and Friends:<br />
It has been a great honor to serve as president of the Alumni Association. I would like to thank every-<br />
one for their cooperation and enthusiastic support. I want to extend a warm welcome to our new pres-<br />
ident, Geza Kiss, MD ’95, and the following officers: Nancy Sierra, MD ’89, vice president/president-elect;<br />
Tamara LaCouture, MD ’94; secretary, Hank Lubin, MD ’83, treasurer; Andrew Stefaniwsky, MD ’77,<br />
chair, Membership Committee; Ravi Goel, MD ’97, chair, Development Committee; and Francine<br />
Sinofsky, MD ’81, co-chair, Reunion Committee.<br />
Please save the date for the next Alumni Reunion Weekend, October 12–14, 2007, honoring the following<br />
anniversary classes: 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997,<br />
2001, 2002. The gala Dinner Dance will be held on Saturday evening, October 13, at The Heldrich, the<br />
beautiful new hotel on Livingston Avenue in downtown New Brunswick. If you would like a class list to<br />
get an early start on communicating with your classmates, please contact <strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner, coordinator,<br />
alumni affairs, at ribnerrs@umdnj.edu or 732-235-6310.<br />
I am very proud of the Alumni Association’s commitment to supporting<br />
RWJMS students. Thank you for your generous contributions to the Annual<br />
Fund. Your donations last year enabled our Board of Trustees to allocate<br />
$200,000 for scholarships and loans for the 2006–2007 academic year.<br />
The Alumni Association sponsored a breakfast during Orientation to welcome<br />
the Class of 2010, the largest class in RWJMS history. We know you<br />
understand the escalating financial needs of our students, and we invite you to<br />
support us again this year. Annual Fund contributions can be made online.<br />
Please visit our Web site at http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/alumni.<br />
Please stay in touch by sending professional and personal news for Class Notes, as well as updated<br />
addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, to ribnerrs@umdnj.edu.<br />
I plan to remain actively involved in the Alumni Association as a member of the Board of Trustees, and<br />
I look forward to your continued support and participation as well.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Steven H. Krawet, MD ’89<br />
President, RWJMS Alumni Association<br />
NAT CLYMER<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 43
NEWS<br />
r w j m s • a l u m n i<br />
The Alumni Association<br />
awarded the Hippocrates<br />
Scholarship<br />
to Urania Ng ’10. In each<br />
incoming class, one student<br />
is selected to receive the<br />
Hippocrates Scholarship,<br />
based on academic excellence.<br />
The Hippocrates<br />
Scholars receive $20,000 per<br />
year toward tuition during<br />
mark your<br />
Calendar:<br />
May 21, 2007<br />
Convocation<br />
May 22, 2007<br />
Commencement<br />
October 12 –14, 2007<br />
Alumni Reunion Weekend<br />
Saturday evening<br />
October 13:<br />
Alumni Reunion<br />
Dinner Dance<br />
The Heldrich<br />
New Brunswick<br />
Honoring the following<br />
anniversary classes:<br />
35th: 1971, 1972<br />
30th: 1976, 1977<br />
25th: 1981, 1982<br />
20th: 1986, 1987<br />
15th: 1991, 1992<br />
10th: 1996, 1997<br />
5th: 2001, 2002<br />
For additional information,<br />
contact <strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner,<br />
Coordinator, Alumni Affairs,<br />
732-235-6310 or<br />
email: ribnerrs@umdnj.edu.<br />
44 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
Alumni Association Awards Hippocrates Scholarship<br />
Carol A. Terregino, MD ’86, associate<br />
professor of medicine and associate dean<br />
for admissions (left), and Peter S. Amenta,<br />
MD, PhD, interim dean, congratulate<br />
Urania Ng’10, recipient of the Alumni<br />
Association’s Hippocrates Scholarship.<br />
their four years at RWJMS.<br />
A 2005 Phi Beta Kappa<br />
graduate of Johns Hopkins<br />
University, Ms. Ng majored<br />
in molecular and cellular<br />
Cardiovascular<br />
Symposium 2007:<br />
Innovations and Trends in<br />
Cardiovascular Disease<br />
Saturday, October 6, 2007<br />
The Heldrich Hotel<br />
and Conference Center<br />
New Brunswick<br />
For additional information,<br />
please visit:<br />
www.rwjuh.edu/symposium<br />
or call 732-418-8030.<br />
Continuing <strong>Medical</strong><br />
Education<br />
April 2007<br />
17th Annual GI Symposium<br />
For additional information<br />
on these or future CME<br />
activities, visit<br />
www.umdnj.edu/ccoe or<br />
contact RWJMS-Continuing<br />
and Outreach Education at<br />
732-235-7430.<br />
biology and minored in<br />
psychology. She committed<br />
to the pre-med track as a<br />
junior and conducted translational<br />
research using<br />
