News

David Sachs, MD ’68 was awarded the Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology for his work in weaning kidney transplant patients completely off of immunosuppressant drugs so they do not have to take the drugs for life. While necessary so the patient’s immune system doesn’t reject the new organ, immunosuppressants can put patients at risk for cancer and infections. Sachs is helping solve this problem by developing a procedure in which some kidney transplant patients get a bone marrow transplant along with a kidney from their donors. By replacing most of their marrow with blood-forming cells from the donors, the doctors have enabled several of the patients to accept their new organs without having to take immunosuppressant medications. Read more.

Janey Wiggs, MD ’85 and co-workers recently conducted one of the world's largest genetic studies of glaucoma, finding that primary open-angle glaucoma is linked to two genetic variations. These findings not only have clarified mechanisms underlying glaucoma but may ultimately have clinical and treatment implications, according to Wiggs and her colleague Louis R. Pasquale, MD. Both are co-Directors of the Harvard Glaucoma Center of Excellence. Read more. 

Lisa Pickett, MD '94 has been named one the Triangle’s "Top 10 Women in Medicine." Selected by a five-member committee composed of healthcare professionals throughout North Carolina, the 2012 class features women who are top in their field for innovative research, groundbreaking methodology, and consummate compassion. She has been a practicing general surgeon at Durham Regional Hospital since 2001, and has served in many leadership roles, including chief medical officer, during the last 10 years, and was recently appointed chief medical officer at Duke University Hospital. Pickett’s colleagues at Durham Regional call her "intelligent, hard-working, tireless, compassionate and then some." Read more.

Peter Diamandis, MD ’87 is profiled in Forbes Magazine regarding his new business, Planetary Ventures which plans to identify resource-rich asteroids and mine them for rocket fuel and precious metals. Read more.

Paul Farmer, MD '90, PhD, Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, spoke to a packed room at the Yale Divinity School on his approach to helping the world's neediest patients: "Give poor people medicine. Find out what’s making them sick. Fix those things too, with as many community-based partners as you can get." According to Farmer, who is Head of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, community based health care is the key to building a healtheir society. Read more and watch the video of his talk.

Patricia Gerbarg, MD ’75 and her husband, Richard P. Brown, are the authors of a new book with the latest complementary treatments for ADD/ADHD entitled Non-Drug Treatments for ADHD: New Options for Kids, Adults, and Clinicians. Written for healthcare professionals as well as those living with ADHD, Non-Drug Treatments for ADHD, includes the latest scientific research and medical developments to address the many challenges of ADHD. The authors suggest a variety of alternative approaches. Read more.

Harvey G. Clermont, MD '65, has been honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2012 recipient of the Grant V. Rodkey Award, an honor recognizing a Massachusetts physician for outstanding contributions to medical education and medical students. In nominating him for the award, his colleagues remarked that "Dr. Clermont is known around UMass for two things, his unwavering commitment to the greater Worcester free clinics, and his endless support of student development and education. Having established much of the free clinic system in the Worcester area, Dr. Clermont continues to devote four nights a week to supporting these clinics, thereby getting countless uninsured patients the medical care they need. His attention to medical student education and professional development, both at and outside of the clinics, is even more outstanding. He is a passionate educator of young physicians and future health care providers." Read more.

Mark Vonnegut, MD ’79 is the recipient of the 2012 Fountain House Humanitarian Award. Fountain House is an internationally recognized non-profit organization dedicated to bettering the lives of people living with mental illness. Vonnegut is an instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, author of the memoirs The Eden Express and Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So,and has lived with schizophrenia throughout his adult life. Read more.

Alice Jacobs, MD '02, Chairman and CEO of IntelligentMDx, was named one of the Massachusetts High Tech 2012 Women to Watch. Jacobs was a third-year medical student at Harvard when a young man came into the hospital for a routine procedure who was accidentally infected at the hospital, got a fever, and within 36 hours - before they even found out what was wrong - had died. "He got so sick, and it took so long to get the test results," she said. The experience motivated her to launch IMDx to build life-saving products using computing power to tackle medical problems with multiple variables. Read more.

David Eisenberg, MD ’80 was profiled in The New York Times. His program “Health Kitchens, Healthy Lives,” seeks to educate and help physicians better their knowledge of cooking and nutrition. An expert on integrative medicine, Eisenberg was one of the first United States medical exchange students to the People’s Republic of China. He started “Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives” in partnership with the Culinary Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health, based on the radical notion that if doctors could learn to channel their inner Julia Child (sans butter), they could serve as role models and cheerleaders for their patients. Read more.

