Perelman School of Medicine Ranks Among the Best
More than 250 years after its founding, the nation’s first medical school continues to prove itself an innovative and interdisciplinary leader in academic medicine. This year, the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) was not only ranked #3 among the best research-oriented medical schools in the country—nabbing a top-ten spot for 22 consecutive years according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Graduate Schools” report —but also ranked among the top training grounds in nine specialty areas.
“This recognition is a testament to our faculty, staff, and students who come together each and every day to create an incredible learning environment, driving forward our mission to advance research and clinical practice, and to improve health across the world,” said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, dean of PSOM and executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the health system. “Penn has a long tradition of academic excellence and scientific discovery, and our students build on this foundation each year as they grow and define the future of health care. Our faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to fostering innovation and paving the way for future breakthroughs in the classroom, the clinic, and the lab.”
Remembering a Peerless Partner
Penn Medicine mourns the loss of Raymond G. Perelman, a committed philanthropic partner and, in the words of UPHS CEO Ralph W. Muller, a “wonderful champion” of the health system. His impact on Penn was transformative, paving the way for future physicians attending the Perelman School of Medicine and ensuring the delivery of cutting-edge medical care at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Perelman’s vision—and that of his late wife, Ruth—helped Penn become a global force in patient care, research, and education.
Read more about the legacy of this world-class Penn ally here.
Kevin Mahoney Named CEO of UPHS
On a bright afternoon this March, Penn Medicine faculty and staff gathered in the atrium of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine in what has become a characteristic “flash-mob” style celebration. Snacking on soft pretzels, they raised glasses to toast the good news that one of Penn Medicine’s longest-serving leaders will soon rise to a new level.
Kevin B. Mahoney will become the next CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) on July 1, succeeding Ralph W. Muller, who is stepping down after 17 years of distinguished and visionary leadership. Mahoney is a 23-year veteran of Penn Medicine, currently serving as the executive vice president and chief administrative officer for UPHS, as well as the executive vice dean for Integrative Services for the Perelman School of Medicine.
Among his marquee leadership achievements at Penn Medicine, Mahoney developed the master plan concept for the former Philadelphia Civic Center site, known today as the Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. These facilities, together with the Smilow Center for Translational Research and the Jordan Medical Education Center, became the nation’s first single building to fully integrate biomedical research, clinical care, and medical education. Building on this success, Mahoney planned and now leads the project for the Pavilion, the new inpatient facility adjacent to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, set to open in 2021. It is the largest building project in Penn’s history.
J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, executive vice president of the University for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, noted that Mahoney has served as the “chief architect” behind many of the efforts for which Penn Medicine has become nationally renowned.
“He was an early and strong contributor to our campus-wide efforts to make innovation part of Penn’s and Penn Medicine’s DNA. Those efforts are saving lives across the world, spurring Penn Medicine’s role in the development and commercialization of six FDA-approved therapies within just the past 18 months,” Jameson said. “Kevin is a champion for the ideas that will become tomorrow’s cures, supporting everything from small-scale start-up efforts to larger commercialization agreements and industry partnerships that are mapping what the future of health care will look like.”
Piecing Together the Pavilion
If you have visited Penn’s campus recently, you can’t miss it: The Pavilion—Penn Medicine’s new, $1.5 billion hospital and the largest capital building project in Penn’s history—has risen to its full 17-story height in steel beams, with partial external sheathing on some floors. Soon enough, the building at the former site of Penn Tower will be outfitted with adaptable, private patient rooms, hybrid operating rooms, and state-of-the-art technology. But there are many smaller details that will impact the patient experience, too. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at some of the projects underway.
Walk This Way: For a temporary escape from the hustle and bustle of the hospital, patients, visitors, and staff will be able to enjoy a walkway surrounded by more than 60 species of trees and ferns. The 670-foot long path between the Pavilion and the Penn Museum will only offer a space to de-stress in the sunlight and greenery, as well as an easily accessible route to a new pedestrian bridge and SEPTA’s University City station.
Heading Underground: The Pavilion has risen high over the Penn campus, but progress is underway below ground, too. A 130-foot long tunnel is being constructed between its emergency department and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Silverstein basement. The tunnel—constructed from nearly 735 tons of concrete—will provide privacy as patients are transported between buildings, plus an efficient way to deliver supplies and medications.
The Key to the Restroom? Efficiency: Instead of constructing 500 patient restrooms onsite, an offsite manufacturing team has been assembling them at the “PennFab” warehouse nearby then delivering them in groups to reduce the impact on traffic. This process ensures higher quality, reduced waste, and increased safety. With acrylic walls and resin epoxy floors, the restroom pods were designed for optimal maintenance. About 56 of the pods are delivered monthly, each weighing over one ton.
National Partnership Aims to Understand and Harness the Human Immune System
Could the human immune system someday be the basis for how new therapies are developed? “If we can understand the immune system, we can turn it in the patients’ favor to treat many, many diseases,” said E. John Wherry, PhD, chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics and director of the Institute for Immunology at Penn. “If we do this right, we will change the way we practice medicine, we will change medical ideas about what immunology is, and we will turn immunology into a clinical discipline.”