drosophila (fruit flies) to<br />
investigate the transcription<br />
factors involved in the<br />
development of salivary<br />
glands. “I would like to continue<br />
to do research,” she<br />
says. “It will help me understand<br />
the applications of<br />
basic science in clinical<br />
work. At the same time,<br />
when I look at my patients,<br />
I will know what problems<br />
most need to be answered<br />
by research.”<br />
As an undergraduate, Ms.<br />
Ng volunteered in a<br />
Baltimore hospital and<br />
worked with women and<br />
children at My Sister’s Place,<br />
a center for women and<br />
Ms. Ng feels honored<br />
to have been awarded<br />
the Hippocrates<br />
Scholarship and thanks<br />
the Alumni Association<br />
for making it possible<br />
for her to attend<br />
medical school at<br />
RWJMS.<br />
children who are homeless.<br />
At an urban clinic for the<br />
uninsured, she gained<br />
patient-centered experience<br />
taking patients’ vital signs.<br />
Ms. Ng feels honored to<br />
have been awarded the<br />
Hippocrates Scholarship<br />
and thanks the Alumni<br />
Association for making it<br />
possible for her to attend<br />
medical school at RWJMS.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN
Alumni Association Awards $200,000 in Loans and Scholarships<br />
The Alumni Association<br />
Board of Trustees<br />
approved $200,000 in<br />
contributions to RWJMS for<br />
the 2006–2007 academic<br />
year. This sustains a tradition<br />
that has led to contributions<br />
totaling more than<br />
$1.8 million in the past two<br />
decades.<br />
For the current academic<br />
year, students have been<br />
awarded scholarships and<br />
low-interest loans totaling<br />
$175,000. In addition, the<br />
association made its fourth<br />
$25,000 contribution to the<br />
$100,000 RWJMS Alumni<br />
Association Scholarship<br />
Fund. “The students are our<br />
focus and our mission,”<br />
says Steven H. Krawet, MD<br />
’89, president, Alumni<br />
Association. “Scholarships<br />
and low-interest loans help<br />
defray the high costs of<br />
today’s medical education<br />
and ease the burden for stu-<br />
dents at a time that is<br />
already incredibly stressful.”<br />
This year’s Alumni<br />
Association scholarships<br />
include one new Hippo-<br />
Pan Latino Cuisine,<br />
New Brunswick Scene…<br />
Nova Terra fires up the downtown<br />
New Brunswick restaurant scene<br />
with creative Pan Latino flavors.<br />
Discover signature dishes such<br />
as Ceviche and Paella in Nova<br />
Terra’s intimate dining room.<br />
Sip a Cuban Mojito at the Palm Bar.<br />
And enjoy live Latin music<br />
Thursday through Saturday evenings.<br />
NOVA TERRA<br />
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Alumni who contribute<br />
$1,000 or more to<br />
the Annual Fund can<br />
name a scholarship in<br />
honor or memory of<br />
a classmate, friend, or<br />
family member.<br />
crates Scholarship and three<br />
continuing ones.<br />
In addition to the Alumni<br />
Association scholarships,<br />
individual alumni have<br />
endowed scholarship funds<br />
of $25,000 or more. Alumni<br />
who contribute $1,000 or<br />
more to the Annual Fund<br />
can name a scholarship in<br />
honor or memory of a classmate,<br />
friend, or family<br />
member.<br />
— K.O’N.<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 45<br />
Restaurant Group<br />
www.terramomo.com
Kuwait, 2005<br />
• “A Humvee rolled over on one of<br />
our soldiers, splitting his face into<br />
a million pieces; his arm was<br />
nearly severed. When they<br />
brought him in, the flight paramedic<br />
was doing CPR on him.<br />
After I got out of<br />
the OR, I thought,<br />
‘This kid’s never<br />
going to survive.’<br />
But he not only survived,<br />
he lived to see<br />
his daughter born,<br />
three months later,<br />
back in the States. It<br />
required a huge team effort, and<br />
I was proud to be part of it.”<br />
• “One soldier was unfortunately<br />
dead on arrival and pronounced<br />
by the ER doctor, a good<br />
physician with a lot of experience.<br />
We all stepped outside<br />
Casualty Receiving (the ER),<br />
and I saw tears welling up in<br />
his eyes. We talked awhile and<br />
agreed that, although we have<br />
pronounced patients before,<br />
something here makes the job<br />
more touching and awful. The<br />
loss of anyone is a loss of our<br />
own, and we all feel it. Any soldier<br />
who died in our care<br />
received full military honors as<br />
they left the hospital.”<br />
46 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
A L U M N I P R O F I L E<br />
Joseph P.<br />
Costabile, MD’86:<br />
Comrade•in•<br />
Arms<br />
Above: Joseph P.<br />
Costable, MD ’86, performs<br />
surgery, assisted<br />
by Petty Officer Amalia<br />
