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Social Medicine
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Neurology
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Health Care Policy
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Education
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Medical Ethics
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New Chairs Honor Federman and Egan Family
Honors and Advances
In Memoriam
Let Consumers Drive Progress in Health Care Quality
New Chairs Honor Federman and Egan Family
 Photos by Liza Green, HMS Media Services |
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The new Federman chair at HMS takes the name of Daniel Federman, shown in left photo (back) with his wife, Betty (left), and first incumbent George Thibault and his wife, Barbara. The Egan Family Foundation chair honors the Egans, represented in the right photo by Jack and Pamela Egan (on left) with first incumbent Gary Fleisher and his wife, Jan Paradise. |
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The Daniel D. Federman, MD Professorship in Medicine and Medical Education was celebrated on May 24 with talks by Daniel Federman, the Carl W. Walter distinguished professor of medicine and senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching, and other senior leaders at HMS. George Thibault, HMS professor of medicine and director of the Academy at HMS, was named the first incumbent. Deeply appreciative of the honor, Thibault, one of the beacons for clinical teaching and medical education at HMS, said the day really belonged to Dan Federman. Tributes to Federman’s leadership in medical education and alumni relations came from Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine; Alexander Leaf, the Jackson professor emeritus of clinical medicine at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital; Daniel Tosteson, dean emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine; and Jack Connors, chair of the HMS Board of Fellows. Federman encapsulated his thoughts on the spirit of the new chair in a poem culminating with the words, “…They also serve who listen well and teach.” Preceding the celebration of the Federman professorship was the May 19 announcement of the Egan Family Foundation Professorship in Pediatrics in the Division of Emergency Medicine; its first incumbent is Gary Fleisher of Children’s Hospital Boston. Fleisher was praised for his visionary leadership in pediatric emergency medicine by Joseph Martin; Children’s CEO James Mandell; and David G. Nathan, the Robert A. Stranahan distinguished professor of pediatrics at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Expressing his personal admiration for Fleisher, Jack Egan said the new chair holder is the first incumbent of the first chair in pediatric emergency medicine ever endowed.
Honors and Advances
• Margaret Bauman, HMS associate professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, was presented with the Doug Flutie, Jr. Award at the sixth Annual Autism Update on May 6. Bauman is founder and director of LADDERS, a multidisciplinary clinic that evaluates people with developmental disorders, and helped create the Autism Treatment Network, a coalition of doctors, parents, and researchers developing medical treatments for autism. She was honored for “her visionary approach to treating children with autism.”
• Christian Arbelaez, an HMS instructor in medicine and attending physician in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department, has been appointed to the Sullivan Alliance to Transform America’s Health Professions, a national panel working to create a more diverse and better-trained health care workforce. For the next three to five years, Arbelaez will work to implement the alliance’s recommendations to hospitals, public forums, and medical and business schools across the country. The Sullivan Alliance encompasses the former Sullivan Commission and an Institute of Medicine panel investigating diversity in health care.It is partnering with the Washington, D.C.–based Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
• The American Heart Association presented its Young Investigator Award in Thrombosis to Ruhul Abid, HMS instructor in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess, at a conference on April 29, where he presented research results demonstrating novel signaling mechanisms in vascular biology. The award recognizes “outstanding endeavors by a new investigator for fundamental and applied research in thrombosis.”
• Alan Harvey, HMS instructor in anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was elected president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He will serve a one-year term as the top officer of the organization. The oldest continuously operating medical society in the country, the Massachusetts Medical Society educates and advocates for Massachusetts patients and publishes several journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine.
• One of the first six Gilliam Fellowships for advanced study was awarded to Luis Léon, a second-year immunology student at HMS. The Gilliam fellowships, given by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, aim to help disadvantaged and minority students pursue PhDs in the life sciences.
In Memoriam
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From 1987 until January 2005, Rosen served as president and scientific director of the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research and, since 1972, held the position of James L. Gamble professor of pediatrics at HMS.
Rosen was born in Newark, N.J., in 1930. After earning a BA at Lafayette College and an MD at Western Reserve University, he became a research fellow at HMS and at Children’s Hospital Boston, later becoming chief of the hospital’s immunology division.
His research focused on the pathogenesis of primary immune deficiencies that afflict children, such as Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome. He is one of the most highly cited writers in science, and his discoveries have been recognized with many honors, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Institutes of Medicine. In April 2005, he received the inaugural American Association of Immunologists–Dana Foundation Award in Human Immunology Research.
Rosen was also known for his clinical prowess and his warmth and devotion to his patients. According to Frederick Alt, a longtime colleague, Rosen brought many basic scientists into clinically relevant research, leading to overall contributions of much greater magnitude than the discoveries for which he is well known. John Baldwin, president and CEO of the CBR Institute, noted that Rosen was the embodiment of what academic medicine aspires to have in its community, the person who is at once a great clinician, scientist, and teacher.