Faculty News

Heatwole Tapped to Direct Center for Health + Technology

Judith Baumhauer, MD, MPH, medical director of Patient Reported Outcomes, which is housed within the URMC Quality Institute, earned the 2022 Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons Nicholas Andry Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in patient-reported outcome measures. The annual award is granted to honorees whose lifetime body of musculoskeletal research has significantly contributed to the knowledge base and has had a substantial impact on the field of orthopaedics.

Baumhauer has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters; her current research efforts focus on use of patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessments to measure and manage treatment options for patients. She has led efforts to operationalize PRO collection as a part of clinical patient care throughout UR Medicine.

Baumhauer also has overseen the design and implementation of several clinical trials to bring new, meaningful orthopaedic products, such as the synthetic cartilage implant Cartiva, through the FDA approval process and into widespread use to advance patient care for great-toe arthritis.

She is a past president of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, and Eastern Orthopaedic Association. She is currently president of the PROMIS Health Organization and a trustee for the American Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. She is also a reviewer for Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Foot and Ankle International, and the Journal of Orthopaedic Research.

Baumhauer has won numerous awards for her research and clinical contributions, and is a three-time recipient of the Roger Mann Award for Outstanding Clinical Study, granted by the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, and two-time winner of the Goldner Award for Basic Science excellence in research.

Judith Baumhauer, MD

Chad Heatwole, MD (Flw ’05,

Flw ’06) has been appointed director of the Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) at the University of Rochester, succeeding

Ray Dorsey,

Chad Heatwole, MD MD, David M. Levy Professor of Neurology, who had led the Center since 2013.

CHeT has played a leading role in the study and approval of many of the medications used to treat Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, according to Robert Holloway Jr., MD (Res ’93, Flw ’96), professor and Edward A. and Alma Vollertsen Rykenboer Chair of the Department of Neurology. Under Dorsey’s leadership, it became a recognized leader and innovator in harnessing digital health technologies—such as telemedicine, wearables, remote monitoring, and mobile apps—to improve access to care and conduct decentralized clinical trials.

Heatwole, a professor of Neurology with a research focus in experimental therapeutics, is sought out by patients from across the country for his expertise in neuromuscular disease and myotonic dystrophy. Since 2018, he has served as associate director of CHeT and director of the center’s Outcomes Measures division. In that role, he has overseen the development of more than 100 patient-centered, disease-specific research instruments that focus on measuring changes in health. These instruments have been translated into 12 different languages and are used by academic, industry, and government researchers around the globe to measure clinically relevant changes in health in response to therapeutic interventions during clinical trials.

“CHeT’s mission is to advance human therapeutics, patient health, and scientific knowledge,” said Heatwole. “At the heart of our mission is the patient and their families. In partnership with our uniquely talented, skilled, and experienced group at CHeT, we aim to facilitate the development, identification, dissemination, and approval of therapies that are meaningful and improve the daily lives of individuals with complex disorders. This will remain one of our core principles as we strengthen and expand our public, private, and academic research connections; continue to be a leader in technological innovation and outcome-measure development; and grow our University mentorship and training programs.”

Edward Messing, MD, professor of Urology, took the helm of the nation’s largest professional association of urologists in May. Messing is the third URMC urologist to hold this post.

A celebrated expert in all facets of urologic oncology, Messing was chair of URMC’s Department of Urology from 1995 to 2018. He has conducted extensive research in the biology of bladder and prostate cancers and been principal investigator on numerous clinical studies for the detection, prevention, and treatment of genitourinary cancers. He is currently studying whether bladder cancer has molecular features that can predict response to gemcitabine, including whether certain enzymes that metabolize gemcitabine rapidly could make cancer cells more resistant.

Messing has held previous leadership positions with AUA and in other national, regional, and local organizations, including the presidencies of the AUA’s Northeastern Section and the Society of Urological Oncology and the interim directorship of the National Cancer Institute-designated URMC Cancer Center. He is author or co-author of 26 book chapters and 346 urology journal articles and has earned numerous awards, including AUA’s

Edward Messing, MD

Presidential Citation and the prestigious Ramon Guiteras Award, as well as the Society of Urological Oncology’s SUO medal and its Distinguished Service Award.

Lee Chosen to Lead International College of Psychosomatic Medicine

Hochang Benjamin Lee, MD, John Romano Professor of Psychiatry and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, was installed as president of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ICPM) at its 26th World Congress held recently in Rochester. The organization’s membership hails from more than 30 countries and consists of a broad range of professionals, including internists, general practitioners, pediatricians, nurses, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health care providers. The start of Lee’s two-year tenure coincided with URMC’s hosting of the World Congress of Psychosomatic Medicine. As the birthplace of the biopsychosocial model, Rochester offered an appropriate backdrop for providers from across the globe to gather and discuss the model’s history and impact on patient care today and into the future.

Lee was recruited to URMC in 2017 from Yale University, where he was founding director and chief of the Yale School of Medicine Psychological Medicine Service. He also directed Yale’s Psychological Medicine Research Center.

Lee is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.

Ritchlin Honored by NPF for Lifetime Achievement

Timothy Quill, MD

In his latest book, Professor Emeritus Timothy Quill (MD ’76, Res ’80, Flw ’81) tackles the topic of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) in end-of-life care. Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death provides realistic descriptions of what happens to a person when they consider and potentially choose VSED. Quill addresses misconceptions of this poorly understood practice, which can cause people to inaccurately picture uncomfortable starvation and unrelieved suffering, and asserts that VSED can be peaceful and meaningful when supported by knowledgeable and caring physicians. “I have been engaged in research and discussions around medically assisted dying for many years,” said Quill. In New York State, physician-assisted death is not legal, but many terminally ill patients want and need help figuring out what their end-of-life options are. VSED has been a legally available option in the background for some time now, but most people don’t know about it or fully understand it. We wrote this book to help physicians, patients, and families learn about the process from a clinical, legal, and ethical perspective.”

Chapters from the book include several real-patient stories, including a contribution from Robert Horowitz (MD ’93, Res ’98), URMC division chief of Palliative Care, who details his, his mother’s, and their family’s experience in a way that humanizes this medically and emotionally complicated situation.

Both physicians and patients are often hesitant to bring up end-of-life planning because it is difficult to talk about and because of legal and ethical concerns. Quill’s book approaches the topic with a deep sense of empathy for all involved. It can be a tool for opening up the conversation between family members and/or for a patient to start a discussion with his or her physician.

Quill is world-renowned for his progressive discussions around palliative care and end-of-life situations. In addition to his clinical role at URMC, he is also a board member of the Death with Dignity National Center in Portland, Oregon. In 2013, Quill was included on a list of “Hospice and Palliative Medicine Visionaries” by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Christopher Ritchlin, MD Christopher Ritchlin, MD (MPH ’08), professor of Medicine, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF), honoring his long history of research and clinical care.

Ritchlin is director of URMC’s Clinical Immunology Research Unit and a member of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research. He has served as division chief of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology for eight years, growing the division in both size and funding. A founding member of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, Ritchlin also is, through NPF, co-chair of the COVID-19 Task Force and a member of its scientific advisory committee.

“His efforts for the foundation and his larger contributions to the understanding and advancement of treatment for psoriatic arthritis will resonate for generations to come,” NPF noted in presenting the award. “His work has had a profound impact on those impacted by psoriatic disease as well as on the NPF community throughout the country.”