FOCUS | April 21, 2006

In March, Gary Gottlieb, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, accepted the 2006 National Quality Health Care Award on behalf of the hospital. BWH is the first hospital in New England to receive the annual prize, given by the National Committee for Quality Health Care.

“This award is a testament to the hard work of our teams at BWH who have created an environment that promotes a standard of excellence in health care,” said Gottlieb.

Kass Lecture Promotes Advance of Women in Surgery

According to Julie Freischlag, the biggest challenge facing the field of surgery lies in finding ways to “let women lead.” Freischlag, chair of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a pioneer in surgery and one of four women in the country who are currently chairs of surgery. Freischlag spoke at this year’s Fae Golden Kass Lecture on April 3.

According to Freischlag, surgery is at a crossroads. In many ways, women are poised to join their male counterparts as heads of departments. Almost half of medical school enrollees are female, so, at least in theory, schools could start producing equal numbers of female and male surgeons. In addition, Freischlag argued, the qualities most important for leadership in surgery are qualities that women possess. These attributes—emotional competence, the ability to build and lead a team, resilience, and strong communication skills—are ones that women have “just as well as men.”

There are, however, significant barriers, both real and perceived, that prevent women from joining men at surgery’s helm. Freischlag pointed to the “perception and reality that female surgeons remain single and childless,” as one factor that discourages women from entering the field. Surgery, she noted, has not traditionally allowed its practitioners to focus on their families, an impediment for many women.

She also commented that female surgeons often get paid less than male surgeons, a fact that persuades many women to choose private medical practice over surgery. Other impediments involve discrimination, harassment, and “the perception and reality that deans, residents, and CEOs do not want a woman in charge.”

—Rebecca Tinkelman

HMS Faculty Inaugurate Medical Foundation in Dubai

Members of the HMS faculty spoke at the inaugural symposium of the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research. Titled “Today’s Science, Tomorrow’s Cures,” the event took place in Dubai on March 26. The foundation’s mission is to develop collaborative biomedical research initiatives between HMS and Dubai that will build scientific capacity in the Persian Gulf region. The speakers included (from left, above) Peter Howley, head of the HMS Department of Pathology; Eugene Braunwald, faculty dean for academic programs at the Partners Healthcare System; Nancy Andrews, HMS dean for basic sciences and graduate studies; Joseph Martin, HMS dean of the Faculty of Medicine; and Mohamed Sayegh, the Warren Grupe–John P. Merrill professor of transplantation medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and HMS. Not pictured are event co-chairs Robert Thurer and Ayesha Al Mutawa.

Rabkin Fellows Chosen for ’06–’07

The Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education, which provides HMS faculty with an opportunity to develop skills in medical education or academic administration, was given to six faculty members this year. The 2006–2007 Rabkin fellows are, from Massachusetts General Hospital, Laura Hu, HMS instructor in medicine, and, from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Susan Burgin, HMS instructor in dermatology; Todd Eisenberg, HMS instructor in psychiatry; Patricia O’Sullivan, HMS clinical fellow in medicine; Diane Sliwka, HMS instructor in medicine; and Charles Vollmer, HMS instructor in surgery.

Honors and Advances

• Augustus White III, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon professor of medical education and professor of orthopedic surgery at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ 2006 Diversity Award on April 10. White was honored for his commitment to culturally competent care and for promoting diversity in orthopedics.

• David Hubel, the John Franklin Enders professor emeritus of neurobiology at HMS, will be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in a ceremony on April 26. Hubel was honored for his research on the visual system of the brain, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1981.

• Lawrence Cohn, the Virginia and James Hubbard cardiac professor of surgery at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was elected president of the national Thoracic Surgical Foundation for Research and Education. Cohn’s term began in February.

• Helmut Rennke, HMS professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was presented with the 2006 Jacob Churg Award by the Renal Pathology Society. The award is given annually to an individual who has made major contributions to the field of nephropathology.

