Summer I 2006
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SUMMER I 2006 WANTED: A HUMANIST PROFESSIONAL Fixing Jaws, Fixing Eyes Arnold Ludwig’s Way with Words A Matter of FACTT What’s Happened Since . n that same issue, Helene D. Gayle, and Reaching Your Healthy Weight. Hark, M.D. ’71, G.M.E. ’77, M.P.H., was director of the medical school’s Nutri- hat a surprise! It turns out featured in a short piece about the tion Education and Prevention Program, that events often happen School of Medicine’s 2005 Com- is now host of a new series on The quickly, developments Imencement. Gayle, who was then Learning Channel (TLC) called Honey, occur, people move from director of the HIV, TB, and Reproduc- We’re Killing the Kids. Hark visits fami- Wone position to another. tive Health Program of the Bill & Melinda lies across the country and shows Sometimes, after we’ve dotted the last Gates Foundation, delivered the grad- them how the children’s unhealthy life “i” in Penn Medicine, had it printed, uation address. Exhorting the Class of styles are harming them. One of the fea- and sent it out across North America, 2005 to action, she asserted that a med- tures is a computerized sequence that the people we’ve featured make a ical degree is “one of the most powerful suggests how the children will look as change. Here is an update on some tools I know to enable you to make a they age. Still, the show is not all grim, recent stories we’ve run. difference.” She was also the subject of a and the families attempt valiantly to The cover story of our Fall 2005 issue full-length article I wrote for our Win- switch from their diet of junk food. was “Rx: Better Information Technology ter 2003 issue, “Helene Gayle: Agent of Hark has also written another book for Better Health,” by Martha Ledger. Prevention,” which described her work with Deen, The Whole Grain Diet Miracle Much of the focus was on Penn’s at- at both the Gates Foundation and, be- (DK Publishing, 2006). tempts, through better information fore that, the Centers for Disease Control technology, to reduce costs, reduce and Prevention. Her focus was HIV/AIDS, he last item concerns Robert medical errors, and improve the quality of which she called “the defining public W. Miller, M.D. ’46, who died care. Providing the national perspective health issue of our time.” on February 23. Miller, emer- on the opportunities – and challenges – In February, Gayle became president itus scientist at the National involved in such an endeavor was David and CEO of CARE, the international T Cancer Institute, had sent an J. Brailer, M.D., G.M.E. ’91, Ph.D. He poverty-fighting organization, which in occasional note to Penn Medicine, such had done his medical training at Penn its 2005 fiscal year spent $514 million as a critique of our annual coverage of as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical to support its programs. Announcing the 50 Year Class. He wanted us to tell Scholar and also earned his Ph.D. de- Gayle’s departure from the Gates more about “the high points in the gree from The Wharton School. Brailer Foundation, Patty Stonesifer, its presi- lives/careers” of the alumni rather than is an advocate of electronic health dent, thanked Gayle for her “extraor- the number of their grandchildren or records and “interoperability” among dinary leadership.” According to their hobbies. That sounded good to me. information technologies, which he CARE, its mission is “to tackle the un- Miller joined the ranks of our au- believes are seriously fragmented. Ap- derlying causes of poverty so that thors when we published “A Wartime pointed National Coordinator for Health people can become self-sufficient. Student Remembers” (Fall 2002). He Information Technology in the U.S. Recognizing that women and children was very willing to make edits and to Department of Health and Human suffer disproportionately from poverty, flesh out some of the events and char- Services in April 2004, he resigned CARE places special emphasis on acters in his early drafts. In his memoir, earlier this spring. working with women to create per- Miller gave a vivid sense of life at the According to a statement issued by manent social change.” School of Medicine during World War Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Lisa Hark, Ph.D., R.D., was featured II, when the students were also civil- Human Services, “David has made sig- in my editor’s note for the April 2005 ians in the Army or Navy medical re- nificant progress in advancing the pres- issue. At that time, she had just pub- serve. Miller described the faculty ident’s health IT agenda and laying the lished (with Darwin Deen, M.D.) a members who taught the students building blocks for future progress.” book called Nutrition for Life: The No-Fad, and the officers who trained them; Brailer is