Wherry leads one of the five teams from leading clinical research organizations collaboratively partnering with the Allen Institute—a Seattle-based, non-profit bioresearch organization—in its newly launched Allen Institute for Immunology. Researchers dedicated to studying the immune system, including the Penn team, will examine how this complex system works in both healthy individuals and in those with immune-related diseases.
Because researchers do not have a complete understanding of how a healthy immune system behaves, it’s difficult to clearly identify what’s going wrong when a patient develops an immune-related disease. In partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Penn will address this knowledge gap by examining the normal baseline of immune health in children and immune distresses in individuals treated with immune-modifying drugs to treat inflammatory bowel disease or malignant melanoma. The team aims to understand why some individuals respond to certain immune-based treatments while others don’t, and to develop more targeted therapies and preventative measures that could work for more patients.
AHA Recognizes Lancaster General Health as a Community Champion
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has won the 2018 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service, a prestigious national award presented by the American Hospital Association and the Baxter Allegiance Foundation to a hospital that demonstrates an unwavering commitment to identifying and addressing community health and wellness needs.
Jan Bergen, president and CEO of LG Health, noted that the health system has made a tremendous impact in the community in five main areas: providing quality health care for all, improving mental health, making healthy choices easy choices, enhancing preventative care, and responding to substance abuse.
Pennsylvania Hospital’s Evolving Landscape
Ralph W. Muller, CEO of UPHS, Theresa Larivee,
CEO of PAH, William C. Welch, MD, medical
director of the Spine Center and chair of Neurosurgery at PAH, and M. Sean Grady, MD, chair of
Neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine
Penn Medicine has opened a new Spine Center at Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH). The center builds on Penn’s multidisciplinary network of spine and pain care experts and provides both outpatient and inpatient care. With evaluation, diagnosis, and both surgical and nonsurgical treatments under one roof, patients experiencing spine and back issues can receive efficient and convenient care at the historic hospital in Philadelphia’s Society Hill section, founded in 1751.
The new Penn Medicine Cardiac Rehab at PAH also seeks to build a healthier community by addressing a gap in the health system’s Heart & Vascular service line and providing patients with a downtown space dedicated to physical and mental rehabilitation and recovery following cardiac events.
Theresa Larivee, CEO of PAH, notes that these programs provide innovative, integrated care and represent “a vision for the future of care for patients that no other health system in the region can match” while underscoring PAH’s commitment to putting “patients first at the nation’s first.”
Research Countdown
32,624 fractures resulting from pet-related accidents among patients 65 and older were identified across ERs nationwide. A Penn study published in JAMA Surgery found that while dog-walking provides older individuals with regular exercise, fractures related to these walks—mainly in the hips and upper extremities—more than doubled between 2004 and 2017. The researchers hope their findings will prompt deeper considerations about the risks everyone faces as they age, especially as physical activity continues to be emphasized for seniors.
275 patients undergoing spinal and peripheral nerve surgery were part of a Penn study utilizing a novel Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol. The research, which was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, found that one month after surgery, only 38 percent of the ERAS group—which underwent outcome-optimizing interventions ranging from smoking cessation and multi-modal pain management to drinking liquid carbs before surgery—continued using opioids compared to 53 percent of the control group. The groups’ pain scores were also similar, indicating that the ERAS pathway offers an effective replacement for traditional opioid-heavy treatment.
49 percent of patients with Google accounts were willing to share their search histories with Penn researchers, which revealed a tendency to consult “Dr. Google” first. The study, published in BMJ Open, found that health-related searches doubled among patients in the week before an ED visit, with more than half looking up symptoms and potential health conditions. For the researchers, these findings highlight an opportunity for clinicians to adjust how they approach topics and provide useful information to patients.
16 hours is the daily shift limit imposed on first-year residents, but research published in NEJM suggests this well-intentioned cap and limit of 80 hours per week are not necessary for patient safety. The study—part of the larger Individualized Comparative Effectiveness of Models Optimizing Patient Safety and Resident Education (iCOMPARE) study—shows that when medical residents were permitted to work shifts longer than 16 hours, patient mortality was not affected and the doctors did not experience chronic sleep loss.
9 hearts have saved the lives of transplant patients during a Penn Medicine trial. The twist: The transplanted hearts were from deceased donors who were infected with with hepatitis C virus (HCV). For decades, most hearts infected with HCV were discarded, but according to research published in the American Journal of Transplantation, new antiviral treatments work well in immunosuppressed patients, broadening the donor pool and creating a new, viable option for individuals on a transplant waitlist. Researchers are now studying the same approach in patients awaiting a lung transplant.
