Mission Fall 2008

A ss o mh e th ea D empea ratgme efnrt aeddi n gn

It’s good to be back.

In the six years since I left eastern North Carolina, much has changed at the Brody School of Medicine, in Greenville and the region, but key points remain the same.

Among those is the defining mission of our medical school: to educate primary care physicians for the state of North Carolina; to increase access to medical education for minority and disadvantaged students; and to improve the health care services in eastern North Carolina. This mission is still inspirational for me and is the primary reason I wanted to return as dean.

Based on all of the information I received on each visit, and with the growth of the health sciences campus, it is clear that exciting opportunities exist that will allow our mission to achieve its full potential and bring measureable improvements to the health status of eastern North Carolina.

Finally, the university leadership, the search committee and the faculty and staff of the Brody School of Medicine were all so welcoming and had such dynamic visions for the school that the job of dean was all the more attractive.

But hard work is ahead. As dean, one of my most important priorities will be to stabilize the financial status of the medical faculty practice plan. Capable administrators have been focusing on this concern and have made significant strides in improving operational efficiencies. I am confident we will accomplish this task.

In addition, we must confirm, refresh and re-establish communication channels and networks that will allow the most efficient exchange of information across the medical campus. A rich dialogue among administration, faculty, staff and students is essential to success.

Greetings

Another goal is to encourage and assist in the recruitment and retention of minorities in leadership positions.

Challenges are often accompanied by opportunities, and one of the most compelling at ECU is the chance to work with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other partners to expand our student body. This is a complex and engaging issue that will require curriculum changes, space and capacity planning, and significant financial investment by the state. This expansion plan represents a wonderful opportunity for sustained growth at the Brody School of Medicine. It will help solve the burgeoning physician shortages anticipated in the next couple of decades and will support the core educational mission that has made the school so successful in the past.

Though I have been in New York for several years, that does not mean I have been away in a big city. There are areas in Upstate New York that are remarkably similar to eastern North Carolina with regard to socio-economic disadvantage and lack of access to medical care. I sought to build bridges to the community in Upstate New York and hope to adapt some of these strategies, and the lessons learned, to eastern North Carolina.

Our roots are in eastern North Carolina.

Our four children are all in North Carolina, and we are glad to be back. I look forward to getting reacquainted with old friends, making new ones and working to make the Brody School of Medicine the best it can be.

Paul R. G. Cunningham, M.D. Dean and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor

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Dr. Paul R.G. Cunningham Dean, Brody School of Medicine Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of Medical Affairs East Carolina University EDITOR

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f e at u r e s

WRITERS

Back home in eastern Carolina . . . . . . . . . . .

Cunningham returns to ECU to carve a new career at Brody

Crystal Baity Jeannine Manning Hutson Christine Neff

Where science meets medicine . . . . .

Dr. Anne Kellogg delivers patient care from the lab

ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER

Reality M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Students learn common and complex care through simulation

Doug Boyd

Mimosa Mallernee Hines PHOTOGRAPHERS

Cliff Hollis Doug Boyd

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For the health of Hobgood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ECU clinic helps a small community address one of its biggest problems: diabetes

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d e pa r t m e n t s Mission is published by the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Any written portion of this magazine may be reprinted with proper credit.

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News from Brody In the lab

From the foundation .

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www.ecu.edu/med

Faculty news

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COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS Doug Boyd East Carolina University Greenville, NC 27858-6481 boydd@ecu.edu

Alumni news

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Š 2008 by East Carolina University U.P. 09-183 Printed on recycled paper

by Theo Davis Sons Inc.

Close up: Vintage microscopes .

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On the cover Dr. Paul R.G. Cunningham was named dean of the Brody School of Medicine and senior associate vice chancellor for medical affairs in July. Read more about the new dean on page 12.

3,500 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $5,168.00 or $1.48 per copy.

2008 mission 1

N Ne ew ws s f fr ro om m B Br ro od dy y

Expansion goal reaches 120 students East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors have set a goal of 120 students per class at the Brody School of Medicine.

The UNC system also wants the medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to expand its enrollment and wants the two state-supported schools to work together to increase the number of physicians in North Carolina.

The Brody School of Medicine enrolled 76 students this fall, the largest class to date,

and plans to increase to 80 students within the next year or two. To expand further will require new facilities, clinic sites, additional personnel and other arrangements, said Dr. Virginia Hardy, senior associate dean and one of the leaders of the expansion effort.

According to a report issued last year by the N.C. Institute of Medicine, the ratio of physicians to population will fall 8 percent by 2020 and 21 percent by 2030. Among the possible strategies to maintain the current ratio of doctors to population is to increase

the yearly educational production of physicians by 20 percent.

This summer, the N.C. General Assembly appropriated $1.5 million to UNC-CH and ECU to study expansion. ECU has hired a consulting firm to study ideas and make proposals on how to accomplish the expansion as well as identify community training sites, Hardy said.

It would likely be at least 2014 before ECU could accommodate a class size of 120 students on campus, Hardy said.

Heart Institute opens Faculty and staff have moved in to the East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University and began seeing patients there this fall. At the $60 million outpatient, research and educational facility, adult cardiologists, pediatric heart specialists, heart surgeons, vascular surgeons and other health care professionals provide care for a full range of heart and circulatory conditions. It is one of two buildings that make up the heart institute. The other is the six-story, 375,000-square-foot, $160 million cardiovascular hospital being built by Pitt County Memorial Hospital, set to open in 2009.

2 mission 2008

N e w s f r o m B r o dy

ECU breaks ground for new Family Medicine Center A new East Carolina University Family Medicine Center will triple the space available to see patients and train the next generation of family doctors to serve North Carolina.

That was the message as university officials, legislators and others broke ground for the new facility on the campus of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University Sept. 26.

A growing need for primary care in the region has made it necessary to upgrade the

for the project. The Golden LEAF Foundation awarded $1 million last year.

Other donations include a $2.5 million gift from the estate of Frances Joyner Monk of Farmville to fund the geriatric portion.

Rep. Marian McLawhorn of Grifton said getting funding approved was not easy, especially after the university received money to build its new dental school. But ECU worked hard to convince legislators of the need and the benefit.

“This facility will benefit all of eastern North Carolina,” McLawhorn said. “And the doctors training here go all throughout the state and nation. It might be physically situated here in Greenville, but the impact is felt throughout the state.”

The Family Medicine Center is a critical component of the medical school’s mission to address the shortage of primary care doctors throughout North Carolina.

“If we are to continue to encourage, recruit and retain the best medical school students to family medicine careers, they From left, ECU trustees Bruce Austin, Robbie Hill and must have access to a first-class David Brody talk during the groundbreaking for the ECU Family Medicine Center. facility,” said Dr. Kenneth Steinweg, interim chair of the current facility, which serves more than twice Department of Family Medicine. “The the amount of patients it was built for. center also will increase access to cost-effecDavid Brody, vice chair of the ECU board tive care for some of our region’s neediest of trustees, said five committees have citizens.” planned a new center over the years, but The current Family Medicine Center funding never appeared. opened in the 1970s. It is approximately “This project has been needed for 15 29,400 square feet and has 32 exam rooms. years,” Brody said. “The facility we have was Health care professionals see approximately built at the beginning of the medical school 46,000 patients there each year. When Pitt when we were seeing a quarter of the County Memorial Hospital began building patients we see now, and we outgrew it 15 its new cardiovascular bed tower, that project years ago.” took away the Family Medicine Center The new center, to be built beside the parking lot. Since then, patients have had to East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU, will be either dropped off or park in a remote have more than 60 exam rooms, a pharmacy, lot and ride a shuttle to their appointments. laboratory, a geriatric center, better parking The new center is projected to have and other amenities. It’s projected to open in 117,000 square feet, and officials expect late 2010. patient visits to climb by 8 percent when it This summer, the North Carolina opens. legislature approved $36.8 million in bonds

Ravindran

Summer program for future doctors A longtime fixture at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University has become a valuable recruiting tool for students.

The Summer Program for Future Doctors gives undergraduates who hope to apply for medical school a chance to get ahead on their studies and learn what medical education is like, said Dr. Virginia Hardy, senior associate dean at Brody.

“Several of the SPFD participants have been accepted into medical school. Close to 90 percent of those have been students at the Brody School of Medicine,” Hardy said.

Rising second-year students serve as teaching assistants. Participants study anatomy and work with standardized patients and patient-simulation mannequins.

Senthuran Ravindran participated in the summer program before entering medical school and as a teaching assistant after his first year.

“I owe the SPFD program everything,” he said recently.

Hardy said when selecting participants, the focus is on students who want to practice primary care.

Since the program began more than 20 years ago, other medical schools around the country have contacted Brody officials for information on how they can develop similar programs, Hardy said.

2008 mission 3

N e w s f r o m B r o dy

Two receive fellowships to work in Africa One third-year medical student from East Carolina University has just returned from three months working in the Gabon, Africa, hospital that humanitarian and physician Albert Schweitzer established, and another will go there in December.

Marie Rowe and Nicolaus Glomb have been selected as Albert Schweitzer Lambaréné Fellowship recipients for 2008. They are the second and third ECU medical students to be selected. Four other medical students nationwide have also been chosen for this year’s fellowship. ECU is the only school with more than one fellow.

Rowe, 28, grew up in Morehead City. She earned her bachelor’s degree from ECU, then worked as a chemist for a year at Metrics, a Glomb

local pharmaceutical firm, before entering medical school. The fellowship has been a goal for her ever since Benjamin Gilmer, a former ECU medical student, was a fellow in 2004.

“I thought it was the greatest thing,” Rowe said before leaving. “Ever since, I’ve had my eye on applying for it, and it’s a dream to be able to go.”

Glomb, 34, grew up in Connecticut and has a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He is working on his master’s of public health degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while attending medical school at ECU. He worked in the Peace Corps from 4 mission 2008

1996-1998, serving in the West African country of Mauritania. Like Rowe, he also was inspired by Gilmer to seek a Lambaréné Fellowship and will work as a public health fellow, focusing on water sanitation and other means to prevent diseases such as malaria.

“For me, it’s even more appealing to go out in the villages instead of staying at the hospital,” Glomb said.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship selects four third-year medical students to spend three months working at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon.

Most fellows work as junior physicians, supervised by hospital medical staff and are eligible for rotations in pediatrics, medicine and surgery.

