Department of Medicine

Faculty & Staff Newsletter

Fall 2006

Letter from the Chair: 

Welcome to the Department of Medicine Newsletter! These are exciting, transformative times for the Department of Medicine, and I want to begin sharing that excitement with all of you. Whether your primary focus is in the education, research, or clinical endeavors, I want you to know that your efforts are valued and that every individual makes vital contributions that benefit the Department as a whole.

Our Department’s strength lies in its people and its diversity, not only in interests but also in location. We maintain vibrant, innovative programs at multiple sites – Emory Hospital, The Emory Clinic, Crawford Long Hospital, Grady Health Systems, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, Wesley Woods, as well as Yerkes National Primate Research Center and others. This diversity, while a strength, sometimes prevents us from learning of the great accomplishments at sites other than our individual home bases. That’s why I am starting this newsletter.

You will receive regular updates on our innovations and progress in research, education, service and faculty development. Also, in each issue we will highlight one of our clinical sites with an in-depth report from that institution’s leadership. I hope that you find this newsletter informative and thought-provoking. If you have ideas for future newsletters, please don’t hesitate to let us know. This newsletter is a forum for all of us.

Sincerely,

Wayne

 

Faculty Development:  Kathy Griendling, PhD

This academic year is the inaugural year for the Department of Medicine Office of Faculty Development. Faculty development has become a focus for Emory, not only at the department level, but also at the school level, with the appointment of a new Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, Sharon Weiss. The goal of the faculty development program is to provide faculty members with the information and services they require for professional and personal growth. We are in the process of developing programs to provide support and information on promotion and tenure; provide career mentoring; and help faculty to be nationally competitive for grants and awards. In addition, we want to be advocates to the School of Medicine for the specialized needs of medicine faculty. Read more….

 

Education Updates: Joyce Doyle, MD

Plans for the School of Medicine Curriculum Reform implementation in 2007 are underway and many of the committees are being led by Department of Medicine faculty.

New student leadership appointments include Dr. Lisa Bernstein as the Course Director for the M1 and M2 Clinical Methods Course and Dr. Erica Brownfield as Course Director for the M3 Clerkship. Thanks to mentorship from our faculty, Emory Medical students matched at top Internal Medicine programs nationally, including our own. Read more…

 

Clinical Affairs: Doug Morris, MD

Department of Medicine activities at Emory Hospital

The Department of Medicine at Emory Hospital prides itself on taking major steps to improve its capacity to excel in meeting its three major responsibilities of delivering excellent patient care, training new physicians and furthering science. Read more…

 

Research News:  Ken Brigham, MD

Emory is at a truly exciting place right now. The University has embarked on a path of strategic leadership and the Department of Medicine is in line to emerge as a leader both institutionally and nationally. As I enter my fourth year here at Emory I am continually impressed both by my colleagues and by our ability to engineer innovative new research programs and projects. Since my arrival at Emory in 2002, I have witnessed the Department’s remarkable growth in NIH rankings from 34 to 25. Despite the more difficult time we are in with the NIH budget, this year we are on track to reach $50 million in awarded research dollars. As many of you know, I am currently spearheading the Predictive Health Initiative on behalf of both the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and the University Strategic Plan. As part of the research being done for Predictive Health, the Department of Medicine was awarded several Woodruff Fund projects. Read more…

 

Service: Nanette K. Wenger, MD

Service, as defined by Webster, encompasses activities that one does that serve good. Likely, in your application to Medical School, to residency, or to fellowship, many of you had been queried as to what you had undertaken that was not a "requirement" of your schooling or training, but more along the line of volunteerism. It is the act of service that distinguishes the extraordinary individual from the ordinary individual. Read more…

 

Mark Your Calendars:

October 14: Department of Medicine annual family picnic

October 13 - 15: 3rd Annual J. Willis Hurst Residency Reunion

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Faculty Development – continued

Over the past year, the faculty development committee has developed a number of materials to help with career advancement. Our programs are summarized on our new website, which is a wonderful source of information on all aspects of faculty development. Of special interest may be the section on promotions and tenure, which provides advice and information about the promotion process.

Three programs new this year deserve special mention. In June, we launched a new mentoring program, which is designed to facilitate the academic development of new faculty members. Mentoring is probably the single most important thing that we can do to support our faculty during their early careers. Over the past year, we have developed a number of materials, available on the website, to help facilitate the mentoring process. Faculty wishing to participate in the mentoring program should contact the mentoring facilitator for their division. Our grants review program was developed to help new investigators who are submitting applications for external funding. In these times of tight budgets, we believe that peer review of applications at the institutional level will improve fundability of first-time applications. We strongly encourage faculty to take advantage of this program, through the grants facilitator for each division.

