Volume 14
Issue 5
June 2015
SYSTEMnews CEO’s corner RALPH W. MULLER
CEO, University of Pennsylvania Health System
This is a special time in the long history of one of the world’s great medical institutions. As the Penn family commemorates 250 years of the nation’s first medical school, it is also an occasion to reflect on our even more wide-ranging commitment to strengthening lives and communities. Throughout the year, our faculty, staff and students volunteer their time and skills in hundreds of outreach efforts. These include services that we provide directly as well as support through Penn Medicine CAREs, our internal grant-making program. Recognizing that there is strength in numbers, we have formed partnerships with many organizations and members of our community. In all cases, the aim is the same: improving the lives of those who need us most. Providing health care to the city’s poor and underserved has been a core value since Penn’s medical school was established. From treating victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic to providing free care to patients at the Philadelphia General Hospital till it closed in 1977, Penn’s medical faculty and students have a long history of reaching out. (Read more about our service history in this issue’s main story.)
the MANY FACES OF
It’s been 250 years since the University of Pennsylvania established the first medical school in what would become the United States. Not long after the first graduates earned their diplomas, the American Revolution drew Penn medical faculty and alumni into the fray. Ever since then, Penn physicians, medical students and eventually nurses, too, have taken their healing arts beyond campus borders, caring for the community, serving their country, and striving to improve health care around the world. Yellow fever and cholera — words Philadelphians dreaded to hear. The 1793 yellow fever epidemic claimed 10 percent of the city’s population. Penn physicians, including Benjamin Rush, and several trainees did their best to treat the afflicted populace with the limited remedies of the times; some of these selfless volunteers died in the process. In 1841, Penn established the first of many outpatient clinics — dispensaries as they were called then — to make health care accessible to the community. When the University relocated from its Ninth Street location to West Philadelphia in the early 1870s, it built a hospital (HUP) with 50 free beds for the city’s poor. In HUP’s backyard, Penn physicians would treat patients at Philadelphia General Hospital gratis until the facility’s doors closed in 1977.
It is, of course, impossible to discuss every or even most of our current outreach efforts in this column. What follows therefore is a sampling of the range of caring taking place throughout the Health System and in community halls, church basements, and neighborhood-based school settings. The Penn Medicine Pipeline Program enables high school juniors and seniors to take for-credit college courses tuition-free at Community College of Philadelphia while completing paid internships throughout the Health System. Students also learn interpersonal and interview skills and résumé writing, which prepares them both for the college application process and whatever careers they ultimately choose. The benefits are clear: 100 percent of last year’s Pipeline graduates completed high school versus 64 percent in the city’s school district.
INSIDE
Newsmakers..............................4 Researchers Win Award for HIV Breakthrough................5 Health Empowerment Partnerships...............................5 A New Home Base for Puentes de Salud......................5 Cappola Named Head of Cardiovascular Medicine..........6 Awards & Accolades.................6
By the mid-20th century, Penn medical students took a leadership role in community outreach, establishing clinics for the homeless in center city and underprivileged communities in North and West Philadelphia. They also participated in anti-drug and anti-smoking workshops for teenagers, created programs to expose Philadelphia high school students to higher education, and volunteered with Special Olympics. Faculty-led projects have brought healthcare services to migrant farm workers in rural sections of Chester County and to South Philadelphia’s Latino community. In addition to volunteering in neighborhood clinics, today’s medical students are providing health screenings and promoting health education at science carnivals and other community events. Penn researchers and clinicians are getting around the city in mobile units working toward HIV/AIDS prevention.
Penn medical faculty, students, and alumni have served this nation in every major military conflict since colonial militias and British Army regulars exchanged shots at Lexington and Concord. Service has ranged from field teams treating the wounded on battlefields to physicians staffing hospitals on land and at sea, from innovators developing new technologies to highly positioned administrators working behind the scenes to advance medical care for the war effort.
