David Rush was interviewed by Josh Hauser, MD.

Hip-hop artist and motivational speaker David Rush kicked off the first day of medical school for Feinbergs Class of 2021, discussing his experience with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a life-threatening kidney condition that eventually forced him onto dialysis.

Rush was interviewed onstage by Josh Hauser, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicineand of Medical Education, as part of Feinbergs first-week curriculum, called Introduction to the Profession.

According to Rush, the first signs of trouble appeared when he was in 10th grade, during a school-mandated physical for football. High protein levels indicated poor kidney function and he was prescribed medication, which he took throughout high school. But when Rush moved to Georgia to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta, he left his self-care at home in New Jersey.

I forgot about the medical side living away from your parents and your doctors, youre not really thinking about what your blood pressure is or what your creatinine levels are, Rush said. Youre thinking, How much is Wendys again?

It wasnt until Rush underwent a physical at the urging of a friend that he discovered just how poorly his kidneys were functioning. His doctors told him he needed to start dialysis or he could die within a year. Still, Rush delayed starting the treatment. After 10 months had elapsed without treatment, Rush was discovered passed out in his sisters apartment.

He woke up in the emergency room, connected to a dialysis machine.

It was scary, I didnt want to be there, Rush said. But thats how I started dialysis.

These days, Rush spends three hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine. While it can make him feel like hes pressed for time, he said, its also given him insight into how much patients sacrifice to receive medical care.

Patients time is taken the time they spend at hospitals, the time they spend in doctors offices and the time they spend on treatment, he said. So when youre seeing patients, you have to think about how theyre spending their time. When they finally see you it may be the seventh hour theyve been spending on this. They might come in a little edgy, but were not mad at you, but we need you to understand us.

First-year medical student Balaji Veluswamy said he appreciated hearing about Rushs experience. I havent heard that perspective before: the point of view of a patient who had time taken away from them. The patient is who you learn from the most. I find that fascinating.

Introduction to the Profession week familiarizes students with the roles of medical student and physician, connecting them to the competencies that constitute the core of the Feinberg curriculum. These competencies include ethics, teamwork, communication, patient-centered care, quality improvement, and personal awareness and self-care.

The first week also serves as an opportunity for medical students to learn about the informal curriculum the attitudes and values conveyed by Feinberg education practices and culture.

I like to think of it as the things that happen before and after class, on your way to class, and when youre talking to friends and colleagues, Hauser said. When I look back on my time as a medical student, those things are every bit as important as the more explicit goals.

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Med School Curriculum Kicks Off With a Patient's Story - Northwestern University NewsCenter

Six months after Dr. Carmen Puliafito stepped down as dean of USCs medical school, he was called by the university to give sworn testimony as a witness in a lawsuit the institution was facing.

It was a sensitive matter with hundreds of millions of dollars potentially at stake, and two attorneys for the university sat with him as he answered questions.

Almost immediately, the opposing lawyer hit on a topic that was a closely guarded secret at USC: The circumstances of Puliafitos abrupt resignation in March 2016.

The former dean had a ready explanation, saying he had taken advantage of a unique opportunity at a biotech company. The response was succinct, matter-of-fact and, in light of recent revelations about his drug use and troubled tenure at USC, far from the whole story.

Paul Pringle, Harriet Ryan, Adam Elmahrek, Matt Hamilton and Sarah Parvini

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Of the many consequences of the Puliafito scandal for USC, few are as high-stakes as the possible effect on the court case that prompted his testimony last year.

Puliafito was expected to play a role in defending USC in the legal battle with the University of California over the defection of a star UC Alzheimer's disease researcher.

Puliafito helped woo the scientist and dozens of other prominent academics as part of a strategy by USC President C.L. Max Nikias to vault the university into the ranks of elite research institutions.

UC is seeking $185 million in damages along with a punitive award that could be several times that amount.

With all thats out there about him, hes going to have a serious problem coming off as credible and being believed, said Los Angeles attorney Brian Panish, a civil litigator who has represented clients in suits against both schools.

A Times investigation published last month revealed that Puliafito partied and used drugs with a circle of criminals and addicts while serving as dean. Puliafito engaged in this behavior during the period in 2015 in which he was recruiting the researcher, according to interviews with his associates and text messages they exchanged with him.

A UC spokeswoman said the school would not discuss its legal strategy other than to say we are vigorously pursuing this case against USC.

An attorney for USC said no decision had been made on whether to call Puliafito as a witness, but insisted the former deans testimony was not important to the universitys defense.

Hes a bit player in this, said attorney John Quinn.

In court filings earlier this year, lawyers for USC highlighted a portion of the deans testimony in arguing that the case should be dismissed.

Puliafito testified that the university wanted UC San Diego researcher Paul Aisen to join the faculty whether or not he brought along hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding, a rejection of UCs claim that USC was motivated by money in recruiting the scientist.

Legal experts said that even if USC decides not to use Puliafitos testimony, UCs legal team could ask for copies of his personnel record and attempt to make an issue in court of his conduct. That would set up a fight between USC and UC over whether jurors should be told about the skeletons in Puliafitos closet if the case went to trial.

The trial judge would have to decide whether the prejudicial, inflammatory value is outweighed by the probative value, said Manhattan Beach civil lawyer John Taylor, who has represented clients with legal claims against USC.

The judge, Taylor added, might say, Suppose he was out partying like a rock star? How does that make it more or less believable to a jury?

USC is anticipating that UC will try to make Puliafitos drug use a line of attack.

I believe that they would do anything they could to try to poison the well, including introducing the deans personal problems, USC lawyer Quinn said, adding that he expected a judge to reject such attempts as irrelevant.

The case is on hold while USC appeals a U.S. district judges ruling that moved the suit from federal court to San Diego County Superior Court, where it was originally filed. No trial date has been set.

By the time Puliafito was scheduled to be questioned under oath, the case was in its second year and UC had brushed off entreaties by USC to settle the matter out of court. USC deputy general counsel Stacy Bratcher and other university lawyers met with the former dean three times to prepare him for the deposition, he later testified.

On the day of his testimony, Bratcher and another lawyer sat with him at a downtown law firm as he was questioned for about six hours, according to a transcript of the testimony. Portions of the transcript were redacted at the request of USC.

Puliafito said he had been deposed 20 times in his life, including in court cases where he was a medical expert. On a video recording of part of the deposition, he appears self-assured, offering short, precise responses and brushing aside many questions as hypothetical and difficult to answer.

A few minutes into his testimony, he was asked for the circumstances of your ceasing to be dean of the medical school. An attorney for USCs outside law firm, Viola Trebicka, initially protested that the question was overbroad and vague objections a judge would rule on a later date and then directed him to go ahead and answer.

I had a unique opportunity in the ophthalmic biotechnology industry, and I was able to continue my employment at USC on sabbatical and work for this biotech company, he said.

The full story was more complicated. USC acknowledged after The Times report that the dean quit his post during a confrontation with the university provost about his behavior and job performance. That showdown capped years of complaints from faculty and staff about Puliafitos drinking, temper and public humiliation of colleagues, according to interviews with former co-workers and written complaints to the administration.

He was not offered the biotech job at Ophthotech, a firm run by two longtime friends, until more than a month after he resigned, according to a company spokesman.

Quinn said he did not know whether lawyers for USC and Puliafito discussed how he would answer questions about his resignation before the deposition. He said that attorneys for his firm would never sponsor false testimony. We would never knowingly permit a witness to lie. In a statement, a USC spokesman said the university general counsels office, where Bratcher works, would never encourage a witness to perjure himself.

Experts said UC could ask a judge to reopen the deposition in light of the new information about Puliafitos past conduct.

I would get the personnel file and also question him about what happened. Maybe there is more that is not out there yet, Panish said.

The court fight is being closely watched in academic circles. UC took the highly unusual step of suing its academic rival in 2015 after years of frustration over USCs recruitment of faculty members who were the recipients of big research grants. These grants are an important income source for the state system.

These transformative faculty, as they are known at USC, have been key to President Nikias strategy for raising the universitys national reputation. Puliafito spearheaded the effort during his eight-year tenure as dean, recruiting more than 70 academics from the UC schools, Stanford, Harvard and other prestigious rivals.

After Puliafito helped woo away two well-funded UCLA neurology researchers in 2013, UC administrators were outraged, and complained to government regulators, according to court filings. It was not unusual for professors to move to other institutions, often with the first university cooperating in the transfer of grant funding to the new school. But in UCs view, USC had acted beyond accepted norms by targeting academics based on grant funding and strategizing secretly with those researchers while they were still employed by UC about moving grants to USC. The schools reached a confidential settlement requiring USC to pay UCLA more than $2 million, according to a copy of the agreement obtained through a public records request.

Late the next year, the dean set his sights on another UC prize: Alzheimers expert Paul Aisen. The UC San Diego neurology professor was a global leader in the search for a cure for the disease, and federal agencies and drug companies were expected to send more than $340 million in research grants to the lab he ran over the next five years

Nelvin C. Cepeda

Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Paul Aisen.

Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Paul Aisen. (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

I am going to get more involved in this personally and quarterback the process, he wrote in an email to Provost Michael Quick in April 2015. We need this to happen.

USC offered Aisen annual compensation of $500,000 a salary bump of $110,000 along with a home loan and other perks. He moved to USC in June 2015.

The loss reverberated at the highest levels of the UC system. President Janet Napolitano unsuccessfully lobbied the head of drug company Eli Lilly, a major funder of Aisens work, to keep its grant money at UC.

