:: Impact of sequestration :: Shade Tree Clinic rooted :: Aspirnauts help fill STEM on GME 18 in compassion 22 pipeline 28
Va nderbiltMedicineSUMMER 2013
Robotics: Where Engineering and Medicine Meet
Collaborative culture gives Vanderbilt upper hand in robotics race HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU Van derbiltMedicine
R Vanderbilt Medicine is published by Vanderbilt E N
Y University Medical Center in cooperation with the A R
E VUMC Office of News and Communications. N N A Copyright 2013 © Vanderbilt University
EDITOR Kathy Whitney
DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION Diana Duren
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Carole Bartoo Craig Boerner Ashley Culver Christina Echegaray Mimi Eckhard Leslie Hill Nancy Humphrey Jennifer Johnston Jessica Pasley David Salisbury Kathy Whitney
PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION Daniel Dubois Steve Green Lauren Holland Joe Howell Anne Rayner John Russell Susan Urmy
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Nancy Humphrey
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA AND ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS Wayne Wood
COVER ILLUSTRATION Daniel Bennett
EDITORIAL OFFICE Office of News and Communications T-5200 Medical Center North Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tenn., 37232-2390
VANDERBILT MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION D-8200 Medical Center North Nashville, Tenn., 37232-2106 (615) 322-6146 (800) 288-0266 Fax: (615) 936-8475 E-mail: [email protected] Visit us at: medschool.vanderbilt.edu/alumni Happy members of the VUSM class of 2013 celebrate on Commencement Day.
WEB LINK mc.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltmedicine Van derbiltMedicine SUMMER 2013
:: on the cover
The unique culture of Vanderbilt University allows the Schools of Engineering and Medicine to collaborate on innovative technology that is improving the quality of patients’ lives.
ROBOTICS REVOLUTION 10 ROOTED IN COMPASSION 22 ASPIRNAUTS READY FOR TAKEOFF 28
:: departments :: features
Making the Rounds 2 Robotics Revolution 10 Around the Medical Center 3 The Schools of Engineering and Medicine lead the charge Personalized Medicine 7 18 Alumni Profile 8 The Sequestration Era Donald Brady, M.D., answers the tough questions Medical Center Giving 36 Alumni Journal 40 Rooted in Compassion 22 Alumni News 41 Shade Tree Clinic keeps pace with changing health care landscape
A Shining Light 28 Aspirnaut program guides young students interested in math and science Hail to the Chief 34 Oldest surgical resident bids Vanderbilt a fond farewell
:: online highlights
Look for these stories and multimedia features online at mc.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltmedicine.
VIDEO: Robot helps children with autism develop social skills
VIDEO: Mom’s singing voice improves feeding in preemies
VIDEO: Music stars record patients’ songs
VIDEO: Shade Tree Clinic helps reunite family LOLA CHAMBLESS , M.D. 8
SUMMER 2013 1 :: making the rounds
s we begin an exciting new lation, federal support of all kinds for A academic year, we are facing physician training is ironically on the unprecedented economic decline. Nonetheless, at Vanderbilt we are realities throughout academic medicine redoubling the focus on our core mission: requiring transformation at every level. training the next generation of clinician This new normal, with reductions in fed - leaders. Our most recent recruiting efforts eral funding for education and research, is are resonating with the national community . challenging all of us as we care for In July, more than half of our new reside nts patients, train the next generation and joined us from top medical schools in conduct groundbreaking research. regions outside the Southeast. Our new Yet, times of stress are known to inspire medical students, approximately 100 from stunning innovation at the most capable more than 5,800 applicants, are truly an institutions. Vanderbilt is such a place. extraordinary group. Their grade point A feature in this issue of Vanderbilt averages are among the top seven in the Medicine offers insights from Donald country, and their Medical College Brady, M.D., senior associate dean for Admission Test scores rank in the top 10 Graduate Medical Education, about new among 140 medical schools. They come to ways Vanderbilt is tackling the most diffi - us already groomed for leadership, as top cult challenges in health care education: college athletes, talented musicians and preparing physicians for a new world. artists, accomplished authors and providers These clinicians will emerge from training of unique and selfless service in the commu - into a health care environment far different nity and international health. BY JEFF BALSER, M.D., PH.D. from mine. While a passion for the physic al The novel curriculum—dubbed Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and psychological needs of the individual “Curriculum 2.0”—is the product of patient will always be the central feature of nearly three years of intense work on the their Vanderbilt training, their success will part of our faculty, students and adminis - also depend far more on a facility with trative leaders to design a learning experi - health care informatics, quality improve - ence that changes the game. Curriculum ment methods and expertise at engaging 2.0 embeds clinical care, research and the entire health care team. didactic learning into the full four-year Vanderbilt University Medical Center experience in a manner unprecedented in is training about 900 residents throughout U.S. medical education. The American its nearly 10 million square feet of facilities. Medical Association awarded Vanderbilt Many are training in specialties and sub spe - one of only 11 prestigious $1 million cialties that we seek as our first contact awards for educational innovation, from when we are injured or sick, such as interna l 119 applications, providing support for medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, our new curricular innovations. OB/GYN and surgery. Others are training The new realities of health care and in extraordinarily specialized areas such as biomedical research funding present many pediatric neurosurgery or interventional challenges that Vanderbilt is rising to meet radiology. In most cases these highly spe - through innovative efforts to streamline cialized programs are among very few in our operations and focus sharply on core the nation, and are often the only training missions while maintaining dedication to program in Tennessee. In all cases, the our institutional culture and values. clinicians we train are not only destined Now more than ever, I see our culture to provide extraordinary care, but are also of collaboration and innovation making receiving the additional mentoring and Vanderbilt more visible as a beacon of lead - exposure required to be leaders in academic ership and hope in the stormy seas of U.S. medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, health care. It will be a bumpy, but truly government and business. exciting ride. We invite you to join us! VM As the country faces a national physi - cian shortage in the face of an aging popu -
2 SUMMER 2013 AROUND THE :: MEDICAL CENTER News and happenings at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
VUSM receives prestigious AMA grant S I O
The American Medical Association B U D
L
(AMA) has selected Vanderbilt University E I N A
School of Medicine (VUSM) to receive a D $1 million grant as one of the nation’s 11 top medical schools transforming med - ical education. The grant, part of the AMA initiative “Accelerating Change in Medical Education,” makes Vanderbilt the recip - ient of $1 million over the next five years to take part in a consortium created to rapidly disseminate best practices in medical education across the country. Bonnie Miller, M.D., senior associ - ate dean for Health Sciences Education, said the announcement is evidence the innovations brought about by VUSM’s new educational curriculum, Curriculum 2.0, are among the nation’s most advanced. For VUSM, Curriculum 2.0 repre - Therapy helps regenerate child’s sents the departure from a highly regarded, but traditional medical undeveloped bones school curriculum to a complex, inte - Janelly Martinez-Amador had no visible bones on X-rays. grated, collaborative and flexible course She was born with bones so fragile and thin that they were not detectable. schedule that includes less traditional Initially, doctors weren’t sure she would survive her first birthday. At age 3, she had lecture and more clinical and case- the gross motor skills of a newborn and a ventilator kept her alive. She was confine d based experience. to a bed, unable to move even an arm or lift her head. “This is a validation that Curriculu m Janelly has a rare genetic disorder called hypophosphatasia (HPP), a metabolic 2.0 represents some of the most exciting disease that alters the development of bone and teeth and affects one in 100,000 and innovative ideas for medical educa - babies born in the United States. An enzyme deficiency causes the bones to become tion,” Miller said. “It is just what the AMA soft because they can’t absorb important minerals such as calcium and phosphorus , is looking for. Through this grant, the increasing the risks for pain, broken bones and bone deterioration. AMA hopes to disseminate best practice “Imagine your child laying all the time in bed, not being able to lift herself, not to medical educators throughout the being able to move herself, making sure she is not falling or tripping on things,” her nation. We believe this funding and col - father, Salvadore Martinez, said through a Spanish interpreter. laboration will allow us to accelerate the Janelly, now 7, is developing bone with the help of an experimental drug therapy changes we hope to bring about with and her care team at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Curriculum 2.0, and to rigorously evalu - “If you saw her in 2009 and see her now, it’s not the same Janelly,” said her ate the curriculum’s effectiveness.” mother, Janet Amador. Vanderbilt’s grant submission out - Janelly is participating in a clinical trial to receive an enzyme-replacement drug lined major changes included through therapy, asfotase alfa, for the life-threatening form of HPP. Michael Whyte, M.D., Curriculum 2.0, such as embedding the lead investigator of the study and medical-science director of the Center for students at a single clinical site for the Metabolic Bone Disease and Molecular Research at Shriner Hospitals for Children duration of their undergraduate med - in St. Louis, published results in the March 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. ical education and competency-based Improvement continues each day, each week for Janelly. assessments along with individualized “This is why we get into medicine in the first place: to truly make a difference in learning goals and objectives. VM the life of a child,” said Jill Simmons, M.D., her physician. “My goodness, to go from - CAROLE BARTOO no bones to bones. That’s the most impressive thing I have seen as a physicia n. It’s incredible.” VM - CHRISTINA ECHEGARAY
SUMMER 2013 3 :: around the medical center
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
VU expands surgical options for patients with aortic aneurysms VUMC recently performed Tennessee’s first fenestrated aortic stent graft surgery to repair an abdom - inal aortic aneurysm that was previously considered too close to the kidney for minimally invasive surgery. Aortic aneurysms cause a bulging of the aorta, which provides critically needed blood to the body. Without treatment, these aneurysms are at risk of rupturing. The state’s first patient was dis - charged the next day. A follow-up visit showed his liver and kidney function, as well as his cholesterol levels, returned to normal. Blood test for autism could Until now, 20 percent to 30 percent of patients with abdominal aortic speed diagnosis aneurysms were told their only option was traditional, open surgery for fear Vanderbilt University is part of a multi-site autism clinical study designed to evaluate the aneurysm was too close to the the effectiveness of a blood test that aims to screen children for referral for autism renal artery and could result in kidney spectrum disorder (ASD) evaluation earlier and more accurately. failure. But open surgery comes with “The best outcome would be a test that can be used to help identify children at risk increased risks. who can then receive a definitive evaluation,” said Vanderbilt site co-investigator The new minimally invasive proce - Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., associate professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics dure applies a hand-sewn, custom and Pharmacology. graft to the dilated aorta to prevent it “We don’t need another 10 studies that are in small samples saying this approach from rupturing. Using 3-D imaging, the might be useful. We need one study that says, ‘Yes, it is’ or ‘No, it’s not’ and this study grafts are tailor made for each is designed to do that.” patient’s unique anatomy. Screening children for a possible ASD is currently an uncertain process, with pedi - Each year, 5 percent to 7 percent of atricians sometimes using symptom checklists but more often relying on clinical people over the age of 60 are diagn osed exams or parents’ expression of concerns. In part as a result of inadequate screenin g, with abdominal aortic aneurysms, and the average age of diagnosis of ASD is 4.5 years old, despite symptoms typically 15,000 die from them. These aneurys ms emerging before age 2. typically affect men 60 and older who “There is an ever growing body of research suggesting that appropriately intensive have a family history of aortic aneurysm s, early intervention can dramatically shift outcomes for children with ASD,” said have used tobacco , or have high blood Vanderbilt principal investigator Zachary Warren, Ph.D., associate professor of pressure or atherosclerosis. Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Special Education. “As a field we are really hoping to develo p The procedure has been performe d measures and systems of care that can accurately identify children with ASD at very at only a handful of medical facilities young ages.” throughout the United States, including The 660-child, 20-site, clinical study in the United States and Canada is funded by Vanderbilt. the SynapDx Corp and also includes Boston Children’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, “This new procedure opens the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the University of California-Davis MIND Institute. door to more treatment options and SynapDx’s blood test measures differences in RNA gene expression to provide less risk,” said Jeffery Dattilo, M.D., families with an ASD risk factor for their child to help clinicians make faster, more associate professor of Vascular accurate referral decisions. Surgery. VM “It is a simple blood draw, and they are looking at gene expression changes in - MIMI ECKHARD blood cells. In this case you are looking at white blood cells to see what genes are expressed at what level,” Veenstra-VanderWeele said. “These changes won’t be diagnostic, but they will allow a calculation of risk for an individual child.” VM - CRAIG BOERNER
4 SUMMER 2013 around the medical center ::
Study takes ‘cool’ approach to Stars line up to bring patients’ reducing heart attack damage Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular songs to life Institute is participating in a clinical Songs penned by patients of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt were study to assess the safety and feasibility released May 14 worldwide on a compilation CD featuring some of Nashville’s top of rapidly lowering the body’s tempera - recording stars. ture to reduce the amount of damage Artists Kix Brooks, Melinda Doolittle, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, caused by a heart attack. Faith Hill, Alison Krauss, Maura O’Connell, Johnny Reid, SHEL and Phil Vassar breathed The randomized, controlled study, life into songs written by patients along with Vanderbilt music therapist Jenny Plume. called VELOCITY, will enroll 60 patients “Everybody Has A Story” is a selection of songs written by patients over the past six who are suffering from a specific type years, who were treated for a variety of chronic illnesses such as cancer and cystic of heart attack known as an ST-eleva - fibrosis; two were heart transplant recipients, and one was hospitalized for pneumonia. tion myocardial infarction (STEMI). Each song was the result of a clinical music therapy session involving the patients Vanderbilt Heart is one of several U.S. and Plume who helped them shape their thoughts and feelings into lyrics and a and Canadian medical centers partici - melody. Some lyrics were crafted out of a story idea, and some were created by long pating in this investigational trial, discussions about the patients’ feelings and situations. The song topics range from which is sponsored by Velomedix Inc. serious to fun and silly. Participants in the study are ran - “Sometimes we wrote about a real-life experience, other times I would ask ques - domized to one of two arms. Patients in tions and the answers would make the lyrics, sometimes we used their poems,” the control arm receive percutaneous Plume said. coronary intervention (PCI) without The CD benefits the Julian T. Fouce Music Therapy Fund, founded at Vanderbilt in therapeutic hypothermia, which is the 2007 by Tom and Maria Fouce in memory of their son, Julian, a great lover of music. current standard treatment for STEMI. Julian died in 2005 after a long battle with leukemia. VM Patients in the treatment arm are rap - - ASHLEY CULVER idly cooled first to temperatures of less than 35°C using the Velomedix system WEB LINK just prior to receiving the same PCI Visit everybodyhasastorycd.com for more information, including a video chronicling the making of the CD with artist and patient interviews. treatment. Three previous randomized con - trolled trials have shown that patients who are cooled to therapeutic tempera - tures before the standard treatment for STEMIs have experienced a significant reduction in the extent of the heart attack . To lower the body temperature, the physician inserts a catheter into the abdomen and then uses the Velomedix system to circulate a large volume of cold fluid in the peritoneal cavity. Once the body temperature is suc - cessfully lowered, the physician opens the artery and puts in a stent. “By quickly cooling the body before we open the blocked artery, we hope to prevent what is known as reperfusion Singer Amy Grant, left, high-fives Gigi Pasley during the recording injury,” said John McPherson, M.D. VM session for the song Pasley wrote that is part of the compilation CD released in May. - KATHY WHITNEY