Rowe

At the hospital, patients are expected to supply their own linens, and family members help care for them. A lack of many modern diagnostic tools common in the United States puts a premium on traditional medical skills and intuition. Rowe is looking forward to testing her clinical skills in the relatively austere environment.

“I think it’ll make me a better doctor,” she said.

Rowe left in late July for Gabon, where she lived and worked from Aug. 1 until Oct. 31.

She’s keeping a blog at http://www.ecu.edu/ cs-admin/mktg/field_journal_africa_rowe.cfm.

Glomb will leave in mid-December and serve until March.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship funds airfare, room, board and immunizations.

Dr. Joseph Zanga, a professor of pediatrics and leader of the Schweitzer Fellows program at the Brody School of Medicine, said Rowe and Glomb will not only do the jobs asked of them at the hospital and in the villages but also find ways to improve the way they are done.

“They both have the absolute perfect tools to deal with the things each of them is going to do,” Zanga said. “They ask the question, ‘Why not?’”

Only three other medical students from North Carolina have been selected for the Lambaréné Fellowship since its inception in 1978.

ECU ranks in primary care, FM residencies U.S. News & World Report magazine has ranked the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University 17th among primary care schools this year. The school also received another national award for its success in sending medical graduates into family medicine.

U.S. News & World Report also ranks ECU sixth in rural medicine, up three spots from last year.

In addition, the American Academy of Family Physicians in May recognized ECU for sending 19.1 percent of its medical graduates into family medicine residency programs during the three-year period that ended in October 2007. The Brody School of Medicine ranked behind only the University of Kansas School of Medicine, which sent 21 percent of graduates into family medicine residencies.

ECU climbed from its ranking of eighth last year.

During the three-year period from 2005-2007, 35 medical graduates entered family medicine residencies, the training doctors receive before they can practice on their own. Another 11 entered family medicine residencies this year.

N e w s f r o m B r o dy

2008 Schweitzer Fellows from ECU are, front row, from left, Nancy Shinouda, Ashley Alexander, Ying Zhang and Anita Unnithan. Back row, from left, Brandon Yarns, Laura Wolfe and Brandy Edwards.

Seven Brody students receive Schweitzer Fellowships ages 8–11 at various community sites throughout Greenville such as the Summer Significant Academy Club of the United Way. The purpose of START (Stop, Think and Act Responsibly Today) First Aid is to introduce topics such as emergency action steps, rescue breathing, the Heimlich maneuver, how to stop bleeding and treat wounds as well as self-protective measures in a hands-on, interactive manner.

Seven students at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University were selected as 2008-2009 North Carolina Albert Schweitzer Fellows.

The students, in their second year of medical school, will commit to a year of service with a community agency, devoting more than 800 hours to local communities lacking access to adequate health services.

Below are the students’ names and their service projects: ■■ ■■

Ashley Alexander and Ying Zhang are creating a series of therapeutic programs to improve the quality of life and emotional well-being of adults undergoing cancer treatment in Greenville and staying at the Hope Lodge.

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Anita Unnithan and Brandy Edwards are developing a first aid program for children

Brandon Yarns and Nancy Shinouda are developing a pediatric pre-operative class and tour at Pitt County Memorial Hospital for children scheduled for surgery to lessen their fears or anxieties concerning the surgical experience.

Laura Wolfe created an after-school program at the Little Willie Center for children to learn to plant and grow a

vegetable garden and incorporate healthy habits into their lifestyles.

Seventeen other graduate students from health professions schools in North Carolina also received fellowships. Schweitzer Fellows continue their education while participating in the entry year of the Schweitzer Fellows Program.

The first U.S.-based Schweitzer Fellows Program was founded in Boston in 1991, and the second was in North Carolina in 1994.

Other programs are in Baltimore, Chicago, New Hampshire/Vermont, Pittsburgh, the Delaware Valley and San Francisco. Nearly 240 North Carolina Schweitzer Fellows have completed the program.

More information about the Schweitzer Fellowship program is available at http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org.

2008 mission 5

D tr mo em n tB h Ne ep wasr f re oa dd yi n g

Grants to aid Hobgood Clinic, HIV testing in China Drs. Heng Hong and Karlene Hewan-Lowe of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University have received grants to help test residents of Hobgood for diabetes and women in China for HIV. Hewan-Lowe’s grant of $8,915 from the College of American Pathologists Foundation will allow her to provide diabetic screening and education at the Hobgood Clinic in Halifax County in northeastern North Carolina. (See page 23.)

“Funding from the CAP Foundation Humanitarian Grant will be used to support the Hobgood Clinic, which provides free diabetes and hypertension screenings to a severely, economically depressed area of rural, northeastern North Carolina,” said Dr. Hewan-Lowe. Local health officials estimate that 40 percent of the population suffers from pre-diabetes or diabetes. The burden of

managing diabetes is a significant hardship for non-affluent rural, North Carolinians.

Hong’s grant of $10,800 will allow him his and colleagues to collaborate with Dr. Yuping Sun at Xinjiang Medical University in China through the Red Cross Society of Altay Prefecture in Xinjiang, China, to provide universal HIV screening tests for all pregnant women in Burqin and Jeminay Counties of Altay Prefecture. Funding is needed to purchase test kits, prepare multilingual educational material and cover travel expenses.

“The CAP Foundation Humanitarian Grant will provide us an opportunity to help the fight against HIV in this remote area of China,” Hong said. “The incidence of HIV infection in China has increased dramatically in recent years. Currently, 37 percent of reported Chinese HIV cases were in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Hong

Hewan-Lowe

Despite the efforts of Chinese government and international groups, many remote areas of Xinjiang still need more help in the prevention and treatment of HIV infection.”

Hong officially received the grant from the College of American Pathologists during a meeting Sept. 27 in San Diego.

The CAP Foundation’s Humanitarian Grant Program provides grants to fund pathology and medical services to underprivileged patients in an underdeveloped area of the world.

New surgeries promise faster recovery, fewer scars When Cheryl Taylor needed a common follow-up procedure to her gastric-bypass surgery, she learned about a new technique that would not involve cutting through her skin.

Instead, surgeons would operate on her stomach through her mouth.

“I thought, ‘Well, if it works, it will be great,’” she said. “I was cut open with the first procedure, and it was tough.”

Taylor’s operation went smoothly, and she returned home to Goldsboro the same evening.

“Easiest way to go,” she said. “I’m very pleased with it. I’m glad I did it.”

Called natural-orifice surgery, it’s one of three new techniques East Carolina University surgeons are offering that promise less scarring and faster, easier recovery for common surgeries such as gall bladder removal. Surgeons operate through the mouth or other body opening. Dr. Curtis Bower, a clinical assistant professor of surgery, performed Taylor’s operation.

“Potential advantages of natural orifice surgery may include decreased pain or even painless surgery, improved cosmetic results from having no incisions made on the body, 6 mission 2008

and faster recovery and return to work,” Bower said. As technology improves, he added, so will the potential for this type of surgery.

Another technique is called single-inciBower sion laparoscopic surgery. In traditional laparoscopic surgery, surgeons make multiple small incisions to insert surgical devices and cameras to allow them to see what they were doing. As the name implies, SILS reduces the number of incisions to one, often the navel, which further camouflages the scar. New instruments and techniques allow surgeons to insert and manipulate the tools through the same opening.

Dr. William Rucker, an ECU clinical assistant professor who operates at Lenoir Memorial Hospital in Kinston, said patients’ desires for less scarring as well as surgical advances led to SILS. He began doing the procedures in June. Many people prefer one scar in the belly-button area over multiple scars on their abdomen, and the smaller, more

versatile tools surgeons have today make these surgeries possible, he said.

Bower also began offering this procedure recently. “I am very excited about this advancement of laparoscopic surgery,” he said. “We are taking a very common procedure and making it virtually scar-free. I had a patient come back to see me recently and neither of us could find her scar.”

Bower wants to expand this technique into other procedures such as hernia repairs.

“This is very exciting to be a part of this next wave of minimally invasive surgery,” he said.

A third minimally invasive technique is video-assisted thyroidectomy for patients who have certain types of thyroid nodules. By using an incision of less than an inch and a video camera, surgeons can remove part or all of the thyroid with minimal scarring. Many patients can go home the same day.

“The main challenge is working in a small area with the camera, a retractor and several instruments,” said Dr. Walter Pofahl, an associate professor and chief of advanced laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery at ECU. “The incision and anatomy are the same as conventional thyroid surgery.”

N e w s f r o m B r o dy

ECU Physicians names pair to leadership posts

Tabetha Simpson receives her white coat from Dr. Roytesa Savage, assistant dean for student affairs.

A new executive director and a new director of nursing have been named at ECU Physicians.

Brian Jowers will lead the group medical practice of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University as executive director.

He comes to ECU from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, where he was associate dean for administration and finance and secretary/treasurer of the school’s medical faculty practice plan.

Jowers has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Charleston Southern University and a master’s degree in business and management from Webster University in St. Louis.

“In my opinion, it could be one of the premier multi-subspecialty practice plans in the Southeast,” Jowers said of ECU Physicians. “I see a lot of energy in this place.

Brody welcomes Class of 2012 Seventy-six new medical students capped their first week at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University Aug. 15 as they received their symbolic white coats.

This class is the largest in school history, topping last year’s 73 entering students. As usual, all students are North Carolina residents representing 32 counties from across the state. Thirty-nine are women, 37 are men. They range in age from 20 to 32.

They have degrees from 29 different schools, led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (18), ECU (13) and N.C. State University (12). Ten students have graduate degrees.

Greg Harris, a second-year student and president of the Medical Student Council, recalled his excitement at his own white coat ceremony. “And then biochemistry started on Monday,” he said with a groan.

Among the class of 2012 are the four newest Brody Scholars: Nabeel H. Arastu of Greenville, Bryan Howington of Pembroke, Wesley Thomas O’Neal of Wilson and Mary Elizabeth Windham of Greenville.

The Brody Scholars program honors J. S. “Sammy” Brody, who died in 1994. He and

his brother, Leo, were among the earliest supporters of medical education in eastern North Carolina. The legacy continues through the dedicated efforts of Hyman Brody and David Brody. Subsequent gifts through the Brody Foundation have enabled the medical school to educate new physicians, conduct important research and improve health care in eastern North Carolina.

The scholarship is administered through the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation.

Another student, Sohale C. Vu, has received a Fullerton Foundation Medical Scholarship worth $20,000 a year. Vu is from Oxford and is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Vu was nominated for the scholarship by the ECU medical foundation.

