Always put the patient first

Doing what’s best for the patient will require courage, education dean says at Commencement.

The pressures of the real world will challenge their graduation-day idealism, Herbert S. Chase Jr., M.D., told the 101 members of the Class of 2006 in his Commencement address. Speaking on Harkness Lawn on a flawless spring day, the deputy dean for education offered a cautionary tale.

At another institution Chase reviewed a colleague’s research proposal: the trial would replace a known diabetes medicine with an experimental drug. Half the elderly patients in the study would get the new medicine and half would get a placebo. Chase rejected the proposal, disturbed that a respected physician would propose a plan that could cause harm. Later, remorseful, the doctor called to explain. The pharmaceutical company behind the experimental drug was subsidizing his salary. “He had let it blind him to the obvious fact that taking elderly patients off their diabetes medicine was unambiguously unacceptable,” Chase said. “He had opted to protect himself rather than his patient.”

Chase urged the graduates to adopt “a mantra, a talisman in the face of the challenges you will inevitably encounter. ‘Do what is best for the patient.’ ” That will require the courage to resist pressures to rush, to save money, to discharge patients quickly. “You will sometimes have to take some risk to do what is right for the patient.”

Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D., Ensign Professor of Medicine, honored Howard Levitin, M.D., professor emeritus and senior research scientist in medicine, for 50 years of service to the School of Medicine. Alpern also honored Thomas L. Lentz, M.D. ’64, professor of cell biology and associate dean for admissions, noting that as a member of the admissions committee since 1968, Lentz had read more than 100,000 applications.

The Bohmfalk Teaching Prize went to Chase for basic science teaching, and to Andre N. Sofair, M.D., M.P.H. ’97, assistant professor of internal medicine, for clinical teaching. Mark D. Siegel, M.D., FW ’95, associate professor of internal medicine, won the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

Two people won the Leah M. Lowenstein Prize for promoting humane and egalitarian medical education: Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93, associate dean for student affairs; and, for the second year, Catherine Chiles, M.D., HS ’86, associate clinical professor of psychiatry. The Francis Gilman Blake Award for outstanding teacher of the medical sciences went to Interim Chair of Internal Medicine David L. Coleman, M.D. ’76, HS ’79; and the Betsy Winters House Staff Award went to Robert W. Chang, M.D., chief surgical resident. Professor of Medicine Fred S. Gorelick, M.D., FW ’79, received the Alvan R. Feinstein Award for outstanding teacher of clinical skills. The graduating class presented $6,000 to the Society of Distinguished Teachers, which supports faculty in educational initiatives and development.

—Cathy Shufro

Todd Ebbert, Natalie Guerrier and Calvin Barnes

Khoonyen Tay, Sarah Doernberg, Eliza Meade and Travis Maak

Lisa Bono-Corredor, Nadia Abuzaineh and Roberta Horth

Lisa Houston, Anita Makkenchery and Laquesha Andrews

Calls for morality, justice and passion at Epidemiology and Public Health ceremony

With a child under five dying somewhere in the world every 3 seconds and a child born into poverty in the United States every 35 seconds, “our global and our nation’s moral compass and our nation’s priorities need resetting,” said Marian Wright Edelman, J.D., founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund and the speaker at the 2006 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Commencement. “We are the wealthiest nation on earth. The fact that we still do not choose to ensure healthy children, a healthy start for all of our children, is simply wrong and foolish,” she said.

Addressing the 123 graduates, faculty and staff gathered in Battell Chapel on May 22, Edelman cited the German cleric Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s belief that the test of a society’s morality is its treatment of its children. “We flunk Bonhoeffer’s test every hour of every day,” Edelman said.

In this country, Edelman said, nearly 9 million children whose parents work and “follow the system” are without health coverage. “Wealth,” she said, “should not dictate good health. … It is time for every child in this country and their parents—in fact, every American—to have national health and mental health coverage.”

Edelman concluded with an anecdote about Sojourner Truth, who once had a white man tell her that her antislavery efforts meant no more to him than a flea bite. She told the man that she would keep him “scratching.” In that spirit, Edelman said, “We need big changes. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make very big dogs uncomfortable. And I hope everyone in this audience is determined that you are going to be a flea for justice, for children, for health care for all Americans. Believe it. You can do it.”

Aliya Jiwani, M.P.H. ’06, who gave the student address, urged her fellow graduates to “question everything ... notions, ideas and even the most popular theories of the day.” Above all, she encouraged her peers to “follow your passion—whatever it may be.”

Brian P. Leaderer, M.P.H. ’71, Ph.D. ’75, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, who served as interim dean of public health and interim chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health until July, urged this year’s graduates to be leaders “from the smallest neighborhood clinic to the largest of the NIH’s institutes. Your work will, directly or indirectly, improve people’s lives. … No matter what path you take, hold on to the ideals that brought you here, and move forward with confidence and courage.”

