Medicine on the Midway - Fall 2014

MEDICINE MIDWAYon the

Biological Sciences Division

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

FALL 2014

Continuous InnovationHow the Pritzker School of Medicine

is helping redefi ne medical education

MED

ICA

L

SC

HO

OL

PIP

ELIN

E

PR

OG

RA

MS

GR

AD

UA

TE

MED

ICA

L

ED

UC

ATIO

N

TEA

CH

ING

ON

HIN

G

MSC

PPR

O

44402_MMFall2014.indd C1 10/31/14 9:07 AM

Dea

n’s Letter

Dear Colleagues,

The Pritzker School of Medicine is at the forefront of medical edu-cation, and this edition of Medicine on the Midway explores our unique commitment to preparing future physicians and researchers

as well as those who train them.Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, the Ralph W. Gerard Professor in Medicine

and dean for medical education, oversees our model for excellence in medical education throughout the entire training continuum, from premed pipeline to continuing education for practicing physicians. Th e cover story examines Pritzker’s culture of continuous improvement and the innovations we generate that impact teaching methods far beyond our institution.

Th e career marketplace experiences constant shift s, and the Biological Sciences Division is preparing its trainees for success in non-academic fi elds. As you’ll read, recent surveys of BSD graduates and students fi nd growing interest in careers outside of academia, and a newly launched program exposes BSD trainees to the full range of careers available to PhDs.

Ann Dudley Goldblatt, JD, LLM’78, associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, is the personifi cation of the success one can realize when following a passion, not just the expected career path. Ann Dudley’s journey from barrister to medical ethicist is chronicled in a story starting on page 26. For more than three decades, Ann Dudley and Mark Siegler, MD’67, the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Chicago, have shared a commitment to medical ethics that has resulted in groundbreaking work. You’ll enjoy Dr. Siegler’s refl ections on his 50 years at the University and the development of clinical medical ethics.

October 29 marked the launch of Th e University of Chicago Campaign: Inquiry and Impact. Th e most ambitious campaign in the University’s history, the goal is to raise $4.5 billion to support faculty and researchers who are shaping fi elds of inquiry, distinctive educational opportunities for students at all levels, and innovative programs to enhance the University’s local and global reach and impact. For Medicine & Biological Sciences, our goal is to raise $1.2 billion to advance transformative research and patient care initiatives, and provide a unique and empowering education for the most promising future physicians and scientists.

As this issue’s cover story describes, the Pritzker School of Medicine has a distinctive philosophy that embraces the entire continuum of medical education and training, and cultivates a culture of innovation. Our success depends on our ability to attract the brightest students and talented faculty. Th at’s why defraying the cost of medical education through scholarship and advancing innovative educational programming are among our highest priorities of this campaign. To help meet our scholarship goals, we’re also excited about the launch of the Legacy Challenge, which matches new gift s for student aid and training, and will expand new funding for MD, PhD, and joint degree students.

The Pritzker School of Medicine has a distinctive philosophy that embraces the entire continuum of medical education and training, and cultivates a culture of innovation.

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD

The Richard T. Crane Distinguished Service Professor

Dean of the Biological Sciences Division

and the Pritzker School of Medicine

Executive Vice President for Medical Aff airs

The University of Chicago

44402_MMFall2014.indd C2 10/29/14 10:04 AM

1MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY FALL 2014uchospitals.edu/midway

Features4 John Maunsell, PhD, inaugural director of

the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience,

Quantitative Biology and Human

Behavior, talks about his vision for

multidisciplinary neuroscience research.

18 While most PhDs still take the teaching or

research path, interest in careers outside

of academia is increasing. A BSD program

helps prepare biological sciences trainees

for the full range of career options.

Cristianne Frazier, PhD ‘11, right

25 Pathologist Richard J. Cote, MD’80, is developing nanoscale

materials to detect specifi c molecules, such as cancer markers,

in a drop of blood.

26 Ann Dudley Goldblatt, JD, LLM ’78, has been a revered teacher to

generations of MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics fellows.

32 The latest medical school parody by

Pritzker students has more than 1 million

hits on YouTube. Beyond entertainment,

these videos provide students stress

relief and a creative outlet.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fall 2014 Volume 67, No. 2

A publication of the University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences Division. Medicine on the Midway is published for friends, alumni and faculty of the University of Chicago Medicine, Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Email us [email protected]

Write us atEditor, Medicine on the MidwayThe University of Chicago Medicine950 E. 61st St., WSSC 320 Chicago, IL 60637

Editorial Committee Chair Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00Lampis Anagnostopoulos, SB’57, MD’61Arnold Calica, SM’61, MD’75Melina Hale, PhD’98Noah Schwartz, MS3Jerrold Seckler, MD’68Coleman Seskind, AB’55, SB’56, SM/MD’59Jack Stockert, AB’05, MBA’10, MD’10

EditorAnna Madrzyk

Assistant EditorGretchen Rubin

Cover Story

MEDICINE MIDWAYon the

Biological Sciences Division

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

FALL 2014

Continuous InnovationHow the Pritzker School of Medicine

is helping redefine medical education

MED

ICA

L

SC

HO

OL

PIP

EL IN

E

PR

OG

RA

MS

GR

AD

UA

TE

MED

ICA

L

ED

UC

ATIO

N

TEA

CH

ING

ON

ING

MSC

PPR

O

10 The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine’s culture of continuous

improvement in technology, teaching and training is helping redefi ne medical education

and change clinical practice. Read about some of Pritzker’s innovations across the

continuum, such as a boot camp for housestaff and an award-winning video on handoff s

now used as a teaching tool at more than 40 institutions.

PHOTOS BY ROBERT KOZLOFF, SHAUN SARTIN AND ANDREW NELLES

Departments Letter from the Dean

Midway News

2 Internal medicine residents from the 1980s

return to campus for the fi rst housestaff reunion

6 Common butterfl ies on

campus catch the interest

of researchers

8 Paleontologists unveil the fi rst semiaquatic

predatory dinosaur

9 UChicago opens the fi rst Passive House-

certifi ed laboratory in North America

Pritzker News

31 White coats and the Hippocratic Oath,

Class of 2018

34 Pritzker students win national awards

35 Graduation and Reunion 2014

37 Class NotesHear from your classmates, near and far

38 In Memoriam

Editorial ContributorsJamie BartoschJohn Easton Kevin JiangCatherine JulitzRuth E. KottLinda LeppEllen McGrewBrooke E. O’NeillStephen PhillipsRebecca SilvermanAnne SteinHoward WolinskyMatt Wood UChicago News

DesignWilkinson Design

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences

Executive LeadershipKenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Richard T. Crane Distinguished Service Professor, Dean of the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, and executive vice president for Medical Aff airs for the University of Chicago

T. Conrad Gilliam, PhD, the Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Distinguished Service Professor, dean for basic science, Biological Sciences Division

Sharon O’Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, the Ralph W. Gerard Professor in Medicine, dean for medical education, Pritzker School of Medicine

Photo ContributorsTrent Bell PhotographyDavid ChristopherMike HettwerRobert Kozloff Andrew NellesBrooke E. O’NeillBruce PowellTom RossiterShaun Sartin Joel Wintermantle GradImagesMedical & Biological Sciences Alumni AssociationPritzker School of MedicineSpecial Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library

P

31 n

interest

ff ff reunion

44402_MMFall2014.indd 1 10/31/14 9:09 AM

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/publications/midway/index.html

2 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Mid

way

New

s

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING

Awards honor teachers who inspire undergraduatesGreg Dwyer, PhD, associate professor of ecology and evolution, was named a 2014 recipient of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Th e Quantrell Award is considered the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching and is one of the highest honors a University of Chicago faculty member can receive. Th e awards are based on letters of nomination from College students and faculty members.

Dwyer uses mathematical models to study how viruses that infect insects interact with their hosts. By understanding the epidemiology and evolution of these diseases, he’s revealed insights into the genetics of disease resistance, as well as disease dynamics in humans and plants.

“Th e class really is about disease modeling, which none of them have had much experience with,” said Dwyer, who began teaching 30 years ago as a teaching assistant in graduate school. “Th ey come into the class, and then they decide that they want to devote their lives to it. I’ve had probably four or fi ve students do that, and it’s pretty amazing to watch.”Laura Merwin, a graduate student in ecology and evolution, received the Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Th e Booth Prize recognizes excellent teaching of undergraduates by graduate students.

PHOTO BY ROBERT KOZLOFF

ON HIS STUDENTS:

“They’re so much fun to be around because they truly and deeply believe in their hearts thatideas really, really matter.”

Greg Dwyer, PhD, associate professor of ecology and evolution

HOUSESTAFF REUNION

Back to the Forefront

A lumni of the internal medicine residency program who were here during the 1980s returned to cam-pus in September for the fi rst Housestaff Reunion.

Approximately 75 alumni attended the weekend program, catching up with each other and with Pierce Gardner, MD, internal medicine residency director during the 1980s, and Arthur Rubenstein, MBBCh, chair of the Department of Medicine during the ’80s.

Th e event was organized by University of Chicago Medicine physicians (and ’80s housestaff ) Michelle A. Josephson, MD; Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83; Halina Brukner, MD; Mary Strek, MD; Wendy Stock, MD; and Gini Fleming, MD.

Pierce Gardner, MD, left , and Arthur Rubenstein, MBBCh

PHOTO BY DAVID CHRISTOPHER

NOBEL LAUREATE

Origin of a statueJames D. Watson, PhB’46, SB’47, PhD, co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA, signed autographs for students in the Biological Sciences Learning Center. Watson returned to campus in October to present his gift to the University of Chicago, a statue of Charles Darwin by sculptor Pablo Eduardo.

Th e fi rst casting of Eduardo’s Charles Darwin was donated to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where Watson currently serves as Chancellor Emeritus, in honor of his 80th birthday. Watson was so taken with the sculpture that he personally commissioned another cast for the University in honor of its contribution to his intellectual growth.


Greg Dwyer, PhD

44402_MMFall2014.indd 2 10/31/14 9:24 AM


Six graduate students were selected as inaugural recipients of the University of Chicago Graduate Student Awards, an ongoing program arising

from the affi liation between UChicago and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Th e award gave them an opportunity to enroll in a summer course at the MBL and/or undertake research with an MBL mentor.Kamil Ahsan (Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology) attended the MBL’s Zebrafish Development and Genetics course, an intensive two-week program that familiarizes students with this powerful model organism and trains them in fundamental and novel zebrafi sh research techniques. Ahsan is interested in planar cell polarity (PCP) and mechanisms that regulate collective cell migration during zebrafi sh embryonic development. Simon Lax (Ecology and Evolution) is working at the MBL this fall with senior scientist Anton Post, an expert on plant-microbiome relationships in marine environ-ments. Lax is studying the microbial communities associated with Lemna minor, or common duckweed, a freshwater aquatic plant used for phytoremediation.Katharine Criswell (Integrative Biology) studies the independent evolution of the centrum, a part of the vertebral column, across the major groups of fi shes.

She worked last summer with an MBL mentor, J. Andrew Gills, PhD’09, of Dalhousie University, and also took the MBL Embryology course, a six-week, intensive course in advanced developmental biology. Hilary Katz (Integrative Biology) attended Neural Systems and Behavior, one of the MBL’s laboratory-intensive summer courses. Katz’s proposed thesis project will investigate the startle response in zebrafi sh and how it changes throughout development.Jiajie Xu (Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology) also attended the MBL Embryology course. While Xu works primarily with fruit fl ies — Drosophila — at UChicago, the embryology course exposed him to a wide range of model organ-isms and techniques in developmental biology.Darcy Ross (Integrative Biology) studies the evolu-tionary patterns in the development of shell shape in Crepidula, a genus of sea snail. Th e award enabled her to attend the MBL Embryology course, followed by a week of independent research with a visiting investigator at the MBL. Th e research awards are among the many connections being formed between MBL and UChicago students, scientists and faculty members. Eight UChicago undergraduate students pursued scientifi c projects at the MBL last summer as Metcalf interns.

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY AFFIL IATION

BSD students experience the MBL

“Gaining this

experience

relatively early

in my graduate

career will

accelerate my

research progress

and enable me

to take a more

sophisticated

approach to the

experimental goals

of my thesis work.”Graduate student

Kamil Ahsan

INNOVATIVE COMMUNITY HEALTH MODEL

UChicago Medicine supports Bronzeville Dream Center

The University of Chicago Medicine has part-nered with Northwestern Medicine and the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago to back

a South Side community organization’s innovative approach to combat violence and avert behaviors that may lead to confl ict.

Called the Bronzeville Dream Center, the program will be piloted in the Bright Star Church in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Th e center draws on the model used by NATAL-Israel Trauma Center, which helps communities cope with and reverse the traumatic aft ereff ects of violence.

In addition to NATAL, Dream Center organizers will be working with Communities Th at Care, an approach that seeks to strengthen the community and prevent youth delinquency, substance use and violence. “Our communities need emotional restoration to break

the cycles that caused the violence in the fi rst place,” said the Rev. Chris Harris, founder of Bright Star Community Outreach and senior pastor of Bright Star Church.

In addition to fi nancial support, UChicago Medicine will provide program evaluation, access to psychiatric expertise, research and medical resources. “Th e factors behind the prevalence of urban violence are multi-faceted, and addressing them requires a personalized and adaptive approach,” said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine and executive vice president for Medical Affairs at the University of Chicago. “We are pleased to support this innovative model that draws from the cultural and spiritual strengths of communities to fi nd solutions tailored to work for them.”

“This is a

remarkable

coalition of

collaborators

coming together

to support our

communities.”

Wendy DuBoe, president

and CEO, United Way of

Metropolitan Chicago

PHOTO BY BRUCE POWELL

44402_MMFall2014.indd 3 10/29/14 10:05 AM



Mid

way

New

s


Mid

way

New

s Q&A WITH JOHN MAUNSELL

The ultimate challenge for neuroscience

John Maunsell, PhD, is the Albert D. Lasker Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and inaugural director of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior. He talks about his vision for neuroscience research.

What is the goal of the Grossman

Institute?

The Grossman Institute will span boundaries and coordinate research activities, not only in the biological sciences but across the University. Th e goal is to do all we can to support progress in research on neuroscience, human behavior and quantitative biology at the University. A key approach we will take is to foster new collaborations and exchanges of ideas. When people from radically different scientifi c cultures — for example, psychology and biophysics — work together, they come up with questions and insights that wouldn’t emerge in the ordinary scheme of things, where disciplines and even laboratories work independently of one another.

Why is this necessary?

Neuroscience is fundamentally multidisciplinary. It’s become clear that we’re never going to solve the brain if we approach it from any one direc-tion. You can’t really understand neuroanatomy without thinking about the neurophysiology and the behavioral patterns that anatomy supports. And you can’t really understand neurophysiology without understanding its neuroanatomical and neurodevelopmental basis, and so on. Generally as a fi eld moves forward and grows bigger, it tends to fractionate into specialties and subdivisions. Th at’s not happening in neuroscience. In fact, as it grows larger, neuroscience is becoming more integrated. Th at’s necessary for progress, but it’s a challenge for

Maunsell awarded BRAIN Initiative funding

UChicago neuroscientist John Maunsell, PhD, has been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health as part of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.

The funding will be used to develop laser technology to guide nerve cell fi ring and study how groups of neurons produce behavior.

