University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jerseynjms.rutgers.edu/about_njms/documents/PulseWinterSpring2012.pdf · Volume 10 Number 1 Winter Spring 2012 University of Medicine and

Volume 10 Number 1 Winter Spring 2012

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

AMA Student Leader LeAnne Roberts

The UMDNJ Board of Trustees has done ayeoman’s job at navigating these unchartedwaters in an attempt to keep New Jersey’s pre-eminent network of academic health centerson a course of continued improvement andexcellence. We at NJMS appreciate and sup-port the efforts of the board and Denise V.Rodgers, MD, UMDNJ’s president (interim).And I am particularly proud of the contribu-tions that members of the NJMS communityhave made to this ongoing conversation.

As these discussions advance, we are carry-ing on with the business of effectively andefficiently running the state’s oldest medicalschool. What does that mean exactly? Wellfor one thing, it means conducting state-of-the-art research projects that possess the realpotential to save lives. It means treatingpatients expertly, professionally and compas-sionately. It means forging new communitypartnerships while maintaining old ones. Andit means taking a fresh look at how we edu-cate our students to ensure that they are get-ting the most out of their time at NJMS.

Featured in this issue of Pulse magazine arestories that highlight some of our recentachievements. Take, for example, the coverstory about LeAnne Roberts, a fourth-yearMD/MPH student at NJMS who was namedchair-elect of the American MedicalAssociation–Medical Student Section, thenation’s largest and most influential organiza-tion of medical students.

Read “A Home Within a Home,” an articleabout the new “houses” at NJMS where“bears,” “cranes,” “dolphins,” “lions” and“wolves” come together in a creative approachto promoting overall student success. Checkout “Going Places…All Over the World,” aprofile of NJMS alumnus SumantRamachandra, MD, PhD, the chief scientificofficer and senior vice president of Hospira,Inc., a global pharmaceutical and medicationdelivery company. These and other articlescover a mere fraction of the wonderful thingshappening at NJMS. They demonstrate thekinds of talent that exist here and that wesend into the world.

We are on the cusp of a new era at NJMS.That is certain. Regardless of how the recommendations by the UMDNJ AdvisoryCommittee play out, we enter this new phaseof our existence confident in our value and in our ability to continue to serve the peopleof New Jersey and beyond for many years to come.

In health,

DeanUMDNJ–New Jersey Medical SchoolRobert L. Johnson, MD, FAAP ’72

DirectorUniversity Marketing CommunicationsBarbara Hurley

Executive Director for AdministrationWalter L. Douglas, Jr.

Associate DirectorNJMS Marketing andCommunicationsKaylyn Kendall Dines

Senior Editor, NJMS PulseMaryann Brinley

Contributing WritersTryon BaldwinGregory BeanInya ChehadeEve JacobsLisa JacobsMary Ann LittellGenene MorrisJill SpotzCarole WalkerDavid McKay Wilson

PresidentNJMS Alumni AssociationRobin Schroeder, MD’86

AlumniFocus DirectorDianne Mink

Business CoordinatorNoreen Gomez

Photo EditorDoris Cortes-Delgado

DesignSherer Graphic Design

Message from the Dean

pulse VOLUME 10 NUMBER 1 WINTER SPRING 2012 UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRY OF NEW JERSEY

Keep In Touch…NJMS Pulse is published twice each year by the UMDNJ– Department of University Advancement andCommunications for New Jersey Medical School (NJMS).We welcome letters to the editor and suggestions for future articles.

Send all correspondence to:Pulse EditorUniversity Advancement and CommunicationsUniversity Heights –P.O. Box 1709, Room 132865 Bergen StreetNewark, NJ 07101–1709or via email to [email protected]

ANDREW HANENBERG

Robert L. Johnson, MD, FAAP ’72The Sharon and Joseph L. Muscarelle Endowed Dean

UMDNJ– New Jersey Medical School

There has been a lot of talk about the future of UMDNJ of late, with

words like “merger,” “realignment,” “autonomy,” and “name change”

being bandied about. This follows the release of recommendations

by the UMDNJ Advisory Committee, charged by Governor Chris Christie to

evaluate the current system of delivering medical education in New Jersey.

pulse winter spring 2012

18

34

28

FYI

2 Notable, Quotable, News by the Numbers, Seen & Heard on Campus

A CLOSER LOOK

5 At the Public Health Research Institute: The Reality Behind a Movie Thriller8 At the Community Training Center: Life-Saving Learning

10 At a Poverty Simulation: A Dose of the Real World

NJMS PEOPLE: DO YOU KNOW?

12 Cover Story LeAnne J. Roberts: Fighting for Future Docs13 Jim Gonzalez: Back at UH14 Neil Kaushal: A Hard Day’s Night16 Issar Smith: Forget the Barcalounger

FEATURES

18 Lives We Have Changed: Saving JontyJonathan Fisk has been the patient of pediatric immunologist Harumi Jyonouchi, MD, for more than a decade. Without her, this teenager would have no hope for a future.

22 To Get Joujou Dancing AgainTo find the best orthopaedic care anywhere for an indispensable grandmother, one employee discovered there was no place better than her University home.

26 A Home Within a HomeFive new learning communities, or “houses,” at NJMS help students navigate medical school and their futures.

28 The Virus BusterWhen Sergei Kotenko began studying cytokines back in Moscow, he didn’t know his discovery would make medical history.

ALUMNI FOCUS News of Special Interest to NJMS and GSBS Graduates

32 A Message from the Alumni President, Save the Dates, and In Memoriam33 Class Notes34 Sumant Ramachandra, MD–PhD’97: Going Places…All Over the World36 Jennifer Denton Hip-Flores, MD’06, and Jules David Hip-Flores, MD’06:

Doctoring, Distance, and Deployment38 Attention NJMS Grads! Do You Have a Website?

FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY

40 Defeating Cancer, Helping a Cause

26

COVER PHOTO: ANDREW HANENBERG

22

2 P U L S E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 2

Happy BirthdayThe Healthcare Foundation

Center for Humanism and

Medicine at NJMS turns

6! To help celebrate this

milestone, an Inaugural

Humanism Day

Conference will be held on

March 14 featuring Mark

Nepo, a cancer survivor, poet, philosopher

and best-selling author. To learn more,

visit: http://www.bit.ly/humconference2012.

Our 10-year-old, home-grown Arts

Festival at NJMS won a spot in the

National ARTS Program (NAP), which

features the work of employees and

family members in more than

450 cities, counties,

airports, hospitals and

organizations across the country. The NAP exhibit will be up until the

end of April. Go to http://nationalartsprogram.org and click the links

to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

a royal invitationEdwin A. Deitch, MD, professor, surgery,

got the prestigious Award of Fellowship ad

hominem from the Royal

College of Surgeons of

Edinburgh. This medical

group, which incorporat-

ed as “barber-surgeons”

in 1505, also invited Deitch to be their

keynote speaker in Scotland in February.

Painful, Creaky Joints?William Gause, PhD, senior associate dean

of research, a professor in the Department

of Medicine and director of the Center of

Immunology and Inflammation (pictured

below), and Joseph Benevenia, MD, pro-

fessor and chair of

orthopaedics, have dis-

covered that titanium in

artificial joints may cause

painful inflam-

mation. Their findings, pub-

lished by the Journal of

Immunology, suggest that

tiny titanium particles

that flake away from the

artificial joints through

normal wear and tear

may play a direct role.

VisionaryANTON KOLOMEYER,an MD/PhD student at

GSBS-NJMS, is the first ever Member-In-Training at

the Association for Research in Vision and

Ophthalmology.

To Cure Obesity Barry E. Levin, MD, professor, and interim chair,

neurosciences, won the 2011 Naomi Berrie Award

from Columbia University Medical School at the

Frontiers in Diabetes Research Conference in

November. Levin’s team

has focused on how

metabolic-sensing neu-

rons regulate glucose and

energy homeostasis. Key

to the work are rats bred

to be either susceptible

or resistant to obesity.

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N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O L 3

1University Hospital ranks first in the country amongacademic medical centers for the care of heart fail-ure patients, according to the University HealthConsortium (UHC), an alliance of 115 academicmedical centers and 257 affiliated hospitals.

$940,265The Student Family Health Care Center in the Department of Family Medicine isawarded this highly competitive federal grant from the Health Resources andServices Administration to expand and improve its services to the medically under-served in Newark.

65Joel DeLisa, MD, MS, professor and chair, Department of PhysicalMedicine and Rehabilitation, and an internationally known physia-trist, is among the 65 new members elected to the Institute ofMedicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences.

$956,318The National Cancer Institute awards the NJMS–UH Cancer Center this five-year,interdisciplinary training grant.

35The Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine in Pediatrics celebrates 35years of providing clinical and preventive care services to the Newark community.

$2.28 millionGrant given to the Northern New JerseySpinal Cord Injury System at NJMS by theNational Institute on Disability andRehabilitation Research of the U.S.Department of Education, a cooperativeeffort of the Kessler Foundation, KesslerInstitute for Rehabilitation and UMDNJ.

NJMS News by the Numbers

Starvation = Heart FailureThe November 2011 issue of Cell Metabolismran a paper by Junichi Sadoshima, MD, PhD,NJMS, GSBS, interim chair, cell biology andmolecular medicine, and fellow researchers, thatexplained how a protective response to starvationmay promote heart failure. Two proteins areinvolved and it may be beneficial to target themin patients with heart failure.

The Write Stuff… Nimala Hariharan, PhD,’10, got the Best Manuscript Award fromthe editors of Circulation Research for“Deacetylation of FoxO by Sir1 Plays anEssential Role in Mediating Starvation-Induced Autophagy in Cardiac Myocytes”…especially good news because she won as agraduate student at GSBS–NJMS.

Need Research $$? Check out the Calendarof Funding Opportunities on the Office ofResearch and Sponsored Programs (ORSP)website. Grant and fellowship opportuni-ties, sponsors and application deadlines areall there.

Splice Secret…Cells often multi-task whensynthesizing and splicing RNA. But timingis everything, says Sanjay Tyagi, PhD, asso-ciate professor of medicine at PHRI atNJMS. Tyagi and his colleagues publishedtheir finding in the November 2011 issueof Cell: when unconventional splicing isrequired, synthesize first and splice later.

“The Graying of Surgical America” was theperfect title for a talk given by Michael C.Lewis, MD, senior associate dean for graduatemedical education at the University ofMiami–Miller School of Medicine. Lewis is anexpert on perioperative issues facing geriatricsurgical patients.

Bruce Schackman, PhD, chief of the Divisionof Health Policy at Weill Cornell MedicalCollege in New York, discussed“Implementation Science for the Preventionand Treatment of HIV/AIDS.”

This was a fascinating discussion on“Attacking Human Pathogens in the MosquitoBelly” by George Dimopoulos, PhD, MBA,associate professor, molecular microbiologyand immunology, and director of theParasitology Core Facility at Johns HopkinsBloomberg School of Public Health. Hemapped out the role and mechanisms of themosquito’s innate immune system and thenaturally-occurring microbes of this insect’sintestine as well as how they can directly andindirectly influence the mosquito’s suscepti-bility to infection with human pathogens.

“Career Planning 101: Strategies forScientists” was a really worthwhile lunchtimesession given by Monica L. Kerr, PhD, directorof The New York Academy of Sciences.

“Of Mice and Herpes: Delineating determi-nants of chronic infection”was presented by LaurieKrug, PhD, assistantprofessor, moleculargenetics and micro-biology at StonyBrook University inLong Island. Shedescribed the ease of gen-erating recombinant murine gammaher-pesvirus 68 (MHV68), the availability ofgenetically altered mice and how they providea model system to identify and characterize virus and host determinants ofchronic infection.


“Gross anatomy is exactly as it sounds. Youlearn anatomy, and smell gross afterwards.”

EXCERPTED FROM “ANATOMY – A NEW FRONTIER” ON THEHUMAN FABRIC BLOG (HTTP://THEHUMANFABRIC.UMDNJ.EDU)

“Humanism is about passion. It is what I feelundeniably and resoundingly burning withinthat allows me to momentarily switch placeswith my patients as I offer them my attentionand service.”

DORIAN J. WILSON, MD, DIRECTOR, HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONCENTER FOR HUMANISM AND MEDICINE

FYI Seen&HeardAUGUST

JANUARY

FYI Quotable

Don’t miss these one-of-a-kind lectures. Make a note to check the UMDNJ website (www.umdnj.edu) as well as

This Week at UMDNJ for upcoming events.

TOP: JOHN EMERSON

OCTOBER NOVEMBER

SEPTEMBER

AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD, DMedSci,

and chair emeritus of NJMS neurosurgery, is

encouraging all med students and physicians to

call the AMA hotline (1-800-833-6354) about

the Medicare crisis. He is also urging everyone

to contact their U.S. representatives and sena-

tors. “Just say, ‘You must increase funding for

Graduate Medical Education.’ It is a crisis. You

cannot remain silent on this issue. Your future

is at stake.”

Section compiled by Maryann Brinley and Carole Walker

The RealityBehind aMovieThrillerSteven Spielberg’s film Contagion

depicts the outbreak of a lethal virus

pandemic threatening human life,

but within the walls of PHRI, our

experts deal every day with the real

thing. BY DAVID MCKAY WILSON

Aposter for the 2011 movie thriller, Contagion, hangs from the wall outside

David Perlin’s office at the Public HealthResearch Institute (PHRI). Perlin, a PhDresearcher, is the executive director of PHRI.The poster stands as a sober reminder tostaff and visitors that the new $38 millionRegional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL)managed by PHRI has the infrastructure —and the scientific firepower — to investigatea pandemic virus similar to the one por-trayed in the film.

In Contagion, there’s an outbreak of alethal virus that spreads from bats to pigs,and then to humans. The film’s heroes arethe steadfast microbiologists who race againsttime to create a vaccine to stop its spread.

“Emerging infectious diseases are every-where,” says Perlin, who came to PHRI in1985, when its labs were located at NewYork City’s Department of Health Bureau ofLaboratories. “They occur all the time, andno matter how clever we think we are,there’s another one that comes along thatthrows us for a loop. It’s good that we havethe infrastructure to safely study these high-ly transmissible agents.”

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LPHOTO ILLUSTRATION: SHEILA JOHNSTON SHERER 5

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE

PHRI was established 70 years ago inNew York City as a biomedical institutededicated to infectious disease research. Itrelocated to the International Center forPublic Health (ICPH) in 2002 and wasestablished as a center of UMDNJ–NJMSin 2006. PHRI’s faculty members study abroad range of infectious disease issues.

In fact, the effort underway at PHRIinvolves some of the world’s most pressing—and intractable—public-health problems.Some investigators delve into the mysteries ofthe HIV virus, the world’s leading infectiouskiller, which claims 3 million lives a year.Others study the bacterium that causes tuber-culosis, the lung infection that kills up to 2 million annually. And some of the scientistsare focused on hospital and community-acquired infections, as well as potential agentsof bioterrorism. PHRI’s researchers havedeveloped novel molecular tools, such asmolecular beacons, and they work with clini-cians, helping to manage patients and trackinfectious disease as it spreads.

“We are interested in infectious agentswith the potential to cause high morbidityand mortality,” says Perlin. “And we want todevelop counter-measures with new vac-cines, new therapeutics, new diagnostics,

and new understandings of the biology ofthe organisms.”

Of growing concern to Perlin and KarlDrlica, PhD, a molecular biologist at PHRI,are the always-evolving pathogenic strains ofbacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.Their new book, Antibiotic Resistance:Understanding and Responding to an

Emerging Crisis, published in late 2011,details the misuse of antibiotics today anddiscusses the ramifications of using antibiot-ic doses that aren’t strong enough to kill allthe bacteria and their mutants that developin a bad infection.

Drlica’s research at PHRI focuses on thebasic principles involved in the antibioticflouroquinolone’s ability to kill the organ-isms that cause a variety of lethal bacterial

diseases. “If we can figure out the principles,then the drug companies can do the rest,”says Drlica. “I think antibiotic resistance issecond to global warming as the world’smost serious issue. Imagine life withoutantibiotics. You couldn’t get surgery becauseall the bugs would be there. And when yougot pneumonia, you would die. People usedto die a lot from infectious diseases.”

Many of the studies involving highlytransmissible agents occur within the spe-cialized biosafety Level 3 laboratories of thenew RBL, which is part of a network of 13such laboratories in place across the U.S.These national centers were developed bythe National Institutes of Health (NIH) inthe aftermath of the anthrax attacks in thefall of 2001, which rattled a nation alreadyreeling from the events of September 11.

When PHRI relocated in 2002, its bio-safety Level 3 facilities included animal labsthere in Newark’s University Heights SciencePark. So when the federal government

sought partners in the national program,PHRI was well-positioned to participate.

