Penn Med Pages Summer 2003

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL CENTER■ SUMMER 2003 The Bullet as Pathogen PHYSICIAN AND POET SPRINGTIME RITES Editor’s Note Rubenstein, M.B., B.Ch., executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the School of Medicine, and by Roderick Eckenhoff, M.D., director of the Center for Research in Anesthesia. As Eckenhoff put it, Longnecker was chair “during a time of change in our discipline” but managed to raise the standards in a way that few other institutions could match. Longnecker also was able to manage the department’s budget efficiently and ingeniously enough to support the creation of the new facility. According to Eckenhoff, the facility, Robert Clink Longnecker (l.) and Eckenhoff. with 8,000 square feet, ranks among the best in the country. For his part, Dean Rubenstein Academic Anesthesia In his remarks at the dedication noted that Penn has long had one of ceremony, David Longnecker, M.D, the most respected anesthesia pro- he dedication of the David E. now senior vice president and chief grams. Its history includes Roderick Longnecker Anesthesia medical officer of the University of Eckenhoff’s father, James E. Eckenhoff, Research Facility in June was Pennsylvania Health System, made M.D. ’41. The senior Eckenhoff did Tan occasion for looking ahead and, as a similar point about Anesthesia’s his training in anesthesia at Penn and is often the case, of looking back. In place in academic medicine. Long- was a mainstay of the Department addition to honoring the person who necker emphasized how important of Anesthesia for 21 years. He was served as chair of the Department of it was that the Department of Anes- also one of the editors of Introduction Anesthesia from 1988 to 2002, the thesia “integrate research efforts into to Anesthesia, one of the most popular School of Medicine was taking the University proper and the School textbooks in the field. The other two another important step in bolstering of Medicine proper.” He cited Anes- editors of the early editions were one of its programs. Yet the speakers thesia’s close ties with Biochemistry, Robert Dunning Dripps, the long- at the event also referred freely to Chemistry (in the University), the time head of Penn’s department, Penn’s history and tradition. brain injury and brain trauma pro- and Leroy Vandam, who later served Anesthesia (at Penn, formerly grams, Neurosurgery, Neurology, as chair of anesthesia at Harvard. Anesthesiology) has been a formal Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, As Rubenstein pointed out, the department of the School of Medi- the Institute on Aging, and other tradition and continuity remain cine since 1966. Before that, it was a departments and programs. Anes- strong – David Longnecker, the division of the Department of thesiologists, said Longnecker, are Robert Dunning Dripps Professor Surgery. At one point in his history not just studying muscle relaxants – of Anesthesia, is coeditor of the text- of Penn’s medical school, Two Cen- “We need to do more than that.” book’s eighth edition. turies of Medicine (1965), George W. Stanley Muravchick, M.D., Ph.D., Rubenstein quoted from a letter Corner notes some of the new sub- the department’s interim chair, written by Julius H. Comroe Jr., a jects added to the curriculum in opened the formal part of the dedi- Penn pharmacologist who was the 20th century. These included cation. The new facility on the third known for combining clinical and anesthesiology in the Department floor of the John Morgan Building, basic-science teaching. In 1945, he of Surgery. As Corner puts it, “The he said, offered an opportunity “to wrote to James Eckenhoff, trying to latter innovation vividly exemplifies formally and permanently acknowl- persuade him to apply for a research the close interrelation of medical edge David’s contributions.” In par- fellowship: “Anesthetists in most science and practice, for anesthesi- ticular, he praised Longnecker’s hospitals and medical schools are ology is a branch of physiology as “vision and determination” as chair considered as technicians. I believe well as of surgery, and its leader at in reaffirming that “Penn Anesthesia we will have a research organization the University of Pennsylvania, is an academic department.” That in anesthesia which will be second Robert D. Dripps, received much of theme was echoed by Arthur H. to none in the country.” his research training in the Depart- Clearly, that remains the department of Pharmacology with Alfred ment’s goal. As Longnecker put it, Newton Richards.” “teachers must be scholars.” ■ Cover: C. William Schwab, M.D., is one of the founders of the Firearm Injury Center at Penn. Photograph by Tommy Leonardi UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL CENTER / SUMMER 2003 / VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 1 CONTENTS FIGHTING THE BULLET C. William Schwab, M.D., and Therese S. Richmond, By