Pamela Hartzband, MD '78 and her husband, Jerome Groopman, co-wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, "Rise of the Medical Expertocracy." In it, they discuss the desire of both Democrats and Republicans to introduce the paternalism of 'best practices' into health care. Hatzband and Groopman point out that "in medicine, there are many contrary opinions about 'best practices'" and go on to say "Patients and doctors can differ with experts and not be ignorant or irrational. Policy makers need to abandon the idea that experts know what is best. In medical care, the "right" clinical decisions turn out to be those that are based on a patient's goals and values." Read the full editorial here.

Gary H. Gibbons, MD '84 has been selected as the new director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Gibbons is the Founder and current director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Chairperson of the Department of Physiology, and Professor of Physiology and Medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Gibbons will oversee the third largest institute at the NIH, with an annual budget of more than $3 billion and a staff of 917 federal employees. Gibbons will also direct his own lab at the NIH, focusing on predictive health and genomic medicine in minority populations. The NHLBI provides global leadership for research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives. Read more.

Ralph de la Torre, MD ’92 will receive the Manet Community Health Center's Medallion Award for his work as Chairman and CEO of Steward Health Care System, the largest fully integrated community care organization in Massachusetts. The Manet Medallion Award is given for advancing the health center’s mission of providing care to all, regardless of financial circumstances or health coverage status. Before joining Steward, de la Torre was Founder, President, and CEO of the Cardiovascular Institute and Cardiovascular Management Associates at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. Read more.

Alan D’Andrea, MD ’83 will receive the 52nd Annual American Assocation for Cancer Research G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award for his contributions to basic cancer research, which has included milestones such as cloning the erythropoietin receptor and discovering the Fanconi anemia family of proteins involved in maintaining DNA stability. D'Andrea says, "I am greatly honored... Work from my laboratory has shown that the study of rare pediatric cancer susceptibility syndromes, such as Fanconi anemia, can lead to broad insights into the cause and treatment of cancer in the general population. My laboratory members and I are especially grateful to the children and families with Fanconi anemia who have been our close partners in this research during the last two decades." Read more.

Richard Chin, MD '94 has been elected to the ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. Board of Directors, appointed as Chairman of the Company’s Compensation Committee, and as a member of the Company’s Audit Committee. ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is a Los Angeles-based clinical-stage company that is developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers. Read more.

Two Boston-area teams have assembled massive encyclopedias that predict the vulnerability of hundreds of different subtypes of cancer to dozens of drugs. These are an important step toward the routine personalizing of cancer care, in which patients will receive treatments tailored to the specific genetic changes that influence a tumor’s response to drug regimens. Levi Garraway, MD '00 is a senior associate member of the Broad Institute and one of the leaders of the work. Read more on Boston.com.

Andy Ellner, MD '07 has been appointed co-director to lead the state-of-the-art Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School by Medical School Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, MD. The Center was established in 2010 by a $30 million anonymous gift and seeks to transform primary care and create a vibrant collaborative community by embracing service, wellness, patient and community empowerment, and innovation. Ellner is an associate physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the assistant medical director of the Phyllis Jen Center for Primary Care at Brigham. Read more...

Harrison G. Pope, Jr., MD ’74 was lead author of a study which showed dramatic improvement in depressed men taking testosterone supplements along with anti-depressants. Pope suggested that lower-than-normal testosterone levels may be common in depressed men who failed to get better when taking anti-depressants. Read more.

Pre-med students who have under-performed academically may still have a chance to fulfill their dreams of becoming physicians thanks to "How To Get Into Medical School With A Low GPA," the much anticipated eBook by Suzanne Miller, MD '04. Miller, a recognized authority in the medical school admissions consulting field, has been featured as an admissions expert in CNN.com, US News and World Report, and Pre-Med Life Magazine; and has established an astounding record of success in helping pre-meds gain acceptance to medical schools, even when conventional wisdom says it's not possible. Read more.

Cancer cells are able to replicate wildly, but there's a trade-off: They cannot ward off infection as effectively as healthy cells. So scientists have been looking for ways to create viruses that are too weak to damage healthy cells yet strong enough to invade and destroy tumor cells. It has been a long, difficult challenge.Robert Martuza, MD '73, Chief Neurosurgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School says, "It’s a very exciting time." Candidates are already in advanced trials, he noted. Read the full article in The New York Times.

President Barack Obama nominated Jim Yong Kim, MD '86 to head the World Bank. The Korean-born Kim is a physician by training and a prominent figure in global health and development circles. "Jim has spent more than two decades working to improve conditions in developing countries around the world," Obama said in announcing Kim's nomination during a White House Rose Garden event. "The World Bank is one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce poverty and raise standards of living around the globe, and Jim's personal experience and years of service make him an ideal candidate for this job... . It is time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency." Read more at CBS news.