SUMMER 2013 5 :: around the medical center
‘Bionic eye’ new option for retinitis pigmentosa patients Vanderbilt University Medical Center is one of 12 sites in the United States to offer the first FDA-approved bionic eye for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System will be available to patients with late-stage RP, an inherited retinal degenerative disease. Ophthalmologists at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the innovative technology for patients who are functionally blind. “To date, there has been no proven, effective treatment in preventing this disease or slowing it down. For patients who are blind, the ability to regain some vision, functionality and independence is astonishing.” said Paul Sternberg Jr., Mother’s voice improves hospitalization M.D., George W. Hale Professor and and feeding in preemies chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and director of the VEI. Premature babies who receive an interventional therapy combining mother’s voice RP, which affects 100,000 people in and a pacifier-activated music player learn to eat more efficiently and have their feedin g the U.S., is a retinal degenerative disease tubes removed sooner than other preemies, according to a Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s characterized by progressive peripheral Hospital at Vanderbilt study. vision loss and night vision difficulties. It The randomized clinical trial performed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is caused by abnormalities of the rods and at Children’s Hospital tested 94 premature babies, pairing mother’s voice singing a lull - cones (receptors of vision) that can lead to aby with a pacifier-activated music player with sensors and speakers. peripheral and central vision loss. The babies in the study were between 34-36 weeks gestation, in stable condition, and “It is really amazing to see that able to breathe on their own. The participating babies received the intervention for 15 min - patients, who previously were functionally utes a day for five days. When they sucked correctly on their pacifier, they were rewarded blind, will be able to recognize objects, by hearing their mother singing a lullaby. If they stopped sucking, the music stopped. silhouettes, people and large letters. “A mother’s voice is a powerful auditory cue,” said study author Nathalie Maitre, Patients living with RP have adapted to a M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics. “Babies know and love their mother’s non-seeing lifestyle. This is a life-chang - voice. It has proven to be the perfect incentive to help motivate these babies.” ing treatment,” said Anita Agarwal, M.D., Music therapist Olena Chorna, MM, MT-BC, NICU-MT, worked closely with the associate professor of Ophthalmology at mothers, making them comfortable and teaching them the two study-approved lullabies, Vanderbilt. “Hush Little Baby” and “Snuggle Puppy,” which are simple, repetitive and within one Researchers have been working octave range. The songs were then recorded and connected to the pacifier-activated toward a treatment for nearly 25 years. music player. The Argus II will be available at VEI in a “The mothers were enthusiastic to join the study,” Chorna said. few months. Full results are not published yet, but Maitre and Chorna have analyzed the data with Argus II includes a miniature video the help of James C. Slaughter, Dr.P.H., assistant professor of Biostatistics. The study camera, a transmitter, eyeglasses, a shows babies who receive the pacifier intervention were able to have their feeding tubes video processing unit (VPU) and an removed about a week earlier compared to babies who did not receive the intervention. implanted artificial retina. The device was The results also show evidence babies ate more frequently and developed a stronger created by Second Sight Medical Products sucking ability and did not show signs of stress during their pacifier sessions. VM Inc. VM - ASHLEY CULVER - JESSICA PASLEY
6 SUMMER 2013 GETTING :: PERSONAL Update on Vanderbilt’s Personalized Medicine Initiative RECRUITMENTS BOLSTER PERSONALIZED MEDICINE INITIATIVE
BY NANCY HUMPHREY
VUMC’s personalized medicine effort is getting a major that we have long come to boost with the recruitment of two physician-scientists from look to for innovation and Australia who are increasing Vanderbilt’s strength in translational leadership from all corners of immunology, the translation of basic immunological discoveries the world,” Mallal said, into clinically useful tools. adding that none of it would Simon Mallal, MBBS, and Elizabeth Phillips, M.D., joined be possible without the “amaz - the faculty earlier this year. They maintain partial appointments at ingly open and collaborative the research-intensive Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, nature” of Vanderbilt and the where they were previously located. broad support and engage - The couple are best known for having discovered the associa - ment of the community. tion between a genetic test (HLA-B*5701) and a life-threatening Phillips said they believe drug allergy to the anti-retroviral HIV drug abacavir in 2002. It Vanderbilt is “the world leader required a collaborative global effort over six years to move the test when it comes to the integra - into routine use in primary care practice around the world—the tion of pharmacogenomics equivalent of designing a new drug. and personalized medicine,” Mallal, whose research to develop a vaccine for HIV-AIDS noting the strength of the has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundati on, University’s BioVU DNA is the founding director of a new Center for Translational repository and PREDICT Immunology and Infectious Diseases. This new center is jointly (Pharmacogenomic Resource sponsored by the Department of Medicine and the Department of for Enhanced Decisions in Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. It enhances programs Care and Treatment). in both microbial pathogenesis and immunology and closely inte - “I am very excited about grates with other centers and programs in both departments and the move and how it fits with within Vanderbilt to move scientific advances to diagnostic and my own research and clinical therapeutic application in a timely manner. area. We hope to soon have Mallal also serves as associate director for Immunogenetics Simon Mallal, MBBS, top, and more sophisticated screening within the newly established Vanderbilt Technologies for Elizabeth Phillips, M.D. strategies to predict which Advanced Genomics (VANTAGE) core. drugs will negatively interact Phillips is the director of Personalized Immunology within with the immune system to cause these types of severe reactions the Oates Institute for Experimental Therapeutics and will estab - and exclude these drugs from development before their use in lish research in the area of personalized medicine of immunology man.” and adverse drug reactions, work that will be enhanced by the Vanderbilt’s personalized medicine program strives to be a establishment of a clinic specializing in patients with a history of leading international center in the transformation of medicine to hypersensitivity reactions. focus on the individual. The mission includes support of discov - “Their multi-center international trials are a model for how ery, translation and implementation science in the mechanisms of we identify the cause of a serious adverse drug event,” said Nancy variable susceptibility to disease and drug responses to improve Brown, M.D., Hugh J. Morgan Professor of Medicine. “Having human health. This includes a focus on genomics as well as many them join our faculty increases our bandwidth in terms of transla - other environmental and socio-cultural factors that drive suscepti - tional immunology and also advances our goals in personalized bility to disease and variable drug responses. VM medicine.” Mallal said there are many reasons that he and Phillips find Vanderbilt a perfect fit for their talents. “Vanderbilt is the mecca of personalized medicine, the place
SUMMER 2013 7 :: alumni profile
my horse. I realized I do this because I love it not because I’m trying to qualify for Groomed for Success something or be the next Olympian.” High energy neurosurgeon combines love of barns and brains Chambless continued competing through her residency at Vanderbilt but WRITTEN BY LESLIE HILL Born in Birmingham, Ala., Chamble ss tapered off once marriage, a new baby and PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL DUBOIS lived in Boston until her mother bought a fellowship in Australia came along. Aden Branch Farm in Fairview, Tenn., in “First and foremost, galloping cross 1992, when Chambless was 12. While her country is the most fun thing. I love the mother ran a boarding and breeding facility adrenaline rush. And it’s impossible to be there, Chambless got serious about event - perfect at eventing. It’s a constant effort of ing, an equestrian sport involving three striving. Horses give you a huge amount rive about 20 miles west disciplines of dressage, cross-country and of humility because they dump you all the of Nashville on I-40, wind show jumping. time. The best rider lays in the dirt a fair around on some country While taking every advanced place - amount of the time. It keeps you from rDoads, turn up the shady lane marked men t science course she could in high taking yourself too seriously.” Aden Branch Farm, pass the two-room, school (“Total nerd!” Chambless says), she pre-Civil War-era log cabin and pull up at qualified to represent the United States at Lessons learned the barn. the North American Championships. Chambless always wanted to be a This is where Lola Chambless, M.D., She continued riding and competing research scientist and was particularly ’05, trades her blue cotton scrubs for jeans throughout undergraduate studies at interested in cancer biology. At Stanford, and cowboy boots. Where she puts down Stanford and medical school at Vanderbilt, as most of her classmates were dropping the scalpel and picks up supple leather training at least four hours a day. out of the pre-med track, she realized she reins. Where she leaves the sterile operating “I told myself at the beginning of med - wanted to treat patients too. room for meadows, creeks and horse trails. ical school I wasn’t going to keep doing it She came to VUSM as a Canby It’s this balance (perhaps with a com - unless I could keep getting As. If my grades Robinson Society Scholar, the recipient of mon thread of thrill-seeking behavior) had ever fallen behind I would have a full-tuition scholarship for four years. that sits at the core of Lola Chambless. stopped. It actually made me a much better During her second year of medical school, It allowed her to win a national equestrian student because on day one I was studying as she was at the height of her equestrian title while staying at the top of her med - for the midterm that was six weeks away.” accomplishments, her interest in cancer hit ical school class. It let her enjoy new Chambless’ parents divorced when she much too close to home. Her mother was motherhood during rigorous fellowship was young and she has no other sibling s, so diagnosed with stage IIIB breast cancer. training in Australia. It spurred her to she and her mother traveled together to “There would be days when I would become the first female faculty member competitions, hauling a horse trailer. be rounding on my own service and when in the Vanderbilt Department of “My mom would drive and I would we were done for the day, I would go Neurological Surgery, and gives her a study. I had people faxing me notes from down a floor to her room and wait for her deeper relationship with patients. class. I spent a lot of time studying in attending to come by and tell us what was hotel rooms and in a pickup truck.” happening. It was a unique way to see Born to ride In fall 2002, during her second year medicine, and I think it really changed the It’s a balance that runs thick in her of medical school, Chambless reached the way I practice with my patients.” blood. Chambless’ great-grandfather, pinnacle of her equestrian career, winning When her mother died in 2004, John Youmans, was dean of Vanderbilt the U.S. Senior Championship during Chambless took over the horse farm and University School of Medicine (VUSM) what she calls a “dream weekend.” was reinvigorated in her desire to treat from 1950-1958 and was heavily involved “I went in hoping to be in top 10 of cancer patients. in local equestrian activities. He was a the amateurs, and all of a sudden I was in “I realized that the conversation you master foxhunter with the Hillsboro front of a field of 150 with a massive mar - have with a family when you tell them Hounds and bred a two-time winner of gin from the very beginning,” she recalled. their loved one is not going to survive is a the Iroquois Steeplechase. “I had midterms the next week and conversation that is going to be one of the “I never knew him; he died before I was studying constantly. I had come to most important moments of their life. was born, but we have these strangely par - terms with the fact that this was my hobby You have to look at it as a privilege to be allel lives,” Chambless said. and that made me much more relaxed on part of that day of their life and try to
8 SUMMER 2013 alumni profile ::
help that be a memory that doesn’t haunt “I knew that this was a place that pected, and explain that I’m trained the them. I’m really aware when I go and talk treated female staff the same way they same way any other neurosurgeon is.” to these families that while this is just a treat male staff, and I think it is important Chambless is now building her prac - little part of one day of my job, it is every - that residents have a female role model.” tice and gets out to her farm to ride about thing to them.” Her biggest obstacle is not her gender , once every two weeks. She also finds time but her youth. With girl-next-door looks to manage a tissue bank for brain tumor Jockeying for position and her hair in a ponytail, she’s often not outcomes research, serve as assistant resi - After 11 years at Vanderbilt through what patients expect to see in a brain dency program director, help redesign the medical school and residency, Chambless tumor surgeon. neurosurgery curriculum for medical stu - knew it was time to branch out and spent “In general, people get a certain level of dents, and consult with the U.S. six months in Australia studying under comfort from an older physician. I’m learn - Equestrian and Polo Foundations on con - Charles Teo, MBBS, an international ing how to get over that initial little obstacle cussion and safety guidelines. expert in minimally-invasive brain tumor and make sure they feel comfortable with Always in search of balance, she is con - surgery. A minimally-invasive approach me, deal with the fact that it’s a little unex - sidering hang gliding as a new hobby. VM reduces many risks and side-effects of open surgery and shortens recovery time, an LOLA CHAMBLESS, M.D. important factor for cancer patients who will go on to chemotherapy or radiation. “What I like about Lola is she’s taking all of our knowledge up a notch,” said Reid Thompson, M.D., William F. Meacham Professor of Neurological Surgery and chair of the department. “She’s trying new things and represents that next generation. She’s a breath of fresh air for our department. Somebody with that much energy is great. Plus, she’s tough as nails.” Thompson said he was determined to find a place for Chambless on his faculty. “I think there are stereotypes in medicine like in any field. Stereotypes in neurosurgery are male-dominated and not welcoming for women. The training is long and hard and some places have biases about being family-friendly. But one of the things I’m really proud of at Vanderbilt is we really do emphasize bal - ance. You could say that sounds soft and aren’t we supposed to be training resi - dents? But first we’re training doctors, and to be a really good doctor you need to have balance,” Thompson said. Chambless said she saw those stereo - types as she was searching for faculty positions. “There are other places in this country that are much less welcoming to women in the field of neurosurgery. Unless you are a crusader you are going to be miserable, and that was never the sort of life I was considering for myself,” she said.
SUMMER 2013 9 :: feature
10 SUMMER 2013 feature ::
ROBOTICS REVOLUTION
Schools of Engineering and Medicine Lead the Charge
In the foreseeable future, robots will be sticking steerable needles in your brain to remove blood clots; capsule robots will be crawling up your colon as a painless replacement for the colonoscopy; and ultra-miniaturized snake robots will remove tumors from your bladder and other body cavities.
“Bionic ” prosthetic devices will help amputees regain the mobility that they have lost, and humanoid robots will help therapists working with autistic children to give them the skills they need to live productive lives.
These aren ’t futuristic flights of fancy, but some of the research projects currently under way at Vanderbilt that are blazing the trail toward increased use of “smart ” devices and robotics in surgery and a variety of other medical applications.
