MEDICAL BULLETIN

Class Notes

Earl Nation of Sierra Madre, Calif., was the 2002 recipient of the American Urological Association’s Ramon Guiteras Award. The award annually pays tribute to an individual who is deemed to have made outstanding contributions to the art and science of urology. Other alumni recognized with the award include Patrick Walsh ’64 of Baltimore, the 2004 honoree, and Paul J. Schildt ’38 of Olmsted Township, Ohio, the 1988 recipient.

Dr. Nation is a former president and treasurer of the AUA and also was active in the AUA Western Section. Having practiced urology for decades in Pasadena, Calif., he is an emeritus faculty member of the University of Southern California and former chief of staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital and also was affiliated with other hospitals.

Denis Radefeld received the Leadership Excellence in Health Award from Leadership Lorain County at the Ohio organization’s Feb. 27 Difference Makers Gala recognizing "unparalleled leadership practices."

A general surgeon, Dr. Radefeld was affiliated with St. Joseph and Lorain Community hospitals and with Community Health Partners (CHP). Today he remains active in administrative work at the EMH Regional Healthcare System and CHP. He also is a board member of the Lorain County Free Clinic, of which he was a founder.

He and his wife, Carol, have volunteered in almost 40 projects with Medical Missions International since 1983, taking their medical expertise overseas to places such as the Dominican Republic. The alumnus is an operating surgeon, medical director, and emeritus board member of the organization.

CHP and its foundation recently established the Denis Radefeld, M.D., Humanitarian Award in honor of his more than 50 years of service as a physician, teacher and mentor. The award provides financial assistance to CHP employees wishing to participate in projects providing direct care to the poor and underserved.

William S. Haubrich, "flushed with blush and struggling to suppress my meager store of modesty," writes that he is the author of the newly published second edition of his acclaimed Medical Meanings: A Glossary of Word Origins (American College of Physicians [ACP]). Readers, he says, will find not just etymology and explanation of biomedical terminology and usage but allusions to history and popular culture.

Kermit Newcomer of La Crosse, Wis., received the 2003 Benjamin Rush Award for Citizenship and Community Service from the American Medical Association (AMA) Dec. 6 at the interim meeting of the AMA House of Delegates. The award recognizes outstanding service to the community, citizenship and public service beyond the call of duty as a practicing physician.

An internist and nephrologist, Dr. Newcomer worked with the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse for more than 27 years, six as president. Under his leadership, the clinical, educational and research services of the clinic improved and expanded.

In addition to maintaining his busy practice, Dr. Newcomer made time to teach residents, participate in medical research, and accept leadership positions in various levels of organized medicine and civic activity. He served for 28 years as the team physician for the local high school and currently serves on the board of directors of the local Salvation Army and the Western Wisconsin Technical College Foundation.

Since his retirement, Dr. Newcomer has dedicated his time to international activities. For the past seven years, in his role as medical director of the La Crosse International Health Partnership, he has helped develop several specialized health centers in Russia, including a women’s wellness center, an alcohol awareness center, and a renal dialysis center.

Dr. Newcomer’s leadership has facilitated a major primary care initiative in the Ukraine as well. Two new primary care clinics have been established and will be models for an additional 180 clinics to be opened later this year. Ukraine doctors and nurses have joined teams and now use patient care guidelines that Dr. Newcomer taught them to develop for themselves.

In addition, Dr. Newcomer is chair of the American International Health Alliance’s Clinical Practice Guideline Committee and has provided consultation and educational forums in the Ukraine, Russia, China and Kazakhstan. He also has provided leadership and direction in the establishment of the Family Practice Residency Program for the Ukraine and confers regularly with the Kharkiv Medical Academy of Post Graduate Medical Education to assist in developing a medical education program.

In addition to Dr. Newcomer, two other Case medical alumni receiving the Benjamin Rush Award in recent years are Theodore J. Castele ’57, of Fairview Park, Ohio, who received the award in 1989, and Calvin C. J. Sia ’55, of Honolulu, who received the award in 1998.

Alan Roberts is an associate professor of medicine, chair of the ethics committee, and director of the Ethics Institution Service at the Medical College of Georgia. In May 2003, he received the Distinguished Faculty Award for patient care from the medical school faculty.