Kenneth Shine, MD '61 is the recipient of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Achievement. Shine is being recognized for his multiple leadership roles that have helped to improve quality and safety in health care nationwide. Over the course of his tenure as President of the Institute of Medicine, Shine established the Quality of Care in America Project which led to the landmark reports, "To Err is Human" and "Crossing the Quality Chasm," helping to put safety and quality on the national agenda. The patient safety awards program was launched in 2002 by National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission. Learn more.

Daveed D. Frazier, MD '90 was listed as one of the "207 Spine Surgeons and Specialists to know," according to Globus Medical Inc. Frazier is an orthopedic spine surgeon at Long Island College Hospital and East Coast Premier Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery in New York City. He has served as President of the Orthopaedic Association of New York and is a member of North American Spine Society. In addition to his clinical practice, Frazier has a research interest in developing biodegradable bone cement and contributing to the advancement of spinal stenosis treatment. He is a board member for NuVasive's Cheetah Foundation and Film Aid. He has also spent time treating general orthopedic patients on a Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico.

Bruce Chabner, MD ’65 has agreed to lead an advisory panel for the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute in Mobile, Alabama. The creation of the advisory panel is aimed at moving the Mobile cancer institute one step closer to gaining a coveted National Cancer Institute designation, something about only 40 or so centers have earned nationwide. Chabner says, "I think cancer centers accomplish a lot in the communities they exist in. I've been associated with the one in Boston for many years and it's had a great impact on patients and research." Learn more.

Joseph A. Ladapo, MD ’04 was the lead author of a study suggesting that screening middle-aged African Americans for glaucoma may prevent some from losing their vision, but the benefits are modest and costly. Read more.

In response to the funding decrease of childhood cancer research Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation awarded its inaugural Bridge Grants to three pediatric cancer researchers. Kimberly Stegmaier, MD '95 was one of the recipients. "I always loved working with children," Stegmaier wrote in an email. "The privilege of caring for children with cancer affirmed my passion to pursue a career in pediatric oncology and made even more obvious to me, the dire need for improved therapies." Stegmaier leads a research program on integrating genomic approaches to identify new therapeutic targets and drugs for pediatric cancers at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Her research project focuses on searching for new therapies for patients with Ewing sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in bones or soft tissue near bones. Her research team will look to develop strategies to discover compounds inhibiting difficulty-to-target cancer promoting, tumor-specific proteins, for therapy-based and identification purposes. Read more.

President Obama has appointed HIV prevention specialist Grant Colfax, MD '93 to the prestigious position of Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. Colfax, a "gifted and talented visionary," is charged with developing methods to reduce the number of infections nationwide. As Director of HIV Prevention and Research with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Colfax has been instrumental in the recent decline of HIV infections in San Francisco. "Grant's expertise will be key as we continue to face serious challenges and take bold steps to meet them," said Obama. Read more.

Richard Anderson, MD ’84 spoke at The University of Hong on laser treatments for vascular birthmarks. Anderson has been one of the leaders in the field of laser technology for more than 20 years and is considered by many to be the creator of modern laser dermatology. Anderson's research has advanced the basic knowledge of human skin photobiology, drug photosensitization mechanisms, tissue optics, and laser-tissue interactions. His active research includes diagnostic tissue imaging and spectroscopy, photodynamic therapy, mechanisms of selective laser-tissue interactions, adipose tissue biology and novel therapy for skin disorders. Anderson has been awarded over 60 U.S. and international patents, and has co-authored over 250 scientific books and papers. Read more.

Atul Gawande, MD '94, HMS Associate Professor of surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was recently a guest on NPR’s Talk of the Nation to discuss Match Day, the day medical students find out where they will go for their residencies. Gawande describes it as "a strange moment. You stand there in a room with all of your fellow medical students, getting handed a white envelope that tells you what city you're going to live in for the next—for me, seven years of my life in surgical training." Listen to the full story here.

In a recent interview with a Norwell High School senior, cardiologist Arthur Garceau, MD '54 talks about his life and career. He says, "Primarily, I focused on older patients; I loved their honesty and ability to speak their minds." Read more. 

TIME Ideas examines the work of B. Price Kerfoot, MD '96, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Kerfoot became frustrated at the level of memory recall he was noticing among students. He suspected this was because they "stuffed themselves full of facts and then spewed them out at test time." During his research he found an effective method of learning, called spaced repetition. Kerfoot devised a simple digital tool to make engaging in spaced repetition almost effortless. In more than two dozen studies published over the past five years, he has demonstrated that spaced repetition works, increasing knowledge retention by up to 50 percent. And Kerfoot’s method is easily adapted by anyone who needs to learn and remember, not just those pursuing MDs. Read more. 