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Penn Medicine@Work..............3
The wave of immigrants arriving in late-19th-century Philadelphia stepped up the need for health care in expanding neighborhoods. In South Philadelphia, Penn obstetrician Barton Cooke Hirst established the Southeastern Dispensary, staffed by physicians and medical students who made house calls and provided free obstetrical and gynecological health care. In the 1920s, orthopaedic surgeon Arthur Bruce Gill opened a clinic in northeastern Pennsylvania’s coal region and brought crippled children needing surgery to HUP.
Healing on the Battlefields
The Sayre-Penn Partnership, based at William L. Sayre High School and the federally qualified Sayre Health Center, features high-quality health care supplied by Penn physicians, residents and medical students who teach science and health topics to Sayre students,
Lancaster General Health to Join UPHS.............................2
SERVICE
`` Mother and newborn in the Southeastern Dispensary in 1920, which cared for more than 1,000 patients each year. Students made house calls as well.
During the American Revolution, Penn medical faculty and at least 40 medical alumni, including all but one member of the Class of 1768, supported American troops fighting for independence. John Morgan, the medical school’s founder, and William Shippen Jr., the school’s first anatomy professor, successively served as director general of hospitals for the Continental Army. (continued on page 2) `` William Fisher Norris (top, center), and his medical staff at Douglas Hospital in Washington, DC in 1864. He helped pioneer the use of microphotography to record wounds and specimens. After the war, he developed Penn’s Department of Ophthalmology.
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the MANY FACES OF
(continued from cover)
SERVICE
any in Penn’s medical community are M making a difference, bringing their healing arts where they are needed most. They faced the tremendous challenge of organizing a medical service for a newly formed army. The War of 1812 brought even more of Penn’s medical community into service for campaigns in Canada and the Chesapeake, on land and on frigates bombarding the British. Medical alumni rode south of the border with cavalry detachments during the MexicanAmerican War. Because Philadelphia was the most southern northern city with a wealth of opportunities for medical education, it attracted large numbers of Southern medical students until the Civil War. Hundreds of Penn medical alumni served in the medical corps of the Confederacy and the Union, including one surgeon general for the South and two surgeons general for the North. While alumni served on both sides of the divide, Penn faculty staffed U. S. Army hospitals primarily in Philadelphia, but near battlegrounds like Gettysburg as well. With Penn nurses at their side, University physicians attended wounded and sick soldiers on Philadelphiabound troop trains during the Spanish-American War. They brought them to HUP, where they treated the soldiers primarily for typhoid fever and malaria. Three faculty members served in the conflict, including a yellow fever expert and a surgeon who died of fever while stationed in Puerto Rico. Penn physicians and nurses accompanied America’s doughboys sent to France to fight the Great War. The University organized three ambulance units, Base Hospital No. 20 (which in 1918 deployed overseas to Châtel-Guyon, a village in northeastern France), and several Red Cross units.
Some Penn physicians served with Base Hospital No. 10, organized by Pennsylvania Hospital. On the home front, HUP set aside 250 beds for Army and Navy patients.
`` Victor Rambo and staff at the Christian Hospital Mungeli, India in 1937. Under his leadership, Christian Hospital Mungeli became known for its work in saving and restoring sight. Courtesy Christian Hospital Mungeli.
While the University’s medical corps was doing its part in France, I. S. Ravdin was completing his medical degree. When the U.S. entered WWII, Ravdin would lead Penn’s contingent of 59 medical, surgical, laboratory, and dental specialists, 120 nurses, and approximately 600 enlisted men deployed to Assam India to mobilize the 20th General Hospital — successor to the WWI Base Hospital No. 20. These men and women provided medical support for American and Chinese forces fighting the Japanese in Burma. Penn physicians also served on the Solace, a floating Navy hospital in the Pacific.
Voluntary medical parties of Penn faculty and alumni traveled to Algeria, Iran, and Vietnam to foster the development of medical care and education.
The wars in Korea and Vietnam did not call on Penn’s medical resources the way previous, larger-scale conflicts did. That’s not to say our physicians, nurses and medical alumni have not continued to serve our country. They helped the wounded during the September 11th terrorist attacks and aided evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, HUP sadly lost trauma surgeon John P. Pryor, MD, during his second tour of duty in Iraq.