Launched by President Obama in 2013, the BRAIN Initiative is a large-scale eff ort to equip researchers with fundamental insights necessary for treating a wide variety

of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury.

“An unprecedented number of new tools and approaches are enabling rapid progress on many fronts in neuroscience,” Maunsell said. “Support from the BRAIN Initiative is capitalizing on this opportunity to quickly make progress on understanding how healthy brains function and what goes wrong in disease states. The payoff s could be enormous. We’re very pleased to be able to contrib-ute to this eff ort.”

Maunsell, in collaboration with Mark Histed, PhD, research associate (assistant professor) in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago, and Tommaso Fellin, PhD, senior researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology, received BRAIN Initiative funding to study the brain in action.

The researchers are using an innovative laser technology that allows them to acti-vate individual neurons with unprecedented precision. “For the fi rst time we are going to be able to produce specifi c patterns of activity in the brain and see what happens to behavior,” Histed said.

The human brain remains profoundly mysterious. From how it processes pain to

why it becomes diseased to the origins of consciousness, questions remain about virtually

all of its structures and functions that continue to perplex scientists.

The human brain is only three pounds of biological tissue, yet it is the source of all

our perceptions, thoughts and movements. Every word spoken, every invention realized,

every step taken is a testament to the great capacity of the human brain.

In recognition of the immensity and importance of this challenge, the University

of Chicago has launched the Grossman Institute, which aims to build new cross-

disciplinary collaborations focused on understanding the brain and human behavior.

SOURCE: THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT; NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)

44402_MMFall2014.indd 4 10/29/14 10:05 AM


John Maunsell, PhD, is director of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative

Biology and Human Behavior.


diff erent, growing sub-disciplines to keep communi-cating and interacting eff ectively. Th at’s the process that we’re trying to facilitate.

Human behavior is in the name of the

institute. What will be studied?

Human behavior can be viewed as the ultimate challenge for neuroscience. We won’t understand the brain until we can explain how it allows us to reach, grasp, walk and run gracefully. Because everyday life is a series of behaviors, it’s diffi cult to appreciate how impressive even basic behaviors are. Standing up and walking seem simple and uninvolved, but it took you a year and a half of practicing every day before you could do them even moderately well. And aft er decades of eff ort, we still haven’t made robots that perform half as well as any toddler.

Human behavior also includes cognition. How do we make decisions or do mental calculations? Cognition might arise from computations similar to those used by the brain to control muscle actions, or it might require quite distinct mechanisms. Emotions, reward, fear, pain — all of these are critical to our social interactions and survival, but the mechanisms that generate those experiences are poorly understood. Human behavior is the big challenge, and I think it’s good that we highlight it in our institute name.

What are you most excited about?

All of it. We really seem to be at a turning point for neuroscience. We’ve suddenly got so many powerful tools — tools that we were only dreaming of 10 to 20 years ago. We’ve got new molecular and cellular methods that make it possible to identify and distinguish diff erent classes of brain cells. We have multi-electrode devices where you can record from hundreds or thousands of cells electrically. New optical methods sound almost like science fi ction. By genetically engineering neurons to make fl uorescent molecules, we can now monitor the electrical activity of hundreds of brain cells at once by detecting the light they emit. Even more powerfully, we can focus light on them to change their electrical activity and look at how the animal’s behavior changes. And we can analyze the new data with computer power and computational approaches that were unimaginable just a short time ago.

The floodgates are going to open in terms of the amount of data that we’ll have available, and the understanding will follow. Th e White House’s BRAIN Initiative and other programs refl ect the widespread sense that there is a tremendous opportunity to move forward quickly now. It’s not one specifi c question or one specifi c area or one animal model. Th e new tools are relevant to neuroscience questions across the board.

What’s the one question you’d really like

to know the answer to?

I’d say it’s the question of how we achieve unifi ed action and unified experiences from hundreds of billions of individual brain cells. You feel like you’re one person. You don’t feel like you’re two cerebral hemispheres, you don’t feel like you’re 200 cortical areas, and you don’t feel like you’re 10,000 brain nuclei. But that’s what you are. In fact you’re hundreds of billions of neurons. Yet you experience being one person, with one set of goals and one plan of action. We don’t have any solid computational or conceptual framework for how that takes place and what sort of mechanisms and computations can produce that.

— Kevin Jiang

44402_MMFall2014.indd 5 10/29/14 10:06 AM



Mid

way

New

s


Mid

way

New

s

Chasing butterfl ies

Last summer, anyone walking around the University of Chicago campus during the day might have

come across a curious sight — Marcus Kronforst, PhD, and members of his lab, frantically swinging nets while chasing butterfl ies.

At fi rst blush, it would seem that they should be doing this thousands of miles away. Aft er all, Kronforst, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, has made a career studying exotic species of butterfl ies. He’s shed light on fundamental evolutionary processes using Heliconius butterfl ies from South and Central America and discovered the genetic secrets behind mimicry through Papilio polytes from Southeast Asia.

But sometimes, common and local can be just as scientifi cally rewarding as distant and exotic. Kronforst and his team were hunting cabbage white butterfl ies, a widespread species that is found around the world and seen in almost every garden

in Hyde Park. Small, white and with a fluttering flight pattern that borders on manic, they fascinate Kronforst precisely because of how common they are.

The life of a cabbage white revolves around plants from the mustard family, a common group that includes cabbages. As caterpillars, they feed on these plants, and as adults seek them out to lay eggs. While most butterfl ies interact with a very limited number of host plant species, cabbage whites call a wide variety of mustard plants home. It is this fl exibility that has allowed the cabbage white to be so widespread.

Kronforst and his team hope to shed light on the genetics of how cabbage whites achieve this feat. To do so, they’re using one group of mustard plants, Arabidopsis, which has been well studied and includes one of the first plant species to have its entire genome sequenced. Th e researchers are collecting 100 wild female butterfl ies in order to raise their off spring on Arabidopsis in a University greenhouse.

Why researchers are so interested in the most common butterfl y on campus

PHOTOS BY ROBERT KOZLOFF

BY KEVIN JIANG

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Read more research newson the Science Life blogsciencelife.uchospitals.edu

44402_MMFall2014.indd 6 10/29/14 10:06 AM

http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/


In one phase of the experiment, the team will measure how much one strain of cabbage white caterpillar eats on 100 strains of Arabidopsis. In another phase, they will measure how much 100 strains of caterpillar eat one strain of the plant. With this information, genetic sequencing and a lot of difficult analysis, Kronforst and his team hope to reveal the genetics behind the cabbage white’s interaction with its host plant. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the evolution of these intertwined species, the results could inform the development of genetically modifi ed plants that don’t need pesticides.

Despite the hard work required by the project, Kronforst and his team relished this local opportunity. “We study butter-fl ies, but most of that work is in the lab,” Kronforst said. “It’s really fun to be able to take a break once a week, come out here and spend a few hours just chasing butterfl ies.”

LEFT: Postdoctoral scholar Wei Zhang, PhD,

races aft er a cabbage white butterfl y on the

Midway Plaisance. ABOVE: Marcus Kronforst,

PhD, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor

of Ecology and Evolution, checks on the

butterfl ies, which are common on campus and

throughout Hyde Park.

See Kevin Jiang’s video of the butterfl y hunters in action youtu.be/6MGovxdKoMw

MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY

Free mobile app now available for Android, too

The Medicine on the Midway mobile app is now available for download in both the GooglePlay and App stores.• Instant access to the current issue and

recent back issues• Zoom and search • Embedded videos and links to web

pages, podcasts and social media• Developed by GradMags, a University

of Chicago Booth School of Business startup

To get your free download, follow these links: App Store: bit.ly/16rRYk8GooglePlay: bit.ly/1w10zZC

RESEARCH AWARDS

BSD students honored

Graduate students in the Biological Sciences Division who have recently received prestigious grants and fellowships include: Natalia Gonzales (Human Genetics), UCLA Statistical Genetics Short Course Diversity Fellowship, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)/Science Program Award for Excellence in Science.Monika Scholz (Biophysical Sciences), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Student Research Fellowship. Ben Winger (Evolutionary Biology), Th e Society of Systematic Biologists’ Ernst Mayr Award for his study on the evolution of New World bird migration patterns.BSD students awarded 2014 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) include Catherine Igartua

(Human Genetics), F31 award; Mark

Lunderberg (Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program: Microbiology), F30 award; and Matt Odenwald (Molecular Pathogenesis and Molecular Medicine), F30 award.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 7 10/29/14 10:06 AM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MGovxdKoMw&feature=youtu.be

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ucm-bsd-alum/id675320727?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mzines.ucmbsdalum&hl=en


Mid

way

New

s


Mid

way

New

s

BY KEVIN JIANG

Picture a dinosaur larger than Tyrannosaurus rex, with a long, crocodilian snout, giant conical teeth, blade-like hand claws and a

massive bony sail along its back. And it ate sharks.It sounds like something from the daydreams of

a Hollywood writer, but Spinosaurus aegyptiacus actually roamed the earth around 95 million years ago.

Unveiled in September by an international team of scientists led by University of Chicago paleon-tologists Paul Sereno, PhD, professor of organismal biology and anatomy, and Nizar Ibrahim, PhD, post-doctoral scholar and a 2014 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Spinosaurus appears to be the fi rst truly semiaquatic and largest known predatory dinosaur.

Reconstructing Spinosaurus was an arduous process. A partial skeleton of Spinosaurus fossils was discovered in the Moroccan Sahara along desert cliff s known as the Kem Kem beds, an area that was once a large river system. An extremely rare fi nd, it was spirited out of the country, and the context of the find — and maybe the fossil itself — was seemingly lost forever.

Ibrahim, the lead author of the Science study that describes the dinosaur, was alerted to the existence of the Spinosaurus skeleton by colleagues from a museum in Milan. Eventually, he found the original local fossil hunter in Morocco, who took him to the discovery site. Ibrahim also tracked down the surviving photographs and memorabilia of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, who fi rst discovered and named Spinosaurus more than a century ago and whose fossils were destroyed in World War II.

The scientific team, which included two pale-ontologists from Milan and one from Morocco, worked with technicians from Sereno’s Fossil Lab to apply state-of-the-art technology to the new fossils — starting with CT scans and followed by digital reconstruction. Incorporating information from Stromer’s publications and fossils housed in museum collections around the world, they were able to create a 3-D rendering of the skeleton of Spinosaurus.

Measuring 9 feet longer than the largest known Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus had giant, slanted teeth that were well suited for catching fi sh and sharks, powerful forelimbs with curved, blade-like claws, and enormous dorsal spines covered in skin that created a gigantic sail on its back.

Spinosaurus breaks a long-recognized barrier for landlubbing dinosaurs: It is the fi rst dinosaur adapted to a semiaquatic life.

It had small nostrils retracted near its eyes to allow breathing with its snout submerged; openings for pressure sensors on its snout to detect movement in water like living crocodiles; a long neck for moving jaws toward prey; large, fl at-clawed feet for paddling; and a long fl exible tail to assist in swimming. Th at anatomy made walking on land on two legs nearly impossible but facilitated foot- and tail-propelled movement in water.

“What surprised us even more than the dinosaur’s size were its unusual proportions,” Sereno said. “We see limb proportions like this in early whales, not predatory dinosaurs.”

For more information on Spinosaurus, visit uchicago.edu/features/massive_hunter_prowled_waters_edge.

“What surprised

us even more than

the dinosaur’s size

were its unusual

proportions.

We see limb

proportions like

this in early whales,

not predatory

dinosaurs.”

Paul Sereno, PhD,

professor of organismal

biology and anatomy

Nizar Ibrahim, PhD, left , and Paul Sereno, PhD, with a fl esh model of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus

Spinosaurus is featured on

the cover of the October

issue of National Geographic

magazine. A full-size replica

is on exhibit through April 12

at the National Geographic

Museum in Washington, D.C.

ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY AND ANATOMY

Bigger than T. rex and with an appetite for sharksReconstructing the largest predator and fi rst truly semiaquatic dinosaur

PHOTO BY MIKE HETTWER

44402_MMFall2014.indd 8 10/31/14 9:26 AM

http://www.uchicago.edu/features/%20massive_hunter_prowled_waters_edge/

9MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY FALL 2014uchospitals.edu/midway 9MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY FALL 2014uchospitals.edu/midway

‘A boon for our research and teaching’Field station is the fi rst Passive House-certifi ed laboratory in North America

The University of Chicago is raising the bar for energy-effi cient educational facilities

with the completion of the Warren Woods Ecological Field Station, the fi rst Passive House-certifi ed labora-tory in North America and only the fi ft h worldwide, this past summer.

The 2,400-square-foot facility is located on 42 acres of land near Warren Woods State Park in Berrien County, Michigan, and is funded and operated by the Department of Ecology and Evolution.

“Many of our students and faculty perform their research at remote locations, but now, for the fi rst time, we have first-rate facilities close to home,” said Joy Bergelson, PhD, Louis Block Professor and chair of ecology and evolution. “It will be a boon for our research and teaching in modern fi eld sciences.”

Th e facility houses a fully equipped laboratory for research projects and seminar space for educational programs and classes, and includes three sleeping cabins. The southwestern Michigan landscape harbors several types of habitat currently under ecological res-toration, including lowland hardwood forest, climax beech-maple forest and

remnant wet prairie. Research on biodiversity, evolutionary trajectories, genetic characterization and ecological interactions between species in this habi-tat will be performed, as well as botanical experiments in fenced test plots.

Passive House standards strive for extreme energy efficiency, and the building had to be positioned on site to maximize energy gain while min-imizing loss. Th e facility is expected to cost approximately $200 to $300 per year to heat. By comparison, a standard code-compliant building of the same size and layout would cost approximately $3,000 per year to heat.

Th e University of Chicago has close historical ties to the southern Lake Michigan region. Henry Chandler Cowles, a graduate student and then a professor in the Department of Botany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is often called the father of American ecology. He is most well-known for his 1898 doctoral dissertation on the ecological theory of succession, developed in the dune habitats of northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan.

A substantial bequest from the estate of Harriet Cowles Waller, the daughter of Henry Cowles, led to the development of the fi eld station.

“The University has certainly embraced energy effi cient architecture in recent years,” Bergelson said. “With this passive fi eld station, we are excited to push the bar that much farther.”

The innovative design of the Warren Woods Ecological Field Station resulted from intense

collaboration between architects and scientists to understand the needs of researchers.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

PHOTO BY TRENT BELL PHOTOGRAPHY

RESEARCH AWARDS

Grant awarded for data-driven discovery

Matthew Stephens, PhD, professor of statistics

and human genetics, has been selected for a Data-Driven Discovery grant by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Th e $1.5 million award is part of the foundation’s fi ve-year initiative committed to enabling new types of scientifi c breakthroughs by supporting interdis-ciplinary, data-driven researchers.

Stephens develops statistical and computa-tional analysis tools for the large datasets being generated in the biological sciences. Over the last 15 years, he and his collaborators have made seminal contributions to several problems in population genetics, including identifying structure (clusters) in genetic data, and modeling correlations among genetic variants.

Matthew Stephens, PhD

Cobey receives NIH New Innovator Award Sarah Cobey, PhD, assistant professor of

ecology and evolution, has received a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s NewInnovator Award. Cobey will receive $2.1 million over five years to investigate how the immune system evolves protec-tion against pathogens s u c h a s i n f lu e n z a . She aims to provide a better understanding of f lu epidemiology and to help develop optimal vaccination strategies for individuals and populations.