The RBL, developed through the federalprogram, expanded its space for research sci-entists and the newly opened lab is alreadyoperating at about 50 percent capacity, saysPerlin. “We needed a home for fundamentalresearch,” he explains. “It’s good to have aplace where we can study these dangerouspathogens safely.”

TOP LEFT: JOHN EMERSON; TOP RIGHT: ANDREW HANENBERG6 P U L S E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 2

“Imagine life without antibiotics. You couldn’t get surgery because all

the bugs would be there. And when you got pneumonia, you would die.

People used to die a lot from infectious diseases.” —Karl Drlica, PhD

Far left: David Perlin, PhD; and members of the Pinterlab at NJMS, clockwise, from left, Charles Reichman,PhD, Kathy Revesz, Zhong Lai, Lianping Peng, SholemBlobstein, Adhuna Phogat, PhD, Chavdar Krachmarov,PhD, Aidy Salomon, and Abraham Pinter, PhD

A walk through the high-security labora-tory provides a glimpse of how the cutting-edge research moves forward. Safety systemsare designed to protect both the researchstaff within the facility as well as the generalpublic outside the laboratory.

The labs operate with a system of negativepressure, which means air is constantly mov-

ing into the labs from the outside. But it isonly released after going through a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter thattraps greater than 99.97 percent of contami-nants 0.3 microns or larger in size. Back-upgenerators kick on in case of a power failureto maintain the lab’s negative pressure.

When Steven Park, the lab’s biosafetyLevel 3 manager, enters the lab, his first stopis an ante-room, which is under negativepressure. There, he dons what he calls hispersonal protective equipment, a Tyvek pro-

tective suit, gloves, booties, headgear thatprotects his face with a plastic shield, and astream of air blowing out from an air-packon his back.

Then his security clearance allows himinto the actual lab where experiments takeplace in biosafety cabinets, which also keepthe infectious agents from circulating in the

air, using negative pressure. “In addition to the negative pres-

sure in the room, there’s external aircoming into the cabinet,” says Park,who has worked with Perlin atPHRI since 1997. “It gets dis-

charged through a filter, which pre-vents any infectious material fromescaping.”

These measures provide safeworking conditions for about 40investigators and research staff as

well as a dozen technical, animal-care, andbiosafety personnel.

Among the researchers is G. MarcelaRodriguez, PhD, who studies Mycobacteri-um tuberculosis, the pathogen that infectsabout one-third of the world’s populationand is responsible for at least two milliondeaths each year. Her research is aimed atunderstanding how the bacterium interactswith its human host to obtain the mineraliron, which it needs to survive. Iron is notfreely available, but this bacterium has

developed strategies to capture the iron fromits host. Rodriquez studies the moleculesthat the pathogen uses to obtain the ironand transport it. “Those molecules arepotential targets for drug therapy,” she says.

Abraham Pinter, PhD, joined PHRI’sstaff in 1985, just as the HIV virus emergedin humans. More than two decades later, hisresearch team is still exploring the mysteriesof the virus and working to overcome barri-ers towards developing a vaccine. Pinter’sresearch is focused on isolating antibodiesfrom some infected patients that are highlyprotective against the virus and understand-

ing the structure of the targets recognized bythese antibodies.

His latest research has shown promise ashis lab designs new immunogens and vacci-nation strategies that could induce broadlyprotective antibody responses in the humanbody. “This virus has been more challengingthan any other virus studied to date.”

As Pinter works on HIV and Rodriguezinvestigates the TB bacteria, Perlin and col-leagues at PHRI and NJMS stand ready tobattle the world’s next bewildering bug. AsPerlin says, “A lot of them are quite happyin their initial hosts. But when they jump toanother host, they can cause very seriousdisease. We have the infrastructure to worksafely with a wide range of pathogens andparasites.”

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LJOHN EMERSON 7

Did You Know…The Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) at NJMS has been on the cutting edge ofinfectious disease research since its founding? For seven decades, this institute hasaddressed challenges posed by infectious diseases. Scientists at PHRI have an impressiverecord of accomplishments during the past seventy years. Here are just a few of the histori-cally dramatic highlights from past decades:

1940s PHRI produced and distributed the smallpox vaccine in New York City.

1950s The Institute’s scientists developed methods to boost antibody response to infection.

1960s Work was done at PHRI which led to a vaccine for dengue fever.

1970s PHRI researchers identified cancer-causing oncogenes.

1980s Institute scientists discovered the gene for toxic shock syndrome.

1990s PHRI researchers identified the multi-drug-resistant TB strain “W.”

ANDREW HANENBERG

Life-SavingLearningDid you know that The University

Hospital provides classes in every-

thing from Basic Life Support to

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and

Pediatric Emergencies…is the

largest provider of these life-saving

lessons in the state…and has a

global reach? BY JILL SPOTZ

Dennis Boos has seen his share of cardiacarrests. As director of the Community

Training Center at The University Hospital(UH) and a former emergency medical tech-nician (EMT), Boos has a long connectionto UMDNJ which has provided up-closeand personal experiences with heart attackvictims, especially in Newark. And unfortu-nately, according to the American HeartAssociation (AHA), a person’s chance of sur-viving a heart attack is only 8 percentnationally, a sad statistic that might shockthe rest of us but not Boos. He knows fullwell that 80 percent of cardiac emergenciesoccur at home and most people are notproperly trained to administer cardiopul-monary resuscitation (CPR) until medicalpersonnel arrive. Without CPR, patients candie. For residents of Newark, those chances

of surviving that heart attack outside a hos-pital are even worse: less than one percent.Boos and the Community Training Centerat UH (973-972-4373) have big plans tochange these odds.

His high hopes for increasing survivalrates are supported by a training center thathas shown record growth. One of the largestproviders of AHA training in the state, thecenter has more than 300 trainers, bothUMDNJ employees and independent con-tractors, who teach a comprehensive list ofcourses for both health care personnel whoneed to stay up-to-date with required certifi-cations as well as for non-medical membersof the community. In 2010, the center edu-cated approximately 12,000 individuals, thelargest group ever. With numbers like these,Boos and his in-house staff of only three are


A CLOSER LOOK AT THE COMMUNITY TRAINING CENTER

Dennis Boos

extremely busy. They maintain all the train-ing files and produce the required certifica-tion cards for everyone who takes a class.

In addition to providing classes in BasicLife Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac LifeSupport (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced LifeSupport (PALS) for all UMDNJ medicalpersonnel on the Newark, Piscataway andCamden campuses, the center also trains stu-dents in most of UMDNJ’s eight schools.

Other courses offered at the centerinclude: Pediatric Emergency Assessment,Recognition and Stabilization (PEARS),Bloodborne Pathogens, Quantitative andQualitative Fit Testing, and Heartsaver AED(automated external defibrillator) for non-medical personnel.

Participants can take courses in classroomsettings or learn online, which Boosdescribes as the wave of the future. Online isa great option for “the seasoned health careworker because these courses may be redun-dant, especially since people have to recertifyand take them every two years.” What’smore, “The AHA says that within a fewmonths of taking life support training in aclassroom, the average participant retainsonly approximately 50 percent of the infor-mation. Online, participants are more likelyto concentrate because they take quizzesthroughout the session, thereby retaining theinformation longer,” says Boos.

Students complete the instructive portionon the computer and then come into theclassroom for the “hands-on” work.Approximately 20 percent of the center’scurriculum is currently offered online andthe plan is to increase that number by 10 to20 percent a year.

Meanwhile, the center also has 32 con-tracts with outside companies and organiza-tions and Boos describes these classes as“cool.” One contract is with the FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI). “We certifybetween 100 and 200 agents of the FBI eachyear,” says Boos. “The agents come to theNewark campus for training and we alsoprovide courses at their off-site trainingfacilities at Fort Dix, the organization’sNewark offices, and various other locations

throughout the state. The number of agentsvaries each year depending on when theyneed to recertify.” Other offsite training isprovided to staff employed by East Orange,Orange, and Jersey City school districts; thePrudential Center and Corporation inNewark; Christ Hospital in Jersey City;Hoboken University Medical Center; CityCollege of New York; all of the New Jerseystate prisons; and various physicians’ offices,urgent care centers and corporationsthroughout the metropolitan area.

Besides training so many people in life-saving techniques, Boos has found otheropportunities to increase survival rates bystarting where incidents happen most: athome. Last year, the center received fundingfrom the Healthcare Foundation of NewJersey to provide what is known as theInfant CPR Anytime Training Program to800 families. Families caring for a child dis-charged from the neonatal intensive careunit (NICU) at UH now receive easy-to-learn instructions on how to administerinfant CPR and how to perform theHeimlich maneuver. “The earlier CPR isadministered, the greater the likelihood thechild will survive,” explains Boos.

The program relies on a kit that includesan infant CPR mannequin and a 22-minutetraining DVD that reviews chest compres-sions, rescue breathing and how to handlechoking. Prior to discharge, parents and

caregivers voluntarily watch the video at thehospital and practice chest compressionsunder the direction of a nurse. “Then weask each family to show the video to allmembers of their household as well as any-one who will be caring for their infant,” saysBoos. “Assuming that every kit has the capa-bility of reaching approximately five familymembers, we will be able to reach 4,000people in total.” Boos recently applied for asecond grant to expand the program toinclude all high-risk patients dischargedfrom UH, including adults suffering from astroke or a heart attack.

The center uses simulation training formany of its programs. Through the use ofthe breathing, talking, beating-heartSimMan®, Boos and his team administerCPR challenges to nurses at UH. “Wearrange the mannequin in a patient roomand call a code,” says Boos. With the inter-active SimMan®, we can control the situa-tion by altering rhythms and patientresponses and the machine shows actual out-comes.” The center plans to expand the useof the SimMan® to ACLS and PALS coursesas well as to other education requirementsfor UMDNJ students. However, SimMan®

will not be used for BLS because “we per-form 800 chest compressions on the dummyper class. We wouldn’t want to wreak thattype of havoc on such an expensive robot,”Boos admits.

Not only is the Community TrainingCenter one of the largest in New Jersey, italso has a global reach. Shai Jaskoll, a para-medic and former UMDNJ employee,brought Community Training Center classesabroad five years ago when he moved withhis family to Israel. Jaskoll had been manag-er of the Regional Emergency MedicalCommunications System (REMCS), whichis the 911 medical answering center for thecity of Newark and he also taught BLS andHeartsaver AED for the center. After accept-ing a position with an international defibril-lator company, Jaskoll moved his familyback to Israel where he is from and he is


Continued on page 11

“We certify between 100 and 200 Federal

Bureau of Investigation agents each year,”

says Dennis Boos. “These FBI agents come

to the Newark campus for training.”

SELORM TAKYI

E victed from his home, and behind onhis utility bills, second-year student Luis

Alzate-Duque struggled to feed his threechildren, including his teenage daughterabout to give birth. His refrigerator had bro-ken, and the supermarket clerk had takenhis voucher for food but refused to give himany groceries.

Meanwhile, his spouse had been laid off,unemployment benefits had run out, andhis monthly take-home pay of $1,324 fellconsiderably short of his family’s monthlyexpenses of $1,875.

“I’m completely overwhelmed,” explainsAlzate-Duque one afternoon in November.“What am I going to do? It’s so frustrating,and then I feel like I’m neglecting the kids.That’s the worst of it.”

Luckily for Alzate-Duque, his evictionand financial struggles weren’t real. Theywere part of the Community Action PovertySimulation (CAPS) he participated in thatafternoon with medical and nursing stu-dents, medical residents, UMDNJ staff, andmembers of the Newark community. CAPSis a tool designed and copyrighted by theMissouri Association for Community Action.

The simulation, organized by SophiaChen, DO, assistant professor, pediatricsand co-director of the NJMS Physician’sCore curriculum along with DavidCennimo, MD, assistant professor, medicineand pediatrics, is designed to sensitize healthcare professionals and prepare them to have

empathy for their patients who are amongour nation’s poor.

The financial pressures conjured up inthe simulation are the kinds of issues thatarise daily for patients who seek medicalcare. An estimated 49 million— or one insix Americans—live in poverty, according tothe 2011 U.S. Census. Rising Medicaid pre-miums, higher deductibles and the cost ofprescription drugs have added to the bur-den. Many of the poor are among the esti-mated 50 million Americans who lackhealth insurance, including one in four ofworking age, according to the Census.

“Poverty is not a game,” Chen warned thestudents as the simulation began. “We’reasking you to walk in the shoes of the poor.”

Chen says the experience can help fledg-

ling health care professionals appreciate thestruggles of their patients, and remind themthat writing a prescription might not beenough. One student remarked that he wasunaware that the community action agencyhad resources that could have helped hisfamily.

“We tend to send patients home withoutconsidering what other resources they mightneed,” Chen says. “We want students tobecome more sensitive and empathetic tofamilies who are struggling and might notbe able to fill a prescription given to them.”

The simulation was played out over threehours one Thursday afternoon in November.Students were randomly assigned roles toplay in one of nine families, each with itsown financial and personal challenges.

Their goals: to keep their home secure,feed their family, make mortgage and loanpayments, and meet unexpected situations,which cropped up when Chen handed thema “Luck of the Draw” card. Those cardscould bring bad news, like an illness, orgood news, like the payment of $50 for win-ning an art contest.

Second-year students Nitin Argarwal andOlga Kovalerchik were both children intheir simulated families. They gained an


A CLOSER LOOK AT A COMMUNITY ACTION POVERTY SIMULATION

Co-director of the Physician’s Core Course Sophia Chen,DO, oversees the action while students (left to right) Nitin Argarwal and Olga Kovalerchik are lectured byUMDNJ police officer Armando Quinones.

A Dose of the Real WorldWhat happens when med students get stuck in the poverty rut? How one

seminar puts the patient’s point of view front and center.

BY DAVID MCKAY WILSON

appreciation for the plight of kids growingup in poverty, who may be unsupervised astheir parents or caregivers focused on mak-ing ends meet.

“I never experienced that in my own lifebecause my parents or a babysitter werealways around,” says Argarwal. “My parentsin the simulation couldn’t afford daycare orafter-school care, so we ended up wanderingabout, and got in trouble. The police officerfound us, and took us back to the precinct,where a parent had to come get us.”

Kovalerchik reports that the simulationopened her eyes to the responsibilities ofparenthood, and how those duties can con-flict with scrambling to make ends meet inthe lower echelons of American society.

“I really saw how parents’ financial obli-gations can take over their lives, and leavethe children neglected,” she says. “And youcould see how if you grew up uncared for,you might not have an incentive to careabout yourself or others.”

In the multi-purpose room at New JerseyDental School, tables were set up along theroom’s periphery. Each table had a particularcommunity resource. There was a bank,check-cashing operation, Big Dave’s PawnShop, employment center, an inter-faithsocial-services agency, daycare center, school,supermarket, the state Department of SocialServices, community-action agency, andpolice station. As the simulation developed,with each 15-minute segment equal to aweek, the students adopted the situation oftheir character, and lived out the scenario.

No one had enough money, the kidsdemanded attention, and job prospects were

scarce for the unemployed, who shuffledfrom line to line, filling out forms but notlanding a job. Even trying to raise money byselling a camera or television to the pawn-broker was problematic because he onlycommunicated in Arabic. Accessingresources cost too—you needed to purchasea transportation voucher for every stop,adding to the financial pressures.

The participants grew resourceful in theirdesperation. One mother ended up chargingfor translation services at the pawn shop.Two children panhandled to raise money fortheir family. Others became despondent,and were easily manipulated by those man-ning the agency booths.

At the community action agency, MichaelAnne Kyle, a nurse practitioner who servesas chief operating officer of Newark Now,showed how there were communityresources to provide help for those slippingthrough the social safety net.

“It wasn’t quite like real life, where we’dsend people home to provide documenta-tion of their need,” she says. “And I was abit gentler here with the students.”

But NJMS alum Ryan Chadha, MD’11,an internal medicine resident who served asthe customer service representative at theFood-A-Rama Food Center, did his best tofrustrate the mothers and fathers whoarrived to use food stamps or their dwin-dling cash. He challenged them, cheatedthem out of their hard-earned money, andmade their difficult lives more miserable.

He recalled how the simulation influ-enced him during his second year at NJMS,and had volunteered to help out. “Many ofus students feel pretty entitled and don’treally know that much about suffering, perse,” he says. “The world just isn’t warm andkind to everyone.”


now teaching Heartsaver AED classes onbehalf of the Community Training Centerto faculty, staff and tenth graders enrolled inthe International American School. Callingthis a great opportunity to educate a newgeneration of young adults to be non-tradi-tional first responders, Jaskoll explains,“With this training, students are prepared totake critical action in the event of a medicalemergency. They complete the program withthe knowledge and desire to assist othersand many of them take this valuable infor-mation back to their home countries.Additionally, it allows them to get a feel forthe health care field, which could initiatetheir journey down a professional path.”

