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Martin Rodbell, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1994, passed away 7 December 1998 after a long illness. Rodbell had a long and distinguished career in research and senior leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health. At different times in his career, he conducted research at the National Heart Institute, the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (NIAMD), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). He served as Scientific Director of the NIEHS from 1985 to 1989. In 1994 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alfred Gilman, Professor and Chairman in the Department of Pharmacology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, for their work on G-proteins, a key component of the communication system that regulates cellular activity. Rodbell was the fifth NIH intramural scientist to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

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BACKGROUND: A less-publicized consequence of the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century is the door of opportunity it provided for African-American women to become neurosurgeons, beginning in 1984 with Alexa I. Canady (University of Minnesota). Unfortunately, the exploits of a contemporary African-American woman neurosurgeon, M. Deborrah Hyde, have remained largely in obscurity. This report details the career and exploits of Hyde, one of the first women to receive neurosurgery training in Ohio. METHODS: A comprehensive review of pertinent modern and historical records spanning the past century was performed. RESULTS: Born in 1949 in Laurel, MS, Hyde received her BS with honors from Tougaloo College in 1969 and her MS in biology at Cleveland State University. Despite being told in medical school that she was not qualified to compete with "better-prepared" nonminority students, Hyde received her MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1977, earning election into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. The next year, she began neurosurgery residency at Case Western under Dr. Robert A. Ratcheson and Dr. Robert F. Spetzler, finishing in 1982 as the program's first female graduate. In 1985, Hyde became the second African-American woman certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and in 1991 she established the Beacon of Hope Scholarship Foundation for underprivileged youth. She has subsequently continued a distinguished career in private practice, presently residing in West Hills, CA. CONCLUSION: Hyde's diligence, perseverance and commitment enabled her to overcome intense sexism and racism to train at Case Western, becoming the second African-American woman neurosurgeon and the third woman trained in Ohio (first and second of which were Carole Miller and Janet Bay). As the first woman to train under Ratcheson and Spetzler, her determination, excellence and generosity continue to inspire people of all races.

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Purpose

Physicians have an ethical obligation to honor patients' values for care, including at the end of life (EOL). We sought to evaluate factors that help patients to receive care consistent with their preferences.

Methods

This was a longitudinal multi-institutional cohort study. We measured baseline preferences for life-extending versus symptom-directed care and actual EOL care received in 325 patients with advanced cancer. We also measured associated sociodemographic, health, and communication characteristics, including EOL discussions between patients and physicians.

Results

Preferences were assessed a median of 125 days before death. Overall, 68% of patients (220 of 325 patients) received EOL care consistent with baseline preferences. The proportion was slightly higher among patients who recognized they were terminally ill (74%, 90 of 121 patients; P = .05). Patients who recognized their terminal illness were more likely to prefer symptom-directed care (83%, 100 of 121 patients; v 66%, 127 of 191 patients; P = .003). However, some patients who were aware they were terminally ill wished to receive life-extending care (17%, 21 of 121 patients). Patients who reported having discussed their wishes for EOL care with a physician (39%, 125 of 322 patients) were more likely to receive care that was consistent with their preferences, both in the full sample (odds ratio [OR] = 2.26; P < .0001) and among patients who were aware they were terminally ill (OR = 3.94; P = .0005). Among patients who received no life-extending measures, physical distress was lower (mean score, 3.1 v 4.1; P = .03) among patients for whom such care was consistent with preferences.

Conclusion

Patients with cancer are more likely to receive EOL care that is consistent with their preferences when they have had the opportunity to discuss their wishes for EOL care with a physician.

The purpose of this study was to review institutional statistics provided in dean's letters and determine the percentage of honors awarded by institution and clerkship specialty.