In July 2015, UC sued USC, Aisen and his lab colleagues for breach of fiduciary duty, interference with contracts, computer crimes and other claims. The university said USC had conspired with the researcher while he was still working for UCSD to interfere with the public universitys contractual relationships with grant funders and to seize control of critical clinical trial data.

Subsequent filings suggested the depths of the hard feelings. In one, UC complained that the departing scientists had even made off with paper clips paid for by UCSD. In another, their lawyers described USC as a predatory private university with a law-of-the-jungle mind-set.

Astrid Riecken / Getty Images

University of California President Janet Napolitano

University of California President Janet Napolitano (Astrid Riecken / Getty Images)

USC and Aisen countersued for defamation and other charges. Their lawyers wrote in the complaint that they were ready to settle the litigation and suggested the blame rested with UC for failing to fund Aisens work adequately. When he found a school that would, they wrote, UC engaged in petty academic politics, including trying to make him sign a loyalty oath and cutting off his email and phone service, tactics that they claimed endangered patient safety.

Aisen, Puliafito and other USC administrators insisted in depositions that the university had done nothing wrong. In his sworn testimony, the former dean testified that he was prepared to offer Aisen a faculty position even if his lucrative research grants stayed behind at UCSD.

You were indifferent to whether or not the grant funding transferred with Dr. Aisen, the UC lawyer asked.

Yes, Puliafito said, adding: Thats the risk we were willing to take.

San Francisco lawyer Stephen Hirschfeld, who has defended UC and other universities in civil suits, said the involvement of other officials in Aisens recruitment could blunt the impact of Puliafitos credibility issues.

The university provost, a faculty chair, medical school administrators, and human resources officers played key roles in luring Aisen, according to court filings and deposition testimony.

You could have a situation where the dean says one thing and several other administrators confirm that it is true, Hirschfeld said. Focusing too much on Puliafito, he said, might make UC look cruel or desperate to the jury.

Youve got to think really hard if its worth it to attack this guy in this way, he said.

Taylor, the Manhattan Beach lawyer, said that jurors could see Puliafito as a reflection of the values of the university and the decision makers there.

If terrible evidence comes in about him, it is terrible evidence for the school, he said.

The deposition offers tantalizing clues about the relationship between Puliafito and USC. At one point, the former dean was asked when he had last looked at the USC ethics code.

Six months ago, he replied. The deposition was on Sept. 23, 2016 just a day short of the six-month anniversary of the meeting at which the provost confronted him with complaints from colleagues about his behavior.

harriet.ryan@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimesharriet

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USC's dean drug scandal could take a costly toll on the school's legal battle with the UC system - Los Angeles Times

Photo by Rutgers.edu | The Daily Targum

Rachel Kaye, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is beginning to study the connection between lost senses and coronavirus disease, according to a press release.

Anosmia, the loss of the sense of smell, or dysgeusia, the distortion of taste, could be early signals of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a statement on the American Academy of Otolaryngologys (AAO) website.

Anecdotal evidence is rapidly accumulating from sites around the world that anosmia and dysgeusia are significant symptoms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the AAO said, according to the statement. Anosmia, in particular, has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the (COVID-19) with no other symptoms. We propose that these symptoms be added to the list of screening tools for possible COVID-19 infection.

The AAO said people with these symptoms should consider getting tested for COVID-19 regardless of whether these symptoms are accompanied by respiratory conditions, according to the statement.

Rachel Kaye, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is beginning to study the connection between lost senses and COVID-19, according to a press release.

Since these people do not show other symptoms, they wont know to self-quarantine, which could spread the virus, Kaye said, according to the release.

She said it is common for viral infections to alter senses. Viruses often inflame the lining of the nasal cavity, which can lead to congestion that affects an individuals ability to smell. Some evidence also shows viral infections cause neurologic damage to smell receptors or neurons, according to the release.

Kaye said individuals who lose their sense of smell do not necessarily have COVID-19 and may be dealing with a different type of upper respiratory infection, bacterial infection or viral infection. She said other reasons people may lose their sense of smell include medication side effects, sinus disease, neurologic disorders, aging and smoking, among other things, according to the release.

Kaye said individuals with these symptoms should talk to their primary care doctor otorhinolaryngologist about any specific symptoms they are experiencing. She said those who experience these symptoms and have been exposed to COVID-19 may consider self-isolating until they have definitive test results, according to the release.

That being said, although the anecdotal evidence is increasing, there have not yet been any scientific studies published regarding this, and so strict protocols for people experiencing these symptoms are lacking, Kaye said, according to the release.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Targum.

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Rutgers expert weighs in on altered sense of smell, taste caused by viral infections - RU Daily Targum

When the coronavirus crisis hit, we started trying to think about ways to maintain closeness and community amidst growing physical distance both small-scale (social distancing and campus closures in Cambridge) and large-scale (as Sarah returned to Canada while I stayed in Cambridge), Williams said via email. We thought that making our conceptual podcast a real podcast could be one way to do this.

In addition to their usual humor, the pair discuss the psychological aspects of coping with the pandemic and share some tips they learned in a Harvard University Health Services workshop, Managing Emotions.

I just love this because its so good for mental health and well-being, Yun said of the fellows latest effort. Its hard enough to be a Ph.D. student; it is so incredibly isolating and our population has a tendency to isolate because the work that theyre doing is asking the big questions in lonely libraries. So Im just so grateful that our students are trending forward trying to say, We need to stay connected to each other during this time.

With so many feeling overwhelmed by the abrupt changes and confused by the rapid pace of information coming at them from so many disparate sources about the COVID-19 pandemic or where to find help for difficulties, graduate students Gwendolyn Lee, M.D./M.P.P. 20, and her sister, Alexandria Allie Lee, M.S. 20, thought students could use a central repository to find and share the most accurate, useful information and more easily communicate with each other. Ideally, they hoped this would empower students to take action to begin solving the many challenges of the current public health crisis.

On March 13, the student-run group Students vs. Pandemics created a Google Sheet with sections on how to stay healthy, where to find resources, ideas for having fun or bringing about systemic change, and complain + fix, where problems are identified, and then go about trying to fix them. Students are encouraged to add ideas and share information on the spreadsheet. So far, more than 30 students have contributed, and theyre hoping to recruit others. Ideas include starting a COVID-19 hackathon for students to identify digital solutions, drafting policy memos to send to the Massachusetts Legislature, and helping other universities launch similar task forces.

We talked with many friends and classmates who felt like so many changes were happeningtous andthatotherswere making significant decisions affecting our lives. That often happens in times of crisis, and we wanted to empower more students torespondandact. Students are very good at identifying needs and gaps, and we wanted to give them a platform to connect with others to innovate solutions, said Gwendolyn Lee, whos studying health policy at Harvard Kennedy School while also pursuing a medical degree at UCLA. Allie Lee is earning a masters degree in epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Even as the group confronts the immediate COVID-19 crisis, Gwendolyn Lee said its also building institutional knowledge so that its better prepared for future disease outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.

More fundamentally, we would like to work toward building a model of prevention, she said. Students vs. Pandemics hopes to advocate for and help achieve preventive behavior so we wont find ourselves in a situation like the one we face today.

In times of struggle, many take comfort and refuge in religious and spiritual gatherings. With that currently out of the question, some religious groups at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) are considering alternatives. The HDS Disciples and United Church of Christ Worship have begun shifting the weekly worship services and prayer times online, connecting everyone via Zoom. The first online service begins today.

Early last week, HDS students began contributing inspirational posts to the Office of the Chaplain and Religious and Spiritual Lifes Facebook page and Instagram accounts. So far, the posts have drawn on a variety of texts, from the Bible to Harry Potter.

Harvards move to online teaching and learning presents challenges for disciplines where the work is almost entirely physical and doesnt easily translate to 2D formats such as video at least not without sacrificing essential components of the work.

At Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), Dean Sarah Whiting and the faculty have been taking advantage of the popular Zoom platforms draw-over and annotation tools, particularly for crits, the one-on-one sessions in which a professor reviews and critiques individual student work, said GSD spokesman Travis Dagenais. Rather than hanging project renderings on the usual pin-up boards, theyre turning unused laptops into digital pinboards so professors can review the work on one screen while conducting the crit on another.

I was just so impressed that even though all of their lives were sort of cast into chaos they still were really committed to building community and finding ways to continue to connect GSAS students.

Jacqueline Yun, executive director, GSAS Student Center

The School is still determining how faculty juries will conduct final reviews, which typically involve models, large drawings, and other physical elements, without being able to see these components in real life.

For those already tired of looking at home-office backdrops on Zoom, or who just want things to go back to normal even for a few minutes, a cheeky pair of Masters in Design Studies students have created an assortment of colorful Zoom backgrounds from spaces in and around Gund Hall. The backgrounds have become a minor hit with students and even a dean or two.

One unexpected positive is that prior to the campus closure, GSD offered only one online course, the popular The Architectural Imagination on edX. Now, suddenly there are dozens of GSD courses going online, adapted and produced in short order and being tweaked in an ongoing manner. Its been a tall order. That contrast in number and scope illustrates our challenge as designers: Design pedagogy is uniquely difficult to conduct in a purely digital format, and this shift has been nothing shy of fundamental for us, said Dagenais.