Dina Greenberg Ph.D., C.R.N.P., had seen more than enough in the 6 trauma centers – several hundred victims of gunshot wounds, year after year. Schwab and Richmond wanted to halt the violence, but they knew they needed impeccable scientific data to support inter- vention efforts and policy changes. So they created FICAP, the Firearm Injury Center at Penn. MAMMOTH SCALE An exhibition at the Wistar Institute, Penn’s long- time neighbor, highlights the large-scale anatomi- 13 cal sculptures of William Rush. A sculptor of ship figureheads, Rush created the wooden models at the request of Caspar Wistar, for use in medical lectures at Penn in the early 19th century. DAVID MOOLTEN’S vital and David Moolten, M.D. ’87, G.M.E. ’91, is a medical di- ‘SECRET EXERCISE’ rector for the American Red Cross. A typical project 14 By Carole Bernstein might involve collaborating with hospitals that need to collect stem cells for use in high-dose cancer therapy. truths Moolten is also a poet, published in many prestigious literary magazines. Although his two main pursuits are largely separate, the temperament in his poems often Beneath all approaches that of a forthright, clear-eyed physician. DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S NOTE Inside Front ALUMNI NEWS 20 Academic Anesthesia The Rites of Spring Match 2003 LETTERS 2 Where They Went: Taking a Reading VITAL SIGNS 3 Progress Notes A New CEO Joins the Health System School of Medicine Ranks High THE LAST WORD Inside back Helping the Helpers University Resources Two Faculty Members Are Awarded Major Grants from Bristol-Meyers Squibb One-Year Study of Atkins Diet Shows Surprising Results STAFF JOHN R. SHEA, Ph.D. Editor LEWIS & NOBEL DESIGN Design / Art Direction ADMINISTRATORS REBECCA HARMON Chief Public Affairs Officer MARCIA BATTISTA Director of Medical Alumni Relations and Institutional Events Penn Medicine is published for the alumni and friends of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center by the Office of Public Affairs. © 2003 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved. Address all correspondence to John Shea, Penn Medicine, 2018 Penn Tower, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4385, or call (215) 662-4802, or e-mail [email protected]. Visit Penn Medicine’s web site: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/prnews/publications/ 2003/SUMMER ■ 1 VitalSigns LETTERS A PROBLEM TO CORRECT? The inside back page of the Winter ‘MINDFULNESS’ VS. ‘MINDLESS’ 2003 Penn Medicine carries a cheer- ful wish that Penn become more On receiving my mail last week, enlightened about how it treats I glanced at the new cover of Penn women in medicine. Unfortunately, Dr. Rubenstein need not look far Medicine with great excitement. It ■ UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL CENTER WINTER 2003 seemed that the same robotic atti- for problems to correct. tude about surgery that I recalled Beginning on page 23 of the as a medical student at Penn was same issue is a story on the medical still occurring, but the enlightened class of 1952 which (dare I say it?) surgery department had begun us- shocked and awed me in its han- ing mindfulness to address this dling of women. If I count correctly, neglected problem in patient care! it describes 58 class members, nam- Imagine my disappointment, when, ing the wives of 42 of them by only moving a covering magazine, I re- their first names. Of the 7 whose alized that no such conclusion last names are given, 3 appear to could be drawn from the text I had have their own degrees so their last misread. name use is “justified,” leaving 4 I still appreciate your featuring whose last name is given without mindfulness as a cover story an associated title. So the conde- Benefits of Mindful Meditation PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF AIDS [“Changing Their Minds”]. And, ROBOTIC SURGERY scending, belittling, patronizing on reading the article on “robotic old-boy habit of addressing patients, surgery,” I discovered a new surgical particularly women, by only their procedure that seems to require care- first name has been expressed here ful attention to successfully accom- by about 42 to 4. How disappoint- plish. Sadly, that leaves the problem ing! How incorrect in today’s society! of “mindless” surgical procedures The writers and editors should unresolved. Perhaps the surgery have included the maiden surnames department might pick up your hint. getting all sorts of grants from I of all the spouses, and should have taken appropriate steps to Ron Milestone, M.D. ’71 don’t know who. I think it’s im- proper, anti-science, anti-medicine.” obtain those names if they didn’t have them. As a middle-level ge- Editor’s Note:“Changing Their nealogist and family researcher, I Minds,” Carole Bernstein’s article on WHICH HAND? feel that it is not only proper, but Michael Baime, M.D.

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