Faculty Bibliography

By most useful definitions, I am an insomniac. Like Alan Berliner, director and star of HBO's provocative new documentary Wide Awak e, I, too, do most of my best work in the middle of the night, and I, too, risk my wife's wrath when I am subsequently not available in the early morning to respond to our infant's pleading cries

The premise: In this fourth attempt at putting Jack Finney's classic 'The Body Snatchers' to the screen, there is a new twist. This time, instead of plant-like pods, it's an alien virus-like particle attached to the wreckage of the NASA Shuttle Patriot, and it begins to spread rapidly through the human population. The virus (in the jargon of the movie) interferes with sweat, causes a 'cellular condensation,' a 'metabolic reaction' and alters the body's 'genetic expression' by the 'integration of alien DNA' -- while turning everyone into emotionless robots. REMAKE: Nicole Kidman stars in 'The Invasion,' in which a virus alters the body's 'genetic expression' and turns people into emotionless robots.; PHOTOGRAPHER: Warner Bros. Pictures

El Cantante [Motion Picture] -- [Hector Lavoe] doesn't go to drug rehab, and he is not compliant with his antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication regimen. In 1985, he is diagnosed with HIV -- a time when AZT and other AIDS drugs were not yet available -- but his physician tells him he may not develop AIDS for several years or at all. Ultimately, Lavoe develops AIDS and dies of its complications in 1993. The medical questions: How common was HIV among intravenous-drug abusers in the 1980s? Were there any AIDS drugs available in 1985? How frequently do untreated HIV cases progress to full-blown AIDS (with immunodeficiency and opportunistic infections)? What were the most frequent opportunistic infections affecting AIDS patients in the 1980s and '90s?

The premise: Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) is lying on her deathbed at home, attended by her daughters. Wracked with pain, she appears to be dying of some kind of cancer and is receiving intravenous narcotics. Ann begins to talk about events of 50 years earlier, reliving the untimely death of her former beau Buddy at the wedding of his sister, as she, Ann, jilts Buddy and spends the night with his best friend, Dr. Harris Arden. For the rest of her life, she has blamed herself for Buddy's death and, in a feverish state on her deathbed, relives that fateful night. The nurse in attendance tells her daughters that the characters Ann is talking to and about 'might be real people and they might not' -- she seems to doubt that the memories are real. Indeed, Ann is frequently confused and delirious as death approaches and, among other things, hallucinates that she is visited by Dr. Arden wearing a stethoscope and that her night nurse is in a formal gown

Bucket List [Motion Picture] -- Einhorn's pioneering treatment of testicular cancer in the 1970s increased survival rates from 10% to more than 95%, and he led the medical team that treated and cured cyclist Lance Armstrong. Armstrong was in his 20s when diagnosed and suffered from a less aggressive germ cell tumor (an embryonal cell carcinoma or yolk sac tumor) that had spread to his brain and was treated with surgery and chemotherapy

Unit: Five Brothers [Television Program] -- The clinical diagnosis of a 'dropped lung' can be made without a stethoscope, by observing distended veins in the neck, difficulty breathing and absence of the movement of breathing on one side of the chest, says Cmdr. D. J. Green, an assistant professor of trauma surgery at Keck School of Medicine of USC and Naval Trauma Training Center.

Awake [Motion Picture] -- According to Peter Sebel, vice chairman of anesthesiology at Emory University in Atlanta and author of a definitive study on the subject published in 2004 in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, the film is correct about how common the condition of anesthesia awareness is -- it occurs in about 0.14% of cases. Recognition should be easier when a patient is also in pain, Pregler says, because there are usually changes in vital signs (such as increased heart rate and blood pressure as well as sweating, pupil dilation and tear-formation) that would be noticed by any competent anesthesiologist.

Diving Bell and the Butterfly [Motion Picture] -- Dr. David S. Liebeskind, associate neurology director at the UCLA Stroke Center points out that the most common life-threatening complications are medical and include pneumonia, urinary and wound infections, occurring mostly because of immobility and flaccidity

'Dr. [Albert Herrera] talked to me for over an hour and asked about my job,' [Andrea Untrojb] told me by e-mail. 'He not only wanted to know about my physical pain, but wanted to find out what else could be causing my emotional distress. I told him that my job put such a strain on me that I was coming home crying every day, yelling at my kids and arguing constantly with my husband. Dr. Herrera reassured me that many suffered with this problem. He gave examples from his own life and told me what I could do to relieve the stress,' including routines, meditation and exercise. While doctors often blame their lapses in attention and rushed demeanor on time pressures exerted by managed care, others say they can only preserve their identity as healers by remaining engaged and caring, regardless of the reimbursement. Pauline Chen, transplant surgeon and author of 'Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality' (Knopf, 2007), writes: 'That honor of worrying -- of caring, of easing suffering, of being present -- may be our most important task, not only as friends but as physicians, too.' As for the personal approach, [Linda Donald] is sold. 'If a physician is able to completely focus on you as a patient, the likelihood of an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment individualized to you is much greater. Not just an 'it seems like this, and therefore let's try that and see what happens -- come back next week.' '

One of them, Jason Ventress (David Arquette), accidentally shoots himself in the foot with a large handgun while contemplating suicide. [Joanna Lupone] bandages the foot and he is released. Another alumnus, Harry Kennison is punched in the nose. Lupone touches his tender nose and pronounces it broken. He is then sent home without treatment. The medical questions: What is the medical purpose of listing a person as someone to contact 'in case of emergency'? Shouldn't an accidental gunshot wound lead to questions about a possible suicide attempt? Is cleaning out and bandaging the wound (the treatment Ventress received) sufficient, or would he be given X-rays and antibiotics? Can a broken nose be diagnosed so easily -- without X- rays or at least a careful examination?