Author Archive
When the doctor becomes the patient
There are, of course, easier ways to bond with one’s patients. When asked what was a normal-appearing post-open heart surgery scar, many doctors would show the patient a photograph or do a simple visual assessment of the scar. But Peter Alagona, Jr., M.D., associate professor of medicine and radiology, Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute, on the other hand, lifted up his own shirt so they could compare their scars side-by-side. Like the patient, Alagona had earned his scar in 2009 during surgery to repair an acute aortic dissection, a sudden event for which he had no risk factors or warning. The fact that Alagona was even at Penn State Hershey Medical Center to have that surgery is a story in itself. (more…)
An Interview with E. Eugene Marsh, M.D.
Eugene Marsh, M.D.
In January 2011, E. Eugene Marsh, M.D., became the first senior associate dean of the Penn State College of Medicine Regional Medical Campus in University Park, where he will drive the College of Medicine’s vision for a regional academic and clinical campus in collaboration with the University and Mount Nittany Medical Center. He is also associate director of the Penn State Hershey Medical Group in State College, which has grown from one to five clinical sites in the State College area in the past year. He came to University Park from the University of Alabama, where he served as dean of the College of Community Health Sciences, the regional medical campus in Tuscaloosa as the culmination of a career ranging from private practice, medical education, and health care administration. In his new role, his priority list is long: to oversee the growth of medical group practices; to develop academic programs for College of Medicine students who will pursue their clinical training in State College; to craft a curriculum that emphasizes primary care and rural health; to develop dual-degree programs in areas such as business and law; and to establish a Family Medicine residency training program with Mount Nittany Medical Center. Dr. Marsh recently talked about the vision for the Regional Medical Campus and how it can help prepare physicians for the future demands of medicine. (more…)
Penn State CTSI aims to push research findings to the people
As a physician on the front line of the obesity and diabetes epidemics gripping the United States, Urs Leuenberger, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute, has seen the disconnect between medical knowledge and reality. “We know an immense amount about many of the major health problems today, say obesity or diabetes, and we know a lot more than we did ten years ago or thirty or fifty years ago,” Leuenberger says. “So why is it that when we know so much more, the epidemic is getting worse?”
That is precisely the kind of question that the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) will tackle over the next five years, thanks to a $27.3 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Penn State CTSI, a collaborative effort of the University, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and Penn State College of Medicine, joins a prestigious consortium of institutions that include Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Yale, and the University of Chicago. In Pennsylvania, only the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania are also members.
“The CTSAs (Clinical and Translational Science Awards) support the innovation and partnerships necessary to bridge the traditional divides between basic research and medical practice,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., said in announcing the latest awards. “The combination of resources and collaboration made possible by these awards is essential for developing and delivering new treatments and prevention strategies.”
Resources and collaboration are two of Penn State’s strengths in winning the CTSI grant. “Already, our Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute is bringing together researchers from across the University’s colleges, campuses, programs, and departments and fostering collaborative research,” says Harold L. Paz, M.D., CEO of Penn State Hershey Medical Center. “This CTSA funding award will add to this momentum and substantially increase our infrastructure for supporting translational research, expanding our ability to take scientific progress from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.” (more…)
Researchers lead the way in important retrovirus research
Penn State researchers and Rebecca Craven, Ph.D., and Leslie Parent, M.D., are involved with separate research projects, but they often find themselves fielding the same question: “Why are you studying a virus that’s only found in chickens?” You might expect two serious researchers to consider it a silly question. But in fact they welcome it, because it gives them an opening to explain their passion for understanding pathogens that cause serious illness in humans.
The retrovirus they’re studying—the Rous sarcoma virus—offers valuable clues into how retroviruses function, both in humans and in animals. For example, the Rous sarcoma virus behaves similarly to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS in humans.
“There is a need to better understand the life cycle of retroviruses so we can come up with improved methods for how to short circuit them,” says Craven, associate professor in microbiology and immunology at Penn State College of Medicine. “Rous sarcoma is an interesting virus in its own right because of the disease it causes in birds, but also because it serves as a model system for understanding human pathogens,” she adds.
A benefit to working with Rous sarcoma is that it’s easy to grow in the laboratory and doesn’t require special containment procedures, such as those used for human pathogens like HIV. While it’s easy to use, it provides tremendous insight into most retroviruses and how they function.
Beyond superheroes: Comics as a new genre for medical storytelling
Penn State College of Medicine may be the only place in the country where a fourth year medical student can take an elective Humanities course about comics titled “Graphic Storytelling and Medical Narratives.” But before you snort derisively, listen to Michael Green, M.D., professor in the Departments of Humanities and Medicine, explain why he created this course.
“Most people think comics are juvenile, silly, and frivolous, that it’s only about superheroes or funny cartoons,” Green said. “But I’m teaching about a specific, growing genre of graphic narratives that tell incredibly moving stories about serious topics.”
Even within this broad category, there is a growing number of individuals creating memoir-type stories related to medical issues–for instance, patients telling stories about their illnesses, medical providers sharing their experiences, and family members providing their perspectives on healthcare. As Green sees it, his course offers students an opportunity to learn and explore themes relevant to the practice of medicine. (more…)
Penn State Hershey Life Lion: 25 years of critical care in the air
Penn State Hershey Life Lion Critical Care Transport is celebrating twenty-five years. The flight team reflects on how medical air services have changed and what’s ahead.