Serrano, an operating<br />
room technician.<br />
Right: Dr. Costable,<br />
in Kuwait, with fellow<br />
Navy reservist<br />
Commander Jim Flood,<br />
a nurse anesthetist.<br />
By Kate O’Neill<br />
“Giving Back”<br />
Joseph P. Costabile, MD ’86, acts on his beliefs:<br />
“Whether you’re giving back to the people who gave<br />
you your educational opportunities or giving back to<br />
your country, I believe you should contribute.” Dr.<br />
Costabile emphasizes his credo, whether he is writing<br />
in his blog, speaking to the press, talking to a<br />
friend, or addressing<br />
a crowd. He made his point<br />
again last spring in a remarkable<br />
talk to guests at the Association<br />
of Families and Friends/<br />
Alumni Association Brunch.<br />
He also serves on the Alumni<br />
Association Board of Trustees.<br />
In 1994, Dr. Costabile joined<br />
the U.S. Navy <strong>Medical</strong> Reserves,<br />
because, he says, “Despite all its warts and foibles, we<br />
live in a great nation, and giving back is the most important<br />
part of being a citizen.”<br />
Since the end of the Vietnam War, when he was barely<br />
21, Dr. Costabile had wondered how he could best contribute<br />
to his country. In 1990, when recruiters from the<br />
U.S. Navy <strong>Medical</strong> Reserves began to call, he realized that<br />
the military structure and mission of the Reserves were<br />
well suited to his skills, goals, and personality.<br />
In 1994, he joined up. At that time, he had completed<br />
his general surgery residency and a trauma fellowship at
Cooper Hospital/University <strong>Medical</strong> Center, Camden, and<br />
was doing a second fellowship, in clinical vascular surgery,<br />
at UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School, in<br />
New Brunswick. “I knew people who’d rallied to the cause<br />
during Desert Storm and was impressed by their commitment,”<br />
he recalls. “I knew I’d found my niche.”<br />
After his fellowship, Dr. Costabile returned to his alma<br />
mater, the RWJMS, Camden campus, and served on the<br />
faculty for three years before joining the Surgical Group<br />
of South Jersey. Then, in September 2004, he had the<br />
opportunity to put his beliefs on the line. He accepted a<br />
commanding officer’s call to serve as director of surgical<br />
services for a medical unit in Kuwait, the staging area for<br />
Operation Iraqi Freedom. By December, his new unit,<br />
Expeditionary <strong>Medical</strong> Force – Dallas (EMF-Dallas), had<br />
shipped out for an eleven-month tour of duty, which he<br />
believes may be the first of several mobilizations in the<br />
Middle East. “It would be a privilege to serve again in the<br />
Navy tradition of honor, courage, and commitment,” he<br />
says.<br />
Joseph S. Costabile, MD ’86,<br />
joined the U.S. Navy <strong>Medical</strong><br />
Reserves, because, he says,<br />
“Despite all its warts and foibles,<br />
we live in a great nation, and<br />
giving back is the most important<br />
part of being a citizen.”<br />
Esprit de Corps<br />
Dr. Costabile’s support for the U.S. mission in Iraq<br />
is secondary to his support for the troops. “In<br />
every generation, Americans have put themselves<br />
in harm’s way to keep the rest of us safe,” he<br />
says. “We take care of the soldiers who take care of us.”<br />
“Welcome to the fight,” said Major General Paul E.<br />
Mock, deputy commander, Coalition Forces Land<br />
Combat Component, Kuwait, as he greeted the 350<br />
members of EMF-Dallas. That “fight,” says Dr.<br />
Costabile, would be to “make medicine better in the theater.<br />
Our unit got to make history for Navy medicine: we<br />
saw more than 100,000 patients, performed 1,800-plus<br />
surgeries, wrote more than 65,000 prescriptions, did<br />
32,000 radiology procedures, and achieved an 83 percent<br />
return-to-unit rate, within six weeks of treatment.”<br />
For the most part, EMF-Dallas saw routine cases, as<br />
the unit cared for members of the Coalition Forces in<br />
Iraq or returning home. With the exception of occasion-<br />
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSEPH P. COSTABLE, MD ’86<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 47
al maneuver-related traumas, Dr. Costabile’s<br />
work was similar to what he does in private<br />
practice. The difference lay in the intense<br />
camaraderie of EMF-Dallas. Everyone shared<br />
the sense of having left his or her safe world<br />
behind to serve those who were sent to protect<br />
their country — of being a comrade-in-arms.<br />
Although most<br />
combat-related<br />
injuries were treated<br />
in Iraq, Dr.<br />
Costabile says his<br />
trauma fellowship<br />
stood him in good<br />
stead: “Thinking<br />
affects performance,<br />
and emergencies<br />
aren’t like<br />
scheduled surgery,<br />