• Altropane, a highly specific imaging agent invented by Bertha Madras, HMS professor of psychobiology at the New England Primate Research Center, was featured in the Association of University Technology Manager’s Better World Report. The report profiles 25 innovations in technology transfer in 2006. Altropane is used to detect early to mild Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.

In Memoriam

Michael Tsan Ty, HMS clinical fellow in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, died in a tragic accident on April 3. He was 28.

Ty graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1999, receiving a combined BA in English and neuroscience and an MA in neuroscience. He joined the HMS community when he matriculated into the MD program of the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in the fall of 1999. His HST thesis was conducted in the laboratory of Mriganka Sur in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.

Ty modeled electrostatic scaling in vitro using micropatterned substrates, constraining the interconnections of various neural networks on a fixed substrate and analyzing the resulting neuronal circuits. He received his MD from HMS in 2004 and completed an internship in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was a clinical fellow in neurology in the combined Massachusetts General Hospital/BWH program at the time of his death.

In addition to his MD and research studies, Ty spent a year at the Pontifical Angelicum in Vatican City, studying moral theology and philosophy; he received a Kennedy Sheldon Fellowship to support this effort. During his year in Italy, he took courses in Italian and developed a rigorous theological perspective on ethics and the meaning of suffering in clinical care.

Ty is remembered for his gentle, gracious manner and his probing intellect. He was also known as a man of deep spirituality, full of humor and compassion.

Ty is survived by his wife, Robin; his parents, George P. and Bonnie Tsan Ty; his younger sister, Monica; and many friends and colleagues.

Charles Louis Schepens, HMS clinical professor emeritus of ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Schepens Eye Research Institute, died March 28 at the age of 94. He is recognized worldwide as the father of modern retinal surgery.

Schepens received his MD from Rijks University in Belgium in 1935. He trained in pharmacology and ophthalmology, specializing in retinal diseases, at both Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and in Brussels under L. Hambresin. During World War II he was captain of the Medical Corps in the Belgian Air Force and served in the French Resistance. At Moorfields, he developed the prototype of the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope, an instrument that revolutionized retinal surgery.

Schepens joined the HMS community as a fellow in ophthalmic research at MEEI in 1947, founding the Retina Service there and pioneering a level of specialization within ophthalmology that was unknown at the time. He went on to serve as an instructor and professor until 1978, when he became clinical professor emeritus of ophthalmology.

In 1950, he founded the Retina Foundation in Boston. Under his direction, this evolved into two separate organizations, the Schepens Retina Associates Foundation and the Schepens Eye Research Institute, which is the largest independent ophthalmology research institute in the world. Over the years, Schepens designed and developed numerous ophthalmic instruments and pioneered many surgical procedures. He had more than 360 publications to his credit.

On March 21, Schepens received the French Legion of Honor Award in a special ceremony recognizing both his patriotic service to the resistance in World War II and his lifelong contribution to advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of retinal diseases.

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Marie Vander-Eecken; his son Luc; his daughters Claire Delori, Bernadette Butler, and Catherine Wainer; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Edmund Chi Chien Lin, HMS professor emeritus of microbiology and molecular genetics, died in Boston on March 7 from complications of prostate cancer. He was 77.

Born in Peking, China, in 1928, Lin attended the Peking American School and was studying law at the National Peking University, but fled to the United States just before the fall of Peking to the communists. He completed an AB degree in biology at the University of Rochester in 1952 and a PhD in biological chemistry at HMS in 1957. He then joined the Department of Biological Chemistry as an instructor in 1957. In 1969, he became professor of bacteriology and immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and in 1980, was named professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. He served as chairman of that department from 1973 to 1975 and was named emeritus in 2003.

Lin and his research group are best known for their studies of glycerol utilization in E. coli. He was a founder of the field of experimental evolution in bacteria. He collaborated for many years with T. H. Wilson at HMS on issues of membrane transport and with other colleagues on oxidative stress.

Lin was a man of personal reserve, animation, and strong political views. After Tiananmen Square, he renounced his title as honorary research professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and never visited China again.

He leaves his son, Bertrand Lin, and his elder brother, Philip Lin.

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