Somewhere a car crashes and someone is seriously injured. The clock starts ticking. Soon after, a familiar ritual begins to unfold at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center: the dispatcher answers the call, the pilot accepts the assignment, and the flight crew boards their helicopter. Minutes later, a blue Life Lion aircraft (helicopter) is lifting off.
For his twenty-four years at the Communications Center, Russell Chadwick set those life-saving missions in motion. As a dispatcher, Chadwick worked in the hub of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system—a network of board-certified emergency care physicians, the 911 dispatch system, fire, police, and ambulance services. It was a great experience, he says. “It all operated because of teamwork.”
Every year, Penn State Hershey Life Lion Critical Care Transport logs about 1,200 flights, transporting stroke and cardiac patients, accident and burn victims, and other gravely ill passengers. The program’s territory spans south-central Pennsylvania, but there’s no cutoff, says flight paramedic Mike Kurtz, who has been flying these missions for twenty-five years. “I have flown into eight states,” Kurtz says. “We set up landing zones almost anywhere, at ballparks, highways, and accidents.” (more…)
Penn State Hershey Medical Group: Expanding care where people need it most—close to home
Americans made more than one billion visits to doctors’ offices, emergency departments, and hospital outpatient offices in 2006—up 26 percent in a decade, according to the CDC. While these numbers continue to grow, Penn State Hershey Medical Group is stepping up its efforts to bring about better comprehensive care, quicker access and less waiting to its ambulatory care sites across central Pennsylvania.
The Medical Group is a multispecialty team of more than 700 Penn State Hershey physicians, who treat patients at 54 outpatient centers and clinic sites throughout the region. Whether piloting a medical home, partnering with area hospitals or launching community outreach programs, the Medical Group is paving a new path for growth and innovation that extends way beyond the walls of Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
“We are expanding our Medical Group to improve access to outpatient care,” says A. Craig Hillemeier, M.D., COO and director of the group. As vice dean for clinical affairs at Penn State College of Medicine, Hillemeier is committed to advancing the clinical education, patient care, service, and research missions. Hillemeier, who is also a professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and medical director of Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, joined the faculty here nine years ago. Since then he has been at the forefront of developing new approaches to health care that are efficient, effective, and patient-focused.
Prostate Cancer—Hidden but treatable
A recent episode of the TV show House opened with the confrontational doctor threatening a talkative patient with an unnecessary prostate exam. The patient quieted down. Good for Dr. House, bad for the prostate cancer advocates who have been trying to break the stigma surrounding routine screenings.
Prostate cancer screenings have become something of a controversy in recent years, mostly due to the nature of prostate cancer itself. After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. Depending on the research, it’s either the second or third leading cause of cancer deaths. It would seem that such a common disease should be tested for regularly and treated aggressively, but prostate cancer is somewhat of a sleeper cancer
Handle with care: A nurse’s mission to prevent infant abusive head trauma
For new parents, caring for a crying baby can be very difficult, and often they are not aware of how frustrating it is until they are faced with a stressful situation. Sadly, research indicates that crying is the number one cause of physical abuse of infants, specifically Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), also known as abusive head trauma (AHT). Statistics from the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome show that every year in the United States at least 1,200 to 1,400 children are shaken, and 25 to 30 percent of shaken babies die. Survivors of shaken baby syndrome often have lifelong complications, including brain damage, seizures, learning disabilities, and blindness.
Kelly Cappos, R.N., B.S.N., C.P.U.R., C.L.N.C., is one of three nurse coordinators for the Pennsylvania Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention and Awareness Program based at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. She and colleagues Carroll Rottmund, R.N., B.S.N., C.C.R.N., C.L.N.C., and Marie Killian, R.N., B.S.N., C.C.R.N., as part of this research-based parent education program, have educated nurses statewide at 111 children’s and birthing hospitals, oversee the office-based program in 16 central Pennsylvania counties and serve as a resource for child abuse prevention efforts worldwide.
The SBS Prevention Program was the brain child of Mark Dias, M.D., F.A.A.P., professor of neurosurgery, vice chair of clinical neurosurgery, and chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Penn State Hershey Medical Center. He began the parent education program in upstate New York in 1998. In 2002, he came to the Medical Center and under his guidance, the team developed his prevention model for education, which is completely nurse driven, into a program now widely recognized and embraced by maternal child health and neonatal intensive care nurses as well as child abuse prevention associations statewide. The program is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Pennsylvania is the first state in the nation to have 100 percent of hospitals educating parents as per the Dias Model. (more…)
David Mu, Ph.D., takes aim at lung cancer
By the time lung cancer is diagnosed, it’s often too far along to cure. Right now, lung cancer kills more Americans than any other kind of cancer. Still, David Mu, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology in the Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology, believes that a strong collaboration among basic scientists, clinical researchers, and treating clinicians is the key to stopping this complex disease in its tracks.
Since his arrival at Penn State College of Medicine two years ago, Mu’s laboratory work has focused on the actions of three mutated genes—TTF1, NKX2.8 and PAX9—and how they promote the development of lung tumors. In recent years, Mu, who previously worked in the biotechnology industry, linked these three genes to lung cancer.
What’s become clear since then, he says, is that mapping out the chain of events by which they are activated could help yield new drug combinations far more potent than therapies that take a more generic approach. (more…)