Humanitarian Outreach Penn’s medical community has also served abroad in peacetime for missionary, humanitarian, educational, and research purposes. In the 1820s and ‘30s, men with Penn medical training helped introduce western medicine to China through missionary work affiliated with various Christian denominations. In 1907, the University established a medical school in China to train Chinese physicians. India, too, attracted Penn medical alumni into missionary service. During the third quarter of the 20th century, political change and unrest and military conflicts left many developing countries in dire need of medical assistance. `` Surgical Team No. 61, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Eldridge L. Eliason in 1918. Penn teams of physicians and nurses such as this one staffed WWI field hospitals close to the front.
TURNING THE PAGES OF
Penn Medicine’s global engagement has expanded exponentially in the 21st century. The School of Medicine’s Global Health Programs Office supports medical students, residents, and faculty with opportunities to pursue education, research, service and clinical programs throughout the world. Penn has also established partnerships with institutions in Botswana, Guatemala, and Peru and with other international groups. Many in Penn’s medical community are making a difference, bringing their healing arts where they are needed most.
PLANS U N D E R WAY Lancaster General Health to Join UPHS Building on a longstanding clinical relationship between the two organizations, the University of Pennsylvania Health System has reached a final agreement for Lancaster General Health (LG Health) to join UPHS. A three-hospital health system located in South Central Pennsylvania, LG Health has been recognized regionally and nationally for its patient-centered services, clinical excellence, patient safety, and thrice designated a Magnet hospital for nursing excellence. Joining two of the state’s top health systems will build on the strengths of both, allowing them to provide better health-care services to more people. The detailed agreement is subject to various state and federal agency reviews before moving ahead.
History
In the fall of 1765, two forward-looking physicians, John Morgan and William Shippen, Jr., began lecturing at the first medical school in North America — part of the College of Philadelphia and forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania. Before then, American physicians received their medical education as apprentices to practicing physicians and from scarce textbooks published in Europe. Those with means, including Morgan and Shippen, may have studied abroad. The University of Pennsylvania changed those paradigms and transformed medical education in this part of the world. A limited-edition book, To Spread the Light of Knowledge, was published to mark the 250th birthday of what is now known as the Perelman School of Medicine. The book chronicles the fascinating history of the Perelman School of Medicine, from its beginning as a few lectures given in borrowed space to the extensive curriculum, research, and multidisciplinary clinical practice within the Health System today. To learn more about the 192-page, full-color book commissioned to celebrate the institution’s 250th birthday and view the interactive timeline, go to www.med.upenn.edu/psom250.
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What’s NEW This Year? Spring is here and with it comes a new chance to earn Wellfocused Healthy Rewards, a new program year launched last month, allowing UPHS employees* to receive rewards for improving or maintaining good health. For each activity or action you complete, like tracking healthy eating habits, starting an exercise routine and managing your stress, you earn points that allow you to move through the levels and earn up to $200 in Healthy Rewards Credits.
EARN MONEY FOR HEALTHY BEHAVIORS Each year, employees who participate will have an opportunity to earn money for their healthy behaviors. This year, up to $200 can be earned over the course of the program: »» $50 Healthy Rewards credit when you reach 500 points
by completing a biometric screening and the well-being assessment. »» $100 Healthy Rewards credit when you reach 1,500
cumulative points by completing the well-being assessment, having healthy numbers and/or participating in Healthy Activities and Challenges through the site. »» $50 Healthy Rewards credit when you reach 3,000
cumulative points, by participating in activities and challenges through the site. Employees who complete all of the above, and are enrolled in UPHS benefits, can earn $200 just for participating. Earn 200 bonus points by completing the Well-Being assessment by June 30!