Institutional and clerkship aggregate data were compiled from a review of dean's letters from 80 United States medical schools. The percentage of honors awarded during 3rd year clerkships during 2005 were collected for analysis. Across clerkship specialties, there were no statistically significant differences between the mean percentage of honors given by the medical schools examined with Internal Medicine (27.6%) the low and Psychiatry (33.5%) the high. However, inter-institutional variability observed within each clerkship was high, with surgery clerkship percentage of honors ranging from 2% to 75% of the students. This suggests some schools may be more lenient and other more stringent in awarding honors to their students. This inter-institutional variability makes it difficult to compare honors received by students from different medical schools and weakens the receipt of honors as a primary tool for evaluating potential incoming residents.

Shame and honor are mechanisms that expose behavior that falls outside the social norm. With recent six-player public goods experiments, we demonstrated that the threat of shame or the promise of honor led to increased cooperation. Participants were told in advance that after ten rounds two participants would be asked to come forward and write their names on the board in front of the fellow group members. In the shame treatment, the least cooperative players were exposed and wrote their names under the sentence “I donated least” while the honored participants wrote their name under “I donated most.” In both the shame and honor treatments, participants contributed approximately 50% more to the public good, as compared with the control treatment in which all players retained their anonymity. Here, we also discuss how shame and honor differ from full transparency, and some of the challenges to understanding how anonymity and exposure modify behavior.

Scientific discovery occasionally occurs as a sudden and dramatic leap ahead but more often proceeds at a subtler and steadier pace. Each small step forward may escape public notice but is ultimately vital to the journey’s success. Indeed, such gradual advancement represents the collective contributions of many workers in the field, some new to the journey. While the notion of combined effort and multiple contributors is honorable, it poses an inherent danger. In our society, unproven, unorthodox, or unnoticed researchers may not receive the funding or support needed to make their contributions. Furthermore, even if they have the potential to make a leap, a hostile environment may preclude their doing so. This article concentrates on the looming crisis in diabetes research, but the principles pertain to all fields of clinical and biomedical science.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the language of “turfing,” a ubiquitous term applied to some transfers of patients between physicians, in order to reveal aspects of the ideology of internal medicine residency.

SETTING

Academic internal medicine training program.

MEASUREMENTS

Using direct observation and a focus group, we collected audiotapes of medical residents’ discussions of turfing. These data were analyzed using interpretive and conversation analytic methods. The focus group was used both to validate and to further elaborate a schematic conceptual framework for turfing.

MAIN RESULTS

The decision to call a patient “turfed” depends on the balance of the values of effectiveness of therapy, continuity of care, and power. For example, if the receiving physician cannot provide a more effective therapy than can the transferring physician, medical residents consider the transfer inappropriate, and call the patient a turf. With appropriate transfers, these residents see their service as honorable, but with turfs, residents talk about the irresponsibility of transferring physicians, burdens of service, abuse, and powerlessness.

CONCLUSIONS

Internal medicine residents can feel angry and frustrated about receiving patients perceived to be rejected by other doctors, and powerless to prevent the transfer of those patients for whom they may have no effective treatment or continuous relationship. This study has implications for further exploration of how the relationships between physicians may uphold or conflict with the underlying moral tenets of the medical profession.

We studied 63 randomly selected third-year students who split their 10-week medicine clerkship between ambulatory and inpatient components. Compared with their inpatient experience, during the ambulatory rotation, the 63 students felt more like doctors, more responsible for patients, and more able to know and help their patients. Students reported that ambulatory attending staff appeared happier and less stressed, and did not embarrass them as frequently. Compared with their 619 “inpatient” classmates, these 63 “ambulatory” students scored as well on the medicine examination, and were as likely to receive honors (44% vs 41%), and to choose internal medicine residencies (35% vs 34%). In conclusion, students experienced better relationships with their patients and teachers during the ambulatory rotation, which was academically comparable to the inpatient experience.