WRITTEN BY DAVID SALISBURY PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL DUBOIS
Left: Jason Koger, using the artificial hand devel - oped at Vanderbilt, lost both of his arms below the elbow when he came in contact with downed power lines while riding his ATV. SUMMER 2013 11 :: feature
In recent years Vanderbilt has emerged as one of the primary centers in the country for basic research in medical robotics along with Johns Hopkins, Carleton University in Canada and Stanford. “Today, we have a total of 25 inves - microelectronic devices, the gradual shift As a result surgeons are becoming tigators with $25 million in research toward minimally invasive surgery is also increasingly accustomed to relying on the grants and robotics is an important part of paving the way for the introduction of images from miniature cameras and our effort,” said Benoit Dawant, Ph.D., medical robots. Although minimally inva - remotely controlled manipulators and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor in sive procedures frequently take longer this has made them more receptive to Engineering who directs the Vanderbilt than open surgery, patients tend to have efforts to add robotics to the mix. Initiative in Surgery and Engineering quicker recovery times and less discomfort Making smart medical devices (ViSE) that was established in 2011 to than with conventional surgery. requires more than brilliant engineers and foster collaborative research between doc - “Surgery is moving from the knife to doctors. It also requires a culture of col - tors and engineers on campus. the needle,” observed S. Duke Herrell III, laboration between the two groups which In addition to creating new opportu - M.D., a member of the ViSE steering has become one of Vanderbilt’s hidden nities by the growing computational committee and associate professor of advantages. power and decreasing cost and size of Urologic Surgery. “People here want to cooperate and
Benoit Dawant, Ph.D., left, and Michael Fitzpatrick, Ph.D. L L L L E E S S S S U U R R
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12 SUMMER 2013 feature :: R E N Y A R
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Pete Konrad, M.D., Ph.D., places electrodes deep in the brain to treat movement disorders when drug therapies fail.
want to integrate. Most schools that have the location of tumors that are invisibl e to technology, but his research took an unex - both engineering and medicine don’t have the naked eye with the features of a pected turn after he developed a hernia. the proximity that we have geographically patient’s brain revealed during surgery. The Following his operation, the surgeon, or the willingness to go through artificial process is called registration. Allen’s idea William Chapman, M.D., who is now at barriers,” said Ron Eavey, M.D., the Guy was to replace the cumbersome cage, or Washington University School of M. Maness Professor and chair of frame, that was bolted onto the patient’s Medicine, asked, “Aren’t you that brain Otolaryngology. head for this purpose with a set of small guy?” When Galloway admitted that he “Colleagues from other universities markers implanted directly into the skull. was, Chapman explained that they didn’t are amazed at the amount of access we Allen, now professor emeritus, con - have a satisfactory way to register CT or have to the operating room,” added vinced the Johnson & Johnson Company MRI scans of the liver. Robert Galloway, Ph.D., professor of to bankroll the effort. They also recruited Galloway realized that the methods Biomedical Engineering, Neurological Galloway, who was a post-doc at the time. they developed for the brain wouldn’t Surgery and Surgery. It took them seven years, 102 patents and work with the liver so he came up with an about $1.4 million of the company’s alternative technique, called surface-based money, but they finally developed a registration, that would work and modi - COLLABORATION KEY TO frameless system that could display the fied a laser scanner so that it could map COMMERCIALIZATION precise position of a surgical probe on the the surface of the liver when inserted The unique culture of cooperation , image of a brain scan shown on a comput - through a trocar, a hollow cylinder that integration and accessibility that exists at er screen. surgeons insert through the skin to pro - Vanderbilt today between the Schools of At the last minute, however, there was vide access to internal organs. Engineering and Medicine has been built a change in leadership at Johnson & To commercialize the technology up over the last 20 years by a cadre of Johnson and it dropped the project. “If they Galloway and Chapman teamed up with physicians and engineers who saw the hadn’t pulled out, the company could have Dawant, Alan Herline, M.D., Michael value of working together. been the leader in what is now a multibil - Miga, Ph.D., and Jim Stefansic, Ph.D., Michael Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., professor lion dollar a year industry,” said Fitzpatrick. to set up the company Pathfinder emeritus of Computer Science, is a senior Although he didn’t make any money Technologies. The techniques they member of this core group. After coming from his contributions, Fitzpatrick said developed have since become the state to Vanderbilt in 1982, he was approached that he is content. “It provided me with of care for liver surgery and they are now by neurosurgeons George Allen, M.D., material for a number of papers. I got pro - adapting it for the kidney. Ph.D., and the late Robert Maciunas, moted to full tenure and the students who Dawant, who is an expert in medical M.D. They had an idea for an improved contributed have all gotten their degrees image processing, also struck up a collabo - method for properly matching the CT and gone on to successful careers.” ration with Pete Konrad, M.D., Ph.D., scans taken before an operation which show Galloway continued working on the associate professor of Neurosurgery and
SUMMER 2013 13 :: feature Y L L M E R
S Goldfarb, the H. Fort Flowers U
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S Professor of Mechanical Engineering, also N U H S O
J acted as a departmental champion for recruiting new members interested in medical robotics. In the last few years, the department has added three: Robert Webster, Ph.D., whose expertise involves surgical robotics and related devices that make surgery less invasive and more accu - rate; Nabil Simaan, Ph.D., who focuses on developing enabling robotic technologie s for safe and intelligent surgical interven - tions including natural orifice surgery; and Pietro Valdastri, Ph.D., whose goal is to turn the science fiction vision of miniature capsule robots working inside the human From left: Michael Goldfarb, Ph.D., and Robert Labadie, M.D., Ph.D. body into reality. At the same time, another center of Biomedical Engineering, to improve a license and commercialize their system, activity emerged in otolaryngology where new treatment for movement disorders which has now been used in more than Robert Labadie, M.D., Ph.D., has been called deep brain stimulation (DBS) that 400 operations. doing pioneering work in using robotics is used when drug therapies fail. for ear surgery since 2001. In collabora - DBS involves inserting electrodes deep A REVERENCE FOR ROBOTICS tion with Goldfarb, he performed the in the brain that can be highly effective at Meanwhile, in mechanical engineer - world’s first mastoidectomy using an treating a number of movement disorders ing, Michael Goldfarb, Ph.D., established industrial robot on a cadaver skull. including dystonia and Parkinson’s disease the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics. “I got the idea when we were remod - and obsessive-compulsive disease as well as Although his passion was the design of eling our house. When my contractor told neurological diseases such as depression. prosthetic devices, it wasn’t until after the me that he needed the exact dimensions of Over the last 10 years, Dawant and fighting began in Iraq and Afghanistan our new sink because the cut-out in the Konrad successfully developed a new that federal funding became available so countertop was made by a robot, I realize d guidance system that uses computerized he could pursue his interest. that it was crazy for surgeons to still be brain-mapping techniques to direct the He has used this support to success - cutting openings in the skull by hand,” implantation of the electrodes, which sub - fully develop a bionic arm powered by he said. stantially reduces the time and cost of the hydrogen peroxide, the first lower limb Since then Labadie has collaborated operation. prosthetic with powered knee and ankle with Fitzpatrick and Dawant on develop - Dawant and Konrad partnered with joints, an exceptionally dexterous artificial ing a method for semi-automating the Pierre-Francoise D’Haese, research assis tant hand and a powered exoskeleton that delicate surgery of placing electrodes into professor of Electrical Engineering, to set allows people with paraplegia to stand the cochlea of profoundly deaf patients to up the company Neurotargeting LLC to and walk. restore their hearing. Instead of completely removing the mastoid bone, their appro ach involves drilling through the mastoid. The procedure is currently undergoing clinical The unique culture of cooperation, integration trials. and accessibility that exists at Vanderbilt today The collaboration between Vanderbilt engineers and doctors has now spread between the Schools of Engineering and Medicine throughout three engineering departments —biomedical, electrical and computer sci - has been built up over the last 20 years by a cadre ence and mechanical—and 10 Medical of physicians and engineers who saw the value of Center departments—surgery, surgical oncology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, working together. otolaryngology, otology, cardiology, oph - thalmology, urology and pathology. VM
14 SUMMER 2013 five to watch: CURRENT VANDERBILT PROJECTS THAT ARE CHANGING LIVES
2/steerable needles Last fall, Robert Webster, Ph.D., attended a conference in Italy where one of the speak - ers ran through his wish list of useful surgi - cal devices. When the speaker described the system he would like to have to remove brain clots, Webster, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Otolaryngology, couldn’t help breaking out in a big smile. He had been developing just such a system for the previous four years. Webster’s design, which he calls active cannula, consists of a series of thin, nested tubes. Each tube has a different intrinsic curvature. By precisely rotating and extend - ing these tubes, an operator can steer the tip in different directions, allowing it to follow a curving path through the body. The single needle system required for removing brain clots is much simpler than the multi-needle system he had been developing for 1/capsule robots transnasal surgery. When he told his collab - orator, Kyle Weaver, M.D., about the new Jellyfish capsule robots that magnet outside the body controlled application, he was quite supportive. propel themselves with tiny fins; by a robot arm. In addition to the thin “I think this can save a lot of lives. There centipede capsules with 12 legs; wires that connect the camera and are a tremendous number of intracerebral capsules with tiny propellers; cap - lights, the capsule is hooked up to a hemorrhages and the number is certain to sules that use a cell phone vibrator small air tube. This provides it with increase as the population ages,” said for locomotion. These are just some an air cushion that allows it to glide Weaver, assistant professor of Neurological of the designs that Pietro Valdastri, smoothly. It also can be used to Surgery. Ph.D., has experimented with so far inflate the colon in case the capsule
in his career. gets stuck or to uncover portions of L L E S
Currently he is working closely the lining hidden from view. A spe - S U R
N
with assistant professor of Medicine cial sensor on the capsule detects H O Keith Obstein, M.D., MPH, on the the strength and direction of the J design that he thinks has the best magnetic field which allows the chance for replacing the infamous operator to accurately track its loca - colonoscopy: the magnetic air cap - tion and orientation. sule (MAC), which he developed Each year colon cancer claims when he was at Scuola Superiore more than 600,000 lives worldwide, Sant’Anna in Italy before moving to despite the fact that it can be treated Vanderbilt. with a 90 percent success rate when The MAC is equipped with all the it is caught early enough. “We hope capabilities of a traditional colono - to increase the number of people scope—camera, LED lights, a chan - who undergo routine screenings for nel for inserting tools needed to colon cancer by decreasing the pain remove polyps, etc.—and is the size associated with the procedure. We of the smallest colonoscope. Instead also hope to improve its effective - Robert Webster, Ph.D. of being pushed through the colon, ness,” said Valdastri, assistant pro - the capsule is pulled by a powerful fessor of Mechanical Engineering.
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3/bionic Prosthesis Michael Goldfarb, Ph.D., and Craig Hutto
Craig Hutto, 25, made the a step behind me, but the have created an opportunity to powered exoskeleton that not headlines in 2005 when he Vanderbilt leg is only a split- design artificial limbs that are only allows people with para - lost his leg in a dramatic second behind,” Hutto said. In substantially smarter, more plegia to stand and walk but is shark attack on a Florida other words, the powered leg capable, more active and also compact enough to wear beach. Six years later, he was allows him to walk with a nat - more interactive than those in a wheelchair. All three in the news again this time as ural gait. currently on the market. designs have been licensed by a participant in the develop - The advanced prosthesis In addition to the lower companies interested in pro - ment of the first lower leg was designed by Michael limb prosthesis, his research ducing and selling commercial prosthesis with a powered Goldfarb’s lab. It is a prime team has produced an artifi - versions. knee and ankle joint. example of his argument that cial hand that can shift quickly “My normal leg is always recent technological advances between different grips and a
16 SUMMER 2013 feature :: L L E W O H
E /autism robot O 5 J
Aiden has a new friend: a 2-foot high robot called NAO. Aiden is 3 and a half years old and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disor - der (ASD). He met NAO (pronounced “now”) when he participated in a test that showed robots can be nearly as effective as human therapists in training young children like Aiden to develop the basic social skills that they need but have difficulty mastering. The initial impetus for the project came when Nilanjan Sarkar, Ph.D., learned that his cousin’s son had been diagnosed with ASD. He teamed up with Zachary Warren, Ph.D., and Julie Crittendon, Ph.D., at the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Vanderbilt’s Kennedy Center to find out if the children’s intrinsic interest in robots could be used to train them. So they 4/Robotic Bladder Surgery designed an interactive system around a commercial robot and tested its effectiveness with a dozen 2- to 5-year-old children, half The basic method cauterizing tools used to tip of the arm is a white diagnosed with ASD, and found that they that doctors use to treat obtain biopsy tissue and light source, a fiber - responded to the robot almost as well as they bladder cancer hasn’t to resect small tumors scope for observation, a did to a human therapist. changed much in the in the bladder lining. tiny forceps for gripping “A therapist does many things that last 70 years, but Nabil However, the resecto - and an optical fiber robots can’t do,” said Sarkar, professor of Simaan, Ph.D., associ - scope’s rigidity makes it laser for cauterization. Mechanical Engineering. “But a robot- ate professor of difficult to reach all The bladder cancer centered system could provide much of the Mechanical Engineering areas of the bladder. system is a specialized repeated practice that is essential to learn - and Otolaryngology, This difficulty is gener - version of a single port ing.” In this fashion, robots could play a working with Vanderbilt ally considered one of robotic surgery platform crucial role in responding to the “public urologic surgeon Duke the reasons why bladder that Simaan developed health emergency” created by the rapid Herrell, M.D., and col - cancer is so persistent while he was at Columbi a growth in the number of children being leagues at Columbia and requires continuing before coming to diagnosed with ASD, which has jumped by 78 University, intends to surveillance and repeat - Vanderbilt. It consists of percent in just four years. change the situation ed surgeries. two segmented robotic
dramatically. His team The new telerobotic arms, pop-up camera L L E W has designed a minia - system is designed and lights that can be O H
E O turized telerobotic plat - specifically to overcome inserted through a sin - J form specifically for this this limitation. Its busi - gle, 15 millimeter inci - purpose. ness end is only 5.5 sion. The Canadian The traditional millimeters in diameter company Titan Medical method involves insert - so it will fit through a Inc. has licensed the ing a rigid tube called standard resectoscope design and is developing resectoscope through and consists of a seg - a commercial version the urethra and into the mented robot arm that for market release. bladder. The instrument can curve through 180 provides access for an degrees like a snake, endoscope for observa - allowing it to point in tion and interchange able every direction. At the
17 :: feature
The Sequestration Era
VUSM’s Donald Brady, M.D., discusses its potential impact on graduate medical education
WRITTEN BY KATHY WHITNEY ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN BLACKHAM/ILLUSTRATION SOURCE
18 SUMMER 2013 feature ::
fforts by the federal government to control the nation’s spiraling budget as small as the nation’s academic medical deficit, including sequestration that took effect on March 1, have created centers absorbing a 2 percent annual cut in E the potential for significant impact to Medicare’s long-standing support Medicare currently afforded through for graduate medical education (GME) and could limit the ability of the nation’s aca - sequestration. At the other extreme, there demic medical centers to care for patients and train the next generation of physi - are proposals on the table to cut billions cians, says Donald Brady, M.D., senior associate dean of Graduate Medical from GME on a national basis. Almost Education for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM). every time a new proposal is put forth to According to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Center for reduce federal expenses, GME is part of the Workforce Studies, there will be a shortage of 45,000 primary care physicians and legislation. We are in an environment 46,000 surgeons and medical specialists in the next decade, exacerbating concerns where there is a constant threat GME over the future of GME funding and the nation’s ability to train enough physicians funding will be reduced or taken away. to care for an aging population. Any reductions to funding will mean that Recently, Brady and Christina West, assistant vice chancellor for Federal Relations Vanderbilt’s unreimbursed dollar invest - in Vanderbilt University’s Office of Federal Relations, visited the offices of a majority ment in GME will have to grow to main - of Tennessee’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., sharing a detailed GME tain even our current efforts to train cost analysis. tomorrow’s physicians.
