BWHers Win HMS 2007-2008 Excellence in Mentoring Awards

BWH Faculty Honored for Mentoring Frank Speizer Jerry Trier Elazer Edelman Barbara Dworetzky Karin Hoffmeister Mark Johnson Several BWH faculty received the Harvard Medical School 2007-2008 Excellence in Mentoring awards. Frank Speizer, MD, the Edward H. Kass Professor of Medicine at HMS and senior physician at BWH, and Jerry Trier, MD, of the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, took home the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award, which honors exceptional mentors who have given a minimum of 20 years of service. Elazer Edelman, MD, PhD, won the Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award, which honors exemplary mentors. Barbara Dworetzky, MD, Karin Hoffmeister, MD, and Mark Johnson, MD, PhD, won the Young Mentor Award, which recognizes faculty mentors still in the early stages of their careers. The recipients were honored May 20.

Cibas Awarded Educator of the Year Edmund Cibas, MD, director of Cytopathology, in March was awarded the Educator of the Year Award at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology meeting in Denver. The award is presented in recognition of significant contributions to cytopathology education. Cibas has been the program director of the BWH cytopathology fellowship since 1988, and has trained more than 40 fellows. His textbook, “Cytology: Diagnostic Principles and Clinical Correlates,” is widely used by trainees as well as practicing pathologists.

Sayegh Receives American Society of Transplantation Award Mohamed H. Sayegh, MD, director of the Transplantation Research Center at BWH and Children’s Hospital Boston, is the recipient of the 2008 AST/Wyeth Mentoring Award which is presented by the American Society of Transplantation. The society’s awards and grants committee chose Sayegh as the first recipient of this newly established award for being an outstanding mentor in the field of transplantation and for his dedication in shaping the career paths of many individuals who trained under his guidance.

Karp Named Faculty Mentor of the Year at MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming named Jeffrey Karp, PhD, instructor of Medicine at BWH and Harvard Medical School, as mentor of the year. Karp was chosen from a pool of nominees submitted by undergraduate research students. Students noted Karp for his “patience and understanding” and “dedication in teaching and developing an understanding of research.”

Loscalzo Appointed to NIH Council of Councils

Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, chairman of the Department of Medicine, was appointed to the NIH Council of Councils. The Council is made up of 27 members selected from the NIH Institute and Center advisory councils and advisory committees to the NIH Office of the Director. Loscalzo also serves as a liaison to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and is a member of its advisory council. The Council of Councils advises the NIH director on priorities and matters related to the policies and activities of the division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, and will advise the NIH director on the use of the common fund, a newly established and Congressionally sanctioned separate fund for the roadmap initiatives. The Council of Councils acts as an external advisory panel to the Institute and Center Directors during the concept approval stage of the review process for trans-NIH initiatives.

Arbelaez Named Hero of Emergency Medicine

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recognized Christian Arbelaez, MD, MPH, associate director for the Office of Multicultural Faculty Careers, as a “Hero of Emergency Medicine.” The campaign, which is part of ACEP’s 40th anniversary, recognizes emergency physicians who have made significant contributions to emergency medicine, their communities and their patients.

Arbelaez led the hospital-wide development and implementation of clinical guidelines for the care of the mechanically vented patient, participated in the Red Cross Katrina disaster relief efforts and completed his first physician leadership book, “The Emergency Medicine Chief Resident Survival Guide.” As a co-investigator of an NIH-funded study, he helped to successfully implement a large-scale clinical trial evaluating rapid HIV testing in the ED. Arbelaez also serves on ACEP’s Public Health Committee. ACEP is a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine with more than 25,000 members.

Zinner Receives HMS Dean’s Award

BWH’s Surgeon in-Chief Michael Zinner, MD, received the Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty at HMS. Zinner was selected for his extraordinary leadership and the many tangible ways in which he has enhanced the culture to allow for the advancement of women. HMS Dean Jeffrey Flier, MD, presented the award to Zinner and MGH’s Surgeon in-Chief Andrew Warshaw, MD, during a formal event in May.

Zinner said he was thrilled and honored to receive the award. “It’s truly an honor to work with so many talented faculty at BWH and HMS,” he said.

Elizabeth Breen, MD, of BWH Surgery, nominated Zinner for the award. “Dr. Zinner has been focused and deliberate in his efforts to advance women surgeons’ careers when there has been little precedent to follow,” she wrote in her nomination. “He has contributed greatly to expanding the opportunities for women surgeons and serves as a leader and example for many men and women who have matured as physicians and grown to be leaders during his tenure as chair.”

Zinner leads enthusiastic recruitment of women both as residents and faculty. Since 1994, BWH Surgery has recruited two women faculty each year on average and added 22 investigator and clinician-teacher recruitments. In addition, Zinner’s spirited support and encouragement has helped BWH women faculty receive recognition from both BWH and outside institutions as surgical leaders, researchers and educators. Nearly 10 years ago, Zinner launched the annual Women in Surgery lecture series.

“These are special occasions that not only highlight female accomplishments, but they also allow female faculty to openly discuss the challenges pertaining to both their careers and their personal lives,” Breen said.

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, was the featured commencement speaker in May at Merrimack College and received an honorary degree from Merrimack College. Above, Farmer with Interim Merrimack President Fr. Joseph Calderone, at left, and Associate Professor of Health Sciences at Merrimack Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, at right. Dr. Fitzpatrick conferred the honorary degree to Farmer.