The NIH Director’s New Innovator Award is designed specifically to support unusually creative new investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career. Cobey was one of only 50 investigators from around the country selected for this year’s award.

Sarah Cobey, PhD

44402_MMFall2014.indd 9 10/31/14 9:28 AM



Students in the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2018 participate in a

leadership workshop on one of the fi rst days of class this fall. Pritzker’s culture

of continuous improvement supports innovation across the entire training

curriculum, from pipeline programs to continuing medical education.

How the Pritzker School of Medicine

is redefi ning medical education

Inventing the Future

PHOTO BY SHAUN SARTIN

44402_MMFall2014.indd 10 10/29/14 10:07 AM


BY BROOKE E. O’NEILL

Is this really the best way to teach doctors?” It was 1987 when Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83,

then chief medical resident at the University of Chicago, fi rst asked herself that question. Peering at the trainees before her, she felt conflicted. Her intellectual side was more alive than ever, her lectures fi lled with breakthroughs on cancer therapies and insights into metabolic patterns, but her residents were completely exhausted.

“We would have them sit in these conference rooms at noon, give them lunch and talk at them while most of them were falling asleep,” recalled Humphrey, who had just completed her own residency.

Clearly, there had to be an alternative.

Creating a new model

Since then, Humphrey has made a career of redefi ning what medical education looks like. As the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine’s dean for medical education, she is one of a few medi-cal leaders in the country who oversee an institution’s entire training continuum, from premed pipelines to medical school, residency and fellowship programs, and continuing education for practicing physicians. It’s an innovative model that takes a holistic view of medical training rooted in experiential learning.

“Medical education at its best is not a theoretical exercise,” said Humphrey, the Ralph W. Gerard Professor in Medicine. “It understands context and is deeply immersed in the trenches and, honestly, in the crevices of our health care system, because that’s where residents and medical students oft en stand.” It’s here that tricky skills like delivering bad news to a patient, weighing the costs of treatment and transitioning care between physicians are learned, oft en in trial by fi re.

Outside pressures also come into play. When the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) restricted resident duty hours in 2003, the regulation introduced a new challenge: less time for teaching on the wards. Th e ACGME and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical schools, have since increased requirements around the level of preparation trainees must have as they advance from one career stage to the next.

The result? Medical educators needed to get smarter — and more effi cient — about how they were training physicians.

Pursuing the ideas

At UChicago, these realities have fueled a culture of innovation where leading medical education scholars

are piloting new programs, making creative uses of technology and training future researchers. “Th is is a place where people get really excited about ideas,” Humphrey said.

Th anks to the University’s compact campus and collaborative environment, novel teaching methods tend to cross-pollinate across undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education, making it “possible to look at medical education not as a series of discrete learning blocks, but more fl uidly,” Humphrey said. Th is approach helps young physicians move more smoothly through their training — and deliver a higher level of patient care throughout.

To accomplish that, educators pay special attention to the transition points between levels. Pritzker’s Housestaff Boot Camp, for example, eases the switch from medical student to resident. “You go from stu-dent to employee in one day,” said Michael Simon, MD, associate dean for graduate medical education. “Th at cutoff is disappearing in our institution.”

Th e intensive weekend boot camp was piloted in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. Standardized patients, who are trained to portray patients in various clinical scenarios, and phy-sicians teach incoming residents what the ACGME deems “entrustable professional activities” — skills they should be ready to use on Day 1, such as doing a patient handoff and obtaining informed consent.

Changing the practice

“We work a lot in how to change clinical practice,” said Vineet Arora, MD, MA’03, director of Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Innovation and assistant dean for Pritzker’s Scholarship and Discovery research curriculum. “Much of what we do uses technology or innovative learning strategies to promote a certain topic that might be less well understood in medical education.”

Take patient handoffs, the complex interaction between physicians during shift changes. An expert on the subject, Arora uses video to teach students and residents how to navigate the changeover. “Creating a video was a way to discuss fi ve to 10 research papers in fi ve minutes,” she said. Working with colleague Jeanne Farnan, MD’02, MHPE, Pritzker’s director of curricular evaluation, Arora has produced dozens of video vignettes that address professionalism issues such as handoffs, supervision, teaching value and dealing with pharmaceutical representatives.

Th ey’ve found an enthusiastic audience. Th e team’s award-winning 2010 handoff vignette highlighting worst-case scenarios has been viewed more than 24,000 times and is now used as a teaching tool at more than 40 institutions.

“

Continued on page 12

“This is a place

where people

really get

excited about

ideas.”

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83,

dean for medical education

44402_MMFall2014.indd 11 10/31/14 9:35 AM



“If you go to a grand rounds and hear about 10 studies, you’re not going to walk out of there thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to change my practice,’” Arora said, “but if somebody actually shows you how bad a situation is and here’s what we can do about it, then you’re much more likely to try to make that change.”

Rethinking the cost

Th e price tag of treatment is another area where teaching meets technology. “It’s increasingly recognized that value is an important element of care,” Arora said, yet many physicians have little understanding of how health care fi nances work. To raise cost-consciousness, the University of Chicago partnered with nonprofi t Costs of Care and Harvard Medical School for the Teaching Value Project (teachingvalue.org), a series of web-based videos and curricula for medical students and residents. Funded by the ABIM Foundation, early vignettes highlighted 10 reasons for overuse of tests and treatments and how to prescribe in a more cost-conscious way.

Resident Andrew Levy, MD’12, who helped develop the curriculum as a Pritzker medical student, was chosen to present the concepts at the national Association of American Medical Colleges conference in November 2014. (See story on page 15.)

When the ABIM Foundation suggested the collab-orators follow with a literature review exploring other research being done on the topic, the team proposed a more interactive approach: crowdsourcing. Th at led to the Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge,

a competition soliciting ideas on teaching cost from medical schools and residency programs around the country. More than 74 medical students, residents and faculty submitted proposals. Winners included curricula inspired by work in a temporary emergency department following Hurricane Sandy and an internal contest among trainees to create eff ective, lower-cost care plans.

Recruiting the next generation

Pritzker faculty also leverage online social networks to help young people at the very beginning of their medical journey. In 2013, Arora and her team received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the eff ectiveness of a peer-to-peer social media campaign to raise awareness of clinical research careers among teens. Th e project, TEACH STRIVES (Spreading Teen-Research Inspired Videos to Engage Schoolmates), engages high school students to create and spread video vignettes that promote research careers among their social networks.

Th e initiative can feed robust pipeline programs geared toward minority high schoolers and college undergraduates. High-performing Chicago Public Schools teens can participate in Training Early Achievers for Careers in Health (TEACH) Research, while college students underrepresented in the health professions team up with faculty mentors to do primary research through the Chicago Academic Medicine Program and Pritzker Summer Experience in Research.

Brittany Seidensticker, MS4,

presents during GI rounds

in the Pediatric Intensive

Care Unit at the University

of Chicago Medicine

Comer Children’s Hospital.

The large group included

medical students, residents,

fellows, attending

physicians and nurses.

Continued from page 11



44402_MMFall2014.indd 12 10/31/14 9:37 AM


Moving toward medical school

Amherst College junior Imani Marshall wants to become a pediatrician and

run a community health organization serv-ing low-income families in Chicago.

Th e last two summers, Marshall partici-pated in the Chicago Academic Medicine Program (CAMP), one of four University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine pipeline programs for high school and college students from communities under-represented in medical education.

In the inaugural CAMP I, Marshall shadowed Natasha Jenkins, MD, then an obstetrician/gynecologist at the University of Chicago Medicine. “Th e greatest lesson I learned was about multiple hats that physi-cians wear as educators, scientists and also mediators in family situations,” Marshall said. “Seeing how Dr. Jenkins interacted helped me decide to commit myself to medicine.”

The past summer, Marshall completed the eight-week CAMP II, which focuses on primary research. She worked with Elbert Huang, MD, associate professor of medicine, to study decision aids to infl uence shared decision making in minority populations. CAMP II also provides MCAT preparation

and work on personal statement writing and interviewing skills.

“CAMP I really altered my path and my goals, professionally and academically,” said Marshall, the daughter of an attorney and a former Chicago Public Schools teacher. She plans to apply to Pritzker.

Meanwhile, research aimed at improving the CAMP programs continues. Cassandra Fritz, MS4, who helped design both CAMP programs, is researching other pipeline programs and trying to develop new ways to measure their eff ectiveness.

“We’re missing a large part of the picture when we just take that one ending snapshot,” Fritz said. “What we’re trying to advocate for is that these pipeline programs in gen-eral take snapshots along the way. It helps students with diffi culties that arise and not just when they’re applying to medical school and trying to fi gure out why they did or didn’t get in.”

— Howard Wolinsky

PIPELINE STUDENT | Imani Marshall COLLEGE JUNIOR

“We’re among the unique

few that really walk the

walk about the continuum

of medical education from

medical school all the way

to continuing medical

education and practicing

physicians. We leverage

innovation across the

continuum.”

Halina Brukner, MD, associate dean for

medical school education Cassandra Fritz, MS4

PHOTOS BY ROBERT KOZLOFF

44402_MMFall2014.indd 13 11/3/14 10:16 AM



Mid

way

New

s


Mid

way

New

s Having a say in the clinical curriculum

The curriculum at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

is constantly evolving. Students play key roles as members of the Clinical Curriculum Review Committee and as regular reviewers of the curriculum.

Noura Choudhury, MS4, is on the com-mittee, whose membership runs the gamut from students to clinical directors and deans.

“Everyone brings something diff erent to the table and we try to fi gure out ways to improve clinical curriculum,” she said.

Th e committee reviews issues common to the seven clinical clerkships, as well as stu-dent ratings of each clerkship, Choudhury said. Student members of the committee use the ratings to develop recommendations for curriculum changes.

A recent example was how to resolve difficulty students were having fitting in requirements for the radiology clerkship, which is embedded into the medicine rotation. Th e system only allowed them to

complete the requirements on an ad hoc basis, when they happened to find a few hours scattered throughout their schedules while on the medicine clerkship.

The committee recommended that the radiology clerkship be a dedicated one-week curriculum. Th e change took eff ect in July.

“Pritzker is very responsive to student feedback,” said Choudhury, who also served on the Pre-clinical Curriculum Review Committee. “It’s been incredible to be part of this process, to see how education and the curriculum are shaped here.”

She said the experience sparked her

interest in medical education and curricu-lum development in the future.

Th e Wheaton, Ill., native plans to become a hematologist/oncologist, following in the footsteps of her father. She is taking an additional research year with the support of a Pritzker Fellowship, working in the laboratory of cancer researcher Yusuke Nakamura, MD, PhD. “We are looking at how T-cells are involved with the develop-ment of bladder cancer. Eventually, we want to see if this can be predictive of how the cells will react to certain treatments, such as chemotherapy.”

— Howard Wolinsky

MEDICAL STUDENT | Noura Choudhury MS4

Teaching the teachers

At UChicago, innovation also extends beyond technology and delves into the heart of what it means to educate medical professionals. Long considered a “teacher of teachers,” Pritzker ranks around the 95th percentile among medical schools for graduating future academic faculty members. Building on that legacy, Humphrey and her team have carved out a rigorous pathway to train aspiring medical educators. It starts in Pritzker’s Scholarship and Discovery pro-gram, where students can choose medical education from fi ve potential research concentrations. Residents can pursue similar opportunities through a recently launched graduate medical education track.

For practicing physicians, there’s MERITS (Medical Education Research, Innovation, Teaching and Scholarship), a competitive fellowship program

developed to train the faculty in medical education, from teaching skills to curriculum development to scholarship. Recent projects include research on how to improve resident handoff s in outpatient clinics and the development of a now-nationally recognized cur-riculum that trains students to use electronic medical records in a way that enhances patient interactions.

Faculty innovators also get support from the University’s Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators (ADME), a group of scholars recognized for their contributions to medical education. Each year, the ADME identifi es potential improvement areas in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum and awards grants to faculty who propose solutions. Past awards have funded the pilot of the residents’ medical education track, an intervention to improve mentors’ feedback on students’ reflective writing

PHOTO BY ANDREW NELLES


44402_MMFall2014.indd 14 10/31/14 9:40 AM


Teaching about the cost of medical care

In the video, “What If Your Hotel Bill Was Like a Hospital Bill?”, Andrew Levy,

MD’12, plays a hotel guest calling to get an explanation of a $20,000 bill that arrived a month aft er his stay.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek introduction to a web-based curriculum for medical students and physicians about how to avoid unnec-essary care, tests and procedures.

Educators from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the nonprofit Costs of Care Teaching Value Project teamed up to write the curriculum. Th e nonprofi t group’s goal is to empower patients and their caregivers to reduce the cost of medical care.

Levy said he became interested in the topic aft er tearing cartilage in his knee. At the time, he was working at a Washington, D.C., think tank and had a high-deductible health insurance plan.

Levy, an avid runner and former Yale Bulldogs football player, did some research and found that an MRI would cost him between $400 and $1,000. In the end, his surgeon agreed the test was unnecessary.

When he entered Pritzker, he decided

to tackle the value of care as a project. “Physicians and trainees in general have no idea how much what they’re doing costs,” Levy said.

He worked on developing the cost cur-riculum with Vineet Arora, MD, MA’03, Pritzker’s assistant dean for scholarship and discovery, and Neel Shah, MD, MPP, founder of Costs of Care and an assistant professor at Harvard University.

With colleagues from Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco, the group launched an online competition to solicit ideas on how to teach value in med-icine. Th e crowd-sourced campaign netted 74 submissions, which were published at teachingvalue.org. The competition and

teaching modules were funded by the ABIM Foundation.

Levy is lead author on an essay about the cost curriculum that was published in late 2014 in the journal Academic Medicine from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“We have to get away from this culture of overuse and just wanting to order every-thing,” Levy said.

For more information or to enter the sec-ond annual Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge this fall, visit costsofcare.org/education/teaching-value-project.

To watch the Costs of Care video, please go to youtu.be/W-u4304UWwU.

— Howard Wolinsky

RESIDENT | Andrew Levy MD’ 12

and the development of a systems-based practice curriculum for surgery residents.

“Education is getting better because we have all these people dedicated to tweaking it,” said H. Barrett Fromme, MD, MHPE, a MERITS co-director and ADME fellow. “We’re pushing them to identify — and solve — problems.”

Strengthening the lessons

Other programs provide creative opportunities for educators to hone their teaching skills. Th e ADME is piloting a teaching consult service that provides personal coaching for teaching. A physician struggling with his or her teaching on rounds, for example, can be observed and receive feedback from an academy

member, who uses carefully designed checklists to evaluate the instructor.

Three times a year, ADME and MERITS offer Faculty Advancing in Medical Education (FAME), a series of workshops covering topics such as small group teaching and how to give feedback. Nearly all sessions include Objective Structured Teaching Encounters (OSTEs) employing standardized learn-ers, typically fourth-year medical students, who give participants real-world teaching practice, much like standardized patients do in clinical training.

The concept of OSTEs came to Chicago more than a decade ago as part of Fromme’s Residents as Teachers (RAT) program for pediatric residents. Th e



44402_MMFall2014.indd 15 10/29/14 10:09 AM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-u4304UWwU&feature=youtu.be


Working to improve teaching

In 2012, the radiation oncology depart-ments at the University of Chicago

Pritzker School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School rolled out a curriculum of three lectures and an interactive, hands-on module through which medical students developed a radiation treatment plan in a simulated environment.