THE HEALTHY REWARDS SITE IS MOBILE FRIENDLY This year, the Healthy Rewards web site is mobile friendly, which makes it easy to log in and record your activity to earn points no matter where you are. You can access the website from your mobile device by visiting uphshrandyou.com and selecting the “Healthy Rewards Center” under “Get There Fast.” When prompted, enter your UPHS network ID and password (same login you use for your UPHS email) to get started tracking your points.
GET A BIOMETRIC SCREENING TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS The first step of the Healthy Rewards program is to Know Your Numbers from a biometric screening. A biometric screening provides a snapshot of your current health status, which enables you to identify areas of focus when creating your goals. Your biometric screening numbers are kept confidential and will be uploaded to your Well-Being Assessment by a thirdparty administrator. UPHS will never have access to your screening results.
The biometric screening measures: »» Body Mass Index (BMI): Earn 100 points for having
a healthy BMI (between >18.5 and < 25) »» Blood Glucose Level: Earn 100 points for a healthy
blood glucose level (between 70 and 99) »» Blood Pressure: Earn 100 points for a systolic reading
less than 120 mmHg and a diastolic reading less than 80mmHg »» HDL, LDL, and Total Cholesterol: Earn up to 300 points
for: – HDL cholesterol >=60 (100 points) – LDL cholesterol 100 < = LDL < 130 (100 points) – Total cholesterol < 200 (100 points) If you have recent screening data (within the last 24 months) you do not need to be re-screened. You can simply take the Health Screening Provider form, found on uphshrandyou.com, to your doctor’s office for completion, and then fax it to 866.877.7983. There will be onsite screenings at eight locations in May and June for employees. It’s not too late to schedule a biometric screening online by visiting adurolife.com/ uphs-biometric-scheduler.
HEALTH COACHING UPHS will be offering voluntary health coaching beginning July 1, 2015. If you do not achieve three of the six healthy targets in the biometric screening, you will have the opportunity to voluntarily participate in free online or telephonic coaching. If you are eligible for the free health-coaching program, you will see a coaching tile appear in your Healthy Rewards account on July 1. Simply click on the tile and follow the instructions in the tile to get started with a health coach! Once you complete the six sessions of the health-coaching program, you will earn 500 points! The Wellfocused Healthy Rewards program is as diverse as UPHS. Challenges span five categories — Physical Fitness, Emotional Fitness, Capacity for Change, Healthy Eating & Stress Management — and reward you for the things you are already doing, as well as challenging you to try something new. There is something for everyone, at every level of health and fitness. To learn more, and get started earning points, visit uphshrandyou.com and click on “Wellfocused” at the top of the page.
WIN FREE HEALTHCARE FOR ONE YEAR
If you get a biometric screening to Know Your Numbers and complete the WellBeing Assessment by June 14, 2015, you will receive a $50 Healthy Rewards Credit, and your name will go into a drawing for FREE health care for the 2015 – 2016 plan year.
UPHS NAMED ONE OF PHILLY’S HEALTHIEST EMPLOYERS The Philadelphia Business Journal, along with presenting sponsor United Healthcare, have named the University of Pennsylvania Health System among the 2015 Healthiest Employers Award winners.
EARN POINTS AND BUILD YOUR TEAM WITH A CUSTOM CHALLENGE! Custom challenges can be created for teams, departments or even entities. If you are looking for a unique team building activity, consider a healthy reward challenge! PPMC recently completed a March Madness step-challenge that helped employees earn points and prizes by taking advantage of the increased number of steps they were walking as they cared for patients in the new Pavilion for Advanced Care. For more information or to create a custom challenge, contact the Employee Health Advocacy Manager Jennifer Brady at jennifer.brady@uphs. upenn.edu.
For questions about the Healthy Rewards program, contact the Employee Health Advocacy Manager, Jennifer Brady, MA, RD, LDN, at jennifer.brady@ uphs.upenn.edu.
*The contents of this article do not apply to employees of Chester County Hospital.