especially in a combat<br />
zone. You have to be able to make splitsecond<br />
decisions individually and as a team.”<br />
In war, a physician must practice the art of<br />
medicine as often as the science, he explains,<br />
respecting the supreme role of the military unit<br />
in a soldier’s life. “When a wounded Marine<br />
came out of surgery, he would never ask, ‘How<br />
am I doing?’ or ‘Am I going home?’ His first<br />
question always was, ‘When can I get back to<br />
my unit?’”<br />
COURTESY OF JOSEPH P. COSTABLE, MD ’86<br />
A L U M N I P R O F I L E<br />
Sharing Credit<br />
Dr. Costabile, a prolific writer, created<br />
an in-depth journal through his correspondence<br />
from Kuwait. He frequently<br />
emailed his former mentor, Alan M.<br />
Graham, MD, professor of surgery and<br />
Norman and Ruth H. Rosenberg Chair in<br />
Vascular Surgery. Dr. Graham has seen his former<br />
protégé regularly over the past ten years,<br />
and he remains impressed by the energy, eagerness,<br />
and gratitude that characterize Dr.<br />
Costabile. “Above all, he’s a team player,” says<br />
Dr. Graham. “He always transfers the credit<br />
for his accomplishments to others on his<br />
team.” When Dr. Costabile wrote about his<br />
work in Kuwait, he thanked Dr. Graham for<br />
having helped him develop the skills he would<br />
need. “He always said that I was there with<br />
him,” adds Dr. Graham. M<br />
48 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
C L A S S<br />
NOTES<br />
’70 ’86<br />
’87<br />
NINETEEN<br />
SEVENTY<br />
Alan Pyor reports: “Retired after<br />
31 years as an oncologist at San<br />
Rafael, Calif. Kaiser and hoping to<br />
get my beautiful wife, Sunny, to<br />
retire as well. Our children are<br />
part of an extended family with<br />
nine grandchildren, ages 15 to 3.<br />
Anya is in Seattle with Swedish<br />
Hospital and its information system<br />
implementation. Sundy is in a<br />
Seattle suburb in her cosmetic dermatology<br />
practice. Brad, a contractor,<br />
will remodel our bathrooms.<br />
Noel works for Heartlab,<br />
capturing cardiac catheterization<br />
data. Debra works for a cath lab<br />
with our other daughter, Sharla.<br />
I’ve been busy just keeping up-todate.<br />
Fond memories of our two<br />
years in Piscataway. Best to everyone.”<br />
’82 ’90<br />
’91<br />
’83<br />
’85<br />
NINETEEN<br />
EIGHTY-TWO<br />
Lynn Helmer writes: “We’re<br />
grandparents! How cool is that!<br />
Harris William, born May 23,<br />
2006. . . . We started a non-profit<br />
called ‘Caring Neighbors Healthcare<br />
Center,’ which will provide free care<br />
to the uninsured who do not meet<br />
the criteria for government programs<br />
and make less than 200%<br />
of the federal poverty level.”<br />
NINETEEN<br />
EIGHTY-THREE<br />
Mitchell Berger is director of medical<br />
oncology at the Georgia<br />
Cancer Center of Excellence at<br />
Grady Health System.<br />
NINETEEN<br />
EIGHTY-FIVE<br />
Edward Niewiadomski, is senior<br />
vice president of medical affairs at<br />
Southern Ocean County Hospital.<br />
He was appointed to serve on the<br />
New Jersey Health Care Access<br />
Study Commission by Governor<br />
Jon S. Corzine.<br />
NINETEEN<br />
EIGHTY-SIX<br />
Wendell Jones writes: “I am taking<br />
a break from medicine after 15<br />
years of emergency medicine. I am<br />
alive and fairly well living on<br />
Nantucket. I have started a new<br />
career in real estate.”<br />
NINETEEN<br />
EIGHTY-SEVEN<br />
Mark Blumenthal reports:<br />
“Family: Mindy Goldberg, MPH,<br />
PA-C, Hila (10), Ilana (7), and I<br />
have lived in Knoxville, Tenn.,<br />
since 1997. Professional: medical<br />
director, Roane County Health<br />
Department, Rockwood, Tenn.<br />
Board certifications: family medicine,<br />
occupational medicine.<br />
C’mon down, y’all.”<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY<br />
Kenneth Cooke is an associate<br />
professor at the University of<br />
Michigan Cancer Center,<br />
Department of Pediatrics and<br />
Communicable Diseases. His current<br />
responsibilities include clinical<br />
trial studies and grant research.<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-ONE<br />
Vanita (Kamath) Braver writes:<br />
“I published ‘Pinky Promise’<br />
and ‘Party Princess’ in my wellreceived<br />
children’s book series<br />
called ‘Teach Your Children Well’<br />
for kids ages 4 to 8. Please visit<br />
www.drvanitabraver.com for more<br />
information. I continue to work as<br />
psychiatric medical director of<br />
Bonnie Brae, a residential treatment<br />
center for adolescents in<br />
Liberty Corner, and am on staff at<br />
Morristown Memorial Hospital.<br />
I am happily married to Joel<br />
Braver and have three wonderful<br />
daughters, Alyssa, India, and<br />
Samantha.”