For fourth-year students at Harvard Medical School (HMS), the third Friday in March is a date they have dreamed about and worked toward for many years. On Match Day, the National Resident Matching Program notifies graduating seniors at medical schools across the country where they will serve their clinical residencies. At Harvard, the milestone usually takes place in the atrium of the Tosteson Medical Education Center at HMS, with students and their loved ones gathered, waiting for the dean of students traditional bell ringing at noon that kicks off the envelope-tearing, excited squeals, and hugs. This year, the matches will arrive via email, and Dean Fidencio Saldaas bell will be livestreamed to the approximately 165 seniors. The School has set up a social media account so students can share their celebrations, but from a safe distance.

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At Harvard's graduate Schools, reinvention on the fly - Harvard Gazette

Entering medical school, there are a number of curricular expectations for which medical schools prepare incoming students. Still, some things are bound to catch new students off guard. Medical students and medical school faculty spoke with the AMA to cover a few key topics that may surprise aspiring medical students.

Youre bound to spend more time studying than you did in your undergraduate studies. Still, if you prioritize your time, you can meet new people and have a social life.

Often, premeds are told their life will be over for four to five years, said Lindia J. Willies-Jacobo, MD, associate dean for admissions and professor at Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, which will welcome its first class of medical students in the fall. Thats by no means true. They can continue to socialize and build community with their peers and also have a life outside of medical school.

Avani Patel is a forthcoming graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson. Earlier on in her medical school career, she had exams every Monday. That meant that weekends were typically not her time to catch up with friends or go out. She instead started to make plans on Monday nights and attend events during the week that were put on by her school.

Its up to you if you want to be socially active, Patel said. But you are going to have to make priorities and be strategic about it to balance your commitments.

Some students say medical school is comparable to high school in some of the not-so-beneficial ways.

Im from the South, so its already cliquey down here, said Patel. Its your choice if you want to be cliquey or not. I like to have multiple friend groups and get to know people on all levels.

From day one of medical school, your colleagues are your support system but could also be seen as competitors for those ultra-competitive residency slots. That can make for some interesting social dynamics.

I thought I found a great friend group my first year, and they were wonderful people. I realized that they were very high-performing and that became unhealthy for me, Patel said. I doubted myself; I felt bad about myself. We would talk about grades and compare test scores, and that was toxic for me. It had nothing to do with them and everything to do with me. I found I needed to separate myself from them.

I ended up finding another group of friends, and we never talked about grades and supported each other, and thats really what I needed.

As much as they want you to succeed in medical school, your friends may not totally understand the time and emotional energy that goes into medical school. When you start missing marquee events such as weddings and birthdays, they may take it personally, Patel said.

Youre so busy that its really difficult to make the time, Patel said. Theres a give and take, and some friends understand, those are the people you can pick up where you left off with.

Your classmates and students in the classes ahead of you have a rare ability to relate to the daily grind you'reexperiencing. That can be a very valuable resources to cope with stress.

Its really nice to have people who are going through the same things you are to be there to provide support, Patel said. We have an M1-M2 buddy system, and I think most med schools do, so a lot of people utilize their upperclassman friends as a sound board. Its very helpful to talk to them about what you are struggling with since they have gone through the same things.

Medicine can be a career that is both challenging and highly rewarding, but figuring out a medical schools prerequisites and navigating the application process can be a challenge into itself. The AMA premed glossary guide has the answers to frequently asked questions about medical school, the application process, the MCAT and more.

Have peace of mind and get everything you need to start med school off strong with the AMA.

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6 things they don't tell you about life in medical school - American Medical Association

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$80 million medical school to be built in north St. Louis | 'Its a need in our community' - KMOV.com

CEDAR RAPIDS A longtime Cedar Rapids-based medical training program, meant to address the shortage of family medicine physicians in the area, will be closing its doors permanently.

The Cedar Rapids Family Medicine Residency Program will be discontinued effective July 1, at the end of this academic year, Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint-St. Lukes Hospital jointly announced earlier this week.

Both Cedar Rapids hospitals have supported the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation, which was established in 1971 to oversee the three-year residency program, the stage of a physicians training that follows medical school.

There are no other family medicine residency programs in Cedar Rapids.

The foundation was established to address the shortage of family medicine physicians in Cedar Rapids, operating with the hope that graduates would stay and practice in the community, according to a statement from the hospitals.

However, in the past five years only 31 percent of family medicine residents in this program have remained in Cedar Rapids after graduation, officials said.

As a result, Mercy and St. Lukes Hospital have developed robust recruiting programs to bring medical providers to the Cedar Rapids area, according to the statement.

The decision will affect 21 current residents of the Family Medicine Residency Program, only seven of whom will finish their final semester and graduate this summer.

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Officials say the foundations program directors have posted notice of the closure on a nationwide residency program director listserv, and has reached out to program directors based in Iowa.

So far we are told these communications have been encouraging as several programs in the state have expressed interest in adding some of the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation residents to their programs, according to a joint statement from Mercy and St. Lukes. In addition, the residents are encouraged to pursue leads on their own in locations desirable to them.

The statement added that program slots are available in Iowa City, Waterloo, Mason City, Des Moines, Sioux City and Davenport.

Federal funding allocated to the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation per resident as their sponsoring institution will travel with the family medicine residents, which we hope will help these residents find placement, officials said.

The closure also affects 12 faculty and staff members employed by the foundation. Local hospitals human resources department will work with these individuals to assist with their transition, according to the joint statement.

Training sites of the three-year residency program include both Cedar Rapids hospitals, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Vinton Family Medical Clinic as well as the Eastern Iowa Health Center, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center that tailors its care to underserved populations.

The Cedar Rapids-based Eastern Iowa Health Center has been the outpatient continuity clinic for the program since the clinic was established in 2006, allowing family medicine residents to gain hands on experience by caring for the centers patients.

As a Federally Qualified Community Health Center, the Cedar Rapids provider receives a higher federal reimbursement to be a safety net provider for underserved populations, such as low-income or Medicaid-eligible families.

Though they were separate organizations, Eastern Iowa Health Center officials said the Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation has been a collaborative partner in ensuring the organizations together serve as a vital component of the communitys health care safety net.

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We are grateful for the years of partnership with Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation faculty and residents, Eastern Iowa Health Center President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Lock said in a statement.

They have served the community and underserved patients tirelessly and we are saddened by the news that the program will be closing.

Eastern Iowa Health Center will recruit a mix of primary care providers to fill the vacancies caused by the foundations closing, Lock said in an emailed statement.

Due to the nature of a residency program, their time in clinic is limited, Lock said. As a result, we will recruit the number of providers necessary to take care of the patients that are currently being seen by residents. Recruitment has already started.

Lock said health center officials plan to continue working with training students in many disciplines, including nurse practitioners, nurses and dentists, among others.

The shortage of family medicine physicians and other primary care physicians is a nationwide issue that is expected to continue to worsen, according to recent research.

The United States will see a shortage of nearly 122,000 physicians by 2032 as the demand for doctors grows faster than the supply, according to a 2019 study from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the accrediting body for all U.S. medical schools.

The projected shortfall of primary care physicians is expected to range between 21,200 and 55,200 physicians by 2032.

A growing older population is a likely to be a major factor driving demand for physicians, the report said. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Americans over the age of 65 will increase by 48 percent by 2032.

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Additionally, the aging population will affect physician supply, since one-third of all currently active doctors will be older than 65 in the next decade, the report stated. When these physicians decide to retire could have the greatest impact on supply.

Iowa, to maintain current rates of utilization, will need an additional 119 primary care physicians by 2030, according to research from the Washington, D.C.-based Robert Graham Center. That is a 5 percent increase to the states 1,996 total primary care physician workforce in 2010.

However, officials from both Cedar Rapids-based hospitals are confident their recruitment programs will fill the gap of family medicine physicians in the area.

Thats how weve been able to successfully meet the physician needs of our community, the joint statement said. Mercy and St. Lukes recruit two-thirds of all the family practice providers in our area. Both hospitals plan to continue those efforts.

Both hospitals have robust recruitment programs and are able to fulfill the health care provider needs of the community, the statement said.

Comments: (319) 368-8536; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com

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Cedar Rapids Family Medicine Residency, created to address shortage, will close in July - The Gazette

As the calendar flips to a new year, many organizations compile year-in-review stories to recognize the previous 365 days and set the stage for future successes and OUWB is among them.

Based on levels of engagement via the OUWB website and social channels, the articles below are the schools top stories for 2019. (Click on the links in the headlines to read the full story.)

Emergency physicians group names OUWB student Outstanding Medical Student of the Year

OUWB M4 Amanda Amen was named 2019 Michigan College of Emergency Physicians (MCEP) Outstanding Medical Student of the Year.

According to MCEP, the award annually recognizes an outstanding medical student from a Michigan medical school who demonstrates excellence in his/her studies and displays a genuine enthusiasm for pursuing a career in emergency medicine.

Amen was presented the award in early December.

Full circle: OUWB students deliver babies alongside doctor who delivered them

When Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine student Kristin LeMarbe has her upcoming OB-GYN clerkship at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, one aspect will be the culmination of a full circle.

Thats because its anticipated that LeMarbe will deliver a baby alongside Mark Dykowski, M.D. the same doctor who delivered her as a baby.

LeMarbe will be the fifth OUWB student delivered by Dykowski and to have the opportunity to work alongside the OUWB clinical faculty member in the delivery room as part of their medical training. The others are Jennifer Klei, Meredith Allen, Katherine Griese, M.D., and Lauren Lendzion, M.D.