Ashish Jha, MD '97 contributed to a paper finding hospitals ineligible for federal meaningful-use incentives have dismally low rates of adoption of electronic health records (EHR). The authors suggest that to "advance the creation of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure, federal and state policy makers should consider additional measures, such as adopting health information technology standards and EHR system certification criteria appropriate for these ineligible hospitals; including such hospitals in state health information exchange programs; and establishing low-interest loan programs for the acquisition and use of certified EHR systems by ineligible providers." Learn more.

Elizabeth Woods, MD ’79 was the lead author of a study that found hospitalizations for asthma have been dramatically cut by a program that helps families reduce the conditions that trigger attacks, saving $1.46 in hospital care for every $1 spent on prevention. "It’s very gratifying to see improved health outcomes for children and for families and also to be able to demonstrate cost savings," said Woods, Associate Chief of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital. Read more at Boston.com. 

Neal Baer, MD '96, former executive producer of Law & Order: SVU and writer for ER, has a new medical masterpiece: A Gifted Man. The show stars Patrick Wilson as Dr. Michael Holt, a self-absorbed doctor who is visited by the ghost of his ex-wife. Baer describes the show as "ER plus Ghost minus Whoopi Goldberg." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer interviews Baer on how he uses his power for good, the worst thing that's ever been said about his show, and how the cast members would fare on the Celebrity Apprentice. Read more.

Liliana Woo, MD '99 co-Founded Texas Regional Urology. A board-certified urologist, Woo focuses on female pelvic reconstruction and incontinence surgery. Learn more.

Nancy E. McDermott, MD ’05, an oral maxillofacial surgeon, has recently joined the medical staff at Saratoga Hospital. McDermott is in practice with Saratoga County Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Associates.

The longest-running longitudinal study of health, run by George Vaillant, MD '59, found education to be one of the biggest determinants of longevity, along with behavioral factors—excessive drinkers were more likely to die young, for example. Out of the 500-plus Harvard students and inner-city Boston men the study has followed since 1937, the Harvard students lived an average of 10 years longer than the inner-city men, says Vaillant. Read more.

Steven E. Hyman, MD '80, a former Provost of Harvard University and Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, takes the helm of a center focused on using the insights of the genome to understand and develop treatments for bipolar disease, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses. Hyman said that collaboration with scientists in other fields and with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry will be necessary to make progress toward the ultimate goal of translating basic research insights into advances that could help patients. Read more.

PaxVax Corporation, developer of oral vaccines against infectious diseases, announced the expansion of its executive management team with the appointment of Thomas Monath, MD '66 as Chief Technology Officer. Monath has devoted his nearly 30-year career to the fight against infectious disease through his work in the military, corporate, academic, and investment sectors. In addition to his new role at PaxVax, Monath is a Partner in the Pandemic and Biodefense Fund at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He is also Adjunct Professor at Harvard School of Public Health.

A survey by Massachusetts researchers finds that some doctors aren't always completely honest with their patients. "I don’t think that physicians set out to be dishonest," says lead researcher Lisa Iezzoni, MD '84. She said the untruths could have been to give people hope, but adds that it takes open communication for patients to make fully informed decisions about their health care, as opposed to the "doctor-knows-best" paternalism of medicine's past. Read more.

Former Medicare and Medicaid administrator Donald Berwick, MD '72 will be headlining the fifth annual clinical conference hosted by VHA Inc., the national health care network. As one of America's leading advocates for high-quality health careDr. Berwick will address how to resolve the myriad performance improvement mandates confronting today's hospital and health care leaders and discuss his vision for improving the quality of U.S. health care. The theme is "Ignite Your Performance," and the conference will focus on challenges imposed byhealth care reform and impending changes to health care delivery models.  Read more.

Carolyn Compton, MD '74 joined Critical Path Institute (C-Path) as President and CEO. Compton, a former National Cancer Institute scientist, has extensive experience in the areas of translational science and personalized medicine. In addition to human biospecimen science, her research interests include translational studies in colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and wound healing, according to the NIH. As part of its collaborative approach, C-Path is a non-profit, independent institute dedicated to improving the drug development process. Read more. 