92<br />
93<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-TWO<br />
Elizabeth Talbot is the deputy<br />
state epidemiologist for New<br />
Hampshire.<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-THREE<br />
Lisa Taylor has been named<br />
the 2006 Community Clinician<br />
of the Year by the Barnstable<br />
District <strong>Medical</strong> Society of the<br />
Massachusetts <strong>Medical</strong> Society.<br />
She is a board-certified internist<br />
who serves as medical director<br />
at the Cape Cod Free Clinic<br />
and Community Health Center<br />
in Falmouth.<br />
96 96<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-SIX<br />
Eric Bleickardt writes: “I<br />
joined Bristol-Myers Squibb<br />
after three years in hematology/oncology<br />
private practice<br />
in New Haven, following the<br />
completion of my fellowship at<br />
Yale. Over the last year and a<br />
half, I have served as a director<br />
in oncology global clinical<br />
research and was part of the<br />
dasatinib team that received<br />
FDA for CML and<br />
Philadelphia positive ALL.<br />
I was also a co-author in the<br />
June 15, 2006, New England<br />
Journal of <strong>Medicine</strong> phase 1<br />
trial results of dasatinib. My<br />
wife and I are pleased to<br />
announce the birth of our third<br />
child, Abigail, in March 2006.”<br />
Deborah Horowitz writes:<br />
“Hello to all. For the last three<br />
years I’ve worked part-time at<br />
PediatricArts of Northern N.J.<br />
in Butler. I love it there. I have<br />
been married to David Salanon<br />
for the last year. I live with him<br />
in my first house (finally!), and<br />
with my two sons from my first<br />
marriage, Daniel Frey (7) and<br />
Eric (5). We are all enjoying<br />
our new family situation.”<br />
’97<br />
’98<br />
’00<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-Seven<br />
Carl-Christian Jackson completed<br />
his residency in general<br />
surgery at the University of<br />
Chicago Hospitals. He is currently<br />
doing a two-year fellowship<br />
in pediatric surgery at the<br />
Children’s Hospital of Eastern<br />
Ontario in Ottawa. He and<br />
Diana DiRaffaele were married<br />
in August 2005.<br />
Parag Patel is an interventional<br />
cardiologist at <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong><br />
<strong>Johnson</strong> University Hospital<br />
and Somerset <strong>Medical</strong> Center.<br />
NINETEEN<br />
NINETY-EIGHT<br />
Ramesh Karra is board certified<br />
in family practice and is on<br />
staff at the Cliff Whetten Clinic<br />
in Elfrida, Ariz. After completing<br />
his residency, he worked for<br />
Doctors Without Borders in<br />
southern Sudan and the Indian<br />
Health Service in New Mexico.<br />
Jacqueline Luzniak writes: “My<br />
husband and I live in Castle<br />
Pines, Colo. I am currently a<br />
board-certified anesthesiologist.<br />
I practice in the south Denver<br />
area as a partner in South<br />
Denver Anesthesiologists, PC.”<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
Aaron Auerbach reports: “I have<br />
been working as a staff pathologist<br />
at the Armed Forces<br />
Institute of Pathology in the<br />
Department of Hematopathology.<br />
I finished my fellowship in<br />
hematopathology after completing<br />
my residency at the<br />
National Institutes of Health.”<br />
Brian Watabe has joined Intermountain<br />
Legacy Obstetrics<br />
and Gynecology in American<br />
Fork, Utah. He is a junior fellow<br />
of the American College of<br />
Obstetrics and Gynecology.<br />
’01 ’04<br />
’02<br />
’03<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
ONE<br />
Jamie Decker is a pediatric cardiac<br />
fellow at Texas Children’s<br />
Hospital, Baylor College of<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>, in Houston.<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
TWO<br />
Carrie Rubenstein writes: “After<br />
my family medicine residency at<br />
Swedish <strong>Medical</strong> Center and a<br />
fellowship in geriatrics, I’ve just<br />
started my first job doing fullspectrum<br />
family medicine at a<br />
community health center in<br />
Seattle.”<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
THREE<br />
Jamie Goralnick is doing a fellowship<br />
in child and adolescent<br />
psychiatry at Columbia-<br />
Cornell.<br />
Anthony Mazzarelli is currently<br />
a chief resident at the<br />
Department of Emergency<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong>, RWJMS, Camden<br />
campus. He has accepted a fulltime<br />
faculty position in the<br />
department, with an interest in<br />
health policy and ethics.<br />
Christina and Mark Reiter are<br />
pleased to announce the birth<br />
of their daughter, Jenna Rose<br />
Reiter, on July 30, 2006.<br />
’05<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
FOUR<br />
Sara Bonamo and Christopher<br />
DeMauro were married in<br />
October 2005.<br />
Lasanta Horana is one of the<br />
chief residents in emergency<br />
medicine at Johns Hopkins<br />
Hospital. He and his wife are<br />
pleased to announce the birth<br />
of their daughter, Alyssa<br />
Yasmin, in April 2006.<br />
Alisa Meny is a family medicine<br />
resident at Maine <strong>Medical</strong><br />
Center in Portland. She and<br />
Richard Freed were married in<br />
April 2006.<br />
