The Department of Internal Medicine would like to congratulate Drs. Ivan Hanson and Katarina Nelson on achieving the Dr. Hans Paul Wiese Delgado Endowed Memorial Fund in the Division of Cardiology.  Both of these individuals have shown exceptional skills during their residency program, and most recently during their rotation in the Division of Cardiology, and have made a lasting impression on the administration, faculty and their peers as upstanding physicians. 

 

The Dr. Hans Paul Wiese Delgado Endowed Memorial Fund was established to provide financial assistance to residents who participate in scholarly activities in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. 

 

Dr. Wiese held diplomatic positions in Germany and was Ambassador from the Dominican Republic to Panama, where he was awarded the highest recognition given by that country:  Orden de Vasco Nunez de Balboa in 1975.  Among other achievements, Dr. Wiese was instrumental in the fight for democracy in the Dominican Republic.

 

In 2000, he published a book that quickly became a best-seller in the Dominican Republic:  Trujillo:  Amado por Muchos, Odiado por Otros, Temidos por Todos (Trujillo:  Loved by Many, Hated by Others, Feared by All), where he narrates his experiences next to the Dominican dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, and gives a historical account of the man that for greater than thirty years ruled the country with an iron fist.

 

Dr. Hans Paul Wiese Delgado was the father of Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, a physician and faculty member at the School of Medicine.  He passed away on September 19, 2001 at Harper Hospital from complications of cardiac surgery.  In recognition of her father, Dr. Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, friends of the family and donors have dedicated this fund towards an individual who made a difference not only to the citizens of the Dominican Republic but as a father, grandfather, husband and friend.

 

We congratulate you Ivan and Katarina for the excellence you have shown and the achievements you have earned.

John M. Flack, M.D., M.P.H., was appointed Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine for the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

“Dr. John Flack is well qualified to serve as a leader in such a key department,” said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and senior advisor to the President for Medical Affairs. Dr. Mentzer announced Flack’s appointment March 14. “Those who have worked with and for Dr. Flack know of his dedication to medicine, his love for the city of Detroit and his strong commitment to the School of Medicine’s missions of education, research and clinical care, especially for the uninsured and underinsured of the Detroit region. Dr. Flack’s vision for the Department is one that is expansive and involves reaching out to the metropolitan community and engaging health care partners who are committed to revitalization of our city and region. He is truly a visionary who wishes to make a difference; he thinks of the future, not the past.”

“I am honored to have been appointed the permanent chair of the Wayne State University Department of Medicine,” said Dr. Flack, 51, who has been serving as interim chair. “This appointment comes with significant challenges as well as opportunities that I am excited to undertake. The greatest opportunities have a habit of arising from the most challenging situations. I am very optimistic about our future because of the ingenuity, creativity and perseverance of our faculty and staff in their pursuit of our major mission areas.”

Dr. Flack is a widely recognized specialist in clinical hypertension and principal investigator of the Center for Urban and African American Health at Wayne State University.

Repeatedly named one of the “Best Doctors in America,” Dr. Flack has received the Pillar of Excellence Award from the Michigan Peer Review Organization and the Health Care Hero Award from Crain’s Detroit Business in 2005 for health disparities-related research.

Dr. Flack received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Langston University in 1978 and his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 1982. He served as chief medicine resident at OUHSC from 1982 to 1986. He received his master’s of public health degree in epidemiology and completed a National Institutes of Health fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in 1990. He joined the Wayne State University School of Medicine as associate chair of the Department of Medicine in 1997.

“I have several priorities that I wish to accomplish with a sense of urgency,” Dr. Flack said. “One is to upgrade every aspect of our ambulatory clinic operations. Accordingly, a priority is to implement strategies to ensure high-quality, patient-friendly services for patients cared for in our clinics. An important step toward strengthening the Department of Medicine will be to successfully recruit outstanding leaders for several of our clinical divisions, including cardiology, hematology-oncology and rheumatology. And, finally, we will continue our pursuit of outstanding faculty to lead new and innovative trans-disciplinary clinical and research programs within the department.”

The School of Medicine, said Dr. Flack, is home to a collection of outstanding physicians who provide irreplaceable, accessible, high-quality medical care to the residents of Detroit, the metropolitan area and beyond. “The expertise amongst faculty in the various specialties is highly impressive,” he said. “Many faculty are regional, national and internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields. These highly accomplished faculty provide tremendous visibility and recognition to our medical center while providing excellent medical care to our patients as well as exemplary teaching and role modeling for WSU trainees at all levels.”

Flack and his wife live in Orchard Lake. They have five daughters.

