MEDICAL BULLETIN

Alumni board welcomes 10 graduates

Ten graduates joined the Case Western Reserve University Medical Alumni Association Board of Trustees in 2003-2004: Brian J. Bolwell, M.D. ’81; Joseph P. Crowe, Jr., M.D. ’78; Saul M. Genuth, M.D. ’57; Ronald J. Lorig, M.D. ’82, Ph.D. ’73; Hermann “Bud” Menges, Jr., M.D. ’57; Howard Nearman, M.D. ’76; James M. Persky, M.D. ’83; Steven A. Ricanati, M.D. ’95, Steven Rosenblatt, M.D. ’94, and Eric M. Yasinow, M.D. ’83.

Brian J. Bolwell, M.D. ’81

Dr. Bolwell is director of the bone marrow transplantation program and a staff physician in hematology/oncology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He joined the Clinic in 1987. He also is the team leader of the Studer Group Cancer Center Continuum of Care Team.

Board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, Dr. Bolwell has joint appointments in the Clinic’s cancer, transplant, and brain tumor centers. He is a member of hospital committees related to transplants, space planning, and pharmacy and therapeutics; he chairs the latter’s subcommittee on formulary.

The alumnus also chairs the board of trustees and the patent review committee of the Ohio Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Consortium. He belongs to the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the International Society for Experimental Hematology, the International Society for Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering, the National Marrow Donor Program, and the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. He is an official inspector for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Hematopoietic Cell Therapy and a member of the Southwest Oncology Group Bone Marrow Transplant Executive Committee. Dr. Bolwell also is a member of Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry committees related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute leukemia chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and graft vs. host disease.

Dr. Bolwell is the author or co-author of 95 articles, 142 abstracts and eight book chapters. He is the editor of the book Current Controversies in Bone Marrow Transplantation, published in 1999. He serves as an editor and reviewer for Hematopoietic Therapy Index & Reviews and is a reviewer for Annals of Internal Medicine, Blood, Bone Marrow Transplantation, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

He and his wife, Nina, live in Novelty, Ohio, with their three children, Brian, Gregory and Augusta.

Joseph P. Crowe, Jr., M.D. ’78

Dr. Crowe has been an attending surgeon and director of breast services at the Clinic since 1994.

Since joining the institution, he has completed an executive program in practice management offered by its Office of Practice Management and Case’s Weatherhead School of Management. In 2001, he was the project chairman for the Cleveland Clinic Health System Quality Institute Breast Cancer Team. He has served on many other committees at the institution.

Dr. Crowe was on the faculty at his medical school alma mater from 1985 to 1993, holding positions in the surgery, oncology and reproductive biology departments. Also during that time, he was an attending surgeon at University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) and a consulting surgeon at what is now the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Board-certified in surgery, in 1991 he became the medical director and director of breast services at UHC’s MacDonald Women’s Hospital before moving to the Clinic three years later.

Dr. Crowe has received many accolades, including the Faculty Teaching Award from the School of Medicine in 1993. He has also been named a “top doctor” by several magazines and journals. He is a member of and has served on many committees of numerous professional societies and especially has been active in the American College of Surgeons. His research has been published in numerous journals.

Dr. Crowe and his wife, Mary Lind Yurcich, have three children, Elizabeth, Katherine and Joseph III. They live in Pepper Pike, Ohio.

Saul M. Genuth, M.D. ’57

Dr. Genuth is part of the endocrine division at UHC. He also is a professor of medicine and a member of the division of clinical and molecular endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine.

Board-certified in internal medicine as well as endocrinology and metabolism, the alumnus became a School of Medicine faculty member in 1964 and has been a full professor of medicine since 1978. He has served on many administrative and teaching committees at the School of Medicine over the years and currently is chairman of the bylaws committee and an endocrine teaching committee. His career also included many years in leadership positions at the former Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Cleveland.

Dr. Genuth has been a leader in diabetes research, quantifying insulin secretion at the time of diagnosis of diabetes, pioneering the use of continuous intravenous insulin infusion to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, now the standard method of treatment in the United States, and serving as co-builder of one of the first insulin infusion pumps that delivered insulin to insulin-deficient diabetic patients in a truly physiological manner.

Beginning in 1982, Dr. Genuth’s research efforts were concentrated in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial. He held a leadership position in this North American, multicenter, landmark clinical trial, which proved finally that keeping blood glucose close to normal would greatly reduce the eye, kidney and nerve complications of type 1 diabetes. He continued this work as chair of the 10-year follow-up study, and his clinical research has extended into leadership positions in two related national clinical trials.