How did you describe the value of during fiscal year 2011. Most people do How will funding reductions impact GME to Tennessee’s congressional not realize that Vanderbilt invests more Vanderbilt’s GME program? staffers? than $115 million each year in direct, non- This is unknown right now. However, GME is the time in which your doctor billable expenses for GME. And this figure the greater the reduction the more likely we learns to become your doctor. Residents doesn’t include factoring in the time will have to make hard decisions on and fellows have to complete an accredited required for faculty to provide clinical whether to eliminate certain programs training program to become eligible to sit supervision. To help cover costs in 2011, altogether or to keep the same number of for the certification exam in their specialties. Vanderbilt received $37.5 million in direct programs but decrease their size. Do we Hospitals, medical centers and even the lay graduate medical education payments from eliminate some of the subspecialty fellow - public expect and, in most cases require, CMS, support designed to help compen - ships where there may only be one or two their doctors to be certified in their fields. sate academic medical centers for residency fellows in it, like geriatrics or stroke? The In addition, GME contributes signifi - education costs, including $14.3 million ramifications for our state (and nation) cantly to VUSM and VUMC. GME pro - in reimbursement from TennCare, could be huge. Tennessee’s population is vides us the opportunity to train the next Tennessee’s state-managed Medicaid aging, and we offer the only geriatric train - generation of physicians who will succeed program. In addition, we received $36.5 ing program in the state. Stroke is the us. Residents are an integral component of million in indirect payment, designed to fourth leading cause of death in Tennessee, our efforts to provide the highest quality partially compensate academic medical and the state has the fifth highest rate of care to our patients, both through service centers for higher patient care costs due to stroke deaths in the U.S. We have one of delivery and quality improvement; they are the presence of teaching programs, from only two stroke fellowships in the state and at the front line of patient care. They pro - Medicare and Medicare Advantage. E ven the only neuroradiology and vascular radiol - vide teaching and mentoring for our medical with this support, Vanderbilt is making an ogy fellowships in Tennessee. I could say students. Vanderbilt is deeply committed to unreimbursed investment of more than $40 the same for our pain medicine fellowship, training the next generation of physicians, as million toward GME. So, GME is under - the only one in the state, given the great noted by the fact that we are more than 200 funded from the very start. Direct and need in Tennessee for specialists trained in positions over our Center for Medicare and indirect medical education reimbursement the proper prescribing of narcotics and Medicaid Services (CMS) cap (the limit on combined don’t cover the core, direct non- given that Tennessee is second in the nation the number of federally-funded residency billable GME costs, even before factoring in in per capita prescription of opioids. positions, an overage for which Vanderbilt cuts to GME funding through sequestra - It’s just as painful to consider decreas - receives no federal reimbursement). tion or other deficit-reduction measures. ing the size of our primary care disciplines. We train 43 percent of all the pediatricians How is Vanderbilt’s GME program What might GME funding look like if and 33 percent of all the general surgeons in currently funded? reductions are enacted? the state, and we have one of only two med - We did a major cost analysis last year, We don’t know the specifics yet, but icine-pediatric programs in Tennessee. Of looking at GME revenue and expenses reductions are likely inevitable. It could be course, we could choose to maintain GME
SUMMER 2013 19 :: feature
Vanderbilt is making an unreimbursed investment of GME cap, as the nation is graduating more and more medical students to fill more than $40 million toward GME.” forecasted physician shortages across the board. Currently, however, the GME cap is a bottleneck due to the limited number at its current capacity even with reduced funding structure. I also know that Vice of funded positions. Without improved “funding, but that would force the Medical Chancellor and Dean Jeff Balser has been funding sources, that bottleneck is likely Center to make cuts in other areas to make stressing this same message in his discus - to remain tight. The best of the worst- up for the lost revenue, which is a no more sions with legislators and other leaders in case scenarios would be that we limit any tenable situation than other choices. Washington and has been instrumental in reductions as much as possible. In the coordinating leaders of other academic meantime, our programs go on as usual. What steps are we are taking to prepare medical centers in conveying a similar mes - We realize we will probably be adjusting for possible funding reductions to GME? sage. This is one of the primary advocacy to a new era, but we have not cut the size Christina West and I visited the staff in issues before Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal of any of our residency programs. Once the majority of Tennessee’s congressional Relations as they interact with federal poli - we make the decision we are going to offices. It was an excellent interaction cymakers. train someone, we do everything in our because they really wanted to know what power to make sure we are training them was going on. They appreciated that we had What is Vanderbilt’s outlook? in the best possible way to make them the detailed information to provide them and I think the first thing to stress is that best doctor they can be. This is one of our that we were looking at the cost and invest - Vanderbilt remains committed to GME. core missions: to train the next generation ment that was being made for GME. We Residents and clinical fellows are integral of physicians and physician leaders, so had a good dialogue about why investing in to our tripartite mission of patient care, we’re going to do everything we can to the training of physicians is incredibly education and research. The hope is there ensure our core mission is not compro - important and what the consequences will be no cuts at all, maybe even some mised. VM might be of any reductions to the current consideration for loosening the current L L E W O H
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Donald Brady, M.D.
Rachael Poff, R.N.
20 SUMMER 2013 feature ::
A Class Act Jeanette Norden’s retirement leaves a void that will be difficult to fill
The retirement of Year Award (four times). In her the most dedicated and Medicine Award given to a Jeanette Norden, Ph.D., 2011 the Vanderbilt Brain effective teacher he has faculty member judged to professor of Cell and Institute and Center for known. be exemplary in their com - Developmental Biology, after Neuroscience at Vanderbilt “It has been an absolute passion and sensitivity and more than 40 years, will mark established an annual Jeanette privilege and honor to work for exhibiting the highest the passing of an era. J. Norden Outreach with her and learn from her. standard of humanism in Norden, the course Lectureship in her honor. Her love of the students medicine. director of Neurosciences/ “When she teaches, there and their future patients is Norden said as an educa - Neuroanatomy (renamed is a sense that she has a lot of unmatched. She never rests tor, she has always tried to Brain and Behavior) at the people that matter to her and on her laurels or accomplish - keep her focus on the stu - Vanderbilt University School she encourages us to have ments as a recognized teacher dents and feels it has been an of Medicine, is commonly meaningful relationships. She of excellence, but continu - honor to teach them about cited as one of the school’s commonly brings patients to ously critiques her own mate - the brain and about how to most effective and influential class as part of the teaching, rial and lecture content to apply their knowledge to the educators. School adminis - and then she has us all write make sure that the next lec - diagnosis and treatment of trators and students alike say thank you notes afterward. ture she gives is more relevant patients who suffer from her departure will be a signif - Whenever I have to present and informative than the last. neurological disease. icant loss. or teach I think about how She works tirelessly to offer “I have cared for and “Jeanette has been she would do it and try to the best opportunities for her loved the students. This is an exemplar for all of our model after her,” said Billy students to learn because she what has guided my teaching. faculty members who strive Sullivan, M.D., a member of has a genuine recognition I have also tried to model by for excellence in their teach - the class of 2013. that their future patients’ my relationship with them, as ing. She has been ultimately Scott Rodgers, M.D., lives and well-beings are at the kind of relationship I concerned with the welfare ‘94, was taught by Norden stake,” Riebau said. want them to have with their of our students and their and recalls she always taught Norden was awarded the patients. I shall miss teaching future patients,” said Bonnie her class without aid of John Chapman Award for them about the most awe - Miller, M.D., senior associ - PowerPoint presentations or Transformative Innovations some structure in the human ate dean for Health Sciences electronics of any sort, and in Medical Education in body.” VM Education. that is part of her success. 2010, and in 2012 the - CAROLE BARTOO Norden, who also serves “She loves to tell stories Arnold P. Gold Foundation as academic adviser for sec - about patients and is one of Leonard Tow Humanism in
ond-year students, was select - the few people with the natu - L L E ed three times for the Shovel ral teaching talent to engage W O H
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Award, given by members of people for a four-hour block. O J the fourth-year class to a fac - But more than that, she ulty member who has had a wants students to maintain a positive and meaningful level of compassion. She is influence on their lives and one of those stabilizing forces education. She received who understands students numerous other teaching came here because they want awards at Vanderbilt, includ - to connect with patients,” ing: the Jack Davies Award said Rodgers, associate dean for Teaching Excellence in for Medical Student Affairs. the Basic Sciences (which she Derek Riebau, M.D., won eight times), and the who has taught with Norden Outstanding Teacher of the for the last nine years, calls
SUMMER 2013 21 :: feature
Rooted in Compassion
Shade Tree Clinic Keeps Pace with Changing Health Care Landscape
WRITTEN BY CAROLE BARTOO PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL DUBOIS
or most of her adult life, Tina Stephens was a chronic user of the most expensive form of health care: the emergency room. Before age 50 she didn’t have insurance for preventive care and developed uncon - trolled emphysema and high blood pressure—along with a serious F mistrust of health care providers. “I would call a doctor and even if I told them I had no insurance, they would say ‘Come in.’ But once I got there, I wouldn’t even make it past the receptionist,” Stephens said. “It would bring me to tears that I had to go to the emergency room because I couldn’t get into a doctor’s office. It didn’t matter what kind of shape I was in; they didn’t want to help.” Stephens is just the kind of patient that health care reform and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) are designed to address. e ACA goes into full effect Jan. 1, 2014, offering more affordable health coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans. But there is great concern about whether the sys - tem is prepared to meet the need.
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tephens doesn’t around for patients like Stephens, and “Because of Shade Tree I think about have to wait perhaps the system as a whole. the social and insurance situation and how until the first that will impact their care,” Wolenberg said. of the year to have her health care needs Patient-centered medical home At Shade Tree, patients who have few met. She found the Shade Tree Clinic, Rising second-year medical student resources, and little knowledge about how VSanderbilt’s medical student-run clinic Kelly Wolenberg volunteers twice a week to navigate the complex health care system, fo r the uninsured located in East Nashv ille. at Shade Tree, working under physician are carefully guided toward better health. It’s where the next generation of medical supervision to start patients like Stephens Care is modeled after the interdisciplinary providers is learning a new model of care, on the right medications. She also works and where Vanderbilt faculty can put a on important details, like whether patients Second-year medical student Kelly new theory of experiential teaching and have a ride to the clinic for appointments, Wolenberg serves as the student learning into action. The hope is the or if they are having trouble paying for director of social work at the Shade future care providers may turn things their medicines. Tree Clinic. D N A L L O H
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Patient-Centered Medical Home for pri - TEAMWORK MAY BE KEY TO COST CONTROL mary care, widely considered the model of the future for primary care. As millions of previously uninsured Americans gain access to health insurance An interdisciplinary patient-centered through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is vigorous debate about how such an medical home refers to a primary care expensive program can achieve improved quality of care while reducing costs. Health provider offering coordinated care Policy researcher John Graves, Ph.D., assistant professor of Preventive Medicine, says the goal of the ACA has never been to control costs, but it is a necessary first step to through out a patient’s lifetime as part of a push toward new models of care that will. team. Patients take an active role in deci - “The goal is to reorient the system toward stability of coverage so we don’t have 50 sion-making about their health. The pri - million people at any point and time churning in and out of the system when they mary care provider serves as the manager change or lose a job. If that stability exists, all of the organizations involved in health of care, working closely with other quali - care have a chance of succeeding in controlling quality and cost,” Graves said. fied health care professionals from multi - Many physicians’ groups say the interdisciplinary Patient-Centered Medical Home ple disciplines to provide treatment of model offers the best chance to turn the emphasis from acute care of ill patients to acute and chronic illness, specialty care preventive care for healthier ones. Yet patient-centered medical homes are difficult to when needed, patient education and social find. A Commonwealth Fund International survey found 41 percent of U.S. physician services among other things. The goal is practices function without any non-physician staff to help manage the care of their clear and coordinated communication patients, and only 35 percent of physicians said improved teamwork and communica - tion are very effective ways to improve quality of care. between the care providers and the patient “We want to get better value for what we put in. We want to pay for the right things to make sure everyone is fully informed and not the wrong things,” said Graves. “As a result, there is a tremendous amount of about what is going on. effort on the provider side to try to prove value of these new models through demon - For example, at Shade Tree, an onsite stration projects.” pharmacy student fields questions about United Neighborhood Health Services (UNHS), one of the largest providers of pri - medications; medical students research mary care to uninsured and TennCare patients in Nashville, recently received Joint and develop patient education; and nurse Commission status as a Patient-Centered Medical Home. UNHS CEO, Mary Bufwack, practitioner students work to provide Ph.D., said the population they serve is unaccustomed to preventive care. She hopes prenatal care and referrals for pregnant demonstration projects will show patients benefit from services like social work and patients. A new medical/legal partnership case management to foster engagement. with law students offers legal assistance, One encouraging sign that change is on its way, she says, is the number of new physicians coming out of programs like Vanderbilt’s who already expect to be part of and licensed social worker Shannon an interdisciplinary team. Jordan helps a team of 10 students address “It’s patient-centered and not provider-centered and new physicians trained in this complex social needs. model understand and value this,” Bufwack said. “If the health care system is confusing - CAROLE BARTOO to us, you know it’s confusing to our patients. Then you throw in housing problems, addictions, criminal problems, domestic violence, untreated mental decisions as providers need to reflect what expand TennCare, the state’s Medicaid health; it all is so complicated. We teach will be available to patients,” said Lloyd. program.) students to recognize what else is needed “Getting a medication to someone in for our patients and try to teach the stu - Living at the edge a homeless shelter, or getting them to clin - dents to function as an interdisciplinary The students are learning critical les - ic from a shelter isn’t always that easy. But team,” Jordan said. sons as millions of Americans finally gain it’s all part of medicine. That’s what drive s Outgoing social work team director, health coverage and enter the “big system,” people like Mike and me, is teaching that Cooper Lloyd, a rising third-year medical as the insured health care system is called advocacy,” said Miller, associate professor student, said the lessons she is learning at by one of Shade Tree’s Medical directors, of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Shade Tree early in her medical training Robert Miller, M.D. He and co-director, Medicine. are shaping her future practice. Michael Fowler, M.D., said few primary Fowler says for people who live close “It’s been valuable to learn about the care practices today are prepared to advo - to the edges of society, the ACA comes limitations and opportunities of the sys - cate for the large number of disengaged not a moment too soon. tem. I don’t think all doctors right now and disenfranchised patients who will be “So many people like Tina Stephens are very tuned in to what insurance entering the system. (Tennessee will have no insurance coverage, and we take patients have and what is covered. Our decide by the end of summer whether to care of a ton of patients who are working
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uninsured. They work hard, they work full A L L O H
time, or nearly full time, but if they get N E R
sick they lose everything they own,” said U A Fowler, assistant professor of Medicine in L the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three peo - ple are in a family that is experiencing financial burden from medical care, and one in 10 are in a family with medical bills they are unable to pay. For Tina Stephens financial catastro - phe came when a short stay at a local hospital generated thousands of dollars in bills she could not pay. “In 2011 our hot water tank caught fire while I was asleep and I couldn’t wake up. My dogs kept barking to get me out, and the house was full of smoke. I had carbon monoxide poisoning,” Stephens recalled. Shade Tree students and volunteers quickly helped Stephens apply for disability
and TennCare Medicaid health insurance. D N A L
She was accepted into the program and L O H
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her medical bills were covered retroactively. E R U A
The only catch was that with insurance L coverage, Stephens would have to leave Shade Tree for a regular primary care practice. “It’s not easy to transition from a clinic like ours. To some extent it’s easy to ask for assistance for people who have no insurance, but not so easy for those who do have access. For example, many pri - mary care offices don’t take TennCare. That’s a challenge,” Miller said.
Shepherding patients The students have a list of nearly 100 newly insured patients who, like Stephens, are being transitioned from Shade Tree into regular primary care practices. In order to usher patients into the “big system ” sys - tematically, and with great care, Lloyd organized what is called the TennCare Transitions task force. Wolenberg, current student director of social work, and classmates MariaSanta VUSM students founded Shade Tree Clinic and Mangione and Emily Kramer work to continue to run it with faculty support.