“It is a real patient, but it’s on the com-puter,” said Daniel W. Golden, MD, assistant

professor of radiation and cellular oncology. Golden developed the curriculum based on his work as a Medical Education Research, Innovation, Teaching and Scholarship (MERITS) fellow at Pritzker.

His goal was to remedy what his research found: 90 percent of medical students in radiation oncology rotations are asked to give a lecture upon completion of a rotation, but only 25 percent of programs provide students with lectures.

Th us far, 14 institutions have adopted the new curriculum, and Golden has published three articles on his education research, all in the prestigious International Journal of Radiation Oncology . Biology . Physics.

“Th e farther I got in training, the more I felt like the academic rigor taken into the clinic and into research wasn’t necessarily applied in teaching,” said Golden, who practices at the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center at Silver Cross Hospital. “Th ere are a lot of people who are master clinicians and a lot of people who are amazing teachers. But the great teachers weren’t always recognized.”

He pursued a MERITS fellowship to advance his interest in education. MERITS is a unique initiative to support and pro-mote research, innovation, teaching and scholarship in medical education in order to advance patient care and public health by improving physician education.

Th e yearlong fellowship helped Golden learn about how medical education has evolved to its current state and discuss ways to improve it with like-minded young physicians.

“MERITS was a great way to get a more formal overview of medical education. You could do curriculum development work and publish on it — a research study. It was eye-opening,” said Golden.

— Howard Wolinsky

FACULTY MEMBER | Daniel W. Golden MD

Reducing

student debt

Average student debt

upon graduation from the

Pritzker School of Medicine

in 2006

$166,420Average student debt

upon graduation in 2013

(approximate)

$117,000Percentage of students

who receive scholarship aid

(approximate)

90 percentSOURCE: ADMISSIONS AND FINANCIAL AID,

PRITZKER SCHOOL OF MEDICINE


The Legacy Challenge

is designed to create

new funding sources

for MD, PhD and joint

degree candidates in

the Biological Sciences

Division.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 16 10/29/14 10:10 AM

BY RUTH E. KOTT

When Gregor y A. Thomas, AB’81, MD’85, MBA’96, was a student at the Pritzker School

of Medicine, he had to take a part-time job at his father’s car dealership.

“My father had some financial prob-lems about midway through my Pritzker experience,” Th omas recalled. So Pritkzer’s then-dean of students, Joseph Ceithaml, SB’37, PhD’41, gave Th omas a scholarship grant.

“Th is scholarship was everything,” said Th omas, who now owns 10 car dealerships across Illinois and Florida. “It meant that I could keep on going to Pritzker without putting my family through any more fi nancial pressures. And it showed Pritzker’s commitment to its students. Th e dean found a way to take care of every student as best he could — even though there were, at that time, 106 students per class.”

Th e dean also took care of future students. When Thomas tried to repay the money, Ceithaml refused, asking, “Why don’t you create your own scholarship fund?”

In 2000, Thomas created the Styliades Scholarship Fund through his family foun-dation, the Styliades Hellenic Orthodox Foundation. Although Th omas ultimately chose not to practice medicine, he recog-nizes the great value of a Pritzker education for both the student and society. “We need the best and the brightest to go into medi-cine,” he said. “And we can help them choose Pritzker over another school by refusing to saddle them with $200,000 in debt.”

In the past decade, tuition at Pritzker has gone up 22 percent, adjusted for infl ation. But Pritzker students graduate with approx-imately 25 percent less debt than the average medical school student — in part because of gift s like Th omas’.

In February, Thomas made another gift to the Styliades Scholarship Fund, taking advantage of a new matching chal-lenge — the Legacy Challenge — designed to create new funding sources for MD, PhD and joint degree candidates in the Biological Sciences Division.

A core group of University of Chicago and University of Chicago Medical Center Trustees, alumni and friends created a $5 million fund that will match new gift s. Th e goal: an additional $10 million, for a total of $15 million in new scholarship and training dollars.

Thomas’ gift was matched at 50 per-cent — $1 for every $2 he contributed. It was an obvious choice for him: “You can get more impact for every dollar you give.”

He hopes his gift will inspire others, just as he was inspired by Ceithaml. “When these students have the ability to give back,” he said, “they will because they remember that somebody gave to them. I think that’s a good chain.”

For more information about the Legacy Challenge, please contact Sean Campbell at [email protected] or 773-834-5428.

Paying it forwardHelping ‘the best and brightest’

pay for a Pritzker education

curriculum has since become a national model for grooming residents to teach medical students on the fl oor and is now off ered to all residency programs at the University of Chicago. Unlike many institutions, which have a one-size-fi ts-all curriculum, Chicago’s RAT is progressive, focusing on specifi c skills needed in each year of residency.

Walking the walk

Such initiatives foster a culture of continuous improvement, making Pritzker a thriving educational

laboratory. “We’re among the unique few that really walk the walk about the continuum of medical edu-cation from medical school all the way to continuing medical education and practicing physicians,” said ADME director Halina Brukner, MD, associate dean for medical school education. “We leverage innova-tion across the continuum.”

Together, they’re building a better way to train doc-tors — and delivering on Pritzker’s ultimate mission: creating the next generation of leaders in science and medicine for the betterment of humanity.

Gregory A. Thomas, AB’81, MD’85, MBA’96

PHOTO BY JOEL WINTERMANTLE



44402_MMFall2014.indd 17 10/29/14 10:10 AM



18

BY ANNE STEIN

Cristianne Frazier, PhD’11, went to graduate school in neurobiology because she wanted to study the brain. But instead of following the traditional path into academia, she took a diff erent route: As a project manager at UChicagoTech, she helps scientists take discoveries and inventions from the lab to the marketplace.

“I work on exciting technologies and help faculty make an impact with their discoveries,” she said.

Teaching and academic research still are the most popular career paths for PhDs in the biological sciences.

But recent surveys of Biological Sciences Division graduates and students fi nd that interest is growing in careers outside aca-demia, ranging from technology transfer to science writing. And graduates report the skills learned during their PhD training are

highly transferable. “Th e job market is diff erent

now than it was 10 years ago, and although our

graduates still compete very effectively to achieve

tenure-track positions, a lot of them look at the market and say,

‘I want to develop other skills and have more options; I want to have a Plan B,’ which is smart,” said Victoria Prince, PhD, dean for graduate aff airs and professor of organismal biology and anatomy.

Th e demand for marketable skills from career-savvy trainees is being met by the newly launched BSD program myCHOICE (Chicago Options in Career Empowerment), which exposes biological science trainees to the full range of careers available to PhDs and provides additional training, counsel-ing, mentorship and opportunities to sample diff erent careers.

Where PhDs go

A recent analysis of alumni information gathered employment data for 2008-12 grad-uates (331 total) and 2003-07 graduates (321 total), as well as BSD alumni who graduated more than a decade ago, and applied it to the 20 science job categories used on the Science Careers Individual Development Plan website (myidp.sciencecareers.org).

Twenty-six percent of graduates (2003-07) have tenure track positions, with that num-ber increasing to nearly 50 percent among those who graduated more than 10 years ago. Among the same group (6-10 years post-PhD), noted Prince, around 5 percent are doing research in industry, while 30 per-cent are in non-research careers, including education, business, technology commer-cialization and research administration.

“I see trainees going into medical and science writing in a way they didn’t in the past,” Prince said. “Th ey’re also extremely interested in consulting, and I think in part that’s because consulting companies are on campus hiring. It’s a very hot area right now.”

In a recent survey conducted by the Biotechnology Association (an RSO or “recognized student organization”), current trainees (185 graduate students and postdoc-toral scholars) said the career-related skills that interest them the most include leader-ship, team building and team dynamics; how to partner with industry as an academic; technology commercialization; entrepre-neurship; science writing/journalism; and government science policy. A large majority (89 percent) said career development should be a requirement of their training, while 86 percent want the University to prepare students for jobs outside academia.

“Th ey’re really interested in developing skills, especially leadership and network-ing,” Prince said. “They want to have a professional persona and they have an understanding of the changing job market that they didn’t have in the past.”

Recent graduates say the basic skills learned in classic PhD training — written and oral communication, information synthesis, problem-solving and team-build-ing — are extremely transferable to both academic and nonacademic careers.

“In PhD training you learn to rapidly pore over large amounts of data and fi gure

What can you do with a PhD?

BSD students explore outside the traditional academic path


“ I never thought I’d be reading and

negotiating legal contracts, but

the PhD prepares you for that. It’s

easier to teach someone like me

how to do business development

than to teach a lawyer or business

student how to read science.”

Cristianne Frazier, PhD’11

What can you do with a PhD?

Technology

Science writing

Consulting

Policy

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

44402_MMFall2014.indd 18 10/31/14 10:11 AM


ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Daniel Ricardo Matute, PhD’11 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

(POSTDOC IN HUMAN GENETICS)

This fall, Daniel Matute joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an assistant professor in the biology department. His research focuses on the genetic basis of reproductive isolation and species diff erences.

“During the PhD process, I learned quantitative and analytical skills, how to approach a problem, design a research proposal/experiment that would take me from point A to point B. My advisor (Jerry Coyne, PhD) took a lot of time with me, leading by example, showing me how to write a paper, how to analyze a dataset, how to design my own experiments — and from there I was expected to make it better.”

Daniel Ricardo Matute, PhD’11, left , collecting fruit fl ies on the island of Bioko

with a student from the National University of Equatorial Guinea.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL RICARDO MATUTE

Cristianne Frazier, PhD’11


PROJECT MANAGER

Cristianne Frazier, PhD’11NEUROBIOLOGY

Cristianne Frazier is a project manager for UChicagoTech, the Center for Technology Development and Ventures. She evaluates University of Chicago inventions and discoveries for patentability and likelihood of success in the market, and works with scientists and commercial partners to help transform these discoveries into tangible products and services that have impact in the marketplace.

“I realized I didn’t want to be a scientist the rest of my life and I discovered this career path my fourth year of graduate school. I love this job because I get to learn about so many diff erent kinds of science, work with so many diff erent kinds of people, and help discoveries at the forefront of science have an impact outside of academia.

“The PhD process gives you the capacity to dive into a lot of things and learn them quickly, even if they’re outside your fi eld. You learn how to deal with ambiguity and make decisions even if you don’t have all the information you need, because you almost never do. I also learned communication and negotiation skills by writing about and defending my work, and I think that comes in handy when I’m marketing and advocating for the technologies I manage.”

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Suzanne Devkota, PhD’12 MOLECULAR METABOLISM AND NUTRIT ION

Suzanne Devkota is a postdoctoral research fellow in medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center, academically affi liated with Harvard Medical School. She studies how gut microbiome and intestinal infl ammation can lead to insulin resistance.

“I’m on the path I always wanted, to stay in academics. That’s the more traditional path — PhD, postdoc, faculty position, have your lab. Academia is a tough path, but you do it because you love it. It’s a matter of mentoring people, teaching, making new discoveries of your own and a certain curiosity and independence you don’t get in other careers.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOCIETY IN SCIENCE

Suzanne Devkota, PhD’12

Three recent PhD graduates talk about career paths

44402_MMFall2014.indd 19 10/29/14 10:11 AM



CONVERSATIONS WITH ALUMNI

Career event connects BSD students, alumni

The Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association hosted the inau-

gural Careers in Research: Conversations with Biological Sciences Alumni event in May. More than 50 graduate and postdoc-toral students attended the event. Th e 10 alumni panelists from around the country

spoke about their professions and off ered students advice on translating a PhD in the biological sciences into various careers. Th e MBSAA is seeking alumni to participate in next year’s event. If you are interested in being a panelist in spring 2015, please contact the MBSAA.

NIH GRANT

BSD program helps trainees prepare for careers in academia or beyond

The BSD’s myCHOICE (Chicago Options in Career Empowerment)

was one of just seven proposals awarded funding in this year’s competition for National Institutes of Health Broadening Experiences in Scientifi c Training (BEST) awards.

Th e University of Chicago is part of an elite group of only 17 institutions across the country selected to participate in the BEST mechanism.

Th e award of $250,000 a year for fi ve years will enable development and growth of the myCHOICE program, which promises to revolutionize the way the BSD helps graduate students and postdoctoral trainees prepare for their future careers, whether in academia or beyond.

Th e directors of the program and princi-pal investigators of the BEST grant are lead investigator Erin Adams, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and co-investigators Victoria Prince, PhD, professor of organismal

biology and anatomy; Julian Solway, MD, Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics; and Alan Thomas, MBA’90, director of UChicagoTech. Th e executive director is Ellen Cohen, and the myCHOICE steering committee includes students, postdocs, staff and faculty.

For more information, visit mychoice.uchicago.edu.


out what it means — what’s important, what isn’t and where there are holes,” said Rose Mastracci, PhD’05 (Neuroscience). Mastracci, a scientific communications group leader in global medical aff airs for Genentech, uses those skills now to distill reams of drug data and explain to physicians how patients will do on a particular drug. “I also look at our data and see where we have gaps and opportunities to do more. You bring that critical eye to things and I fi nd that exciting.”

Th e myCHOICE program will provide exposure to both on- and off-campus experts to prepare trainees for a broader range of career options though seminars; professional development sessions on topics such as networking, communication and leadership; weekend courses taught by on- and off -campus academics and entre-preneurs; and internship opportunities with local industry or government.

“Preparing trainees for a broader range of options is an important area to which all good institutions are putting forth eff ort to now,” Prince said. “Our trainees are hungry for this.”

For information on the BSD survey, see the Winter 2014 newsletter at gradprograms.bsd.uchicago.edu.

For more information on MyCHOICE, visit mychoice.uchicago.edu.

PHOTO BY BRUCE POWELL

Victoria Prince, PhD, is the dean for

graduate aff airs.

BEST DISSERTATION AWARD

Two BSD students share honorsSophie McCoy, PhD’14, Ecology and Evolution, and Sebastian Fica, PhD’13,

Cell and Molecular Biology, received the 2013-14 Biological Sciences Division Best Dissertation Award in June.

McCoy was honored for “Effects of ocean acidification on the ecology of crustose coralline red algae (Rhodophyta, Corallinales).” Fica’s dissertation is “Catalytic architecture of the spliceosomal active site.” He also received the departmental award for outstanding performance in the general fi eld of cell and molecular biology.

Stephanie Levi, PhD’09, talks with students about careers in the biological sciences.


44402_MMFall2014.indd 20 10/31/14 9:58 AM

http://mychoice.uchicago.edu/

http://gradprograms.bsd.uchicago.edu/

http://www.mychoice.uchicago.edu/

Everybody has a gift.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 21 10/29/14 10:12 AM

Your gift can help...

...answer the most complex questions in medicine.For more than 120 years, the University of Chicago has been home to physicians, scientists, students and scholars committed to collaborating across disciplines in the search for answers to some of science and medicine’s most challenging questions. Can our own immune systems be trained to fight cancer? Is memory loss a normal part of aging? How do we mine big data to unlock the mysteries of autism? How can we deliver effective health care in neighborhoods where the need is greatest? Our devotion to finding the answers demands courage, conviction and creativity:

courage to take bold approaches to attacking complex problems.

conviction that true inquiry requires physicians to work together with scientists and experts in areas ranging from computer science to economics.

creativity to develop leading-edge technology that advances basic knowledge and improves medical treatment.