Elizabeth Robinson is a surgery<br />
resident at the <strong>Medical</strong> Center<br />
of the University of California,<br />
Los Angeles. She married Ross<br />
Benjamin on October 21, 2006.<br />
TWO THOUSAND<br />
FIVE<br />
Daisy Wynn is a family<br />
medicine resident at Thomas<br />
Jefferson Hospital in<br />
Philadelphia.<br />
IN MEMORIAM<br />
Sarinne Dascalu, MD ’80<br />
Salvatore Zelano, MMS ’72,<br />
MD<br />
We love hearing from you! Please send<br />
your professional and personal news for Class Notes to:<br />
<strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner • Editor, <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medicine</strong><br />
Coordinator, • Alumni Affairs • UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong><br />
<strong>Medical</strong> School • Alumni Association<br />
335 George Street • Suite 2250 • New Brunswick, NJ 08903<br />
Phone: 732-235-6310 • Fax: 732-235-9570<br />
Email: ribnerrs@umdnj.edu • Or log on to our Web site:<br />
http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/alumni<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 49
Benjamin F. Crabtree:<br />
Social Science Evolves into<br />
Practice Jazz<br />
<strong>Medicine</strong> Research Network, which includes<br />
90 practices in 20 of 21 New Jersey counties<br />
and represents more than 200 physicians and<br />
500,000 patients. The network is currently<br />
recruiting practices for the five-year SCOPE<br />
project, for which the NCI recently awarded<br />
nearly $2 million in direct costs. SCOPE will<br />
work with practices to incorporate cancer<br />
screenings, particularly for colorectal cancer.<br />
The anthropologist in Dr. Crabtree combines<br />
an understanding of human cultures with a<br />
mastery of the tools of social science. With the<br />
creation and development of the division of<br />
research, he has nurtured a wide, informed<br />
network of people whose shared aim is to<br />
improve the quality of primary care. Many<br />
have benefited — above all, the patients cared<br />
for in practices that have evolved through the<br />
MAP/RAP process. In addition, Dr. Crabtree’s<br />
RWJMS colleagues, along with their academic<br />
and primary care collaborators, are better<br />
equipped to handle the challenges of delivering<br />
excellent primary care. M<br />
Rapid HIV/AIDS Testing Initiative<br />
Hailed as Model Program<br />
“We know that 50 percent of the time,<br />
HIV/AIDS is transmitted within the first six<br />
months of infection, that more infections occur<br />
early on, and that most people do not know<br />
they are infected within this first six months,”<br />
reports Dr. Martin. “If we can reduce this time<br />
in half, we can reduce the number of HIV<br />
infections by nearly 25 percent.”<br />
Dr. Cadoff and Dr. Martin have the distinct<br />
privilege of creating and helping to sustain<br />
a program that will save lives throughout<br />
New Jersey. And now that the Rapid<br />
HIV/AIDS Program they created has won a<br />
national award, other states may begin to<br />
emulate this model program that has had so<br />
much success. M<br />
50 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
— Continued from Page 22<br />
— Continued from Page 24<br />
village of Kakamega, 250 miles<br />
northwest of Nairobi. Staffed<br />
by year-round health workers,<br />
and volunteer physicians from<br />
the United States who travel<br />
there for three weeks to three<br />
months each year, the clinic<br />
focuses its care on women and<br />
children. Education and prevention<br />
are objectives that<br />
begin with teaching women the<br />
importance of boiling water,<br />
eating vegetables, and drinking<br />
milk. Care extends to the availability<br />
of screening mammograms<br />
and Pap smears, programs<br />
to reduce pregnancyrelated<br />
fatalities, and, most<br />
critically, education to combat<br />
mother-to-child transmission<br />
of HIV, the AIDS virus.<br />
“In Africa, when you treat<br />
women, you are really treating<br />
the country,” Dr. Kilibwa explains.<br />
“It is the women who<br />
do most of the work. They are<br />
the ones who hold the community<br />
together.”<br />
Dr. Kilibwa’s program benefits<br />
from her successful efforts,<br />
not only in recruiting physicians<br />
and other health care<br />
workers to volunteer at the<br />
clinic, but in getting donations<br />
of refurbished equipment,<br />
including an MRI scanner. She<br />
succeeded in raising $250,000<br />
last year, directed toward medications<br />
and salaries for yearround<br />
staff. On weekends, she<br />
can be found campaigning for<br />
funds to reach the 2006 goal of<br />
$950,000. Her own participation,<br />
including the cost of her<br />
yearly travel to Africa, remains<br />
a volunteer commitment.<br />
What does she get out of all<br />
this? The answer lies in small<br />
How Her<br />
Garden Grows<br />
— Continued from Page 29<br />
rewards that pay big dividends.<br />
“I once gave a group of<br />
women money so they could<br />
grow vegetables for their families,”<br />
Dr. Kilibwa says. “When<br />
I went back the following year,<br />
they had learned to irrigate the<br />
area, and had grown more<br />
than they needed.”<br />
She adds that the women<br />
sold what was left over and expanded<br />
the vegetable garden,<br />
