Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council

At the June 14 Faculty Council meeting, David Hackney, assistant dean for faculty development, reviewed the Diversity Committee’s report “Faculty Diversity at HMS: Next Steps.” It suggested measures such as annual diversity surveys, wider searches, exit interviews, model programs, visiting programs, fund-raising, mentoring, and career counseling. Hackney identified searches and accountability as the two major themes. He noted that the pool of underrepresented minority junior faculty candidates is limited, especially from HMS and the other top five medical centers. The pool of underrepresented minority senior faculty candidates is smaller still. Hackney said effective searches need to include affirmative efforts to identify and attract candidates from beyond HMS and the other top institutions to ensure a wider pool of candidates.

In discussing accountability, Hackney commented on the need for a high-profile commitment to the goal of greater faculty diversity, the establishment of criteria for progress, and regular attention to progress.

Jules Dienstag, dean for medical education, reported on the plans for the August 2006 implementation of the new curriculum. He reviewed the various committees that had been convened to assess the curriculum, from the 2001 report to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education to the founding of the current implementation teams. The reviews generated recommendations to reestablish meaningful student–faculty interactions; integrate basic science and clinical teaching; allow for longitudinal faculty mentoring, patient experiences, and assessment; and require an in-depth scholarly experience.

Dienstag reviewed the implementation time line and gave a brief description of the components of the new curriculum. These included Introduction to the Profession and Fundamentals of Medicine (the first two years), which were implemented in August and September of this year; Principal Clinical Experience (clerkships), which will begin in the spring of 2008; Advanced Experiences (the fourth year), to be implemented in the spring of 2009; and In-depth Experiences, beginning as pilots in winter of this year.

Dienstag reported that the pilot Principal Clinical Experiences, which have been under way at the Cambridge Health Alliance, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, have been successful, with high satisfaction ratings by students and faculty. He also acknowledged the efforts to address parallel issues of the new curriculum, including faculty compensation, faculty recognition, and faculty development.

Dienstag summarized the medical education reform effort as creating “a curriculum that fosters a partnership between students and faculty in the pursuit of scholarship and leadership.”

Susan Pauker, HMS associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, asked the members to comment on the format of the Faculty Council meetings. Comments from members mostly revolved around communication issues. Members wanted district e-mail addresses and ways to provide feedback efficiently. Members also conveyed a need to improve ways of communicating the work of the council. Many other comments invited more participation from the dean, saying that input from the dean is important and that Faculty Council meetings are the only way for faculty to let the dean know directly the faculty perspective.

Institute of Medicine Elects Nine from HMS

Nine HMS faculty members, listed below, were among the 65 individuals elected to the Institute of Medicine for 2006. The IOM, part of the National Academy of Sciences, is an advisory group that provides information and analysis to national policymakers on issues pertaining to health, biomedical science, and medicine.

Nancy Andrews
George Richards Minot Professor of Pediatrics,
Children’s Hospital Boston,
HMS Dean for Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies
Andrews focuses on molecular hematology, mammalian iron homeostasis, and mouse models of human diseases. Her laboratory has identified novel proteins involved in iron metabolism through positional cloning of spontaneous mouse and rat mutations that result in iron deficiency anemia. The researchers have also used gene targeting to disrupt iron-related genes in mice, to make mouse models of iron overload disorders, and to study iron homeostasis. Recently, they described a role for an iron-regulatory hormone in the pathogenesis of hemochromatosis and the anemia of inflammation.

Dan Brock
Frances Glassner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics
Director of the HMS Division of Medical Ethics
Brock examines theoretical and applied issues of health care resource prioritization and rationing. He identifies problems in the use of cost-effectiveness analysis to determine health interventions and develops ethical analyses and arguments for their proper resolution. On the practical side, he has advised the Ministry of Health in Thailand on the rationing of renal dialysis in their universal coverage health plan. Brock also addresses ethical issues posed by advances in genetics that allow for the prenatal selection of desired traits and against undesirable traits or conditions such as genetically inherited diseases.

Graham Colditz
Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Colditz, director of chronic disease epidemiology at the Channing Laboratory, investigates lifestyle and prevention of chronic diseases. He has studied hormone therapy and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, physical activity and its relation to cancer risk, and adult weight change in relation to diabetes and hypertension. He also studies diet and activity in relation to weight gain among adolescents. As of Nov. 11, Colditz will be the Neiss-Gain family professor at Washington University School of Medicine.