...carry forward a legacy of achievement.Physicians and scientists who come to the University of Chicago are innovators and problem-solvers who bring curious, creative minds to their work, building on their predecessors’ achievements with original thinking that continues to push innovation forward. In the process, they change the trajectory of medicine. Today, University of Chicago researchers are on the forefront of radical new treatments for cancer—including playing a key role in the development of ipilimumab, a drug cited by Science magazine as part of the 2013 scientific breakthrough of the year:

UChicago researchers who developed the first chemotherapy treatments, identified the genetic mutations behind chronic myelogenous leukemia and pioneered the use of genetic markers to individualize treatment for cancer and other diseases.

Stanley Liauw, MD, has a gift for changing patients’ lives. Take Pat Navin. Diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, he underwent surgery followed by hormone therapy and radiation under Liauw’s supervision. After eight weeks of Monday-through-Friday radiation treatments—to which he bicycled 44 miles round-trip to UChicago from his home in Evanston, Illinois—Navin is now cancer-free. “One thing I’ve really come to appreciate about the medical center is the amount of effort that’s put into research, because that’s where the breakthroughs happen,” he says.

Stanley Liauw, MDAssociate Professor

of Radiation and Cellular Oncology

44402_MMFall2014.indd 22 10/29/14 10:13 AM

Pat NavinDonor to the University of Chicago Medicine

The University of Chicago Campaign: Inquiry and Impact is the most ambitious campaign in University history and includes a $1.2 billion goal for the University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences. Your gift to the campaign will have a profound impact on the patients who benefit from lifesaving care and discoveries, the physicians and scientists who are able to pursue lines of inquiry that lead to those discoveries and the students who receive an education that sends them out into the world ready to make it better.Together, we can:

cancer.improve treatment for people with serious

illnesses, including digestive disease, diabetes, heart and vascular disease, and more.

human brain and our social and physical environments interact—and how this influences our health and behavior.

With you, we will:

critical medical questions with data-driven discovery. Center for

Care and Discovery to set new standards for patient care, training and clinical research.

neighborhoods that can be the model for other urban communities.

education for the most promising future physicians and scientists.

...translate research insights into solutions that change the world.

In gratitude, Navin turned his daily bike rides into a fundraiser to support Liauw’s research projects, including tracking outcomes for prostate cancer patients to identify factors associated with treatment success and quality of life. Liauw’s work also includes potentially life-changing clinical trials. One involves a new treatment regimen that could save the bladders of patients with bladder cancer; another is testing the delivery of large, precisely targeted amounts of radiation to pancreatic tumors—which are notoriously difficult to treat—while sparing surrounding tissue.

Learn more at givetomedicine.uchicago.eduor call 773.702.6565.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 23 10/29/14 10:13 AM

https://givetomedicine.uchicago.edu/

Everybody has a gift.Imagine the impact yours can make.

Learn more at givetomedicine.uchicago.edu or call (773) 702-6565.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 24 10/29/14 10:13 AM



BY HOWARD WOLINSKY

As a pathologist, Richard J. Cote, MD’80, always has his eye on small things. That also is true for his

research, which focuses on using nanoscale materials in diagnostic tools for cancer and other diseases.

Cote, an expert on the cellular and molecular markers of tumor progression, is the Joseph R. Coulter Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he also directs the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Miami (BioNIUM).

Before joining the University of Miami in 2009, he was director of the Biomedical Nanosciences Initiative at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, where he became a member of

the faculty after training at Cornell-New York Hospital (residency) and Memorial Sloan-Kettering (fellowship and research). Cote and colleagues have been developing “labs on a chip,” deploying transistors made from nanomaterials as biological sensors to detect specifi c molecules, such as cancer markers or sequences of DNA, to diagnose disease.

“Our technology uses a single drop of blood to detect tens and even potentially hundreds of biological reactions,” Cote said. “We do this in a very different way than most other kinds of sensing because we

don’t use labels and the reactions are done in a single step.” Th e chips can rapidly diagnose cancer as well as infectious diseases, and can be used directly at the point of care, even in remote locations in underdeveloped countries, without requiring specialized labs, he said.

Cote said the novel technology stands up well to gold-standard tests, providing faster results and enabling multiple tests to be conducted at one time. Th e researchers are moving toward clinical trials.

Since entering academic practice, Cote has received more than $43 million in peer-reviewed grant support and holds numerous patents for cancer-related and nanoscale technologies. He led three of the largest clinical trials in breast, lung and bladder cancer, based on discoveries from his research. He has been a pioneer in the

detection and analysis of micrometastases, and his lab has developed novel technologies to capture and analyze circulating tumor cells in cancer patients, work that is now in clinical trials.

The Southern California native tracks his interest in medical research back to his undergraduate days at the University of California, Irvine, where he was awarded degrees in chemistry and biology. “I applied to medical schools that would give me an advantage for a career in research and was very much aware that the University of Chicago had produced

more physician-scientists who were doing research and teaching in medical schools than any other university,” he told the Pritzker Pulse in an interview aft er his 2008 induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

“One of the things I really appreciate now about the University of Chicago is how the entire academic environment is concentrated on a single campus,” he said recently. “As a medical student, it was a wonderful opportunity to be surrounded by and participate in the richness of that intellectual environment.”

He is a generous mentor to Pritzker School of Medicine students, even opening his home to medical students so they can shadow him for a few days as part of the “Day in the Life” program.

“At an individual level, the scientific achievements have been very motivating,” he told the Pulse. “But at the end of the day, the most meaningful achievements have been setting the foundation of further advances by training those people who will go on and make the next discoveries.”

ALUMNI PROFILE

Thinking big, on a nanoscaleRichard J. Cote, MD’80, is developing technology to diagnose cancer from a single drop of blood

44402_MMFall2014.indd 25 10/29/14 10:14 AM



ANN DUDLEY GOLDBLATT

The lawyer who made the case for clinical medical ethics

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY

They were an eclectic group, bound for disparate careers. But for three academic quarters between 1977 and 1979, two dozen students — eight each from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Law School and Divinity

School — met once a week in a hospital conference room. Th e medical students presented a real-life ethical quandary. Th en the case was opened up to the fl oor.

The instructors were just as diverse: a physician, a graduate student in philo-sophical ethics and theology, and a lawyer from Pasadena, California, via Harvard Law School and Wall Street.

“This was the 1970s; we had to tease the ethical issues out,” recalled the lawyer, Ann Dudley Goldblatt, JD, LLM’78, associate director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and lecturer in the Department of Medicine and the College. “But it didn’t take long; [the medical students] were pleased to have someone listening,” added Ann Dudley, who retired last summer following almost 40 years at the University.

Funded by a federal grant, Clinical Ethics and Human Values is thought to have been the fi rst course off ered in clinical medical

ethics. At the time, medical ethics was the preserve of philosophers and theologians. Th is was a new departure — relating abstract principles to real life, using actual cases as teachable moments, bringing a working physician perspective to what had hitherto been a scholastic debate.

“To this day it’s the best course I’ve taught,” said Mark Siegler, MD’67, the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Surgery and director of the MacLean Center, one of the co-teachers.

It was a far cry from LeBoeuf, Lamb and Leiby, the New York law fi rm Ann Dudley Cronkhite, as she was then, joined out of Harvard in 1964 — one of just 15 women among 498 men in her graduating class.

Ann Dudley had confounded expecta-tions in reaching Harvard. She’d expected to

“Mark Siegler, MD’67,

gets credit for bringing

the doctor back into the

ethics conversation. Yet

he did not do it alone;

Ann Dudley deserves to

share in the credit.”

Lainie Ross, MD, PhD

The Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum

Professor of Clinical Medical Ethics

BY STEPHEN PHILLIPS

Ann Dudley Goldblatt, JD, LLM‘78, has been a

revered teacher to generations of MacLean Center

for Clinical Medical Ethics fellows and a formative

fi gure in the center’s development. She trained as

a lawyer, but became interested in medical ethics

aft er auditing classes at the University of Chicago

in the 1970s.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 26 10/29/14 10:14 AM


attend now-defunct Briarcliff junior college, which specialized in secretarial training. But at Westover School in Connecticut, she discovered an intellectual spark. In “Pinstripes & Pearls,” classmate Judith Richards Hope’s account of the careers of the women in Harvard Law’s class of 1964, Ann Dudley recounted this “drive,” and the corresponding disdain she felt for the field hockey games at Westover: “Whack you on the shin! I wanted to be whacked in the brain!”

She won a place at Radcliffe College, where she studied history and literature. She aspired to take a PhD in history, but her father was worried she’d become an eternal student, so she chose law school.

“She was never going to have a career as a Wall Street attorney; that was just something you did aft er law school,” says Stanford J. (Stan) Goldblatt, LAB’54, EX’58, the fellow Harvard Law student Ann Dudley married in 1968 and the founding chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees.

A new fi eld emerges

Following the wedding, the couple moved to Chicago, where Stan worked at the time in his family’s business, Goldblatt Brothers department stores. As a volunteer at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Ann Dudley instituted a liaison program that relayed updates from the operating room to waiting parents. Th e experience piqued an interest in medical ethics.

It was a heady time in this nascent fi eld.Technological breakthroughs were

empowering physicians to save patients previously deemed beyond hope. But this raised questions of how to equitably distribute scarce resources. Meanwhile, doc-tor-knows-best paternalism was no longer tenable amid the emergence of patient rights advocacy and a consumer mentality toward health care.

Ann Dudley enrolled as a student-at-large at UChicago. Here, she found a mentor in James M. Gustafson, PhD, professor of theological ethics in the Divinity School and a leading fi gure in bioethics.

Another Gustafson protégé was Siegler. As director of the University’s fi rst intensive care unit in the early 1970s, he found himself

taking a crash course on ethical dilemmas in medicine.

“I was struggling with how to make decisions for patients who couldn’t talk for themselves, how to decide who got a bed and how to decide to discharge one patient if another with a better chance of survival needed the bed — all ethical issues,” Siegler said.

“Every week or two, I’d bring Jim a case. In one tutorial, he said, ‘I’ve been working with a brilliant young attorney with an interest in medical ethics. Th e two of you should meet.’”

Siegler and Ann Dudley hit it off immedi-ately. “She was witty, a bit acerbic, obviously a deep thinker and she wrote beautifully,” he recalled.

Siegler, Ann Dudley and Gustafson formed part of a cadre of UChicago scholars that in the late 1970s converged on a new medical ethics — one that brought bioethics to the bedside. Th is cohort later included Leon R. Kass, LAB’54, SB’58, MD’62, PhD, the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus of Social Th ought, and the late philosopher Stephen E. Toulmin, PhD.

In 1979, building on the course they’d taught, Siegler and Ann Dudley co-wrote a paper that further elaborated how this new form of bioethics might proceed.

“Clinical Intuition: A Procedure for Balancing the Rights of Patients and the Responsibilities of Physicians” explored how physicians could plot an ethical path between these countervailing forces by examining two possible outcomes of post-paternalist health care: patients who decline life-saving treatment and patients who assert their right to a treatment based on self-evaluation.

Considering the latter scenario was novel and highly prescient.

“Nobody had brought this up,” said Siegler. “Ann Dudley came up with it. . . . Th e notion of the positive rights patients could assert was a major breakthrough. It became very important in health care and clinical ethics through the 1980s and 1990s.”

With its practitioner perspective, grounding in real-world cases, close scrutiny of clinical circumstances to help determine whose rights might prevail in a given situation and emphasis on the physi-cian-patient relationship as the foundation

for ethical care, the paper also anticipated the MacLean Center, founded in 1984 as the fi rst academic institute dedicated to clinical medical ethics.

A master teacher

Ann Dudley’s chief contributions would not come on paper though.

Lainie Ross, MD, PhD, the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Medical Ethics and MacLean Center associ-ate director, called Ann Dudley’s Health Law and Ethics course a cornerstone of the center.

“Ann Dudley is a master teacher,” Siegler said. “For 35 years, her classes have refl ected her penetrating intellect, sharp wit and deep understanding of medicine, law and ethics. More than 350 fellows and countless faculty colleagues have been the benefi ciaries.”

“Her teaching is such fun,” Ross added. “She could talk from her legal mind, from a patient perspective or from that of a family member — doctors can be reticent to do

this. People come to the health care encoun-ter from various backgrounds with diff erent goals in mind. She’s been a role model for considering diff erent perspectives.”

Despite teaching for years in the College — where her courses were among the most popular — Ann Dudley never pursued a formal appointment beyond the MacLean Center. “I didn’t have ambitions in that area,” she said. From Westover to Hyde Park, though, there was one abiding passion: implacable intellectual curiosity.

“I liked what I was doing,” she refl ected. “Th at’s why I did it; I loved doing it.”

“For 35 years, her classes

have refl ected her

penetrating intellect,

sharp wit, and deep

understanding of medicine,

law and ethics.”

Mark Siegler, MD’67

The Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service

Professor of Medicine and Surgery

44402_MMFall2014.indd 27 10/29/14 10:15 AM



Pri

tzke

r N

ew

s

Mark Siegler, MD’67, the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and

Surgery at the University of Chicago, deliv-ered the 25th Annual Lowell T. Coggeshall Memorial Lecture in October.

Siegler has been practicing and teaching internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine for more than four decades. He is founding director of the University of Chicago’s MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and executive director of the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Medicine on the Midway brings you edited excerpts from his talk: “50 Extraordinary Years at the University of Chicago and the Development of Clinical Medical Ethics.”

All My Deans

During my 50 years at the University, I have personally known every dean since the founding of this medical school in 1923, except for the three deans who served between 1931 and 1943.

Turning Points

During my fi ve years directing the med-ical intensive care unit, from 1972 to ‘76, every important ethical issue came up: end of life care, rationing of beds, truth telling, informed consent, surrogate decision-making and medical innovation. Those were the years when I decided to spend the rest of my career trying to improve patient care by combining ethical analysis with clinical medical practice.

In 1985, I received an offer from a well-regarded eastern university to start a new ethics program. I went to see (University President) Hanna Gray for guidance. I reached the decision (to stay) quickly and it was a decision that I have never once regretted, because:• Chicago is a true UNI-versity —

unifi ed both geographically and intellectually, committed to scholarship, and enthusiastic about interdisciplinary work.

• I loved working with my patients and aft er 20 years of practice, I didn’t want to leave them.

• I had been working in the new area of clinical ethics here at the University for 15 years and my plans were supported and encouraged by my medical and ethics colleagues, by the Department of Medicine leadership and by the University.

• And, fi nally, my mentors were here — Al Tarlov, Arthur Rubenstein, Leif Sorensen, Jim Gustafson, Stephen Toulmin, and Hanna Gray — willing to guide me in my early years as I worked to establish the new fi eld of clinical ethics.

The Development of Medical Ethics

Th e MacLean Center at the University of Chicago is seen as the birthplace of clinical ethics. I want to recognize and deeply thank the MacLean family for their unswerving support for the past 30 years. Th e achievements of the MacLean Center have been a team eff ort and include

developing the clinical ethics fellowship program; establishing clinical ethics con-sultations; pioneering the fi eld of surgical ethics; and publishing in medical and ethics literature.