creating a micro-credit program<br />
in which they loan money to<br />
other women to plant their own<br />
gardens. In a year’s time, the<br />
original group of five women<br />
had become 18 and was still<br />
growing.<br />
Her eyes open wide with<br />
delight as she explains, “The<br />
creativity of these village<br />
people is amazing. They are<br />
smart and pragmatic. They just<br />
need to be empowered.” She<br />
pauses briefly before confiding,<br />
“I can hardly wait to go<br />
back and see how much their<br />
enterprise has grown since last<br />
year.”<br />
In 2007, a group of RWJMS<br />
physicians will travel to<br />
Kakamega with Dr. Kilibwa.<br />
By then, her new clinic will be<br />
treating 500 patients a day.<br />
Qualified African doctors will<br />
begin work there as a result of<br />
the equipment she has been<br />
able to secure. Fees from paying<br />
patients will help supplement<br />
the cost of care for the<br />
poor. American physicians will<br />
provide refresher courses for<br />
local doctors, adding proof<br />
that sometimes a global project<br />
with far-flung implications<br />
begins on a modest scale, when<br />
one person cares enough. M
STUDENTS ON<br />
A MISSION<br />
— Continued from Page 37<br />
pediatrics and assistant dean for<br />
student affairs, says, “The students<br />
can’t help but develop more sensitivity<br />
to patients when they are confronted<br />
by this kind of need. Global<br />
health experiences can contribute in<br />
a seminal manner to the development<br />
of humanistic physicians.<br />
“When they see patients walking<br />
great distances, and then waiting<br />
hours to receive the limited care that<br />
is available, they realize medicine is<br />
a calling, not just a profession.”<br />
Dr. Mehne agrees, adding that he<br />
hopes resources can be found to<br />
provide even more global student<br />
experiences. “It affects a student’s<br />
medical education, and well beyond<br />
that,” he says. “It benefits his or her<br />
ultimate knowledge, perspective,<br />
and performance of the practice of<br />
medicine.” M<br />
payback<br />
where it<br />
c ounts<br />
— Continued from Page 37<br />
many of the students benefiting<br />
from his scholarships. At his suggestion,<br />
students write a complete<br />
report of their foreign experiences,<br />
and these reports are put on the<br />
RWJMS Web site in the hope that<br />
they may inspire others to seek<br />
foreign study as well.<br />
“Health care is my passion, and<br />
I’m committed to everything good<br />
global health represents,” he says.<br />
“The scholarship is my way of furthering<br />
that commitment, and giving<br />
something back for the education I<br />
received at RWJMS. I encourage all<br />
alumni to consider projects of this<br />
nature that enhance the social con-<br />
Charles J.<br />
Gatt, Jr., MD ’89:<br />
At Home, On the<br />
Field and in the Lab<br />
The recipient of the RWJMS<br />
Volunteer Faculty Award in<br />
2003, Dr. Gatt currently is funded<br />
by the National Institutes of<br />
Health (NIH) and the National<br />
Aeronautics and Space Administration,<br />
and is co-investigator with<br />
Nicola C. Partridge, PhD, professor<br />
and chair, Department of Physiology<br />
and Biophysics, in an NIHfunded<br />
osteoarthritis research<br />
project. He has authored numerous<br />
publications, and has served<br />
on the editorial boards of the<br />
American Journal of Sports <strong>Medicine</strong><br />
and the Journal of Bone and<br />
Joint Surgery.<br />
Although he says he has regrettably<br />
little time to participate in<br />
sports himself these days, Dr. Gatt<br />
has been a player since youth. He<br />
ran competitively in college and<br />
medical school, completing 80 to<br />
100 miles a week. His commitment<br />
to his chosen sub-specialty is<br />
reflected not only in his clinical<br />
and research activities, but in his<br />
personal enjoyment of the game<br />
— almost any game. This is evident<br />
when he talks of the importance<br />
of injury prevention.<br />
“Today, there is much more<br />
interest in the amateur athlete<br />
than ever before,” he says. “For<br />
instance, we conduct pre-season<br />
training that includes techniques<br />
for skiers in how to prevent knee<br />
injuries, and classes that teach<br />
simple exercises that can prevent<br />
the kind of shoulder injury that<br />
keeps golfers off the course.”<br />
With his varied responsibilities,<br />
Dr. Gatt may not have much time<br />
to be part of the game these days.<br />
But he certainly hasn’t strayed far<br />
from the action.<br />
science of medical students.” M M<br />
— Continued from Page 41<br />
L a s t P a g e<br />
continued from page 52<br />
cates, we will develop an infrastructure<br />
whereby ideas, insights, and discoveries<br />
generated through basic scientific<br />
inquiry are brought, more rapidly and<br />
effectively, to the treatment and prevention<br />
of human disease.<br />
In the historical approach to translational<br />
research, academic centers have<br />
been the vast providers of new ideas.<br />
Often the translational application of<br />
these discoveries has been an afterthought,<br />
rather than a driver, of the<br />
research approach. In this scenario, for<br />
every basic discovery that found a medical<br />