Certification cards for Jaskoll’s studentsare maintained by the Community TrainingCenter back in Newark. The center evenprints and mails the cards back to Jaskoll todistribute to those who have successfullycompleted classes.

The payoff for a job like this is not justthat trainers can help health care providersdo their jobs better or not just that ordinaryindividuals can handle health emergencies,but when former students use their trainingto save lives. Three months after completingone of Jaskoll’s Heartsaver AED classes, astudent “was babysitting a toddler when thechild began to choke on a piece of hardcandy,” this teacher explains. “She remem-bered the Heimlich maneuver I taught inclass, performed it on the child, and dis-lodged the candy.”

Like Jaskoll, Boos also encourages stu-dents to contact him if they ever use theirtraining in real life situations. He teachesBasic Life Support (BLS) to outside organi-zations and heard recently from a womanemployed by a local company who hadtaken his course. “A co-worker went intocardiac arrest and she was able to providemouth-to-mouth resuscitation and saved theperson’s life.” And that’s the kind of newsthis life-saving trainer lives for.

Life-Saving LearningContinued from page 9

Left: Student Luis Alzate-Duque needed vouchers for food and clothing for his three imaginarychildren. “Luck of the Draw” cards brought bad news.

ANDREW HANENBERG

L eAnne J. Roberts knew she had torespond when members of Congress

were on the verge of slashing Medicarefunds last November. If enacted, the pro-posed reductions would drastically impactmedical residency programs and Medicarereimbursements for physicians nationwide.So, she teamed up with fellow medical stu-dents to urge lawmakers to increaseGraduate Medical Education funding.

According to Roberts, legislators through-out the U.S. received approximately 30,000

emails and 20,000 calls in just 36 hours.This flurry of activism occurred just twodays after Roberts was named chair-elect ofthe American Medical Association’s MedicalStudent Section (AMA–MSS). She is afourth-year student at NJMS who is pursu-ing a graduate degree in public health.

Roberts and T.R. Eckler, the currentAMA–MSS chair, a student at theUniversity of Rochester School of Medicineand Dentistry, received this project fromAMA headquarters. Their charge was toswiftly galvanize support from the organiza-tion’s membership of 50,000 medical stu-dents to influence public policy.

Here’s why: The Congressional JointSelect Committee on Deficit Reduction,dubbed the “super committee,” wasattempting to finalize the Budget DeficitReduction Act. Medicare, which fundsGraduate Medical Education, is in jeopardyand this could contribute to the loomingnational shortage of physicians. “Eventhough the super committee failed to pro-duce anything, I think our effort says some-thing about future physicians. While wemedical students tend to have tunnel visionand only think about our next exam or thenext patient, we do have the ability to cometogether on an issue that we really careabout,” says Roberts, who considers herselfan “East Coaster” even though she was bornin Sacramento, CA.

Roberts will continue promoting her mes-sage in June when she succeeds Eckler for aone-year term as chair of the AMA–MSS,the nation’s largest and most influentialorganization of medical students. She’s heldseveral leadership positions with the AMAsince 2008, her first year in medical school.

This is the second time since 2010 that amember of NJMS has been elected to a toppost with the AMA. Peter W. Carmel, MD,DMedSci, an internationally recognizedpediatric neurosurgeon and chair emeritus atNJMS, is currently the AMA President.

Roberts refers to Carmel as one of her“top mentors.” According to Carmel,


NJMS PEOPLE…DO YOU KNOW?

L E A N N E J . R O B E R T S

Fighting ForFuture Docs Meet one extraordinary student with

non-stop energy and passion.

BY KAYLYN KENDALL DINES


C O V E R S T O R Y

LeAnne J. Roberts

Walk through the halls of Newark’sUniversity Hospital (UH) with Jim

Gonzalez and you soon realize how much hecares. He greets everyone from orderlies tosurgeons with a bright smile, a wave or ahandshake. He’s just passed a milestone —his first six months as acting president andCEO of UH. Managing this large institu-tion—the busiest trauma center in NewJersey, the principal teaching hospital forNJMS, and a primary provider of healthcare for the underserved and uninsured — isakin to running a small city. “I’m very gladto be here at UH,” he states. “But there’s alot to do — no question about it.”

Gonzalez is known throughout UMDNJas a strategic leader, problem solver, con-summate communicator and all-around niceguy. In 2000, when former UMDNJPresident Stuart D. Cook, MD, asked himto take charge of Newark’s Broadway House,he admits being less than thrilled.

Launched in 1995 by UMDNJ as anacute-care facility for people with AIDS,Broadway House was beset by problems. Atthe time Gonzalez was assistant vice presi-dent of administration at UH, a job he’dheld for 18 months. He had a nursing homelicense and Broadway House was classifiedas a nursing home. So it was seen as a goodfit. “Broadway House ran in the red andemployee morale was poor,” says Gonzalez.“There were doubts about whether it couldeven be salvaged.”

He rolled up his sleeves and went towork. “I hired a new executive director andwe set out to transform the organization,”

he says. “We hired a great group of peopleand things turned around.”

This temporary assignment became long-term and today Gonzalez is still presidentand CEO of Broadway House, now the goldstandard for HIV care. It has won numerousstate and national awards and was recog-nized in 2011 as one of America’s best nurs-ing homes in the country by U.S. News andWorld Report.

Holding two demanding, full-time jobs atonce is a challenge Gonzalez relishes. He’sbeen fascinated by health care managementsince his days as an undergraduate atNortheastern University. The school’s cur-riculum is based on a five-year work-studyprogram. Gonzalez found work as an admin-istrative resident at Kings Park PsychiatricCenter, a state-run hospital in Kings Park,NY. He kept this job throughout college andgained an interest in the complexities ofworking with psychiatric patients.

After obtaining a master’s in HealthServices Administration from Yale Universityon a full scholarship, he held a series ofexecutive positions at SUNY at Stony Brookand the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation,both in New York; Bayshore CommunityHospital in Holmdel; Christ Hospital inJersey City; and East Orange GeneralHospital before coming to UMDNJ.

Now that he’s at the helm of UH,Gonzalez says half-jokingly, “I’m not sleep-ing much.” His major focus is on continu-

ing the many successes the hospital hasachieved operationally. “We’ve been able tosustain our budget in challenging economictimes,” he says. With capital funding, severalinitiatives are planned, including improve-ments to infrastructure, renovations to theOR, replacement of OR equipment andrefurbishment of the cardiac catheterizationlabs and radiology diagnostic rooms.

“Our most important goals are improvingemployee satisfaction and patient satisfac-tion,” he adds. “These big challenges arevital to the hospital’s success.”

UH will implement several programs in2012 designed to improve employee morale,one of them an employee recognition pro-gram. “When we see an employee proactive-ly do something right, something that theywere not necessarily trained to do, thatemployee will be recognized,” he says. “It’s asmall gesture, but we think it will result inhappier workers.”

Another idea being rolled out in 2012 isthe “Be the Hero” program. “This idea is sosimple,” he says. “If you see a problem, orone is brought to you by a patient, try tosolve it rather than punting or handing itoff.” A new program will encourage employ-ees to help patients navigate the maze ofUH. “When you see someone who lookslost, ask where they want to go,” explainsGonzalez. “Then take them there rather

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LANDREW HANENBERG 13

J I M G O N Z A L E Z

Back at UHThis consummate problem solver has

returned to the hospital after 17

years away and admits, “There is a

lot to do.” BY MARY ANN LITTELL


Jim Gonzalez

ANDREW HANENBERG

N E I L K A U S H A L

A Hard Day’sNight Like the Beatles sang, this student’s

day stretches from morn to night.

He’s hoping to be sleeping like a log

when it’s all over. BY GREGORY BEAN

For fourth-year NJMS Student CouncilPresident Neil Kaushal, a perfect day

would be about 36 hours long — maybe justa little longer.

Kaushal graduated from MontgomeryHigh School in Somerset County in 2005and is just finishing up his seven-yearBA/MD program. When Match Day comesthis March, he’ll find out where he’ll spendthe next five years as a resident inorthopaedic surgery. He’d like to stay inNew Jersey because of his attachment to theNewark community and NJMS, but any-where in the tri-state area will do.

One thing is certain, however: He will bewell prepared for the grueling hours and rig-orous schedule of a resident. As any NJMSstudent knows, it is difficult packing every-thing that needs to be accomplished andlearned into a day. But some students alsofind time to serve their communities inextracurricular ways. Kaushal, who has beenon the student council for the last fouryears, is one of those.

He was elected to the council as one ofsix class representatives in his first semesterof medical school. “I took it upon myself toserve as a leader for my classmates,” he says.“I wanted to make sure students felt com-fortable in their transitions to medicalschool, and I wanted to be a political leaderand represent the best interests of my class-mates with the administration and theUMDNJ community.”

In his second year, he was one of the pro-gramming chairs and helped organize manyof the functions that the organization holdsthroughout the year like the Fall Formal, andthe Golden Apple Awards in April. In histhird year, he became vice-president of thecouncil, acting as a liaison to the school’sleadership for the student body, and all of thecurriculum and administrative committees.

He was elected council president in hisfourth year, and although there are nodefined duties for that position, he believesthat he still needs to be omnipresent andavailable for all the council members whoare conducting day-to-day business and

planning. “I really relished that role thisyear, because it has helped me forge greatrelationships with our administration,” hesays. The fact that most of the organization-al work is done by first-, second- and third-year medical students has allowed him toconcentrate on the hectic schedules andresponsibilities of the orthopaedic rotationshe’s done at various hospitals for the last several months.

His day starts at about 4 a.m., when herolls out of bed in order to arrive at the hos-pital he’s working at by 5 a.m. Most recent-ly, he was commuting to Westchester, NY,from his home in Hoboken. For the next 12



Neil Kaushal

to 14 hours, he spends time seeing patientswith residents and attending physicians,prepping for the day’s surgeries, followingup those procedures, and learning whatwould be in store for the next day.

Often, that part of the day does not enduntil 6 or 7 p.m., and then he is back homeworking on student council and other extra-curricular activities. He touches base regular-ly with programming chairs to make surethe council’s functions, like the GoldenApple Awards, are on track, as well as withthe treasurer to monitor how the financesand budget are doing. He’s on call for repre-sentatives from any of the other 50 or 60active campus organizations as well asapproximately 700 students who might needhis input or attention.

He also keeps close tabs on what’s hap-pening administratively and politically with-

in the medical school and UMDNJ. Part ofhis job as council president is to be a liaisonto the UMDNJ Governor’s AdvisoryCommittee. Last July, for example, he gave a presentation to this group about NJMSand offered its perspective. Kaushal alsospoke on behalf of the student body beforethis advisory commission at a packed andemotional town hall meeting in Newarkabout the strength of NJMS.

“That probably was one of my proudestmoments,” he recalls. “My goal in speakingthat night was to let the entire communityknow that there are many proud schoolshere in Newark, and I challenged them tocreate the best possible university in thiscommunity.” When that was all done, hestill had to read the next day’s round oforthopaedic cases and surgeries. Typically,on this last rotation, his day does not enduntil 11 p.m. or later. Then, he is up againat 4 a.m. to start all over.

“It’s been tough the last few months, butI think that after all my interviews for resi-dency are over, and the final countdown ison towards graduation, I’m going to have agood time,” he says. “I’m going to makesure I spend the last few months of medicalschool enjoying life with my family, friendsand classmates.”

With a little luck, he will also get a fewextra hours of sleep.


Left: Fourth-year med student Neil Kaushal starts his dayabout 4 a.m. Above: Making peanut butter sandwichesalong with fellow student Olga Kovalerchik. And belowleft to right: With students Frank Wang, Richard Schmidtand Jerel Chacko.

than just giving directions.”Another initiative is strengthening the

partnership between hospital and medicalstaff. “We all must work together collabora-tively to improve the hospital and the med-ical school,” he says. “Cooperation is criticalto our success.”

For now, Gonzalez divides his workdaybetween Broadway House and UH. Whilethe hospital clearly is a priority, he remainscommitted to the Broadway House resi-dents. “People with AIDS are living muchlonger now,” he says. “Once our residentsare stabilized, they are able to leave and liveon their own, but they still need services. Sothere’s a great need for supportive housing.”

One of his most rewarding experienceswas his push to build supportive housing inNewark, motivated by the difficulty in find-ing affordable apartments for BroadwayHouse clients. He spoke with former NewJersey Governor Jon Corzine and NewarkMayor Corey Booker. He also approachedoutside agencies, including HELP USA, anonprofit providing housing and supportiveservices for the homeless and others in need.

With the assistance of rock star Jon BonJovi, whose foundation was a major contrib-utor, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Home was con-structed in Newark at a cost of $15 million.It includes 51 apartment units, 15 of themset aside for Broadway House residents.“This was such a complex project, and veryrewarding when it all came together,” hesays. “From this experience, I learned thatit’s so important to be networking all thetime. You cannot do things by yourself.”

With the prospect of reorganizationlooming, 2012 looks to be a challengingyear for UMDNJ and UH. For now,Gonzalez plans to keep moving forward.“We can’t solve all our problems overnight,but focusing on areas where we have roomfor improvement will make a big differencein morale. Employee satisfaction will rollover into patient satisfaction.”

Back at UHContinued from page 13

ANDREW HANENBERG

“W ell, I don’t like to play golf,” saysIssar Smith, PhD, laughing, when

a reporter asks why he has kept workinglong after most of his contemporaries havesettled into a Barcalounger, one of thosedeeply-padded lounging chairs. “But I didkind of retire from research,” adds this 78-year-old researcher. “I quit working in thelab when I was 75.”

For Professor Smith, associate director forprograms and development at PHRI, retir-ing from his lab, now headed by GloriaRodriguez, PhD, (where he still, nonethe-less, sits in on weekly meetings), has only

meant becoming more involved in otherareas of service at UMDNJ. David Perlin,PhD, director of PHRI, “asked me to stayon as an administrator,” Smith says. “I workon developing new programs, organizingPHRI symposia on infectious diseases andrecruiting and mentoring younger faculty.It’s not new to me, but now I have moretime to think about trends in science and totransmit my knowledge to the next genera-tion. I love the institute and the people here.In a sense, they are like your scientific prog-eny. You want to see them do well.”

Smith, who goes by the nickname

“Smitty,” grew up in New York City, the sonof immigrants from what is now Lithuania(his father worked as a printer, his mother asa furrier). “The name ‘Issar,’” he says, “it’sunusual. I think my parents made it up. Asa kid, you want to fit in, so I’ve been called‘Smitty’ since I was a child. Even my stu-dents call me that.” He completed his edu-cation in New York (BA, City College; MAand PhD, Columbia) and, after fellowshipsat Sloan-Kettering, New York University anda junior faculty position at Albert EinsteinCollege of Medicine, began his long associa-tion with PHRI in 1967.

In his postdoctoral studies, Smith— er,Smitty— had become interested in themolecular biology and genetics of the bac-terium Bacillus subtilis. “It lives and growsnormally,” he says, “but when threatened byits environment B. subtilis has the unusualproperty of forming spores that can survivein the soil for hundreds of years. I was moti-vated by scientific curiosity and wonder-ment. It seemed like a great opportunity tostudy cell differentiation.”

He continued this work at PHRI, but in1994, when New York City experienced amini-epidemic of tuberculosis, Smith realized that his work with B. subtilis hadbeen good preparation for the study ofMycobacterium tuberculosis, the causativeagent of this disease. “The same questionsthat I’d been using for B. subtilis also appliedto tuberculosis,” he says. “For example, once M. tuberculosis infects the human body,how does it change? How does the bacteri-um deal with the threat from the humanhost that’s trying to kill it? The point,though, was not just to ask nice questions, it was to help fight the disease. I thoughtthat if I understood how the bacteriumresponded to the lung’s environment, thenthat would give me a good idea of how bestto attack it.”

All bacteria, he explains, have similar, reg-ulatory processes to turn on the genes thatallow them to adapt to new environments,and in the case of pathogens like M. tuber-culosis, to survive and grow during an infec-tion. “If you can find something that’s very

16 P U L S E W I N T E R 2 0 1 2


I S S A R S M I T H

Forget the BarcaloungerThis scientist may have retired from active research in the lab but “Smitty”

shows no signs of ever wanting to give up his work days at the Public Health

Research Institute. BY TY BALDWIN

Issar Smith

important for the tubercle bacillus to growand cause disease in its host, then you canuse that information to develop a vaccinestrain, or a target for a drug.”

In addition to his work on tuberculosisand other administrative duties, Smith alsoplays a major role in PHRI’s summer pro-gram for minority students in Newark highschools. The program, a hands-on laborato-ry research experience, has been headed formany years by Yak Saturen, a high schoolteacher. It is funded by external grants andSmitty, of course, helps to write the propos-als. About a dozen students each year attenda two-week workshop on lab protocols fol-lowed by six weeks in one of PHRI’s labs,

during which time each is paired with amentor, while working on his or her ownresearch project.