New medical student Adam Strickland of Fayetteville said he’s enjoyed getting to know his classmates this week and is looking forward to the next four years of study.

“It’s going to be challenging, but it’s going to be rewarding,” said Strickland, a graduate of N.C. State.

Jowers

Dartt

I see a lot of good, smart physicians.”

Martha Dartt has been named director of nursing services. She previously was associate director of risk management at the medical school. Dartt has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from ECU and a master’s in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked in a variety of nursing and administrative positions. Dartt is the daughter of Kelly S. McDonald and the late Stanley McDonald.

“I am very honored and excited to have been chosen as the director of nursing,” Dartt said. “I am fortunate to have been at Brody School of Medicine through the incredible expansions and successes of the last 20 years, and I look forward to contributing in any way I can to our continued service to eastern North Carolina.”

2008 mission 7

D I ne p ta hr e tLmaebn t h e a d i n g

Dr. Rachel Roper is working on vaccines for SARS, monkeypox and other diseases.

Scientist eyes an end to monkeypox Dr. Rachel Roper of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University is studying ways to stop the spread of monkeypox.

Last year Roper, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, was among the first group of North Carolina scientists to receive a North Carolina Biotechnology Center Biotechnology Research Grant – in her case, $72,497.

By removing a specific gene that affects immunity, she is drawing attention for her approach that holds promise not only for improving the safety and effectiveness of poxvirus vaccines, but also for killing other viruses such as coronaviruses, which include the human severe acute respiratory syndrome virus.

“Ironically, it’s the success of the global smallpox eradication program that opened the door to today’s spread of monkeypox,” Roper said.

Smallpox is the first disease to be eradicated worldwide, thanks to nearly 200 years of persistent vaccine use. The World Health Organization declared it defeated and stopped its vaccination program in 1980, three years after the last case had been registered in Somalia.

Even though the smallpox vaccination program was hugely successful in wiping out that specific scourge, smallpox is identified by the U.S. government as a primary bioterror8 mission 2008

ism/biowarfare threat. Also, the halting of the vaccine program has left humans without the “side effect” of increased immunity to the monkeypox virus – a “cousin” of smallpox – for almost 30 years. Now, monkeypox is spreading. In Africa, it’s causing fatality rates frighteningly similar to those once associated with smallpox. The first outbreak of monkeypox hit the United States five years ago in people who played with infected pet prairie dogs.

“The emergence of SARS represents an even more significant viral evolutionary event,” Roper said. “It may well be the biggest infectious disease event since HIV.” Before SARS, coronaviruses had received little research attention and caused no significant human disease. But Roper was one of the scientists who sequenced and analyzed the SARS genome and, in 2003, published in Science that this virus belongs to a new, previously unrecognized group of coronaviruses. Roper is the former program director for the British Columbia SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative and is senior author on a just-published paper on SARS vaccines.

Using the mega-number-crunching computer technologies of bioinformatics, Roper and her colleagues have been looking for clues as to why some of these viruses are meaner than others. And they’re turning up some interesting ideas.

Roper’s biggest hope is in a vaccinia virus

External funding hits record at Brody Faculty members at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University brought in a record amount of external funding in fiscal year 2007-2008.

State and federal government grants, pharmaceutical firms and other sources funded $28.4 million in research, service and clinical trials work at the medical school, an $8.5 million, or 30 percent, increase over the year before.

A total of 182 grants were funded, said Dr. John Lehman, associate dean for research and graduate studies at the medical school and ECU associate vice chancellor for research. That’s up from 180 grants the previous fiscal year.

About 45 percent of the dollars went to service, such as patient care, while the remainder went to basic science investigations, clinical research and clinical trials of devices, medicines and procedures, Lehman said.

According to figures from Lehman’s office, the previous high dollar amount was $19.9 million in 2006-2007 Campuswide, ECU totaled $44 million in external research dollars from July 1, 2007-June 30 of this year, according to the university’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies.

she weakened by removing a gene that surfaced above thousands of others as an ideal target. Called A35R, the gene interested Roper because it seems to inhibit immune responses in mammals. With the help of the Biotechnology Center funding, she’s pursuing her hypothesis that removing the A35R gene from poxvirus vaccines will make vaccines safer and more effective against such threats as monkeypox.

And, if bioterrorists somehow find a way to release smallpox, a safe, powerful, wideranging vaccine could just help save the world.

—Jim Shamp, news and publications editor,

N.C. Biotechnology Center

In The Lab

Scientists study ways to stop dangerous germ

Projects receive Brody Brothers research grants

Researchers at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University are looking at ways to control a germ that causes serious infections in hospital patients and people who have cystic fi brosis with help from a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Everett Pesci, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology, is studying Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that causes approximately 10 percent of hospital infections and chronic lung infections in approximately 90 percent of people with cystic fi brosis. Such infections are a major problem for hospitals and are the primary source of progressive lung dysfunction for C.F. patients.

Pseudomonas is resistant to many antibiotics, making treatment difficult, said Pesci, who has studied the bacteria for more than a decade. It infects people with weakened immune systems and is present in water, soil, on plants and many other surfaces.

Approximately 10 percent of the population carries the bug, but it does not affect healthy people. “Most of us eat it, drink it and see it every day, and it doesn’t bother us,” Pesci said.

For people with HIV, C.F., burns, cancer and other conditions that weaken immune systems, however, Pseudomonas poses a serious threat, Pesci said.

To defuse that threat, Pesci is studying the chemical communication signals of Pseudomonas. Like many bacteria, the cells communicate with each other through chemical signals to keep track of the size of their population and the status of their environment. One chemical they use, which Pesci discovered, is the Pseudomonas Quinolone Signal. It controls the virulence of the bacteria. Without it, Pseudomonas is much less dangerous.

“If we can inhibit production of the signal, we can make the organism less virulent,” he said.

Dr. James Coleman, an ECU associate professor of microbiology and immunology, is co-investigator on the NIH grant. Since receiving the grant, they have published three papers on their research.

Researchers at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University have received grants totaling $473,206 from the Brody Brothers Foundation Endowment Fund in 2007 and 2008.

The following researchers received grants in September: Drs. Joseph Chalovich and Mechthild Schroeter of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Dr. Roberta Johnke of the Department of Radiation Oncology; Dr. James McCubrey of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Drs. Suzanne Russo and Roger Ove of the Department of Radiation Oncology; Drs. Justin Moore, Stephanie Jilcott and Lloyd Novick of the Department of Public Health and Dr. Suzanne Lazorick of the Department of Pediatrics; Dr. Jacques Robidoux of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; Dr. Claudio Sibata of the Department of Radiation Oncology; and Dr. Li Yang of the Department of Internal Medicine. The Summer Scholars Student Research Program received a total of $44,000 over the two years to support research stipends.

The following researchers received grants in late 2007: Drs. Carlos Campos, Ron Allison and Claudio Sibata of the Department of Radiation Oncology; Dr. Joseph Cory of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Dr. James deVente of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Dr. Edward Seidel of the Department of Physiology; Dr. Warren Knudson of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology; Dr. Mark Mannie of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Drs. Robert Lust and Jitka Virag of the Department of Physiology; Dr. Alexander Murashov of the Department of Physiology; and Dr. Maria Ruiz-Echevarria of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Since 2005, the Brody Brothers Endowment Fund has awarded $921,535.

The grants have generated nearly $1 million in external funding. The fund was established in 1999 to fund research projects at the medical school for prevalent health problems in eastern North Carolina.

Dr. Yen-Hua Chen, shown with research specialist Rodney Tatum, is studying the protein claudin-7 and the role it plays in hypertension with help from a five-year, $1.6 million grant.

Research could lead to new blood pressure treatment Funded by a $1.6 million grant, an East Carolina University researcher is studying a protein that might hold a key to reducing high blood pressure and improving kidney function in people with kidney disease.

Dr. Yan-Hua Chen, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Brody School of Medicine, has received the five-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the function of claudin-7, a protein that makes up part of the barrier that controls the flow of molecules between cells.

Chen’s preliminary research has shown that claudin-7 interacts with an enzyme called WNK4 kinase and forms a pathway for chloride ions to enter the bloodstream.

Interaction of claudin-7 with a mutated version of WNK-4 may lead to high blood pressure.

Understanding the role of claudin-7 in these intercellular barriers and pathways could lead to medicines that could help people with high blood pressure as well as kidney disease, Chen said. It could also help people whose blood pressure is too low.

Chen is working with Dr. Qun Lu of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Dr. Abdel Abdel-Rahman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology on the claudin-7 study.

2008 mission 9

Dr F eo pa mr tt h mee n Ft ou hn ed aa dti n i ogn

Professorship to honor Raabs An endowed professorship to recognize Drs. Spencer and Mary Raab is edging closer to reality.

The East Carolina University Medical & Health Sciences Foundation is raising money to establish the Drs. Mary and Spencer Raab Distinguished Professorship in Medical Oncology to honor the husband-and-wife team that brought advanced cancer care to eastern North Carolina and to boost research and patient care.

The Raabs came to ECU in 1977 to become founding members of ECU’s oncology department. Spencer Raab led the division of hematology/oncology until his death from cancer in 1993. Mary Raab has continued to work in various roles with the medical school and still sees patients on a limited basis.

“There is a significant need at the cancer center and medical school to get more endowed professorships,” Raab said. Doing so will help supplement salaries, attract top researchers and add prestige to the school, she said.

The professorship has been planned since 1993, and fundraising efforts have included the annual Reach For Hope Gala.

“Our goal is to raise $333,000 to qualify

for the match of $167,000 from the Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund established by the North Carolina General Assembly,” said Carole Novick, president of the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation. “This will allow us to create a $500,000 endowment. To date we have raised more than half of that amount and have received a challenge grant that will allow each new gift to effectively be doubled.

We hope that this will be an incentive to donors as we work to raise $150,000 to reach our goal.”

At ECU, the Raabs worked tirelessly to care for cancer patients throughout the region. Seeing the difficulty many patients had traveling to seek treatment, they formed outreach clinics in Washington, Jacksonville, Morehead City, Edenton and Williamston.

They also worked to develop the Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center that now provides care to more than 6,000 patients each year and fosters cancer research.

“The Raabs established cancer care for patients in eastern North Carolina,” said Dr. Ron Allison, director of ECU’s Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center. “This endowed professorship not only honors their incredible efforts but also will allow us to recruit a

Dr. Mary Raab

Dr. Spencer Raab

nationally renowned oncologist to expand our leading edge care to our region. A true win for all.”