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NEWSmakers / / / How Philly Doctors Are Saving the World This year, 185 Penn Medicine physicians were named to Philadelphia magazine’s annual Top Docs list, the most for any hospital in the region. The issue’s editorial coverage — which focused on how local doctors are saving the world — also featured five Penn physicians: Trish Henwood, MD, assistant professor and director of Global Health Initiatives in Emergency Medicine; Harvey Rubin, MD, professor of Infectious Diseases, Rajender Reddy, MD, professor of Medicine and director of Hepatology; Beatrice Hahn, MD, professor of Microbiology and Medicine, and Michael Parmacek, MD, chair of Medicine.
/ / / Penn Study Questions Lariat Device to Prevent Stroke in Heart Patients A Penn study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that using the snare-like Lariat device to prevent stroke in atrial fibrillation patients, though legal, can lead to urgent surgery and even death, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "The Lariat is an absolutely ingenious piece of engineering," said senior study author Jay Giri, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Cardiovascular Medicine. "However, ingenuity doesn’t guarantee its safety and efficacy." HealthDay, Medscape, TCTMD and Medpage Today covered the study.
/ / / Changing Lives Through Donating Kidneys to Strangers A segment from Nightline featured Penn patients Michele and Matt Crane, and their kidney transplant surgeons, Peter Abt, MD, associate professor of Surgery, and Ali Naji, MD, PhD, surgical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. In March, Matt and Michele participated in what is now the longest multihospital kidney transplant chain in U.S. history. Over the course of three months, 68 lives were changed when 34 kidneys were swapped between 26 different hospitals across the nation. "It is a huge operation, but it’s driven by the hearts and minds of people who want to do it. If there was no love in this, it wouldn’t happen," Naji said.
/ / / My Conversation With Sleep Apnea Expert Richard Schwab The Huffington Post published a conversation between Richard J. Schwab, MD, professor of Medicine, and Arianna Huffington in which they discussed Schwab’s research using innovative imaging techniques to study the development of sleep apnea. Schwab shared insight on the high prevalence of the disorder, how obesity and alcohol can cause sleep apnea, the resulting cardiovascular problems, and the importance and ease of treatments.
`` Julia Beamesderfer and Andrew Weber will be heading to internal medicine residencies at, respectively, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and UCLA Medical Center.
/ / / One Of The First Patients With Portable Artificial Heart Leaves Hospital Where He’s Awaiting Transplant CBS3, 6ABC, NBC10 and FOX29 all talked with Penn’s first patient to go home with a total artificial heart to await transplant, along with his surgeon, Pavan Atluri, MD, director of the Minimally Invasive and Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program and the Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program. The 65-year-old patient said the heart feels natural and he’s looking forward to being home so he can enjoy activities like flying remote-controlled airplanes and playing drums in his church jazz group.
/ / / Breast vs. Ovarian Cancer Risks Vary for Women with Different Gene Mutations, Penn Study Finds WHYY Radio reported on a new Penn study which shows that the type and location of a BRCA mutation help determine whether women are more likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer. "It doesn’t mean you won’t get breast cancer or you won’t get ovarian cancer," said senior author Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, associate professor of Medicine, director of Genetics in the Basser Center for BRCA and chief oncogenomics physician in the Abramson Cancer Center. "There’s just some relative differences depending on where the mutation is." Lead author Timothy Rebbeck, PhD, associate professor of Population Sciences in the Abramson Cancer Center, was quoted in outlets across the nation, including Reuters Health, HealthDay, and NBC News.
/ / / Thomas Gray Lived Six Days, But His Life Has Lasting Impact The Philadelphia Inquirer covered a special visit to the lab of Arupa Ganguly, PhD, a professor of Genetics. In 2009, Sarah Gray found out during a routine ultrasound that one of the twins she was carrying had anencephaly, a fatal genetic condition where the brain and skull don’t fully develop. She and her husband donated his organs and tissues and since then, they have been tracking how they’ve been used. Ganguly directs a genetic diagnostic lab and studies retinoblastoma. “Instead of thinking of our son as a victim, I started thinking of him as a contributor to research, to science,” said Gray. Lab manager Jennifer Yutz was also quoted.