Naana Afua Jumah, MD '08 wrote the article, "Overlooking Cancer Prevention" for The Mark. She writes "In January, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization released a report recommending that Health Canada begin vaccinating boys against human papillomavirus (HPV). This same vaccine has been available to women in Canada since 2008 to protect against cervical cancer. Why has it taken so long for the vaccine to be made available to boys, when we know that HPV causes cancer in men, too?" Read more.

Andrew Chan, MD '97 is the co-author of a study showing that long-term use of a certain type of heartburn medication called proton pump inhibitors could raise the risk of hip fractures in post-menopausal women, especially for those who smoke. Read the full story.

Mark Cohen, MD '86 was profiled in Becker’s Orthopedic, Spine, and Pain Management Review as one of 92 team physicians for National Basketball Association teams who are focused on orthopedics and sports medicine. Cohen is the director of the section of hand and elbow surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He is also a physician with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. In addition to his responsibilities with the Chicago Bulls, Cohen serves as a team physician for the Chicago White Sox. He has a professional interest in wrist and elbow arthroscopy, mini-incision carpal tunnel release and bone cement for wrist fractures. During his career, Cohen has authored more than 100 medical articles and is a member of 16 national and international societies. Read the full article.

Selwyn Rogers Jr, MD '91 believes violence should be treated as a chronic health problem. He says, "The current paradigm in city after city in the United States is we wait for spikes to happen of disease—be it murder rates, or assault rates—and retroactively throw more resources at it. But we don’t treat it as disease where we will constantly provide resources to address poverty, hopelessness, lack of educational attainment to prevent these outbreaks of violence." Read more on Boston.com.

Vamsi Mootha, MD '98, along with Elena Tucker and others from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, have used DNA sequencing to identify diseases in humans--the first time the technology has been used in a clinic. The technique, which decodes thousands of genes simultaneously, has been used in laboratories to uncover genes related to diseases since 2009. Now it has successfully moved to the clinic, where patients do not know what is wrong with them and may not know their family history of disease, and clinicians have few clues about which genes might be causing the problem. Learn more.

Physician referral rates in the United States doubled between 1999 and 2009, a new study finds, an increase that likely contributes to the rising costs of health care. "Understanding trends in physician referrals is critical both for improving patient care and for managing costs," said Michael Barnett, MD '11, lead author on the study and a first-year resident in internal medicine and primary care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Read the full story in Focus.

Samuel Goldhaber, MD ’76 says that while it is a concern that there are many more strokes caused by atrial fibrillation, the good news is that these kind of strokes are the easiest to prevent. Proper medication—such as the blood thinner warfarin and other anticoagulants—can significantly lower a patient’s risk of having a stroke. Positive lifestyle changes and a nutritious diet can also help increase patient health, Goldhaber said. But 90 percent of people with Afib don’t receive these kinds of treatments, the Los Angeles Times reported. Read more on ThirdAge.com.

Tessa Hadlock, MD '94 of Concord was recently appointed Director of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. She says, "Knowing that you have restored the ability to smile, or rebuilt a missing ear, is about the most gratifying thing I can imagine. There is a lot of medicine designed to prolong life and improve health, but I think about the kind of stuff we do as improving quality of life, which can be equally important." Read more in the MetroWest Daily News. 

Cascya Charlot, MD '00 has been ranked among the top physicians in the nation based on patient reviews and honored with a 2011 Patients' Choice Award. Only doctors who have received top scores by their patients and pass other quality measures are awarded this award. Charlot is board certified in Allergy and Immunology and Internal Medicine. Charlot is well respected in her field and is a vocal advocate of asthma awareness in the community.

Eva Guinan, MD '80 was the lead author on a study finding that a combination of two drugs may alleviate radiation sickness in people who have been exposed to high levels, even when the therapy is given a day after the exposure occurred. The research potentially represents a major step in the United States government’s efforts to build a stockpile of therapies to counter radiological dangers. Click here to read the full article in Focus.

Larry Ronan, MD ’87 will continue to be Red Sox Head Internist, a position he has held since 2005, as the team restructures its medical staff to make the process of medical care run more efficiently. Ronan is a Staff Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Senior Advisor to the Center for the Medical Integration of Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and the Director of the Thomas S. Durant, MD Fellowship in Refugee Medicine at MGH.

Cato T. Laurencin, MD '87 been appointed to the National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NACBIB) of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). An internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon and expert on regenerative tissue, Laurencin is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research interests focus on the regeneration of knee and shoulder tissue and limb regeneration.

Steven Brem, MD '72 joins the Department of Neurosurgery at Penn Medicine as Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of Surgical Neuro-oncology and Co-Director of the Penn Brain Tumor Center. Brem has devoted his career to optimizing outcomes for patients with brain tumors. He specializes in innovative, minimally invasive surgery for complex benign and malignant brain tumors, including meningiomas, acoustic neuromas, gliomas (glioblastomas), and brain metastases. Learn more.