Other endowed professorships the foundation has recently completed for the medical school are the D. E. Darnell Jones, MD, Endowed Professorship for Residency Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Emergency Medicine Distinguished Professorship and the Verneda and Clifford Kiehn Distinguished Professorship in Surgery.

For more information about any of the professorships, e-mail Novick at novickc@ ecu.edu or Greg Prince at princet@ecu.edu at the foundation or call 252-744-2238 or 888-816-2238. Contributions may be mailed to the foundation at 525 Moye Blvd., Greenville, N.C. 27834.

Heart institute receives $500,000 gift Two areas of the East Carolina Heart Institute have been named for a prominent Rocky Mount family thanks to a $500,000 pledge.

Boddie-Noell Enterprises of Rocky Mount has pledged the sum through the East Carolina University Medical & Health Sciences Foundation. As a result, ECU will name the pediatric cardiology and cardiac diagnostics areas of its facility for the company.

“We are happy that we are in a position to contribute to a worthy cause that will mean so much to the people of eastern North Carolina,” said Mayo Boddie, chairman of Boddie-Noell.

ECU officials welcomed the pledge. “We are very grateful for this important gift from the Boddie family,” said David Whichard, 10 mission 2008

chairman of the foundation. “Their gift will help us improve services to both children and adults with heart problems in our community.”

The ECHI comprises two buildings. The ECU building, funded by state appropriations and private contributions, opened in September. It houses offices and research labs for cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, vascular surgeons and scientists. The four-story, 206,000-square-foot, $60 million building also houses outpatient treatment facilities and educational facilities for students, physicians and scientists.

The six-story, $150 million, 375,000-square-foot cardiovascular bed tower Pitt County Memorial Hospital is building on Moye Boulevard will house operating rooms, 13 interventional labs and 120

patient beds and should open in January.

University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, parent company of PCMH, is funding its construction.

Boddie-Noell Enterprises is a diversified family-owned business engaged primarily in restaurants and land development. It is the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the United States with 343 restaurants across four states. The company owns the Texas Steakhouse & Saloon and Café Carolina and Bakery restaurant brands. It also operates Moe’s Southwest Grill franchises and the historic Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville. Boddie-Noell has major landdevelopment projects completed or underway along the North Carolina coast and in Virginia. It employs more than 12,750 people and is headquartered in Rocky Mount.

F r o m t h e F o u n d at i o n

Internal medicine research day named for Kataria The annual research day in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University has been named for Dr. Yash P. Kataria, a longtime faculty member and sarcoidosis expert.

He was honored at a May 28 banquet at the Greenville Hilton. The May 29 research day was named “The Annual Yash P. Kataria Internal Medicine Research Day.” Plans are to raise money for an endowment to support the event and provide research prizes in perpetuity.

Kataria founded the research day in 1987 to promote research and discovery. With this endowment, his vision will continue.

Kataria’s passion for translational research with a particular focus on sarcoidosis helped bring international recognition to eastern North Carolina. His research has brought a paradigm shift in the understanding that sarcoidosis is not due to a depressed immune system but due to a hyperactive immune system. Kataria has published more than 70 scholarly articles.

“My personal commitment has always been the tripartite goal of excellence in patient care, education and training of future doctors, and

investigation into diseases relevant to our patients and population,” Kataria wrote recently, recalling his years at ECU. During his 30-year career at the Brody School of Medicine and Pitt County Memorial Hospital, Kataria has made numerous contributions to patient care, teaching, research and administration. He was the first division chief of pulmonary medicine, the first pulmonologist in eastern North Carolina and has been named one of the top doctors in the country. Kataria also served the Department of Internal Medicine as vice chairman and interim chairman and continues to contribute to the clinical, academic and mentorship needs of the department.

Kataria came to Greenville in 1978 along with his wife, Dr. Sudesh Kataria, and has two children, Anjali and Neil. He has been an active member of the community through his involvement in PTA, the Rotary Club, the Lung Association as well as the Hindu Temple of Eastern North Carolina, which he and his wife helped start.

Kataria has served as chairman of the

Academic Affairs Committee of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.

He has a medical degree from Glancy Kataria Medical College in Amritsar, India, and trained in England, Wales, Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago and at Ohio State University.

The featured speaker for the May 28 event was Dr. Philip Bromberg, Bonner Professor of Medicine, and Scientific Director of the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kataria’s mentor.

Several other speakers commended his contributions. Researchers presented findings from more than 57 studies May 29.

For more information about the research day endowment, call the foundation at 252-744-2238 or e-mail Carole Novick at novickc@ecu.edu.

Newest Brody Scholars enter ECU Four North Carolina residents have received Brody Medical Scholarships at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. The students are part of the class of 2012.

This year’s Brody Scholars are Nabeel H. Arastu of Greenville, a graduate of ECU; Bryan Howington of Pembroke, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Wesley Thomas O’Neal of Wilson, a graduate of N.C. State University; and Mary Elizabeth Windham of Greenville, a graduate of ECU. The Brody Medical Scholarship was established in 1983 by the family of J.S. “Sammy” Brody. The scholarship provides full tuition and fees to incoming medical students who show high scholarship ability, leadership, a desire for service, moral character and a promise of distinction in medicine. The program shares the goals of the medical school to improve the health and quality of life for people in eastern North Carolina.

From left, Brody Scholars Mary Windham, Wesley O’Neal, Bryan Howington and Nabeel Arastu are among the 76 students who began medical school at ECU in August. Shown with them is Carole Novick, president of the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation.

2008 mission 11

BACK HOME IN EASTERN CAROLINA Cunningham returns to ECU to carve a new career at Brody

By Doug Boyd

B

efore having lunch with a group of students on a sunny September day, Dr. Paul R.G. Cunningham reflected on his first couple of weeks at his new job: meetings and receptions, long hours and lots of handshakes.

“It’s been busy, exciting. I can say the challenges ... are balanced by the opportunities,” said East Carolina University’s newest and perhaps most high-profile dean. “It’s truly been a very positive experience for my wife and myself.”

In July, Cunningham, a former faculty member and administrator at the Brody School of Medicine, was named dean of the medical school and senior associate vice chancellor for medical affairs. His first day was Sept. 15.

12 mission 2008

Cunningham, 59, spent the previous six years leading the Department of Surgery at State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. He was a faculty member at ECU for 21 years before that, so he brings not only institutional and regional experience but also a fresh outlook to the job.

“Paul Cunningham is exactly the right choice to lead the Brody School of Medicine,” Chancellor Steve Ballard said when he announced the appointment. “He is a highly accomplished, widely respected physician. He is familiar with the school’s mission and with the health care challenges facing this region and state, and he is a former chief of staff of our teaching hospital. Most importantly, Dr. Cunningham

has the leadership skills and strength of character to assure excellence in the Brody School. I am delighted that he has accepted our offer to return to ECU.” Dr. Walter Pories, a professor and former chair of surgery who recruited Cunningham to ECU in the 1980s, called him a role model, an excellent teacher and physician, and a skillful leader.

“I think we’re fortunate to have, first of all, someone who’s a passionate, thoughtful and highly competent physician,” Pories said. “He has the unusual capacity to pull segments together and unite. I’m just totally delighted.

I can’t think of anybody who is more fitting in these times and the challenges that we face.”

News about Cunningham’s selection drew

D e pa r t m e n t h e a d i n g

Cultinle please.

2008 mission 13

praise nationwide. He is one of only seven African-American medical deans in the country.

“We think he’s a great guy,” said Dr. Frederick D. Cason, chair of the Surgery Section of the National Medical Association.

“He has a tremendous history of leadership in American surgery. I think he should be a true asset to East Carolina University.

Qualified people should get the opportunity to take leadership positions they are ready for.

Dr. Cunningham is ready for that leadership role. The news spread all around the country about him.”

Students are also happy to have him at Brody. Mike Villareal, treasurer of the Medical Student Council and a third-year student, praised Cunningham’s familiarity with ECU and eastern North Carolina.

“That’s a great thing to have, someone coming in who knows the lay of the land and the history of the school,” Villareal said before the September lunch meeting. “He’s going to take us to good places.” Other students at the meeting welcomed Cunningham and expressed excitement at having a permanent dean in place.

Cunningham is certified by the American Board of Surgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is a charter member and past president of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and a member of many other medical organizations and local, state and national committees and boards, including one that examined the racial disparity in organ distribution and time spent on organ waiting lists among minorities.

Cunningham has written or co-written 65 scholarly articles and contributed to other research publications and presentations.

During his career, he and colleagues have received more than $1.5 million in research funding, primarily in the areas of trauma prevention and treatment.

As dean, he said, goals will include expanding student enrollment, stabilizing the school’s finances and increasing the diversity of the school’s faculty and administration.

14 mission 2008

Reasons to return Cunningham cited growth at the medical school, strong university leadership and the chance to further the medical school’s mission – producing primary care doctors, educating minority and disadvantaged students and improving the health status of eastern North Carolinians – as reasons he is happy to return to Greenville.

“Based on all of the information that we received on each of our visits, and with the visible physical evidence of growth on the health campus, it is clear that there are exciting opportunities that will allow those stated missions to achieve their full evolution: measureable positive statistics in the health indices for eastern North Carolina,” Cunningham said.

At that student lunch, Cunningham repeated his goals and added boosting research, which climbed to a record funding amount in 2008.

“If we keep that focus, we’ll be entirely successful,” he said.

A native of Jamaica, Cunningham is a medical graduate of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He also completed surgery training there, at Mount Sinai

Hospital, Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and City Hospital at Elmhurst, all in New York City.

After training, Cunningham remained in New York to begin his career as a surgeon and then moved to the Bertie County town of Windsor in northeastern North Carolina in 1981. He practiced there, was vice chief of the medical staff at Bertie Memorial Hospital and taught ECU medical students who rotated through his practice.

Richard Cooper, a construction manager, befriended Cunningham in Windsor and said ECU made a good choice.

“He’s just an all-around nice guy,” Cooper said. “I think everybody who had him as a doctor just thought the world of him. I can’t think of anyone y’all could’ve gotten who could be more qualified. He has an affinity for the area, which I think would be an asset.”

In Windsor, Cunningham was at his patients’ service 24/7. Injured in the middle of the night and the rescue squad brings you to the hospital? Dr. Cunningham’s there.

Need a prescription phoned in to an out-of-town pharmacy on a weekend? Call Dr. Cunningham. He was happy to serve.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be in that

“Paul Cunningham is exactly the right choice to lead the Brody School of Medicine.”

—ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard Cunningham speaks with students and faculty members during a September lunch meeting.

Dr. Paul R.G. Cunningham Age: 59 Medical school: University of the West Indies, Jamaica Residency: University of the West Indies; Mount Sinai Hospital, Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and City Hospital at Elmhurst, New York City Previously: Chair of surgery, State University of New York Upstate Medical Center Family: Wife, Sydney, four children

situation,” Cunningham said. “It really is.”

From Windsor, Cunningham joined the ECU faculty full time in 1984 and became medical director of trauma the following year.

He also was interim director of the organ transplant division from 1990-1991 and chief of the medical staff at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in 1991.

Cunningham rose to professor of surgery in 1993 and was chief of general surgery from 1999-2002. From 1990-1998, he also served as a major in the Army Reserve Medical Corps.

Dr. Edward Seidel, a longtime professor of physiology at ECU, said having a former faculty member return has its pluses.

“We grew up together,” Seidel said. “We all started out here in our thirties. We were a bunch of assistant professors at the same time and we’ve come up through the ranks. He has a lot of close friends here he grew up professionally with.”

Cunningham has already attended several special events, such as the groundbreaking for the new ECU Family Medicine Center. Shown from left are Dr. Brian Forrest of Apex, a board member of the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians; Dr. Robert L. Rich Jr. of Bladenboro, president-elect of the NCAFP; Cunningham; and Ralph Hall, a Pitt County Memorial Hospital trustee.

Cunningham echoed that sentiment.

“That is true,” he said. “There is an uncanny feeling of ‘being at home’ when I walk the halls and speak with my colleagues.”

Returning to North Carolina also means Cunningham and his wife, Sydney, are closer to their four children, all of whom live in the state. The weekend before he had lunch with the student group, Cunningham’s daughter had visited from Durham.

“And she drove,” he said. “She didn’t have to fly to Syracuse on an airplane. That was absolutely wonderful.”

Looking ahead Cunningham called his new role “the last third of my career.” He is looking ahead not to retirement but to returning to the operating room – once he settles in to the rigors and routine of being dean. In New York, he performed complex bariatric

procedures once a week and took trauma call to relieve his faculty.

“I hope to be able to explore the options for developing a clinical practice, including surgery,” he said. “Looking after patients and their needs has been a life-long passion and a source of personal satisfaction. However, once engaged, the needs of the patient will become a very high priority. The responsibility of dean of the Brody School of Medicine will need to be protected for the time being.”

He added that the ideals he came here with more than 25 years ago – such as improving people’s health status – are still intact and reflected in the mission of the school.

“This is a durable concept,” he said, “that I have internalized and have tried to apply in each segment of my career and to each population that I have served over more than three decades.”

2008 mission 15

‘Where Science 16 mission 2007

DR. ANNE KELLOGG DELIVERS PATIENT CARE FROM THE LAB

Meets Medicine’

By Doug Boyd

2008 mission 17

Sometimes, experience on the other side of the stethoscope can lead physicians to medical insights that can prove life-saving. had to take priority,” she said. “My research has gone a lot better now that I can just do that.”

Kellogg is grateful for the support she has received from ECU, including small grants from the Brody School of Medicine Research Committee and support from her own department. Dr. Peter Kragel, chair of pathology at Brody, helped arrange departmental funding to further Kellogg’s research.

Future grants from ImmunoGen and sanofi-aventis are under discussion.

“It’s people like her who get interested in research and like to apply the science in clinical situations who really make a difference in patient care,” Kragel said. “She’s developed her line of research in a very exciting way.”

That’s the case with Dr. Anne Kellogg.

An associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Brody School of Medicine, Kellogg was a patient of Dr. Diane Semer, a gynecologic oncologist who had diagnosed Kellogg with a tumor. When the tumor proved benign, Kellogg could have relaxed. Instead, she put her expertise in antibodies that target specific cells to work to do whatever she could to make sure other women with malignant tumors received a diagnosis rather than a death sentence.

“I’ll either make you rich and famous or bake you a cake,” Kellogg recalls saying in jest to Semer, knowing what would really make Semer happy would be to have more therapies that she could offer to her patients who were not so lucky. The two worked together to find just the right antibody.

Today, in pharmaceutical laboratories near Boston, scientists are preparing the antibody for clinical trials.

The road to research Kellogg was one of seven children in her family. Born in St. Louis, the family moved often – her father worked for General Electric – and she considers herself to be from Texas, Kentucky and now North Carolina.

She attended college at Western Kentucky University, medical school and residency at the University of Louisville and postdoctoral work in oncologic pathology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I was an underachiever until college and didn’t excel unless I was interested,” she said about her background. “I was from a very traditional middle-class family, and there wasn’t any pressure to do well in school as a kid as long as I did OK. In fact, when I started college and told my dad I wanted to go to med school, he counseled me that I should consider going to nursing school and marrying a doctor. Of course, women’s lib was changing things, and when I actually did get in med school he was very supportive.

“When I was growing up, college was to get an education so that, ‘if something ever happened,’ such as being widowed, I could 18 mission 2008

Targeting a tumor take care of myself, something to fall back on.”

Kellogg considered specializing in geriatrics, but near the end of medical school she took an elective in pathology. The combination clicked, and she was offered a residency slot.

“No regrets. Pathology is a nice crossover spot for someone who is basic science oriented. It really is where science meets medicine,” she said.

Research piqued Kellogg’s interest as a resident. She liked figuring out the unknown as opposed to memorizing the known.

Monoclonal antibodies were just starting to be used in surgical pathology as immunohistochemical tools while Kellogg was a resident.

“I was essentially there at the ground floor and saw the impact they had,” she said.

Her work at UNC led her to develop her own techniques for using antibodies in research. But it’s a high-risk field, essentially a hunting expedition looking for novel tumor target antigens, so large federal grants are hard to come by.

“I have always, until last fall, had to do it as a sideline to a clinical job (such as surgical pathology or directing a blood bank) that

Kellogg knew her research could lead to a means to deliver potent cancer-killing agents to tumors, and she knew that would be a great benefit to Semer’s other patients whose diagnoses weren’t benign. Together, they decided to work on ovarian cancer, particularly the type known as serous adenocarcinomas.

They isolated the antibody, called DS-6, in the late 1990s and began characterizing the antibody for its ability to recognize various types of cancer with the assistance of Dr. Nancy Smith, a former ECU pathologist.

The antibody holds tremendous promise as a delivery vehicle for a highly potent cell-killing agent developed by ImmunoGen specifically for delivery to cancer cells by antibodies. The antibody latches on to tumor cells and enables the whole compound – the antibody and the attached cell-killing agent – to enter the cancer cell. Once inside, the cell-killing agent becomes activated and kills the tumor cell as it divides.

“We can’t give such a potent chemotherapy agent on its own because it would be too toxic, but if we can link it to an antibody, it goes inside the tumor cell and is released inside the tumor cell, which is really an amazing feat,” Kellogg said.

The antibody with the cell-killing agent

When Kellogg isn’t working in her lab, she enjoys spending time with her quarter horse, Cisco, as well as several dogs and cats at her rural home near Ayden.

linked to it circulates in the body in an inactive state. The cell-killing agent becomes active only when it reaches the tumor cell, so ImmunoGen refers to its technology as Tumor-Activated Prodrug, or TAP, technology. Sanofi-aventis has rights to develop specific anticancer agents using ImmunoGen’s TAP technology and is in charge of advancing the TAP compound containing the DS-6 antibody licensed from ECU into human clinical testing.

Monoclonal antibodies are manufactured proteins, produced from a single parent cell, that bind to a specific substance. They can be used to detect or purify that substance and are widely used in hospital and pathology laboratories as components of diagnostic tests. Monoclonal antibodies gained attention as a possible way to treat cancer in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, scientists refined techniques to expand their usefulness as therapeutics by making subtle changes to the antibodies so the human body would not reject them as foreign tissue. One of the best-known

monoclonal antibodies is trastuzumab, sold under the brand name Herceptin and used to treat breast cancer.

Kellogg began working with monoclonal antibodies in the early 1990s looking for ones pathologists could use to diagnose cancer. A few years later, Kellogg turned her attention to identifying an antibody that could not only recognize tumors but also be useful in treating them. The treatment could have benefits even if it falls short of curing cancer.

“You may be able to convert cancer to a very chronic disease you can treat if we can provide oncologists with a wider array of treatment options,” she said.

Semer said Kellogg’s meticulous research could lead to greater effectiveness against ovarian cancer with reduced side effects.

“Anne has just been a very meticulous researcher to get this far with the antibody she has,” Semer said. “It’s very exciting the antibody has gotten this far.”

ECU has patented some aspects of the

antibody, and others are pending. Few pharmaceuticals that show promise in the lab make it to market, and the journey can take years, but this antibody has the potential to be ECU’s most lucrative discovery. While Kellogg is well aware of that, financial gain doesn’t drive her and she downplays accolades. She’s more interested in finding ways to help patients who have cancer.

“She is one of the most humble people you will ever meet and will not recognize that she has special insight into antibody development,” said Marti Van Scott, who heads the Office of Technology Transfer at ECU. Kellogg said the experience has taught her a lot about the pharmaceutical industry.

“This has been an amazing education for me and personally very rewarding to get a ringside seat in seeing the complex process of drug discovery and development take place. It has also demonstrated how well academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies can work together in this process,” she said.

2008 mission 19

Reality M.D. Students learn common and

complex care through simulation

By Crystal Baity 20

mission

2008

Dr. Thomas Kraemer gives instructions as medical student Courtney Weems and resident Dr. Shakonda Strayhorn listen. Looking on is Dr. Kevin Corcoran.

Noelle may not be your typical expectant mother, but she has everything she needs to deliver a baby and high-quality simulation education to students at the same time.

This pregnant high-fidelity simulator is the newest tool in the growing Medical Simulation and Patient Safety Lab in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. What started as a one-room basic skills lab in the mid-to-late 1990s has blossomed to eight rooms, a variety of task trainers and human simulators like Noelle and Stan, said Dr. Walter “Skip” Robey, director of the lab and clinical associate

professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

“We are trying to create an environment that mimics reality,” Robey said. “Simulationbased education doesn’t take the place of bedside training but if you can get it as close as possible, students arrive at the bedside with increased clinical maturity and greater confidence.”