Manson Wins Wellbeing Prize

JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH, chief of Preventive Medicine, in February was named the recipient of the Premio Benessere Stresa International Prize for Research and Innovation Related to Wellbeing. Manson was honored for her research related to women’s health, including “innovative and important work on hormone therapy” and “novel and significant insights of major relevance for women’s wellbeing, particularly after menopause.” The prize is sponsored by the Centro Benessere Stresa and the Giovanni Lorenzini Medical Foundation based in Milan, Italy.

BWH, Pathology Celebrate Researchers

The BWH Department of Pathology held its second annual Research Celebration May 2. The event featured the scientific poster presentations of clinical, translational and basic science research projects conducted by the residents, clinical fellows and postdoctoral fellows. Distinguished senior faculty members of the Harvard Medical School community served as judges, and they commented favorably not only on the scientific quality and diversity of the presentations, but also on the enthusiasm of the presenters.

Special congratulations go to the “Posters of Distinction” post-doctoral fellow awardees and their mentors: Dr. Lynnette Sholl and mentor Dr. Lucian Chirieac; Dr. Naotake Tsuboi and mentor Dr. Tanya Mayadas-Norton; Dr. Sandro Santagata and mentor Dr. Susan Lindquist, Whitehead Institute. And, special recognition goes to Dr. Ron Firestein and mentor Dr. William Hahn, of DFCI, and Dr. Finny Kuruvilla and mentor Dr. David Altshuler, of MGH, MIT and Broad Institute, as recipients of the Thomas J. Gill III, MD, and Simon Simonian, MD, ScD, Prize for Research Excellence and Mentorship in Pathology.

BWH Clinicians Win CIMIT Research Grants

Utkan Demirci

Yolonda Colson

Y.D. Teng

Five teams headed by investigators from BWH will receive research funding as part of CIMIT’s $5 million Science Grants program. Two investigators will receive large grants valued at $500,000 over two years.

One is Utkan Demirci, PhD, of the Center for Bioengineering-Renal Division in the Department of Medicine, who will work to develop a disposable filter-based microfluidic chip for HIV CD4 monitoring at resource-limited settings such as medical facilities in emerging countries.

The second is Yolonda Colson, MD, PhD, thoracic surgeon with the Women’s Lung Surgery Program. She will be developing new nanoparticle technology for tumor-targeted drug delivery to prevent lymph-node metastases in breast cancer. Her research seeks to improve the treatment of breast cancer by eliminating early metastatic disease within regional lymph nodes.

Three principal investigators from BWH will receive smaller grants, ranging from $40,000 to $135,000: Fiona Fennessy, PhD, of Radiology, who is working on a computer-assisted tumor blood vessel tortuosity analysis at 3T as a method of assessing ablative therapy response; Nobuhiko Hata, PhD, of the Radiology Department’s Surgical Planning Laboratory, who is developing a swimming capsule endoscope; and Y.D. Teng, MD, PhD, of Neurosurgery, who is researching antioxidant and injectable biodegradable polymers to promote functional recovery from traumatic spinal cord injury.

A non-profit consortium of Boston-area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore develop and implement novel technological solutions for today’s health care problems.

Wilson Receives Career Development Award

Michael Wilson, MD, an instructor in Medicine at HMS and an attending physician in Emergency Medicine, received this year’s BWH Minority Faculty Career Development Award from the Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers. Established in 1996, the annual BWH Minority Faculty Career Development Award supports the development of early-career underrepresented minority academicians with an unrestricted $150,000 award to assist in career development and enhance faculty retention.

The award was announced during the Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers annual spring reception, at which BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, greeted more than 70 BWH and HMS affiliated faculty, staff, trainees and students. The event helps welcome new interns, honor graduating residents and celebrate the accomplishments of the office.

Wilson received his medical degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and completed an internship in general surgery at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. Wilson completed additional specialty training in emergency medicine at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and in trauma and critical care at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Wilson will be awarded a PhD in health care policy this spring.

For more information on this award, contact Jabbar R. Bennett, administrative director of the Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers, at jrbennett@partners.org or 617-525-9324.

Philip Elected Treasurer of AAAHC

Beverly K. Philip, MD, founding director of the Day Surgery Unit, was recently elected treasurer of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) for 2008-2009. She also was re-appointed to the organization’s Standards and Survey Procedures Committee and as chair of the Bylaws Committee. Philip is the representative to AAAHC from the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia. AAAHC is the largest accreditation organization for ambulatory health care in the country, including ambulatory surgery centers, office-based surgery practices, endoscopy centers, college student health centers and large medical and dental practices.

Sholl Awarded High Distinction for Pathologist-in-Training

Lynette Sholl, MD, the senior resident in Surgical Pathology, was awarded the Stowell-Orbison Award, which is given to trainees who present the best papers at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. She was one of four who received the highest distinction at the recent 2008 USCAP meeting in Denver. Sholl received this distinction for the poster “EGFR Gene Amplification Is Invariably Associated with Exon 19 Deletion in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma.”

Guo Receives Academic Scholar Award

Lifei Guo, MD, PhD, of Plastic Surgery, received a prestigious award for young academic plastic surgeons. Guo received the Academic Scholar Award from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, which aims to advance the science of plastic surgery through surgical education, research, scientific presentations, and professional interaction. This award is only given to up to two people per year.