/ / / CAR-T Therapy In the News The story of the first pediatric patient to receive Penn’s modified T cell therapy for leukemia was featured in the three-part PBS film “Cancer: The Emperor of All Madalies.” Carl June, MD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, and Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, professor of Pediatrics and director of Translational Research in the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, appeared in the film, along with Emily Whitehead and her parents, Tom and Kari Whitehead. Emily Whitehead’s story was told on the film’s final night. Results from an early Abramson Cancer Center trial involving chimeric antigen receptor T cells, or CAR-T, showed promising results in patients with advanced solid tumors, reported Reuters and the Boston Globe. The genetically modified T cells successfully traveled to tumors they were designed to attack, and were found to be relatively safe and feasible in a small number of ovarian, mesothelioma, and pancreatic patients. Janos L. Tanyi, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Gynecologic Oncology, presented the results at the 2015 AACR Annual Meeting. Forbes also reported on the results.
/ / / For Breast Cancer Research, Apple Delivers Strength in Numbers Approach As part of a segment on how data is shaping health care, WHYY Radio’s The Pulse discussed Apple’s ResearchKit, a software platform designed to allow scientists to collect vast amounts of data from iPhone users. Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, helped create one of the first apps, called Share The Journey, which measures women’s experiences after breast cancer. Schmitz and Penn patient Rachel Riether, who has used the app, are quoted in the story.
Visit the Penn Medicine news website at www.PennMedicine.org/news
The Envelope Please! Exhilaration. Stress. Drama. It’s all part of the annual Match Day experience for America’s graduating medical students. This past March, 159 medical students from the Perelman School of Medicine found out, one by one, where they are headed for their residency training for the next three or more years. The Match Day annual ceremony, established in 1952, at the request of medical students, is the culmination of a process that began in the fall through the National Residency Matching Program, which helps pair graduating medical students across the country with the hospital or medical center of their choice. This rite of passage signifies the start of careers in medicine that come only after 21 plus years of schooling. “It’s always one of the most exciting days of the year,” says Barbara Wagner, director of Student Affairs at Perelman. “The stress leading up to it is really palpable and then you get to see the excitement of students coming up to get their envelope and find out where they will spend the next phase of their lives.”
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RESEARCHERS WIN AWARD FOR
HIV BREAKTHROUGH
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) are among the 2015 recipients of the prestigious Clinical Research Achievement Award for their personalized gene therapy work in HIV. The team included Carl H. June, MD, of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Bruce L. Levine, PhD, director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility; and Pablo Tebas, MD, director of the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit at the Penn CFAR. The Clinical Research Forum recognized the year’s 10 most outstanding research papers written by teams from across the nation. The Forum and its supporters believe these papers represent the best and brightest work in the field, and will lead to advancements in medicine that will change lives and patient outcomes worldwide. The Penn team’s work, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2014, was the first successful clinical test of any gene editing approach in humans. In the phase I study, they engineered the immune cells of 12 HIV positive patients to resist the HIV infection. The modified T cells persisted in all patients, they found, and reduced viral loads in some taken off treatment entirely. `` (From left) Pablo Tebas, Carl June, and Bruce Levine.
`` The new Puentes de Salud and Wellness Center officially opened its doors last month, thanks to the efforts and generosity of many people, including (from left) Jack Ludmir, Nancy Milio, Kevin Mahoney, and Steve Larson. `` Below: Several of the students who volunteer at Puentes — from the Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Nursing, University undergraduates, and others — took part in the opening celebration.
CHESTER COUNTY HOSPITAL
Collaborates with Health Empowerment Partners Four years ago, Chester County Hospital joined an ongoing collaborative planning effort with 34 other locally focused organizations to help Chester County become a community in which all individuals can be healthy and empowered to manage their health. Separately, each of the 35 group members had its own vision and approach, whether it is health care, social services, community-driven funding, faith-based missions or government action. In discussions, the groups recognized that, working together, they could reach a broader number of residents and affect greater change. This process of teamwork came to be known as RoadMAPP to Health: A Comprehensive Health Assessment for Chester County. From this effort came common goals, fresh tasks and creative opportunities. Chester County Hospital’s Community Benefit Report FY2014 — Health Empowerment Partnerships — shares a few of the ways we are partnering with other local organizations to create new possibilities for wellness and good health among our neighbors of Chester County. This edition of the annual report features the hospital’s work with Community Volunteers in Medicine, La Comunidad Hispana, ChesPenn, Alpha Kappa Alpha, St. Paul’s Baptist Church and more. To read these stories, search “Community Benefit Report FY14” at ChesterCountyHospital.org.