OBJECTIVES: Because clinical clerkship grades are associated with resident selection and performance and are largely based on residents'/attendings' subjective ratings, it is important to identify variables associated with clinical clerkship grades. METHODS: U.S. medical students who completed > or =1 of the following required clinical clerkships--internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, neurology and psychiatry--were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey, which inquired about demographics, degree program, perceived quality of clerkship experiences, assertiveness, reticence and clerkship grades. RESULTS: A total of 2395 medical students (55% women; 57% whites) from 105 schools responded. Multivariable logistic regression models identified factors independently associated with receiving lower clerkship grades (high pass/pass or B/C) compared with the highest grade (honors or A). Students reporting higher quality of clerkship experiences were less likely to report lower grades in all clerkships. Older students more likely reported lower grades in internal medicine (P = 0.02) and neurology (P < 0.001). Underrepresented minorities more likely reported lower grades in all clerkships (P < 0.001); Asians more likely reported lower grades in obstetrics/gynecology (P = 0.007), pediatrics (P = 0.01) and neurology (P = 0.01). Men more likely reported lower grades in obstetrics/gynecology (P < 0.001) and psychiatry (P = 0.004). Students reporting greater reticence more likely reported lower grades in internal medicine (P = 0.02), pediatrics (P = 0.02) and psychiatry (P < 0.05). Students reporting greater assertiveness less likely reported lower grades in all clerkships (P < 0.03) except IM. CONCLUSIONS: The independent associations between lower clerkship grades and nonwhite race, male gender, older age, lower quality of clerkship experiences, and being less assertive and more reticent are concerning and merit further investigation.

This review is based on the honor of receiving the Discovery Award from the Society of Free Radical Biology and Medicine. The review is reflective and presents our thinking which led to experiments that yielded novel observations. Critical questioning of our understanding of oxygen free radicals in biomedical problems led us to use and develop more direct and extremely sensitive methods. This included nitrone free radical spin-trapping and HPLC-electrochemical detection. This technology led to the pioneering use of salicylate to trap hydroxyl free radicals and show increased flux in ischemia/reperfused brain regions and to also first sensitively detect 8-hydroxy-droxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in oxidative-damaged DNA and help assess its role in cancer development. We demonstrated that Methylene Blue (MB) photo-induced formation of 8-hydroxy-guanine in DNA and RNA and discovered that MB sensitively photo-inactivated RNA viruses including HIV and the West Nile Virus. Studies in experimental stroke led us to serendipitously discover that α-phenyl-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) was neuroprotective if given after the stroke. This led to extensive commercial development of NXY-059, a PBN derivative, for the treatment of stroke. More recently we discovered that PBN-nitrones have potent anti-cancer activity and are active in preventing hearing loss caused by acute acoustical trauma.

I am honored to receive the E. E. Just Award for 2010. In my invited essay, I have opted to discuss the state of diversity in the biological sciences with some recommendations for moving forward toward a more positive and inclusive academy. The need to develop cohorts of minority scientists as support groups and to serve as role models within our institutions is stressed, along with the need to ensure that minority scientists are truly included in all aspects of the academy. It is imperative that we increase our efforts to prepare for the unique challenges that we will face as the United States approaches a “majority minority” population in the next 50 years.

The International ‘Balint’ Award for students, instituted by the Foundation for Psychosomatic and Social Medicine in honor of Michael and Enid Balint, has been a rising opportunity for Romanian medical and psychology students to achieve international fame. Romanian students have been among the winners of this award for the last 10 years, in competition with students from Ivy League and other illustrious universities.

The ‘Ascona model’ case presentation debates the psychological side of a medical case, while keeping in focus the diagnostic, pathology and treatment issues. This article focuses on explaining this type of case presentation in correlation with one of the papers submitted in the contest that has received this award in the 15th International Balint Congress.

The exposed case is that of a 17–year–old boy presenting with apparent stupor encountered by an emergency mobile unit. The patient was suspected of substance abuse and overdose but these suspicions were denied by the clinical exam. Further encounters led to the conclusion that both the boy and his whole family needed psychotherapy counseling and were referred there with great success.

The Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement Award is the American Diabetes Association's highest scientific award and honors an individual who has made significant, long-term contributions to the understanding of diabetes, its treatment, and/or prevention. The award is named after Nobel Prize winner Sir Frederick Banting, who codiscovered insulin treatment for diabetes.

Dr. Eisenbarth received the American Diabetes Association's Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement at the Association's 69th Scientific Sessions, June 5–9, 2009, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He presented the Banting Lecture, An Unfinished Journey—Type 1 Diabetes—Molecular Pathogenesis to Prevention, on Sunday, June 7, 2009.

Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, epidemiologist, virologist, clinician, and educator, was the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine. Horstmann made significant contributions to the fields of public health and virology, her most notable being the demonstration that poliovirus reached the central nervous system via the bloodstream, upsetting conventional wisdom and paving the way for polio vaccines. In 1961, she was appointed a professor at Yale School of Medicine, and in 1969, she became the first woman at Yale to receive an endowed chair, which was named in honor of her mentor, Dr. John Rodman Paul. In this review, the major scientific contributions of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann will be highlighted from her more than 50-year tenure at Yale School of Medicine.

In 1921, Richard Bruynoghe and his student Joséph Maisin published on the first use of bacteriophages in a phage therapy context. At that time, Bruynoghe (a medical doctor) was affiliated as a professor at the KU Leuven (Belgium) for just over a decade, within the Bacteriological Institute which he founded and led. After a distinguished career (he was acting mayor of the city of Leuven-Belgium during the second World War), he received a special medical award in 1951 just before his retirement in 1952. In this perspective, he was asked to provide an overview of his research for a lay-audience within the local University magazine: Onze Alma Mater (Our alma mater). We, as current affiliates of the KU Leuven are honored to present some of his legacy, which to date has been largely overlooked in historical accounts.

The Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement Award is the American Diabetes Association's highest scientific award and honors an individual who has made significant, long-term contributions to the understanding of diabetes, its treatment, and/or prevention. The award is named after Nobel Prize winner Sir Frederick Banting, who codiscovered insulin treatment for diabetes. Dr. Barbara E. Corkey received the American Diabetes Association's Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement at the Association's 71st Scientific Sessions, 24–28 June 2011, San Diego, California. She presented the Banting Lecture, “Hyperinsulinemia: Cause or Consequence?” on Sunday, 26 June 2011.

Background

Following passage of the Patient Self Determination Act in 1990, health care institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding are required to inform patients of their right to make their health care preferences known through execution of a living will and/or to appoint a surrogate-decision maker. We evaluated the impact of external factors and perceived patient preferences on physicians’ decisions to honor or forgo previously established advance directives (ADs). In addition, physician views regarding legal risk, patients’ ability to comprehend complexities involved with their care, and impact of medical costs related to end-of-life care decisions were explored.

Methods

Attendees of two Mayo Clinic continuing medical education courses were surveyed. Three scenarios based in part on previously court-litigated matters assessed impact of external factors and perceived patient preferences on physician compliance with patient-articulated wishes regarding resuscitation. General questions measured respondents’ perception of legal risk, concerns over patient knowledge of idiosyncrasies involved with their care, and impact medical costs may have on compliance with patient preferences. Responses indicating strength of agreement or disagreement with statements were treated as ordinal data and analyzed using the Cochran Armitage trend test.

Results

Three hundred eighty-eight of 951 surveys were completed (41% response rate). Eighty percent reported they were likely to honor a patient’s AD despite its 5 year age. Fewer than half (41%) would honor the AD of a patient in ventricular fibrillation who had expressed a desire to “pass away in peace.” Few (17%) would forgo an AD following a family’s request for continued resuscitative treatment. A majority (52%) considered risk of liability to be lower when maintaining someone alive against their wishes than mistakenly failing to provide resuscitative efforts. A large percentage (74%) disagreed that patients could not appreciate complexities surrounding their care while 69% agreed that costs should never impact a physician’s decision as to whether to comply with a patient’s AD.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the impact, albeit small, external factors have on physician AD compliance. Most respondents based their decision on the clinical situation at hand and interpretation of the patient’s initial wishes and preferences expressed by the AD.