Dick Fratianne was honored by the Case School of Medicine at a student reception Jan. 20 because he was the school’s nominee for the Association of American Medical College’s 2003 Humanism in Medicine Award. The ultimate recipient of the national award and the 49 other nominees, including Dr. Fratianne, were featured in an advertisement in the Nov. 10 edition of USA Today.

"Dr. Frat," who is a professor of surgery at his alma mater, also was invited to speak to medical students at his alma mater Nov. 13 by HuMed group of the school’s chapter of the American Student Medical Association, which encourages future physicians to focus on patients as human beings who are whole entities with individual needs rather than as symptoms or diseases. The alumnus was held up as a role model for this philosophy.

H. Jack Geiger is the recipient of two recent awards that recognize the accomplishments of his career, which has been devoted to the problems of health, poverty and human rights in the United States and around the world. Oct. 30, the National Center for Primary Care (NCPC), located at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, bestowed upon him its Award for Academic Leadership in Primary Care. Dec. 2, Dr. Geiger received the National Medical Fellowships’ (NMF) Founder’s Award.

The NCPC recognized the alumnus "for a lifetime of leadership in primary care, from initiating the community health center program nationally to most recently writing one of the opening chapters of an Institute of Medicine report on disparities in health care," said George Rust, M.D., M.P.H., deputy director of the NCPC, who added that David Satcher ’70, director of the NCPC, presented Dr. Geiger and two others with their awards at the center’s Third Annual Excellence in Primary Care Awards ceremony.

The graduate received the NMF Founder’s Award because "Dr. Geiger’s accomplishments to date reflect the motivations and ideals that [NMF founder] Franklin McLean [, M.D., Ph.D.,] represented," according to a spokeswoman for the private, non-profit organization. The NMF seeks to improve the health of underserved communities by increasing minority representation in health- and policy-related positions and educating the public and policy-makers about the public health challenges and needs facing underserved populations. Jordan Cohen, M.D., president of the Association of American Medical Colleges and a member of the NMF board of directors, presented the award. Dr. Geiger also serves on the organization’s board.

Dr. Geiger is Arthur C. Logan Professor Emeritus of Community Medicine at the City University of New York Medical School. Among the many other awards he has received in his illustrious career are the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Gustav O. Lienhard Award, and American Public Health Association’s Sedgwick Medal, and the Case Western Reserve University (Case) Medical Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus Award. He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Case in 2000.

The alumnus founded one of the first chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1943 and, as civil liberties chair of the American Veterans Committee from 1947 to 1951 led campaigns to end racial discrimination in hospitals and medical schools. Dr. Geiger also initiated the community health center model in the United States, combining community-oriented primary care, public health interventions, civil rights and community empowerment. From 1965 to 1971 he directed the first urban and first rural health centers in the country.

He recently completed four years of work on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, producing a commissioned paper for an IOM report, "Unequal Treatment," a PHR report, "The Right to Equal Treatment," and an annotated bibliography of some 800 peer-reviewed articles on the issue. The latter two are downloadable from http://www.phrusa.org.

Dr. Geiger is a founding member and past president of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize as part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize as part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

Robert A. Nozik of Lafayette, Calif., has been studying happiness for the past 14 years and recently published his first book in this area, Happy 4 Life: Here’s How to Do It (Trafford), in which he provides instructions for finding a special kind of happiness he calls "ideal happiness."

A professor emeritus at University of California Medical Center and the Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, having retired three years ago, Bob also is speaking and teaching courses on the subject of happiness.

Leon Speroff has published a book, Carlos Montezuma, M.D.: A Yavapai American Hero (Arnica Publishing), about the life and times of a Yavapai Indian medical pioneer in a time when the Native Americans were being assimilated.

Dr. Speroff is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health Sciences University. He is known worldwide for his textbook Clinical Gynecological Endocrinology and Infertility, now in its sixth edition, and has written numerous other books and journal articles in the field.

Dr. Speroff is the former president of the American Fertility Society (now the American Society of Reproductive Medicine) and founding president of the Society of Reproductive Endocrinologists.

He lives in a rural area outside of Portland with his wife, Sen, a retired nurse-midwife, and their two daughters, Sevda and Elena, avid equestrians. When not writing or teaching, he enjoys riding his tractor or fly-fishing.

Phillip Resnick received the Case Western Reserve University President’s Award for Distinguished Alumni Dec. 5 in Cleveland.

The award was established in 1993 by the university’s Alumni Council and is given annually to alumni in recognition of outstanding community service, professional achievement or commitment to the university. An ad hoc committee suggests recipients to the president of the university, who makes the final decision.