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find primary care providers who accept THE CLINIC CLASSROOM TennCare or Medicare and are accessible for patients. Then students create individ - Kim Lomis, M.D., associate dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, says ualized plans for each patient to allow for Vanderbilt’s experience with Shade Tree Clinic has demonstrated the power of learn - continuity of as many services as possible. ing in a relevant setting and has revealed the potential for students to contribute in “Tina Stephens is in our smoking meaningful ways to the care of patients. It serves as an important source of informa - cessation program, which is really impor - tion and inspiration as the dynamic teaching and learning revision, Curriculum 2.0, tant for her. If they’ve been benefiting came into full effect for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in July. from seeing social work and patient health The former model of education as a process of transferring knowledge from teacher education, we keep that in mind,” to student has largely been replaced with flexible, collaborative and experiential learn - Wolenberg said. ing. Patient care begins in the first year of training and continues through all four “We believe we have been providing years of medical education, with an emphasis on understanding systems of care. good care, but ultimately they will be bet - Lomis says the goal is to create physician-leaders well prepared to creatively ter off with one primary care provider and assess and impact the health care system, ultimately improving the care of patients. active health insurance to cover any “Vanderbilt’s culture of continuous improvement allows us to identify opportunities future, unexpected hospitalizations,” for innovation. Our combination of technological prowess, a collaborative environment Lloyd said. and a dedicated faculty uniquely positions Vanderbilt to create the teaching and learn - They helped Stephens find a doctor ing system of the future,” Lomis said. at United Neighborhood Health Services (UNHS). The UNHS clinics recently The basic tenants of Curriculum 2.0 are: received Patient-Centered Medical Home status through the Joint Commission. It is • Embrace innovation and improvement by focusing as much on how students learn a great solution for Stephens, but she says as what they learn. she will miss being cared for at Shade Tree. • Fully integrate learning with patient care by incorporating clinical experience earli - “I knew with Shade Tree that’s what er, and by explicitly revisiting core concepts throughout training. they did, help you and try to get you on • Rapidly translate discovery into practice by fostering the skills needed for life-long insurance. It makes room for another per - learning and evidence-based care. son to come on in to Shade Tree. I have a • Support professional growth by providing frequent, meaningful feedback, creating stepson with seizures who has gone down personalized learning plans and offering flexible learning opportunities. (to Shade Tree) and he’s getting help • Create physician leaders through a focus on curiosity, critical thinking, discovery now,” Stephens said. and collaboration.
Outside these walls: the future - CAROLE BARTOO Wolenberg, Lloyd and their student colleagues continue to witness the benefits and challenges of the system. They say they greatly value learning how to func - it difficult to find primary care providers need, here are the resources, we’ll find a tion as part of an interdisciplinary team, because many don’t take TennCare. I way.’ That’s satisfying for us,” Miller said. and they are excited to have the opportu - hope it gets to the point where more peo - Miller and Fowler say as they watch nity to work on real-world problems and ple can tap into social services, dental care students work through these difficult develop critical thinking skills. But they and eyeglasses. I hope all these things will problems at Shade Tree, they see a hope - realize Shade Tree Clinic’s ability to pro - be easier,” Wolenberg said. ful future. vide supportive and nurturing care is only VUSM instructors say these concerns “And they are much more adaptable possible because of support from the are exactly what their students need to to a new system than older physicians,” University, the Medical Center and com - experience. They are learning to be the Fowler adds. “The students learn the new munity volunteers, grants, donations and leaders of tomorrow, the people who will rules quicker and they develop a sense of fundraising events. It’s what lies outside have the chance to change how health care professionalism earlier than they would the clinic’s walls that concerns them. is delivered and paid for. because they are learning how to advocate “I am not sure if the primary care “Older physicians may be rolling and protect at an earlier stage. That gives providers will be there by the time all our their eyes at what is to come. They don’t me great hope.” VM patients get coverage. We are already finding see solutions, but students say ‘Here’s the
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ASPIRNAUT PROGRAM GUIDES STUDENTS TO EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES BEYOND POVERTY
For thousands of years pipelines have been constructed in various parts of the world when there’s a critical need to convey water.
A Vanderbilt-based pipeline, founded seven years ago, is fulfilling a critical need of another type—bringing the support of a research uni - versity and professionals in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to rural teachers, students and school districts. The Aspirnaut program targets STEM achievement in students beginning in elementary school and continues through post-graduate training. The hypothesis is that achievement in STEM increases the odds of a student’s entry into a STEM profession.
Julie K. Hudson, M.D., assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs at VUMC and the program’s director and co-founder, says the Aspirnaut program’s K-20 STEM pipeline has many points of entry.
WRITTEN BY NANCY HUMPHREY PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN RUSSELL
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abuse and poverty who grew up in rural south central Arkansas. His mission is to “shine a light” to show students there are options beyond poverty and poor living situations. Hudson, the Elliot V. Newman Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and “ Pathology, and director of the Center for could engage in grades K-3, grades 3-5, Hudson, an internationally recognized Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt University, Amiddle school, high sschool, coltlege, guradu - kdidney researceh scientistn, tells them htow helped discover the molecular underpin - ate school and beyond or anywhere along much blood flows through the kidneys nings of autoimmune and hereditary the way. And early engagement of students each day—each kidney about the size of a kidney diseases. He’s also an entrepreneur with STEM is key.” standard computer mouse. He asks the stu - who co-founded two biotech companies Hudson and her husband, Billy dents if they know someone with diabetes to bring a potential treatment for diabetic Hu dson, Ph.D., run the Aspirnaut progra m, and talks about how the kidney filtration kidney disease he helped to market. housed at Vanderbilt University Medical system is affected in a person with disease. In 2005, not content to rest on their Center (VUMC) and funded through a “You know those orange barrels on the laurels, the Hudsons chose to help other combination of donations, cost-sharing highway?” the white-haired professor asks students in his struggling community with partner schools and grants. Aspirnaut the students. “They hold about 50 gallons become doctors and dentists, veterinarians, currently focuses on two major program - each. About 10 of those barrels of blood scientists and engineers. matic efforts: weekly live and interactive flow through your kidneys every day.” He Initially a three-year pilot project, videoconferences of hands-on inquiry-based pauses for effect. Nobody says a word. the Aspirnaut program equipped school STEM labs, conducted by Vanderbilt Then Hudson introduces his lecture buses with broadband Internet access via undergraduate and graduate students, companion, Roy Zent, M.D., Ph.D., a cell-phone towers, laptops and flat-screen post-doctoral researchers and faculty for Vanderbilt nephrologist, and asks the TVs, —a mobile one-room schoolhouse— students in rural Arkansas, Maine, students if they know what a doctor who so that students could complete online Montana and Tennessee; and summer specializes in kidney disease is called. “A STEM courses or watch STEM-related research internships at Vanderbilt for rural kidneyologist?” one of the students asks. content designed around their school’s high school students, and diverse under - Hudson and Zent, both wearing white curriculum while riding on long bus graduate and graduate students. coats, laugh and so do the rural Hancock, routes. According to the World Economic Maine, students who are seated at their The program evolved to include a Forum, the United States is ranked 48th classroom desks watching Hudson and summer research program at Vanderbilt out of 133 developed and developing Zent on a TV monitor. University where more than 35 high nations in the quality of mathematics and Videoconferencing sessions are organ - school, undergraduate and graduate stu - science education. There’s also a shortage ized as themed sets spanning several weeks. dents are paid a stipend and receive room of workers in STEM careers, and rural stu - The units start with very fundamental con - and board to work in research laboratories dents are a largely untapped pool of talent cepts and foundational knowledge. “We at Vanderbilt and experience discovery that can be brought into the STEM work - then build on that framework toward science. This summer will be the summer place, the Hudsons believe. Twenty perce nt higher concepts and real-life applications research program’s fifth. Aspirnaut also has of K-12 students live in rural areas. of that science—all in the context of an affiliation with Berea College in Berea, hands-on activities,” Julie Hudson said. Ky., Tennessee State University in The kidneys at a fifth-grade level “In a few weeks’ time, we’ve connected Nashville, and the United South and About 15 third- to fifth-grade students the dots from fundamental knowledge to Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET), headquar - from rural Maine listen intently as Billy solving real-world problems.” tered in Nashville. Hudson, Ph.D., stands in a lab on a bleak The summer research program is a February day at VUMC talking about the Options beyond poverty 40-hour-a-week “immersion experience” kidneys and the toll that diabetes takes on The Aspirnaut program is the brain - for the students who come after Memorial them. child of Billy Hudson, a survivor of child Day and live on campus for up to 10
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weeks. “It’s not just about the ‘how-to’s’ weekly roundtable luncheons and late after - which has doubled from five sites partici - but also the ‘whys’ or ‘big questions’ being noon discussions with key campus faculty. pating in 2010-2011 to 15 this year. tackled in the lab,” Hudson said. “The stu - High school interns participate in ACT Aaron Fidler, a Berea College graduat e dents join a scientific team. The intent is prep, meet with Vanderbilt financial aid and and Vanderbilt graduate student from that the students rapidly gain enough skill admissions counselors about the college Ashland, Ky., has worked with the to become contributing members of the application process, and experience firsthand Aspirnaut program from its beginning team and accelerate the ongoing progress living on a college campus in the dorm. when he participated as an undergraduate of science in that lab. They will also learn “While we would love to recruit all of the student doing summer research. a considerable amount of basic science research interns to Vanderbilt, we work hard Fidler, who assists with elementary along the way. The students are challenged to demystify the college application and and middle school videoconferencing cur - to think critically and creatively.” funding process in general,” she said. riculum development and mentors high In addition to lab work, all students school and undergraduate students for the have individual career planning sessions and Vanderbilt via video summer research internships, leads at least Many of the students who participate two of the videoconferences each month Julie Hudson, M.D., and Billy Hudson, Ph.D., want to engage stu - in the summer research program go back to during the school year. dents in a love of math and science their communities to help with Aspirnaut “They’re going through a lot of through the Aspirnaut Program. videoconferencing during the school year, things in life,” he said of the students, S I O B U D
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“and it takes a little more to get them expertise of the teacher. The weekly video - with Vanderbilt veterinarian Kelly Boyd, excited. We want to motivate students, conferences achieve this partnership. DVM. She hopes to become a veterinarian keep the excitement in science, and also Moreover, the STEM students and profes - working with large animals. “Dr. Billy and advance the learning. It’s so rewarding sionals are not only experts in the scientific Dr. Julie have made my dream reachable,” when you see the light bulb go off, and material they are teaching but also com - she said. “I’ve known for a long time that I you literally can see it.” municate firsthand about educational wanted to be a veterinarian. I just wasn’t Videoconferencing is tailored to each pathways, career opportunities, and the sure how it would happen. Without the teacher’s curriculum and follows the rewards and the excitement of discovery.” Aspirnaut program I could have gone STEM framework established by each A secondary benefit is professional either way.” state. “The classroom teacher is a pivotal development for teachers. “The program, Cody Stothers, another Aspirnaut suc - partner and directs which labs are included almost vicariously, administers onsite pro - cess story, is a rising Vanderbilt University in the schedule. They’re truly partners fessional development every day we’re in senior from Sheridan, Ark., “population about what they wish to see happen,” Julie the classroom,” Hudson said. 4,500 on a good day.” He became involv ed Hudson said. early on in the Aspirnaut program as a Most elementary and middle school Reachable dreams school bus rider on the laptop-equipped teachers have a degree in education, not in Siblings Jeremiah and Sarah Beth buses, and then as a summer research pro - science, math, engineering or technology, Ellis, of Omaha, Ark., are Aspirnaut pro - gram participant. He currently works as a she said. “Classroom teachers have my gram success stories. Jeremiah, who partic - resident assistant, supervising new partici - highest admiration. They have many ipated in the summer program for several pants during the summer and also leads a points of accountability, and often, with years and received his bachelor’s degree in couple of videoconferencing sessions dur - minimal resources. In regard to STEM industrial technology last year from Berea ing the school year. And late last year he curriculum, we who work in major College, is one of the first Aspirnaut par - became the first Aspirnaut student accepted research universities are challenged to keep ticipants to graduate from college. He and into medical school. Accepted through up with the rapidly evolving generation of Sarah Beth, a sophomore at Berea, are two early admission to Vanderbilt University new knowledge. How could a classroom of 16 children (some adopted) raised by School of Medicine, he will pursue a med - teacher realistically be expected to do the Joe and Kitty Ellis. Both in their 60s, Joe ical degree beginning in fall 2014. same? The practical solution is not to re- is a retired truck driver and Kitty, a high Stothers, born in the prison where his train teachers, but it is to partner the con - school library worker who has battled lung mother was incarcerated, was raised by his tent and experiential expertise of university cancer. Jeremiah, who participated in the disabled grandmother, who gets by on STEM professionals with the classroom summer research program for several years, about $9,500 a year from her government Sarah Beth, and six siblings were in foster disability pension. “My grandmother got a care when the Ellises adopted all of them. call from prison when I was born, saying The summer research program is an “immersion experience” for the students “Jeremiah works hard and is going they were going to put me into foster care who live on campus for up to 10 weeks and places,” said Sarah Beth, who participated if she couldn’t take me. She said yes, become contributing members of a lab team. in the summer internship in 2011 working which was obviously awesome for me, but L L L L E E S S S S U U R R
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Vanderbilt student Cody Stothers, L E S S right, from rural Arkansas, is the U R
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first Aspirnaut student accepted H O into medical school. J a burden for her. She worked her whole life and her jobs weren’t super well-paying and didn’t have a lot of benefits. She never graduated from high school. She didn’t have an easy life and taking over the responsibility of a child was hard, but she chose to and I’m thankful. She’s always been the most supportive person in my life. She made me realize I could do any - thing if I tried hard enough.” Stothers said that paying for college on his own was not an option. “My plan was always to try hard and try to get a scholarship,” he said. And he did—a full ride to Vanderbilt.