Among the goals of simulation-based education, patient safety is No. 1. “If the skill is invasive or high risk, the philosophy now is to pre-train before sending someone to the bedside with supervision,” Robey said.

“It’s patient-safety driven.”

Noelle is able to mimic the birth process with contractions, through natural delivery or Caesarean section, the use of forceps or suction, and emergency situations, said Dr. Thomas G. Kraemer, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Noelle pushes her baby and its umbilical cord through the birth canal. She can talk, cry and yell during childbirth. Sounds are generated through a computer which has been programmed for a specific delivery scenario.

Even blood and mucus can be simulated. The technology has improved greatly from the 2008 mission 21

past when crude pelvic models were used, Kraemer said.

“It gives students a familiarity with the normal birth process so they will be better prepared for their first live birth,” he said.

Courtney Weems, 23, of Linville is a third-year medical student and Schweitzer Fellow who assisted Noelle in deliveries for the first time recently.

A computer screen tracked Noelle’s vital signs as Weems positioned herself at the end of the delivery table. Weems reassured Noelle even as she voiced discomfort with each contraction. With Kraemer’s guidance, Weems placed her hands to support and guide the baby as it emerged. Weems repeated the process several times, seeming more at ease with each delivery.

“It’s a really good way to get prepared,” Weems said. “It’s a good way to practice the hand movements. If you can practice in a non-stressful environment, you’re focused and you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Dr. Shakonda Strayhorn, a third-year obstetrics and gynecology resident from New Bern, enjoyed working with the simulator.

“Repetition is always good. It becomes second nature when you’re in a real situation,” she said.

Being able to master complex skills through repetition in a non-threatening environment is a key benefit to simulation education. As skills improve, errors decrease.

Simulation also gives students the opportunity to problem-solve emergency situations risk-free; for instance, if Noelle suffered a postpartum hemorrhage. Learners are able to get real-time feedback through videotape and review with instructors and peers.

“There is a sense to make the situation real, not to suspend reality, but you have to role play that the situation is real,” Kraemer said. “The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.”

Noelle was purchased earlier this year with a $25,000 dean’s educational grant. Set up in August, Kraemer and Dr. Keith Nelson, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, incorporated Noelle in the third year OB/GYN clerkship and residency training.

Medical students, nurses, emergency department and family medicine staff are also expected to work with Noelle. The goal is to incorporate multidisciplinary education and work in a health care setting as a team, Kraemer said.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to do it as part of our training, and we’re glad to 22 mission 2008

Robey

implement it,” said Kraemer, who has been at ECU since 2004. “It takes time and resources. We have a dedicated faculty.”

Humble beginnings The laboratory is an evolving simulationbased experiential learning and assessment program with a number of components.

It began several years ago to provide a lab environment for teaching technical skills. It has matured into a hands-on facility using high-fidelity, computer-enhanced simulators combined with more sophisticated task trainers. These include an anatomically-correct human torso model used to teach ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization.

In 2004, the Pitt Memorial Hospital Foundation provided $40,000 to purchase an emergency care simulator. Technical improvements were made possible with a grant from the Eastern Area Health Education Center.

Previously located in the Department of Emergency Medicine offices in space provided by Pitt County Memorial Hospital, the lab moved this year to Brody’s first floor where Laupus Library had been.

Last year, simulation-based education skills were integrated into the third-year medicine clerkship coordinated by Dr. Mary Jane Barchman, assistant professor of internal medicine, and the third-year surgical clerkship

by Dr. Michael Bard from the Department of Surgery. PCMH cardiac surgery nurses and EastCare flight nurses are using the lab for training, part of an evolving interdisciplinary simulation program. Lab faculty also coordinates training with the ECU College of Nursing’s simulation program.

Working with the Office of Clinical Skills Education and Assessment, standardized patients have been used in simulation sessions to increase realism. Some scenarios are video recorded and participants are debriefed

immediately through dynamic, faculty-led discussion and assessment of team performance.

“We try to find innovative ways to get students involved,” said Dr. Kevin J. Corcoran, clinical associate professor of emergency medicine. “Any skill set you develop has to be maintained.”

Students learn by acquiring proficiency on a sequence of skills and eventually progressing to higher levels. Adequate practice boosts performance.

“As a result, they arrive at the bedside with some familiarity. They may be a little intimidated as first but they know they have been taught the procedure,” Corcoran said.

“The light comes on and they do it. It’s all about safety and doing things right, and when things go wrong to recognize what went wrong and to fix it.”

Plans for growth A development team has completed a business plan for a center that emphasizes experiential learning and assessment.

The team included co-chairs Dr. Maria Clay, director of OCSEA and co-director of the office of interdisciplinary health sciences education, and Dr. Theodore Delbridge, professor and chair of emergency medicine.

The goal is to collaborate with health care disciplines, departments, schools and colleges to create a regional multidisciplinary medical simulation center. It differs from the lab in that the model proposed is a “simulated hospital” or “theater” to allow on-demand rehearsal where learners could master the elements of patient care through the use of screen-based simulation, task trainers, robotics, patient actors and life-like, full-sized computer-enhanced mannequins, officials said. The proposal will be presented to Dean Paul R.G. Cunningham this fall.

The center would allow users to create the entire process of patient care from the point of illness or injury to hospital admission to a variety of hospital patient care units to discharge. It would provide for the creation of realistic clinical simulations involving individual or multiple patients while emphasizing teamwork among health care providers.

If approved, ECU would join a number of medical schools, universities and medical centers such as Duke, Wake Forest, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and WakeMed that have or are developing simulation centers and programs.

FO R T H E

Health

Hobgood OF

ECU clinic helps a small community address one of its biggest problems: diabetes

By Christine Neff

2008 mission 23

A

Alexandra Stang, a second-year medical student at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, used an alcohol swab to clean 7-year-old Shatia Burnette’s index finger, reassuring the girl that the prick of the glucose meter wouldn’t sting – much.

Having just done the test, Dianna Floyd knew that first-hand. “It ain’t going to hurt,” she said. “It’s all in your head.”

Still, the girl squeezed her eyes tightly as the trio counted together, “1–2–3,” then the spring-loaded needle did its job.

“It didn’t hurt,” Shatia said, smiling, eyes wide after Stang completed the test. “Yeah!”

The three were at a clinic run by ECU medical students at the Thomas Shields Community Center in the rural Halifax County town of Hobgood. The students are making a difference in this small community by addressing one of the population’s biggest health concerns: diabetes.

Local health officials estimate that 40 percent of the population in Hobgood suffers from pre-diabetes or diabetes. The disease was named as a contributing condition in 38 percent of the deaths in Halifax 24 mission 2008

County between 2001 and 2005, according to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics.

Hobgood sits at the intersection of two highways – N.C. 125 and 122 – about 45 minutes from Greenville. It’s perhaps best known for the private grade school, Hobgood Academy. It’s not known for its health care services, for good reason.

The Hobgood area has few, if any, preventive medical care resources. Diabetic patients must travel at least 15 miles to have

The Hobgood Clinic is held at the Thomas Shields Community Center, a former school. Top: Shatia Burnette.

their blood drawn for screening, and they often have to make a follow-up visit to get their test results.

To complicate matters, the population faces economic challenges. Census data from 2000 showed that 25 percent of the population is without health insurance, and 60 percent live below the poverty level.

Dr. Joseph Zanga, an ECU professor of pediatrics and medical faculty advisor, called Hobgood an “area of great need, not all that different from many communities in eastern North Carolina where there is a need for primary care services.”

The Hobgood clinic makes it easier for local people to receive the medical attention they need.

“For a significant part of the population, access to health care means traveling considerable distances on rural roads, and some of them don’t have the physical ability or mechanical means to do that regularly,” Zanga said.

The clinic meets the first and second Saturdays of the month. Starting at 8:30 a.m., student-volunteers check the height, weight

Alexandra Stang prepares to check Dianna Floyd’s blood pressure at the Hobgood Clinic.

and blood pressure of their clients and use a glucose meter to test their blood-sugar levels.

They encourage patients with elevated levels to see a physician or make lifestyle changes.

As many as 20 clients – most of them repeat visitors – attend every Saturday. More stop by on days when a food bank distributes food at the community center.

The clinic started in 1999 through ECU’s North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition. Two former medical students, Steven Manning and Cindy Johns, expanded the project in 2005 through a Schweitzer Fellowship. Recently, the Brody School of Medicine received a grant from the College of American Pathologists’ Humanitarian Grant Program to further expand the clinic’s services. The grant for nearly $9,000 (ECU has provided an additional $2,319.) will be used to purchase a more sophisticated diabetes testing system. The hemoglobin A1-C test takes the average of a patient’s blood-glucose levels over a six-to-12-week period, a reading that is more accurate than the snapshot provided by the glucose meter.

Clients will also receive a visual “road map” of their progress relative to their goals.

Some grant funds will be dedicated to attracting more clients and to doing followup home visits.

Through the Hobgood Clinic, Brody meets its mission of educating primary care doctors while improving the health of eastern North Carolina residents, Zanga said.

“The students not only get to help these people and feel their appreciation, they get to see how the community works together to solve problems. That’s one of the attractions of working in a rural area. It’s hard to teach but easy to experience, and students who become involved in programs like the Hobgood clinic are more inclined to choose careers in primary care and to provide care in rural communities,” he said.

Tonya Johnson, a volunteer and secondyear Brody medical student, has seen Hobgood’s need for primary care services.

She recently helped a man whose bloodglucose level was dangerously high – over 400 when the normal fasting range peaks at 100.

Too young for Medicare and not qualified for Medicaid, the man said he couldn’t afford to see a physician. Volunteers encouraged him to seek professional help and return to the clinic to learn more about his condition and have his blood sugar checked regularly, Johnson said.

“It’s not that there’s a lack of awareness.

People are familiar with diabetes or they’ll call it ‘sugar.’ But there is a lack of understanding of how to manage it or any of their health conditions,” she said.

Slowly, that’s changing.

On a recent Saturday, Geraldine Frayer visited the clinic after she finished working out at the community center with her exercise group, the Honeybees.

About a year ago, she said, doctors alerted

her to a heart condition that changed her ways. She started eating healthier and exercising every other day. And, she began visiting the Hobgood clinic to monitor her blood pressure and glucose levels.

“I feel like a new woman,” Frayer said. “I tell everybody to walk, exercise, eat right. It makes a difference in your life.”

People like Frayer have benefited from the free, regular check-ups provided at the clinic, and Brody medical students have learned valuable skills administering them.