I am tremendously honored to receive the 2012 Women in Cell Biology Junior Award. In this essay, I recount my career path over the past 15 years. Although many details are specific to my own experiences, I hope that some generalizations can be made to encourage more women to pursue independent scientific careers. Mine is a story of choosing a captivating question, making the most of your opportunities, and finding a balance with life outside the lab.

Traditional Samoan tattoos, or tatau, are created by master tattooists, or tufuga ta tatau, and their assistants using multi-pointed handmade tools. These tools are used to tap tattoo pigment into the skin, usually over several days. This traditional process is considered an honor to the one receiving the tatau. Unfortunately, as it is typically practiced according to cultural traditions, the sanitary practices are less than ideal. There have been several reported cases of severe infection, sepsis, shock, and even death as a result of traditional Samoan tattoos. Although Hawai'i is the home of the second largest Samoan population in the United States, short of only American Samoa, literature review found no published case reports in this state. Presented is a case of a 46-year-old man, who, after undergoing a modified version of traditional Samoan tattooing for 5 days, was admitted to the intensive care unit with severe septic shock due to poly-microbial bacteremia with Group A Streptococcus and Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus. In addition, we will discuss the previously reported cases, mainly documented in New Zealand, and review some of the mandatory sanitary standards put into place there.

Introduction

Massage is a time-honored method by which women have received comfort throughout the millennia, yet it has not been rigorously evaluated in the modern day delivery suite. No study to date that we are aware of has evaluated the effect of massage therapy by a regulated massage therapist on labor pain.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of massage therapy provided by registered massage therapists in managing pain among women in active labor.

Methods

BC Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC. Research Design: a randomized controlled trial. Participants: 77 healthy nulliparous women presenting in spontaneous labor. Intervention: Swedish massage administered for up to five hours by a registered massage therapist during labor vs. standard care. Main outcome measures include: cervical dilation at the time of administration of epidural, compared using estimated marginal means in an analysis of covariance. We also compared perception of pain at three time periods during labor according to cervical dilation at 3–4 cm, 5–7 cm, and 8–10 cm using the McGill Present Pain Intensity Scale.

Results

The mean cervical dilation at the time of epidural insertion after adjustment for station of the presenting part, cervical dilation, and status of membranes on admission to hospital was 5.9 cm (95% CI 5.2–6.7) compared to 4.9 in the control group (95% CI 4.2–5.8). Scores on the McGill Pain Scale were consistently lower in the massage therapy group (13.3 vs. 16.9 at 3–4 cm, 13.3 vs. 15.8 at 5–6 cm, and 19.4 vs. 28.3 at 7–8 cm), although these differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Our findings from this pilot study suggest that massage therapy by a registered massage therapist has the potential to be an effective means of pain management that may be associated with delayed use of epidural analgesia. It may therefore have the potential to reduce exposure to epidural analgesia during labor and decrease rates of associated sequelae.

Coupling the scholarly activities of the chemistry research faculty with that of the freshman Honors general chemistry class has resulted in a rise of productivity within the Department. For seven years, freshman Honors students enrolled in the Honors general chemistry laboratory sections have been assigned to work in the labs of the research active faculty within the Department of Chemistry. Approximately a quarter of those enrolled in the Honors general chemistry laboratory sections elect to continue their research experience. The continued and sustained research experience has resulted in a research journal paper for six participants. For the past four years, four papers have been accepted for publication because of the research activities conducted as freshman stemming from this program. Each paper has had at least one co-author as an undergraduate at the sophomore or freshman level.