Trace Kershaw, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology and in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program, received the Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dean’s Prizes for Outstanding M.P.H. Theses were given to Heather Brown, Jessica Clague and Ann Liu. The Henry J. Chauncey Jr. Inspiration Award was given to Katrina Van Gerpen, and the Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed Award was presented to Erica Jackson. Christine Malino received the Wilbur G. Downs International Health Prize.

—Marcie Foley

Obesity, AIDS and a shark’s gland are among the topics of Student Research Day

In the 1990s, Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Starr Center for Human Genetics at Rockefeller University, wondered why humans tend to keep their weight stable over years. “There must be some biological system that counts our calories for us,” said Friedman during his keynote speech at Student Research Day in May. His questioning led him to leptin, a hormone secreted in the blood that regulates food intake and energy expenditures. But food intake remains a complex process that is not completely understood. “We don’t know how this information is processed. We don’t know where it is processed.”

In patients who are deficient in leptin, he said, there is no signal to the hypothalamus that the body has adequate stores of fat. “This is a major medical problem,” Friedman said. “For reasons we don’t understand, obesity increases the risk for a host of diseases.”

Sixty-six students presented posters of their research and five students gave oral presentations of their award-winning theses: Jennifer Greenwold discussed doctors who wrote about the early days of the AIDS pandemic; Lauren Kernochan studied a gene linked to spinal muscular atrophy; Khoonyen Tay studied ways to reduce the overuse of antibiotics; Connor Telles investigated a potassium channel in the shark rectal gland; and Jaehyuk Choi described HIV replication in certain cells.

—John Curtis

Mary Air with Danny Balkin portraying Herbert Chase

UnderRated skewers rankings and—as ever—the med school faculty

When the School of Medicine dropped to number 11 in the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings for best research medical schools last spring, the news may not have been welcome, but it was perfect fodder for the second-year show presented by the Class of 2008, and produced by Carolyn Avery, Chris Gibson, Lars Grimm, Mary Hatcher, David Merrick and Jen Voorhees. UnderRated was chock-full of vignettes, video pieces and song-and-dance numbers woven into a tongue-in-cheek plot about student protest over Yale’s lowered ranking and the faculty’s response to the “crisis.”

The show did justice to the tradition of impersonations of faculty members, with Kristina Zdanys as Nancy R. Angoff, M.P.H. ’81, M.D. ’90, HS ’93, associate dean for student affairs, who urged a baffled Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D., played by Shane Lloyd, to take charge of the rebellious students.

In the end the students decided the ranking system itself is at fault and should mirror the Yale pass/fail system. In the finale, “Walk Like a Physician,” sung to the tune of the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian,” the Class of 2008 came to the conclusion that a magazine’s rankings don’t matter—it’s the quality of education that students get at Yale that really counts.

—Jill Max

2006 residency placements for Yale medical students

The Office of Student Affairs has provided the following list, which outlines the results of the National Resident Matching Program for Yale’s medical graduates. Some names appear twice because the graduate is entering a one-year program before beginning a specialty residency. The transitional designation is a one-year program with three-month rotations in different specialties.

CALIFORNIA
Alameda County Medical Center, Oakland
Stacy UyBico, transitional
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Sunanda Pejavar, medicine-preliminary

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose
Janet Kim, transitional

Scripps Mercy Hospital, San Diego
Kendra Klang, transitional

Stanford University Programs
Powell Jose, internal medicine
Kendra Klang, diagnostic radiology
Gregory Magee, general surgery

UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
Ayonija Maheshwari, emergency medicine/internal medicine
Andrew Nerlinger, emergency medicine
Stacy UyBico, diagnostic radiology

University of California, Davis
Janet Kim, radiation oncology

University of California, San Diego
Jenli Waters, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery

University of California, San Francisco
Thomas Dewland, internal medicine
Sarah Doernberg, internal medicine
Natalie Guerrier, pediatrics/primary
Ilse Larson, pediatrics
Meg Pearson, internal medicine/primary
Sunanda Pejavar, radiation oncology
Hyman Scott, internal medicine/primary
Dana Weiss, surgery-preliminary, urology

COLORADO
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver
Lindsey Sukay, pediatrics

CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Hospital
Calvin Barnes, medicine-preliminary

Griffin Hospital, Derby
Karina Lund, medicine-preliminary

Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven
Amichai Erdfarb, medicine-preliminary
Jane Gwira, medicine-preliminary
Andrew Nerlinger, medicine-preliminary
Robert Schonberger, transitional
Douglas Walled, transitional

St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Bridgeport
Scott Degregorio, transitional
Margaret Rose, transitional