Finally, we created a faculty development seminar series that focuses on issues important to succeeding in the academic environment, particularly in the areas of education and scholarship, but also addresses other issues vital to having both a successful and well-balanced career at Emory. Seminars are held on the first Thursday of each month from 7:15 to 8:45 AM at Emory hospital. We are in the process of developing two-way videoconferencing capabilities to broadcast the seminar series more widely among hospitals, and we are putting together the schedule for 2006-2007. To find out more about upcoming seminars and to register, please visit the website.

Finally, we are pleased to announce the creation of a new awards program designed to recognize and celebrate outstanding accomplishments in the three core missions of the department: teaching, service and research. The awards are presented at a special celebratory grand rounds in June of each year. This year, we were pleased to recognize a number of our early career and senior faculty for their impressive contributions.

Many of these initiatives were created and implemented by the faculty development committee, which is composed of senior faculty from all divisions of the Department of Medicine. This committee has worked hard to identify concerns and find solutions to problems that affect us all. If you have any issues or suggestions for the committee to consider, please contact our program coordinator, Debra Brown (debra.brown@emoryhealthcare.org).

 

Education Updates – continued

The J Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Residency graduated 55 residents this year; 47 from the Categorical and 8 from the Primary Care Programs. The majority (83%) matched into subspecialty fellowships with 92% matching at their top ranked subspecialty program: 10 in Cardiology, 5 each in Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Pulmonary/Critical Care, 4 in Hematology/Oncology and Rheumatology, 3 in Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology, and 2 in Geriatrics. Twenty-seven percent selected General Medicine careers. About half of our graduates have chosen to stay at Emory for either fellowship or a general medicine faculty position. We continue to have a remarkable 99% 3-year pass rate on the American Board of Internal Medicine Exam, one of the highest pass rates in the nation and 95th percentile on the National In-Training Examination.

Department of Medicine welcomes 90 new PGY1 residents representing 50 different medical schools, 27 states, and 6 nations. Dr. Stacy Higgins has been appointed Director of the Primary Care Residency Track and Dr. Kim Manning is now Transitional Program Director. We welcome our 2006-2007 Chief Medical Residents who were selected for their outstanding patient care, teaching, and leadership skills, Danny Sims at Emory Hospital, Joel Mermis and Maunank Shah at Grady Memorial Hospital, Colleen Kraft at the Atlanta VA and Rebecca Keith at Crawford Long Hospital. In addition, we congratulate the following residents for their 2005-2006 Resident Achievement Awards: Drs. Aneesh Mehta, Drew Rasco and Jeffrey Stark from the PGY3 class, Drs. Andrew Bain, Danny Branstetter, Jeanne Robinson and Patrick Willis from the PGY2 class, Drs. David Liff, Kara Pepper, and Paulina Robellero from the PGY1 class. The following residents were recipients of the award for outstanding outpatient care: Dr. Cari Low (PGY1), Dr. Lewis Satterwhite (PGY2), and Dr. Jeffrey Stark (PGY3).

Newly appointed Fellowship Program Directors include Dr. N. Wilson Holland in Geriatrics, Dr. Peter Thule in Endocrinology, Dr. David Schulman in Pulmonary/Critical Care, Ruth O’Regan in Hematology/Oncology and Dr. Wehbi as the Associate Program Director in Gastroenterology. We thank the former Fellowship Directors for their years of dedication: Dr. Jeff Lesesne (Geriatrics), Dr. Mark Nanes (Endocrinology), Dr. Michael Hart (Pulmonary/Critical Care), and Dr. Jim Eckman (Hematology/Oncology)

We look forward to the Third Annual J. Willis Hurst Internal Medicine Program Reunion on October 14, 2006 where Dr. H. Kenneth Walker will be honored for his years of service and contributions to the residency program.

The Department of Medicine is the home to many truly outstanding teachers and we congratulate the recipients of the 2005-2006 residency teaching awards.