Nicholas Christakis
Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy
Christakis focuses on complex interconnected social networks and, specifically, on the ways ill health, health behavior, and death in one person can influence similar phenomena in others. Some of his current work, for example, involves more than one million couples followed for 10 years and examines how ill health in one spouse can have collateral effects on the other spouse. Other research deals with an interconnected network of more than 10,000 people followed for 30 years to probe the nonbiological spread of disease between relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Elazer Edelman
Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Edelman is a pioneer in vascular biology and in the development and assessment of biotechnology. The research center he directs is dedicated to using rigorous physical sciences to clarify fundamental biologic processes and mechanisms of disease. He has contributed to defining the molecular and cellular aspects of vascular healing, the development of medical devices, and revolutionizing cell- and tissue-based therapies. In addition to his work at HMS, he is an active coronary care unit cardiologist and holder of the Cabot chair in Health Sciences and Technology at MIT.

Stephen Elledge
Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and of Medicine
Elledge’s research centers on the study of proteins that regulate the cell division cycle and on development of advanced technologies to facilitate the identification of novel genes involved in this process. More specifically, his lab focuses on the proteins that safeguard the genome by monitoring the presence of DNA damage and thereby ensuring the integrity of chromosomes before cells divide. Recently, the lab has devised technology to perform genetic screens in mammalian tissue culture cells to explore cell cycle and growth regulatory pathways. The group has generated retroviral small interfering RNA libraries of human and mouse genomes for this purpose and used them to identify new tumor suppressor genes in humans.

Gary Fleisher
Egan Family Foundation Professor of Pediatrics,
Children’s Hospital Boston
Fleisher’s research focuses on children with bacterial infections of the bloodstream. His clinical studies have evaluated the accuracy of various diagnostic modalities for determining which febrile children are bacteremic and the efficacy of presumptive antibiotic therapy to reduce the incidence of sequelae. In the laboratory, Fleisher and his colleagues have tested the efficacy of innovative therapeutic agents and experimental vaccines for the treatment or prevention of sepsis and meningitis due to a variety of organisms, including Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis.

Joseph Loscalzo
Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Head of the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Loscalzo investigates vascular and endothelial biology, with an emphasis on endothelial function, thrombosis, and oxidant stress. He has spent years researching the role of nitric oxide as an essential endothelial homeostatic effector and has examined the key determinants of its elaboration and its oxidative inactivation. Among the molecular and genetic mediators of oxidant stress and vascular disease that his group has identified are glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, glutathione peroxidase-1 and -3 deficiencies, and hyperhomocysteinemia, all of which contribute to the development of vascular nitric oxide insufficiency.

Robert Martuza
Higgins Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Surgery,
Massachusetts General Hospital
Martuza’s research combines the two fields of virology and neurology. In 1995, Martuza and Samuel Rabkin, HMS associate professor of surgery at MGH, described the engineering of the herpes simplex virus 1 as a safe treatment for brain tumors. Now, he and his colleagues are developing new and better viral vectors for treating brain tumors as well as other cancers such as prostate and colon. As director of the Stephen E. and Catherine Pappas Neuro-Oncology Center at MGH, Martuza combines clinical and research activities. His clinical interests focus on surgery for nervous system tumors of various types, but with a particular interest in acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, gliomas, and the various forms of the neurofibromatoses.

Scholars in Medicine Marks 11th Year of Growth

The Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Fellowship Program for Scholars in Medicine awarded 69 fellowships in a ceremony on Oct. 12. That is 14 more than last year, said Ellice Lieberman, dean for faculty affairs, in her opening remarks. Underscoring the growth of the program, Lieberman said that in 1996 when the first fellowships were presented, they numbered only 10. Scholars in Medicine was established in 1995 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to HMS, and it has presented more than 400 awards to junior faculty and clinical and research fellows in its 11 annual celebrations. A complete list of recipients and awards appears below.

Photo by Steve Gilbert Shown are Kenneth Hancock, winner of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Fellowship, with his family, Hsi-Pin Chen and Sarah and Tony Hancock.

Kevin Raskin, HMS instructor in orthopedic surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Academy Fellowship in Medical Education

Amy Juraszek, HMS assistant professor of pathology, Children’s Hospital Boston Academy Fellowship in Medical Education

Lu Chen, HMS instructor in ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute, The Alice J. Adler Fellowship of the Schepens Eye Research Institute

Lisa Goodrich, HMS assistant professor of neurobiology, The Loreen Arbus Fellowship in Neuroscience

Yunping Li, HMS instructor in anesthesia, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Anesthesia John Hedley-Whyte Research Fellowship

Carrie Tibbles, HMS instructor in medicine, BID, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine Fellowship

Anastasia Koniaris, HMS clinical instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, BID, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Ob–Gyn  Foundation Academic Support Fellowship

Sonya Shin, HMS assistant professor of medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital Fellowship

Tjorvi Perry, HMS instructor in anesthesia, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship

Michael Nurok, HMS instructor in anesthesia, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship

Christian Arbelaez, HMS instructor in medicine, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine Fellowship

Sigal Yawetz, HMS instructor in medicine, BWH, The Brigham and Women's Hospital Faculty Development Award