Street Medicine program launches at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Students from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine are taking to the streets of Pontiac through a new program aimed at helping individuals who are homeless and need medical care.

OUWBs Street Medicine program the first of its kind in Oakland County began Friday, Nov. 22, when the first group of students set out to help those in need at the Hope Hospitality & Warming Center in Pontiac.

Six OUWB students named outstanding for 2018-19

Six Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine students received Outstanding Student Awards for 2018-19 for work in and out of the classroom.

The annual awards are given to three rising M2 and three rising M3 students.

The three rising M2 students named Outstanding Students for 2018-19 were Jackson Harley, Grace Peterson, and Jamie Simpson.

Rising M3 students were Megan McCrohan, Manraj Sekhon, and Aryana Sharrak.

OUWB alumni are making their mark in medicine

Five classes have graduated from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and the growing number of OUWB alumni are increasingly making their mark on the field of medicine across the country.

Information provided by alumni to OUWB officials shows grads continually find success in various ways, such as becoming chief residents, being appointed to fellowships and leadership positions, and earning various other types of accolades.

Graduate of OUWBs inaugural class to join faculty at Mass Gen

A graduate of Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicines charter class has been appointed to the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital part of an incredible journey that she says traces to her first interview day at OUWB.

Starting next July, Amanda Xi, M.D., OUWB Class of 2015, will join the faculty at Mass Gen the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. She is scheduled to start after completion of a one-year anesthesia critical care fellowship.

In addition to the stories noted above, annual events at OUWB garnered a significant amount of online interest and finished in the list of top 10 stories for 2019. They are listed separately below.

Class of 2019 celebrates Match Day

On Friday, March 15, the Class of 2019 learned which hospitals and medical facilities they will be heading to for their medical residencies upon graduation from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in May.

OUWB graduates fifth class of physicians

OUWB graduated its fifth class of physicians on the campus of Oakland University surrounded by faculty mentors, family and friends who cheered, laughed and cried during the joyful commencement ceremony for the Class of 2019.

OUWB White Coat Ceremony welcomes ninth class of medical students

The Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine Class of 2023 received its official welcome to the school and field of health care during a White Coat Ceremony held Friday, Aug. 9.

Michiganian of the Year inducts 20 OUWB students into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society

A Beaumont Health breast cancer surgeon named a Michiganian of the Year this week helped induct 20 students from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicines Class of 2020 into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, marketing writer, OUWB, atadietderich@oakland.edu.

Follow OUWB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Year-in-Review - News at OU

Ernestine Warner first learned about the finalists for the George Boiardi Hard Hat Award like most fans of the Premier Lacrosse League. She was scanning Instagram. The difference is her son was one of the nominees.

This wasnt the first time an accomplishment slipped her middle childs mind. Tyler Warner already has the bedside manner of a veteran surgeon. Hes also quick to downplay his achievements. In an email response to an interview request for this story, Warner described himself as one of the least interesting dudes in the sport.

Sometimes I think he is humble to a fault, says Mark Warner, Tylers father, a health-care administrator.

That might sound disorienting if you watched Warner on Saturdays this summer for the PLL champion Whipsnakes or during Yales NCAA title run in 2018.

When you talk to him, he's quiet and pretty understated, but he is a competitor, says Jim Stagnitta, the head coach of Whipsnakes LC. When he's on the field, he's as tough as anyone I've been around. Ever.

Most highlights in the PLLs Top 50 Player rankings feature diving goals and outlandish assists. Warners clip is the opposite of flashy. Atlas midfielder Joel Tinney tries to back him down. Warner stands his ground. He keeps applying pressure, then manhandles Tinney to the turf.

Thats one of the things I like about the PLL, Warner says. You can kind of get away with being a little extra physical, which is fun for the short sticks like myself.

"I play with that chip that if you're actually stupid enough to dodge me, it serves you right when you can't get by me. That's always my mentality.

If youre not watching closely, you might not notice Warner at all. Its almost a guarantee given his position. If his name is never mentioned during a broadcast, he played great. Though their abbreviation is the longest, short stick defensive midfielders (SSDM) often get the shortest amount of recognition.

Obviously they don't get too much love, but they're kind of like a cornerback in football, says Whipsnakes captain and long-stick midfielder Michael Ehrhardt, who calls Warner a silent assassin. Those are some of the best athletes on the field. They're getting dodged all the time, nonstop.

Warner will reunite with several of his fellow Whipsnakes including Ehrhardt, the MVP of the 2018 World Championship in San Antonio this weekend for the Spring Premiere. Warner is one of 11 players making their U.S. senior team debuts.

Out of the six Whipsnakes on the U.S. roster, five primarily play on the defensive end.

It wasnt always that way for Warner. At Baldwin High School on Long Island, he was the one initiating dodges. His highlight reel from his senior year is a string of textbook on-the-run and time-and-room shots. When he needed a breather, he played attack.

An errant pass during an early-fall scrimmage in his freshman year at Yale altered his path.

When I was switched to d-middie I remember being pissed at first, Warner says. But I also knew that it was a way for me to play, and if I was going to play that position for the rest of my career, I was going to try to be damn good at it.

Warner embraced the new challenge. If he couldnt score goals, then hed make it his mission to deny them. He takes matchups personally. Dodges are an insult. He dissects game film on every potential opponent, so he already knows how theyll try to get by him. They rarely do.

I can't think of a short stick d-middie I've had who was a better shut-down, take-his-man-out-of-the-game than he is, Stagnitta says.

Stagnitta had such confidence in Warners cover capabilities that hed often match him against attackmen. He considers Warner almost like a long pole.

Warners objective isnt just to guard his mark; its to erase him. Duke freshman midfielder Nakeie Montgomery had eight goals in three games during the NCAA tournament before squaring off against the Elis at Gillette Stadium.

The Yale coaching staff hadnt watched Duke until the final four.

Luckily, thought Andrew Baxter, Yales defensive coordinator, We have Tyler.

Montgomery didnt score in the championship game. He didnt even take a shot. Yale prevailed 13-11 and claimed its first national title since 1883.

His confidence and his beliefs in the team were a huge part of our success that year, says Baxter, now the head coach at Fairfield. Guys fed off him every day in practice and in the games. He didn't fear anyone or any team.

"I play with that chip that if you're actually stupid enough to dodge me, it serves you right when you can't get by me, Warner says. That's always my mentality.

That chip was grew bigger thanks to the PLLs player rankings. Warner was 39th.

I definitely think Ty should have been a lot higher, but I just think that comes with time though, especially in our sport. Ehrhardt says. If not the best d-middie right now, then he's definitely in the top two or three in the whole world.

Ehrhardts initial questions about his teams short sticks were answered on June 1 at Gillette Stadium during Whipsnakes first game against Chaos. He watched Warner stand up Eric Scott, knock him off his feet, then clear the ball.

Ty Warner is in the house, and he is all business, Ehrhardt thought.

June 1 was also the estimated start date of the Lipogems Prospective Study at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. The official title is Adipose Derived Stromal Cell Transplantation as an Adjunct to Arthroscopy in Treatment of Effusion Synovitis of the Early Degenerative Knee.

One of the two contacts listed is Dr. Riley J. Williams III, an orthopedic surgeon at HSS whos the medical director for the Brooklyn Nets and a team physician for USA Basketball. The other contact is Tyler Warner.

***

Warners interest in medicine took root at about the same time he first picked up a lacrosse stick in the fourth grade.

I think he wanted to be a fireman first, but it quickly became he wanted to be a doctor and stuck with it, Ernestine Warner, a residential mortgage consultant, says.

Warner had watched family members struggle tremendously with their health but only sought out medical help once it was too late. His pediatrician, Dr. Greta Rainsford, dispelled his fears. At her office in Hempstead, where shes practiced for 55 years, Rainsford seemed to know all the answers and exactly which treatment would help him feel better. He realized he wanted to have a similar impact on others.

That ambition kept him going despite a mountain of coursework at Yale where he was an ecology and evolutionary biology major on a pre-med track.

He had one of most intense workloads between lacrosse and schoolwork that you can ever imagine, says Jerry OConnor, who started at defense on the 2018 national championship team.

This is coming from an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs who also studied at the London School of Economics. When OConnor would search for an empty room in the basement of the Watson Center, it seemed like Ben Reeves, the 2018 Tewaaraton Award winner who was also pre-med, and Warner were always there. It was as if they had never left.

During their senior year, Warner and Reeves opted for an off-campus apartment instead of the lacrosse house like the majority of the seniors.

He was never reaching for the limelight, OConnor says of Warner. He always worked quietly in the shadows.

While most of Warners teammates and coaches describe him as quiet or reserved in conversation, hes equally as vocal and passionate during play. Lacrosse offers a release. Anytime Warner made a takeaway in practice at Yale, hed always shout the same thing.

Cookies!

Hed often collect the ground ball and head the other way before his teammates knew what happened.

Its the same fierceness his parents see when they play Jeopardy! The Warners keep score.

The most important thing during Jeopardy! [to Tyler] is that Mark loses, Ernestine says. If anyone is going to win besides himself, it cannot be Mark.

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'Ty Warner is in the House, and He is All Business' - US Lacrosse Magazine

Then, they suit up for data collection. Each surgeon dons a special lab coat that holds a variety of wired sensors. Three motion sensors so fine they fit under surgical gloves poke out of the sleeves and are secured to the thumbs, index fingers and wrists with a piece of tape. Finally, Pugh sets up audio and video recordings, which run as the surgeon operates. The integrated approach to data collection not only shows how the surgeons hands move, but also how they talk through tricky parts of a procedure and how their brain waves spike or dip.