Infant feeding occurs in the context of continued gender inequities and in the context of a feminist movement that left women vulnerable to a system that defined the male body and mind as the norm. This paper draws from a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with women artists at the 2005 Mamapalooza music festival in New York City, and conference participants at the 2005 La Leche League International and International Lactation Consultant Association Conferences and at the 2007 Reproductive Freedom Conference to understand our collective alienation from breastfeeding and to outline a process for how we might repossess breastfeeding as a positive function in women's lives. These women find power in honoring and validating their own experiences, in claiming those experiences as legitimate feminist actions, and then drawing on these experiences to seek new meanings, customs and norms that similarly honor, value and support their rights to those experiences. They argue that we need a feminist movement that fully incorporates women's needs as biological and reproductive social beings, alongside their needs as productive beings, and a movement that defines the female body and mind as the norm.

Objectives

To evaluate changes in professionalism across the curriculum among pharmacy students in different classes.

Methods

A professionalism instrument was administered early in the first (P1) year, upon completing the introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPE) near the end of the second (P2) year, and upon completing the advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) at the end of the fourth (P4) year.

Results

The professionalism scale and its subscales were compared for the 3 time points for the class of 2009. Significant differences were noted in professionalism scores between the P1 and P4 years and for altruism, accountability, and honor/integrity subscale scores for the class of 2009. No significant differences were noted when the scores for 4 P1 classes, and 3 P2 classes were compared.

Conclusion

An increase in professionalism scores and altruism, accountability, and honor/integrity scores was demonstrated, providing evidence that the curricular and co-curricular activities in the school of pharmacy helped develop professionalism in the class of 2009 students.

Introduction

Global cognitive and psychomotor assessment in simulation based curricula is complex. We describe assessment of novices' cognitive skills in a trauma curriculum using a simulation aligned facilitated discovery method.

Methods

Third-year medical students in a surgery clerkship completed two student-written simulation scenarios (SWSS) as an assessment method in a trauma curriculum employing high fidelity human patient simulators (manikins). SWSS consisted of written physiologic parameters, intervention responses, a performance evaluation form, and a critical interventions checklist.

Results

Seventy-one students participated. SWSS scores were compared to multiple choice test (MCQ), checklist-graded solo performance in a trauma scenario (STS), and clerkship summative evaluation grades. The SWSS appeared to be slightly better than STS in discriminating between Honors and non-Honors students, although the mean scores of Honors and non-Honors students on SWSS, STS, or MCQ were not significantly different. SWSS exhibited good equivalent form reliability (r=0.88), and higher interrater reliability versus STS (r=0.93 vs r=0.79).

Conclusion

SWSS is a promising assessment method for simulation based curricula.

Honor thy father and thy mother, say the Holy Scriptures[1], for they at least gave thee this biological life, but honor thy teachers, too, for they gave thee knowledge and example.

Leslie Alexander Geddes took off on a long, long trip, Sunday October 25, 2009, leaving his body for medical and research use. The departing station was West Lafayette, Indiana, where he set foot in 1974, at Purdue University, stamping there a unique deep imprint, similar and probably more profound than the one left at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, Texas, in the period 1955-1974. Memories came back as a flood the minute after a message broke the news to me: When I first met him visiting the Department of Physiology at BCM back in 1962, my first Classical Physiology with Modern Instrumentation Summer Course ... The versatile Physiograph was the main equipment, an electronic-mechanical three or four channel recorder that could pick up a variety of physiological variables. Les and his collaborators had introduced also the impedance pneumograph, which was a simplified version of previous developments made by others. It became a ubiquitous unit that trod many roads in the hands of eager and curious students. Ventricular fibrillation and especially its counterpart, defibrillation, stand out as subjects occupying his concern along the years. Many were the students recruited to such effort and long is the list of papers on the subject. Physiological signals attracted considerable part of his activities because one of his perennial mottos was measurement is essential in physiology. He has written thirteen books and over eight hundred scientific papers, receiving also several prizes and distinctions. Not only his interests stayed within the academic environment but an industrial hue was manifested in over 20 USA patents, all applied to medical use. History of science and technology was another area in which, often with Hebbel Hoff, he uncovered astounding and delightful information. It is beyond my capability to review everything Les did, least of all what he did during the long span at Purdue.