Dr. Resnick, a renowned expert in forensic psychiatry, earned his bachelor of arts degree in psychology in 1959 and his medical degree in 1963 from what is now Case Western Reserve University. Among his many roles, he is a professor of psychiatry, director of the division of forensic psychiatry, and director of the forensic psychiatry fellowship at Case and University Hospitals of Cleveland. He also is an adjunct professor in the Case School of Law and is director of the Court Psychiatric Clinic of Cuyahoga County and Cleveland.

Known for coining the term neonaticide (which means the killing of a newborn), Dr. Resnick has consulted and served as a witness in many high-profile cases involving mothers accused of murdering their children, including Andrea Yates and Susan Smith, as well as other cases such as that of cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and "the Unabomber," Ted Kaczynski.

He is the fourth medical school graduate to receive the President’s Award for Distinguished Alumni. Among the previous winners are William S. Haubrich ’47, who received the award in January 2000; Nancy Kurfess Johnson ’54, who received it in August 2000; and M. Scott Peck ’63, who received it in January 2002.

Patrick Walsh is the 2004 recipient of the American Urological Association’s Ramon Guiteras Award. The award annually recognizes an individual who is deemed to have made outstanding contributions to the art and science of urology. Other alumni previously receiving the award include Earl Nation ’35, of Sierra Madre, Calif, the 2002 recipient, and Paul J. Schildt ’38, of Olmsted Township, Ohio, the 1988 recipient.

Dr. Walsh is the David Hall McConnell Professor and director of the Department of Urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and urologist-in-chief at the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

Sid Wolfe visited the Case School of Medicine, where he is an adjunct professor of medicine, March 17 to give the keynote lecture and judge health policy projects during the Primary Care Track’s Health Policy Day. He mentioned that a new edition of his book, Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer’s Guide to Preventing Drug-Induced Death, will be out in the fall and will include new information about dietary supplements.

Albert Iosue was inducted into the Collinwood High School Alumni Hall of Fame May 5. He graduated with honors from the Cleveland high school in 1958, having played junior and varsity football as a halfback, although he primarily was a defensive back.

He also played football all four years as an undergraduate student at what is now Case Western Reserve University. He was one of only seven selected to receive the Scholar Athlete Award from the Midwest, and he met President Kennedy at the awards banquet. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in chemistry.

After medical school, Dr. Iosue did his internship in medicine and pediatrics at the University of Vermont. He served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador from 1967 to 1969.

Dr. Iosue studied diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at Yale University's New Haven Hospital and became board-certified in both specialties. He was the chief radiologist at North Beach Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 20 years.

In 1988, he founded the Institute for Applied Philosophy (see http://www.mind-werx.com/), a nonprofit organization designed to foster philosophical thought and discussion outside of learning institutions.

Dr. Iosue and his wife, Patricia, live in Hendersonville, N.C., and have three sons and one daughter.

David Spence retired in August 2002 from a 20-year work experience with the Indian Health Service. In October 2003, he became the first non-directed kidney donor in his home state of Arizona. He believes this path of non-directed (also known as anonymous or altruistic) kidney donation will lead to reducing the nationwide list of 60,000 people waiting for a kidney transplantation.

Barbara Roberts contributed a chapter entitled "Gender Specific Aspects of Coronary Artery Disease" in a new textbook coming out this spring from Elsevier, Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine.

Mark Soloway has been asked to chair an international consensus panel on bladder cancer. The goal is for a worldwide group of experts to use evidence-based medicine to arrive at an agreement on a wide range of issues dealing with this cancer. This year, he has been asked to be a guest speaker for the Australian Urology Association, the British Association of Urologic Surgeons, the European Association of Urology, and the American Urological Association. He is professor and chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Florida.

Steven Englender became the epidemiologist for the Cincinnati Health Department in April, the first person to hold the position since the 1990s, when the city eliminated it for financial reasons. In his new role, he will prepare for and manage local public health emergencies, study the city’s high infant death rate, and work to eliminate health disparities related to race and ethnicity.

Since 2001, Dr. Englender had been the state epidemiologist for Kentucky. Among his accomplishment in this role were executing the state’s smallpox vaccination plan for health workers and teaching workers at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to identify symptoms of SARS.