“The students aren’t allowed to handleanything toxic or dangerous,” Smith says.“They don’t work with live pathogenic bac-teria or viruses like HIV, but they can workwith surrogate (non-pathogenic) bacteria, docloning, or study antibiotic resistance.” Atthe end of the summer, the students giveoral presentations on their research beforePHRI staff, representatives of funding agen-cies and importantly, the students’ families.While Smith is quick to point out that thesePHRI alumni do very well in state andnational science competitions, his greatest

satisfaction comes from the pride he sees intheir parents’ faces and the motivation thesestudents provide for their younger siblingsin the audience.

“I’ve been a socially committed personmy whole life,” Smith says, “very active withcauses relating to peace and social and eco-nomic justice. Good scientists need to becompletely involved with friends and family,with causes they believe in, and with theircommunity.” For example, he adds, “home-lessness and HIV were largely responsiblefor New York’s mini-epidemic of TB. Youcan’t just be a bench scientist. You have totreat the social causes as well as the disease,itself.”


Roberts is well suited to lead. “The reasonLeAnne was elected was because she under-stood the problems related to the state ofhealth care. She is more than just an advo-cate, she’s knowledgeable. There are very fewpeople in the room who have a betterunderstanding of what is happening thanLeAnne,” says Carmel. “She translates thatknowledge as her message in a way that isnot overbearing, her manner is very pleas-ing, and very informative. It is collegial. Sheis not trying to be the majordomo. ‘You andI can understand this, we can do this’ is her attitude.”

This future OB-GYN juggles coursework, her AMA responsibilities, and a part-time gig in retail along with two of herfavorite pastimes: baking and reading CivilWar history books. She also likes footballand rugby. Roberts recalls visiting NJMSwhen she was a student at Rutgers. “Thefirst time I stepped on this campus I felt likethis is where I belonged. I just felt that thisis my new home. Before I went into myinterview and I was walking up the escala-tors I said, I have to be here. I can’t describeit and I couldn’t reproduce it anywhere elsethat I went to interview. Five minutes before

I walked into my interview I said, I have tobe here.”

Since that day, she has thrived on and offcampus. Roberts was an Arnold P. GoldHumanism Honor Society inductee in 2011and a Pozen Community Scholar in 2010.She’s accumulated a list of memberships,affiliations and achievements and will gradu-ate with the Class of 2013 earning both herMD and her Master’s. When Roberts real-ized medical students in New Jersey did nothave formal representation in the state’smedical society, she worked diligently withcolleagues to form an official MedicalStudent Section at the Medical Society ofNew Jersey (MSNJ). She articulated studentneeds while serving as a member of theBoard of Trustees at MSNJ for two years.

“Our society is actively involved and sup-portive of our efforts to maintain the viabili-ty and future of the profession in our state,”says Roberts, whose parents, Leander andShirley Roberts, are her heroes. Her fatherretired as a lieutenant colonel after 27 yearsin the Air Force and is now in education.Her mother is a career educator.

Roberts’ enthusiasm and passion forprogress are as infectious as her smile. Justask Avantika Mishra, a third-year student atNJMS and the current chair of the studentsection of MSNJ, the oldest professionalmedical society in America. Mishra thinks

Roberts’ best quality is her ability to intriguepeople and get them excited about issuesthey may not regularly ponder. “It’s reallyhard not to pay attention to her. She’s sopassionate and sincere about what shebelieves in. It makes you want to be as moti-vated and as passionate about the issues.”

An advocate at heart, Roberts is motivat-ed by empowering others. As a third-yearstudent she completed a clinical rotation inthe OB–GYN unit of University Hospital(UH). At first she thought her growinginterest in health-related policy “had pulledme so far out of wanting to do clinical med-icine, but I woke up every day excited to gointo UH for my rotation. I had a blast. Itwas such a great learning experience. I hadsome of the best teachers that you couldpossibly ask for while I was on rotation. Itmade me remember that this is why I’mhere. So, I do know that I want to practice,but I don’t know if you’re going to get 30 or40 years out of me.”

You might wonder how she manages somany responsibilities. Roberts, age 26, says,“If you ask most med students, prior tocoming to medical school if they thoughtthat they would be able to function the waythey do now, they would say, ‘no way.’ Butwhen you’re thrown into it, you just figure itout and make it happen.”

Future DocsContinued from page 12

“Our patients come from across the country and all over the world,” explains Agnes

Cushing-Ruby, the clinical coordinator of the NJMS–Pediatric Center for Rare and

Complex Diseases (PCRCD). Under the direction of Harumi Jyonouchi, MD, a shy,

Japanese-born doctor who is one of the world’s leading pediatric immunologists, the

PCRCD takes “rare, complex and time-consuming patients,” the kind of kids with diseases

that have no standard diagnoses. “Last week, we had someone

from Ireland,” Agnes says, “and there was also a set of twins

from Russia, whose care was sponsored by the Chernobyl

Foundation.” But when encouraged to recall cases that tug at

the heart, Agnes keeps returning to the story of Jonathan

Micallef Fisk, better known as Jonty. “He’s exceptionally

bright,” Agnes says, “and so special to Dr. Jyonouchi.” Just last

fall, she saved this boy’s life after an infection…once again.


Portraits of Patients: Lives We Have Changed

Some Things I Want People to Know About Me– JONTY FISK

1. That I am really earnestly nice and I am a decent person andnot a mean person.

2. That I am not retarded and that I am actually smart andknow a lot about a lot of things.

3. I am very tired of proving myself to people who will think I’m retarded no matter what.

4. I stay inside myself mostly because I’m afraid people won’t like me.

5. I am diligent in not caring about being normal. I know I am not normal but I know I can have a great life.

6. I am peerless in my set of thoughts. I am quiet on outside, but loud on inside.

7. Stings that I am so alone. I wish I had a friend who I could talk to and who really understood me.

8. Lastly, I want to formulate a plan for my life. I want to have a meaningful life and not end up in an institution.

S a v i n g Jonty

By Maryann Brinley

MAURA FISK

Jonty Fisk

ANDREW HANENBERG

Jonty Fisk is good at math, a poet, and for the first time in years,his mother proclaims, “I have hope for his future. So does he. Wewould have zero hope if it weren’t for Dr. J.,” says Maura Fisk whoaffectionately abbreviates Harumi Jyonouchi’s name. Her son is 17now and he has been a patient of Dr. J.’s for more than a decade.

Jonty was a full-term, first-born baby who was hitting his mile-stones on time at first. However, normal childhood illnesses like coldsand ear infections severely affected him. He would cry inconsolablyfor hours, according to Maura, and he often had fevers that were dif-ficult to control as well as frequent stomach upsets and diarrhea. Mostalarming for this Minnesota mother of two sons was that every timehe had a normal childhood illness or got a regular vaccination her sonseemed to lose skills that he had attained. Sometimes he would regainthem but sometimes he wouldn’t and he’d have to relearn them. “Evenwhen apparent symptoms of an illness were gone, Jonty still seemedto be in distress,” Maura recalls.

Concerned that something was wrong with her child, Maura wasgiven standard answers for worrisome first-time mothers during doc-tors’ office visits. She was told that children often drop doing onething when they move onto something else and that Jonty was prob-ably just more sensitive or colicky than normal. “His reactions to reg-ular childhood vaccinations were so extreme with spiking fevers andhigh-pitched crying that he would end up in the ER where staffthought he had meningitis. He’s had several spinal taps,” she explains.“Mostly he would be given ibuprofen to help reduce the fever.”

Maura remembers that after one ear infection followed by vaccina-tions, Jonty’s fontanel got so large it bulged and covered the top of hishead. “The pediatrician who saw that Jonty’s head circumference hadgrown so quickly referred us to a pediatric neurologist,” Mauraremembers. That neurologist measured both parents’ heads, said thatJonty’s was larger than normal because both his mother and father hadlarger than normal heads, and told her, “Enjoy your baby.”

“Of course I wanted to hear ‘Everything is okay,’ but I also secret-ly knew something was wrong. I had hoped there would be a fixableanswer from the neurologist. I wanted to feel relieved, but unfortu-nately, I wasn’t.”

This pattern of immune insult, prolonged illnesses, and regressionhas gone on for Jonty’s entire life. Before he became Dr. J.’s patient,various specialists tested him for metabolic, genetic, gastrointestinal,endocrine, fatty acid and neurological disorders. “His brain MRIsshowed scattered ‘ubo’s’ (unidentified bright objects), which wouldcome and go, or increase and decrease in size,” Maura explains.“Neurologists and radiologists could never determine what these wereand ruled out known possibilities such as tuberous sclerosis, neurofi-bromatosis, and demyelinating diseases. Testing of his long-chain fattyacids, B12 and folate levels, and for BH4 (a metabolic disorder)showed abnormalities but never anything fitting a known pattern.The one thing I felt sure about,” says Maura, “was that Jonty’s con-stellation of problems was somehow immune-related.” However, con-ventional immune testing did not show anything obviously wrong.

Then, Harumi Jyonouchi entered their lives. “I remember it was1999. Jonty had just turned 5 and he was sick again. It is particularlydifficult to celebrate your child’s birthday when it feels as if the mile-stone marks just another year of suffering and the sum of a lot of timesearching but not finding answers. You feel like someone racingagainst time. He was supposed to start kindergarten then. How couldhe when he had lost so much of what he had known and he was con-stantly sick and in distress?”

Even with all his loss and regression, Jonty had often been far aheadof other children in skills, Maura says. “He knew all his letters andtheir sounds by his first birthday. Jonty had been able to recognizealmost every two-dimensional shape and all the colors in a deluxe-sized crayon box. He had known his numbers and could count objectsbut became less able to do so. By age 5, his illness and the regressionleft him spinning in circles— something he had never done before—making unintelligible sounds. There were no words I recognized com-ing out of him. It was heartbreaking.”

Feeling strongly that Jonty had an immune-related disorder, Maurawas so desperate that one night she stayed up emailing researchers allover the world asking if anyone would read Jonty’s medical recordsand offer advice. She would pay for their time. Dr. J. respondedimmediately, saying she would be happy to do so. To Maura’s surprise,she was also practicing medicine at a University of Minnesota clinicthen, not far from the Fisk home. Even better, she discovered that Dr.J. was a researcher as well as a clinician.

Half-way through their first appointment, “I realized that we hadfinally found someone who ‘got it.’ She was able to explain a complexsubject like the cytokine network as it related to Jonty’s condition.”Maura’s relief was huge. She had given up the hope of getting anyanswers from specialists. “It was too difficult to bear the inevitable dis-appointment, and too frequently all of Jonty’s medical problems weredumped into an ‘autism’ diagnosis, a label he had been given earlier.Even diarrhea, weight loss, and limping were supposedly manifesta-tions of autistic behavior,” an idea Maura discounts.


Harumi Jyonouchi, MD

Jyonouchi explained to Maura that Jonty had an abnormal innateimmune response to illness. Tests showed that his inflammatorycytokine production was very high in his cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).“Dr. J.’s approach is to be both conservative and aggressive in treat-ment,” Maura explains. “She’s conservative because she is able to tar-get the problem area. For instance, she’ll use a specific inflammatorycytokine inhibitor instead of a blanket steroid anti-inflammatory. Yet,she’s aggressive. Because of her experience handling complex cases ofall kinds and her astute clinical approach, she is able to recognize andverify conditions early on and address them right away. Outside of Dr.Jyonouchi’s care, too many times you are told to take a wait-and-seeapproach until the symptoms become bad enough to fit a textbookdefinition.”

A pediatric allergist as well as an immunologist, Jyonouchi gradu-ated top in her class from the Yokohama City University School ofMedicine and shuns the spotlight but is well known in medical circlesfor her approach to very sick children with chronic conditions and a

puzzling array of symptoms. At the University of South Florida, shetrained under the late Robert Good, MD, a pioneer in immune sys-tem research who performed the first successful human bone marrowtransplant and emphasized goodclinical skills. She was recruitedto NJMS in 2002. Obviouslybrilliant with a depth of knowl-edge not only about the immunesystem but also other systems,she is an expert in diagnosingand treating complex patientsbecause of her clinical skills. AsMaura knows so well, “She listens to her patients and their caregivers.She watches the patient’s behavior. She is respectful of her patients andeven children who are not ordinarily cooperative will do so for Dr. J.”

Because of his difficult behavior, Jonty, Maura admits, has beenasked not to return to some clinics and labs where they have gone fortreatment. When she tells her son that Dr. J. thinks he should have atest or treatment, however, he willingly obliges. “Jonty told me hecooperates with Dr. J.’s requests because she is smart, knows what sheis talking about and doesn’t make him feel worse. She makes him feelbetter.”

Back in 1999, Dr. J. started seeing more children with autism spec-trum disorder (ASD) when Maura started spreading the word aboutDr. J. in the autism community. Now, children with developmentaldisabilities make up a good portion of her overall patient population,in fact. PCRCD describes itself as “an integrated health care plan cen-ter applying innovative, investigative measures for very sick, chroni-cally ill children. PCRCD evaluates each child as a whole and devel-ops a comprehensive diagnostic and treatment plan including anaction plan for emergencies…On-site custom and esoteric testingcapabilities provide the patient with immediate, state-of-the-art test-ing and treatment options reducing the invasive procedures and theneed for ER visits and hospitalizations.”

Though they live thousands of miles away, this mother and her soncontinue to travel to Newark to be treated by Dr. J. “I do not knowwhat we would do without her. She has made all the difference in theworld to Jonty and our family.”

“All of my cases are rare, difficult, time-consuming but very reward-ing,” Jyonouchi says. There are few medical protocols for dealing withsymptoms that can’t easily be categorized. “You have to think of everyadaptive mechanism in the body, how each organ affects another as wellas the whole child. Many genes interact with many others, as well as theenvironment, triggering the immune response. One system compen-sates for another, affecting multiple organs, causing different and com-plex health issues. Clinical features can be disparate and deceiving.”

Explaining her diagnostic skills to Maura once, Dr. J. said, “Well,how are babies diagnosed when they cannot tell you what hurts? Youhave to really look at them and know what you know, see the wholechild, read the history, remember it all and pull everything together.”


The Jonty FoundationIn 2000, Jonty Fisk’s family and a good friend, Robert

Weyerhaeuser, formed a private foundation to raise funds for

neuro-immune disorder research. As Maura Fisk, Jonty’s mother,

explains, “We prefer to support translational, or ‘bench-to-bed-

side,’ research that has a reasonable chance” of making a differ-

ence in the lives of sufferers in the near, not distant, future. “Dr.

Jyonouchi’s research is an ideal model of the type of work we like

to support,” Maura states. One hundred percent of all Jonty

Foundation grants go directly to research. The organization has

underwritten many of Harumi Jyonouchi’s research projects at

PCRCD and has donated generously to her work since 2002. Last

summer, a successful fundraiser was held in Newark at the

Spanish Pavilion and drew the additional sponsorships of

Coram™, specialty infusion services, Home Care Services, a

patient-focused infusion service and a Kabafusion Company,

Walgreens Home Care and Home Solutions Infusion Therapy.

Maura, a trustee of the foundation, points out, “We are very keen

about matching grants and fundraisers for the PCRCD and invite

people and organizations to contact us. In this day when all budg-

ets are stretched and charity dollars are tight, we think that every-

one would welcome doubling their donation dollars.”

If you are interested in donating to PCRCD, please contact Inya

Chehade ([email protected]) at the Foundation of UMDNJ,

(866) 44-UMDNJ, www.umdnj.FoundationOfUMDNJ.org. If you

are interested in having The Jonty Foundation provide a matching

grant for a PCRCD fundraiser or PCRCD grant, contact Maura Fisk

([email protected]).

Near death I reside

Itself a noble nesting

Senses edged – JONTY FISK

ANDREW HANENBERG22 P U L S E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 2

Joujou Yaghi with Julien, 4, Nadia, 3, and Adrien, 9

“Mama, how long will Teta stay at the hospital?Will she be asleep? Will she feel any pain?” Our four-year-old son,

Julien, quietly asked these concerned questions, waiting for my

answer. It was the morning of August 31, 2011, just two days

after Hurricane Irene had blown through the northeast. Many

homes in New Jersey were still without power, streets were com-

pletely flooded, trees and power lines were down in all suburban

towns, and the roads were impassable in many places. Some peo-

ple were using rowboats to get down their streets.


by Inya Chehade

A g a i n

T o J o u j o ug e t

I N M Y O W N W O R D S

To find the best orthopaedic care anywhere for an

indispensable grandmother, this employee discovered

there was no place better than her University home.

TOP: ANDREW HANENBERG

Teta (a name of affection akin to Gram) Joujou, my mother-in-law,beloved grandmother and caretaker of our three children, was prepar-ing for knee revision surgery that morning, slowly shuffling along andpacking the small bag of personal items which she would take toUniversity Hospital (UH). This surgery was three months in the plan-ning but 10 years in the making. A decade earlier, Joujou Yaghi hadexperienced a very bad fall which tore her knee and required emer-gency knee replacement surgery. My mother-in-law’s first name isactually Joumana. Joujou is her nickname.

