First multi-PI combined training program between CWRU and Cleveland Clinic headed by Fabio Cominelli

Beginning in July, the first multiple-principal investigator combined training program between Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic will be initiated by Fabio Cominelli MD, PhD, the Hermann Menges, Jr. Chair in Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, and Claudio Fiocchi MD¸ Clifford and Jane Anthony Chair for Digestive Disease Research and Education, Lerner Research Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

The National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases provided the new joint effort with a five-year grant worth nearly $1M. The funding supports post-doctoral fellows in obtaining digestive disease science training for a period of three years; for physicians this will be in conjunction with their clinical training in gastroenterology.

This training program is unique in that it follows the city-based program model of the Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC). Trainees will come to Cleveland with the option to train either at the Lerner Research Institute or the School of Medicine, and they will have the ability to choose among 20 mentors whose laboratories are supported by more than $20 million per year in National Institutes of Health funding.

Ohio Senate grants letter of commendation to School of Medicine

The members of the Senate of the 128^th General Assembly of Ohio paid tribute the School of Medicine in an official letter of commendation for being ranked as the 20th best medical school in research in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

The letter praised our institution, “known for its dedication to medical research, and the world of its highly qualified and committed staff has earned the university an exceptional reputation.”

Signed by Senator Bill Harris, President of the Ohio Senate, and Senator Shirley A. Smith, Assistant Minority Leader, the acknowledgement applauds the School’s innumerable contributions to the study of medicine.

Congratulations Class of 2010

On May 16, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine had the privilege of graduating 157 of its best scholars into the world as physicians.

The well-rounded Class of 2010 has attained intellectual mastery of the Western Reserve  curriculum and matched to some of the finest residency programs in the nation. These new physicians are well-prepared to practice medicine.

It is the hope of the Department of Medicine that they fulfill their dreams while continuing the rich, long-standing Case Western Reserve tradition of medical excellence.

Congratulations and many thanks to the professors, instructors and staff that helped guide the students through their journey and shape their experience here in Medicine.

University Hospitals Case Medical Center Earns Prestigious National Award for Excellence in Delivering High-Quality Care

University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center is one of five academic medical centers in the nation to receive the 2009 Quality Leadership Award from the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). The prestigious award is given to teaching hospitals that demonstrate excellence in delivering high-quality care, as measured by the UHC Quality and Accountability Study conducted annually since 2005.

This year, 93 member hospitals were ranked by UHC, a national organization representing more than 90 percent of the nation’s nonprofit academic medical centers. UHC’s distinctive study measured hospitals’ performance using the Institute of Medicine’s six domains of care—safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and patient centeredness.

“We are proud of this extraordinary achievement which reflects University Hospitals’ ongoing commitment to quality and safety for our patients,” said Fred C. Rothstein, M.D., President of UH Case Medical Center. “This is an exceptional recognition when you consider that academic medical centers across the country participated in the survey.   We are pleased that the excellence of our health care providers and staff was recognized by this prestigious organization of peer institutions.”

“National recognition is well deserved for these organizations that have distinguished themselves as high-performing organizations in a complex environment. I salute the top performers and extend congratulations to all academic medical center leaders and employees who daily demonstrate a passion for improving patient care and operational effectiveness,” said UHC President and Chief Executive Officer Irene M. Thompson.

UHC examined data provided by member hospitals through its comparative clinical, operational, and core measures data bases and reviewed additional source data from the publicly reported Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.

Other hospitals recognized this year in addition to UH Case Medical Center:

• Methodist Hospital—A Clarian Health Partner, Indianapolis
• Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
• University Medical Center, Tucson
• The University of Kansas Hospital Authority, Kansas City

“As an organization, UHC is committed to improving members’ performance. Through this study, we are able to determine what structures and practices are associated with excellent performance across an AMC,” said Mark Keroack, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of the UHC Clinical Practice Advancement Center. Dr. Keroack, with others at UHC, developed the study approach and has conducted several organizational development workshops for UHC members across the country.

He is the lead author of “Organizational Factors Associated With High Performance in Quality and Safety in Academic Medical Centers,” published in the December 2007 issue of Academic Medicine. The critical success factors first identified in that study are a shared sense of purpose throughout the organization, leadership style, an accountability system, a focus on results, and a collaborative culture.

Research Day :: Photo Gallery

Research Day :: May 7, 2010

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Department of Medicine 2010 Research Day. The event had a tremendous turnout of faculty and young investigators. We are very proud of the research you are producing.

Check out the pictures from this CWRUmedicine event …

Global Emergency – A Conversation with Henry Boom

Q: What is TB and how does it spread?
A: TB is a bacterial infectious disease that has long plagued humans— it commonly affects the lungs and if untreated, is fatal. One-third of the world’s population, about two billion individuals, is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease, although only one in ten of these latent infections will advance to an active case of TB. It is spread person-to-person by droplets expelled from the lungs by coughing, sneezing, or speaking.

Q: Why is it viewed as a disease of poverty?
A: The threat of TB is greater in the world’s poorest communities because crowded and substandard living conditions increase the risk of contagious infection. In addition, there are often inadequate health systems, limiting access to care, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

Q: Individuals with HIV/AIDS are also at greater risk. Why?
A: Because TB is an opportunistic infection, HIV/AIDS patients with weakened immune systems are more susceptible. In fact, TB is the leading infectious killer of people with HIV/AIDS—and so while they are two diseases, they can often attack as if they were one.

Q: If one in three people carry the disease, why do only some develop an active case of TB?
A: Trying to understand the immune response to TB is a primary focus of our research. Other matters we are examining include better understanding of how the infection is transmitted, why the TB vaccine that is used worldwide to protect newborn and very young children is ineffective in prevention for adolescents and adults, and why there are different rates of patient response to drug treatment of the disease.

Q: Why is a disease that was once deemed conquered on the rise again?
A: Each year there are nearly nine million new TB cases and two million deaths worldwide. While 80% of the cases occur in only 22 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, it is still a global emergency. The two major factors contributing to the growing incidence of the disease are the surge of drug-resistant strains of TB and its deadly synergy with the AIDS/HIV epidemic.

Q: Is the ultimate goal of TB research to find new vaccines?
A: The world certainly needs new vaccines to combat the problem of TB—and during the last 20 years, great progress has been made in areas essential for new vaccine development, including important work here at Case Western Reserve. In the nearer term, we must discover better screening methods to identify patients in the earlier stages of disease, treatment regimens that are more effective and easier to complete than current options, and drug combinations that treat TB without negatively affecting HIV treatment.

Learn more about Dr Boom at CWRUmedicine.org

Posted via email from CWRUmedicine’s blog