Stang, who ran the clinic on a recent Saturday, said the experience has exposed her to a different type of patient and made her more aware of the concerns of rural health.

“I feel like we’re providing a valuable service. It’s definitely something I’ve found to be rewarding,” she said.

Johnson, who lives on a nearby farm, has become a big proponent of the project, using the local newspaper to call attention to health issues and attract new clients to the clinic.

A former accountant, she entered medical school with the goal of practicing medicine in a rural community. Her experience in Hobgood has only strengthened that desire, she said.

“Just being there has made me more determined that I’m going to stay right there, and I’m going to practice right there, despite all the obstacles that seem to stand in the way,” Johnson said.

In an area where an estimated 40 percent of the population has diabetes or pre-diabetes, education is a vital part of the Hobgood Clinic.

2008 mission 25

D e cu pa l rtty me Fa Nn et wh seading

New Faculty Dr. Nour Baltagi Clinical assistant professor of pediatrics M.D.: Universita Degli Studi Di Perugia, Italy Residency: American University of Beirut Medical Center, Lebanon, New York Medical College Fellowship: Washington University, St. Louis (pediatric nephrology) Dr. Jared Brown Assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology Ph.D.: University of Montana Dr. Brian Cabarrus Assistant professor of cardiovascular sciences M.D.: ECU Residency: University of Florida Fellowships: ECU (cardiology, interventional cardiology) Dr. Moahad Saeed Dar Assistant professor of medicine (endocrinology) M.D.: ECU Residency: Cleveland Clinic Foundation Fellowship: Duke University (endocrinology) Interests: metabolic bone disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, gastric-bypass surgery and diabetes Dr. Jamie DeWitt Assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology Ph.D.: Indiana University

Dr. Sohail Ejaz Clinical assistant professor of medicine (nephrology) M.D.: King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan Residency: Overlook Hospital, Summit, N.J. Fellowship: ECU (nephrology and hyptertension) Interests: interventional nephrology, hypertension, chronic kidney disease Dr. Timothy Fitzgerald Clinical associate professor of surgery M.D.: University of Michigan Residency: Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center Fellowship: University of Toronto (surgical oncology) Interests: Gastrointestinal oncology Dr. Mark Marilley Clinical associate professor of medicine (gastroenterology) M.D.: Columbia University Residency: University of Iowa Fellowship: University of Michigan (gastroenterology) Interests: colonoscopy, probiotics, antibiotic-associated diarrhea Dr. Abdul Motaleb Assistant professor of microbiology and immunology Ph.D.: Osaka University, Japan Dr. Raja Nekkanti Clinical assistant professor of cardiovascular sciences M.D.: Siddhartha Medical College and Research Institute, India Residency: India and New York Fellowships: Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York

City (critical care medicine) St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers, Jamaica, N.Y. (geriatric medicine) University of Alabama at Birmingham (echocardiography) ECU (adult cardiovascular disease) Wake Forest University (electrophysiology) Interests: atrial fibrillation, device-based therapy for heart failure and trans-esophageal echocardiography Dr. William Russell Oliver Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine M.D.: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Residency: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Fellowship: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (pathology)

cancers, prostate cancer

Dr. Roger Ove Clinical associate professor of radiation oncology M.D.: University of Illinois Ph.D.: Yale University Residency: University of Maryland Interests: head and neck Dr. Berrin Ozturk Clinical assistant professor of pediatrics M.D.: Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Turkey Residency: Long Island College Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York

ECU physicians named to annual Best Doctors list More than 30 physicians from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University were chosen by their peers for inclusion in the 2007-2008 “Best Doctors” list.

The annual list is compiled by Best Doctors Inc., a Boston-based group that surveys more than 30,000 physicians across the United States who previously have been listed asking whom they would choose to treat themselves or their families.

Approximately 5 percent of the physicians who practice in North Carolina make the annual list.

26 mission 2008

ECU physicians on this year’s list are Dr. Joseph Babb, cardiology; Dr. Paul Bolin, nephrology; Dr. William A. Burke, dermatology; Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr., thoracic surgery; Drs. David N. Collier, David Goff, Karin Hillinbrand, Thomas G. Irons, Dale A. Newton, Kathleen V. Previll, Charles Willson, Judy Wheat Wood and Joseph Zanga, general pediatrics; Drs. James J. Cummings, Irma Fiordalisi, David Hannon, Glenn Harris, Ronald M. Perkin, Michael Reichel, Charlie J. Sang Jr. and Debra A. Tristram, pediatric specialists; Drs. John M. Diamond and Kaye McGinty, psychiatry; Drs. Raymond

Dombroski, Edward R. Newton and Howard Homesley, obstetrics and gynecology; Dr. Bruce E. Johnson, internal medicine; Drs. Cynda A. Johnson, Robert J. Newman, Dr. Kenneth Steinweg and Ricky Watson, family medicine; Drs. Yash Kataria and Mani S. Kavuru, pulmonary and critical care medicine; Dr. Daniel P. Moore, pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation; Dr. Charles S. Powell, surgery; Dr. Keith M. Ramsey, infectious disease.

More information is available at http:// www.bestdoctors.com.

F a cu lt y N e w s

New Faculty Dr. Thomson “Pete” Pancoast Clinical assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary and critical care medicine) M.D.: George Washington University Residency: New York University Medical Center Fellowship: New York University Medical Center (pulmonary and critical care medicine) Interests: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary rehabilitation, mechanical ventilation, pulmonary hypertension, acute lung injury

(geriatrics)

Dr. Midesha Pillay Clinical assistant professor of family medicine M.D.: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Residency: ECU Fellowship: ECU

Dr. James R. Powell Clinical assistant professor of medicine M.D.: Eastern Virginia Medical School Residency: ECU Dr. Rachel Raab Assistant professor of medicine (hematology/oncology) M.D.: ECU Residency: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y. Fellowship: Albert Einstein College of Medicine (hematology/oncology)

Dr. Zia Rehman Clinical assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary and critical care medicine) M.D.: King Edward Medical College, Pakistan Residency: Interfaith Medical Center,

Brooklyn, N.Y. Fellowship: Interfaith Medical Center (critical care medicine) Dr. Suzanne Russo Clinical associate professor of radiation oncology M.D.: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Residency: UNC Hospitals Interests: gastrointestinal and thoracic malignancies, pediatric tumors, sarcomas Dr. Jeffrey Schmidt Clinical associate professor of pediatrics M.D.: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Residency: Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, Ark.

(pediatrics) Interests: critically ill children with cancer, pediatric sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome, the modulation of molecular inflammatory response pathways, pediatric neuropharmacology, modulation of molecular inflammatory response pathways in traumatic and ischemic brain injury.

Dr. Saame Raza Shaikh Assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology Ph.D.: Indiana University

Dr. Sunil Sharma Assistant professor of medicine (pulmonary and critical care medicine) M.D.: Maulana Azad Medical College, India Residency: Cook County Hospital, Chicago Fellowships: University of Wisconsin Hospitals, Medical College of Wisconsin (pulmonary and critical care medicine) Dr. Peter Wagner Clinical associate professor of cardiovascular sciences M.D.: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Residency: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Fellowship: Deborah Heart and Lung Center, Browns Mills, N.J. (cardiology) Interests: echocardiography, clinical cardiology, nuclear cardiology, dive medicine Dr. Leonard Wilk Clinical assistant professor of family medicine M.D.: Karol Marconokowski University of Medical Sciences, Poland.

Residency: ECU Fellowship: ECU (geriatrics) Interests: hospital medicine, dementia, stroke, osteoporosis

Two named master educators at Brody for 2008 Drs. Robert Lust and Robert Tanenberg have been named master educators for 2008 at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

Lust, a professor of physiology, has a doctorate from Texas Tech University and joined ECU in 1986 in the Department of Surgery. He has chaired the Department of Physiology since 1998 and holds faculty appointments in nursing and allied health sciences.

Tanenberg, a professor of internal medicine, has a medical degree from the University of Illinois and completed

residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and fellowships in endocrinology and diabetes. He joined ECU in 1998, directs the diabetes fellowship at the medical school and is medical director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center.

The master educator program recognizes excellence in leadership and administration, teaching contribution or mentorship, innovation and curriculum development, evaluation and research, faculty development in education, and educational contributions by community physicians.

Lust and Tanenberg were cited for the time

Lust

Tanenberg

they spend with students and the care they take in mentoring and guiding students.

Faculty members and students may nominate faculty members to receive the award, and a committee of faculty members and students decides on the recipients.

Since the program began in 2002, 30 Brody faculty members have been recognized.

2008 mission 27

D e cu pa l rtty me Fa Nn et wh seading

Chitwood

Chitwood elected president of Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr. has spent most of this year serving as president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He was elected during the group’s 44th annual meeting Jan. 27-29 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Chitwood is senior associate vice chancellor for health sciences at East Carolina University and founding director of the East Carolina Heart Institute.

Chitwood has been involved with STS throughout his career, taking his first leadership role in 1994.

He is a pioneer in developing new technology for minimally invasive heart surgery and robotic valve repairs using the da Vinci Surgical System.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a non-profit organization representing more than 5,400 surgeons, researchers, and allied health professionals worldwide who provide heart, lung, esophageal and other surgical procedures of the chest. Its mission is to help cardiothoracic surgeons serve patients better.

Hardy named to two leadership posts Dr. Virginia Hardy, senior Hardy associate dean at the Brody School of Medicine, has been named to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation advisory panel. She will serve a three-year term helping the foundation understand issues affecting North Carolina and exploring opportunities for more effective grantmaking.

Hardy has also been elected to the board of trustees for Pitt Community College. Her term lasts four years.

28 mission 2008

Pekala recongized by alma mater Dr. Philip H. Pekala, professor Pekala and interim chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Brody School of Medicine, has been recognized by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for lifetime achievement by an outstanding alumnus in biochemistry.

Virginia Tech cited Pekala for his research, his continuous funding over 25 years and his publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Professor named ‘leadership scholar’ Dr. Irene Hamrick, a Hamrick geriatric specialist at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, has been selected as a leadership scholar by the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs.

Hamrick is one of two participants selected this year. She will receive tuition and expenses for formal leadership training, national geriatrics mentor honorarium and site visit expenses for two years and other benefits.

Not only is Hamrick an associate professor of family medicine at Brody, but also a medical graduate of ECU, completed her geriatric fellowship at ECU, is geriatric division director and geriatric fellowship director. She has made presentations at numerous state, national and international academic meetings.

