Noteworthy, Momentum, Winter 2001

Thrills, chills on wheels

leven members of Emory's Team Vaccine weathered cold, rain, and even snow during the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride in August. They joined some 1,500 riders, who biked 510 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage and raised more than $4.1 million to support HIV vaccine development efforts at three research centers, including the Vaccine Research Center at Emory. Team Vaccine contributed more than $70,000, and Emory expects to receive $1.3 million in research money. Emory Team Vaccine participants (from left) were Molly Freeman, Chris Cook, Charles Maris, Barbara Sullivan, Rafi Ahmed, Jeff Safrit, Todd Harrington, Rick Bright, and Linda Perry. Team members not pictured were Joe Miller, Bineetha Miller, and Jackie Fine.

The Emory Clinic Recruiting New COO

Rein Saral
he Emory Clinic Board of Directors has approved two changes in the clinic management structure. Rein Saral is now vice president of medical affairs for Emory Healthcare. He will continue in his roles as director of the clinic and chair of the clinic board of directors.
The board also created the new position of chief operating officer (COO). Now being recruited in a nationwide search, the new COO will seek to enhance business management and operations within the clinic. This new position will free Saral to focus on medical management and the needs of physicians and other health care providers within the Emory Healthcare system.
The COO will report jointly to the clinic board, especially on issues of strategy and medical affairs, and to John Fox, president of Emory Healthcare, on operational issues. Michael McDowell, currently facilitator of the clinic's primary care network is serving as interim COO. Michael Drinkwater is now executive director of business services and responsible for the day-to-day operations of the clinic, including the complete cycle of the patient's visit, from the initial phone call, through the actual patient visit, to the resolution of the bill for services.
Mike Mason, administrator of business services for the past five years, has been promoted to director of operations and business services. This new position encompasses the traditional operational support services that have been provided by business services, but the position has been expanded to enable Mason to support and enhance clinical operations as well.
David Cauble, former director of budget and financial analysis, is now chief financial officer (CFO), a position he's held since the resignation last winter of his predecessor.

More accomplishments of note

John Banja, rehabilitation medicine, received the 2000 John W. Goldschmidt Award for excellence in rehabilitation.
Geoff Broocker, chief of ophthalmology at Grady, received the clinical teaching award for his specialty from graduating residents.
William Casarella, chair of radiology, is now executive associate dean for clinical affairs and is working closely with the chiefs of staff at Grady Hospital, Children's Hospital of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC).
Interventional cardiologist John Douglas is the new director of the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center of Emory University Hospital (EUH). He also directs the EUH cardiac catheterization lab.
Courtney Dusenbury has joined the office of governmental and community affairs as assistant director for federal affairs. Before coming to Emory, she spent six years on Capitol Hill, where she helped craft the federal children's health insurance program, as well as an alternative to the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, the patients' bill of rights, and legislation to reduce prescription drug prices and increase children's access to immunizations.
James Eckman, director of the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, received the Distinguished Safety Net Clinician Award from the National Association of Public Hospitals. He also was among the department of medicine faculty recently chosen by residents to receive the Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching. Other recipients of the Golden Apple were Carlos Agudelo at VAMC, J. Willis Hurst at EUH, Ken Leeper at Crawford Long, and James Neil Winawer at Grady.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology awarded its senior achievement award to professor Henry Edlehauser for his outstanding work in cornea research.
William Eley has assumed a full-time appointment as associate dean and director of admissions for the School of Medicine.
The Phillips Academy honored Louis Elsas, pediatrics, with the 2000 Claude Moore Fuess Award for his lifelong work in science and education. David Harrison now directs the division of cardiology in the department of medicine.
After 38 years at Emory, Charles Hatcher, former vice president for health affairs of the Woodruff Health Science Center (WHSC), officially retired last fall. He took with him the Woodruff Medal of Distinction, the highest honor given by WHSC, for his contributions to Emory and the health of Georgia. An internationally known heart surgeon, Hatcher helped make Emory one of the nation's top 10 heart centers and was founding chairman of the Emory University System of Healthcare, now known as Emory Healthcare. A chair named in his honor is now held by Robert Guyton, chief of cardiothoracic surgery.
Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs and director of the WHSC, has been named a director of Genuine Parts, a distributor of automotive replacement parts in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Luella Klein, gynecology/obstetrics, received the Charles R. Hatcher Award for Excellence in Public Health for her contributions to maternal and fetal health programs, which have affected hundreds of thousands of Georgians.