David Gilmour, MD '66, a retired cardiologist and prostate cancer survivor, has been elected a director of the N.H. Prostate Cancer Coalition, reports President Steve Ladew of Merrimack. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Gilmour was a resident and fellow at the Harvard Service at Boston City Hospital, a physician at Hammersmith Hospital in London and a faculty member at Boston City Hospital. After retiring in 2000, he biked across the country with veterinarian George Wrightson of Hollis. The past ten years he has worked part time for Bike Vermont, leading tours in Vermont, Maine, and Scotland. David is a volunteer driver and a member of the board of Meals on Wheels. Learn more about the New Hampshire Prostate Cancer Coalition here.

Hiram C. Polk Jr, MD '60 has been named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. This honor is given to a limited number of individuals of outstanding academic merit or who have made other outstanding contributions to the profession. Polk’s most significant contribution to medicine is his landmark research into the use of perioperative antibiotics. Additionally, Polk helped develop some protocols for malignant melanoma treatment that are currently in use worldwide. Learn more.

Sophie Dojacques, MD '95 was a wild child growing up in L.A., a research archeologist in New Mexico, a medical student at Harvard, and a savior of goats in Oregon. She is now the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Health Systems' obstetrics and gynecology department in Fairmont, Minnesota. Read the full article in the Fairmont Sentinel.

Elizabeth Kwo, MD '11 outlines ten things physicians should do in order to help lessen their risk of being involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Learn more.

Dan Barouch, MD '99 led a study finding an experimental vaccine developed by a Johnson & Johnson unit protected monkeys against an animal version of the AIDS virus. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the U.S. military found that monkeys that got the injection were as much as 83 percent less likely than those that got a dummy vaccine to become infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, according to a study published online in the journal Nature. They now plan to test the vaccine in humans. Learn more.

Reuben Gobezie, MD '98 is profiled in the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a 2011 Community Hero. Not only is Gobezie highly regarded for his expertise as a specialist in shoulder surgery, he volunteers at a free clinic, serves a surgeon on a Mercy Ship off the African coast, and spends several hours each week at homeless shelters. Learn more.

Jona Hattangadi, MD '07 authored study showing brachytherapy may be overused for breast cancer treatment. The study indicates that many women who were not ideal candidates for accelerated partial breast irradiation based on treatment guidelines regularly receive the treatment. Read more.

Joan W. Miller MD '84 was named one of eight recipients of the 2012 Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Awards, which honor women for workplace achievement, leadership, and a commitment to enhance the quality of life in the region. An awards ceremony is scheduled for January 26, 2012. Learn more.

Eric Chivian, MD '68, Director of the Center for Health & the Global Environment and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at HMS says loss of biodiversity could have great costs for medicine during the recent Harvard Thinks Green event. "We must help educate people about what’s really happening to the environment in language that they can relate to and understand. There’s no more compelling way to do this than to talk about human health," he says. Click here to read the full story in the Gazette.

As the medical profession places more and more weight on approaches that emphasize the patient and wellness, doctors are turning to poetry for inspiration. And education. Rafael Campo, MD '91 says, "Poetry does a better job in teaching because it is about embracing the human aspect of suffering, not just knowing how many lymph nodes are positive and where the pain is on a 1-to-10 scale." Click here to read the full article at The Ledger.com

Don Berwick, MD '72 often speaks of the Affordable Care Act as a "majestic" law. Recently the former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator spoke during the annual conference of the Cambridge-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement about the five principles needed to guide change in health care. Read excerpts from his prepared remarks, including his take on the "death panels" debate, rationing, and a call to act. Click here for the full story on Boston.com.

As a teen, two concussions from hockey and ski racing left David Obert, MD '14 struggling to concentrate, unable to stay awake in class and in peril of being unable to finish high school. Now the HMS second year has been named a 2012 Rhodes Scholar, one of 83 men and women from 14 countries and regions around the world to win the prestigious award. Read more.

Ashish Jha, MD '96 has published findings, along with other co-authors, in the New England Journal of Medicine, on the relationship between hospital admission rates and rehospitalizations. Their results results underscore the importance of policy efforts directed at reducing the general incentives to use hospital services. Learn more. 

Where are all the doctors? Ishani Ganguli, MD '11 has an answer. Read more in Short White Coat on Boston.com.

Paul L. Nguyen, MD '03 and his team conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to find out if Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT), a form of therapy used to treat prostate cancer, is connected with cardiovascular mortality in men. Findings suggest that ADT does not raise cardiovascular death risk, as previously thought. Learn more.