A N E W H O M E B A S E F O R Puentes de Salud For nearly a decade, Puentes de Salud (“Bridges of Health”) has provided low-cost primary care and a range of educational and social services to the city’s Latino immigrants at many locations throughout the area. The program has grown to be recognized as a national model for immigrant health and wellness. Now, it has achieved a long-range goal: opening a permanent home. The new 7,000-square-foot clinic and education center — its full name is the Puentes de Salud Health and Wellness Center — is located at 17th and South Streets, part of the Penn Medicine Rittenhouse campus. The facility includes exam rooms for medical and dental treatment, large space for educational classes, space for behavioral and mental health counseling, and a kitchen for healthy-eating classes.
It’s the passion and vision of the Puentes co-founders that we must recognize.
“You read a lot about the use of new research, technology and buildings in health care, but this is where it really happens, down here on the street,” said Kevin B. Mahoney, vice dean for Integrative Services, senior vice president and chief administrative officer of the Health System, at the Center’s official opening. “And it’s the passion and vision of the Puentes co-founders that we must recognize.” Penn Medicine physicians Steven C. Larson, MD, of Emergency Medicine at HUP, and Jack Ludmir, MD, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital, co-founded Puentes in 2006 while caring for Latino workers in the mushroom fields of Kennett square in Chester County. They began offering health care on a shoestring budget, preventing illness and addressing the socioeconomic factors that affect patient outcomes. By 2013, Larson and Ludmir, along with a legion of volunteers and donors, were providing health care to over 3,300 patients annually. Now, within the new,
larger location, Puentes is projected to accommodate 10,000 visits a year, from primarily the Latino community but also other immigrant populations and any uninsured U.S. citizen in need of emergency medical care. The new center allows Puentes’ clinical footprint to physically expand, with extended hours five days a week plus two evenings. The center is staffed mostly by volunteers from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, as well as students and staff from the schools of Nursing, Dental, and Law. The facility offers an array of treatment diagnostic, educational and language services, and partners with Latina Community Health Services, based at Pennsylvania Hospital, to provide comprehensive prenatal and obstetrical care. Penn Medicine donated the space to establish the clinic, and its funds toward the $1.2 million renovation of the clinic set the stage for additional foundation grants and in-kind donations from area construction, engineering and supply companies.
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CAPPOLA NAMED HEAD OF CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE Thomas P. Cappola, MD, has been named chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, a division of 78 faculty and 47 fellows. He will oversee both clinical care and research efforts across cardiovascular specialties, including interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, heart failure and transplantation, adult congenital heart disease, consultative cardiology, noninvasive imaging, preventive cardiology and vascular medicine. Cappola has served as an attending cardiologist on Penn’s nationally recognized advanced heart failure and transplantation service since his arrival at Penn in 2003. He also served as associate director of the Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship Program from 2011 to 2013. That year, he was appointed as director of HUP’s Clinical and Translational Research Center and assistant director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics. Cappola is also a member of Penn’s Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism; the Cardiovascular Institute; the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics; and the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES TWO ELECTED TO AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Two Penn Medicine researchers have been elected as new members to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. The new honorees, who join 23 other Penn Medicine experts previously elected, are Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, of Ophthalmology, and Paul A. Offit, MD, of Pediatrics. The Academy’s current membership includes some of the world’s most accomplished leaders from mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, the social sciences, business, public affairs, the humanities, government, and the arts. Among the Academy’s Fellows are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
RESEARCH TEAM RECEIVES VACCINE INDUSTRY AWARD The laboratory of David Weiner, PhD, of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, received the 2015 Vaccine Industry Excellence Award for Best Academic Research Team. This award, given annually to the research group that has produced products with a novel mode of action, seen them progress into human trials, and can demonstrate significant supportive research grants, was given to Weiner and his lab for making significant contributions to the field of DNA vaccines.