All was well for Joujou until 2010 when something snapped andbroke inside her prosthetic knee joint, causing deep internal inflam-mation and making walking extremely painful and barely tolerable.Yet, she persevered despite daily pain—caring for our three children,preparing meals, doing laundry, and keeping the house in order whilemy husband and I worked full-time. From time to time, we discussedknee revision surgery with her, but she simply was not ready and pet-rified of the pain she would experience post-surgery as well as thephysical therapy sessions which would be necessary for healing. When2011 arrived and we continued to gently discuss the necessity of thissurgery with her, she finally relented.

I have spent the last 10 years of my career as the senior director ofdevelopment at the Foundation of UMDNJ, the fundraising arm ofthe University. My office is based in Newark and I have worked withdozens of NJMS faculty members over the years — writing grants,organizing galas and fundraisers, and interacting with our medicalschool alumni. Every day at my job is different and unique and, everyday, I greet many faces of friends and colleagues. This school hasbecome my second home. I have had the opportunity to work closelywith many of the faculty members in all departments, includingorthopaedics.

I am always telling others both inside and outside the Universitythat there is an excellence within these walls. There are so many peo-ple doing miraculous things here day in and day out. That’s why Iconcluded early on that this would be the best place for my mother-in-law to have her complicated surgery. Joseph Benevenia, MD, chairof the Department of Orthopaedics, has brought together a compas-sionate and humanistic team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, residents,physician assistants, and nurses. I have interacted frequently with Dr.Benevenia, and we’ve talked about his life not only as a surgeon, butalso as a passionate artist-sculptor. His art work has been displayed atour medical school and he clearly loves being a surgeon as well as anartist. My husband and I knew that Joujou would be in the best ofhands here under the guidance of Benevenia and his team. We alsoknew the orthopaedics department at NJMS and UH serve as a terti-ary referral center for more complicated surgeries which otherorthopaedic surgeons would not attempt to perform. In addition,Joujou’s rare model of prosthetic knee was one most surgeons had notworked with, and the specialists here had valuable experience with herparticular knee prosthetic.

What we didn’t realize was the scope and depth of the pre-workwhich would be necessary before surgery. Joujou’s old prosthetic knee


Francis Patterson, MD, andInya Chehade

All was well for Joujou until

2010 when something

snapped and broke inside

her prosthetic knee joint,

causing deep internal

inflammation and making

walking extremely painful

and barely tolerable.

(This image is not of Joujou’s knee

but for illustration only.)

had been manufactured in Germany so this meant that the team hadto contact the German manufacturer directly to find out more aboutthat particular prosthesis, to get the right equipment to remove theprosthesis as well as the exact matches for the broken pieces whichwere being replaced. Although this sounds relatively easy, it requiredmonths of back-and-forth phone calls overseas, emails with largeCAD drawings of various knee parts, and detailed planning abouthow best to proceed with this complicated surgery. In addition toBenevenia, several other key people were involved, including FrancisPatterson, MD, the lead surgeon for Joujou’s case; Daniel Eloy, MD,anesthesiologist; Nader Ghazal, MD, orthopaedic fellow; AlvaroCabezas, MD, orthopaedic resident; Allyson Wright, PA; CindyBowman, PA; Rassan Cobbs, scrub tech; and Lualhati Caluag, RN,operating room nurse.

When my husband, Ghassan, and I finally had the opportunity tomeet everyone in person, we saw a dream team working as a unitedfront. Patterson stands 6 feet 6 inches, with large burly hands, a hugesmile, and a kind, unintimidating demeanor. He completely put us atease in the first minute we met. I will never forget what he said,“Joujou, we’re going to get you dancing again!” A formerMassachusetts Institute of Technology pitcher for the school’s baseballteam, he has a winning spirit and can-do attitude. The two PAs work-ing on this case were equally passionate, caring, and supportive—always willing to answer our endless questions and give us updates onprogress. A week before surgery, Allyson Wright called to let me knowthat the knee parts had been delivered, that Patterson had tested themout, and that all was a go. August 31 was finalized as the official sur-gery date.

The surgery itself lasted eight hours door to door…a tense eighthours, as my husband and I anxiously awaited news from the team.An hour into surgery, Wright came out of the operating room to letus know that they had made the incision and all was well thus far. Afew hours later, she let us know that they would be replacing one addi-tional part, but that things were going fine. Finally, after eight longhours, we met Patterson outside the operating room and he had ahuge smile so we knew that it had been a success.

This outcome was the result of hours of preparation, thoroughness,and exacting precision. It was the result of the years of training thesemedical professionals pursued. It was the result of compassionate andhumanistic care before, during, and after surgery. In addition to theOR team, there were numerous staff members and nurses on thePACU unit, H-Green, and on the floor who all cared for Joujou. Theresident team included Alvaro Cabezas, MD, as well as John Koerner,MD, Kenneth Koury, MD, and Heather Kong, MD. All of them wereinvolved in her post-operative care.

These individuals quietly do their work, day in and day out, inorder to bring comfort, relief and hope to so many fellow humanbeings. Today, two months following her surgery, Joujou has gottenher life back and is once again dancing with her grandchildren,Adrien, 9, Julien, 4, and Nadia, 3.

A Force More Powerful than Hurricane Irene

As Hurricane Irene tore through the northeast, I rememberedPatterson’s physician assistant Allyson Wright, PA, telling

me that her home was located in a major flood zone. Allysonand I had interacted on a weekly basis for more than threemonths in preparation for my mother-in-law’s surgery. As thelead physician assistant on our case, Allyson was the point per-son for any and all of our questions. She was the liaison betweenthe physicians and the medical device companies, she arrangedall of the logistical details prior to surgery, and she was the calm,reassuring voice through it all.

On the day of Joujou’s surgery, two days following HurricaneIrene, we came to the hospital in the early morning dawn tocheck in, following our pre-operation instructions. As I turnedthe corner of the hallway on H level at UH, there was Allyson,smiling, composed, and reassuring, as always. I asked her howthings had fared at her home during the hurricane only to dis-cover that her home was underwater. She had to flee with hertwo-year-old son to her parents’ home, while her husbandstayed back to salvage personal items. His only way out of thehouse was by using his neighbor’s rowboat. The home was inruins and they would probably not ever be able to return to it.But there was Allyson, ready to scrub for this case, going aboveand beyond the call of duty. I said, “Allyson, I can’t believeyou’re here!” Her answer, simple and humble, was, “I made apromise to be here, and here I am.”

Patterson couldn’t agree more. “By far, she’s the most profes-sional physician assistant I’ve ever worked with. She cares aboutthe patients and she cares about doing her job with compassion.”

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LSELORM TAKYI 25

Allyson Wright

P U L S E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 226

As nighttime descended on Washington, DC, shrouding theU.S. Capitol and its famed landmarks in darkness, MariaSoto-Greene, MD, and James Hill, PhD, boarded an Acela

bound for their respective destinations in New Jersey and New York. The NJMS administrators had been in DC for the annual meeting

of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and soonbegan batting around ideas to bolster the school’s career advisingefforts. By the time their train pulled into Newark’s Penn Station two-and-a-half hours later on that November 2010 evening, Soto-Greeneand Hill had laid the groundwork that would bring learning commu-nities to NJMS.

Rolled out to the students in August 2011, these new communi-ties—where small cohorts of people with common interests and goalslearn together and from each other — are aimed at enhancing theCareers in Medicine program; boosting camaraderie and school spir-it; maximizing interactions between students and faculty; and pro-moting overall student success and wellness. Learning communitiesvary from institution to institution depending on their individualobjectives. At NJMS, as Soto-Greene explains, they are built aroundthe Careers in Medicine program, which helps students identify careergoals, explore specialty and practice options, select and apply to resi-dency programs, and make good career decisions.

Soto-Greene, vice dean, says, “The four years, honestly, they goquickly. It’s critical that students have an opportunity to explore vari-ous specialties, receive appropriate feedback and make informed deci-sions so they will be successful when they leave us.”

It was that AAMC five-day “2010 Annual Meeting: Shaping thePhysicians of the Future” that got the idea underway, says Hill, associ-ate dean, student affairs. “We attended sessions where people presentedtheir work with learning communities. We had been thinking aboutdifferent models to use in our career advising program. During the traintrip we decided that we would look into this more,” he says. After con-sulting with colleagues, they worked out details and in spring 2011 pre-sented a plan to NJMS Dean Robert L. Johnson, MD, who approvedit. “It really came out of hearing what other people are doing.”

Widespread at the undergraduate level, learning communities arerelatively new to medical schools. But the trend is catching on, withapproximately one-third of med schools implementing them, Hillsays. There is even a Learning Communities Institute to share ideasand promote initiatives. These facts are not surprising, consideringthat in 2008 the Liaison Committee on Medical Education beganrequiring schools to document how they are providing supportivelearning environments. A 2009 study in the AAMC’s journalAcademic Medicine states, “Evidence from undergraduate medical edu-cation suggests that developing learning communities is one approachfor enhancing the learning environment and thereby improving stu-dent satisfaction, retention and performance.”

To achieve program objectives at NJMS, students are assigned to

one of five houses: Delphinus, Geranos, Leontos, Lykos, and Ursus.Thirty-six students from each of the four classes are parceled into onehouse where they come together like carefully woven strands ofthread—their dreams, aspirations, talents and values crisscrossing intoa tightly knit group. There, they will remain for the rest of their timein medical school. This arrangement sets the stage for “vertical men-toring” where newer students learn from the upper-classes. To nametheir houses, organizers started with characteristics all doctors shouldpossess, identified animals that represent each attribute and assignedthe corresponding Greek or Latin name. They agreed the ideal doctorshould demonstrate the judgment and courage of a lion (Leontos), thecommunication and collaborative skills of a wolf (Lykos), the resource-fulness and nurturing spirit of a bear (Ursus), the altruism of a dolphin(Delphinus) and the balanced approach to life and work demonstrat-ed by the crane (Geranos).

Using the term “house” was a decision made by students on the ori-entation committee, an apparent nod, says Hill, to the wildly popularbooks by J. K. Rowling about Harry Potter, a boy wizard enrolled atHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where students aregrouped into houses by a “Sorting Hat.” At NJMS, administratorsreplaced the Sorting Hat. “We tried to make the houses as diverse aspossible,” Hill explains, looking at both the male to female ratio aswell as where the student had gone to college. “We didn’t want every-one who went to Rutgers in one house. We spread them out to createthe most diverse houses we could.”

Each house is led by two faculty mentors whose primary role is toprovide career counseling, refer students to resources that can assistthem with their career decisions and serve as role models. At the helm of Delphinus are Chantal Brazeau, MD, a psychiatrist and family medicine physician, and Devashish Anjaria, MD, a surgeon.Overseeing Geranos are Christine Gerula, MD, a cardiologist, and

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LRIGHT: ANDREW HANENBERG 27


Maria Soto-Greene, MD, studentParimal Patel and James Hill, PhD

With a nod to Harry Potter’s experience at Hogwarts School,

“houses” have been designed for a new way of learning and living during medical school.

There is no equivalent in the virus world for the bacteria-slammingability of antibiotics. Since the late 1920s—with the introduction ofpenicillin—countless bacterial infections have been treated and livessaved by a long line of these powerful drugs. Their importance isunderscored by the medical world’s anxiety over the emergence ofantibiotic resistance, which threatens to push us backwards in our bat-tle against infectious disease.

Vaccines to prevent, or diminish the impact of, viral disease becamehousehold words long before the first antiviral therapies came on thescene. Edward Jenner derived a smallpox vaccine from cowpox in thelate 1700s; Louis Pasteur introduced a rabies vaccine in 1885; and apolio vaccine was welcomed on the scene in the 1950s. But it wasn’tuntil the 1980s that antiviral treatments (to fight already establisheddisease) took off, sinking their teeth into such major viral threats asHIV and hepatitis B.

Unlike bacteria, viruses do their damage by infiltrating their host cellsand using the cell’s machinery and metabolism to replicate. Antiviralsjam the replication mechanism. But creating an effective antiviral isextremely complex since the host cell must be preserved undamagedwhile the antiviral stops the infiltrating virus from multiplying.

So, the real leap in the development of antiviral therapies came withfairly recent technological advances, which moved the geneticsequencing of viruses forward more rapidly, yielding pivotal insightsinto viral replication and how that replication can be halted.

Sergei Kotenko, PhD, earned an undergraduate and Master’s degreein biophysics from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1985and a doctoral degree from the Moscow Institute for the Genetics ofMicroorganisms in 1990. With an interest in science, a talent formath and theoretical physics, and a desire to work with his hands andhis brain and “to see the results” of his work, Kotenko bypassed sur-gery, his first professional inclination, moving into the study ofcytokines and their effects on the body’s immune response.

In most viral infections, the immune system stages an attack on theinvading virus, ignited into action by antigens that appear on the

infected cell’s membrane. Cytokines are integral to this immuneresponse to viral onslaught, setting in motion a host of physiologicalmechanisms that help to undermine the virus’s trajectory.

“This was a new field and the work was very exciting; it was a timewhen novel cytokines with unique abilities to regulate various aspectsof immune response were being discovered,” Kotenko says. “I learnedand used genetic engineering to clone and produce interferons andinterleukins [two types of cytokines] to study their biological activity.”

His timing could not have been more ideal. After receiving hisPhD, he continued his investigations at the Institute for about twoyears, proving himself an adept investigator in this rapidly developingarea. But in 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated, producing massivepolitical turmoil that spilled into the world of science. The positiveside for many was that the break-up opened the country’s borders,allowing scientists to seek employment abroad.

“Life there was not easy at the time,” says Kotenko. Funding forresearch dried up, the infrastructure collapsed, and scientific workcame to a halt. Consequently, many researchers left the country,among them several of Kotenko’s friends. One, Lara Izotova, PhD,came to the U.S. for a research position in the laboratory of SidneyPestka, PhD, a renowned scientist and professor at UMDNJ’s RobertWood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway.

Izotova’s new position also proved fortuitous for her Russian friend.The pioneering interferon research in Pestka’s lab was moving aheadrapidly and Izotova recommended her friend to Pestka, who invitedKotenko to join the team. According to his official bio, “Sidney Pestkais known as the ‘Father of Interferon’ for his seminal work on inter-feron that gave birth to what is, today, a $6 billion market directed atthe therapy of hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and other diseasesthat affect mankind. He was the first to purify interferon, the first toclone mature interferons and the first to develop a commercializedrecombinant biotherapeutic—interferon alpha…” On January 13,1992, Kotenko landed in the U.S. to begin work in this dynamic lab-oratory and the next chapter of his life began.


When Sergei Kotenko began studying cytokines (proteins that are active in intercellular communication

and play a pivotal role in the body’s immune system) in the 1980s in Moscow, little did he know

that one day he would make medical history with his discovery of powerful antivirals called interferon lambdas.

by Eve Jacobs

RIGHT: SELORM TAKYI


Sergei Kotenko

“This was a very exciting time for me,” says the scientist. In addi-tion to the camaraderie of working with fellow interferon researchers,Kotenko says, “The human genome project was forging ahead rapid-ly, providing scientists new information on almost a daily basis.” Theambitious project, which had begun in October 1990, produced a

working draft of the chemical base pairs that makeup our DNA, identifying and mapping the

approximately 20,000 to 25,000 human genesby 2000. The immediate accessibility of theinformation on the Internet helped movescientific research forward more quickly.

In Pestka’s lab, life was very heady. Kotenko was part of the teamthat made deep inroads into the understanding of interferon gamma,interferon alpha, and interleukin 10, publishing their findings in suchmajor journals as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,EMBO Journal, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Cell, Immunity,and Oncogene, among others. “With the abundance of novel untappedinformation from the sequencing of the human genome, it was a per-fect time to apply my skills in database mining to identify and clonequite a few novel receptors and novel cytokines,” says the scientist,“and to match the cytokines with the receptors.”

In 2001, Kotenko had the opportunity to set up his own laborato-ry in the Department of Biochemistry at NJMS. With ample federalfunding, he continued his exploration into the field of cytokines andforged ahead to pursue new knowledge about their roles in theimmune response. His scientific “hunch” was that there were morecytokines than had yet been discovered. In 2003, his research teamreported the cloning and characterization of a new type of interferonthat he named interferon lambdas (also called type III interferons) inNature Immunology. Kotenko says that “this discovery opened newdirections in antiviral research and paved the road for solving some ofthe puzzles in the field. For example, it provided an explanation ofwhy even with deleted receptors for types I and II interferons, anantiviral response against certain viruses is still able to be mounted.”