Juha P. Kokko award for “Best Overall Teacher”

Dr. Lorenzo DiFrancesco

Golden Apple Award:

Crawford Long - Drs. Carlos Franco-Paredes and Valeri Akopov

Emory Hospital - Drs. Douglas Morris and Jeffrey Pine

Grady Hospital - Drs. Neil Winawer, Fernando Holguin, and I. Marc Moss

Atlanta VA Hospital - Drs. Dana Rizk and N. Wilson Holland

Recognition of outstanding teaching at the fellow level:

Dr. Nadine Rouphael from the Division of Infectious Diseases and

Dr. Patrick Whalen from the Division of Cardiology

 

Clinical Affairs, Emory University Hospital – continued

In terms of training physicians, the Department has selected a faculty member to be head of the housestaff training for each medicine subspecialty. These physicians will also serve has an executive committee to help Joyce Doyle in refining the Emory hospital components of the training program. One of the initial changes was that morning report this year will be held at 7:00AM and attendance will be expected from all housestaff assigned to the medicine rotations. The medicine intensive care units at Emory Hospital with the exception of 4G CCU will beplaced under the direction of critical care faculty and staffed by residents assigned to those services. A new neuro-intensive care unit is to be completed in the next few months and will open up additional medical intensive care beds. A new facility which should take some of the admission load off the housestaff is the CDU (clinical decision unit). This facility serves as a holding unit for those ED patients until their presenting symptoms can be resolved. This facility should also improve patient care.

A major investigational endeavor initiated under the direction of Dr. Arshed Quyyumi is the use of stem therapy in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. The stem cells with be injected through the coronary arteries in patients admitted with an acute ST elevation myocardial infarction accompanied by decreased LV function. Another important initiative which affects both training and the advancement of science is the development of simulation models to aid in the teaching of procedural skills.

Major investments in improving patient care at Emory hospital has been made in acquiring state of the art imaging equipment in both CT and MRI. This equipment is housed in the Heart Imaging Center and is available for cardiac imaging and evaluating malignancies. An important and rapidly growing patient service at Emory is the adult congenital program under the direction of Wendy Book. This service offers soptisicated medical care to a very select group of patients that was not previously available and allows for training in an area not previously addressed in our training program.

 

Research Updates – continued

Selected Special Appointments:
Sunil Kripalani, MD, Assistant Professor of General Medicine, served as Chair, National Institute of Health Special Emphasis Grant Review Panels for Health Literacy Research

Selected Grant Awards:
Fernando Holguin, MD, Assistant Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, was awarded an K12 grant from the NIH for his study on Asthma.

David Malebranche, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of General Medicine, was awarded an R21 grant from the NIH for his study “Social context of disclosure and HIV sexual risk among behaviorally bisexual black men who have sex with men.”

Susmita Mallik, MD, Instructor of General Medicine, was awarded a K23 from the NIH for her study “Troubled Minds, Broken Hearts: Women, Depression and Myocardial Infarction.” She was also awarded a Scientist Development Award from the American Heart Association.

Anu Paranjape, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of General Medicine, was awarded a K23 from the NIH for her study “Family Violence in Older African American Women.”

Selected Faculty Research Awards:
Department of Medicine Junior Faculty Research – Clinical
Greg Martin, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary Medicine
“A randomized controlled trial of furosemide with or without albumin in hypoproteinemic acute lung injury patients”
Published in Critical Care Medicine, 2005

Department of Medicine Junior Faculty Research – Basic
Shanthi Srinivasan, MD
Assistant Professor, Division of Digestive Diseases
“GDNF rescues hyperglycemia-induced diabetic enteric neuropathy through activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway”
Published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2006

Department of Medicine Outstanding Research Citation – Clinical
Qiang Cai, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Digestive Diseases
“Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography after a liquid fatty meal: effect on deep common bile duct cannulation time”
Published in Endoscopy, 2006

Department of Medicine Outstanding Research Citation – Basic
Cornelia M. Weyand, MD, PhD
Professor, Lowance Center for Human Immunology
“TRAIL expressing T cells induce apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells in the artherosclerotic plaque”
Published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2006

Upcoming Research Events:
Roland Ingram Lecture in Pulmonary featuring Dr. Joe "Skip" Garcia,Chair of Medicine at the University of Chicago, on November 21, 2006 @ 5pm, Location TBA.

 

Service – continued

Medicine affords us the privilege and the opportunity to contribute in diverse settings. The following extraordinary faculty members received the Service Awards for what they chose to do in addition to their academic responsibilities and mission. This could be undertaken strictly within the academic setting of a Medical School, in the clinical arena, in the University at large, or in the global community. These faculty members were honored because their voluntary contributions made that aspect of university and community life better for their having had the imagination, the creativity, and the dedication to have participated.

Congratulations to the 2006 recipients of the Nanette K. Wenger Service Awards:

Assistant Professor
Charles Harper, MD
Division of General Medicine

Associate Professor
Shanthi Sitaraman, MD
Division of Digestive Diseases

Professor
Ken Brigham, MD
Division of Pulmonary Medicine