application, scores more lay by the<br />
roadside, due to a lack of market value<br />
or a variety of other barriers. In our new<br />
vision, all the stakeholders will take part<br />
throughout the process, from discovery<br />
to cure. We will work as teams, determining<br />
needs, directing research to fulfill<br />
those needs, and cooperating to anticipate<br />
and remove the traditional impediments<br />
to success. Importantly, as part of<br />
the process, we will train the teams of<br />
the future, so that what seems novel and<br />
innovative to us today will be common<br />
practice for the next generation.<br />
In the words of Elias A. Zerhouni,<br />
MD, director of the NIH: “We are the<br />
edge of science, and to provoke a change<br />
be a provocateur, not the manager of the<br />
status quo. It’s extremely hard. The key<br />
thing, though, is if you don’t have a<br />
framework for a vision, nobody moves<br />
in a really new direction. Today there are<br />
genuinely new opportunities, but the<br />
new science will require interdisciplinary<br />
collaborations. That will be key.” M<br />
— Kathleen W. Scotto, PhD,<br />
Professor of Pharmacology and<br />
Senior Associate Dean for Research<br />
<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE 51
In<br />
the autumn of 2005, the National Institutes of Health<br />
(NIH) established funding for a new initiative with the purpose<br />
of transforming the application of scientific discoveries to new<br />
and better health care. The goal of<br />
this initiative, termed the Clinical<br />
and Translational Science Award<br />
(CTSA), is to finance the development<br />
of integrated, multi-disciplinary<br />
academic homes that have the<br />
consolidated resources to “1) captivate,<br />
advance, and nurture a cadre<br />
of well-trained multi- and interdisciplinary<br />
investigators and research<br />
teams; 2) create an incubator<br />
for innovative research tools<br />
and information technologies; and<br />
3) synergize multi-disciplinary and<br />
interdisciplinary clinical and translational<br />
research and researchers to<br />
catalyze the application of new<br />
knowledge and techniques to clinical<br />
practice at the front lines of patient care” (http://<br />
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-06-002.html).<br />
For UMDNJ-<strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> <strong>Medical</strong> School, both<br />
the timing and the vision of the NIH-CTSA program could not<br />
have been better. We are proud of our strong and renowned<br />
52 <strong>Robert</strong> <strong>Wood</strong> <strong>Johnson</strong> ■ MEDICINE<br />
LAST<br />
P A G E<br />
From the Bench to the Trench —<br />
A Vision for Innovative Health Care<br />
To the individual who devotes his or her life to science, nothing can give more happiness than<br />
when the results immediately find practical application. There are not two sciences. There is science and<br />
the application of science and these two are linked as the fruit is to the tree.<br />
— Louis Pasteur, 1871<br />
group of basic scientists, our dedicated and tireless group of<br />
clinical researchers, and their genuine commitment to translating<br />
the findings of the former to the practice of the latter. In<br />
addition, what distinguishes us<br />
from other medical schools around<br />
the country, and provides us with<br />
invaluable partnerships as we transform<br />
our clinical translational enterprise,<br />
is our unique environment.<br />
New Jersey holds a distinctive position<br />
in the nation with respect to its<br />
population, its technology-based<br />
industry, and its highly regarded<br />
scientific and health-related institutions.<br />
In September 2006, RWJMS and<br />
its partners were awarded a CTSA<br />
Planning Grant. Taking advantage<br />
of the strength of our research and<br />
our environment, we have developed<br />
a vision for the transformation<br />
of health care discovery and delivery in our state. In partnership<br />
with the State of New Jersey, other academic institutions,<br />
our local pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries,<br />
our hospital partners, and our community health care advo-<br />
STEVE HOCKSTEIN<br />
C o n t i n u e d o n P a g e 5 1<br />
B Y K A T H L E E N W . S C O T T O , P H D
S A V E T H E D A T E<br />
Alumni<br />
R E U N I O N<br />
W E E K E N D<br />
OCTOBER 12 14, 2007<br />
Saturday, October 13<br />
Gala Dinner Dance<br />
The Heldrich, New Brunswick<br />
Honoring the following anniversary classes:<br />
35th: 1971, 1972 ■ 30th: 1976, 1977<br />
25th: 1981, 1982 ■ 20th: 1986, 1987<br />
15th: 1991, 1992 ■ 10th: 1996, 1997<br />
5th: 2001, 2002<br />
Sunday, October 14<br />
Alumni Brunch ■ The Heldrich<br />
D istinguished<br />
Alumni Award:<br />
Please send nominations to <strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner<br />
at: ribnerrs@umdnj.edu<br />
For additional information, please contact:<br />
<strong>Robert</strong>a Ribner, Coordinator, Alumni Affairs, 732-235-6310<br />
or email: ribnerrs@umdnj.edu<br />
For updates on plans for the Alumni Reunion Weekend, please check the<br />
Alumni Association Web site: http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/alumni
When you need advanced medical care,<br />
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