So far, the idea of surgical wearables has been met with mixed reactions, Pugh said. Mostly, theres a sense of excitement and an eagerness to participate, she said. But theres concern too namely, that they would be used to unfairly judge a surgeons skills during a difficult procedure. Its true that the wearables could be used to one day test surgical skill, but to Pugh, it would be a mistake to limit the data to that purpose.

To me, collecting surgical data is less about evaluating the skill of a surgeon and far more about quantifying what it took to take care of a specific patient, Pugh said.

She gives an example: Patients in intensive care units often need a central line, a type of IV that can withdraw fluid or deliver medicine. But inserting a central like into the vein of a frail 90-year-old patient is extremely different than doing so in a morbidly obese patient, or a patient who already has had multiple lines placed during previous care. We all know the difference as practiced physicians, but theres no data to show it, Pugh said. We walk around with more detailed data about our bank accounts than how we perform clinical procedures, which are 10-times more complex.

Pugh and her team are still just getting off the starting blocks, but the data theyve collected through early pilot studies and at a handful of medical and surgical conferences have already started to yield intriguing insights through data patterns.

Instead of parsing every dataset of a surgery, Pugh and her team look for overarching trends. The motion-tracking sensors feed visual data back to a computer, allowing the researchers to see movement patterns of a surgeons hands, including where they pause and where they spend more time.

People would ask me, Why would you want to measure surgical technique? Everyone operates so differently. But our data essentially shows the opposite. Whether surgeons use different instruments or add their own finesses to a procedure doesnt really matter, Pugh said. The overall movement patterns that are generated at the end are very similar, so long as there arent complications such as abnormal patient anatomy or the rare surgical error.

Such data patterns can show where surgeries hit a snag. Take, for instance, a successful surgery with a movement pattern that, at the end, looks roughly like the body and wings of a butterfly. Those who perform a surgery without complications will see a movement pattern in the rough shape of a butterfly. Those who dont might have a pattern with lopsided wings, or one with two bodies. The motion sensors that track that surgeons fingers and hands produce a very visual result, Pugh said. And whats even more interesting to see is that there doesnt seem to be a correlation with instrument choice or whether the surgeon switched step 5 for step 6 its the patients anatomy that most accurately correlates to the end pattern.

The intertwining data streams from various wearables on the surgeons body can reveal quite a bit about the procedure and the patient on the table, but more than that, Pugh and her colleagues see it as a data-first approach to teaching, learning and improvement.

The innovative research led by Dr. Pughs team will provide incredible data-informed insights into surgeon efficiency of motion, tactile pressure and cognitive load while performing a variety of medical and surgical tasks, said Mary Hawn, MD, professor and chair of surgery. These types of data could be used to identify when a surgeon has mastered a procedure and when there may be a deficit.

Some of the wearable applications are still a ways off, Pugh said, as the technology is now only used for procedures on mannequins and tissue bits. But there is one wearable Pugh has tested in the operating room: the EEG sensor.

During two surgeries, a gall bladder removal and an appendectomy, Pugh has volunteered to stick the brain-wave-reading sensor onto her forehead. First we just need to verify that it works in the OR and that the data comes in successfully, Pugh said. And, so far, it does. Through the EEG data, Pughs team could see that the peaks of Pughs brain waves while operating corresponded with the most trying moments of the surgery, while lower level activity synchronized with menial surgical tasks, like suturing.

After a successful surgery, Pugh closed the patient and left the OR, forgetting to remove the long strip on her forehead. My colleagues who are aware of my research saw the EEG sensor and immediately knew what I had been doing, she said. Now, Pughs getting peppered with the same question: When can others test out the technology?

This is an entirely new data endeavor; were learning in real time how best to propel this work, analyze the data and fast-track it in a safe way so that other surgeons can begin to use it in their ORs, too, Pugh said. Right now, its just me whos tested it during surgery, but my big dream is to have this be routine. I cant tell you all the ways the data will be used, but it will definitely improve the care we provide.

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Tracking the movements, minds of surgeons to improve performance - Stanford Medical Center Report

Samuel Carroll Brooks Jr., Ph.D., a retired professor of Biochemistry at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, died Dec. 15 after a battle with cancer.

Dr. Brooks, a resident of Steamboat Springs, Colo., was a faculty member from 1959 to 2006. He was also the former deputy director of Chemistry and chief of Endocrinology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. He was widely known for his scientific and scholarship contributions to breast cancer research. He was the first to describe the estrogen receptor in breast cancer cell line MCF-7, the first human breast cancer cell line produced. He characterized the line, and was instrumental in recognizing the importance of the estrogen receptor in regulating breast cancer growth. This research led to the development of a clinical laboratory test for estrogen receptor used to determine which patients are eligible for treatment with anti-estrogen drugs.

He also worked to characterize the MCF10 cell lines that led to the first continuously growing line of human pre-neoplastic breast cells, which allow researchers to study the earliest events in breast cancer progression and to test strategies to interfere with those events.

During his career at Karmanos and WSU, Dr. Brooks maintained an unbroken string of continuous funding from his first grant in 1968 until his retirement in 2005, one of the longest records of continuous research funding in the universitys history.

He was a charter member of the WSU Academy of Scholars, and made many contributions on behalf of the university, School of Medicine, Cancer Biology, Oncology, Faculty Senate,and his Department of Biochemistry.In addition to his contributions in research, Dr. Brooks was also an outstanding mentor to numerous graduate and medical students, as well as junior faculty. He taught many graduate and medical school courses, and was the original principal investigator of the WSU T32 NCI Training Grant for the Cancer Biology Program, serving as its director until 2005. Dr. Brooks initiated a similar research training program with Department of Defensefunding for undergraduates from 1991-1996. He headed the WSU Cancer Biology Graduate Program from 1994-2005 and served as the director of Education at Karmanos and the WSU School of Medicine Admissions Committee. He was named as Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the School of Medicine student body, and was widely respected by associates and students.He received the School of Medicine Distinguished Service Award in 2000 and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Dr. Brooks is survived by Frieda Brooks, his wife of 58 years; children Katie Brooks Robertson and husband Mike of Fishers, Ind., and Carroll Brooks and wife Jamie of Seoul, South Korea; grandchildren Samuel, Phillip, Jake, Lauren and Ben; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brother James Webster Brooks and son James Winfried Brooks.

Dr. Brooks was born and raised in Winchester, Va. He received his bachelors degree from Carnegie Mellon University and masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served in the United States Army and was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain during the Korean War.

In his free time, Dr. Brooks enjoyed traveling, skiing, reading WWII history novels, watching Wisconsin Badgers football and spending time with family and friends. He will be fondly remembered for his kindness, sense of humor, knack for storytelling, and his love of animals.

A celebration of life will take place at 11 a.m. Dec. 29 at St. Martin-Tours Catholic Church, 400 Sharp Ave., in Oak Creek, Colo. Memorial contributions may be made in his name to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Colorado, 325 7th St., Steamboat Springs, CO. 80487.

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Dr. Sam Brooks, pioneer in breast cancer research, dies at 91 - The South End

For many years, the parents of children with autism have reported that behavioral symptoms diminished when the child had a fever. The fever phenomenon has been documented in at least two large-scale studies over the past 15 years, but the reasons behind it have continued to mystify scientists.

Now, a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and MIT sheds light on the cellular mechanisms that appear to underlie this phenomenon.

In a study of mice, published Dec. 18 inNature, the researchers found that in some cases mimicking bacterial infection, an immune molecule called IL-17a is released and suppresses a small region of the brains cortex linked to social behavioral deficits in animal models.

Our findings finger the signaling cascade that leads to temporary alleviation of autism-like symptoms upon exposure to inflammatory conditions, highlighting the complex interplay between the nervous and immune systems in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, said study co-corresponding authorJun Huh, assistant professor of immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.

People have seen this phenomenon before [in people with autism], but its the kind of story that is hard to believe, which I think stems from the fact that we did not know the mechanism, saidGloria Choi, the Samuel A. Goldblith Career Development Assistant Professor of Applied Biology and an assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. Now the field, including my lab, is trying hard to show how this worksall the way from the immune cells and molecules to receptors in the brainand how those interactions lead to behavioral changes.

Although findings in mice do not always translate into humans, the study may help guide the development of strategies that could help reduce some behavioral symptoms of autism or other neurologic disorders, said Choi, who is also a faculty member of MITs Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

The lead authors of the research are MIT graduate student Michael Douglas Reed and MIT postdoctoral fellow Yeong Shin Yim.

Immune influence

Choi and Huh previously explored other links between inflammation and autism. In 2016,they showedthat mice born to mothers who experience severe infections during pregnancy are much more likely to show behavioral symptoms such as deficits in sociability, repetitive behaviors and abnormal communication. They found these symptoms stem from exposure to maternal IL-17a, which produces defects in a specific brain region of the developing embryo. The brain region, S1DZ, is part of the somatosensory cortex and believed to be responsible for sensing where the body is in space.

Immune activation in the mother leads to very particular cortical defects, and those defects are responsible for inducing abnormal behaviors in offspring, Choi said.

A link between infection during pregnancy and autism in the offspring has also been documented in humans. A 2010 study that included children born in Denmark between 1980 and 2005 found that severe viral infections during the first trimester of pregnancy led to a threefold increase in risk for autism, and serious bacterial infections during the second trimester were linked with a 1.42-fold increase in risk. These infections included influenza, viral gastroenteritis and severe urinary tract infections.

