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BULLETINForsyth Institute Seeks Past Patients to Promote Children's Oral HealthThe Forsyth Institute is looking for people who received free oral health care as children from 1914 through the late 1960s at what was then called the Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children. Forsyth is planning a fall reunion that will kick off a new initiative to promote children's oral health and is hoping to enlist the help of its former patients. The Massachusetts Legislature and the U.S. Surgeon General have both declared children's oral health in crisis. According to a 2000 report by a special commission of the state legislature, every year U.S. children lose 632,000 school days due to oral health problems. Children from low-income families have higher-than-average rates of dental decay. The report found that in Cambridge, Lawrence, and Boston, 38 to 48 percent of low-income children need restorative dental care. Students at one Boston high school had four times as many cavities as the national average. An estimated 500,000 school children aged 5 to 14 from more than 55 public and parochial schools in Boston and surrounding communities received care at Forsyth from 1914 through the late 1960s. If you were a child who received treatment at Forsyth during this period, please call 617-262-5200 ext. 398 or e-mail info@forsyth.org.
Multicultural Affairs Reception Honors the Incoming Students The annual multicultural affairs reception honoring incoming minority students and the HMS and HSDM first-year class took place Sept. 6. Above, new student Uche Blackstock introduces herself to fellow classmates as the event's host Alvin Poussaint, faculty associate dean for student affairs, looks on. Blackstock's twin sister Oni is a second-year HMS student. More than 150 people attended the event, including house officers, faculty, and staff. The reception was sponsored by the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs. Photo by Steve Gilbert
The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, a nonprofit group that collects, analyzes, and publishes health care information, has donated its publications on hospital utilization in Massachusetts to the Countway Library in honor of Mitchell Rabkin, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. At the presentation were (l to r) database coordinator for the consortium Richard Senicola, CEO and executive director of the consortium Elliot Stone, Countway librarian Judith Messerle, and Rabkin, who is the consortium's chairman of the board and former CEO of CareGroup. Photo by Steve Gilbert
New Arrivals Welcomed to LongwoodThe Class of 2005 was welcomed to the Medical and Dental schools on Aug. 30 by Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine; Bruce Donoff, HSDM dean; Daniel Lowenstein, dean for medical education; and other deans as part of student orientation. The traditional White Coat ceremonies, marking the beginning of the journey as a doctor, took place afterward at each of the student societies.
Jacinda Mawson beams as she dons her white coat during Cannon Society's ceremony.
Ari Wassner is congratulated at Holmes Society by new master Augustus White III.
Orah Platt, Castle Society master, helps Tara Benjamin put on her coat.
Cannon Society first-years (l to r) David Hwang, Ola Ayodele, Jack Casey, and Joan Hu sport the latest fall fashion on the Quad.
The Division of Medical Sciences held its orientation for new PhD students on Sept. 5. Adrienne Chen and Maria Garcia, first-year students in the virology program, listen to speakers introducing them to the division.
An ice cream party was held at HSPH for new students who participated in the three-day pre-orientation program Stategies for Success.
Honors and AdvancesThe National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression has awarded the Gerald L. Klerman Award for outstanding clinical research achievement to Perry Renshaw. Renshaw, HMS associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital, researches new therapies for depression. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill awarded Fernando Rodriguez-Villa, HMS instructor in psychiatry at McLean Hospital, with its 2001 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award for his efforts to increase public understanding of psychological disorders. Lawrence Friedman, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was honored by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) with the society's Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contributions during the past 15 years. He edits the ASGE News and is a past treasurer of the society. News BriefsHST students are working with the American Medical Resources Foundation to repair various pieces of donated equipment to be sent to a clinic in West Guinea, Africa. Students are especially seeking donations of transducers (ultrasound, echo, etc.) and surgical and anesthesia equipment. If you have equipment you would like to donate, please e-mail linda_o'mahony@hms.harvard.edu. Brigham and Women's Hospital has established a Division of Sleep Medicine as part of its Department of Medicine. Previously, sleep medicine was part of the Endocrine Division at BWH. Charles Czeisler, HMS professor of medicine, is chief of the new division, which will incorporate clinical, research, and teaching activities around sleeping disorders. The National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health recently awarded Claude Lechene, visiting professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a $5 million grant to establish the National Resource for Imaging Mass Spectrometry. At its center is a novel type of secondary ion mass spectrometer—the multiisotope imaging mass spectrometer—that has the unique capability of simultaneously recording several atomic mass images. For the first time, it is possible to simultaneously image the distribution and measure the accumulation of molecules at the intracellular level that are labeled with any isotopes, particularly stable ones. Massachusetts General Hospital and the New England Research Institutes have received a multimillion dollar grant from the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to study the efficacy of acupuncture in treating high blood pressure. The randomized clinical trial, Stop Hypertension with the Acupuncture Research Program (SHARP), is a 180-person pilot study that may convert to a larger trial if initial results are promising. Volunteers interested in enrolling or learning more about the study should call 617-724-0407. The Dana–Farber Cancer Institute has established a Center for Experimental Medicine, aimed at transforming laboratory advances into better treatments for patients. Lee Nadler, chair of the Department of Adult Oncology and HMS professor of medicine, will direct the center. The John Joseph Moakley Scholar in Aging Eye Research Fund has been established at the Schepens Eye Research Institute to honor the legacy of the U.S. representative from Massachusetts who died in May. The fund will support an eminent scholar–scientist as the Moakley Scholar in the field of aging eye research at the institute. Rep. Moakley played a key role in leading Congress to fund research into diseases of the aging eye. McLean Hospital has opened a newly expanded and renovated Neuroimaging Center, which now has one of the world's largest magnetic resonance scanners and another that is the only one of its kind dedicated solely to psychiatric and substance abuse research. A third scanner, a vertical bore spectrometer, was also acquired for the modernized facility. |