Robert O. Powell, MD '72 has joined the staff of Bear Valley Community Hospital in California as a full-time surgeon. Powell says there is a lot to accomplish, and he plans to develop a full surgical practice in the Valley. He will set up an office within an existing practice as he builds his patient list. Learn more.

Andrew Weil, MD '68 has a new book, Spontaneous Happiness, in which he's fixing his gaze on what makes us truly happy, what to do when we're not, and how to better weather life's inevitable highs and lows. Weil offers happiness tips and says we can all feel better—much better—than we do. Learn more.

People who have no symptoms of Alzheimer's disease but who have an abnormal protein believed to be a hallmark of the illness should be enrolled in clinical trials to test whether drugs can head off the disease, according to Reisa Sperling, MD '91. Sperling plans to apply for a federal grant next year to study such drugs. She says "We are facing 10,000 people a day turning 65. We have to do something to prevent Alzheimer's..." Learn more.

In a recent post on Boston.com/Short White Coat, Ishani Ganguli, MD '11 reflects on her internship year at its six-month mark. She writes, "Health care is more chaotic than in the days when one doctor truly did everything for a patient... Seamless teamwork is a tough but critical part of fighting this entropy." Learn more.

Jeffrey Macklis, MD '84 collaborates with Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, MD and Matthew Anderson, MD, PhD, finding that neuron transplants have repaired brain circuitry and substantially normalized function in mice with a brain disorder, an advance indicating that key areas of the mammalian brain are more reparable than was widely believed. Learn more.

Swee L. Tan, MD '88 was profiled in the Dominion Post, emphasizing his work researching and eliminating strawberry birthmarks from his patients. Now he's applying his research to cancer. Tan says, "If we can better understand the nature and cause of birthmarks we are one step closer to cancer. I believe a lot of what we've discovered will be applicable to cancer in maybe 40 or 50 years, depending on resources." Learn more.

Eva Guinan, MD '80, is the lead author of a study finding a drug combination that may make radiation less lethal. A combination of two drugs may alleviate sickness in people who are exposed to high levels of radiation, even when given as much as 24 hours later, a new study suggests.  Learn more.

David Eisenberg, MD '80 advises physicians that learning to cook makes them more likely to eat healthy foods themselves and be more proactive in advising patients. Eisenberg helped found "Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives," a continuing medical education collaboration between the Harvard School of Public Health and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Each spring, the program attracts more than 400 physicians and other health professionals who spend four days learning about nutrition and health, watching cooking demonstrations by professional chefs, and getting hands-on instruction in the kitchens of the CIA facility in California's Napa Valley. Learn more.

Jordan Cohen, MD '60 will chair the newly formed Veterans Affairs (VA) advisory committee, National Academic Affiliations Council, that will provide a forum for joint planning and coordination between VA and the nation's health professions schools and universities. The Council's charter grants the new committee wide authority to examine all aspects of VA's relationships with the academic community and to recommend proposals for policy, regulatory, and legislative changes. Learn more.

Nanette Wenger, MD '54 honored with the James B. Herrick Award by the American Heart Association for her profound impact on clinical cardiology practice. She is described as having "contributed immeasurably to cardiology through innovative research, inspired teaching, and invaluable volunteer service." Some of her notable accomplishments include: directing clinical trials that helped define secondary prevention of coronary disease; influencing education of health professionals and the public about gender differences in disease development, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes; and developing the nation's first cardiac rehabilitation program. Learn more.

Former Hollywood filmmaker Michael O. Rich, MD '91 is profiled in the November/December issue of Harvard Magazine about his studies on the impact of media on children. According to HM, "he isn't interested in proving whether media products are good or bad, nor does he strive to find ways for government to regulate them. Instead, he hopes to reframe the question, looking at media explicitly as a public-health issue—like exercise, nutrition, or sleep-with physical, mental, and social consequences." Read the full article.

Jonathan P. Winickoff, MD '97 talks about the dangers of secondhand smoke from neighbors in residential buildings. He and other health officials presented charts during a news conference at Children's Hospital Los Angeles that showed how secondhand smoke passes from one apartment unit to another, and can linger for hours. Learn more.

David Tim Cooke, MD '98 has been named to the Medical Advisory Committee of the nonprofit Esophageal Cancer Education Foundation (ECEF). Cooke, who specializes in esophageal cancer surgery, will advise the organization on esophageal cancer research grant funding and continue to bring awareness and educate the public about esophageal cancer risk factors and treatment options. Learn more.

