Posts filed under ‘Features’
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…)
The journey of an IVC filter—from life-saving to life-altering
The medical journey that would lead Kaysee Kauer from Rapid City, South Dakota, to Hershey, Pennsylvania, began in the early morning hours of January 27, 2011.
“I woke up feeling like my whole right side was a charley horse,” the 38-year-old says. She stood up to alleviate what she thought was a cramp. But within seconds, the pain quickly escalated and it became clear she was dealing with something much worse. “I thought I was having a heart attack,” she says.
Kaysee Kauer and her son Dean.
Kauer beckoned to her 17-year-old daughter, Hailey, who called 911. Shortly after arriving at a South Dakota hospital, doctors told Kauer she had experienced a potentially fatal condition known as a pulmonary embolism: a “massive” blood clot had broken apart in her leg and migrated to her lungs.
In case more clots were still in her leg, doctors implanted an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter in Kaysee. The small umbrella-like filter has metal prongs that project outward to prevent clots from moving to the lungs by way of the IVC – the blood vessel that returns blood to the heart from the lower body.
About a month later, physicians in South Dakota decided it was time to remove the filter. But when they attempted to retrieve it, they discovered a complication: a small hook at one end of the filter had become lodged in the blood vessel wall. (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…)
Medical Center starts fellowship in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery
Women’s health procedures are some of the most common surgical procedures done in the United States. In women’s surgery, about 60 percent of procedures performed in the U.S. are done with an open incision, which is called a laparotomy. However, there have been an increased number of patients who wish to have their procedures done with minimally invasive techniques. Providing patients with these advanced surgical techniques allows for a much shorter recovery time so the patient can get back to daily life more quickly. These procedures have less pain, less scarring, less blood loss, and fewer complications. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is a leader in minimally invasive surgery for women’s health, and doctors saw the opportunity and the need to train more specialists in this area of expertise.
Gerald Harkins, M.D. and Janis Green, M.D.
Last fall, the Division of Urogynecology and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical Center started a fellowship in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery. The fellowship, which is accredited by the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL), is designed to provide advanced training in modern laparoscopic surgery for OB-GYN resident graduates. It will allow opportunities for gynecologists who have completed residency to acquire additional skills and to conduct research in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, urogynecologic surgery, and reproductive surgery. Gerald Harkins, M.D. is the medical director and fellowship director for minimally invasive gynecological surgery.
Minimally invasive gynecologic surgery is used for common, yet complicated, procedures such as hysterectomies, ovarian conservation, and fertility preservation as well as for treatment of endometriosis, fibroids, congenital uterine abnormalities, and pelvic pain. Minimally invasive urogynecologic surgery can be used to treat incontinence and pelvic organ prolapses. . Harkins and his team are able to use minimally invasive techniques for all women’s health surgical procedures using advanced equipment, such as the da Vinci SI surgical system. Teaching fellows these techniques will allow for a large wave of change in women’s surgery. Being able to have fellows come to the medical center to receive training then return to other hospitals will have an impact on more women in the United States.
September 12, 2011 at 10:19 am pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
Meet Our Physician Families
Among the 143 members of the incoming Penn State College of Medicine class are three students who run the risk of eventually having mom or dad as a professor. That’s because the students have at least one (if not two) Penn State Hershey physicians as parents. Meet the students and their parents:
August 16, 2011 at 3:28 pm pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
Episode 1 of “Medicine in Blue and White” series on Big Ten Network
“Medicine in Blue and White” is a new television series about Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the first medical information show to air on the Big Ten Network.
The first episode of the series tells the personal stories of four people, who range from an 11-year-old brain tumor patient to a recently retired nurse undergoing an innovative heart catheterization, and the medical professionals at Penn State Hershey who oversee their care and the cutting-edge, research-based medical treatments they are receiving.
Future episodes are scheduled to air in September of this year and early 2012.