Sections of the internationally celebrated AIDS Memorial Quilt – the 54-ton, handmade tapestry that stands as a memorial to more than 90,000 individuals lost to AIDS, will be on view in the Scott Hall cafeteria at the School of Medicine. This free display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was organized by the American Medical Student Association and the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People in Medicine at the School of Medicine. Visitors may attend from March 21 to March 28, and an open reception will be held March 26 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

“Having the AIDS Quilt at the School of Medicine will be an educational and hopefully an emotional experience for everyone who views it,” said first-year student David Goodyear, who helped organize the event. “The AIDS Quilt provides an opportunity for the medical community to see a more humanistic side of AIDS rather than, primarily the scientific aspects of the disease.”

Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The quilt began with a single 3 x 6-foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, the quilt is composed of more than 47,000 3 x 6-foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe, and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world.

Julie Rhoad, executive director of The NAMES Project Foundation, explained, “The quilt transforms statistics into souls, loss into hope and indifference into understanding. We are so grateful that Wayne State University School of Medicine is part of this ambitious grassroots effort to raise awareness and save lives.”

The AIDS Memorial Quilt has evolved as the most potent tool in the effort to educate against the lethal threat of AIDS. By revealing the humanity behind the statistics, the quilt helps teach compassion; triumphs over taboo, stigma and phobia; and inspires individuals to take direct responsibility for their own well-being and that of their family, friends and community.

Rhoad added, “We are thrilled to have the chance to share sections of the quilt with your community. These handmade blocks, created by friends and family, tell the stories of individuals who have lost their lives to AIDS. We bring you their stories in the hope of inspiring compassion, healing and personal responsibility. We thank Wayne State University for hosting this event and we invite you all out to see what wonderful art we have created together as a nation.”

The Wayne State University School of Medicine has established a new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and has named Dr. Ambika Mathur its director.

Dr. Mathur, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, will retain her role as director of the School of Medicine’s MD/PhD program. In her new position, she will report to Dr. Kenneth Palmer, associate dean of graduate programs.

The School of Medicine has approximately 250 postdoctoral trainees in various categories of appointment and classification. The goals of the OPA are to create a unified appointment and classification process for all postdoctorals; provide guidelines for salaries, stipends and benefits; and provide centralized career development and skills development workshops for all trainees. These career development opportunities will be in accordance with the National Institutes of Health’s recommendations for establishment of OPAs in institutions applying for training grants, as well as with the U.S. House of Representatives’ new provision calling for federal funding agencies to require all grant applications that include postdoctoral support to include a description of mentoring activities such as annual evaluation, career counseling and development, and training in grant applications for postdoctoral trainees. The OPA will work closely with research mentors and postdoctoral trainees toward these goals.

As director of the OPA, Dr. Mathur’s role will be to create a central office to coordinate non-research related training of postdoctoral trainees. She noted that while individual research mentors provide the real research training, they are often stretched for time to provide opportunities to develop other areas of professional development.

“I consider my role to be one in which we complement the research mentors' training with our training in these professional development areas such that the student emerges from the training program with the complete skills set required to be a competitive independent researcher at the national level,” Dr. Mathur said. “This will require working closely with the postdocs, their mentors and chairs of their departments. I will also work at the national level with directors of other postdoctoral offices to establish policies that benefit postdocs, across the country.”

Dr. Mathur said her goal with the OPA is to establish a series of career development opportunities for all postdoctoral students in training so that they can be competitive for the best faculty positions at premier institutions, and to promote a positive view of Wayne State University as a great institution at which to train. Such career skill workshops or classes would include training in grant writing, teaching, mentoring, lab management, resume preparation, negotiating skills and time management. That will allow mentors to focus on research training for their students and provide uniform training opportunities for all postdoctoral trainees.

“I trained as a postdoc at a time when postdocs were really considered more like apprentices to perform research, and research alone” Dr. Mathur said. “While I was fortunate to have extremely enlightened mentors who helped me develop in other aspects of my training on the path to establishing an independent career, I observed that my colleagues were not as fortunate. Thus, the majority of postdocs were not given the opportunity to acquire career skills such as teaching, grant writing, lab management and opportunities to speak at national conferences. A number of these colleagues were not able to obtain competitive faculty positions, and therefore did not advance as much as they could have had they had access to such training skills, even though they had excellent research skills.”

Dr. Mathur received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota, she became assistant professor and then a tenured associate professor of tumor immunology at the University of Minnesota.

She has mentored several postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students, masters students and undergraduate students, as well as medical fellows, medical residents, medical students and dental students.

The published author of a series of books for children, her passion is promoting literacy among children. She and her husband -- Deepak Kamat, M.D., Ph.D., professor and vice chair of education in the Department of Pediatrics – serve as director and associate director respectively of the Institute of Medical Education at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, where they have developed new educational programs for medical residents, fellows and faculty. They are the parents of 17-year-old twins.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine has been selected as one of 30 international sites for a clinical research study of a device that may halt and reverse congestive heart failure.