Looking Back

Th e achievements I am proudest of are:• Working with great students, residents,

and faculty colleagues • Taking care of patients as a general

internist for 47 years• Helping to start the Section of General

Internal Medicine • Organizing the fi rst medical ICU at

the University• Helping to start the fi eld of clinical

medical ethics• Working with faculty colleagues and

board members for the past 30 years to develop the MacLean Center and the ethics fellowship training program.

Looking Forward

In 2011, Dean Ken Polonsky invited me to direct the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence. Th e Bucksbaum Institute is made possible by a transfor-mative gift from Kay and her husband, the late Matthew Bucksbaum, and their family. It is dedicated to working with medical students, junior faculty, and senior faculty to improve patient care and outcomes through research and teaching about the doctor-patient relationship, communication with patients and the process of reaching decisions with patients.

COGGESHALL LECTURE

Mark Siegler, MD’67: ‘50 Extraordinary Years’

“When I entered the medical school in

1963, I was delighted to become part of

the scholarly environment established

by Franklin McLean and carried forward

by McLean’s successors, especially

Dean Lowell Coggeshall.” PHOTOS BY BRUCE POWELL

Mark Siegler, MD’67

44402_MMFall2014.indd 28 10/29/14 10:15 AM


2014 SUMMER RESEARCH AWARDS

Pritzker students honored for research excellence

The 20th Annual Pritzker Summer Research Program provided rising second-year students

with the opportunity to work with faculty mentors throughout the summer to conduct scholarly research.

Seventy members of the Class of 2017 participated in the 11-week program. Students presented their work to a panel of faculty judges at the Summer Research Forum in August.

Awards of excellence were granted to Pamela Peters, Michael Kang, Jacob Young, Daniel Blech, Richard Newcomb, Rebecca Wellmann, Joseph Bellairs, James Luo and Jane Rivas. Honorable mentions for excellence were awarded to Oluseyi Fayanju, Sean Gaffney, Anupriya Gangal, David Hamilton, Laurie Nosbusch, Michael Rydberg, Megan Tusken, Obioma Ukabiala and Jack Weick.

Faculty co-chairs for the program were Vineet Arora, MD, MA’03; Eugene B. Chang, MD’76; John Kwon, MD, PhD; and V. Leo Towle, PhD. David O. Meltzer, MD’93, PhD’92, was principal investigator for the Summer Research Program in Aging.

Th e summer research program is funded in part by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute on Aging and the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Seniors recognized for exceptional scholarly work

The 68th annual Senior Scientifi c Session in May highlighted outstanding scholarly work by fourth-year students. Th e 2014 session was chaired by

Vinay Kumar, MD, chair of pathology at the University of Chicago Medicine.Eight members of the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2014 were

honored for their research: Jennifer Philip, MD’14; Melissa Mott, MD’14, PhD; Ashwin Kotwal, MD’14, MS; Margaret Distler, MD’14, PhD’12; David Voce, MD’14; Rupali Kumar, MD’14; David Arnolds, MD’14, PhD’12; and Jonathan Garneau, MD’14.

Rupali Kumar, MD’14, talks about her poster, “GOT MeDS? Designing and Implementing an

Interactive Module for Trainees on Reducing Drug Costs,” to faculty members Scott J. Hunter,

PhD, left , Andrew M. Davis, MD’80, MPH, and Monica B. Vela, MD’93. Kumar received the

award for the best poster describing applied science. Vela was her faculty mentor.

AMERICAN MEDICAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION

Pritzker leads state for policies on confl ict of interest The University of Chicago Pritzker School

of Medicine has received an “A” on the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) scorecard for its policies regarding pharmaceutical confl icts of interest.

Pritzker is the only medical school in Illinois, and one of only 25 in the nation, to receive an A.

Each year, Pritzker submits its confl ict of interest policies to the AMSA for review. Categories include policies on gifts and meals from the pharmaceutical industry,

industry-funded scholarships and awards, and consulting and advising relationships.

The annual scorecard aims to promote dialogue about and attention to potential conflicts of interest between doctors and the drug industry.

AMSA first started scoring medical schools based on their policies surrounding student and faculty interaction with repre-sentatives from pharmaceutical and medical device companies in 2007. Th e following year, AMSA started working with the Pew

Prescription Project, an initiative of Th e Pew Charitable Trusts, to develop an updated scorecard, which used a more rigorous and transparent methodology to assess the content of policies at medical schools throughout the country. Th e 2014 scorecard refl ects this new framework.

For a detai led look at Pritzker’s results, please visit amsascorecard.org/institutions/the-university-of-chicago-pritzker-school-of-medicine.

2014 SENIOR SCIENTIF IC SESSION

44402_MMFall2014.indd 29 10/29/14 10:15 AM


http://www.amsascorecard.org/institutions/the-university-of-chicago-pritzker-school-of-medicine


Pri

tzke

r N

ew

s

CH INATOWN HEALTH FAIR

Pritzker students help at screening

Pritzker School of Medicine students helped provide free lab screenings to more than 100 visitors during the Chinatown Health Fair in July. Th e

students were part of a group of 30 University of Chicago Medicine volunteers, including physicians, lab technologists, clinical chemists and others.

Th e fair was led by the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Offi ce of Community Engagement and Cancer Disparities (OCECD) and the Department of Pathology. Supporters included the Urban Health Initiative, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Chicago Department of Public Health and diagnostic companies.


Yuxuan Hu, MS2, center, performs a fi ngerstick test. Attendees were screened for

cholesterol, HDL, glucose and hepatitis C.

SCHOLARSHIP AND DISCOVERY

Students awarded research support

Several Pritzker School of Medicine students were chosen for awards that will support their research activities during the fourth year of

medical school.Th e John D. Arnold, MD’46 Scientifi c Research Prize honors students

whose research accomplishments as medical students are based on ongoing, sustained work with a faculty member. Charles Pak, MD’61, established the award in recognition of the impact his mentor had on his education and future research career.

The students and their mentors are: Claire Beveridge (Vineet Arora, MD, MA’03), Cassandra Fritz (Karen E. Kim, MD), and Jennifer McCoy (William Meadow, MD, PhD). Each mentor will receive the John D. Arnold, MD Mentor Award.

Th e Calvin Fentress Fellowship, named in honor of a grateful patient, was awarded to fourth-year students Kyle Ericson, Dominic Harris, Justin Hellman, John Lim, Yimo Lin, Patricia Osmolak, Rishi Pandya, Richard Schroeder, Claire Shappell and Kunmi Sobowale.

The students each receive $1,000 to pursue a scholarly project and will present their fi ndings during the annual Senior Scientifi c Session in May 2015.

STUDENT CLINICIAN CEREMONY

Faculty, housestaff and students honoredJerome Klafta, MD’89, professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago Medicine and vice chair for education and academic aff airs, received the 2014 Faculty Physician Peer Role Model Award. Klaft a was recognized by his peers as the physician faculty member who best exemplifies qualities of medical professionalism and dedication to patient care.

Caitlin Chicoine, MS3, received the 2014 Pre-Clinical Student Role Model Award. She was selected by her peers as the rising third-year student who best exemplifi es professionalism through her compassion, leadership and dedication to others.

Th e awards were presented at a ceremony wel-coming rising third-year students to the clinical medical experience.

Other awards include:L.D.H. Wood Pre-Clinical Teaching Award: James

O’Reilly, PhD, senior lecturer in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, and Michael Marcangelo, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science.

Students Teaching Students Award: Martin Greenwald, MS3, and Vikrant Jagadeesan, MD’14.

Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards: Residents John Byrne, MD; Frank Karantonis, MD; Andrew Schneider, MD; Christopher Schneller, MD; M. Anthony Sofi a, MD’12; Philippe-Gerard Tapon, MD’12; and Pedro Vivar Cruz, MD.

Faculty Volunteer Award: H. Barrett Fromme, MD, MHPE, associate professor of pedatrics.


Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, with honorees Jerome Klaft a,

MD’89, and Caitlin Chicoine, MS3, chosen by their peers

as role models.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 30 10/29/14 10:16 AM


WHITE COAT CEREMONY

On the path to becoming physicians

PHOTOS BY ANDREW NELLES

The annual White Coat Ceremony is much more than a photo opportunity. Th e 90 matriculating students in the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2018 gathered in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel along with family and friends to publicly affi rm their commitment to medicine and be welcomed by their new teachers and classmates.

Medicine is a fulfi lling, unique and intellectually challenging way to serve humanity by restoring health and providing comfort, keynote speaker Keme Carter, MD, assistant professor of medicine, told the fi rst-year students. She urged them to “be a voice to advocate

for quality and equitable health care in our country.”Aft er her speech, the students approached the podium individually

to receive their white coats from their career advisors. Th anks to a generous gift from the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence, each student also received a personalized stethoscope, which will help them “keep an ear on the hearts” of their patients.

Standing in their white coats with their stethoscopes around their necks, students fi nished by reciting the Hippocratic Oath, looking and sounding — almost — like doctors.

Giving sage advice: Keme Carter, MD, keynote speaker and recipient of the

Doroghazi Clinical Teaching Award for 2014.

Trying it on for size: Tamari Miller, MS1, AB’13, gets used to his new white

coat following the ceremony welcoming members of the Class of 2018.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 31 10/29/14 10:16 AM



Pri

tzke

r N

ew

s Gone viralPritzker students’ medical school parody becomes YouTube sensation

BY JAMIE BARTOSCH

A class show is a medical school tradition, but the latest produc-tion from the Pritzker School of

Medicine Class of 2016 takes it to a whole new level.

The students’ latest parody, “I Don’t Know,” went viral on YouTube, with more than 1 million views and counting. Set to the Grammy Award-winning song, “Let It Go” from the Disney movie “Frozen,” the video captures the fears of medical students beginning the clinical year with funny lyrics and hallway dance routines.

“Anybody who’s been through medical school gets it,” said Sammita Satyanarayan, MS3, who fi lmed the video on a camera borrowed from a second-year student, greatly improving the quality over their previous iPhone-made productions.

“I Don’t Know” put Pritzker on the medical school parody map, giving a run to viral hits like Harvard Medical School’s 2-million-view “What Does the Spleen Do?” It could even be a contender for a 2015 “Memmy,” the medical school parody version of the Emmy Award, sponsored by the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

Th e brains and voice behind the project is Jacqueline “Beanie” Meadow, MS3, who, along with a few others in the video, sings in Pritzker’s Say Ah a cappella group. Julie Mhlaba, MS3, choreographed the dance moves.

“My class is pretty artistically talented and we’re taking advantage of it,” Meadow said. “We had a really good time making it. Th e goal was not to get a million hits. It was just to be funny.”

The Pritzker students spent 10 hours making the video over a two-day period following the Step 1 board exams, using the empty 6th floor simulation rooms

at Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital as their set. Th ey recruited about a dozen fellow students via Facebook, jokingly promising them YouTube fame, and — in the role of attending physician — Meadow’s father, neonatologist William Meadow, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics.

“People talk about it all the time in the hospital. Th ey’ll say, ‘Hey, I saw you in the

Jacqueline “Beanie” Meadow, MS3, stars in

the newest Pritzker parody video, “I Don’t

Know,” based on a song from the Disney movie

“Frozen.” Meadow has appeared in several

Pritzker video productions and sings in the

medical school’s Say Ah a cappella group.



44402_MMFall2014.indd 32 10/29/14 10:16 AM


PRITZKER PARODIES “The Book of Netter’s”

PARODY OF: “Hello” from “Th e Book of Mormon” musical soundtrack WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Learning the anatomy book by Dr. Frank Netter VIEWS: More than 23,000 FILMED IN: Biological Sciences Learning Center and around campusBEST LINES: “Callum, you’re scaring the children” and “Th is course might make you mad/But if you read this book, you’ll see that it is not so bad!” FACULTY CAMEOS: Anatomy course director Callum Ross, PhD; senior lecturer James O’Reilly, PhD; and Monica B. Vela, MD’93, associate dean for multicultural aff airs youtu.be/xLOJyWSrHEc

“I Don’t Know”

PARODY OF: “Let It Go” from the Disney movie “Frozen”WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Th ird-year students’ struggles to diagnose patients and impress attendingsVIEWS: More than 1 millionFILMED IN: An unoccupied, 6th fl oor simulation area in the University of Chicago Medicine’s Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital BEST LINES: “Don’t let them in/Don’t let them see/How I look up this stuff on WebMD” and “Let the bad grades come/I wanna do psychiatry anyway” FACULTY CAMEO: William Meadow, MD, PhD, co-section chief of neonatologyyoutu.be/EtAG3e3JLNI

“Gunner Style”

PARODY OF: “Gangnam Style” WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A competitive, show-off medical student VIEWS: More than 75,000FILMED IN: Biological Sciences Learning Center and Crerar Library BEST LINE: “Th e only club I ever go to is the journal kind” FACULTY CAMEO: James N. Woodruff , MD, associate dean of students youtu.be/9p4KWLSekUk

“Step 1 Makes a Boss Out of You”

PARODY OF: “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the Disney movie “Mulan”WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Orientation video about the stress of studying for the Step 1 test VIEWS: More than 30,000FILMED IN: Th e gym and all around campus BEST LINE: “Time is racing toward us till Step 1 arrives/Watch Sattar’s reviews and we just might survive”FACULTY CAMEO: Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, dean for medical educationyoutu.be/7FMdK9iK0Es

44402_MMFall2014.indd 33 10/31/14 10:03 AM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtAG3e3JLNI&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLOJyWSrHEc&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p4KWLSekUk&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FMdK9iK0Es&feature=youtu.be


Pri

tzke

r N

ew

s


NATIONAL AWARDS

Kim named one of AMA’s 2014 Physicians of TomorrowPritzker student Jimin Kim, MS4, has been named one of the American Medical Association’s 2014 Physicians of Tomorrow. The prestigious award honors the academic, personal and professional achievements of a select group of 8 to 12 students nationwide and provides tuition assistance for the fi nal year of medical school. Kim, a past Fulbright Scholar with a graduate degree from the London School of Economics, has a strong interest in global health.

Parameswaran receives2014 Paul & Daisy SorosFellowshipMD/PhD student Ramya Parameswaran was recentlynamed one of 30 scholars to receive a 2014 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. This competitive fellowship specifically recognizes the most accomplished and promising immigrants and children of immigrants in American graduate education. Parameswaran is pursuing an MD and a PhD in biophysics through the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).

Jimin Kim, MS4

“It speaks a lot to the kind

of culture our institution

has. It says a lot to our

incoming medical students

that our students have time

to do something like this, and

that they’re supported and

encouraged to fi nd creative

outlets.”

Jeanne Farnan, MD’02, MHPE

video!’” Dr. Meadow said. “I enjoyed doing it, but all the credit goes to the Pritzker kids. They’re Pritzker kids. They’re all smart, motivated and talented.”

The video serves another purpose beyond entertainment, added Jeanne Farnan, MD’02, MHPE, associate professor of medicine, director of clinical skills edu-cation and director of curricular evaluation. Th e project bonded the class together as a group, providing a healthy outlet for their stress, and showed the world that Pritzker students can still have fun.

Besides, Farnan added, sharing expe-riences online is what this millennial generation does.

“Th ere are some ... who think it’s frivo-lous, and say, ‘Shouldn’t they be studying?’ But this allows them some creative outlet,” Farnan said. “It speaks a lot to the kind of culture our institution has. It says a lot to our incoming medical students that

our students have time to do something like this, and that they’re supported and encouraged to fi nd creative outlets.”