Planting a seed of hope Although individual success stories warm their hearts, Julie and Billy Hudson believe helping more than 2,000 students in multiple states isn’t enough. And there’s already more demand for videoconferenc - ing than the Aspirnaut program can pro - vide. They continue to hope the Aspirnaut program will serve as a model for other universities to start similar endeavors and that the videoconferencing model will become a template for other research uni - versities to replicate. “Our colleagues here and at other universities don’t have time to develop programs from the ground up,” Julie Hudson said. “We have spent seven years developing a model that could be replicated. Here’s a template.” She said it’s easy to get overwhelmed when you fully realize the extent of the need. So it’s important to stay focused. “They’ve helped me look at life differ - your skin, or what religion. A lot of kids “We won’t solve all problems, but we ently, to see the challenges and understand out there are isolated in rural America, and could potentially impact many more stu - that you’re not supposed to know every - they’re special people who can contribute dents if the model is replicated,” she said. thing, that you just have to push through to society. I want to shine a light on those Jeremiah Ellis said the Hudsons have and learn it.” people. helped him obtain confidence and experi - And that’s what it’s all about, says “If kids know that others, like me, ence. “They’re both brilliant people who Billy Hudson—planting a seed of hope have overcome these circumstances, and are very much down to earth. They care and hoping the student takes it from there. they can identify with any part of it, it for people—those with potential and “Brainpower is distributed randomly. might give them hope. I know what it’s desire, with a passion to learn, but without It doesn’t go by who you are, and how like not to have hope.” VM the opportunity. much money you have, or the color of
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Chief resident Walter Schratt, M.D., center, shares a light moment with his younger colleagues. Katherina, participated in a student exchange program in Gainesville, Fla., moving in with her aunt. “I think we always knew we’d come Hail to the chief! back to the U.S. This just set the wheels into motion,” said Schratt, who moved the WRITTEN BY MIMI ECKHARD rest of his family to Gainesville in 2007 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE HOWELL while he set out to obtain a U.S. residency training spot, a requirement despite the fact that he had already completed a residency in Heidelberg, Germany, and had been practicing medicine since the 1990s. n June 30, Walter Schratt, M.D., 53, completed his chief residency as the The plan was that on weekends off, he Department of Surgery’s oldest resident. would drive back to Florida to be with his OIt wasn’t a second career that garnered him this distinction, but rather a second conti - family, depending on how close he could nent—the United States—that he wanted to call home. find a residency spot. So, he sold the family His journey started in 1988 when life took an unexpected turn in the Deep South. home and practice in Germany, took time While on a research fellowship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, the newly off to take the necessary exams, and began graduated doctor from Southern Bavaria met his wife Anne, who was studying at UAB to be applying for residency openings in the U.S. a teacher. But what they thought would only Not speaking a word of German, Anne joined Schratt in Germany and the two began take two years, took a bit longer. their lives together—he as a general surgeon and she as the mother of their soon-to-be three Though the American Board of Surgery children. did approve three years of his training in But their ties to the United Sates were never far behind. In 2006, their oldest daughter, Germany, Schratt still had to compete for
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Todd Callahan, M.D., left, discusses a patient’s case with first-year resident Rachel Apple, M.D., Rosette Chakkalakal, M.D., and resident Derek Wade Russell, M.D., in the residents’ lounge. coveted spots in the final fourth and fifth years of residency. Unfortunately, competi - tion was stiff, and vacancies usually went to those much younger. So, with his 50th birthday approach - ing, Schratt, an accomplished German surgeon, did the unthinkable. He took a first-year residency intern - ship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, joining the ranks of students who had just graduated from medical school. It was a gamble that paid off. With his first year of U.S. residency under his belt and recommendations coming from as high as the executive secretary of the American Board of Surgery, Schratt landed a fourth- year residency spot at Vanderbilt in 2011. “It can be difficult starting a residency in the middle of a program, not knowing the culture, the people or the systems. So, it Residents’ reduced hours don’t actually worked in Dr. Schratt’s favor to start in a year-one position,” said John L. impact care, education: study Tarpley, M.D., professor of Surgery and Restructuring work hours for first-year medical residents to accommodate a Anesthesiology and program director for 2011 duty hour limit of no more than 16 shift hours substantially increases patient the General Surgery Residency Program. handovers, but doesn’t significantly affect efficiency and quality of care among med- “His fourth and fifth years went much ical inpatients, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study has found. more smoothly because he started in the A separate Vanderbilt research report also shows that the reduced duty hours trenches and knew what to expect.” don’t negatively affect the quality of the intern’s education. Schratt agreed, but jokingly added, The patient care study, published in J AMA Internal Medicine on April 1, was led “Yes, but six months would have been by Neesha Choma, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Medicine. enough.” It compared a group of patients from July-December 2010, prior to the new 16- Despite the set-back, Schratt quickly hour rule, with patients seen from July-December 2011, after the new regulation became a favorite among residents, patients from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) took effect. and doctors, alike. Patient handovers are defined as instances when one provider hands over the care “I learned more from Walter than he of the patient to another provider (in this case, resident to resident). learned from me, and not just about sur - For the eight Department of Medicine teams studied, each shift is a well- gery,” said Kyla P. Terhune, M.D., assistant defined 13-hour period. The day team comes in at 6:30 a.m. and leaves at 7:30 p.m., professor of Surgery and Anesthesiology at the latest. The night shift comes in at 6:30 p.m. and leaves the next morning at and associate program director. “It takes a 7:30 a.m. special person with vision beyond the ordi - The study looked at about 4,000 adult non-intensive care unit patients on eight nary to start over and do so with grace, Vanderbilt University Hospital services, and tracked observed-to-expected mortality , humility and quiet strength.” adverse events, length of stay, 30-day hospital readmission, and also the number of Not surprisingly, these very same qual - rapid response team calls and code calls (escalations in care). They performed a ities were cherished by patients, as well. rapid assessment, looking at about six months of data before and after the changes. “Dr. Schratt always spoke softly, looked “This was a first look to assess whether the residents’ duty hour changes resulted them in the eye and told the truth,” said in any unintended consequences. We found that despite this major restructuring, ulti- Tarpley. “It’s why on the few times he had mately there was no adverse effect on patient care, which was reassuring,” said Sunil off, we’d frequently hear, ‘Where’s my Kripalani, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of Medicine and another study author. “As German doctor?’” time goes on, we’ll want to re-evaluate with a larger group of patients.” VM In July Schratt returned to Florida - NANCY HUMPHREY with his family and is in private practice. VM
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INSPIRED BY PATIENTS, like special consideration to be given to passionate about trying to raise more GOLDNERS SUPPORT any scholarship applicant from that coun - money for student scholarships, and we SCHOLARSHIP INITIATIVE try. We see the need to support physician are very grateful to people like Fred and education from many angles,” said Martha Goldner who are so graciously Martha Goldner. giving to our Scholarship Initiative,” said In more than 50 years of clinical Goldner said his book could have Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor practice and teaching at Vanderbilt focused on diagnosis and treatment avail - for Health Affairs and dean of VUSM. University Medical Center, Fred Goldner able during his practice, “but what I want - The Scholarship Initiative is 60 per - Jr., M.D.,’48, trained countless medical ed to write about is what my patients cent of the way toward reaching its first students and residents who learned flaw - taught me. In many ways, the experiences three-year goal of $10 million. Twenty- less diagnostic skills from the Vanderbilt- of these 300 pieces of paper had made me two students have received support from educated Nashville native. hope that the people who read the book scholarships established during the effort. But Goldner learned from them too. and certainly my children would be open “A doctor gets finished with medical Years later, pieces of wisdom that he to surprises every day. I realized I had the school and is in so much debt paying off learned from students, colleagues, his privilege of doing that, and I would hope tuition. It just seems like this is an patients and their families have been pub - for that privilege for everyone.” obstruction to his or her education,” lished in a book, “Practice, Practice, In his book, Goldner discusses every - Goldner said. Practice: Slices of Life from a Career in thing from home remedies taught to him For more information on Goldner’s Medicine.” The book draws from by his patients to the “everlasting hurt” of book or on the Scholarship Initiative, Goldner’s collection of notes that were losing a son and the “disturbing effect” please call (615) 936-0230. initially written on 300 pieces of paper that racism and segregation had on him in - NANCY HUMPHREY and stuffed in his shirt or coat pocket— the 1950s and 1960s. kept separately from his patient files. Goldner discusses segregation in hos - The proceeds from the book will pitals and doctors’ waiting rooms and how benefit the Fred Goldner, M.D. he and his wife participated in sit-ins to Scholarship that Goldner and his wife, end racial segregation at lunch counters in Martha, established with a contribution of downtown Nashville in the 1970s. The $100,000. The Goldners’ gift is part of integration of his waiting room was one of the Scholarship Initiative for Vanderbilt the first in the area. Goldner said that Martha and Fred Goldner, M.D., '48. L L E
University School of Medicine, an effort every day of his internal medicine practice W O H
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to increase the scholarship endowment. was new and stimulating. O J “Medical education is extraordinarily “Every day I’d be surprised. It could dear and whatever help we can give is be a sad or a disappointing surprise, but it worthwhile. Remembering why I went was a surprise. But mostly I was inspired into medicine in the first place makes me by my patients, how they handled situa - want to support the next generation of tions, how they responded to a diagnosis, physicians,” Goldner said. what their families had to do,” he said. Goldner joined Vanderbilt’s clinical “The book was sort of a delightful faculty in 1961. His Vanderbilt roots run idea,” Martha Goldner said, “about what even deeper, he says. In the 1930s, as an he learned in medicine and how he was Eagle Scout, he served as an usher at able to serve people through medicine.” Vanderbilt football games, and since then The Scholarship Initiative has a has become a longtime Vanderbilt basket - straightforward purpose: to grow the ball fan (as well as an avid Boston Red scholarship endowment so that every stu - Sox fan). dent accepted can choose Vanderbilt The Goldners’ son, Arthur, who died without concern for burdensome debt. in 1988, was a 1983 graduate of VUSM. “Vanderbilt now competes head-to- They have three surviving children and head with the nation’s most elite medical five grandchildren, and say that support - schools for the world’s finest students, but ing scholarships for Vanderbilt medical some of those students are forced to students comes from their heart. “Since choose other schools with more robust we have a child living in Costa Rica, we’d scholarship endowments. We are very
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DEDICATED TO MAKING A DIFFERENCE
During a tour 30 years ago of what is now the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, Tom Flood witnessed an extraor - dinary event. “What I saw and what I heard that day made a tremendous impression on me. I was so touched by my experience,” Flood said. What Flood saw from the parent observation room was the impact of early intervention with children who have a Tom and Vickie Flood visit with students of the Mama Lere Hearing School. variety of communication disorders such as hearing, speech and language problems. sing and talk while providing training for we have taught our own children that it is A 2-year-old boy was led into the hearing and speech graduate students. It is possible to give without recognition. It’s room that was full of children playing. this program that impacted Flood the most. really all about the joy in doing it and see - Flood recalled how the boy’s eyes bright - Flood’s passion for the Vanderbilt Bill ing the end result. ened upon entering the room. The toddler Wilkerson Center is shared by his wife, “That is the legacy we want to leave— sat and watched another child playing with Vickie. The Chicago natives moved to instilling the gift of involvement and the building blocks and began to mimic her. Tennessee 1979 and became connected importance of making a difference.” “As he was taking the blocks, the lit - with the center soon after. They have made Tom Flood agrees. tle girl said to him ‘that’s mine,’” recalled transformational gifts to the Department of “It’s not just about the bricks and Flood. “Then the little boy looked up at Hearing and Speech Sciences to help ensure mortar,” he said. “It’s about the people the little girl and said, ‘mine.’ the center’s progress. and making an impact. It’s about what is “It was the first time the boy had spo - “Giving is such a simple concept,” going on inside the building.” ken. ‘Mine’ was his first word. His parents said Vickie Flood. “And more important ly, - JESSICA PASLEY were standing right next to me at the one- way mirror and they burst into tears.
Right then, I knew this was a place I VANDERBILT BILL WILKERSON CENTER QUICK FACTS would love to support.” What began as a visit to learn more • In 1949, Wesley Wilkerson, M.D., an ear, nose and throat physician in Nashville, created the Tennessee Hearing and Speech Foundation where children with hearing loss could about the center for his company’s chari - learn to speak and communicate. table giving program has grown into a life - • In 1951, the Foundation opened a clinic named after Wilkerson’s son, Bill, as a memo - long relationship with Vanderbilt. rial and tribute to the Wilkerson family. Flood, who retired as the chief finan - • In 1966, the Bill Wilkerson Center launched an early intervention program for children cial officer for Tractor Supply Company, with hearing loss. The program’s success as a parent-teaching model prompted plans continues his relationship with the for a permanent facility. Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center today, • In 1972, a model home training program for teaching parents how to work with their having joined the advisory board in 1998. children who had hearing loss was established. Funded by the Justin and Valere Potter He was instrumental in the merger of the Foundation, the facility was named the Mama Lere Home after the affectionate term Bill Wilkerson Center with Vanderbilt in used for Valere Potter by her children and grandchildren. 1997 and has served as chair since 2002. • Upon moving into its new facility in Medical Center East in 2005, the Mama Lere Hearing School was established. He joined the Canby Robinson • In 1997, the Bill Wilkerson Center merged with VUMC. Known as the Vanderbilt Bill Society Board to learn more about Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, the center was Vanderbilt’s medical education mission designed to enable medical practitioners, speech-language pathologists, teachers of and goals in an effort to better assist in the the deaf and hard-of-hearing, audiologists, and rehabilitation therapists to work side by growth and progress of the Vanderbilt Bill side to meet the needs of the community it serves. Wilkerson Center, more specifically the • The center, led by Roland Eavey, M.D., and Anne Marie Tharpe, Ph.D., is internationally Mama Lere Hearing School, which teach es known for its graduate programs in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology and is children with hearing loss to listen, read, ranked No.1 and No. 3, respectively, by the 2013 U.S. News and World Report .
SUMMER 2013 37 :: medical center giving
A HEART FOR GIVING TO repair was performed more than five years “The generous support from Mr. van SUPPORT INNOVATION ago by Michael R. Petracek, M.D., interim Roijen comes at an extremely important chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of time,” according to Wang. “The federal In matters of giving, venture capitalist Cardiac Surgery. budget crunch and other economic uncer - Robby van Roijen recommends following Since the surgery, van Roijen, 74, a tainties have led to significant reductions in your heart, the same course he took in former Marine, swims a quarter of a mile the amount of funding available for basic, establishing Vanderbilt’s first endowed fund every day, getting in longer swims on the clinical and translational research. This is in cardiac innovation. weekends. coming at a time when genomic and molec - “The thing I like about giving to Before setting up the Robert van ular technologies are opening new fields of Vanderbilt is that the money is actually Roijen Discovery Science Fund, his previ - investigation and presenting critical oppor - going to producing something that will ous philanthropy provided support for tunities to advance our understanding of eventually make the world a healthier Michael Bestawros, M.D., to develop a cardiovascular disease.” place,” said van Roijen, founder and princi - prototype device to detect arrhythmias and A key leader on Vanderbilt University pal of Orlando-based TOX Financial. atrial fibrillation and for Susan Eagle, Medical Center’s Heart Advisory Council, His heart led him to Vanderbilt initially M.D., associate professor of Clinical van Roijen said he is “extremely intrigued” when his Orlando physician detected a Anesthesiology, to develop a software by innovations in medical research at faulty mitral valve. As the condition wors - application to display echocardiogram data Vanderbilt, especially with DNA. ened, Robert Boswell, M.D., who trained at on a smartphone or tablet. “I like new inventions and venture cap - Vanderbilt, sent van Roijen for further test - While this is an exciting time for bio - ital,” he said. “Giving money to Vanderbilt ing to Benjamin F. Byrd III, M.D., a medical research, and cardiology research in for new techniques and new procedures Vanderbilt professor of Medicine who spe - particular, much more work is needed to really appeals to me.” cializes in echocardiography and adult con - leverage new technologies and translate new You might say it comes from the heart. genital heart disease. insights into patient care, said Thomas - JENNIFER JOHNSTON Byrd soon determined that van Roijen Wang, M.D., director of the Division of needed surgery to repair the valve. The Cardiovascular Medicine.