From the Director / Letters

Connecting the Dots

The Doctor is Always In

Governmental Regulation
of Research: The Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly

Moving Forward / Noteworthy

Second Chance for
Boarder Babies

John Lloyd, emergency medicine, spent a week in Uzbekistan as a consultant to the ministry of health on emergency and trauma care issues.
The EUH emergency department (ED) has reduced the average turnaround time for radiographs (the time needed to take a patient's x-ray to the time the x-ray is available) from two hours to only 30 minutes -- the national standard for best performance. The effort is part of an ongoing, three-year collaboration between the ED and the radiology department to provide state-of-the-art emergency care to some 21,000 patients who seek emergency services at Emory each year. Leading the ED's efforts are Douglas Lowery, emergency medicine; Bill Torres, vice chair of radiology; Mary Kay O'Brien, director of radiology; and Marilyn Margolis, emergency department director.
Young investigator grants have been awarded by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression to physicians Ginamaria MacCaferri, Michael Marino, David Mott, and Emil Christopher Muly.
James Madara, chair of pathology, has been named editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Pathology.
In January, Larry Minnix, president of Wesley Woods, will become the new president and chief executive officer of Washington, DC-based American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). AAHSA represents more than 5,600 nonprofit organizations that together serve an estimated 1 million older people. Dawn Couch Moore is president of the Georgia Society of Radiologic Technicians. Margaret Offermann, medicine, has been named associate director for academic initiatives for the Winship Cancer Institute. Joseph Ouslander, medicine, received the 2000 Polisher Award at the annual scientific meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in Washington, DC, for his contributions to geriatric medicine and his efforts to educate nursing home staff about managing urinary incontinence. Ouslander also chairs the American Geriatrics Society's board of directors and serves on the editorial board for Nursing Home Medicine: Annals of Long-Term Care and on the international editorial board of Age and Aging and the Journal of the Hong Kong Geriatrics Society.
Ruth Parker, medicine and public health, chairs the steering committee for the American Medical Association Foundation campaign to improve the patient-physician relationship through health literacy.
Kerry Ressler has received one of two national postdoctoral fellowships in biological psychiatry from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.
John Rock, chair of gynecology/obstetrics, is president of the World Endometriosis Society.
Cyril Spann, gynecology/obstetrics, received the gyn/ob teaching award from the medical class of 2000 and the gynecology teaching award from the residency class of 2000.
Emory Hospitals safety manager Jim Speelman has been named Safety Professional of the Year by the American Society of Safety Engineers for his achievements in laboratory hazard control designs and the development of an international health care safety outreach program.

Gary Teal
Gary Teal, whose roles extend across the full spectrum of financial and organizational issues for WHSC and Emory Healthcare, has been promoted to associate vice president of health affairs. Initially director of projects when he came to the WHSC 15 years ago, Teal has also served as director of financial operations for Emory Healthcare since 1995.
Roy Townsend, executive administrator of The Emory Clinic since 1984, is the new executive director of the Emory Medical Care Foundation.
Radiologist Kay Vydareny received the Marie Curie Award from the American Association of Women in Radiology for her work to advance the status of women in radiology.
The department of medicine chose cardiologist Nanette Wenger as its first recipient of the Kokko Award for excellence in teaching. Byron Williams holds the newly created Linton and June Bishop Chair in Medicine.