The talented class’s other videos (“Gunner Style,” “Step 1 Makes a Boss Out of You,” and “Th e Book of Netter’s”) racked up anywhere from 23,000 to more than 75,000 views on YouTube. Th e students say “I Don’t Know” went viral because it had higher production value, used a popular song and was better publicized online, ultimately being shared on some popular medical school blogs.

The third-year Pritzker students have another video in the works, but they’re keeping their plans under wraps.

“Th ere’s always one in the works,” said video editor Omar Malas, MS3. “Th e ques-tion is, ‘How many can we get in before we graduate?’”

Ramya Parameswaran, MS2

44402_MMFall2014.indd 34 10/31/14 10:03 AM


GRADUATION 2014

David Axelrod addresses Class of 2014

Keynote speaker David Axelrod refl ected on

his family’s health care journey and his work on

health care reform.

On a picturesque day in May, 102 University of Chicago Pritzker

School of Medicine graduates gathered in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel with their families to receive their hoods at the Divisional Academic Ceremony. Before all the hugs, handshakes and high-fi ves, David Axelrod, AB’76, director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, gave a moving keynote address. Recounting his personal journey caring for his daughter, who has epilepsy, and his professional journey working to pass health care reform, Axelrod urged graduates to treat their patients as humans fi rst, and to remember their patients’ personal lives and not just their illnesses. Following graduation, our new physicians entered residencies in 24 states, and 17 class members received joint degrees. TOP: Aisha Reuler, MD’10, right, greets Erin

Cobain, MD’09, at the alumni picnic.

ABOVE: Joseph Garfi eld, MD’64, takes photos

during a tour of the University of Chicago

Medicine Center for Care and Discovery.

Nobel Laureate Bruce A. Beutler, MD’81, returned

to campus to receive his Distinguished Service

Award. Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, the Ralph

W. Gerard Professor in Medicine and dean for

medical education, presented the honor.

Four alumni were honored with Distinguished Service Awards during

this year’s Reunion Weekend for their outstanding leadership and contributions in the biological sciences or medicine.

2014 Distinguished Service Awards were presented to:

Todd R. Golub, MD’89, founding core member and director of the cancer program at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; professor of pediatrics and can-cer researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Barry D. Kahan, SB’60, PhD’64,

MD’65, professor and director emeritus, Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation, University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Joel E. Kleinman, SB’66, MD’73,

PhD’74, associate director, clinical sciences, the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore.

The Early Achievement Award was presented to James E. Bradner, MD’99,

assistant professor and cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Renewing friendships, recognizing contributions

REUNION WEEKEND 2014

PHOTO BY GRADIMAGES


PHOTO BY ANDREW NELLESPHOTO BY ANDREW NELLES

44402_MMFall2014.indd 35 10/31/14 10:04 AM


Her gift for challenging the status quo could change the way physicians work.

Your gift can help.

Join the Legacy Challenge. Your gift to the University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences can help train the innovative physicians and scientists whose work will change the future of medicine—in Chicago and around the world. Thanks to the Legacy Challenge, your pledge of $25,000 or more will have even more impact. For every dollar you contribute for scholarships and training support, the fund will match half. The goal: $10 million in new gifts. With the match, that’s $15 million in new funding to support tomorrow’s leaders in science and medicine. Make an investment in the next generation of inquiry and impact. Email Sean Campbell at [email protected] or call (773) 834-5428. For more information, visit givetomedicine.uchicago.edu.

Jennifer Ghandhi fifth-year MD/PhD student and scholarship recipient

Research focus: How can we improve the way we care for vulnerable patients?

44402_MMFall2014.indd 36 10/29/14 10:17 AM




1960sRoy Curtiss III, PhD’62, received the American Society for Microbiology Lifetime Achievement Award for his impact on microbiology and service to the fi eld. Specifi cally, he pioneered eff orts at the start of the recombinant DNA era by developing safe E. coli strains that could be used for gene cloning. This breakthrough helped alleviate public safety concerns about this new technology. Curtiss is a professor of life sciences and director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and the Center for Microbial Genetic Engineering in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.

John E. Antoine, MD’63, has reached the 51st year of his medical career. After seven years as radiation oncology service chief at James A. Haley Veterans Aff airs Medical Center (JAHVA) in Tampa, Florida, Antoine is now a physi-cian in JAHVA’s Administrative Medicine Service. He has held leadership posi-tions in radiation oncology at institu-tions including the University of New Mexico Cancer Center, National Cancer Institute, Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Antoine and his wife, Florence, enjoy yoga, Pilates, art, music and theater. They send their best wishes to all at the Pritzker School of Medicine “with a spe-cial greeting to the Class of ’63.”

Daniel Rosenblum, MD’66, SB’62, leads the University of Chicago Alumni Association Life Sciences Alumni Group near Washington, D.C. Rosenblum also is a member of the Alumni Council for the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association.

1970sSanford A. Garfi eld, PhD’74, serves as vice president of the University of Chicago Alumni Association Life Sciences Alumni Group near Washington, D.C. This group brings together alumni who are interested in life sciences, including health care. Garfi eld also serves on the Alumni Council for the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association.

Eugene Hoyme, MD’76, was the honored speaker at Augustana College’s commencement ceremonies this past May. In addition to speaking, Hoyme also was recognized for his eff orts in advancing health care and was the recipient of the Spirit of Augustana Award for Research and Innovation, which was awarded during the ceremony. Hoyme serves as the chief academic offi cer of Sanford Health and is president of Sanford Research.

1980sJames Breeling, MD’80, AB’76, focuses on medical genomics at the Veterans Health Administration in New Hampshire. In particular, his empha-sis is on the IT infrastructure of the Million Veterans Program — the VA’s plan to enroll 1 million veterans in consented research on medical genomics. When completed, it will be among the largest gene biobanks in the United States. Breeling is years away from retirement and stimulated by the challenges of his work.

Anthony P. Adamis, MD’85, is a recipient of the 2014 António Champalimaud Vision Award. The award is given for contributions to overall vision research and contribu-tions to the alleviation of visual problems, primarily in developing countries. The 2014 award was given to a group of researchers, including Adamis, responsible for the develop-ment of anti-angiogenic therapy for retinal disease. Their discovery led to the development of Lucentis, the fi rst FDA-approved drug proven to improve vision in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

1990sMelina R. Kibbe, MD’94, will be editor-in-chief of JAMA Surgery, one of nine specialty journals in the JAMA Network, eff ective January 1, 2015. Kibbe currently serves as the Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-chief of the vascular surgery service at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago. She also holds leadership positions in several surgical societies, including president of the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society, president-elect of the Association of VA Surgeons and past president of the Association for Academic Surgery. Kibbe is associate editor of the Journal of Surgical Research and a member of the editorial board for Surgery and Annals of Surgery.

Navin Bhojwani, MD’98, serves as the physician leader for Novant Health Women’s Service Line in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his new role, Bhojwani works with key stakeholders to enhance Novant Health’s ability to achieve the goals for service, quali-ty and aff ordability across women’s services.

Brian Kendall, MD’98, chief medical quality offi cer at the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties, was recognized for his eff orts to improve patient safety by the South Carolina Hospital Association during the Transforming Health Symposium. Kendall was awarded the Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Caregiver Award, which is given to a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or other hospital employee in South Carolina whose eff orts have resulted in changes that promote patient safety and quality improvement at the bedside. During his 12-year tenure as an internal medicine and pediatric hospitalist, Kendall has continually demonstrated his passion for patient safety and health care quali-ty improvement.

2000sAmy Derick, MD’02, was named to the University of Chicago Alumni Board of Governors and will serve a three-year term that began on July 1. The founder and medical director of Derick Dermatology LLC in Barrington, Illinois, Derick has served on the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Council since 2013 and as an Alumni Senate class chair since 2011.

REUNION IS COMING UP JUNE 5-6, 2015Attention alumni emeriti and those from the Classes of 1955, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. Reunion is coming up in June 2015. So that you stay up to date, be sure to submit your current contact information at medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/get-involved/update-your-info.

2 0 1 4 - 1 5 A L U M N I C O U N C I L

Rene Mora, PhD’88, MD’89, PresidentRobert Doroghazi, MD’77, Immediate

Past PresidentMichael H. Silverman, MD’73, Vice

President and Chicago Partners ChairPaul R. Rockey, MD’70, National

Reunion ChairDean Rider, MD’78, Regional Programs

ChairChris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00, Editorial

Committee ChairDiane Altkorn, MD’82 Amy Derick, MD’02Mark Ferguson, MD’77Sanford A. Garfi eld, PhD’74Melina Hale, PhD’98Michael W. Kaufman, MD’72Joel E. Kleinman, SB’66, MD’73, PhD’74Charles G. Kulwin, MD’10Dennis Lee, MD’91Kenneth L. McClain, PhD’72, MD’73Ernest E. Mhoon, MD’73Doriane C. Miller, MD’83Jacqueline Moline, AB’84, MD’88Daniel Rosenblum, SB’62, MD’66Donald Steiner, MD’56, SM’56Jack Stockert, AB’05, MBA’10, MD’10William C. Weese, MD’69David Whitney, MBA’78, MD’80

Lifetime Members: L.D. Anagnostopoulos, SB’57, MD’61Arnold B. Calica, SM’61, MD’75Coleman Seskind, AB’55, SB’56, MD’59,

SM’59Russ Zajtchuk, SB’60, MD’63

Class NotesN E W S

Alumni, get the latest news and stay connected with your classmates through the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association (MBSAA) website at medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 37 10/29/14 10:18 AM


http://medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/get-involved/update-your-info

http://medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/


In M

em

ori

am

In Memoriam

1930sRichard A. Rasmussen, MD’38, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, died on August 10 at age 101. A graduate of Olivet College and the University of Chicago, Rasmussen remained loyal and supported his schools throughout his life. During World War II, he traveled to the Aleutian Islands with the Navy “Seabees,” and he continued in the Naval Reserve until 1973, when he retired as a captain. One of his

noted accomplishments during his medical career was performing the fi rst open heart surgery in western Michigan, with his partner Dr. Clair Basinger, in 1958. Those he touched knew him as an exacting taskmaster, a dedicated physician and a generous man who attended to others’ needs. His family was privileged to see his softer side, but also benefi tted from his strength, and will undoubtedly continue to hear his often repeated injunction to “proceed with caution.”

1940sGeorge Curl, MD’47, SB’45, of River Forest, Illinois, died October 31, 2011. He was 91. A urologist, Curl worked for 43 years at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. His wife, Grace (Fleming) Curl, PhB’46, SB’47, died in 2008. Survivors include two daughters, two sons and six grandchildren.

Alan M. Robertson, MD’44, SB’41, LAB’37, passed away peacefully of natural causes on March 2, at age 94. Robertson attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and went on to graduate from medical school at the University as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. After a medical internship in Boston, he returned for a residency in psychiatry at the University of Chicago and further training at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis. In 1950, Robertson established his private practice in psychiatry in downtown Chicago. While serving in the Navy and stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base in Waukegan, Illinois, he met Agnes Henrickson, RN. Robertson

enjoyed 54 years of marriage with her before she died of natural causes in 2002. He continued to practice and teach psychiatry until his retirement in 2009 at the age of 89. His memory will be an inspiration to all who knew and loved him.

1950sHoward Leslie Bresler, MD’57, of Skokie, Illinois, died January 27. He was 82. After a long career in medicine that included serving as a research fel-low at the American Heart Association and as chair of the Department of Family Practice at the University of Illinois, Bresler embarked on a second career as a master gardener at the Chicago Botanic Garden. He is sur-vived by his wife, Ruth; a daughter; a son, Michael Evan Bresler, MD’88; a brother; and six grandchildren.

Faculty

Shutsung Liao, PhD’61

Shutsung Liao, PhD’61, professor emeritus in the University of Chicago’s

Ben May Department for Cancer Research, died on July 20 at age 83. Liao was a pioneer in understanding the biochem-istry of male hormones and their receptors, and how they infl uence the development and progression of prostate cancer. In 1968, Liao and colleagues discovered that in many andro-gen target tissues, the male hormone testosterone had no eff ect until it had been converted by the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase to dihydrotestosterone, which bound and activated its recep-tor. This fi nding later led to the development of better drugs for androgen-dependent disorders such as benign pros-tatic hyperplasia and hormone-driven cancers. In 1998, Liao formed his own biotech company, Chicago-based Anagen Therapeutics, Inc. Liao was born on January 1, 1931, in Tainan, Taiwan. In 1956, after earning his bache-lor and master of science degrees in agricultural chem-istry from National Taiwan University, where he studied the life cycle of mushrooms, Liao came to the United States to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology. At the time, he planned to transfer to Cornell in 1957 but a chance encounter with Paul Talalay, then at the University of Chicago, lured him to a doctoral program at the University. He worked in Guy Williams-Ashman’s labora-tory, which specialized in steroid hormones. In 1957, he

met Shuching Kuo, who was also studying at the University, and they married in 1960. Liao completed his PhD in biochem-istry in 1961 and was asked by Charles Huggins, MD, director of the University’s Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, to stay on as a research associate. Liao rose quickly through the faculty ranks, becoming an assis-tant professor in 1964, associate professor in 1969 and professor in 1972. For almost 50 years, his laboratory remained highly pro-ductive; he and his colleagues were awarded 29 patents. He won several prestigious honors, including selection as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

and the National Academy in Taiwan. He also was an outspoken critic of Taiwan’s single-party government, the Kuomintang, and an advocate for eff orts to bring democracy and human rights to Taiwan. Despite being blacklisted, he would regularly visit Taiwan to meet with other dissidents, participate in elections, give speech-es and galvanize support for Taiwan’s independence, sometimes at considerable personal risk. With a strong belief in community and giving back to one’s homeland, Liao founded the North American Taiwanese Professors’ Association (NATPA) in 1980. His colleagues described him as calm, patient, frugal, respectful and relentlessly polite. Liao is survived by his wife, four daughters and two granddaughters.

“Shutsung Liao

has been one of

the truly central

fi gures in the

study of prostate

cancer. … He was

also a completely

fi rst-class, decent,

principled, warm,

human being.”

Paul Talalay, MD

John Jacob Abel Distinguished

Service Professor of Pharmacology

and Director of the Laboratory

for Molecular Sciences

Johns Hopkins University

School of Medicine

44402_MMFall2014.indd 38 10/29/14 10:18 AM


Faylon M. Brunemeier, MD’55, died peaceful-ly at his home on June 28 following a long illness. He was 89. He was born on June 15, 1925, in Hubbard, Iowa, the son of Dr. Edward Herman Brunemeier and Cora Minch Brunemeier, who were medical missionaries in China on furlough in the U.S. that year. In 1943, he entered the U.S. Army Air Force aviation cadet program, where he was given the nickname “Brunie.” He served as a bombardier on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in the U.S. 8th Air Force in England and was discharged in 1946. Brunemeier graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1955. While an intern at the University of Minnesota Hospitals, he met Dorothy Johnson, and they married in 1956. After he completed a three-year residency in

ophthalmology at the University of Chicago in 1959, the couple settled in Redding, California, where he practiced medicine until retiring in 1996. Brunemeier was preceded in death by one son, and is survived by his wife of 58 years, two sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren.