ENDOWED CHAIRS
Thirteen Vanderbilt University School • Ariel Y. Deutch, Ph.D., James G. investment, as well the growth in pre - of Medicine faculty members named Blakemore Professor in Psychiatry vious investments, legacies if you to endowed chairs were honored for • Fred S. Lamb, M.D., Ph.D., will,” he said. outstanding academic achievements Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor in “Because of the incredible manage - in the Spring during celebrations at Pediatrics ment of our endowment by a number the Student Life Center. • Kevin G. Osteen, Ph.D., Pierre of vice chancellors for investments, Soupart Professor in Obstetrics and we now have the pleasure of taking • William O. Cooper, M.D., Cornelius Gynecology one chair and splitting it into two,” Vanderbilt Professor in Pediatrics • Keith T. Wilson, M.D., Thomas F. McCarty said. “That has been some - • Sergio Fazio, M.D., Ph.D., Cornelius Frist Sr. Professor in Medicine thing that has allowed for this Vanderbilt Professor in Medicine • Roy Zent, Ph.D., Thomas F. Frist Sr. increase in honors for our most dis - • Haydar A. Frangoul, M.D., Carolyn Professor in Medicine tinguished faculty.” Perot Rathjen Professor • Carl W. Zimmerman, M.D., Frances In August 2010, Chancellor Nicholas • Kevin B. Johnson, M.D., Cornelius and John C. Burch Professor in S. Zeppos announced a major univer - Vanderbilt Professor in Biomedical Obstetrics and Gynecology sity initiative to recruit and retain out - Informatics standing scholars and teachers. • MacRae F. Linton, M.D., Dr. In addition to honoring the chair As part of the initiative, he said the Stephen Schillig, Jr. and Mary Schillig holders, Richard McCarty, provost and University would increase by 60 the Professor in Medicine vice chancellor for academic affairs, number of endowed chair holders • Steven A. Webber, M.B.Ch.B., thanked the donors “past and pres - within two years. James C. Overall Professor in ent” who made the endowed chairs Pediatrics possible. “We celebrate today new
38 SUMMER 2013 For more information about giving to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, medical center giving :: contact the Office of Development and Alumni Relations by mail at 2525 West End Ave., Suite 450, Nashville, TN, 37203-1775, by phone at (615) 936-0230 or by email at [email protected]. Visit the website at vanderbilthealth.org/giving. L L
FAMILY’S GENEROSITY E S S U R
SUPPORTS CANCER N H O RESEARCH J
Billy Webb knows every nook and cranny of Vanderbilt. He knows the name of the young woman who sells him a no-whip iced mocha in the Courtyard Café on treat - ment days, the ladies who check him in at the front desk and the nurse who comes around to check his vitals. Vanderbilt has been a huge part of his life, and not just since he was diag - nosed with cancer. Billy was born in the hospital and studied at the University, fol - lowing in the steps of his father, Jimmy, who played Vandy football and later served on the Board of Trust before his death from lung cancer in 2009. Billy marched in his dress whites with the Naval ROTC unit as a student, and his Phi Delta Theta fraternity brothers are lifelong friends who rallied around him Billy and Nancy Webb (BA '74) established a Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., Vanderbilt- when he was diagnosed with multiple discovery fund in memory of their son, Vann. Ingram Cancer Center director and B.F. myeloma in 2010 and during an earlier Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology, said that cancer surgery in 2008. (He currently is support from funds like these is vital to in remission.) He’s cheered on the collaborative, transformative cancer Commodore football team through bad “This type of funding drives novel research. times and good. research and creative ideas at an academic “We draw on the strengths of the Billy’s son, William Vann Bartlett research institution and can lead to the entire University, from the College of Arts Webb Jr., was a student at Vanderbilt type of innovation that helps us discover and Science to basic and clinical depart - when he was diagnosed with a rare form better treatments that can lead to longer ments in the medical school,” she said. of neuroendocrine cancer. He died 10 and better quality lives for cancer “The research funding from the Nancy months later at age 21. Vann could have patients,” Berlin said. and William Webb endowment allows us received treatment anywhere, his father Webb is passionate about funding to continue to advance our science to the said, but he wanted to be at his hometown research that he hopes one day will lead to Clinic for more personalized therapies and hospital with extraordinary physicians like cures and promote discovery of new medi - cures for patients suffering from cancer. I Jordan Berlin, M.D., Ingram Professor of cines and treatments that ultimately will can’t thank the Webb family enough for Cancer Research. improve the quality of life for patients their continuing support of the entire The family established a discovery with cancer and their families. University and its mission.” fund in memory of Vann, who still holds “It’s extremely rare these days that Giving back to a familiar place that high school track records at Montgomery someone hasn’t had cancer in the family has seen him through good times and bad Bell Academy in Nashville. Support from of one sort or another,” he said. “My matters to Webb. that fund helped fuel a $35,000 start-up view, having experienced the quality and “I would love more than anything to grant for cancer research that eventually benefit of treatment here firsthand, is that see cancer treatment and cures progress,” led to a $900,000 grant from the National rather than giving to a more generic bucket , said Webb, “but even more, I would love Institutes of Health. More recently, the I’d like to help Vanderbilt continue to to see it happen at my own school and in family endowed the Nancy and William grow as a world-leading research and my own hometown.” Webb Cancer Research Fund. medical institution.” - JENNIFER JOHNSTON
SUMMER 2013 39 :: alumni journal CONTACT ANN H. PRICE, M.D. Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs, Vanderbilt University Medical Center School of Medicine Phone: (615) 343-6337 Fax: (615) 936-8475 [email protected] https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/alumni
Dear Vanderbilt University Medical Alumni, VMAA Board Welcomes New Member The VMAA Board welcomed Amanda Meyer as the new Congratulations VUSM Class of 2013 Graduate Student representative in May 2013. Amanda is currently The Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association (VMAA) proudly working on a Ph.D., in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics with welcomed the newest members of our medical alumni family, the an expected graduation date of 2015. VUSM Class of 2013, at a Faculty Appreciation/ “Almost Alumni” Luncheon on May 8. I know each of you joins me in celebrating VMAA Recent Events their present achievements as we now begin to eagerly anticipate We extend a special note of appreciation to Drs. Jill (MD ‘96, learning of their success in future Alumni News/”Worthy of Note” VMAA Regional Representative) and George (MD ‘96) Hutton, sections of Vanderbilt Medicine magazine. who graciously served as our hosts for a Houston-area regional din - ner on June 6. In addition, the VMAA has hosted spring events for VMAA Host Program our Vanderbilt Meacham (Neurological Surgery), Friesinger More than 300 alumni now participate in our VMAA Host (Cardiology), Roentgen (Radiation Oncology), Luton (Psychiatry), Program. Your willingness to participate in this program and provide and Orthopaedic Societies. We have also assisted with the 2013 support to our fourth-year class as they attend residency interviews is Post-Doctoral Fellows Poster Symposium, our BRET Program’s greatly appreciated. The interview cycle for the VUSM Class of Ph.D. Qualifying celebration and supported our students’ annual 2014 will begin soon. To learn more about this program, please see 5K Shade Tree Trot. We enjoyed a busy summer highlighted by medschool.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/hostprogram and to sign up to be a the welcome picnic for our new Vanderbilt Medical House Staff in Host Program participant. June.
VMAA Open House in conjunction with VU Reunion 2013 Worthy of Note News Reunion 2012 was a huge success, thanks in large measure to a It is always great to hear from you. Please submit your record number of Vanderbilt Medical Alumni participants. While “Worthy of Note” news for our next edition of Vanderbilt Medicine we will not have a medical reunion in 2013, the VMAA cordially magazine. Send your news and photographs to medalum@vander - invites all those coming to campus for VU’s undergraduate home - bilt.edu. coming to join us for our VMAA Open House, Friday, Oct. 4, We hope to hear from you soon. 2 - 4 p.m., Light Hall Student Lounge, 3rd Floor. Clifton Meador, M.D.,’55, will join us and sign complimentary copies of his latest Best Wishes, book, Medical Detective Stories , for the first 100 attendees.
VUSM Reunion 2014 Our next biennial VUSM Reunion is scheduled for the fall of 2014 in conjunction with VU’s Homecoming festivities. We will advise all our special anniversary class members (classes ending in 3,4, 8, 9; Quinq Classes ‘64 and ‘65; and Quinq Plus classes 1963 and earlier) as soon as a date is available. For the first time in many reunion cycles, we will celebrate our class parties on Friday evening. Please see our website, www.medschool.vanderbilt.edu/alumni, for a preliminary Reunion 2014 schedule.
40 SUMMER 2013 Read Vanderbilt Medicine online, and send in your alumni news :: alumni news at www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltmedicine. Digital photos (200-300 dpi and at least 4 by 6 inches) are always welcome and will be included as space permits.
KEY Biology and director emeritus of MD - Medical School Graduate Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, HS - House staff has received the 10th annual FE - Fellow American Association for Cancer FAC - Faculty Research Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research.
50 s Phyllis Davidson Corbitt, M.D., 70 s ‘52, HS ‘52, retired from family Samuel Brody, M.D., ‘77, HS ‘80, practice in Wilmore, Ky., in has written the book “Voice of February. Experience: Stories about Health Care and the Elderly,” in collabo - William Fleet, M.D., ‘58, and his ration with his wife, Jane Brody, family have a Vanderbilt connec - R.N., MSN, ‘79. tion that spans more than 60 years: brother-in-law, Gordon Stephen Hines, M.D., ‘77, HS ‘80, Petty, M.D., ‘50; nephew, Mike became certified in hospice and Maggart, M.D., ‘78; son, William palliative care medicine by the David Patterson, M.D., ‘85, (BA ‘81) and his wife, Linda Young (BA ‘81), Fleet III, M.D., ‘90; and great- American Board of Internal recently traveled through China on the VUAA/VMAA-sponsored trip. nephew, Michael Maggart, VUSM Medicine in December 2012. He Class of ‘15. continues his full-time faculty position in the internal medicine part of West Tennessee Keith Nolop, M.D., ‘79, HS ‘84, FE Gerald Stone, M.D., ‘57, placed residency program at Methodist Neuroscience and Spine, with a ‘88, has been named chief med - the Doctor of Medicine hood over Dallas Medical Center and works focus on adult neurosurgery. ical officer for Kite Pharma, Inc., a his grandson David Clay (VU ‘09) part time as a team physician for clinical stage biotechnology com - during his graduation from the VITAS Innovative Hospice. Thomas Nygaard, M.D., ‘78, has pany focused on developing engi - Ohio State School of Medicine. been named chief medical officer neered autologous T cell therapy Stone and his wife, Lois, also John Neblett, M.D., ‘77, HS ‘83, of Centra Health. Nygaard was (eACT) products for cancer. Nolop attended the wedding of Clay and was the featured physician spot - previously the chief operating offi - was previously senior vice presi - Nicole Poulin in Cincinnati. light in the West Tennessee cer of the Centra Medical Group dent of development and chief Medical News in March. He is (CMG), and transitioned to this medical officer at Plexxikon. practicing in Jackson, Tenn., as new role on June 1. 60 s Michael Trueblood, M.D., ‘73, HS King Holmes, M.D., HS ‘64, ‘76, recently retired from his received the 2013 Gairdner Global orthopaedic surgery practice at Health Award for his scientific Saint Francis Medical Center in contributions to the field of sexu - Cape Girardeau, Mo. ally transmitted diseases. Holmes is head of the University of Victoria Vetter, M.D., HS ‘75, a Washington’s Department of pediatric cardiologist, was awarded Global Health. the prestigious Edward S. Cooper, M.D. Award at the American Richard Johnston Jr., M.D., ‘61, Heart Association of Southern HS ‘63, received the Godfrey Pennsylvania’s annual Heart Ball. Oakley award, given to those who She is the first female and first have made significant contribu - pediatric cardiologist to receive tions in the field of birth defects, this award. during the National Birth Defects Prevention Network annual meet - ing in Atlanta. Johnston is serv - ing in his second year as a com - 80 s munity member and adviser to John Anderson, M.D., ‘86, HS ‘89, the Medical Center Affairs com - Gary Hoffman, M.D., ‘78, recently returned from Guatemala on a surgi - has been named president, mittee of the Vanderbilt University cal mission with son, Jordan, a second-year general surgery resident Medicine & Science, for the Board of Trust. at Emory University, and a team of 90 people. Over the course of nine American Diabetes Association. days, they performed 120 operations. Hoffman has also been nominat - Harold Moses, M.D., ‘62, HS ‘65, ed as a Southern California SuperDoctor for the second consecutive Daniel Burch, M.D., ‘84, HS ‘87, FAC, professor of Medicine and year, nominated by his peers in recognition of his contributions to the MBA, was appointed as a new Pathology, acting chair of Cancer field of colorectal surgery. therapeutic area head for
SUMMER 2013 41 :: alumni news
University School of Medicine, has been named chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Georgia and inaugural vice president for Clinical and Translational Sciences at Georgia Health Sciences University.
Billy Hutchings, M.D., ‘82, earned his doctorate in theology from Christian Life School of Theology in 2010.
Landon King, M.D., ‘87, has been appointed the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s executive vice dean. He is also the David Marine Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, director of Gabriela Andrade, M.D., ‘12, Roanne Selinger, M.D., ‘98, and her husband Todd Patrick welcomed the Division of Pulmonary and and her husband, Brady Fish, son Ryker Samuel Carey on Jan. 7. He joins big sister, Hayden, 4. Critical Care Medicine, and vice welcomed son Evan Prentiss, Selinger is a gastroenterologist practicing in Bellevue, Wash. dean for research. who was born on April 27.
Paul Kountz Jr., M.D., ‘84, Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Product ‘84, was inducted as a fellow in Development LLC. He is a phar - the American College of Radiology maceutical and biotech research (ACR) at a formal convocation cer - 90s and development executive with emony during the recent ACR Ahmed Badr, M.D., H S ‘97, FE ‘99, 20 years of experience in general Annual Meeting in May. was named chair of the management, global drug devel - Department of Anesthesiology at opment, global medical affairs Richard Johnston, M.D., ‘85, was West Penn Allegheny Health and business development. named chief of the Division of System, effective June 1. He was Orthopaedic Surgery at Missouri previously at the Texas Tech Kevin Churchwell, M.D., ‘87, FAC Baptist Medical Center. University Health Sciences Center. ‘10, has been named chief operat - ing officer and executive vice Willie Ross, MPH, M.D., HS ‘87, Juli Horton, M.D., HS ‘90, FE ‘93, president of Health Affairs at was awarded the Samuel joined TriStar Centennial Medical Boston Children’s Hospital, effec - Goldstein Leadership Prize for Center as chair of the board of tive Aug. 5. Churchwell was previ - teaching at Washington trustees. Horton is an infectious ously the CEO of Nemours/Alfred University. disease physician at TriStar in I. duPont Hospital for Children in Nashville. Wilmington, Del. In his new dual Valerie Short, M.D., ‘85, works role, he will have responsibilities part-time at Jackson Hinds Dora Hughes, M.D.,’ 96, joined the for clinical and operating func - Comprehensive Health. She is firm of Sidley Austin LLP as senior tions across Children’s Hospital. pursuing a Master of Public policy adviser in its government Health degree in Health strategies group in Washington, Patrice Colbert, M.D., ‘88, is a Education at the University of D.C. full-time pediatrician at St. Luke’s Southern Mississippi. Pediatric Care Center in St. Louis, Scott Murkin, M.D., ‘92, is board She has four children, including Mark Werner, M.D., ‘84, HS ‘88, chair for Hospice of Randolph one attending Vanderbilt. She has has been selected president and County in Asheboro, N.C., having also been voted a Top Doc in the chairman of the board for the recently received certification Yaw Sarpong, M.D., ‘08, right, is St. Louis area by Castle Connolly American College of Physician in hospice and palliative care pursuing an MBA in health care at and is a Top Ladies of Distinction Executives (ACPE). His one-year medicine. George Washington University award recipient. term as president began during and is doing medical consulting the 2013 ACPE Annual Meeting in Robert Steele, M.D., ‘93, was while developing medical tech - Michael Diamond, M.D., ‘81, HS New York. named president of Mercy nology with Doctors on Demand. ‘85, associate chair for the Hospital in Springfield, Mo. He is married to Carlene Pride- Department of Obstetrics and Steele, who has been a practicing Sarpong. Gynecology at Wayne State pediatrician for 15 years, is the
42 SUMMER 2013 alumni news ::
first physician in Mercy’s history Gustav Blomquist IV, M.D., ‘04, to step into the role of hospital and his wife, Lisa, welcomed president. daughter, Liv Elizabeth, on Nov. 30, 2012. She joins big brothers, Gus and Lars. 2000 - Muyibat Adelani, M.D., ‘08, is fin - Jonathan Chrispin, M.D., ‘09, fin - ishing his chief residency in ished the Osler Internal Medicine orthopaedic surgery at residency program at Johns Washington University in St. Hopkins in June 2012. He is in his Louis. He will then become a fel - first year of a cardiology fellow - low and clinical instructor in ship at Johns Hopkins with a orthopaedic surgery at Stanford career plan to go into academic University. electrophysiology. He got married during his intern year to Kimberly Jose Alvarado, M.D., ‘09, HS ‘12, Gerdes and they are expecting FAC, completed his general pedi - their first child in July. atrics residency at Vanderbilt in 2012. He splits his time between Joseph Craft, M.D., HS ‘01, is the Nashville and Salisbury, Md., president-elect of the St. Louis where he is the owner of a pedi - Metropolitan Medical Society atric private practice that was his (SLMMS). With more than 1,200 father’s. He married Maria physician members, SLMMS is Maguire, M.D., ‘10, HS ‘13, in the oldest medical society west of Meera Reddy, M.D., ‘13, and Jesse Wright, M.D., ‘13 were married on October 2010. Maguire will be the Mississippi and predates the April 20 in Nashville with both a Christian ceremony and a Hindu starting a Master of Public Policy founding of the American Medical ceremony in the Music City Walk of Fame park. at Princeton University in July. Association.