Interestingly, a group of scientists from a small biotech companymade the same discovery at the same time, published their results inthe same issue of Nature Immunology, called their findings Interleukin28 and 29, and applied for patent protection.

“Lambda became the focus of my research,” Kotenko continues.What he discovered about this new type of interferon is that it signals

through a different receptor complex than interferon alpha and beta,yet its antiviral action is similar to that of the other interferons. “Butinterferon lambda provides protection even when interferon alpha andbeta are absent,” he explains. The scientist and his group cloned threerelated cytokines that they named interferon (IFN)-lambda 1, 2 and 3.

“IFN-lambda 1 and 3 are almost identical in their function, where-as IFN-lambda 2 is the weakest one in the family,” explains Kotenko.After a number of years, the team from the biotech company wasawarded the patent for interferon lambda 1 and Kotenko’s team wasrecently awarded the patent for interferon lambda 3.

The researcher has high hopes for the discovery. “Interferon lamb-da 3 is the most biologically potent and active of the three,” he says.“Its strong antiviral activity and antitumor action is similar to inter-feron alpha, which is an established treatment for a number of viraldiseases and cancers. But interferon alpha is a toxic therapy, oftencausing severe side effects.”

IFN-lambda has been shown to produce fewer and shorter-termside effects because, unlike receptors for interferons alpha and beta,which are expressed in all tissue, receptors for interferon lambda areexpressed primarily in epithelial tissue. “This is where you need themost antiviral protection,” he explains, “because this is where mostviruses enter the body.”

Kotenko’s discovery changes the landscape of interferon research,adding a pivotal chunk of knowledge and potential avenues for newand improved therapies for chronic viral diseases. In fact, just last yearhe was recognized with the prestigious Seymour and Vivian MilsteinAward for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research.

“Our interferon can be used to treat chronic hepatitis B and C infec-tions and could be part of a combination therapy against certain can-cers. Its therapeutic potential for the treatment of some autoimmunediseases is just starting to be studied. For example, it has a connectionto asthma, because asthmatic children demonstrate a deficiency ininterferon production during respiratory infections,” he says.

IFN-lambda 3 has the potential to be used alone, or in combina-tion with other drugs, as a therapy for a wide range of human diseases(not all of them caused by viruses). Vince Smeraglia, Esq., director ofUMDNJ’s Office of Technology Transfer and Business Development,calls Kotenko’s finding “a great technology.”

There’s no doubt that Kotenko will continue on the forefront ofinterferon investigation as IFN-lambdas steadily gain recognitionwithin and beyond the field of cytokine research. “Although the dis-covery of IFN-lambdas advanced our understanding of the antiviralresponse, it also brought to light many additional questions,” he says.“The main one in my mind is why two independent antiviral systems,relying on either type I or type III IFNs, developed during evolution.What are the unique functions of IFN-lambdas, the functions thatcannot be handled by classical type I IFNs alone? I hope our ongoingexperiments with IFN-lambda receptor-deficient animals, which werecently generated in the laboratory, will bring us closer to theanswer.”


Kotenko’s discovery changes the

landscape of interferon research, adding a pivotal

chunk of knowledge and potential avenues for new and

improved therapies for chronic viral diseases.

Basil Hubbi, MD, a radiologist. Iris Herrera, MD, an internist, andLawrence Chinn, MD, an anesthesiologist, preside over Leontos; whileTia Manning, MD, a pediatrician, and Sharon Gonzales, MD, aninterventional radiologist, are responsible for Lykos. Leading Ursus areKarma Warren, MD, an emergency medicine physician, and DavidCennimo, MD, an expert in adult and pediatric infectious diseases.“We chose faculty who had a strong interest in working with studentsand had received strong recommendations from students on course/clerkship evaluations,” Hill explains. Mentors meet monthly to shareideas. They also work with their students at least twice a year trackingprofessional and career development.

“We are utilizing new resources to give students tools to help themmake the best career choices,” says Gerula, Careers in Medicine assis-tant dean and assistant professor of medicine. “As we continue withour own faculty mentors, we expect to mature in our learning com-munity environment.”

To strengthen students’ connections with NJMS and each other,administrators knew that levity in the houses would be important.“They come into medical school almost feeling as if, ‘I’ve given up mylife because doctors are so sacrificed,’” says Gerula, an NJMS alumwho is also the medical director for the cardiology practice and theechocardiogram lab at the Doctors’ Office Center. To combat thisthinking, mentors went beyond the facts in their curriculum vitae andshared personal information to show there is more to lifethan an examination room, says Gerula, a self-pro-fessed soccer mom of two and shoe-lover.

From these extra-curricular faculty bio-sketches, studentslearned that among their mentors are doting parents who relish thetime they spend with their children. There’s a frustrated actor wholoves the theater; a community activist; a kayaker who enjoys snowand spending time with friends; a photographer-cyclist and chess-enthusiast; and an orchid-lover who enjoys cooking, the color red, theflavor of caramel and the smell of cinnamon.

To break from the stress of medical school, various activities havebeen organized. A competition was held during orientation for stu-dents to design coats of arms for their respective houses. Other eventsare in the works, including a wellness competition this spring and apossible dance contest, says Hill.

But the support within the house is all important. The 36 studentsfrom each class are subdivided into groups of six. Every first-year grouphas three second-year student mentors as well as someone who is a liai-son to faculty mentors. This way, if a first-year student is having trou-ble, he or she could call on a student mentor for help, Hill explains.This arrangement will continue until the first years have reached theirfourth year. “By that time, some of them will have become mentors. It’slike how a family works from generation to generation.”

The student mentoring aspect within the learning communities isoverseen by the CALM (Collaborative Approach to Learning Medi-cine) program, a student-to-student support service. CALM, withinthe Center for Academic Success and Enrichment (CASE), providesmentoring, tutoring and academic review services, and is “designedspecifically to address the learning demands of medical school, whichdiffer significantly from those of college,” says CASE Director SarahKarl, PhD, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology andwomen’s health. “For instance, the medical student has to adapt his orher learning style to extremely varied courses —memorizing biochem-ical pathways versus cadaver dissection versus engineering-like calcu-lations of physiological processes. Peer mentoring from upper-classstudents guides first-years as they adapt with less time lost in trial anderror and with empathetic support from those who have recently beenthrough it.”

Following an application process, 120 second-year students wereselected to mentor, tutor or provide academic review services to first-years. Of that, 90 are mentoring while the remaining volunteers tutor

and, Karl says, “a select number of star students from the second-year class prepare academic review sessions just before

important examinations.” A CALM executive commit-tee includes second-year student coordinatorsParimal Patel and Meghan McCormick who over-

see the mentors; Jennifer Lee and Michael Ingargiola who are incharge of the tutors; and Chris Morton, Jade Ku and ScottPasichow who coordinate the academic reviews. Amit

Chaudhari is a networking coordinator. For Patel, in the Delphinus House, becoming a coordinator and a

mentor gave him a chance to share what he’s learned. “Medical schoolis a rough journey. It is hard for a person outside of the environmentto truly understand what you are going through,” Patel says. “Afterthat first year, every second-year has something they wish they haddone differently and advice to give. The house is a resource for me, aplace where I can get advice from upperclassmen and faculty.”

Soto-Greene says that faculty mentors are getting as much out ofthe program as students. “We didn’t anticipate their excitement abouttheir own house within this NJMS family.” And, while the overall goalof the learning communities is to ensure that students make appro-priate career choices, equally important, adds Soto-Greene, is that stu-dents “develop as individuals who have an even greater capacity to carefor their patients.” Meanwhile, all of these connections are helping tomake each new house “a home within a home.”


A Home Within a HomeContinued from page 27

“After that first year, every second-year student

has something they wish they had done differently

and advice to give.” — Parimal Patel

ANDREW HANENBERG

R O B I N S . S C H R O E D E R , M D ’ 8 6ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

Dear friends,

Over the past eight months as presidentof the Alumni Association, I have

become ever more appreciative of our alum-ni who give their time, talents and generousfinancial support to our students. All of usare pulled in so many directions these days:family responsibilities, professional obliga-tions and many requests for contributions.It seems that every organization in need ofsupport has our “number” (or address as itmay be). I find this overwhelming. In speak-ing with others, I have learned that there areseveral ways that people, in general, respondto these requests. Some send a little bit toevery organization that asks. Others becomeso overwhelmed or annoyed by the sheernumber of requests, that they all go in thetrash. Then there are those who realize thatthey cannot give to all organizations, butrather, take the time to reflect on which“cause” stirs passion and makes the best useof the contribution.

In 2012, I am encouraging you tobecome one of these thoughtful donors. Iassure you that all of the donations that theAlumni Association of NJMS receives forstudent scholarships go to student scholar-

ships. Currently, we are considering severalspecial projects, including upgrades of themain lecture halls. I am also interested inreplacing the floor of the old gym (next tothe cafeteria) with a multipurpose floor thatwould allow for athletic activities as well asgeneral student activity space. Space contin-ues to be in short supply in the MedicalScience Building. Why not make 2012 theyear that you make a difference for a currentstudent?

How else can you reconnect with yourmedical school?

Join your classmates for Alumni Reunionweekend, April 27– 29.

Let us give you a tour…lots of new facilities.

Host a gathering for alumni in your area(with our help).

Mentor an NJMS student about yourspecialty.

Ask for a contact list for your classmates(and then contact them!).

Chat with the student who calls you forour spring phonathon.

Be a representative for your class (volun-teers always welcome).

Participate in our first alumni/studentgolf outing on September 10, 2012.

Purchase some NJMS merchandise fromthe school store—http://www.theheinrichmaneuver.net/2011/?q=catalog.

Attend the Scholarship Awards Dinnernext fall because you have become a donorof: A Named Scholarship in honor of afriend, family member, or mentor($1,500+), or an Endowed Scholarship inperpetuity ($25,000+).

Finally, I would like to reassure you thatdespite the changes to UMDNJ, New JerseyMedical School will continue to thrive andprovide an outstanding medical education toour students.

Please share your ideas, thoughts, or con-cerns with me: [email protected].


A L U M N I F O C U S

The Alumni Association and the NJMS commu-nity extend deepest sympathies to the families andfriends of:

Andrew “Diko” Gnoy, MD’98 on September27, 2011 in Pompton Plains. Gnoy practicedobstetrics and gynecology in Wayne, where helived with his wife Stephanie Potts-Gnoy.

Michael Brian McKenna, MD’00 on July 11,2011. McKenna served his residency and fellow-ship at Brown University and was an oncologist,practicing in Cleveland, OH. He is survived byhis wife Laura; his daughter Lindsey; his motherDorothy Figurski; his father Jeffrey McKenna;two brothers and many other relatives.

Claude R. Poliak, MD’60 on October 27,2011. He served in the U.S. Air Force duringthe Vietnam era as a flight surgeon/ophthalmol-ogist and retired from the U.S. Navy as a com-mander. Poliak had private practices in bothTampa, FL, and Cartersville, GA and is survivedby his wife Diana and daughter Juliana.

In Memoriam…

SAVE THE DATES!April 27, 28 & 29, 2012NJMS Alumni Reunion Weekend

Join your classmates for a great weekend!

FRIDAY, APRIL 279:15 a.m. • “Progress in Primary Care —Transforming the Future of Care” Speaker: Robert Eidus, MD, President, NJ Academyof Family Physicians

11 a.m. • The 44th Annual Harold J. Jeghers, MD,Memorial Lecture, speaker to be announced

12:30 p.m. • Alumni Luncheon and Campus Tour

6:30 p.m. • Welcome ReceptionSheraton Parsippany Hotel*

SATURDAY, APRIL 28Noon • Newark Museum Tour

7 p.m. • Wine Experience /Cocktail Hour and DinnerDance at the Sheraton Hotel

SUNDAY, APRIL 299:30 a.m. • Farewell Brunch at the Sheraton Hotel

*There is a limited block of rooms at the Sheraton Hotel,available at a special rate, so please reserve before March27 by calling 1-800-627-8148.

September 10, 2012NJMS Alumni & Student Golf OutingCrestmont Country Club, West Orange, NJ

For information or reservations for these events,please contact Dianne Mink at (973)972-6864 [email protected].


N E W S O F S P E C I A L I N T E R E S T T O N J M S A N D G S B S G R A D U A T E S

C L A S S N O T E S

1960’SDaniel Cowell, MD’60 has beenretired since July 2009 and enjoysbeach life on the Delaware coast,working part-time as an independentcontractor and volunteering for thelocal fire department. His wife Dianaretired as a hospice social worker.They have four children and fivegrandchildren, enjoy traveling, powerboating and entertaining. He wouldwelcome contact from friends.

Peter Dorsen, MD’62 is teaching bio-medicine at the American Academy ofAcupuncture and serving as an alcoholand drug counselor at the Neuro-physiological Institute in MN.

John Killion, MD’62 retired from theactive practice of pediatrics in June2011 at age 75. He is now involved asa consultant in pediatrics, specializingin autism.

Gerald S. Levey, MD’61 and his wife,Dr. Barbara Levey, are still activelyworking at the David Geffen School ofMedicine at UCLA. He just publisheda book on leadership at large organiza-tions, entitled Never Be Afraid To DoThe Right Thing. The Leveys, who cel-ebrated their 50th anniversary lastJune, are well and thoroughly enjoyingtheir children and grandchildren.

1970’SWilliam Annitto, MD’74 is not plan-ning retirement yet because hisyoungest daughter, Leah, will be grad-uating from the Lawrenceville Schoolthis year and plans to become a sur-geon.

Peter Blume, MD’77 had the oppor-tunity to visit NJMS in June 2011 andcommented, “What a great place!”

Alvin Goldberg, MD’76 announcedthat he has a new grandson, AsherStephen Goldberg, born in March2011.

Enrico P. Veltri, MD’79 is currentlyvice president, U.S. Medical Affairs atSanofi Aventis.

1980’SMichael Kane, MD’83 joined the FoxChase Cancer Center as an assistantprofessor of medicine and has beenappointed medical director of medicaloncology and infusion services atAtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute inEgg Harbor Township.

Gerard Cicalese, MD’89 and his wifeAlyssa had a baby boy, GerardPasquale, born on July 2, 2009.

Michael Finkelstein, MD’83 marriedLeslie A. Bowman on June 22, 2011.

Mark Kortpeter, MD’88 became thedirector of the Infectious DiseaseClinical Research Program (IDCRP)in August 2010. The IDCRP is a network of researchers focused oninfectious diseases of importance tothe military.

Lauren D. LaPorta, MD’88 present-ed a paper at the Society for Criminaland Police Psychology on narcissisticpersonality disorder and filicide inOctober 2011; and a poster on a newalcohol withdrawal protocol at theAcademy of Psychosomatic MedicineAnnual Conference in Phoenix, AZ,in November 2011.

Kenneth Paonessa, MD’84 was elect-ed chairman of the Global OutreachCommittee of the Scoliosis ResearchSociety, coordinating surgical volun-teers in the developing world.

Donna Alison Pearce, MD’89received her MPH and CPH in May2011 from the Columbia UniversityMailman School of Public Health.

Mark Pollack, MD’82 is the GraingerProfessor and Chair of the Depart-ment of Psychiatry, Rush UniversityMedical Center, Chicago, IL.

Mark Silidker, MD’83 has been elect-ed chairman of the Department ofRadiology at Doylestown Hospital inDoylestown, PA. He is also the med-ical director of PET/CT there.

Michelle Torchia, MD’86 was award-ed her MPH from the University ofNorth Carolina, Chapel Hill in May2011. She is the medical director andvice president of medical affairs forComplete Care Health Network, a pri-mary care organization in south Jersey.

Allan Tunkel, MD’84, PhD, MACP,is the chairman of the Department ofMedicine at Monmouth MedicalCenter, Long Branch. He was honoredon December 8, 2011 with an APPLEaward by the Institute for Nursing.The award recognizes physicians whoare supportive of nurses and the kindof patient advocacy that is the founda-tion of nursing.

Henry Ushay, MD’86 is the directorof the Pediatric Critical Care Unit atthe Children’s Hospital at MontefioreMedical Center, NY, and was promot-ed to professor of clinical pediatrics atthe Albert Einstein College ofMedicine.

1990’SSarah Jones Sapienza, MD’98 writesthat her daughter, Catherine Ruth,turned two in November 2011.

Richard Peck, MD’94 passed hisrecertification exam for the AmericanSociety of Plastic Surgery and has anew office in Morristown.

2000’SJanice Brown, MD’09 gave birth toher first child, Zan Demara Moses, onMay 20, 2011. Everyone is doing well.

Crystal S. Denlinger, MD’01received a CHASE Award at the FoxChase Cancer Center survivorship cel-ebration in June 2011. The award rec-ognizes an individual who exemplifiesthe spirit of survivorship. Denlinger, a

medical oncologist at Fox Chase,spearheaded the interdisciplinary ini-tiative to establish the Center forSurvivorship at Fox Chase. The pro-gram creates a coordinated care plan tomake sure a survivor’s oncologist andother providers are involved in theeffects of treatment as well as preven-tive care for future health.