JUNE RECOGNIZED FOR OUTSTANDING IMMUNOTHERAPY ADVANCES Carl June, MD, of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, has been named one of two recipients of the 2015 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for his outstanding work in cancer immunotherapy. Since 1952, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize has been awarded to scientists who have made great advancements in the fields in which Paul Ehrlich worked, in particular immunology, cancer research, microbiology, and chemotherapy. June is widely recognized as leader of the team responsible for the first successful and sustained demonstration of the use of CAR-T cell therapy, a personalized cellular therapy.
NISENBAUM NAMED PRESIDENT Harvey L. Nisenbaum, MD, chair of Medical Imaging at PPMC, was elected president of the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. WFUMB is dedicated to the advancement of ultrasound by encouraging research, promoting international cooperation, disseminating scientific information, and improving communication and understanding in the world community using ultrasound in medicine and biology.
CEO’s corner (continued from cover) an anti-bullying project, tobacco prevention and nutrition classes, family fitness nights, and peer health education — all staffed or supported by Penn Medicine. Puentes de Salud and Latina Community Health Services have provided high-quality, low-cost health care services to the city’s Latina immigrants for nearly a decade. While Puentes has offered multidisciplinary care, education and social services at multiple locations, Latina Service has focused on obstetric and gynecologic care at Pennsylvania Hospital. Together they serve more than 5,500 patients annually. Now, with the recent opening of the Puentes de Salud Health and Wellness Center, all of their services will be available in one central location. (see story on page 5.) The IMPaCT program, part of the Penn Center for Community Health workers, trains area residents to become community health workers, who in turn help low-income patients maintain their health and stay out of the hospital. The workers help patients schedule doctors’ appointments and tests, obtain medications and adhere to taking them, and find child care, transportation, and shelter. Teledermatology: a Smartphone app co-designed by Penn dermatologist Carrie Kovarik, MD, helps Penn dermatologists provide expert skin care for patients at 13 Philadelphia health centers. Providers send photographs of skin conditions to our dermatologists for diagnoses, recommendations, and possible in-person consultation. This program is based on the successful africa.telederm.org website which Dr. Kovarik helped create in 2007 to enhance access to dermatology services in African countries. Cut Hypertension, conducted by Penn medical students, provides onsite blood pressure screenings in West Philadelphia barbershops. The students also dispense proven recommendations for lowering blood pressure such as reducing salty and fried foods and getting in shape with regular exercise. Penn Medicine CAREs awards grants to communityand Penn-based programs on behalf of Penn Medicine employees and students who volunteer at the programs. Projects funded include psychiatric and physical evaluations for international torture victims; in-home scales for low-income heart failure patients to monitor their weight; and equipment, supplies, and staff support for church-based clinics and camps serving HIV-infected and affected young people and those whose parents have been treated for cancer. In these and so many other cases, we have been privileged to work with dedicated Penn Medicine faculty, staff members, and students as well as inspiring members of the community. I can think of no better legacy to the founding spirit of our School of Medicine than the selfless giving to others embodied in these programs. Thank you for your part in touching so many lives, especially in this anniversary year.
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PENN MEDICINE HOSPITALS RECEIVE TOP CANCER ACCREDITATION The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) has awarded three-year accreditation to three Penn Medicine hospitals in recognition of their commitment to the highest level of quality cancer care. HUP received the Gold Award, the highest accreditation award possible for a National Cancer Institute-designated center. Penn Presbyterian Medical Center received the commission’s top honor, the Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA), and Pennsylvania Hospital received an accreditation with Commendations. Care for patients is provided at each hospital by clinicians in the Abramson Cancer Center.
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