Faculty Council Proceedings

At the Faculty Council meeting on April 19, Linda Wilcox, HMS ombudsperson, presented her office’s annual report. In the last year, 679 individuals contacted the Ombuds Office. While reports of sexual harassment are down, those that are called in are serious. Discrimination concerns related to both race and gender have increased, as have research-related issues. The office receives more calls from women than from men.

Wilcox stressed the office’s commitment to maintaining confidentiality. She keeps no written records or notes from her consultations. Any member of the Harvard community is welcome to contact her office. The confidential phone number is 617-432-4040.

Ronald Arky, the Charles S. Davidson distinguished professor of medicine at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and master of the Peabody Society, reviewed the role of the academic societies in the lives of HMS students, faculty, and alumni. He described the structure of the societies, each of which is headed by a master and an associate master. All incoming students are assigned to societies at the beginning of the first year. The major responsibilities of the societies are advising and mentoring their groups of students and providing administrative support. The society structure also allows the students and faculty to build strong relationships.

Jules Dienstag, HMS dean for medical education, introduced Erik Alexander, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Richard Schwartzstein, HMS associate professor of medicine and vice president for education at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who provided updates on the pilot longitudinal clinical experience at their hospitals.

Alexander explained that the foundation of the pilot maintained the structured clerkships and ambulatory experiences but overlaid these with tutorials, mentorship and advising, and longitudinal student assessment. As the pilot evolved, the best classroom sessions were preserved while 10 new interdisciplinary bedside rounding sessions were introduced along with classes on evidence-based medicine and clinical and gross pathology.

In highlighting the Principal Clinical Experience (PCE) successes, Alexander noted that the program has strengthened the educational team; brought synergy to teaching through cross-departmental efforts; and helped the students form a group identity and increase their reliance on one another. Among the challenges, Alexander mentioned time, money, and space as well as a need to improve faculty development in mentoring and assessment. Plans for 2006–07 call for 24 pilot students at BWH in two teams of 12. The focus will be better synergy of the clerkships.

Schwartzstein described the key elements of the BID principal clinical year pilot program, which includes a transition week, a longitudinal curriculum, case conferences, an ambulatory experience, the virtual patient, a portfolio of self-reflections, and a writing program.

The PCE’s longitudinal curriculum includes an explicit link between basic and clinical sciences; its case conferences will have interdisciplinary discussions; and the ambulatory experience will bring together elements of emergency ward medicine, medical specialties, and interactions with patients. Four virtual patients will be assigned during the year. A preliminary assessment of the program’s effectiveness indicates that its students are rating their experiences slightly higher than the control students.

Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, stressed the importance of collecting data and evaluating the program in order to analyze the effectiveness of these changes in the future.

D’Amico to Head Holmes Society

Photo courtesy of DFCI

In July, Anthony D’Amico (right) will become the new master of the Holmes Society, replacing Augustus White. D’Amico has been the associate master for the last five years.

Active in student affairs and administration, D’Amico, an HMS professor of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, also serves as associate director of the Harvard Combined Residency in Radiation Oncology and as a member of the Faculty Council.

D’Amico’s research centers on prostate cancer. For men with a potentially life-threatening form of the disease, he is leading the international effort to expedite the clinical trial process aimed at discovering effective systemic therapies through the use of a surrogate endpoint.

White, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon professor of medical education and professor of orthopedic surgery at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has served as master of the society since 2001. He will begin a sabbatical this summer after stepping down.

Student societies provide mentoring and advising to their members and also arrange activities to help students build relationships with one another and with faculty. As head of a society, masters oversee their students’ academic and professional development and act as a resource for the dean for medical education and for the curriculum committee by providing feedback on student experiences

Policy and Practice

Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

A group of HMS students, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, produced and is maintaining ImproveHealthCare.org, a website devoted to providing medical students and physicians with up-to-date information on health care policy and its impact on medical practice. Among the website’s offerings are sample clinical cases, online discussions with health policy leaders, and links to relevant articles from The New England Journal of Medicine. The photo above shows members from the site’s leadership club, (clockwise from bottom left) Marie-Adele Sorel, Sachin Jain, Jordan Bohnan, Vivek Garg, Barbara McNeil (head of the HMS Department of Health Care Policy), Kiran Kakarala, Vinod Nambudiri, Ingrid Ganske, and Nir Harish.

The 2006 HMS Mentoring Awards

In a ceremony on May 25, the following annual mentoring awards were presented.

Photo by Steve Gilbert In his keynote address, David Thomas, the Naylor Fitzhugh professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, spoke to a packed audience about the importance of mentoring, especially across lines of race and gender.