Designated PEERLESS-HF (Prospective Evaluation of Elastic Restraint to LESSen the effects of Heart Failure), the HeartNet therapy to be researched collaboratively by the School of Medicine and Oakwood Hospitals involves an implantable device that wraps around the heart to increase its pumping ability.

The HeartNet is an elasticized structure implanted via a minimally invasive procedure. Essentially, the device snugs around and conforms to the heart in a gentle hug, augmenting the function of the heart, and potentially preventing congestive heart failure from advancing, by reversing the progressive enlargement of the failing heart.

Dilated cardiomyopathy, one major cause of congestive heart failure, is a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged, reducing its ability to pump efficiently. The condition is characterized by a compromising of the heart’s ability to squeeze, and often by seepage of fluid into the lungs, feet, legs or abdominal cavity. The heart muscle’s inability to keep up with the body’s demands can cause the heart to enlarge, increasing stress on the heart wall. The HeartNet counteracts the condition through gentle pressure on the heart.

The American Heart Association and the Heart Failure Society of America estimate that more than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with heart failure and that 500,000 more diagnoses are made each year. Heart failure is the leading cause of hospital admissions in the U.S. Only about half of Americans diagnosed with heart failure will survive more than five years. Each year, more than 300,000 people die from the condition.

“The potential effects of this study and the HeartNet hold tremendous promise,” said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D., dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine and senior advisor to the president for medical affairs. Dr. Mentzer, a nationally recognized cardiothoracic surgeon who has performed numerous heart transplant operations, serves as principal investigator of the clinical research study.

“More research is needed, but the HeartNet appears to offer the possibility of not only halting but potentially reversing congestive heart failure,” Dr. Mentzer said. “The implant could reduce the need for heart transplants among some patients.”

The investigational HeartNet is a mesh constructed of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy. Because the device conforms to the shape of the heart – expanding and contracting with each beat -- no sutures are required to attach it to the heart. The device is designed as a permanent implant.

The HeartNet is designed to be implanted through an incision in the left side of the chest. Implantation is guided by an X-ray camera projecting images on an operating room screen. The tool designed to introduce the HeartNet into the chest cavity contains a number of “fingers” that spread the mesh around the heart, and then retract once the device is deemed properly placed. The procedure can typically be completed in 90 minutes or less.

“We are excited about the possibilities of this therapy, particularly since it offers an alternative to traditional procedures that require a more invasive opening of the chest,” said Salik A. Jahania, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon with the Wayne State University Physician Group and Oakwood Hospitals who will participate in the clinical research study as a co-investigator and one of the two lead surgeons along with Dean Mentzer.  “The heart continues to beat while the device is implanted, and the anticipated recovery period is expected to be shorter.”

The School of Medicine’s Clinical Trials Office has started screening for patients whose conditions may allow them to take part in the study.

The HeartNet was invented and manufactured by Paracor Medical Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Paracor plans to enroll patients at up to 30 U. S. centers under an investigational device exemption that has been reviewed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

For some School of Medicine students, spring break isn’t spent on a beach in the Caribbean.

Members of the World Health Student Organization (WHSO) of Wayne State University School of Medicine are spending their vacations assisting people in poverty stricken villages in Central and South America. This year, five trips have been organized to Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala that bring 65 School of Medicine students to serve communities in rural locations. The students transport much-needed medical supplies and services to these areas, and gain valuable clinical experience.

“The real strength of trips like these is the perspective you gain,” explained second-year student and WHSO President Michael Gratson, who traveled to Belize last year. “The opportunity to visit a third world country and see how some people live made me realize how much we take for granted. The trip helped me re-center my commitment and my passion for medicine.”

The WHSO helps provide basic healthcare needs and health education to the local populations in these countries. First- and second-year students travel to remote villages and establish temporary clinics containing triages, pharmacies and exam areas. They are given unique opportunities to work closely with physicians in multiple medical specialties. Students are exposed to a wide array of ailments and to working one on one with patients in clinical settings, allowing them to develop essential clinical and diagnostic skills.

The WHSO emphasizes understanding of the healthcare needs of developing nations and exposure to clinical settings not routinely found in the United States.

“It is our hope that students will gain a deeper passion for healing and a stronger sense of respect for different cultures,” said second-year student and WHSO Vice President Stephanie Loe. “Our group traveled to different villages in Guatemala last year. At one location, we set up a clinic inside a family’s home. People lined up outside the door. I witnessed an amazing sense of community. I received an invaluable experience.”