Cliff ord W. Gurney, MD’51, SB’48, passed away on April 10, a day before his 90th birthday. Gurney attended the University of Chicago for both college and medical school, and completed his residency at the University of Michigan. He returned to the University of Chicago in 1956 to teach biology and genetics, remaining a professor in the Department of Medicine until 1966. After his departure from the University in 1966, Gurney served as a professor of medicine at the University of Kansas

and Rutgers University before returning to the University of Chicago in 1972, where he remained until his retirement in 1989. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Doris, their fi ve children and numerous grandchildren.

Marcus Amram Jacobson, MD’57, a clinical psychiatrist, died January 9 in Washington, D.C. He was 89. After living in hiding in Belgium during World War II, Jacobson immigrated to the United States with his family and received a Rutgers University fellowship. An avid traveler, he coauthored “Hospitalization and Discharge of the Mentally Ill” (1968). Survivors include his wife, Evelyne; three children, including Lyn Beer, U-High’69; a brother, Manfred R. Jacobson, AB’60, AM’66, PhD’72; and six grandchildren.

Anatol H. “Harry” Oleynick, MD’56, a neurologist, died February 19 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was 83. After serving in the Army Medical Corps and rising to captain, Oleynick opened a

private practice and served on the staff of the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. A clinical associate pro-fessor of neurology at the University of Maryland Medical School for 50 years, he consulted for the Social Security Administration Disability Program and the Veterans Administration. Survivors include his wife, Laurel; two sons; and four grandchildren.

Willard J. Visek, MD’57, PhD, of Champaign, Illinois, died March 31. He was 91. A World War II veteran, Visek was an assistant professor of pharma-cology at UChicago early in his career. He later taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he retired as professor emeritus of internal medicine in 1993. Editor of the Journal of Nutrition, Visek received the Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Institute of Nutrition for his research on ammonia and protein metabolism in 1985 and the Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 1997. Survivors include his wife, Priscilla; two daughters; a son; and six grandchildren.

Harvey Ford Zartman, MD’53, AB’48, SB’49, of Anchorage, Alaska, died on February 8. He was 86. Ever since he knew what a doctor was, Zartman was determined to be one, and he graduated at the top of his class at the University of Chicago in medical school. The U.S. Air Force took him to Alaska, where he met the wonder of his life, Donata. In 1959, after serving in the military, he relocated to Anchorage to join two other pediatri-cians in an established medical practice in the newly admitted state of Alaska. The hours were long and hard, as they were the only pediatricians in the state. Zartman cared for generations of families for more than 45 years. Patients felt “when Dr. Zartman closed the door, you felt like you were the only person in the world.” He sacrifi ced much to serve many and was a gentle, sweet Dad, a devoted husband and a generous friend.

1960sDonald E. Goldstone, MD’61, died March 1 in Washington, D.C. He was 77. Goldstone headed the Peace Corps medical program in Latin America before helping shape national health care policy at the National Center for Health Services Research during three presidential administrations. During that time, he was also a member of the federal Senior Executive Service (SES). As part of the SES, he directed data col-lection and analysis for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He is survived by his wife, Martha; three sons; a stepmother; a brother; and three grandsons.

Faculty

Gebhard Friedrich Schumacher, MD

Gebhard Friedrich Schumacher, MD, professor emeritus in the Department of Obstetrics

and Gynecology and a former section chief of reproductive biology at the University of Chicago, died at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, on March 31. He was 89. A pioneer in the fi elds of infertility, contraception and the immunology of reproduction, Schumacher developed new methods to detect and quantify soluble proteins in very small volumes of biological fl uids or in tissue samples. He estab-lished the fi rst reproductive biology program at the University and, work-ing with a medical student, designed and patented a device, the volumetric vaginal aspirator, to collect fl uids used to distinguish between the fertile and infertile phases of the human female menstrual cycle. Schumacher was born June 13, 1924, in Osnabrück, Germany, and grew up in Paderborn. He intended to study medicine, but World War II interrupted his plans. He was drafted into the German army in 1942. In 1945 he was captured by the Allied forces and spent the last few months of the confl ict in a British prisoner-of-war camp. In September 1945, Schumacher began medical school at the University of Göttingen. He completed an award-winning thesis on the use of gel electrophoresis to separate serum proteins and received his medical degree in 1951. After postdoctoral training with Nobel laureate Adolf Butenandt and a year at the Max Planck Institute for Virus

Research, he entered a residen-cy program in obstetrics at the University of Tübingen. In 1963, Schumacher accepted a one-year position as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago. At the University he worked with a team of renowned cytopathol-ogists to study the infl uence of sex steroids on proteins present in cervical mucus — a topic that would dominate the rest of his career. He was recruited back to the University of Chicago in 1967. He was able to secure funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Ford Foundation to create a new section of reproductive biology within the Department of Obstetrics and

Gynecology. He was named chief of the new section in 1971, promoted to professor of obstetrics and gynecology in 1973 and was named to the divisional committee on immunology in 1974. In the 1970s and 1980s, Schumacher served on three World Health Organization task forces relat-ed to reproductive issues. He remained active in research throughout his career, publishing 85 academic papers and 55 book chapters and conference proceedings. He took emeritus status in 1990. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two grandchildren. Donations in Schumacher’s honor can be made to the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Annual Fund in his name.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 39 10/29/14 10:18 AM



In M

em

ori

am

Faculty

Benjamin H. Spargo, MD’52, SB’48, SM’52

Benjamin H. Spargo, MD’52, SB’48, SM’52, professor emeritus of pathology and

a renowned renal pathologist, died in his sleep at Montgomery Place, a retirement community in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, on May 30. He was 94. Spargo was a pioneer in applying the electron microscope, a scarce resource at the time, to clinical diagnosis. In the late 1950s, he was the fi rst to develop diagnostic criteria and demon-strate the value of routine use of the electron microscope for biopsies of the kidney. He and his team methodical-ly mapped out the microscopic structural changes to kidney cells associated with various renal diseases. They eventually convinced other pathologists that focusing on consistent correlations between changes in structure and altered function could dramatically improve diagnoses. Pathologists came from all over the world to study renal pathology with Spargo, especially electron microscopy, which was not yet available in most hospital pathology departments. From 1960 until his retirement in 1994, Spargo’s team applied electron microscopy to a wide range of diseases aff ecting the kidneys as well as other organ systems. Spargo was born on August 11, 1919, in Six Mile Run, Pennsylvania. He began college while working in Chicago. During this period, he met Barbara Scollard,

a young woman from Watford City, North Dakota, who was training to become a nurse. They married in 1942. Spargo joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1941 and was based at March Field in California, where he served as the director of a medical laboratory. He attained the rank of sergeant before leaving the mili-tary in 1946. In 1948, he graduated

from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and began medical school, also at the University. In 1952, he completed his master’s degree in pathology and graduated, with honors, from medical school. After a one-year internship at the University of Michigan, Spargo returned to the University of Chicago for his pathology residency. He stayed at the University for the remainder of his career, joining the faculty as an assistant professor in 1955. He was promoted to associate professor in 1960 and professor in 1964, a post he held until he took emeritus status in 1994. Spargo published more than 100 research studies and book chapters, and was an author or co-author of several books about renal pathology. His text book “Renal Biopsy Pathology with Diagnostic and Therapeutic Implications,” published in 1980 by Spargo, Seymour and Ordonez, was used by many medical schools. Spargo is survived by one daugh-ter and one grandchild.

“Ben is fondly

remembered by those

who trained at the

University of Chicago

for his teaching skills.

Long before we could

project everything

from a microscope

to a screen, he had

a microscope with

multiple eye pieces

and would describe

fi ndings to nephrology

faculty, fellows,

residents and students

who remained

captivated in his offi ce

for hours.”

Marshall D. Lindheimer, MD

Professor Emeritus of Medicine and of

Obstetrics and Gynecology

Marc O. Beem, MD’48, professor emeritus of pedi-atrics, died on September 29 at Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, Illinois. He was 91. Beem was

born in Chicago in 1923, and remained in the Chicago metropolitan area for most of his life. He graduated from Williams College in 1945 and went on to begin his medical training in New York with the Army Specialized Training Program. In 1948, he completed a medical degree from the University of Chicago. Following his graduation, Beem stayed at UChicago, where he worked as a pediatric intern and assistant resident until 1950, when he left the University to pursue a fellowship. Beem earned a fellow-ship at Harvard University’s Children’s Medical Center, and subsequently served for two years in the United States Public Health Service. Beem then returned to the University of Chicago, where he began moving up the faculty ranks. In 1966, Beem was appointed professor of pediatrics, and during his tenure at the University, he also served as section chief of pediatric infectious diseases, director of the pediatric residency training program and

director of the pediatric microbiology laboratory. For many years, Beem also served as the liaison for the Department of Pediatrics and the Children’s Research Foundation. For a signifi cant portion of his career, Beem conducted longi-tudinal research concerning respiratory syncytial virus and chlamydia in young infants and children. In 1988, the Medical & Biological Sciences Alumni Association pre-sented him with the Gold Key Award in recognition of his devotion and loyal service to the University. Beem was an admired teacher, true scholar and outstanding clinician. He retired from his service for the University in 1989. In his personal life, Beem was dedicated to the Village of Hinsdale, Illinois, where he served as president of the library board, and was committed to the preservation of historic homes. Beem also was a gardener and an arbor-ist. In his retirement he planted and nurtured a beautiful woodland around the family’s vacation home in Michigan. Beem is survived by his wife of 69 years, Louise, whom he met in fi fth grade; children Marc, JD’75, John, Robert and Susan; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Faculty

Marc O. Beem, MD’48

PHOTO BY ARCHIE LIEBERMAN, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

RESEARCH CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY

44402_MMFall2014.indd 40 10/29/14 10:19 AM


Faculty

Rory W. Childers, MD

Roderick (Rory) Winthrop Childers, MD, an internationally known authority on the movement of

electrical impulses within the heart and the use and interpretation of electro-cardiograms, died on August 27. He was 83. A professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, Childers taught medical students, residents and fellows how to gain the greatest possible information from an electrocardiogram, a two-dimensional graph showing the electrical currents moving through a beating heart. He published extensively on the interpre-tation of electrocardiograms. He helped computerize the diagnosis of disorders detected by this common test and was considered a pioneer in taking the diagnostic tool out of the hospital and into ambulances, allowing faster treatment for heart attack patients. Childers was known as the “ECG guy” to every medical student who attended the University of Chicago during the last 50 years. Childers, who read an estimated 50,000 ECGs a year, was a core member of international teams assembled by the American Heart Association to standardize and update the interpretation of ECGs, bringing consistency to an array of imprecise and overlapping terms. Work from the project was published in a series between 2007 and 2009. In 2011, he was elected to a three-year term as president of the International Society for Computerized Electrocardiology. Childers was born June 2, 1931, in Paris. He came from a distinguished Anglo-Irish family with deep connections to literature and politics. His grandfather, Robert Erskine Childers, wrote the highly acclaimed novel, “The Riddle of the Sands,” often called the fi rst espionage novel. He later became an Irish nationalist, and in 1914 used his yacht Asgard to run guns for the Irish volunteers into Howth Harbor. He was executed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. His son (Rory’s father), Erskine Hamilton Childers entered Irish politics in the early 1950s and served in various cabinet positions for more than two decades. In 1973, he was elected the fourth president of Ireland. Rory Childers entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1948. He earned his BA with honors in French and English literature in 1953. He continued his medical training at

Trinity, with internships in medicine and surgery at hospitals in England and a residency at Royal City of Dublin Hospital in 1956, followed by a one-year fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. After one more year of training at Royal City of Dublin Hospital, he received his MD from Trinity in 1958. From 1959 until 1963, Childers

ran two of the fi rst cardiac catheterization laboratories in Dublin and was a lecturer in cardiac physiology at Trinity College. From 1960 to 1963, he ran the Irish research end of the Ireland-Boston Diet-Heart Study, the initial phase of which he designed, for the Harvard School of Public Health. During this period he made a trip to New York City to serve as best man at a friend’s wedding, where he met Michele Javsicas. Six months later they were married. They moved to Chicago in 1963, where he began as a cardiology fellow at the University of Chicago, working with Hans Hecht and Murray Rabinowitz, two leaders in the fi eld. Childers joined the faculty in 1964 as an assistant professor of medicine. At UChicago he rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming an associate professor in 1969 and a professor in 1976. Throughout his career, Childers published more than 100 papers and abstracts, primarily on electrocardiography. He lectured widely and received many honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Electrophysiology Section at the University of California, San Francisco. He was such a popular teacher at the Pritzker School of Medicine that medical students perennially honored him. He won the Teacher-of-the-Year Award from the cardiology section so often that in 2005 they renamed it the Rory Childers Teaching Award. He taught continuously in the medical school and served as executive director of the Heart Station for nearly 50 years. Friends and colleagues also appreciated Childers as an authority on modern Irish history and culture. He spoke regularly to Chicago-based cultural groups and local media about Irish literature and culture, and appeared on Chicago’s public radio station twice a year, on St. Patrick’s Day and June 16, “Bloomsday,” to read from James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Childers is survived by his wife and two sons.

“In teaching

cardiology

and physical

diagnosis, Rory

had a magical

combination

of a thespian’s

humor and

scholarly precision

that captivated

multiple

generations of

students.”

Martin C. Burke, DO

Professor of Medicine

Carol Newton, MD’60, PhD, died at home in California on July 16. She was 88. Newton was a native Californian and her grandfather was James Gillett, governor of California from 1907-10. She received her PhD in physics with a minor in mathematics from Stanford University in 1956 and went on to receive her MD from the University of Chicago. Newton served for 40 years as a member of the Academic Senate and professor in the David Geff en School of Medicine at UCLA. She was the driving force in the establishment of the bio-mathematics PhD program in 1973,

a small but prestigious program of mathematical modeling in biology and medicine. Newton was an encourag-ing educator and was recognized with an Outstanding Tutor award at UCLA in 2009 and the David Geff en School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Education in 2012.

Frederick T. Zugibe, MD, PhD’60, SM’59, of Garnerville, New York, died September 6, 2013. He was 85. A cardiologist and cardiovascular researcher, Zugibe was appointed the fi rst chief medical examiner of Rockland County in 1969, where he established

the county’s fi rst disaster response protocol. During his 34-year tenure, the Rockland Medical Examiner’s Offi ce became a leader in the fi eld of forensic science. In addition to main-taining an active medical practice and teaching pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Zugibe analyzed theories surrounding the circumstances of Jesus’ death, publishing several books on the topic. Survivors include his wife, Catherine; three daughters; three sons; a brother; 18 grandchildren; and fi ve great-grandchildren.

1970sGerald Lee Schertz, MD’71, of Troutville, Virginia, died November 29, 2013, from injuries in a pedestrian acci-dent. He was 67. An oncologist, Schertz practiced medicine in the Roanoke Valley for more than 35 years. He was a senior partner with Blue Ridge Cancer Care, the area’s fi rst oncologic partner-ship. He is survived by his wife, Denise; a daughter; a son; two sisters; and two grandchildren.

44402_MMFall2014.indd 41 10/29/14 10:19 AM


Nonprofi tOrganizationU.S. Postage

Chicago, ILPermit No. 5179

PAID

950 East 61st Street WSSC 320

Chicago, IL 60637

44402_MMFall2014.indd 42 10/29/14 10:19 AM

Documents

Medicine on the Midway - Fall 2014