William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Awards:
• Francine Benes, HMS professor of psychiatry (neuroscience) at McLean Hospital
• Edward Lowenstein, Henry Isaiah Dorr professor of research and teaching in anesthetics and anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital

A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Awards:
• John Ayanian, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and of health care policy at HMS
• Dennis Brown, HMS professor of medicine at MGH
• Mack Cheney, HMS professor of otology and laryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
• Michael Greenberg, HMS professor of neurology at Children’s Hospital Boston
• Ursula Kaiser, HMS associate professor of medicine at BWH
• Tracy Lieu, HMS associate professor of ambulatory care and prevention (pediatrics) at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Young Mentoring Awards:
• Alyce Adams, HMS assistant professor of ambulatory care and prevention at HPHC
• Marcus Altfeld, HMS assistant professor of medicine at MGH
• Juan Celedón, HMS assistant professor of medicine at BWH
• Mukesh Jain, HMS assistant professor of medicine at BWH
• Michael Starnbach, HMS associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics

HMS Teaching Awards Presented for 2006

In a ceremony on May 23, the following annual teaching awards were presented under the auspices of the Academy at Harvard Medical School.

HMS Faculty Prizes for Excellence in Teaching

Photo by Steve Gilbert “Teaching is what Harvard should be known for,” said Charles McCabe, winner of the Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award.

Prizes for Excellence in Teaching:
• David Roberts, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Carolyn Bernstein, HMS instructor in neurology at Cambridge Hospital
• Michael Kahn, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at BID

Special Faculty Prize for Sustained Excellence in Teaching:
Charles McCabe, HMS professor of surgery at MGH

Teaching Awards at HMS Affiliates

Cynthia N. Kettyle Teaching Award / Harvard Dept. of Psychiatry
Alfred Margulies, HMS associate professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital

Leo A. Blacklow Award at Mount Auburn Hospital
Ricardo Wellisch, HMS instructor in medicine

Klaus Peter International Teaching Award
Kerim Munir, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston

L. James Wiczai Jr. Award
Marjorie Hodges, administrator of the Patient–Doctor II course at MGH

S. Robert Stone Award at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
C. Christopher Smith, HMS assistant professor of medicine

Honors and Advances

• Bertha Madras, HMS professor of psychobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the New England Primate Research Center, was sworn in as deputy director for demand reduction in the Office of Drug Control Policy on May 16 at a ceremony in the White House. Madras has been studying the chemical causes of addiction for more than two decades and will bring this knowledge to federal discussions on reducing the demand for illegal drugs.

• The New England Healthcare Institute appointed Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, on May 16 to be chair of its board of directors. The institute is a nonprofit, applied-research, health policy organization that studies and advocates for changes in New England ’s health policies.

• Tarayn Grizzard and Rachelle Pierre, HMS students, were named as 2006 Massachusetts Medical Society Scholars at the society’s annual meeting on May 11. The $10,000 awards are presented annually to two fourth-year students from each of the four Massachusetts medical schools, and are based on academic performance, community involvement, and financial need.

A Tribute to President Summers

Photo by Suzanne Camarata

On May 17, a reception and dinner was held to honor outgoing Harvard president Lawrence Summers for his contributions to the University and to the area’s scientific community. During the event, Summers (left) shared his thoughts on the future of biotechnology in a talk titled “Boston and the Coming Life Sciences Revolution.” The event was hosted by Jack Connors Jr. (right), chair of the HMS Board of Fellows; John Kaneb, a member of the HMS Board of Fellows; Jay Light, dean of Harvard Business School; Joseph Martin, dean of HMS; and Samuel Thier, former president of Partners HealthCare.

Save the Date

Thursday, October 5, 2006 • 5:00–7:00 p.m.

Sixth Annual Hollis L. Albright, MD ’31 Symposium
What ’s New at Harvard Medical School

Advances: Cancer and Nanotechnology

• Judah Folkman, MD
  The Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery, HMS
  Director, Vascular Biology Program, Children’s Hospital Boston
• Robert Langer, PhD
  Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

With

• Dean Joseph B. Martin, MD, PhD
• Dean Daniel D. Federman, MD ’53, Moderator

Harvard Medical School • New Research Building
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston

For more information, please call 617-384-8469 or e-mail events@hms.harvard.edu

Parking available; CME credit available

Centennial Symposia to Celebrate 100 Years of Discovery

To help celebrate 100 years of discovery on the Longwood Quadrangle, HMS faculty and distinguished alumni from around the country will present three scientific symposia on campus Sept. 21 and 22. Topics are “The Brain at Work: Cognition and Perception,” “Molecular and Cellular Basis of Infection,” and “Cancer Genetics and Gene-based Drug Discovery.” CME credits will be available.

The schedule also includes a celebratory afternoon tea and brief program on the promenades of the Quad. The entire Harvard Medical community is invited to attend.

For more information about the symposia presenters and for online registration, please visit http://hms.harvard.edu/public/cent/index.html.

top