Frelix elected society president Dr. Gloria Frelix, a clinical assistant professor of Frelix radiation oncology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, has been elected president of the Old North State Medical Society.

Frelix was elected June 13 and sworn in July 19. Her term lasts two years.

Founded in 1886, the Old North State Medical Society is the nation’s second oldest association of black physicians and represents the interests of approximately 2,200 North Carolina physicians of African-American and ethnicities. The society works for equity in health care, equal opportunity for AfricanAmerican and other health care professionals and equal care for blacks, other minorities and the poor.

O’Rourke elected to leadership role Dr. Dorcas O’Rourke, chair of the O’Rourke Department of Comparative Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, has been named vice president of the Council on Accreditation for the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International. Her term lasts until July.

O’Rourke is in her 10th year on the council and has also served as assistant section leader and has chaired and served on various committees.

The council is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science through voluntary accreditation and assessment programs.

F a cu lt y N e w s

Keeps them in stitches Antonacci

Psychiatric medicine residents who have children while at East Carolina University have begun to count on a special item: a hooded baby jacket knitted by faculty member Dr. Diana Antonacci.

Antonacci and her needles have gained fame around the Brody School of Medicine.

Her blankets help keep patients warm in cool therapy rooms. Shawls and jackets draw bids in fund-raising auctions. She even knits during meetings.

“It frees the mind. I’m able to listen better. I listen better, and I stay awake. Even if the meeting is uneventful, it’s at least an hour of good knitting,” she said with a laugh.

Antonacci began knitting when she was in third grade, having learned in 4-H and by spending time with an adult neighbor who knitted. She once stopped knitting to concentrate on quilting, but longed for her first love.

“It all started with a scarf,” she said. “Now I’m addicted again.”

This past summer, Antonacci attended a knitting camp in Wisconsin led by Meg Swansen, the daughter of legendary knitter Elizabeth Zimmerman.

“The other nice thing about knitting is it’s this community of women,” Antonacci said, referring to the camp. “Occasionally you’ll see men, but it’s mostly women.”

She said knitting and quilting help gives her life balance and something with tangible results.

“We do a lot of chronic care in medicine,” she said. “People get better but are seldom ‘cured.’ Sometimes you feel there’s no end to your work. I feel it’s important to have something that has a beginning, middle and end. It helps me stay sane.”

Determination keeps Virag going Dr. Jitka Virag celebrates simple achievements, like helping her young children with their baths and driving herself to work at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

Just months ago, even simple tasks seemed impossible for this faculty member and researcher in Brody’s physiology department.

As she biked home from work in October 2007, a car struck her.

The collision left her with serious injuries and paralysis from the mid-torso down.

But a deep well of personal strength and support from family, friends and colleagues propelled Virag from that lowest of lows to the life she cherishes today – a life that recently included a return to work.

“I love the work that I do,” she said from the office where she studies heart attacks. “It’s always been a happy thing for me to come to work, and it will continue to be.”

She’s grateful for those who helped her to that point. Her husband and family were by her side from day one. Friends from around the world and colleagues from Brody rallied round.

They raised money for her recovery and cheered her on during her months-long stay at a rehabilitation center. They remodeled a wheelchair-accessible home for her family. They raced alongside her in a 5K dedicated to safe streets.

“There aren’t words,” she said, struggling to describe her appreciation. “ ‘Overwhelming gratitude’ is not even a shade of what I feel.”

Dr. Robert Lust, chair of the physiology department, credits Virag

Virag

with her remarkable recovery. And, he said, her colleagues were glad to support her along the way.

“It’s been rewarding to know that she has been able to come back as far as she has, and we’re glad to have her here,” Lust said. “She’s one of the most determined people I’ve met.”

More about Virag’s recovery and her friends’ support can be read at her blog, http://jitkavirag.com.

2008 mission 29

D pa g Ae lu mr nti mNeenwts h e a d i nhttp://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/mhsfoundation/alumni.cfm

Scientist takes aim at diabetes

Stephens

Jacqueline Stephens didn’t put a lot of research into her decision to pursue her doctorate at East Carolina University, but her choice set her on a speedy course to an accomplished career.

Stephens was born in New York, and her family moved to Florida when she was young.

She was a student at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg when she made a trip to Greenville to check out ECU. “People just seemed enthusiastic,” said Stephens, now a professor at Louisiana State University. “It also seemed like an environment where people were encouraging.”

At ECU, Stephens finished her studies in four years, a rarity at the time, said Dr. Phillip Pekala, interim chair and professor of biochemisty who mentored Stephens.

“She had the ability to focus during the day and get more accomplished than anyone I’ve ever trained,” Pekala said.

Stephens began studying the links between fat and diabetes while at ECU and is now a

recognized expert in this fast-growing field.

She graduated with a doctorate in biochemistry and completed post-doctoral work at Boston University. At LSU, Stephens has received multiple teaching and research awards, speaks at international meetings and conducts research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

Her research team studies specific types of proteins called transcription factors in fat cells. These proteins play a crucial role in overall body metabolism, and the research could one day have an impact on the treatment of diabetes, which affects 20 million Americans.

She hasn’t been back to Greenville but does get together annually with friends she made in graduate school. Her memories include B’s Barbeque.

“I learned a lot, and it was a great environment,” she said.

Public health is home for Morrow

Morrow

30 mission 2008

As an undergraduate, Dr. John Morrow wasn’t sure if he wanted to be a doctor.

“Even though I was surrounded by physicians, it struck me in college that I didn’t know exactly what a doctor did,” he said recently. “In college, I asked myself if I really wanted to be a doctor. I dropped out and worked as an orderly in a hospital. That got me focused.”

Morrow has been health director at the Pitt County Health Department since 1997.

He was honored for his work in 2006 as N.C. Health Director of the Year.

Born in South Carolina, Morrow grew up in Greensboro and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in biology. He earned a second bachelor’s degree, in nutrition, from UNCChapel Hill, where he also received his master’s in public health degree. In 1985, he graduated from East Carolina University’s

medical school.

After practicing in a variety of settings, including his own solo family practice, Morrow became public health director in Caldwell County in 1992. “It was a good fit for me,” he said. “The fact that it is constantly changing is one of the things that attracted me to public health.

“In public health, politics may get involved but just like in medicine, decisions need to be based on good science,” Morrow said.

Morrow said he enjoys teaching medical and public health students at ECU and seeing patients at the health department.

“Pitt County is a unique community for health care with the large regional hospital and medical school focused on primary care,” he said. “I felt it was a place to develop a model system for population health care that could serve as an example to the rest of the country.”

Alumni News

ECU sends 66 percent into primary care residencies Paulette Smith, left, celebrates after learning her daughter, Kitila Smith, will pursue a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Smith was one of 70 fourth-year medical students who learned March 20 – Match Day – where they will continue their medical training.

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University sent nearly two-thirds of its medical students into primary care residencies.

Of the 70 students participating in the match, 11, or 16 percent, are entering family medicine residencies, more than twice the national average of 7.6 percent. Twenty-one are entering some type of internal medicine residency. Nine students are entering pediatrics, and four are entering obstetrics and gynecology.

The class of 2008 was accepted into institutions in 17 states in 17 specialties. The Brody School of Medicine and Pitt County Memorial Hospital will be home to 11 class members. Twenty-five graduates will stay in North Carolina.

Brody class of 2008 graduates Heang Lim, left, gets a hug from Dr. David Collier, assistant professor of pediatrics, at the Brody School of Medicine’s medical convocation May 9. East Carolina University conferred medical degrees on 73 graduates on a sunny spring day. A 74th member of the class, Joel Michael Gottesman, was awarded his medical degree posthumously. Gottesman died during his third year of medical school.

Two doctoral students also completed their studies this semester.

Dr. Harry Adams, professor emeritus at the Brody School of Medicine, was the featured speaker. “Whatever you do, hang on to that idealism,” Adams said. “It’s a fragile thing and can easily give way to cynicism.”

IN MEMORIAM Melvin, class of ’85, dies Dr. Winslow Britt Melvin of Winterville died May 31. He was a 1985 graduate of the East Carolina University School of Medicine and practiced at East Carolina Anesthesia Associates. He was 55.

Melvin is survived by his wife, Mary (Mimi), and two sons, McNeill of Boone and Alexander of Raleigh.

2008 mission 31

Close up: Vintage Microscopes Dr. Donald Hoffman’s quest to collect historically significant microscopes has turned into an exhibit at Laupus Library.

Through Dec. 31, about 40 of Hoffman’s microscopes are showcased on all floors of the library. Hoffman is a longtime professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

The collection from Great Britain, France, Germany and United States dates from 1840 until 1960 and highlights an evolution of workmanship, style and function.

Hoffman is an expert in the history of microscopy and began collecting the microscopes only about a year ago. He has them all in working order.

“It’s almost like stamp and coin collecting,” Hoffman said.

“Value is mostly based on rarity and age.”

The oldest, a solid brass Gould- or Ellis-type microscope, dates to 1840, has its own wooden storage case and is said to be similar to one used by a young Charles Darwin in his five-year voyage on the Beagle.

The effects of daily rigor can be seen in knuckle rubbings on some of the instruments. Some are identical to models used by famous scientists, such as the founder of surgical pathology, Rudolf Virchow, and Paul Ehrlich, the founder of immunology.

Others are important because they are the first of that type model.

The first model stereomicroscope was used by Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin.

“Louis Pasteur used some of the cheapest microscopes he could get,” Hoffman said. “A lot of people thought simpler was better.”

Another of the microscopes in the exhibit is a U.S. Army hospital microscope used during the Civil War. Its maker, Joseph Zentmayer of Philadelphia, was one of the first to make a microscope in the United States. It is solid brass and weighs several pounds.

A slideshow of the microscope exhibit is online at http://www.pathology.ecu.edu/Public/microscopes.pdf.

Dr. Donald Hoffman recently began collecting microscopes.

32 mission 2008

Brody honors its founders Dr. Paul Cunningham, dean of the Brody School of Medicine, and Dr. Phyllis Horns, interim vice chancellor for health sciences, unveiled a painting of 41 people who helped bring a medical school to ECU during the 2008 Brody fall convocation held Oct. 23 in the auditorium of the East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU. The painting, which includes leaders such as Dr. Edwin Monroe and Dr. Leo W. Jenkins, is by ECU graduate Cameron Jackson. It will hang in the lobby of the Brody Medical Sciences Building.

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