In the new study, Choi and Huh turned their attention to the often-reported link between fever and reduction of autism symptoms.

We wanted to ask whether we could use mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders to recapitulate this phenomenon, Choi said. Once you see the phenomenon in animals, you can probe the mechanism.

The researchers began by studying mice that exhibited behavioral symptoms due to exposure to inflammation during gestation. They injected these mice with a bacterial component called LPS, which induces a fever response, and found that the animals social interactions were temporarily restored to normal.

Further experiments revealed that during inflammation these mice produce IL-17a, which binds to receptors in S1DZthe same brain region shown to be affected by maternal inflammation. The experiments showed that IL-17a reduces neural activity in S1DZ, making mice temporarily more interested in interacting with fellow mice.

When researchers inhibited IL-17a or knocked out the receptors for IL-17a, mice did not experience a reversal of symptoms, a finding that pinpointed IL-17a as the responsible trigger. The experiments also showed that simply raising mices body temperature did not have any effect on behavior, offering further evidence that IL-17a is, indeed, the critical player behind reversal of symptoms.

This suggests that the immune system uses molecules like IL-17a to directly talk to the brain, and it actually can work almost like a neuromodulator to bring about these behavioral changes, Choi said. Our study provides another example as to how the brain can be modulated by the immune system.

Whats remarkable about this paper is that it shows that this effect on behavior is not necessarily a result of fever but the result of cytokines being made, said Dan Littman, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at New York University, who was not involved in the study. Theres a growing body of evidence that the central nervous system, in mammals at least, has evolved to be dependent to some degree on cytokine signaling at various times during development or postnatally.

Behavioral effects

The researchers then performed the same experiments in three additional mouse models of neurologic disorders. These mice lack a gene linked to autism and similar disorderseitherShank3,Cntnap2orFmr1. These mice all show deficits in social behavior similar to those of mice exposed to inflammation in the womb, even though the origin of their symptoms is different.

Injecting those mice with LPS did produce inflammation, but it did not have any effect on their behavior. The reason for that, the researchers found, is that in these mice, inflammation did not stimulate IL-17a production. However, if the researchers injected IL-17a into these mice, their behavioral symptoms did improve.

This suggests that mice who are exposed to inflammation during gestation end up with their immune systems somehow primed to more readily produce IL-17a upon exposure to other inflammatory conditions later in their life. Choi and Huh havepreviously shownthat the presence of certain bacteria in the gut can also prime IL-17a responses. They are now investigating whether the same gut-residing bacteria contribute to the LPS-induced reversal of social behavior symptoms that they found in the newNaturestudy.

Huh and Chois labs are also exploring whether any immune molecules other than IL-17a may affect the brain and behavior.

Whats fascinating about this communication is the immune system directly sends its messengers to the brain, where they work as if theyre brain molecules, to change how the circuits work and how the behaviors are shaped, Choi said.

It was amazing to discover that the same immune molecule, IL-17a, could have dramatically opposite effects depending on context: Promoting autism-like behaviors when it acts on the developing fetal brain and ameliorating autism-like behaviors when it modulates neural activity in the adult mouse brain, Huh said. This is the degree of complexity we are trying to make sense of.

The research was funded by the Jeongho Kim Neurodevelopmental Research Fund, Perry Ha, the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research, the Simons Center for the Social Brain, the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, the Champions of the Brain Weedon Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Adapted from an MITnews release

Read more:
Cracking the Fever-Autism Mystery - Harvard Medical School

By Vishwadha Chander

(Reuters Health) Punishing hours and concerns about having little time to marry and have children deter both male and female medical students from choosing careers in surgery, but more women say theyve been warned away from the field because of their gender, a survey found.

Researchers sent surveys to roughly 720 students at Harvard Medical School. Among the 261 who responded, similar proportions of both genders intended to become surgeons- roughly one in four men and one in five women.

Roughly similar proportions of men and women about 61% and 65%, respectively said someone had spoken to them to try to dissuade them from a career in surgery, especially if they planned to raise a family.

But 72.7% of women believed the verbal discouragement was related to their gender and their desire for a family, compared to 1.5% of the men, researchers report in Annals of Surgery. And 29% of women reported age-based discouragement, compared to 1.5% of the men.

Despite an equal number of men and women in medical school, fewer than 25% of surgeons are women, study coauthor Dr. Faith Robertson, a neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Reuters Health by email. Our study was important to understand why gender ratios change between medical school and practice.

Students generally decide which field to enter during the latter half of medical school, as they complete medical and surgical rotations and speak to peers, mentors and family members, the study authors note.

Discouragement from faculty at the pre-med and student-level definitely has an impact, study coauthor Dr. Susan Pories of Harvard Medical School in Boston told Reuters Health by email. Pories chairs the American College of Surgeons Women in Surgery Committee and is past president of the Association of Women Surgeons.

Dr. Carmen Fong, a colorectal surgeon at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, told Reuters Health that during her surgery rotation in medical school, we had zero female surgeons, and this was at a relatively large hospital in a state capital. There were plenty of women in primary care, but I wanted a female surgeon who had made it, who could tell me that I could balance a life and an academic surgical career.

Dr. Rachel Levine, Associate Vice Chair for Womens Academic Careers in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, points out that stereotypes also contribute to gender-based discouragement directed at women.

We think of men as strong, decisive, risk-taking traits more often associated with surgeons. We often think of women as nurturing and helpful, Levine, who was not a part of the study, told Reuters Health. Its sometimes challenging to see a woman as a surgeon because she doesnt fit these typical traits.

The authors say their study at a private, urban institution may not reflect the situation at other universities, but they believe it calls for systemic change, including policies about maternity and paternity leave.

We have to work towards equal pay, leadership roles for women and parental leave policies for men and women, said Pories.

Robertson said the field of surgery has unique demands but also an abundance of unique rewards.

We owe it to medical students to empower them to pursue fields based on their passions, and to patients to have a body of surgeons that reflects population diversity, she said. By discouraging individuals, particularly minorities, from entering the field, we do both a disservice.

The reality is women are successful in all surgical specialties (while still) achieving work-life balance, Pories said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2QBgBMn Annals of Surgery, online October 9, 2019.

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander)

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Women more likely to be warned away from surgery careers due to gender - Physician's Weekly

Freshmen medical students get a taste of plant-based medicine

Kale. Chickpeas. Tahini. Dates.

Those were just a few of the ingredients in a Nov. 7 class held for the nearly 300 freshmen of the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

The topic was plant-based nutrition, and the new curriculum initiative equal parts cooking demonstrations, hands-on recipe making and clinical testimonials from patients is possibly the first of its kind at any of the nations medical schools.

Most deaths in the United States are preventable and are related to nutrition. Diet is a major cause of death and disability, yet the standard medical education curriculum has little to no emphasis on diet, and almost no medical schools present information on a plant-based diet, said second-year medical student Lakshman Mulpuri, president of the Plant Based Nutrition Group student organization.

The success of PBNGs Plant-Based Curriculum Enhancement will have national implications for the future of clinical care and medical education. Armed with a more comprehensive understanding of plant-based nutrition, these future physicians will be better prepared to combat the devastating effects of chronic disease that millions of Americans face every year, he added.

The half-day event, held throughout Scott Hall and the Mazurek Medical Education Commons, was organized and co-hosted by the student group, and faculty and staff of the medical school.

The event provided an in-depth understanding of the dramatic improvements in health and quality of life every patient has experienced when switching to a plant-based diet, Mulpuri said. We as a population are not doomed to suffer the debilitating and painful consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle. Physicians and patients have the power to change, and the plant-based curriculum enhancement facilitates this transformation.

The curriculum day included panel discussions and an immersive cooking demonstration, providing students with a better understanding of the humanistic value that lifestyle medicine can have, he said.

The curriculum also aligns with the first-year medical students overall educational experience.

The session complements what they are learning in basic sciences and provides additional ways to view how they can keep people healthy, said Nakia Allen, M.D., a pediatrician and director of the Population, Patient, Physician and Professionalism course.

As part of the class, health care professionals and patients from Michigan and Ohio who follow a plant-based diet shared their individual stories of struggle and triumph, from facing chronic disease to earnest discussion about the patient experience.

This was a great event and opportunity for students to see and understand other aspects of wellness can be through diet, said Detroit-based participating physician Gwendolyn Graddy-Dansby, M.D., who specializes in geriatric medicine. The group that I sat with was energized. We talked about how they would apply this to patient care, and discussed the importance of understanding how social determinants of health, such as food islands, impact health. Eastern medicine and Western medicine are partnering more and more, and the exposure to different diets and ways to prepare food for health was good for students.

Six local chefs also participated, providing students with recipes and ingredients that students then made in the cafeteria. Chef Amber Poupore, founder of the Cacao Tree Caf in Royal Oak, has been attending lunch and learn sessions at WSU for four years. She believes it is her lifes mission to educate people about how beneficial a plant-based diet can be, especially as a form of treatment.

Students were more receptive than I anticipated, and there was a lot of positive feedback from them, she said.

Organizers hope to integrate the curriculum enhancement into future medical student class years.

We think it would be particularly helpful teaching students how to counsel patients on improving their nutritional intake, so they can be ready for their clinical years. It is better to have a conversation than avoid it at altogether. We hope to have a nutritional assessment tool and will be providing additional evidence and basic science relevance in the coming weeks, Mulpuri said.