Jasminka Criley, M.D., HS ‘95, is first Air Force assignment will Victoria Porter, M.D., ‘07, and present-elect and meeting chair take them in June 2014. Paterne Sissinto, M.D., plan to for the California-Hawaii Society marry in September. Porter is of General Internal Medicine. Monika Kiripolsky, M.D., ‘04, completing a fellowship in child completed a medicine/critical and adolescent psychiatry at the Denis Foretia, M.D., ‘08, and his care internship at the University University of Maryland Hospital in wife, Lenora, have set up a chari - of California-Irvine, a dermatol - Baltimore. table foundation to spearhead ogy and dermatologic surgery their community work in residency at the University of Airron Richardson, M.D., ‘04, Cameroon. The Denis and Lenora Illinois-Chicago, and a fellowship MBA ‘05, is the associate medical Foretia Foundation seeks to cat - in cosmetic laser surgery. She director of emergency medicine at alyze Africa’s economic transfor - recently joined Obagi Skin Health the Methodist Hospitals in Gary, mation by focusing on public Institute of Beverly Hills. Ind., and Merrillville, Ind. He was health, small business and entre - selected as managing partner of preneurship, science and technol - Jason Mann, M.D., ‘08, Ph.D., ‘06, Northwest Emergency Associates ogy and the implementation of is the managing director of a new in January. progressive policies. emerging market health care fund in Hong Kong, where he lives Nicholas Taraska, M.D., ‘06, Derek Feussner, M.D., HS ‘13, a with his wife, Natalie. joined the staff of Eastern resident in internal medicine, and Nephrology Associates and is car - Ansley Sade were married on Feb. Emily Neely, M.D., HS ‘06, is a ing for patients at the practice’s 9, in Charleston, S.C. board-certified endocrinologist at Greenville, N.C., office. Saint Thomas Hospital in Atia Jordan, M.D., ‘09, FE ‘13, Nashville. Rachel Toney, M.D., HS ‘06, is Daniel Koehler, M.D., ‘12, and completed a pediatric residency engaged to Jason Pettie. Toney his wife, Susan, welcomed a at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Mario Nieto, M.D., ‘08, is finishing practices with Atlanta daughter, Madeline Mae, on May in June 2012 and finished her fel - a cardiovascular anesthesia fel - Gastroenterology Associates. 1. Koehler completed his intern lowship in sleep medicine at lowship at Texas Heart, and his year in orthopaedic surgery at Vanderbilt in June. wife Kirsten Nieto, M.D., ‘08, is the University of Iowa while finishing her chief residency year Susan keeps busy as a full-time Michelle Shepard Kiger, M.D., ‘11, in internal medicine at Baylor mom and part-time pediatric married William Kiger on Aug. 12, College of Medicine. They both physical therapist. 2012, at Lake Tahoe. They are moved to Austin to private prac - eagerly waiting to hear where her tice jobs in July.
SUMMER 2013 43 :: in memoriam
Sheng Kai Lin, M.D., FE ‘88, died by his wife, Sara; children, Ernest Ewers, M.D., ‘48, HS ‘54, FAC ‘09, died June 10. He was 88. He Feb. 21. He was 64. He is survived by Kathryn, Andrew and Amy; and was preceded in death by his daughter, Deborah. He is survived by his siblings, Sheng Hsien, Jan eight grandchildren. his wife, Marge; a son, William; and two grandchildren. Dr. Ewers, Cheng-Yu, Cheng Horng, the son of medical missionaries, was born in China, finished high Shenchuan, Shen-Shiou, Tzee-Yuan Robert Ray, M.D., ‘55, died March school in Somerset, Ky., and attended Emory University and and many nieces and nephews. 25. He was 83. He is survived by Vanderbilt University. He served in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps his wife, Hilda; children, Robert, during WWII and the Korean War. Dr. Ewers was a professor emeri - Warren Lonergan, M.D., ‘40, died William, Joseph and Elena; and Feb. 26. He was 97. He was preced- five grandchildren. tus of Clinical Medicine at VUSM, and served on the Medical School ed in death by his wife, Allene, and Board of Trustees for more than 30 years. One of the founders of the is survived by children, Lynn, John Schimmel, M.D., ‘73, died Canby Robinson Society, he served as its president from 1981-1983. Douglas, Diane and Todd; and March 1. He was 66. He is survived He practiced internal medicine and cardiology for more than 60 years seven grandchildren. by his wife, Connie; children, Ruth, in Nashville. Jay and Rob; and one grandchild. James McComb, M.D., ‘74, died March 9. He was 64. He is survived John Thomison Sr., M.D., ‘44, HS Frank Bauer Jr., MD ‘48, died May dren, Margaret, Bradford, by his wife of 42 years, JoAnne; and ‘52, died April 21. He was 92. He 31. He was 88. Dr. Bauer is survived Elisabeth; and four grandchildren. children, Andy and Erin. was preceded in death by his wife, by his children, Julia, Cinde, David Elva, and is survived by children, and Michael; six grandchildren and James Growdon, Jr., M.D., ‘69, HS Michael Moore, M.D., ‘89, died April John, Robert, Mary Ann and Elva; two great-grandchildren. ‘73, FAC ‘00, died May 22. He is 24. He was 50. He is survived by his and five grandchildren. survived by his wife, Laura; chil - wife, Gina; and children, Madeline, Bennett Caughran, M.D., ‘53, HS dren, Robert, James and Robyn; Zachary, Jack and Sarah. David Wheeler, M.D., ‘85, died ‘58, died Jan. 23. He was preceded and five grandchildren. Nov. 26, 2012. He was 53. He is in death by his wife, Phyillis. He is Hoke Nash Jr., M.D., ‘54, died Dec. survived by his wife, Mindy; and survived by children, Becky, Philip William Hall, M.D., ‘48, died Sept. 11, 2012. He was 82. He is survived children Sally and Samuel. and Fred; and five grandchildren. 8, 2012. He was 88. He is survived by family, friends, neighbors and Eugene Davidson, M.D., ‘56, FE ‘60, colleagues. died Nov. 21, 2012. He was 81. He is Joseph C. Ross, M.D.,’54, died June 22, after a survived by his wife, Judith; chil - Joseph Johnson, M.D., ‘43, died lengthy illness. He was 86. dren, E. Taylor, Anne, Elizabeth Dec. 1, 2012. He was 93. He was Dr. Ross, who was professor of Medicine, and Helen; and six grandchildren. preceded in death by his wife, Emeritus, and associate vice chancellor for Health Alice. He is survived by children, Affairs, Emeritus, played a key role in many Medical Royce Dawson, M.D., ‘52, HS ‘58, Pete, Martha, David, Edwin and Center initiatives during his years of service, includ - died Dec. 2, 2012. He was 87. He is Marion; and 10 grandchildren. ing the establishment of the Department of Emergency Medicine and survived by his wife, Lucy; children, LifeFlight. John, Lucy and Mary; four grand - Milnor Jones, M.D., ‘48, died Feb. He was also the driving force behind banning smoking at VUMC, children and one great-grandchild. 19. He was 87. He is survived by his wife, Miriam; children, Miriam, which became effective in 1989, and often served as a media William Dow, M.D., ‘71, HS ‘75, Camille and Jonathan; and five spokesman for the Medical Center. died Dec. 4, 2012. He was 66. He is grandchildren. Dr. Ross earned an undergraduate degree at the University of survived by his partner, Ms. Daryl Kentucky and graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Walker. John Kesterson, M.D., ‘43, HS ‘49, Medicine in 1954. He focused his career on pulmonary disease, was a died Jan. 27. He was 94. He was resident in Medicine at Duke and began his career in academic medi - Lewis Elliston, M.D., HS ‘75, FE preceded in death by his wife, cine at Indiana University, where he participated in research that ‘76, died Nov. 25, 2012. He was 69. Martha, and is survived by his helped lead to the Surgeon General’s warning about smoking and He is survived by his wife, Julia; children, Martha and Karen. health in the 1960s. He was internationally prominent in his specialty, children, Carl, David, Mike, Paul and was elected president of the American College of Chest and Danielle; and many nieces, Verne Lanier Jr., M.D., ‘66, HS ‘71, nephews and grandchildren. died Jan. 24. He was 73. He is Physicians in 1978. survived by his wife, Dean; chil - He served as medical director and chair of the Department of Roberta Friedman, Ph.D., ‘83, FE dren, Cecile, Melissa and Renee; Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina before returning ‘85, died March 23. She was 56. and six grandchildren. to Vanderbilt in 1981 as professor of Medicine. He was persuaded by She is survived by her husband, then Vice Chancellor Roscoe R. Robinson, M.D., to enter Medical Paul; and children, Zach, Max and Gene Lasater, M.D., ‘48, died Center Administration in 1982, where he served until gaining emeri - Benny. March 30. He was 88. He is sur - tus status in 1998. vived by children Carole, Randy, Dr. Ross is survived by his wife of 61 years, Isabelle; children, James Green, M.D., ‘62, HS ‘68, Eric, Gene and J. Scott; eight Laura, Sharon, Jennifer, Mary and Jeff; and by 12 grandchildren and died Jan. 12. He was 76. He is sur - grandchildren and four great- seven great-grandchildren. vived by his wife, Elisabeth; chil - grandchildren.
44 SUMMER 2013 photo gallery ::
1 2
Commencement 2013 3
1. Rishi Naik, M.D., Baldeep Pabla, M.D., Devin Patel, M.D., Ravi Patel, M.D., and Neil Bansal, M.D.
2. Van Nguyen, M.D., and family members
3. Suzanne Fox Alfano, M.D., and Lewis Lefkowitz, M.D., professor of Preventive Medicine, Emeritus
PHOTOS BY ANNE RAYNER Board of Directors Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors
Officers Ming Robinson, M.D. (‘88, HS ‘92) Joseph S. Wilson, Jr., M.D. (FE ‘83) Ann H. Price, M.D. (‘78, HS ‘79) PiPcrteusrideednt here: Irvine, CA Friesinger Society rep.-Atlanta, GA Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs, Clifton R. Cleaveland, M.D. (HS ‘64) Alan S. Rosenthal, M.D. (‘64) (HS ‘64, FE ‘66) Richard Goldstein, M.D. (HS ‘90, FE ‘86, School of Medicine -Nashville, TN (FE ‘70) La Jolla, CA PhD ‘94, FAC ‘99-03) Bonnie M. Miller, M.D. (HS ‘80) Chattanooga, TN Robert T. Snowden, M.D. (‘69) Scott Society rep. -Louisville, KY Senior Associate Dean for Health Pensacola, FL Sara Habibian, M.D. (‘02, HS ‘06) Sciences Education – Nashville, TN President-elect Mitchell S. Steiner, M.D. (FE & FA ‘93-’95) Burnett Society rep. – Nashville, TN William J. Anderson, M.D. (‘69) Memphis, TN Robert Mallard, M.D. (‘74, HS ‘78, FAC ‘83) VUSM Representative Nashville, TN Mary Laird Warner, M.D. (‘90) Christie Society rep. - Nashville, TN Ryan T. McGrath (VMS 2014) Cherry Hills Village, CO Paul Sternberg, M.D. Nashville, TN Regional Directors W. Bedford Waters, M.D. (‘74) CRS Past President – Nashville, TN John T. Cobb, M.D. (‘78) Knoxville, TN Anderson Spickard III, M.D. VUMC Development and Alumni Atlanta, GA (‘89, FAC ‘95-Pres) Relations Representative Joseph A. Cook, M.D. (‘64) Young Alumnus Representative Brittingham Society rep. -Nashville, TN Mary Beth Thompson Pittsboro, NC Chloe E. Rowe, M.D. (‘03) Richard F. Treadway, M.D. (‘64, HS ‘65) Carl A. Grote, Jr., M.D. (‘54) New York, NY Luton Society rep. – Nashville, TN Post-Doctoral Organization President Huntsville, AL Shih-Hsin Eddy Yang, M.D. (HS ‘06) Barbara Natalizio, Ph.D. Jill Hutton, M.D. (‘96) Graduate Student Representative Roentgen Society rep. – Birmingham, AL Nashville, TN Houston, TX Amanda Meyer Major General Stephen L. Jones, M.D. (‘78) Nashville, TN House Staff Representatives Staff Members (non-voting) Alexandria, VA Jason A. Castellanos, M.D. (‘09, HS ‘09-Pres) G. Roger Chalkley, D. Phil. (FAC ‘86-Pres) W. Ben Kibler, M.D. (‘72, HS ‘73) Specialty Society Representatives Nashville, TN Sr. Assoc. Dean for Biomedical Lexington, KY Oran Aaronson, M.D. (HS ‘99) Ciara M. Shaver, M.D. (HS ‘07-Pres) Research Loren H. Marshall, M.D. (‘84, HS ‘87) Meacham Society rep. – Nashville, TN Nashville, TN Donald Brady, M.D. (‘90) St. Louis, MO Melissa Kaufman, M.D. (HS ‘07) Assoc. Dean GME David Niver, M.D. (‘75) Urology Society - Nashville, TN Ex-Officio Members Scott M. Rodgers, M.D. (‘94) Alamo, CA Thomas T. Dovan, M.D. (HS ‘97) Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D. (‘90) Dean for Students Thomas W. Nygaard, M.D. (‘78) Orthopaedics Society rep.-Nashville, TN Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Lynchburg, VA James W. Felch, M.D. (‘77, HS 77) Dean, School of Medicine -Nashville, TN Savage Society rep--Nashville, TN Non-profit org. Van derbiltMedicine U.S. Postage Vanderbilt University PAID D 8200 Vanderbilt University Medical Center North Nashville, TN Nashville, TN 37232-2106 Permit No. 1446
e e ScholarshipScchholarrsshiipp InIInitiativenittiaiiattiive fofforor VanderbiltVVaanderbilt UniversityUUniniiverssiittyy “As Vanderbilt students, we’ve SchoolSchool ofof MedicineMeddicinicine had so many opportunities to help people make positive changes in their lives.”
— Michael Casner, MD’13
TToo ssupportuuppppport thethe educationeducation ofof ffufutureuturree pphysicianshhysysicians tthroughhrroouughgh sscholarships,cholarrsshiipps, vvisitisit vvanderbilthealth.org/MDscholarshipanderbilthealth.org/MDscholarship oror contactcontact MaryMarryy BBetheth ompsonommppson aatt (615) 322-8846 oorr [email protected]@vanderbilt.edu.