Anna Krichevsky, HMS assistant professor of neurology, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Neurology Fellowship

Serene Srouji, HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Obstetrics and
Gynecology Foundation Fellowship

Sujatha Rajan, HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Obstetrics and
Gynecology Foundation Fellowship

Frank David, HMS instructor in pathology, BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Pathology Fellowship

Cheryl Clark, HMS instructor in medicine, BWH, Brigham and Women's Minority Career Development Award

Zara Cooper, HMS clinical fellow in surgery, BWH, Brigham and Women's Minority Career Development Award

Michaela Mendelsohn, HMS instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Psychiatry Fellowship in honor of Karlen Lyons-Ruth, PhD

Kate Ackerman, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship (2nd year)

Carmen Barnes, HMS, instructor in surgery, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship (2nd year)

Oscar Benavidez Jr., HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Stephen Brown, HMS instructor in radiology, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Sarah De Ferranti, HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Ingeborg Friehs, instructor in surgery, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Edda Fiebiger, HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Hanna Gazda, HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Andrew Koh, HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

X. Sean Li, HMS assistant professor of surgery, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Christine Mrakotsky, HMS instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Lise Nigrovic, HMS instructor in pediatrics, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Annapurna Poduri, HMS instructor in neurology, CH, Children's Hospital Faculty Career Development Fellowship

Laurie Jackson-Grusby, HMS assistant professor of pathology, CH, Children's Hospital Pathology Foundation Fellowship

Shannon McKinney-Freeman, HMS research fellow in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, CH, Children's Hospital Postdoctoral Career Development Fellowship

Xiaojin Liu, HMS research fellow in neurology, CH, Children's Hospital Postdoctoral Career Development Fellowship

Xin Zeng, HMS research fellow in neurology, CH, Children's Hospital Postdoctoral Career Development Fellowship (2nd year)

Mary Ellen McCann, HMS assistant professor of anesthesia, CH, Children's Hospital Robert M. Smith, M.D. Anesthesiology Faculty Development Award

Paola Arlotta, HMS instructor in surgery, MGH Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award (2nd year)

Emmanuelle di Tomaso, HMS instructor in radiation oncology, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Maria Franceschini, HMS assistant professor of radiology, MGH,
Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Hadine Joffe, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award (2nd year)

Camille Kotton, HMS instructor in medicine, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award (2nd year)

Elizabeth Lamont, HMS assistant professor of medicine, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Pamela McLean, HMS instructor in neurology, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award, (2nd year)

Madhusmita Misra, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Kathryn Moore, HMS assistant professor of medicine, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Marielle Scherrer-Crosbie, HMS assistant professor of medicine, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award

Lei Xu, HMS instructor in radiation oncology, MGH, Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award (2nd year)

Catherine Wu, HMS assistant professor of medicine, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute Fellowship

Jeanne Madden, HMS instructor in ambulatory care and prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Robert H. Ebert, MD. Fellowship established by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation

Chenghua Gu, HMS assistant professor of neurobiology, Harvard Medical School Fellowship in honor of Mary B. Clark, PhD

Kunikazu Tsuji, HSDM instructor in developmental biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine Fellowship in honor of Aina M. Auskaps, DMD

Christina W. Baker, HMS clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, MGH, Priscilla and Richard Hunt Fellowship

Merav Baz-Hecht, HMS instructor in medicine, Joslin Diabetes Center, Joslin Diabetes Center Fellowship in memory of Priscilla White, MD

Begonia Ruiz-Perez, HMS instructor in medicine, BWH, Edward and Amalie Kass Fellowship at the Channing Laboratory

Kenneth Hancock, instructor in otology and laryngology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Fellowship

Yumiko Ishizawa, HMS instructor in anesthesia, MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Anesthesia Fellowship

Joshua Goldstein, HMS instructor in surgery, MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine Fellowship

Hilary Connery, HMS instructor in psychiatry, McLean Hospital, McLean Hospital Fellowship

Michael Woodruff, HMS instructor in medicine, BID, Morgan-Zinsser Academy Fellowship in Medical Education

Todd Thomsen, HMS instructor in medicine, Mount Auburn Hospital, The Mount Auburn Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty Development Fellowship

Umadevi Naidoo, HMS instructor in psychiatry, MGH, Curtis Prout Academy Fellowship in Medical Education

Tracey Milligan, HMS instructor in neurology, BWH, Curtis Prout Academy Fellowship in Medical Education

Todd Eisenberg, HMS instructor in psychiatry, BID, Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education

Diane Sliwka, HMS instructor in medicine, BID, Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education

Susan Burgin, HMS instructor in dermatology, BID, Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education

Charles Vollmer Jr., HMS instructor in surgery, BID, Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education

Mary Sabatini, HMS instructor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, MGH, Dorothy Rackemann Fellowship established by the Vincent Memorial Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital

NIH Grants $7.8m for HIV Microbicide

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $7.8 million grant to the laboratory of Judy Lieberman to study development of an HIV microbicide. Lieberman, HMS professor of pediatrics at the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research and Children’s Hospital Boston, is a pioneer in the clinical application of RNA interference. The four-year grant will allow her lab to study the use of RNAi technology against HIV. The first step will be to determine which cells would be effectively targeted, and the ultimate goal of the grant is to create a gel that can deliver small interfering RNAs into the right cells to prevent infection. Lieberman and colleagues have already demonstrated the effectiveness of RNAi against herpes simplex virus 2 and autoimmune hepatitis in mice. Assisting in this effort is Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and the International Partnership for Microbicides.

Center Funded for Mapping Cancer Genome

HMS, in conjunction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of seven institutions that has received funding from the National Cancer Institute to establish a Cancer Genome Characterization Center (CGCC). The centers are a part of the Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project, which is testing the feasibility of using large-scale genome analysis technologies to identify important genetic changes in certain cancers. The centers will work together in hopes of accomplishing this goal.

HMS scientists include George Church, HMS professor of genetics; Jonathan Seidman, the Henrietta B. and Frederick H. Bugher Foundation professor of genetics at HMS; Raju Kucherlapati, the Paul C. Cabot professor of genetics at HMS and director of the Harvard Medical School Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics; Isaac Kohane, the Lawrence J. Henderson associate professor of pediatrics and health sciences and technology at HMS and Children’s Hospital Boston; Peter Park, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s; Samuel Aronson, director of information technology at the HMS Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics; and Lynda Chin, HMS associate professor of dermatology at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. The HMS center will receive $1.7 million over three years. A CGCC will also be established at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Braunwald Receives AAMC’s Rogers Prize

Eugene Braunwald, the Hersey distinguished professor of theory and practice of physic at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been awarded the Association of American Medical Colleges’ David E. Rogers Award, which recognizes a medical school faculty member who has made major contributions to improving the health and health care of Americans. Braunwald is known for his discovery that myocardial infarct size can be limited by altering the balance of oxygen supply and demand, which led to the now common use of beta blockers during a heart attack. He is the author of the influential textbook Braunwald’s Heart Disease. Braunwald is also chair of the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction Study Group at BWH.

Survey Core Services Available

The Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center is now offering its Survey and Measurement Core (SMC) services to all scientists, regardless of affiliation and area of study. SMC helps scientists plan studies that involve patient populations and population-based research, including the implementation of focus groups, development of patient education materials, and the creation of guidelines for measures and measurement appropriate to the study. SMC offers two hours of consultation for free, with a fee-for-service structure for additional time. There is no charge for grant-related work that includes core faculty time in the budget.

Family Van Seeks Your Help

Want to make a difference? You can.

Help bring compassionate curbside care to thousands of our Boston neighbors each year.

The Family Van, a program of HMS, delivers free screening, medical care, and advice.

HMS students support the Family Van by working on the van each week.

You can help, too, by contributing to Harvard’s Annual Community Gifts Campaign and designating the Family Van as your charity of choice.

To learn more, go to www.familyvan.org or www.community.harvard.edu/communitygifts.

Cello Quartet to Perform

The Rastrelli Cello Quartet is coming to the Quad and the Broad Institute to perform a wide range of music. Its repertoire of classical, pop, and jazz draws from Gershwin, Bernstein, Brubeck, and Leroy Anderson as well as Bach, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov.  Beverages and hors d’oeuvres will be served. The Quad concert takes place on Monday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. in the NRB amphitheater. The Quartet will play at the Broad Institute auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m. Admission is free.

Honors and Advances

• Mark Hurwitz, HMS assistant clinical professor of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was named the vice president-elect of the Society for Thermal Medicine in April. He will officially assume the post in 2008. Hurwitz is also the director of regional program development for BWH’s Department of Radiation Oncology, which is an outreach program to bring oncologic care to two affiliated community practices.

• Christopher Landrigan, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, received the 2006 Award for Excellence in Research from the Society of Hospital Medicine. Landrigan, also the director of the Sleep and Patient Safety Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was given the honor for his dedication to the medical care of hospitalized patients and for outstanding achievement in research.

• The Arthritis Foundation Massachusetts Chapter honored HMS professor of medicine Allen Steere for excellence in arthritis care at an awards dinner on Oct. 6. Steere, who is also the director of clinical research in the Department of Rheumatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is known worldwide for his discovery of Lyme disease.

• The American Academy of Neurology awarded the 2007 H. Houston Merritt Award to Martin Samuels, HMS professor of neurology. The honor means that Samuels, also the chair of the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will give the Merritt Lecture during the academy’s annual meeting in May. The Merritt Award recognizes significant contributions to clinical research in the field of neurology.

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