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Curriculum initiative is rooted in wellness - School of Medicine News - The South End

Between 2010 and 2019, the average number of applications submitted by medical students who want to match into ob-gyn residency programs has more than doubled, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

An ambitious project proposed by residency programs within the specialty aims to simplify the Match process by reducing applications and creating a more equitable interview invitation system. Spearheaded by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) and the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG), the program has received a $50,000 planning grant from the AMA Reimagining Residency Initiative.

The APGO programdubbed Right Resident, Right Program, Ready Day Oneis one of three programs to receive planning grants from the AMA. In total, the AMA Reimagining Residency Initiative awarded $15 million in grants to institutions who will aim to transform residency training to meet the workforce needs of Americas current and future health care system.

With the increasing number of applications submitted by each student, the process of securing a residency position has become more stressful. Final-year students spend a significant amount of time and money on the application process.

In the 201819 application cycle, students applying to ob-gyn programs submitted an average of 61.3 applications. Programs have seen a remarkable rise in the volume of applications. That number has grown from an average of 155 applications per program in 2010 to 438 in 2019, according to AAMC data.

That volume has created an environment in which program directors have less bandwidth to consider applicants holistically, defaulting to an evaluation process that overemphasizes test scores and increases stress in applicants.

Theres been a lot of writing in the literature recently about how this process needs to change, said Maya Hammoud, MD, president of APGO and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Michigan Medicine. With support from the AMA, we have started a five-year process by taking small steps to make sure we have all the stakeholders on board. At the same time, we are implementing small changes now to reduce anxiety among students. But this will not be an overnight process. It took many years to get to this point; it will take many years to get out of it.

To get the project off the ground in its early stages, the projects leaders are making sure to get buy-in from key stakeholders such as medical school deans, clerkship directors, residency program directors and representatives from the National Resident Matching Program.

A significant number of ob-gyn residency programs have already adopted suggested interventions that will standardize the residency application process. The three biggest changes are:

APGO has laid out longer-term goals for its efforts to reduce the stress involved with Match. These include development of additional application review metrics to encourage a holistic review of residency applications, an applicant compatibility index to help students with program selection, and an optional early match program within the specialty intended to reduce the number of applications needed for a successful Match.

Originally posted here:
The Match process is packed with stress. Ob-gyns aim to fix it. - American Medical Association

Of the nearly 45,000 people who hold a Virginia medical license, only about 8% identify as African American. And that percentage is even smaller among younger physicians.

When 22-year-old Jared Bourke walked across the stage and became a graduate of Hampton University in 2018, he already had his eyes set on another graduation: VCU's School of Medicine class of 2022. His goal: Wearing a white coat.

You have to be fairly intelligent and use your brain, but you also have to be a people person and use your character to care for people. So, for me, thats the beauty of medicine and thats why this is the field for me, says Bourke.

The now 24-year-olds aware of all the barriers standing in the way of black medical students. There's the possibility of getting into immense debt, although most medical students expect some debt.

And if finances don't hamper aspiring black medical students, then there's the imposter syndrome that Bourke says many struggle with. "The first day of class was Monday and it was Saturday. I literally broke down in my car, on the way here (VCU). I'm not an emotional person, but I broke down in the car because I was like, yo, I'm really about to do what I've been trying to do since I started school. Like am I really smart enough to be here?"

One of the largest deterring barriers are the lack of African-American physicians serving as mentors.

In 2018, The Virginia Department of Health Professions (VDHP) conducted a "Physician Workforce Survey" where just over 33,000 physicians responded. Just under 1,700 respondents identified as black or African American in a state whose African American population exceeds 1.6 million, according to census data. That number is on the verge of decreasing even more as one-third of all physicians plan to retire before turning 65.

Researchers at VDHP say the overall number of practicing physicians in Virginia may be lower than 33,000 because some of those physicians have the license to practice in Virginia, but may live in another state or work on a military base.

"I grew up in Lawrenceville Virginia on the campus of St. Paul's College and my next door neighbor was a Dr. Clifton Nelson. He was a family doctor and he was the role model that I grew up with and wanted to be like him," Dr. Michele Whitehurst-Cook recounts. She's been practicing family medicine for 37 years.

She didn't tell me how much longer she'd practice medicine, but she did tell me about the watershed moment she had in high school program that provided training at VCU. "Once I spent six weeks here, seeing patients watching doctors do rounds helping nurses out, I realized that I wanted to really be involved in health care wanted to be a physician," says Whitehurst-Cook.

She attributes her medical school success to the African American physicians who nurtured her interest in Richmond and to her childhood neighbor, Dr. Nelson. But having a physician as your neighbor, especially in rural parts of Virginia, is a rarity. It's also a rarity for an African-American patient to have an African-American doctor.

In the Commonwealth, the black doctor to black patient ratio is approximately 1 doctor for every 1,000 patients. Meanwhile, the approximate ratio for white Virginians is 1 doctor for every 400 patients. And if you look at health disparity data it shows that if people are cared for by doctors who look like themselves they have a higher comfort level. They're willing to share more information. They're more trusting of their advice and health outcomes are actually better, says Whitehurst-Cook.

She says increasing the pool size of medical school cohorts and continual investment in pipeline programs will help close that ratio gap.

Policy experts like Lauren Powell, Director of the Office of Health Equity for the Virginia Department of Health, point to similar programs, but say that doesnt address structural issues. If we think about the criteria to get into medical school there historically has been a very heavy emphasis on the MCAT, MCAT scores and GPAs- how well you do doing the impact is really kind of a question of how much resource or how much money you may have to be able to really prepare.

Powell says its her job to make sure folks living in the poorest parts of Virginia have the same chance to achieve health and wellness as affluent Virginians. True health equity, as she puts it.

She believes focusing on population health and health equity, at the structural level, are the best ways to curve health outcomes for Virginians across the state. "Employment, food security, right. Reliable transportation, affordable and safe housing- All of these things combined together to really propel your health or to hinder your health," says Powell.

She admits its hard work in a burnout profession, across ethnicities, but says doctors and policy experts have to take the lead. Second year medical student Jared Bourke wants to be that doctor. A doctor who leads and empathizes with patients on a human and cultural level.

This report, provided byVirginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from theVirginia Education Association.

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Improving the Doctor to Patient Ratio in the African American Community - WVTF

Harvard Medical School student Chloe Li typically dressed in scrubs or an efficient, professional outfit as she went about learning to care for patients in the intense, year-long clerkship program where I teach.

For her capstone presentation on graduation day, though, she wore a cream-colored wrap-around dress of luscious silk, tasteful jewelry and an up-do hairstyle. She had clearly put a lot of care into these preparations. She was a knock-out.

After the presentations, I gave Chloe a huge hug and congratulated her on her top-notch delivery of Cultural and Language Barriers in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer. And, as the mother of four daughters in their 20s, I spontaneously added: You look absolutely gorgeous tonight!

Then I noticed that two female associate program directors and a male clerkship director were standing nearby. Oy. A bit self-consciously, I inquired, I hope its OK for an attending physician to tell a medical student she looks gorgeous!

One of the associate program directors responded, Are you kidding? All weve been talking about is how beautiful she looks!

Chloe beamed and thanked us for noticing. The lone male just stood there with a pleasantly neutral expression on his face. Everyone had the same thought at the same time --it's true, I checked: "He has no option but to stay silent in this situation."

I could not help but tease him, an old friend who'd been my fellow resident a quarter century ago: What, come on, you dont think Chloe looks beautiful?

He paused, chuckled and protested, There is absolutely no right answer here!

Everyone laughed as we headed off to dinner. But I cant stop thinking about this 30-second intersection in time and space.

It felt liberating to acknowledge the usual eggshells underfoot, and then crush those eggshells, just like a wineglass at a wedding. Our male colleague (father of grown kids and co-founder of a center for mindfulness and compassion) chose to make a joke rather than join the circle of compliments. And he nailed that joke.

The punchline reflected the complex and problematic nature of todays social norms, and we could joke about them because we had known Chloe for a year, and each other for much longer, and had made ourselves vulnerable at many junctures as we struggled and learned together. Our laughter was permeated by a deep sense of trust and respect something our highly relationship-oriented program, the Cambridge Integrated Clerkship, aims to instill as students follow "their" patients under close faculty mentorship over time and across venues of care.

Far Fewer Words To Say They Care

At the same time, we were tacitly acknowledging that in this #MeToo day and age, male faculty members have access to far fewer words to tell female students that they care for them.

In October 2018, The New England Journal of Medicine published an article entitled Mens Fear of Mentoring in the #MeToo Era - Whats at Stake for Academic Medicine? This important piece made visible the reality that men in positions of power are often afraid to engage in mentoring relationships with women, with the unintended consequence of negatively impacting these womens careers.

Our graduation day interchange made me wonder whether there is something at stake beyond academic advancement. What is the cost to female students ability to learn, to their sense of connectedness to the profession, to their psychological well-being, if their faculty mentors are too cautious to fully engage in authentic relationships with them?

Ive heard of male attending physicianswho wont ask a female student a second question on rounds if she gets the first one wrong so as not to be perceived as bullying. A colleague from another institution once told me he didnt offer a female student a ride home in a terrible thunderstorm because he feared the perception of impropriety. I personally know a young pre-med woman whose male mentor will not meet with her unless her peer a young man who tends to dominate the conversation is also present. The mentor does, however, meet with him alone.