1 word is most associated with negative hospital reviews on Yelp: “told.” Published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, a Penn study found that among one-star reviews, “told” appeared nearly 20 percent of the time, indicating frustrations about information that wasn’t shared effectively, a lack of listening, and feelings of futility. Assessing these reviews may be a helpful tool in identifying areas for improvement in the patient experience and communication in health care settings.
A Home for HUP’s House Staff
When house staff at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania need to recharge after a long shift, the new House Staff Wellness Center on 1 Dulles offers fellows and residents a quiet area to rest, a comfortable space to relax with colleagues, and the perfect place to reenergize before going back to their patients, all in one.
“There’s a loss of physician lounges across the U.S., and this space is bringing it back. Physicians from different specialties can interact and collaborate, and it’s a great addition to our culture,” said Alex Bonnel, MD, an Emergency Medicine fellow and president of the House Staff Governing Council.
The newly renovated center, made possible by generous donors, includes a computer lab for charting, a fitness room with a treadmill, elliptical, and free weights, two soundproof nap pods with chairs that convert into beds, a communal TV lounge, and a private lactation room.
You Can’t Be What You Don’t See: #WomenofPenn Role Models Share Their Success Stories
When Kristy Weber, MD, was in medical school, she heard over and over again that women couldn’t get into orthopaedic programs. They were too demanding, too competitive, and required more strength than she could offer. That sealed her decision. Today, she is the chief of Orthopaedic Oncology, director of the Sarcoma Program in the Abramson Cancer Center, and the Abramson Family Professor in Sarcoma Care Excellence, and she was recently named the 87th president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ (AAOS)—the first woman to ever hold the position.
Institutions nationwide continue to make significant strides to end gender bias in medicine and to empower women in the field, and visible leaders and role models like Weber continue to pave the way. At Penn Medicine—named #2 among the nation’s best employers for women by Forbes—one doesn't have to look far to find exceptional women researchers, clinicians, and mentors. The #WomenofPenn blog campaign—a joint effort between the Penn Medicine Communications and FOCUS on Women’s Health and Leadership teams—regularly pairs an early-career woman with a successful role model to discuss accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned.
From Debbie Driscoll, MD, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, whose early days as a candy striper and unit secretary launched her on a path toward becoming one of the world’s leading obstetrician-gynecologist geneticists, to Judith Margolin, PsyD, clinical director of the Penn Medicine Princeton House Behavioral Health Women’s Program, whose work/life balance prevents her from taking patients’ trauma home with her, the stories illuminate some of Penn’s most fascinating personalities.
To follow along with their stories, visit the Penn Medicine News Blog and follow the hashtag #WomenofPenn on social media.
Honors & Awards
Ralph Muller Receives AHA’s Highest Honor
The American Hospital Association (AHA) presented its Distinguished Service Award to Ralph W. Muller, CEO of UPHS, at its annual meeting in April, honoring his visionary leadership and transformative impact on Penn Medicine. This award—the AHA’s highest honor—recognizes significant lifetime contributions to health care institutions and associations.
For AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack, Muller’s commitment to public service and to advancing patient care in Philadelphia and beyond has made him “a mentor to many in the field—including me,” and helped shape “an entire generation of health care leaders who are working to build a better future for hospitals, health systems, and the patients we serve.”
ASCO Awards Top Prizes to Penn
Two members of the Abramson Cancer Center were honored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and ASCO's Conquer Cancer Foundation at the organization's annual meeting.
Hologic, Inc. Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award: Lynn M. Schuchter, MD
Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Program Leader for the Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies Program, C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology/Oncology
This award pays tribute to exceptional female leaders and mentors who are committed to supporting the professional development of female colleagues as clinicians, educators, and researchers.
Humanitarian Award: Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, FACP
Director for the Center of Global Cancer Medicine, Deputy Director for Clinical Services in the Abramson Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine
This award recognizes an oncologist who goes above and beyond the call of duty in providing outstanding, innovative patient care and exceptional service and leadership both in the United States and abroad.
Clinical Research Achievement Awards
Three Penn Medicine researchers received Clinical Research Achievement Awards from Clinical Research Forum. These awards celebrate the nation’s ten most outstanding clinical research accomplishments during the previous year.
Joseph A. Fraietta, PhD
Assistant Professor of Microbiology
Fraietta was recognized for leading a study predicting the response of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.
Lindsey A. George, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Attending Physician in Hematology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
George was honored for her work as the lead investigator for the first gene therapy trial to report a clinical cure for hemophilia B patients.
Courtney A. Schreiber, MD
Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Schreiber was lauded for heading the only randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of mifepristone and misoprostol for managing miscarriage.
2019 Rolf Luft Award from the Karolinksa Institute
Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD
Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Founding Director of the Penn Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism
This award, presented by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, celebrates outstanding scientific contributions in endocrinology and diabetes. Lazar received the award in recognition of his work in transcriptional regulation of metabolism.
The honors and awards listed on this page are just a few of the highlights among Penn Medicine’s highly lauded leaders, faculty, staff, and trainees. For more honors, visit this edition's Progress Notes.