Yale-New Haven Hospital
Teeb Al-Samarrai, internal medicine
Jaehyuk Choi, dermatology, medicine-preliminary
Brittiny Epperson, medicine-preliminary
Jorge Galvez, anesthesiology, medicine/primary-preliminary
Brendon Graeber, pediatrics
Ryan Huffman, ophthalmology
Igor Latic, diagnostic radiology
Kirsten Menn, diagnostic radiology
Benjamin Noonan, orthopaedic surgery
Ali Ozturk, neurosurgery, surgery-preliminary
Michael Reel, obstetrics and gynecology
Amar Rewari, medicine-preliminary
Margaret Rose, anesthesiology
Robert Schonberger, anesthesiology
Jennifer Smith, medicine-preliminary
Connor Telles, orthopaedic surgery
Tamara Vanderwal, psychiatry-adult/child

FLORIDA
Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami
Joyce Kaufman, general surgery

University of Miami–Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
Anil Vedula, ophthalmology

GEORGIA
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta
Odicie Fielder, internal medicine/primary

ILLINOIS
McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, Chicago
Eliza Meade, obstetrics and gynecology

Northwestern University, Chicago
Jane Gwira, ophthalmology
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
A.J. Valenson, orthopaedic surgery

IOWA
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City
Todd Ebbert, diagnostic radiology

MAINE
Maine Medical Center, Portland
Stephen Ward, internal medicine

MARYLAND
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Simon Best, otolaryngology
Michelle Zikusoka, internal medicine

National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda
Huy Phun, internal medicine

University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore
Samantha Wood, emergency medicine/internal medicine

MASSACHUSETTS
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston
Jason Knight, obstetrics and gynecology

Boston University Medical Center
Dara Arons, family medicine
Karina Lund, ophthalmology

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Marwah Abdalla, internal medicine/primary
David Enis, medicine-preliminary
Pavlos Kaimakliotis, internal medicine
Jessica Kattan, internal medicine/primary
Rahul Rajkumar, internal medicine
Shari Rogal, internal medicine
Eileen Scully, internal medicine
Mary Turell, medicine-preliminary

Cambridge Hospital/Cambridge Health Alliance
Jennifer Greenwold, psychiatry

Children’s Hospital Boston
Kira Bona, pediatrics

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Michele Buragas, pediatrics
Davender Khera, medicine-preliminary
Sadhna Vora, internal medicine/primary

Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Davender Khera, neurology

Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Combined), Boston
Natasha Archer, medicine/pediatrics
Alyssa Letourneau, medicine/pediatrics

MISSOURI
Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis
Calvin Barnes, diagnostic radiology
Peter Juran, internal medicine

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon
Marcus Coe, orthopaedic surgery

NEW JERSEY
UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway
Nora Cheung, general surgery

NEW YORK
Albert Einstein College/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx
Sadiqa Edmonds-Myles, pediatrics/primary
Amichai Erdfarb, diagnostic radiology
Lisa Millman, internal medicine/primary

Hospital for Special Surgery/Cornell Medical Center, New York City
Travis Maak, orthopaedic surgery

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
Douglas Housman, radiation oncology, transitional
Igor Latic, transitional
Akash Shah, transitional
Anil Vedula, transitional

Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City
Sarah Adams, research medicine
Richard Crockett, plastic surgery

Mount Sinai School of Medicine/ Cabrini Medical Center, New York City
Trushar Patel, medicine-preliminary

New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn
Juliana Capatosto, emergency medicine

New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Columbia, New York City
Connie Chung, anesthesiology, medicine-preliminary
Ameya Kulkarni, internal medicine
Brenda Ritson, pediatrics

New York-Presbyterian Hospital–Cornell, New York City
Joseph Cousin, psychiatry
Mariel Focseneanu, obstetrics and gynecology
David Liska, general surgery
Trushar Patel, diagnostic radiology
Akash Shah, diagnostic radiology

New York University School of Medicine, New York City
Renu Chundru, ophthalmology
Scott Degregorio, diagnostic radiology
Anna Yusim, psychiatry

St. Vincent’s Hospital–New York Medical College, New York City
Kirsten Menn, transitional

OHIO
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Shlomo Koyfman, radiation oncology
Mary Turell, ophthalmology

PENNSYLVANIA
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Khoonyen Tay, pediatrics

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
David Enis, dermatology
Melissa Knauert, internal medicine
Meghan Lane, anesthesiology
Katya Rubinow, internal medicine

Pennsylvania Hospital, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia
Renu Chundru, medicine-preliminary

TENNESSEE
University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga
Ryan Huffman, transitional

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville
Heather McKee, medicine-preliminary, neurology

TEXAS
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas
Justin Heller, plastic surgery

VIRGINIA
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Erin Kiehna, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery

WASHINGTON
University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle
Lauren Kernochan, pathology
Tong Yang, surgery-preliminary, neurosurgery

WISCONSIN
Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, La Crosse
Todd Ebbert, transitional

Three students have chosen career options other than residency. Rachel Light will remain in New Haven as a freelance book writer and birth assistant to a home birth midwife. Sara Nayeem will be an investment banking associate at Merrill Lynch Global Healthcare Group in New York City. And Jeffrey Hoschander will be an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, a law firm in New York City.