David Orenstein was recognized as the 2003 Vectors/Pittsburgh Man of the Year in Science and Medicine at the volunteer community service organization’s annual gala dinner Feb. 28. He is the Antonio J. and Janet Palumbo Endowed Professor of Cystic Fibrosis and director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and is a pediatrics professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

James P. Orlowski has been named chairman of the division of pediatrics at University Community Hospital (UCH), a 1,019-bed community health network in Tampa, Fla. He is an associate professor of pediatrics, critical care medicine, and medical ethics at the University of South Florida and also is chairman of ethics at UCH. Dr. Orlowski has edited seven textbooks and authored more than 250 articles in the medical literature.

Richard Rudick was one of 25 people from across the country receiving 2003 Volunteer Hall of Fame Awards in November at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s national conference in Miami. Hall of Fame members are selected because of their outstanding volunteer support, for making a difference in their communities, and for advancing awareness of multiple sclerosis and the society’s mission. Dr. Rudick, director of the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for 16 years, helped develop the center’s MS Learning Center to provide patients access to information on programs, research and treatment. Also, he has made contributions through nearly 30 research projects and more than 100 articles in scientific publications.

James Anderson and another faculty member became the first recipients of the John R. Carter Award for Medical Student Teaching, an award in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Pathology, on Dec. 9.

Ted Ball has joined the Scientific Advisory Board of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, a biopharmaceutical research and development company that commercializes cancer and antiviral research through licensing agreements with universities and research institutions.

Dr. Ball is a professor of medicine, chief of the division of blood and bone marrow transplantation, and a program leader for translational oncology at the Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center, all at the University of California, San Diego. He pioneered the use of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of leukemia and co-founded Medarex, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that uses antibody-based therapies to fight cancer and other diseases.

Ian Glass has been named medical director of care management for the Euclid, Hillcrest, Huron and South Pointe hospitals of the Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Bill Newmann writes of recently changing from working days and nights to just days, part-time clinical and part-time teaching in family practice. "Now I can spend more time and less money and have found that medicine, even in a low reimbursement, high malpractice premium state, can be fun again."

Edward Burney was one of several ophthalmologists receiving Travatan Eye Drops Project Focus Awards from American Legacy Magazine and Alcon Laboratories Jan. 6 for their work in treating glaucoma and for their efforts to educate and promote awareness of glaucoma in the African-American community. The Project Focus program, a partnership with Prevent Blindness America, is a nationwide, multi-city, urban outreach initiative that includes free glaucoma screenings, national and local advertising, distribution of educational materials, and community education seminars.

Dr. Burney is an associate professor at his alma mater, directs the glaucoma service at University Hospitals of Cleveland, and is director of ophthalmology at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

JoAnn E. Manson received the Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association in 2003 for "exceptional achievements in research in women’s health, particularly in the area of preventive medicine." In 2002, she received the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Henry Ingersoll Bowditch Award for Excellence in Public Health, giving to a Massachusetts physician "who has demonstrated initiative, creativity and leadership in the field of public health and/or advocacy." Dr. Manson specifically was recognized for "her enormous contributions to our understanding of women’s health issues and advancements in clinical care."

Dr. Manson is chief of the division of preventive medicine and co-director of its women’s health component, co-director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, and senior physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. At Harvard, she is a professor of medicine and the Elizabeth F. Brigham Professor of Women’s Health at the medical school and professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health.

Thomas Leavenworth writes, "After three months of bed rest, Lyse [Strnad ’81] gave birth to our twins, Aubrey David Leavenworth and Beaufort ("Beau") James Leavenworth. Lyse was very ill and spent some time in the ICU on a ventilator but is back to working full-time as an ophthalmologist in a busy practice of cataract and lasik surgery." She also competes at the third level in dressage, is the fieldmaster for their foxhunt, and is in the learner judge program for dressage.

Thomas says he helps her keep her three beehives and harvest the honey at their farm, which is on a large river in Iowa. Tom is an ER physician, foxhunter and "eventer," and in the past, Lyse and Tom have done a lot of sailing, skiing and scuba diving together. They say they are looking forward to enjoying those activities with their two boys someday.

Cheryl Morrow-White has joined Dr. Senders and Associates, Pediatrics, in University Heights, Ohio, on a part-time basis. She is president of the American Heart Association Ohio Valley Affiliate and serves on several national AHA committees, having previously served on the AHA’s National Board of Directors. Additionally, she is a trustee of Hathaway Brown School, where she spent her high school years, and is on the visiting committee of Case’s nursing school. She also does short-term mission work in Jamaica.