Joana Emmolo, MD’05 is an attend-ing radiation oncologist at OverlookHospital in Summit.

Sunny Kim, MD’01 is busy running aprivate practice and raising two chil-dren with his wife Yun. He thanksNJMS for teaching him the core valuesof a good physician.

Christina Pisani, MD’02 was marriedto Shawn Conway on October 1,2011. She is currently a fellow inmaternal fetal medicine at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, and willgraduate in June 2013.

Laura Goglas Robinette, MD’06announces the birth of Charlotte RoseRobinette on April 1, 2011. Threemonths later, she joined Primary CareAssociates of NJ, a medical/pediatricpractice in Montville.

Carolyn Van Why, MD’08 andDavid Van Why, MD’07 are practic-ing in Philadelphia, PA and wereexpecting their second child in the fallof 2011.

Sylvia Washington, MD’07 loves liv-ing in Georgia and is married with twochildren, Christian, 2, and Daniel, 1.

Join the Alumni Association of New Jersey Medical School

General Dues $65.00Resident in Training $15.00Lifetime Membership $1,000.00

Visit http://njms.umdnj.edu/, click on Alumni and Alumni Association and thenOnline Dues Payment to pay your dues online.

The Lifetime Membership is being offered to our alumni as a means to perpetu-ate the goals of the Alumni Association and enable its members to sustain theirsupport in a more meaningful way. All categories of membership will afford youthe opportunity to keep connected with us. You will continue to receive all mem-bership benefits, including NJMS Pulse magazine, information about upcomingevents and reunions, and library privileges.

Alumni Association of NJMS, 185 South Orange Avenue, MSB-B504, Newark,NJ 07101–1709. Photos are welcome. You can also send your news via e-mailto: [email protected] or fax us at (973)972-2251.

COURTESY OF HOSPIRA, INC.34 P U L S E W I N T E R / S P R I N G 2 0 1 2

A L U M N I P R O F I L E

Oh, The Places You’ll Go, the classic bookby Dr. Seuss, couldn’t offer a more

perfect backdrop for the life of SumantRamachandra, the chief scientific officer andsenior vice-president of Hospira, Inc, a glob-al pharmaceutical and medication deliverycompany, one of the world’s leaders ingeneric, injectable drugs, biosimilars andmedical devices. “Life takes you in manydirections,” he says, and he, more than most42-year-old superstars, should know. AnMD–PhD graduate of NJMS and GSBS-Newark, Ramachandra did his internshipand residency at Harvard-affiliatedMassachusetts General Hospital and alsoearned an MBA from the University ofPennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

“Everyone has a different thing that drivesthem. Ever since I was young, part of mypleasure has been in knowing that I amdoing something that is creating value.”

Born in the United Kingdom,Ramachandra says, “I have lived and movedall over the world”…Nigeria twice, manyplaces in India as well as in the UnitedStates, four countries, four continents, lotsof schools including an all-boys RomanCatholic boarding school in rural Arkansasthat was part of a Benedictine monastery.“The monks were very nice at SubiacoAcademy but I was in tenth grade, 14 yearsold, and it certainly had its challenges. Itwas a real European style monastery in themiddle of nowhere started by the

Benedictines more than 150 years ago. Thiswas the 1980s and it wasn’t New Jersey orthe northeast. But I liked it and made somevery good friends.”

Ramachandra’s father was a civil engineerwho worked for an American company thatsent him on long-term assignments andtook the family to these far-flung places.“He loved his job and had a strong workethic. I ended up at Subiaco because myfather and mother were heading back toNigeria for a third time and my brother andI didn’t want to go along. The educationsystem there could be problematic. My par-ents were not wealthy so they had to find agood education for us that wasn’t expensive.My father had seen an ad for this monasteryschool in a newspaper when we lived inHouston. Even though we moved around alot, my parents were always seeking onething: a stable education for us.”

In fact, the longest he lived anywhere inthe world was right in Newark when hespent seven years earning his MD and PhD.Ramachandra graduated from RutgersUniversity where he had met his wife,Leena, a pharmacy major. He fell in love notonly with Leena but also with her area ofstudy. “Her courses were much more inter-esting than mine,” he remembers. He hadbeen an engineering major to start but fin-ished up in biochemistry and even foundtime for a research project in the School ofPharmacy. When he was applying to med-ical schools, his lab director, DeborahLaskin, PhD, thought he would be a perfectMD-PhD candidate.

“The seven years I spent at UMDNJ setthe foundation for where I am today,” saysRamachandra. He leads a worldwide team ofmore than 600 scientists, clinicians and pro-fessionals, was named in the Top 40 Under40 by Crain’s Chicago and this past year, hewas listed by PharmaVoice as among the 100Most Inspiring People. “I was just 21 whenI started at UMDNJ and it was such a criti-cal time.” He spent that first year of medicalschool studying and making friends but alsoplanning ahead. “I hit all the labs that firstsummer so I could make a decision on my

S U M A N T R A M A C H A N D R A , M D – P H D ’ 9 7

Going Places…All Over the WorldBY MARYANN BRINLEY

PhD research quickly.” He chose cancerinvestigator Elizabeth Raveche’s laboratory.A professor of pathology with an interest inleukemia, Raveche is “the most wonderfulperson,” but Ramachandra also gives creditto other NJMS and GSBS mentors includ-ing Sylvia Christakos, PhD, Harvey Ozer,MD, Robert Wieder, MD, PhD, HelenFernandes, PhD and Pranela Rameshwar,PhD. “These people really shaped my life.”Because of them and the fact that he had togive so many talks during his three PhDyears of study, Ramachandra built confi-dence. “I wasn’t a good public speaker atfirst.” But gradually and with encourage-ment and critiques, “I gained the knack ofexplaining science in layman’s terms. Thisskill has helped me get into managementpositions. Being able to explain science andclinical medicine to people who are from awide variety of backgrounds is a very powerful tool.”

One UMDNJ memory that stands out isthe sadness while watching his class get readyto graduate after their four years of medicalschool. By design, the PhD program wouldextend his years in Newark. “Deep in the labby then, I was working on that day of com-mencement and it was very emotional forme. I had built deep relationships with myclassmates those first two years together inmed school and I saw them getting ready inthe courtyard. They were leaving school butI was still there. It was tough. I didn’t knowhow long my PhD research would take andwas spending day after day in a departmentof pathology with no windows. But I haveno regrets and I was doing good research.” In

fact, Ramachandra believes that the MD–PhD program provided great leverage for hisfuture career as a physician researcher. “Thisis what I always wanted in medicine. Therewas never any question in my mind afterthat senior year at Rutgers but frankly, theskills I learned at UMDNJ got me theinternship and residency at Mass General,Harvard University’s oldest hospital. Thishelped make my career.”

Set on a future in academic medicinewhen he was there at Harvard, Ramachandraswitched directions when a close familymember was diagnosed with cancer. This sadnews brought his family—wife, Leena, andthree daughters, Yasmine, Avani andShalini— back to New Jersey. Then heaccepted a position at Merck and the die wascast for sure. “I enjoyed it so much that Iknew this was what I was meant to be doing.I always want to do the best that I can withany opportunity and I can sense when I am

ready to grow. I’ve had people aroundme…my mentors, my bosses…who havealso sensed, ‘This guy is ready for the nextlevel.’ I’ve done the right things but I’ve alsohad the right people around me. There is noway you can get to where you want in lifewithout other people’s help.” Ramachandraalso believes, “As a professional starting out,or even if you are already in a career, alwayskeep your choices wide open, stay relevant,understand where your liabilities are, andchoose one or two areas of yourself tofix…continuously.” Right now, he’s trying tobecome a better listener.

“I talk a lot,” he laughs. “One skill I amworking on is to say less and listen more.”

When he’s in Chicago where Hospira isheadquartered, Ramachandra works from7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. “It’s a good11-12 hour day.” He also puts in a couple ofhours on weekends from home. “I love myfamily and kids,” he explains, joking that wecould have caught him doing physics home-work the other night with his daughter.“There is a lot going on” in his life as well aslots of travel all over the world. “My wifeand kids have adjusted beautifully to themove to Chicago from New Jersey.”

Ramachandra’s career focus at Merck andthen later at Schering–Plough was on devel-oping drugs in oncology and immunologyfor diseases like cancer and arthritis. Now, inthis position at Hospira for the past fouryears, “Every therapeutic area under the sun”is in his domain and takes him from twosites in Australia, to the Philippines, toIndia, the United Kingdom, San Diego, andKansas. “I have to be involved in prettymuch all of medicine, including chemistryand formulations, electromechanical, materi-als and software, all research and develop-ment, as well as medical and regulatoryaffairs. I am not an expert in many of thesefields but along with having strong technical



Sumant Ramachandra and his wife

Leena recently established “The

Ramachandra Family Endowed

Scholarship” at NJMS. “Giving money to

our alma maters is one way to give

back,” he says. If you are interested in

contributing, contact Dianne Mink at the

Alumni Association-NJMS, 973-972-

6864 or [email protected]. To explore

the idea of a scholarship in the name of

your family or in someone’s memory at

either NJMS or GSBS-Newark, you can

also contact Elizabeth Ketterlinus at the

Foundation of UMDNJ, 973-679-4684

or [email protected].

“The seven years I spent at UMDNJ–NJMS and GSBS–Newark set the

foundation for where I am today,” says Sumant Ramachandra. He leads a

worldwide team of more than 600 scientists, clinicians and professionals

and was listed by PharmaVoice as among the 100 Most Inspiring People.

36 P U L S E W I N T E R 2 0 1 2

A L U M N I P R O F I L E

In the Hip-Flores family, decisions are easi-er made than executed. From choosing

medical school to enlisting in the military tomarrying and starting a family, each choicefor both Jules and Jennifer was made swiftlyand without hesitation. The decisions wereeasy, but the ramifications extremely diffi-cult, including a 230-mile distance separat-ing Jules from his wife and son during hisorthopaedic surgery residency, and Jennifer’srecent six-month deployment as a psychia-trist to Afghanistan.

Jules and Jennifer always wanted to bedoctors. “For me, it was an easy decision,”Jules says. He never wavered in his convic-tion. “It’s a lot of satisfaction, and neverburdensome. It’s never felt like a job that Idisliked and had to work at endlessly.”

Both grew up with strong physician rolemodels. Jennifer’s grandfather was a pediatri-cian in Hawaii whose personal, longitudinalpatient relationships made her consider acareer in primary care. “He was known inhis community and people trusted him,” shesays. “I was eventually drawn to psychiatryfor the same reason. You sit down with peo-ple and really get to know them.” Jules wassimilarly impressed by his father’s work as aninternist, by his capacity to help people, andby the independence he enjoyed.

“Medicine is a means of public service,”Jennifer explains. She had volunteered atnursing homes and for hospice during col-lege, but felt her capacity to contribute was

limited by her knowledge. Jules, whoworked for Americorps in the Jersey Citypublic school system as a Spanish languagetranslator before starting medical school,echoed this sentiment.

Service also brought the couple to themilitary. Upon enrolling at NJMS, Jenniferaccepted a Navy scholarship and Jules enlist-ed in the Army Reserves. “It seemed like anexciting way to give back. It was somethingI had always wanted to do,” Jules explains.Jennifer always had a positive view of themilitary based on her father’s service in theNavy during the Vietnam War. “It appealedto me to pay for medical school with timeand service as opposed to money or debt. Iwas always patriotic and am even more sonow. It was shortly after 9/11 and I wantedto serve the country,” she says. At that time,she “wasn’t even thinking about family. I justthought it would be fun to travel, go on aship, and have adventures.”

Jules and Jennifer became fast friends asclassmates. No romance blossomed as theystudied together and supported each otherthrough two years in the classroom and theirthird year hospital rotations, when bothrethought their former specialty choices.Jules had wanted to be a cardiac surgeon butwas inspired by the orthopaedic surgery resi-dents, the “hardest workers, most efficient,most prepared, and most independent. Iaspired to be them,” he says. He foundorthopaedic surgery satisfying. “The patientsare healthier and do better,” he adds. “Youknow what you can achieve. The proceduresare straightforward. The work is tangible.”

Jennifer shied away from the rushednature of the medical clinic and gravi-tated towards psychiatry. “It was theonly the rotation where I got to spendas much time as I wanted withpatients. In medicine, I never felt likeI knew the whole story,” she admits.

They started dating during theirfourth year at NJMS. Jules knew hewanted to marry Jennifer almostimmediately. “We got along so well,there was never a question in my

mind,” he says. Seven months later, he pro-posed to her in the Philadelphia train sta-tion. A few weeks later, right after gradua-

tion, they went on a trip to Hawaii andspontaneously eloped. “Looking back, it’skind of crazy,” Jennifer says. “I’m not usual-ly that impulsive. I just knew.”

They kept their marriage a secret tem-porarily and prepared to move apart to starttheir residencies: she in psychiatry inWashington, DC, and he in orthopaedic sur-gery in Brooklyn. Determined to overcomethe distance, Jules and Jennifer took turnsdoing the drive whenever their schedulesallowed. This plan worked well until theirson was born one year later. After this point,it was Jules who did most of the travelling.After finishing 24 hours on call, he wouldleave the hospital and drive directly toMaryland, where he would have only 12hours to sleep and be with his family beforegetting back in the car at 1 a.m. to return toBrooklyn. They kept this travel arrangementfor three years.

JENNIFER DENTON HIP-FLORES, MD’06JULES DAVID HIP-FLORES, MD’06

Doctoring,Distance, andDeploymentBY LISA JACOBS

They started dating during their

fourth year at NJMS and Jules knew

he wanted to marry Jennifer almost

immediately. “We got along so well,

there was never any question in

my mind,” Jules says.

Jennifer was deployed to Afghanistanonly a few weeks after completing her resi-dency in August 2010. She was stationed ata NATO hospital in Kandahar for sixmonths, but was apart from her family foreight months total. Jules, then chief residentin orthopaedic surgery at SUNY Downstate,temporarily relocated with his son to hisparents’ home in New Jersey duringJennifer’s deployment. While Jules commut-ed to Brooklyn each day, his motherwatched their son, Javier, known as “Javi.”He was just about to turn three years oldwhen Jennifer left. “How do you explain toyour kid that you’re leaving?” she asks. “Ithangs over me still. I hope I won’t have toexplain something like that to him again.”

Jennifer found her work in Afghanistanto be both challenging and rewarding. Sheimmersed herself in it completely, working14-hour shifts each day and overnight callevery fifth night. She enjoyed practicingmedicine in an environment with minimalbureaucracy and believed in the purpose ofwhat she was doing, supporting the psycho-logical well-being of both the troops and thetrauma center hospital staff, who often expe-rienced compassion fatigue and burnout.

“The work was meaningful,” she says. “Ifelt good about what we did. It was reallyfulfilling.” Part of that work was teachingpeople how to focus on the meaning andrelevancy of their personal contributions to

the war effort. “A lot of guys join up feelingone way and get there and feel like whatthey’re doing is pointless,” she explains. “It’shard to get them to focus on some meaning-ful aspect, and realize that everyone’s job isimportant on some level.”

For her service, Jennifer was awarded fivemedals, including the Navy and MarineCorps Commendation Medal, which recog-nized her work getting wounded servicemenmoved from distant, crowded tents to dormsnear the hospital. The walk from the tentsto the hospital involved a mile-long hikeover rocks and was nearly impossible forthose on crutches. Bathrooms and showerswere only accessible from the tents via stairs.Jennifer says that she was given the medalfor pointing out “the obvious:” dorms withaccessible plumbing and electricity reservedfor “VIPs” that were nearly always emptyshould be put to good use.

Jennifer returned to Maryland inFebruary 2011 and began work at the psy-chiatric consult liaison service at WalterReed National Military Medical Center inBethesda. “It feels like a privilege to workhere every day,” she says. In August 2011,five years after medical school graduation,the Hip-Flores family became one house-hold for the first time, when Jules wasawarded a fellowship in adult reconstructionat Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. And, saysJennifer, “Things finally feel normal.”


and business leaders around me, I try to usethe same compass of customer-and-patient-centricity in driving my questions, guidanceand decisions.”

His mission from the day he started hasbeen to drive the “rigor of the science” intohis group. To do that, he stays in close com-munication. “As a leader, sometimes you getfiltered information so to know what is reallyhappening in the guts of an organization,you have to travel and interact at a local level,one to one, having roundtable discussionsand meeting people in the hallways and thelabs. It takes talking with the staff and listen-ing carefully to what they are really trying totell you.” Just back from India and theUnited Kingdom when we caught up withhim, he recalls being surprised by the waychemotherapy was being delivered to patientsin an English hospital. As an experienced cli-nician, Ramachandra asked the British med-ical team, “Why do you do it this way? That’snot how it’s done in the U.S.”