Is this what the antithesis of sexual harassment looks like in our world?

Dont get me wrong. This is by no means a call for men in power to be able to freely compliment womens appearance. And we must not stop rooting out abuses of power. The small minority of physicians who sexually harass their junior colleagues have no place in medicine, and important measures are being put in place to allow for confidential reporting and other forms of protection.

But I worry that when there is too much second-guessing, constant concern about accusations of harassment, too many prohibited words or topics that shift and morph constantly, a casualty of these prohibitions may be expressions of deep caring.

Dont be surprised if people dont cry with each other when a patient dies, or if they stop laughing together uncontrollably at silly jokes. Dont be surprised if medical education becomes less fun and meaningful.

My wise colleague Ed Hundert often quotes the old adage, You cant teach a stranger an important truth.I dont know what its like to work in Hollywood or the corporate world, but learning to be a physician requires intimate engagement with human stories and bodies, with suffering and ambiguity, and sometimes even with miracles.

The cultivation of such practical wisdom is the life-long pursuit of the good doctor, and it is hindered by unclear rules and intimidation.

A "Can't Stop Thinking About It" Moment

A few days after graduation, I shared a draft of this piece with Chloe and my colleagues, and asked about their take on the encounter. For each of them, it had been a significant "cant stop thinking about it" moment.

My male colleague thanked me for expressing things he could never say in public. My two female colleagues invited me to go out for a glass of wine to talk about the struggles and joys of a life in medicine. Chloe gave me permission to use her name and responded with a lovely email, drawing particular attention to the trusting, longitudinal relationships we intentionally cultivate in our model of medical education:

In the moment, I wanted so much to tell [the male clerkship director] that I had always known he regarded me with respect and care," she wrote. "The male physicians I look up to as mentors are probably continuously navigating such uncomfortable, unclear situations. I have never felt ill-treated in any way by any of these faculty members, but I feel that even if I had, I would have been able to tell them so, without fearing for my position or grade or safety. The ability to speak up with knowledge that you will be heard and without fear of retribution evens any field."

She added that if, however, she doesn't know a faculty member and has no context for a comment "whether its 'You look nice today!' or 'That was a dumb thing you said on rounds,' I am anxious about the intent behind the comment.

We have a ways to go. Even as a female faculty member, I worried (albeit for a quick second) that my own impulsive outpouring of pride and love on graduation day might have been perceived as inappropriate.

Chloes obvious gratitude made me toss the notion aside, but thats how it should be in medical education and in life, I think noticing our own moments of potential insensitivity, reflecting on them and adjusting if necessary. Apologizing if warranted.

In our institution, we provide forums for both students and faculty to confidentially share the day-to-day ethical challenges they encounter in medical culture: to problem-solve, role play and figure out how to do the right thing in this circumstance, with this individual. The #MeToo era raises similar questions:If what is an act of kindness in one circumstance bestowing a small gift or giving a hug, say can be considered a potentially career-ending interpersonal violation in another, how do we navigate these uncertain waters?

My male colleague was correct, there is no one right answer here. Maybe its not answers we need, but better questions to guide us. Maybe we can consider this one together: If faculty members' fear may be negatively impacting the development of our students, what would bravery look like?

Elizabeth Gaufberg, M.D., MPH, is an associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, and a senior consultant with the Association of American Medical Colleges.

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Medical Education In The #MeToo Era: 'No Option But To Stay Silent'? - WBUR

The impact of the state of Georgia's only public medical school spans from its founding nearly 200 years ago, in 1828, as one of the nation's first medical schools to its current role optimizing health care in Georgia and beyond through education, discovery and service.

The Medical College of Georgia educational experience is anchored by the main campus in Augusta as well as regional clinical campuses for third- and fourth-year students and a second four-year campus in Athens in partnership with the University of Georgia. The states medical school also offers clinical training in more than 200 sites across the state providing students experience in the full spectrum of medicine, from tertiary/quaternary care hospitals to small-town solo practices. MCG and its teaching hospitals provide postgraduate education to nearly 500 residents in 48 different programs.

Our researchers and clinicians focus on illnesses that affect most of Georgia and Americas children and adults, including cardiovascular biology and disease, cancer, neurosciences and behavioral sciences, public and preventive health, regenerative and reparative medicine, personalized medicine and genomics. Our clinical faculty also share their expertise with physicians and patients at about 80 clinics and hospitals statewide.

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Medical College of Georgia

Join the Celebration Healthcare Simulation Week: September 17-21

As leaders in health care delivery, translational research and education across multiple diverse disciplines, UI Health is committed to training the health care leaders of the future. One element of modern education for practitioners and students today is through medical simulation techniques.Learn More Here

College of Medicine Graduation Shakes the UIC PavilionThe cavernous UIC Pavilion might only have been half-filled with families and friends of the College of Medicines 327 graduates for 2018, but the noise level as they filed across the stage on May 11 probably rivaled that of many a rock concert or hockey game.UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis, PhD, invited those assembled to show loud enthusiasm for the graduates. This is your opportunity to show our graduates how proud you are, he said. They deserve to have this building shaking as I say, Congratulations to the Class of 2018! Thank you for everything you have done to support our students.

2018 College of Medicine at Chicago Faculty Recognition CeremonyThe 2018 College of Medicine at Chicago Faculty Recognition Ceremony was held on May 9, 2018 to honor this years recipients of the Departmental Faculty of the Year and the Departmental Rising Star awards. There were over 100 in attendance, with 36 faculty receiving honors during this very special event. Click here to see pictures from the event.

2018 College of Medicine Research ForumSAVE THE DATE2018 College of Medicine Research ForumFriday, November 9, 20189:00am 4:00pmStudent Center West828 S. Wolcott

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI Peter Secchia, a longtime businessman and philanthropist whose generous giving with wife, Joan, has left a lasting imprint along the Medical Mile and across the community, says they will keep making a difference.

On Friday, Nov. 1, Michigan State University announced that the Secchias donated $5 million to the Grand Rapids Research Center. The gift the couples second - completes the $30 million campaign for the $88 million building that opened in September 2017 on the Medical Mile.

Secchia said it was the right thing to do to donate the funds needed to meet the campaign shortfall, so there was no lingering debt as they move to the next endeavor the Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building. The facility is slated to open beside the research center in 2021.

This is an exciting moment in Grand Rapids history, said Secchia, reflecting on the growth of Michigan States presence in the city with the medical school and the growing research center campus.

I am still raising money and am still going forward to build the final part of the innovation park. Now, we are building the new building for creative and new medicine.

Secchia spoke with excitement Friday about the new types of cancer therapy that researchers will be engaged in at the innovation building. He said Grand Rapids has some of the worlds top researchers already working at MSU on projects in cooperation with Spectrum Health and the Van Andel Institute, their research partners.

In the future, he said plans include a third building on the Grand Rapids Research Center site, located at 15 Michigan St. NE, as well as a parking garage.

Just up the hill sits MSUs $90 million Secchia Center Grand Rapids headquarters for the College of Human Medicine that opened in 2010.

I am proud to have my name on that complex because it is just the beginning of what is turning out to be an unbelievable economic impact on the Medical Mile, said Secchia, the former CEO and chairman of the board at Universal Forest Products, Inc., who served as U.S. Ambassador to Italy from 1989 to 1993.

Twenty years ago, he said, he wanted to get MSUs medical school in Grand Rapids. He said it took him seven years to get the necessary votes and fundraising began soon afterwards for the building.

Secchia said the last gift of his dear friend, the late Richard DeVos, Amway co-founder and philanthropist, included a provision it be named for Secchia because DeVos knew how hard he had worked on the project.

It is crazy when you think about the medical school coming here, he said, noting people said it couldnt be done, but it happened.

Everyone was shocked. They needed to come here because we had people here who wanted to have a medical school and would be proud of it and support it.

The Secchias first gift to the Grand Rapids Research Center was a combined gift of $15 million with Richard and Helen DeVos, which launched the capital campaign for the construction of the building. Prior to that, the couples announced a $20 million combined gift to construct the MSU College of Human Medicine.

Years ago, Secchia said it was DeVos who talked about charitable giving in a speech, after first taking care of your family and employees. He said once he did that, he decided to start helping people and giving to worthy causes and initiatives.

My wife and I have been side by side taking care of all these different people and things, he said.

For example, the Peter and Joan Secchia CarePartners Program, launched in 2015, was established to help families with children who have complex health situations as they navigate their way through the health care system. The program targets families of children with three or more specialists and is offered at no cost.

Secchia said MSU is a land-grant university and they promote taking care of other people and advancing the common good.

"I accepted that as my world and I enjoy it,'' he said.

Peter Secchia is a 1963 graduate of MSUs Eli Broad College of Business, and Joan Secchia is a 1964 graduate of the College of Education.

Prior to Fridays donation, the Secchias donated a grouping of sculptures to MSU as part of their Community Legends program. The sculptures, unveiled Sept. 27, honor three female scientists from Grand Rapids who discovered the pertussis vaccine and are displayed outside the Grand Rapids Research Center building.

Grand Rapids is often highlighted for the consistency and scope of its philanthropic giving.

We learned we had to pay back, Secchia said.

You can wait until you die and pay back when you are in a coffin, but you can be part of it if you do it now. Do it now and create your own legacy and be proud.

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Peter Secchia reflects on MSU Grand Rapids Research Center, medical school and philanthropy - MLive.com