Lyse Strnad (please see the notes for 1980).

Nick Jouriles writes that in October he was the course director for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Scientific Assembly, the largest emergency medicine meeting in the world. He also was the medical editor of selected topics from the meeting presented on a CD-ROM. At the business portion of the meeting, he was elected to a three-year term on the organization’s 13-member board of directors.

A fellow of the ACEP, he has been very active in the organization on both the national and state levels. In 2002, he received the ACEP Council’s Meritorious Service Award and the Ohio Chapter’s Bill Hall Award.

Dr. Jouriles is an attending physician in Akron General Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine and a core faculty member of the hospital’s emergency medicine residency program.

Peter Tippett was featured in an article in the Winter 2004 issue of Case Magazine. See "In Computer Security, He’s the Man" online at http://www.cwru.edu/pubs/cwrumag/backissues.html.

Gary Haynes was elected to serve a three-year term on the Medical Disciplinary Commission of the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners as a representative from the state’s first congressional district. He is a professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.

Annette Zwick writes that she and her husband, Shep, have moved to Newton, Pa., with their three sons, Zachary, 8, Gabriel, 5, and Jeremy, 2. Newton is in a scenic and historic area between Philadelphia and New York, she says. Annette is an anesthesiologist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton in New Jersey.

Jean Vahey writes, "In May 2003, I was able to travel to Guatemala to bring home a second beautiful daughter, Grace Lynn (then 8 months). She joined her older sister, Breana (then 2 years old). We are all doing well and incredibly busy with life at home and in the practice of pediatric ophthalmology."

Joy Marshall joined the Family Care Center of Lorain, Ohio, part of Community Health Partners, in October.

Marc Penn will become president of the Cleveland Metro division of the American Heart Association in July. He is a staff cardiologist, clinical associate, and director of the Experimental Animal Laboratory in the cardiovascular medicine department, and associate director of the cardiovascular medicine fellowship in the cardiovascular medicine and cell biology departments, at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Also, he is an adjunct assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Case.

Leah Wolfe has been named program director of the general internal medicine residency training program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore.

Avinash Kothavale married Meg Sosnow, M.D., May 3, 2003, in San Francisco. Guests at the wedding included Ken Lin and his wife, Sandra, Kristen Sherman, Rodney Kusumi and Sidney Regalado.

Avi finished his internal medicine residency in 2002 at the University of California, San Francisco, and then completed an echocardiography fellowship there. He has moved with his wife to Boston, where he is a cardiology fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and she is practicing psychiatry.

Maria Gracia Galvez Picon married Matthew R. Hartley (Case School of Law ’97) in June 2003. Jill Nishiyama ’98, Lori LaGatta, Kavitha Prakash, Kristen Sherman and Professors Ita Abramof, Ph.D., and G. David McCoy, Ph.D., attended.

"I have worked as a primary care pediatrician at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center in San Francisco for the past year," writes Maria. "I practice primarily in Spanish; however, I also work in Portuguese and English when needed.

"I was recently awarded $105,000 by the Medical Board of California Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program. This competitive program is for newly licensed, culturally and linguistically competent physicians who committed to practice in an underserved areas for three years. It was an honor to meet U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, M.D., who attended a news conference in July at my clinic to honor the Bay Area awardees."

Todd Severson has been named to the medical staff of Central Maine Medical Center, Lewiston. He is part of the emergency department, which also provides services to the Rumford and Bridgton hospitals and Parkview Adventist Medical Center.

Candis Platt-Houston completed her pediatric residency training at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in July. She is now practicing pediatrics at MetroHealth Medical Center’s Lee-Harvard Health Center in Cleveland. She and her husband, Mario, have two children, son Myles, 6, and daughter Camryn, 1.

George Partal married Amy Harrow May 25 in Bar Harbor, Me. Twin sister Andreea Partal was a bridesmaid. At the time of the wedding, the groom was completing an orthopedic surgery resident through the University of Rochester, and the bride, who earned her M.D. at the University of Vermont, was serving as chief resident in radiology there before beginning a fellowship in magnetic resonance imaging. After honeymooning in Bermuda, they continued to live in Rochester, N.Y.

Jennifer L. Rudolph has entered a preliminary residency in medicine at Greenwich Hospital, part of the Yale New Haven Health System, after working for two years in outcomes research and clinical trials at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York.