“Health care varies from location to loca-tion and even I have to learn how customerswill truly use our products, our drugs andour devices,” he explains. It turned out thatthe British health care team was simply fol-lowing their rules set by the National HealthService (NHS) for chemo delivery. “My jobmay be global but at the end of the day,how medicine is practiced is all local…which makes the job even more exciting andmore interesting.”

Remembering back to his recitation ofthe Hippocratic Oath when he was atUMDNJ and the awe he felt to be in thecompany of all health caregivers everywhere,he admits, “The benefit of taking care ofpatients is that you touch one life at a timeand every life is precious. That kind of grati-fication is harder to get at my level but I ammaking an impact by benefitting patients allover the world. This was an incredible jumpfrom where I was to where I am going.”And even Dr. Seuss would have to agree.

Going Places…Continued from page 35

Alumni @ UMDNJCheck out the blog devoted to alumni from all the UMDNJ schools, including New Jersey Medical

School and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Newark. Go to http://umdnjalumni.

blogspot.com. Your fellow alums are involved in research, clinical care, teaching, writing, techno-

logy, policy-making and much more. Share your story

with the editors of this online newsletter by sending

an email to Carole Walker at [email protected]. Tell

us what you’ve been up to. The blog posts news about

all UMDNJ alums, invites your comments and will link

you directly to your alma mater’s website. We also

want your opinion. The current poll is asking: Do you think health care reform will have apositive impact on the number of peoplechoosing a health care career?

ANDREW HANENBERG

Attention NJMS Grads!

Do You Have A Website?

If you have a busi-ness or personalwebsite and wouldlike the AlumniAssociation tohelp promote you,let us know. At

http://njms.umdnj.edu/alumni/websites.cfm, on the medical school’s website,we are trying to create an alumni refer-ral system so that everyone can keep intouch. Send your email as well as yourweb address to Dianne Mink at [email protected] or call the Alumni Office(973-972-6864) for more information.Here are alums who currently post linksto their sites:

Mitchel Alpert, MD’82Robert A. Battista, MD’86John Belardo, MD’87 Richard S. Bercik, MD’83Robert M. Bernstein, MD’78Frank J. Borao, MD’94Paul Carbonaro, MD’96Diane Carlson, MD’96Jose F. Colon, MD’78Charles J. Crane, MD’88Patricia Cucci, MD’89John V. Dunne, MD’61Michael H. Entrup, MD’84Patricia L. Estrada, MD’01Patrick Foye, MD’92Howard Frauwirth, MD’00Andrew R. Freedman, MD’79Lawrence Frieman, MD’72Robert J. Gilroy, Jr., MD’84David T. Greenspun, MD’99 Roger J. Hartman, MD’85 Kevin J. Kerlin, MD’88Michael King, MD’82James LaBagnara, MD’74Daniel J. Licht, MD’97 Thomas Anthony Lois, MD’73 Arturo Maldonado, MD’99 Paul Martinetti, MD’97John Norris, MD’90Robert J. Rubino, MD’91Rahul Sachdev, MD’87Kulpreet Sahota, MD’05Kenneth C. Schneider, MD’61Stephen Sun, MD’96Stephen A. Szabo, MD’91John Derrick Van Doren, MD’85Kai-ping Wang, MD’99Deborah Huff Wozniak, MD’76


with patients and their families from diag-nosis to the end of treatment.

The Valerie Fund is one of the best thingsto happen to pediatric cancer patients inNew Jersey. It was started in 1976 by Edand Sue Goldstein, who lost two daughtersto cancer. Before The Valerie Fund existed,many children—such as the Goldsteins’daughter Valerie —had to travel long dis-tances because the treatment they neededwas available only at major medical centersin large cities.

The Goldsteins are well-known through-out the state and beyond for their philan-thropy. They have generously supportedUMDNJ’s Cancer Institute of New Jersey(CINJ) and in 2009, the breast cancer cen-ter at CINJ, in collaboration with theGoldsteins, was renamed the StacyGoldstein Breast Cancer Center in memoryof their daughter Stacy. The Goldsteinsfunded the Stacy Goldstein Breast OncologyFellowship Award at CINJ and supportUMDNJ on a myriad of initiatives benefit-ing patients. Sue Goldstein also serves as atrustee to the Foundation of UMDNJ.

“The staff at The Valerie Fund Centerwas fantastic,” says Meghan. “I felt comfort-able there right away.” Each morning she’dgo for chemo accompanied by her mother,who has a flexible work schedule as a realtor.“I was thankful she could be with me,” saysMeghan. “Many kids had to come by them-selves, some by bus. I realized how fortunateI am to have a strong support system.” Inthe afternoons, a procession of teachersarrived at her house to ‘home school’ her.“Sometimes I was so tired I’d be fallingasleep, but I was determined to keep up,”she says.

Meghan’s “career” as a volunteer fund-raiser and spokesperson began around thistime. “Dr. Kamalakar put my name for-ward,” notes Meghan. “The Valerie Fundwas looking for a speaker and he said,‘Meghan would love to!’” Since then, she’sspoken at numerous events for The ValerieFund, including their major fundraiser, theThanksgiving Gala Ball. “I wasn’t nervous atall and I’m not shy at all about asking peo-ple to contribute,” says Meghan. She’s alsodone many television and radio interviews.“I want to raise awareness about cancer.”

Meghan was strong enough to return toschool for her sophomore year, and evenplayed on the basketball team that winter,

Defeating CancerContinued from page 40

MeghanGambichler and

her mother,Joanne Magliaro

“but running was a lot harder now,” sherecalls. “I often felt off balance.” She pushedthrough anyway, playing in almost everygame. In March 2009, she and her familytook a ‘wish trip’ to Hawaii, sponsored bythe Make-A-Wish Foundation. “We went toMaui and Oahu and swam with the dol-phins, an amazing experience,” saysMeghan. “But while I was there I developeda weird pain in my groin. It was like noth-ing I’d ever felt before.” Upon returninghome, she went straight to the doctor andwas diagnosed with avascular necrosis of theright hip. This frequent side effect ofchemotherapy involves the breakdown ofbone. Kamalakar told Meghan she’d needhip replacement surgery and referred her toJoseph Benevenia, MD, chair of orthopaedicsurgery at NJMS, who is well-known for hiswork in treating bone, joint and soft tissuetumors. Benevenia’s unique bedside manneris designed to put pediatric patients at ease.“We bonded right away,” says Meghan.“He’s a fantastic doctor.”

Meghan had to wait until her chemother-apy was finished to have the hip replace-ment. Her junior year was challenging. Inintense pain and on crutches, she couldn’tattend school for the entire year. The hipreplacement, performed in June 2010 atUniversity Hospital (UH), was successful,and after a few months of physical therapyshe was walking without crutches or a cane.“I was pain-free and ready to conquer theworld!” she laughs. She returned to highschool for her senior year. Though shecouldn’t play sports, she was the manager forboth the basketball and the softball teams.She wrote for the school paper and the year-book and was elected for the fourth year asvice-president of her class as well. “I wasn’tgoing to let cancer get me down,” she says.

Her mother laughs. “When Meghanwants something, she’s relentless. That’sprobably helped her get through this.”

In March 2011, Meghan began havingpain, this time in her left hip. It was thedreaded avascular necrosis again. For severalreasons, she deferred her second hip replace-ment until December 2011. Following her

high school graduation she was looking for-ward to a long-planned backpacking trip inGreece with her cousin. College was on thehorizon as well. She was going to New YorkUniversity (NYU) and didn’t want to doanything to jeopardize her entry. She wenton the backpacking trip, had a great time,and enrolled at NYU in September, gettingaround campus with a cane or crutches. Afew days before Christmas, she had her sec-ond hip replaced by Benevenia at UH. Shecame through the second procedure as wellas the first and returned to NYU after theChristmas break, while continuing physicaltherapy for several months. She hopes to bewalking without assistance by the end ofFebruary.

Meghan, who continues to be in remis-sion, says she couldn’t have gotten throughthis experience without the support of herhigh school friends and teammates. “Theywere always there for me,” she says. Theyeven helped her raise money— and lots ofit—for The Valerie Fund. At West EssexHigh School, every Monday was “MeghanMonday,” and all the students wore black t-shirts printed with inspiring words from reg-gae singer Bob Marley: “For Meghan—Bestrong. Don’t worry, every little thing isgoing to be all right.” There were bake salesand car washes as well.

These first efforts raised an initial $5,000for The Valerie Fund—just the tip of theiceberg. Since then, Meghan has beeninvolved with a variety of other fundraisingactivities, including charity walks and Cansfor Cancer, an aluminum can collectionproject sponsored by the Fairfield, NJbranch of the civic organization UNICO.The Valerie Fund was also a recipient ofmoney raised on the 2009 BGC CharityDay, a fundraiser commemorating the vic-tims of 9/11. Meghan served as representa-tive of The Valerie Fund and had an oppor-tunity to meet Lady Gaga (“She’s my girl!”)and Whoopi Goldberg.

“Having cancer has been a frighteningexperience. I can’t say I’m glad this hap-pened, but it’s opened my horizons in somany ways,” says Meghan. “I’ve learned a

lot from this experience and met so manypeople. I appreciate every day. It’s taught mehow to really live my life.” She’s majoring inpsychology and education and is consideringgoing into teaching. “For the rest of my life,I’ll be volunteering for nonprofits,” she says.

Thus far, she’s raised a whopping $45,000for The Valerie Fund. And she’s not doneyet. “I’ll be working with The Valerie Fundforever,” she says. “I want to give back tothem what they gave me.”

For information about contributing to a UMDNJ project,

contact Elizabeth Ketterlinus at 973-679-4684, toll-free at

866-44-UMDNJ or email [email protected].

N E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O LN E W J E R S E Y M E D I C A L S C H O O L 39

The Valerie FundMeghan Gambichler, the patient in our

story, is just one of the many children

who have benefitted from The Valerie

Fund, named in honor of Ed and Sue

Goldstein’s daughter Valerie. The

Goldsteins, longtime supporters of

UMDNJ causes, received the University

Medal for Distinguished Leadership for

their philanthropy last fall at University

Day. Sue Goldstein also serves as a

trustee to the Foundation of UMDNJ.

This fund’s mission is to provide support

for the comprehensive health care of

children with cancer and blood disor-

ders. Families turn to The Valerie Fund

because of the unique combination of

medical care, counseling, and other

services it provides. The Valerie Fund

Children’s Centers comprise the largest

network of health care facilities for chil-

dren with cancer and blood disorders in

New Jersey and one of the largest in the

nation. The centers have more than

25,000 patient visits each year. For

more information, contact The Valerie

Fund, 2101 Millburn Avenue,

Maplewood, NJ, 07040 or email Bunny

Flanders, Director of Communications,

[email protected].

On a cold night in December 2010, athousand-plus fans came to the

Centercourt Athletic Club in Chatham towatch tennis played by some of the greatestlegends ever: Pete Sampras, LindsayDavenport and others. The money raised atthis charity event would benefit The ValerieFund, an organization supporting childrenwith cancer and blood disorders and theirfamilies.

Between matches, a 17-year-old girl witha dimpled smile stepped onto the courts totell her story. The crowd grew quiet. Thegirl was Meghan Gambichler. Her story ofrecovery from a deadly cancer is compelling,frightening, and ultimately, upbeat.

Poised and articulate, Meghan wasn’t thereto garner sympathy. Glossing over the detailsof her own illness, she launched into anenthusiastic pitch for The Valerie Fund. She’ssurprisingly skillful as a fundraiser, consider-

ing her age. “I can’t do enough for TheValerie Fund,” says Meghan. “I’ll be connect-ed to them forever. They saved my life.”

That connection began four years ago.Meghan was 14, an outstanding student andthree-sport athlete at West Essex HighSchool. She was vice president of her classand played in the school band. Her life was awhirl of activity. But in February 2008—theheight of basketball season— something feltwrong. “I wasn’t sleeping well,” she recalls. “Icoughed all the time and had difficultybreathing.” Her doctor thought it was a coldor bronchitis, surely nothing serious.

As an athlete, Meghan was in great shapeand could play in an entire basketball gamewithout getting winded. But in one gamemidway through the first quarter, fatigueoverwhelmed her. She slumped on the bench.The next day, still feeling miserable, shestayed home from school. That’s when she

felt a large lump protruding from her neck. “Isaid, ‘Mom, feel this. What is it?’ From thelook on her face, I knew it wasn’t good.”

Her mother, Joanne Magliaro, rushed herdaughter to the emergency department atSaint Barnabas Hospital, where she was X-rayed. The shocking findings: a nine by 12-inch tumor in Meghan’s chest cavity. “It wasthe size of a football,” recounts Meghan. “It was crushing my heart and lungs andpressing on my windpipe, which is why Icouldn’t breathe.”

She was transported by ambulance toNewark Beth Israel Medical Center, whichhas an outstanding pediatric oncologydepartment. After undergoing a biopsy withno anesthesia (because the physicians fearedshe might not wake up) and other painfultests, including a spinal tap and bone mar-row biopsy, she learned her diagnosis: T-celllymphoblastic lymphoma, a cancer involvingthe T-cells in the thymus. It often results ina large mass in the chest and tends to spreadrapidly to the bone marrow, lymph nodes,and sometimes even the brain.

Meghan’s physician, Peri Kamalakar, MD,director of The Valerie Fund Children’sCenter for Cancer and Blood Disorders atBeth Israel, treated the tumor aggressivelywith chemotherapy. It was a grueling experi-ence for Meghan and her family. “Therewere times when we didn’t know if shewould make it through the night,” hermother recalls. “It’s the worst thing a parentcan go through.”

Two months into treatment, the tumordisappeared—along with Meghan’s hair.Kamalakar was pleased at her promptresponse to chemotherapy. For her bestchance at survival, she’d continue this thera-py over the next two years at Beth Israel’sValerie Fund Center. There are seven suchcenters in the area, dedicated to providingcancer treatment for children close to home.They’re all at regional outpatient treatmentfacilities affiliated with top pediatric hospi-tals. Teams of physicians, nurses, socialworkers and other health professionals work


FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY

ANDREW HANENBERG

Meghan Gambichler

Defeating Cancer, Helping a CauseNew York University freshman Meghan Gambichler spent part of her

holiday break at UH taking one more step in a survival story that started

four years ago. BY MARY ANN LITTELL


Newark • New Brunswick • Stratford • (866) 44-UMDNJ

www.FoundationofUMDNJ.org

We want to reassure you that regardless of an

y possible restructuring at UMDNJ, funds do

nated

in the past to the Foundation of UMDNJ fo

r the University, and funds that will be don

ated in the

future, will be used tosupport the program

s and purposes you have designated.Wherever those

programs may be located, your funds will r

emain under the stewardship of the Founda

tion of

UMDNJ and New Jersey Health Foundation.

To understand our commitment, you should

know that the Foundation of UMDNJ and our

parent company, NewJersey Health Founda

tion (NJHF), a public charity incorporated in

Delaware,

are both independentorganizations, not age

ncies of the State of New Jersey or the Universi

ty.

The annual reports and financial statements found on our web sites

(www.foundationofumdnj.org and www.njhe

althfoundation.org) show that we are independent

and financially sound.Thecharter of New Jersey Health Founda

tion allows us to ensure that

your gifts to fund breakthrough research, cu

tting-edge education and high-quality patien

t programs

at UMDNJ will continue to be directed to t

hose areas, regardlessof where those progr

ams may

be housed.And 100 percent of your gift—every dollar—will be used as you de

signate.

Now is the perfect time for you to reaffirm your support of programs you may have fu

nded in

the past or to select anew area of research, educ

ation or patient carethat you would like to

support now or in the future. In this exciting time in hea

lthcare, you can play an important role in

advancing the programs that mean the most

to you.

We remain committed to working with you and others to advance thebreakthrough science

,

excellent education and vital patient care p

rograms offered in New Jersey. Please don’t he

sitate

to contact us personallyby phone or e-mail to

talk about opportunities.We hope to speak with

you soon.

Sincerely,

George F. Heinrich, M.D.

James M. Golubieski

Vice Chairman & CEOPresident

(908) 731-6607(908) 731-6601

[email protected]@njhf.org

You can continue to support the causesyou care about, no matter what.

www.foundationofUMDNJ.org

www.foundationofumdnj.org

www.njhealthfoundation.org

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New JerseyNew Jersey Medical School185 South Orange AvenueP.O. Box 1709Newark, New Jersey 07101–1709

http: //njms.umdnj.edu

Non-profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PA I DPermit No. 5287

Newark, New Jersey

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Documents

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jerseynjms.rutgers.edu/about_njms/documents/PulseWinterSpring2012.pdf · Volume 10 Number 1 Winter Spring 2012 University of Medicine and