Faculty Bibliography

Film effectvely imparts experiential knowledge of lived experiences especially in cross-cultural settings. Incorporating film into medical education can catalyze awareness of global issues in women's health. Film-based interventions highlighting such topics have not been reported in literature. This study outlines one session of an 8-week elective course for trainees to engage with topics in women's health through global cinema. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from participants during each session and via post-session surveys. Class discussions and survey data reflected favorable responses and positive engagement with the pre-session film viewings and 75-minute weekly discussions. A feminist, film-based curriculum for medical and graduate students may broaden trainees' knowledge of global women's health. In medical education, film may serve as an effective tool to encourage a life-course and gender equity approach to women's health topics, rather than more traditional sexual-reproductive framings.

This article outlines the underpinnings of a psychodynamic approach for the treatment of childhood trauma through strengthening the implicit emotion regulation system. Childhood trauma impairs the functioning of the emotion regulation system, where deficits are common in children with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Difficulties with emotion regulation arise out of disruptions in the development of neurobiological pathways through the interaction of constitutional determinants with environmental factors, including the child's relationships with caregivers and the broader environment. We propose that a therapeutic focus on traumatized children's defenses can overcome the damaging reverberations of trauma. This approach may bypass the difficulties of high attrition rates, expense, and limited generalizability characteristic of skills training-based modalities. An illustration of an intervention to help children address unbearable emotions in traumatic experiences through defense interpretation is presented. The manualization and study of this approach within a project titled Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C) presents a unique opportunity to contribute to the evidence-based canon of treatments for children with histories of trauma.

(18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has become increasingly relevant in the staging of head and neck cancers, but its prognostic value is controversial. The objective of this study was to evaluate different PET/CT parameters for their ability to predict response to therapy and survival in patients treated for head and neck cancer. A total of 28 consecutive patients with a variety of newly diagnosed head and neck cancers underwent PET/CT scanning at our institution before initiating definitive radiation therapy. All underwent a posttreatment PET/CT to gauge tumor response. Pretreatment PET/CT parameters calculated include the standardized uptake value (SUV) and the anatomical biological value (ABV), which is the product of SUV and greatest tumor diameter. Maximum and mean values were studied for both SUV and ABV, and correlated with response rate and survival. The mean pretreatment tumor ABVmax decreased from 35.5 to 7.9 (P = 0.0001). Of the parameters tested, only pretreatment ABVmax was significantly different among those patients with a complete response (CR) and incomplete response (22.8 vs. 65, respectively, P = 0.021). This difference was maximized at a cut-off ABVmax of 30 and those patients with ABVmax < 30 were significantly more likely to have a CR compared to those with ABVmax of ≥ 30 (93.8% vs. 50%, respectively, P = 0.023). The 5-year overall survival was 80% compared to 36%, respectively, (P = 0.028). Multivariate analysis confirmed that ABVmax was an independent prognostic factor. Our data supports the use of PET/CT, and specifically ABVmax, as a prognostic factor in head and neck cancer. Patients who have an ABVmax ≥ 30 were more likely to have a poor outcome with chemoradiation alone, and a more aggressive trimodality approach may be indicated in these patients.