Majid Fotuhi, MD '97 says that late-life Alzheimer's, affecting people in their 80s and 90s, has only a minor genetic component and can be delayed or prevented with lifestyle changes—especially if the changes begin in midlife. Learn more.

James M. Rippe, MD '79 wrote an article in which he explains that while there exists an odd hysteria about chocolate milk lately that has spread from Tennessee to California to Massachusetts and where a Public Health Council is recommending a ban on chocolate milk beginning in August 2013, this hysteria medically is not in the best interest of children. Learn more.

Founded in 1992 by current Harvard Medical School Dean for Students, Nancy E. Oriol, MD '79, The Family Van hits the streets of Boston six days a week. The HMS-affiliated mobile health clinic provides free health screenings for blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, glaucoma, pregnancy, and HIV counseling for Boston's most impoverished residents. Oriol says she was first spurred "to meet people where they are" during her work as an anesthesiologist in 1989. Learn more.

William Shipley, MD '66, Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School join the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Board of Directors. He has been a leader in clinical research in the area of genitourinary oncology for more than 35 years. Shipley's work in bladder cancer has included implementing protocols for selected muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients which made it possible to treat over two thirds of the patients without removing their bladders. This multi-modal treatment approach combined surgical removal of the tumors, chemotherapy, and radiation. Learn more.

Frank Rybicki, MD '95 collaborated with a team of Harvard computer scientists and physicists to develop a simple yet powerful method of visualizing human arteries that may result in more accurate diagnoses of atherosclerosis and heart disease. The prototype tool, called HemoVis, creates a two-dimensional diagram of arteries that performs better than the traditional 3-D, rainbow-colored model. In a clinical setting, the tool has been shown to increase diagnostic accuracy from 39 percent to 91 percent. Read the full Harvard Gazette article.

Marie Pasinski, MD '86 wrote a book with Jodie Gould titled "Beautiful Brain Beautiful You: A Seven Step Guide to a Better, Smarter, Younger You." This book details seven steps that will help women look and feel younger and healthier that don't involve surgery or expensive cosmetics. Learn more.

Chester Pierce,  '48, MD '52 makes strides for racial equality in college athletics. In the Class of 1948's 25th Anniversary Report, Pierce noted that "Most of my convictions revolve about the outrageous effects of racism." Learn more.

Ishani Ganguli, MD '11, clinical fellow in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and regular Boston Globe contributor, writes in the Globe magazine about patient-centered care and the elusive art of teaching doctors empathy. Learn more.

Elizabeth Lawson, MD '02 led a study which showed for the first time, a link between human levels of leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. She says, "Our findings place leptin on a growing list of hormones that are correlated with psychiatric symptoms. Whether leptin influences depression or vice versa, and whether the relationship is direct or mediated by a third as yet unknown factor needs to be investigated." Learn more.

American Academy of Ophthalmology honors Alfred Sommer, MD '67 with 2011 Laureate Award for worldwide contributions toward saving sight. Through his research, Sommer discovered that the debilitating consequences of vitamin A deficiency could be effectively, quickly, and cheaply treated with oral high-dose vitamin A supplementation. This resulted in one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions, according to World Bank's World Development Report. More than 400 million vitamin A supplements are now distributed annually to children around the world, preventing blindness and saving literally thousands of lives each year. Learn more.

Steven Warach, MD '87 named founding Executive Director of Seton/UT Southwestern Clinical Research Institute. I want us conducting the type of definitive studies that will change clinical practices on the day they are published," said Warach. Learn more.

Four more HMS alumni join the ranks of the Institute of Medicine: George Q. Daley, MD ’91, Atul A. Gawande, MD ’94, David A. Relman, MD ’81, and Nancy E. Davidson, MD ’79 are some of the newest members elected to the prestigious institution. IOM President Harvey Fineberg, MD ’71 says of the new members, "It is a great pleasure to welcome these distinguished and accomplished individuals to the Institute of Medicine. Each of these new members stands out as a professional whose research, knowledge, and skills have significantly advanced health and medicine, and their achievements are an inspiration." Read more.

Richard Sidman, MD '53 contributes to a study led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center that found four new "zip codes" during their quest to map the vast blood vessel network of the human body. The study brings science one step closer to the goal of using the vascular system to personalize cancer therapy, as well as fight obesity, heart disease, and other disorders. Learn more.

Talmadge King, MD '74 has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Learn more.

George Q. Daley, MD '91 leads team finding a surprising link between cancer gene and diabetes. Learn more.

Harvard Crimson sits down with Nicholas Christakis, MD '88; read what he has to say on everything from social networking to palliative care. Learn more.