Additional national roles he has held include that of board and committee member of the American Diabetes Association, which bestowed upon him its Clinician of the Year Award and Charles H. Best Medal for Distinguished Service in the Cause of Diabetes. Dr. Genuth also has chaired the National Diabetes Advisory Board and advisory committees to the National Institutes of the Health and Food and Drug Administration.

Also, he has served on the editorial boards and as a reviewer for several medical journals. He was inducted into the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame and in 2001 received the Medical Alumni Association’s Special Board of Trustees Service Award.

Dr. Genuth and his wife, Molly, live in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and have two children and four grandchildren.

Ronald J. Lorig,
Ph.D. ’73, M.D. ’82

Dr. Lorig is the section head and chairman of radiology at Marymount Hospital, Garfield Heights, Ohio, a member of the consulting staff at Lakewood Hospital, and a member of the diagnostic radiology staff at the Clinic.

He holds master’s and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering from Case and had a career in this field before becoming a physician. Dr. Lorig was on the university’s faculty as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering when he started medical school.

After medical school, he completed a diagnostic radiology residency at the Clinic. He has had an association with the institution ever since.

Widely published, Dr. Lorig is a member of the American College of Radiology, the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Radiological Society of North America, and the Society of Computer Applications in Radiology.

He and his wife, Ilene, live in Shaker Heights and have two sons, Jonathan and Jeffrey.

Hermann Menges, Jr., M.D. ’57

Dr. Menges has been in the clinical practice of internal medicine and cardiology, as well as a teacher on the faculty of School of Medicine, for more than 39 years. Currently, he is a clinical professor of medicine at his alma mater. He is one of the founders of University Suburban Health Center (USHC), a 175-physician multi-specialty practice group affiliated with UHC. For 13 years, he served as USHC’s chairman of the board; upon retiring from this position in 1998, his colleagues named the new health center education facility in his honor.

Dr. Menges serves in an administrative capacity with many organizations and remains active in organized medicine. He was the medical director of the Midwestern National Life Insurance Co. He is a former president of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and received its Distinguished Service Award in 1999. In addition, he was president of the American Heart Association Northeast Ohio Affiliate, of which he was made a life member.

Dr. Menges is a fellow of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and the American College of Cardiology. He was president of the Medical Alumni Association in 1968-69. He has published numerous articles in the field of cardiology.

Dr. Menges and his wife, Sally, live in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and have two adult children.

Howard Nearman, M.D. ’76

Dr. Nearman chairs the Department of Anesthesiology and is a professor in the anesthesiology, surgery, and reproductive biology departments at the School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. Also, he is the director of the Department of Anesthesiology and co-director of the surgical intensive care unit at UHC. He has led the medical school and hospital anesthesiology departments since 2000.

In addition to his medical degree, Dr. Nearman also holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering, a master of science degree in biomedical engineering, and an M.B.A. from Case.

The alumnus has been honored many times in his professional career, including being named an outstanding clinical teacher in anesthesiology at UHC and achieving fellow status in the College of Critical Care Medicine and American College of Chest Physicians.

Dr. Nearman is a former president of the Cleveland Society of Anesthesiologists and also is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists, the International Anesthesia Research Society, the Ohio Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Physician Executives, the Association of Anesthesia Clinical Directors and the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland. He currently is on the review board for Chest and has authored or co-authored 12 journal articles and 13 book chapters and monographs.

He and his wife, Barbara, live in Pepper Pike and have two adult sons.

Dr. Persky is a board-certified general and vascular surgeon in a private practice, Vascular Solutions, in Chardon, Ohio. He also is an assistant clinical professor of surgery at the School of Medicine, where he has been on faculty since 1990, and is chief of vascular surgery at Parma Community General Hospital. Dr. Persky is the former chief of surgery at Deaconess Hospital and remains affiliated with several other area hospitals.

Dr. Persky earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford University in California. After medical school, he completed his general surgery residency through his medical school alma mater and a vascular surgery fellowship at the University of Cincinnati. During his general surgery residency, his research was recognized with a Cleveland Surgery Society Resident Research Award.

The alumnus is a former president of the Cleveland Vascular Society and also belongs to the Midwest Surgical Society, the Midwest Vascular Society, and the Mid-Ohio Endovascular Club. He is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons. He is the author or co-author of several publications and has made numerous presentations related to his work.

Dr. Persky and his wife, Cynthia, live in Chardon, Ohio and have four children.