expected to continue to No-Nonsense Approach to Eating Well breakfast en masse in the Palestra; serve as vice chairman of the Ameri- posters that warned about V.D.; and can Health Information Community, the challenges of saluting properly. an advisory organization, and as a We will include a more traditional consultant to HHS. obituary of Dr. Miller in our next issue. Cover Art: Lewis & Nobel Design and Graham P. Perry/NCS Studios Psychi atrist a sWriter,Wri teras Ps ychiatrist SUMMER I 2006 / VOLUME XVIII NUMBER 3 PSYCHIATRIST AS WRITER, WRITER AS PSYCHIATRIST BY MARIE GEHRET AND JOHN SHEA The impulse to rule, the connection between creativity and 22 madness, the ways individuals shape their identities – these are among the fascinating and occasionally controversial topics of Arnold M. Ludwig’s books. Then came a novel. PONDERING PROFESSIONALISM BY JOHN SHEA In the spring, the School of Medicine held a sympo- sium featuring both Penn physicians and outside 14 experts who have been prominent in the effort to foster professionalism. Said one of the panelists: “Altruism is non-negotiable.” PROFESSING HUMANISM BY NICOLE GADDIS Inspired in part by earlier Penn physicians, Paul Lanken, M.D., has taken the lead in bringing humanism to the School of TAKING ON TMD BY JENNIFER BALDINO BONETT Medicine’s curriculum. One new program pairs students with For patients with the excruciating facial pain of temporo- chronically ill patients over their first three years of study. mandibular joint disorder, a prosthesis recently approved 16Auth o r and by the F.D.A. is a life-saver. It was developed by Penn’s flanke subjec d here ts: Arn two o by Na old Lud 8 f the gr Peterpoleo nD. Quinn,wig is M.D., D.M.D. ea a 22 t leade nd Juli I PEN rs he h us Cae N MED as stud sar, ICINE ied. Departments SEEING STRAIGHT BY JON CAROULIS Although misaligned eyes are often thought of as a condition that affects children, Nicholas Volpe, M.D., IFC EDITOR’S NOTE 19 operates exclusively on adults with strabismus. The cor- What’s Happened Since . rective surgery has psycho-social benefits as well. 2 VITAL SIGNS JONATHAN EPSTEIN ASSUMES DEPARTMENTAL Still Going Strong: The Patient – and the Program CHAIR BY JOHN SHEA School of Medicine Rises to Third in Survey 30 Only weeks after receiving the Outstanding Investigator Award from a national organization, Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D., Environment and Disease: What’s the Connection? was named to lead the Department of Cell and Develop- Sad News from Botswana mental Biology. A Center for Muscular Dystrophy Research Honors & Awards PENN NEUROSURGERY GOES THREE-DIMENSIONAL BY KATE OLDERMAN 7 LETTERS Using a Dextroscope® to get a detailed visualization 31 of the brain, Penn neurosurgeons can perform deli- 34 DEVELOPMENT MATTERS cate surgery in a less invasive way. The Board of Women Visitors Recent Gifts THE FINEST HOSPITAL CARE – WITH A DIFFERENCE BY NICOLE GADDIS 38 ALUMNI NEWS 32 The Pavilion at HUP offers extra amenities for the patient Progress Notes while complementing the hospital’s nationally recognized care. IBC THE LAST WORD A MATTER OF FACTT BY KAREN KREEGER Translational Medicine: Some First Steps A research team at Penn has developed a new, super-sensitive blood test to detect abnormalities at 33 a much earlier stage, when there are more treat- STAFF ment options. JOHN R. SHEA, Ph.D. Editor NICOLE A. GADDIS Assistant Editor LEWIS & NOBEL DESIGN Design / Art Direction Penn Medicine is published for the alumni and friends of PENN Medicine by the Office of Communications. © 2006 by the Trustees of the University ADMINISTRATORS of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. Address all correspondence to John REBECCA HARMON Shea, Penn Medicine, 3600 Market Street, Suite 240, University of Pennsyl- Chief Communications Officer vania Health System, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2646, or call (215) 662-4802, or e-mail [email protected]. SUSAN E. PHILLIPS Senior Vice President for Public Affairs Visit Penn Medicine’s web site: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/prnews/publications/ School of Medicine Rises to Third in U.S. News Survey In its annual survey of graduate and because as recently as two years ago, Still Going Strong: professional schools, U.S. News & World Penn was ranked 46th in that category. The Patient – and the Program Report ranks the University of Pennsylva- In a memo announcing the survey nia School of Medicine third among all results to faculty and staff, Arthur H. The Hospital of the University of research-oriented medical schools in the Rubenstein, M.B., B.Ch., executive vice Pennsylvania recently celebrated the 40th nation. Last year, the school was ranked president of the University of Pennsylvania anniversary of its first kidney transplant fourth.