Steven A. Ricanati, M.D. ’95

Dr. Ricanati is an attending physician in general internal medicine, a member of the corporate compliance and internal medicine residency intern selection committees, and director of the Resident as Teacher program at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. At the School of Medicine, he is an assistant professor of medicine, a member of the admissions committee, director of the Core Physician Develop-ment Program (CPDP), and dean of the Joseph Wearn Society, an advising society for medical students initiated with the 2003-2004 academic year.

After several years in Chicago for internship and residency training and hospital and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Ricanati returned to Cleveland in 2000 to direct the CPDP, a longitudinal, small group, case-based learning program for second-year students at his medical school alma mater. Since April 2003, he has been director of the Resident as Teacher program, a year-long seminar emphasizing basic teaching skills for house officers, at MetroHealth. He is the former associate program director of MetroHealth’s internal medicine residency program.

The alumnus is a member of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and the Society of General Internal Medicine. He lives in Shaker Heights with his wife, Ellen Gelles, M.D. ’94, and their two children.

Steven Rosenblatt, M.D. ’94

Dr. Rosenblatt is on the staff of the Department of General Surgery at the Clinic. His specialty is minimally invasive surgery. In 2001, he was named General Surgery Teacher of the Year.

Born in Denver and raised in Canton, Ohio, Dr. Rosenblatt was a religion major at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. In medical school, he earned the Hewlett Packard Co. Top Medical Graduate Award. After medical school, Dr. Rosenblatt went through Case’s integrated surgical residency program and completed a fellowship in advanced laparoscopic surgery at the Clinic.

A board-certified surgeon, Dr. Rosenblatt is an associate fellow of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, is a candidate for the American College of Surgeons and is a member of its Ohio chapter, and is a member of the Cleveland Surgical Society.

Dr. Rosenblatt lives in Orange Village, Ohio, with his wife, Cyndi, daughter Lauren, and twins Alex and Lindsey.

Eric M. Yasinow, M.D. ’83

Dr. Yasinow practices general internal medicine in Orange Village and is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the School of Medicine.

Born in Cleveland, he graduated from Cleveland Heights High School and earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After medical school, Dr. Yasinow completed his internal medicine residency at UHC.

He lives in Highland Heights, Ohio, with his wife, Paulette Balin Yasinow. They have four children; Melissa just completed her second year at Mount Holyoke College, Denise just completed her first year at Northwestern University, and twins Adam and Scott have completed their sophomore years at Hawken School.

Student representatives Katie Ellerbrock and Shernett Griffiths of the Class of 2007, and Ifeoma “Iffy” Igboeli of the Class of 2004, joined the Medical Alumni Association (MAA) Board of Trustees in 2003-2004 as student representatives. Katie Ellerbrock Ellerbrock is originally from Ottawa, Ohio, and earned her undergraduate degree in molecular genetics at Ohio State University (OSU) in 2003. Illness in the family attracted her to a career in medicine, she said. “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was very young. Spending time in the hospital and watching the interaction between my mother and her oncologist was what first sparked by interest.” Ellerbrock later volunteered at the OSU’s cancer center and is considering specializing in oncology. As a medical student, she has been active not only as a member of the MAA board but also on the Committee of Student Representatives (CSR) student government group and also the Pediatric Student Interest Group. Shernett Griffiths Griffiths was born in Jamaica but most recently is from West Haven, Conn. She graduated from Hampton University in Virginia with a degree in biology. Afterward, she conducted substance abuse research at Yale’s medical school for two and a half years, then prepared for medical school through a program at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Carbondale. She became familiar with the Case School of Medicine as she spent the past three summers performing research at Case through a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded program. “For the first two summers, I performed research in the field of asthma at MetroHealth Medical Center, and last summer I won the Kroc Research Scholarship and performed fibroid tumor research in the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology at University Hospitals of Cleveland,” she said. After matriculating into medical school, Griffiths joined the master of public health degree and Primary Care Track programs. In addition to the MAA board, she is active on CSR and as an assistant regional director for the Student National Medical Association. She also is a member of the American Medical Student Association and the National Medical Association. “Iffy” Igboeli Igboeli, of Nigerian descent, was born in Danbury, Conn., and currently considers Homer, N.Y., as home. She graduated from the University of Buffalo in 2000 with a major in medicinal chemistry and a minor in biochemical pharmacology and chemistry. She said she choose a career in medicine because “I have always loved the sciences, and I wanted to help people and figured that I could combine the two.” As a medical student, she has been a member of CSR, was a student representative on the search committee for a vice dean of education and academic affairs, was a coordinator for the Neuroscience Student Interest Group, helped coordinate a Hippocrates Ball, and participated in the Doc Opera annual parody show as well as intramural sports. Her next adventure is a surgery residency at Marshall University in West Virginia. —L.A.B., text and photos