Faculty Bibliography

Dr. Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder N. Maini of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London won the clinical-medical - research award for a discovery that led to development of powerful drugs that can soothe joint pain and restore mobility among people with rheumatoid arthritis

Christopher Reeve, the actor whose struggle against paralysis has given new hope to patients with severe spinal injuries, has won the Lasker public-service award. Reeve was paralyzed from the shoulders down when he was thrown headlong from a horse in 1995. He is now chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and a leading advocate for increasing financial support of medical research aimed at curing not only his injury, but a wide variety of other conditions. The Lasker committee said it was citing Reeve, 50, 'for his perceptive, sustained and heroic advocacy for medical research in general and victims of disability in particular.'

[Christopher Reeve] was paralyzed from the shoulders down when he was thrown headlong from a horse in 1995. He was honored for transforming his personal tragedy into public service. He is now chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and a leading advocate for increasing financial support of medical research aimed at curing not only his own injury, but a wide variety of other conditions

Dr. Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder N. Maini of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London won the clinical medical research award for a discovery that led to development of powerful drugs that can soothe joint pain and restore mobility among people with rheumatoid arthritis. The therapy, known as anti-TNF, for tumor necrosis factor, has also benefited people with other autoimmune disorders, like the bowel ailment Crohn's disease and a form of arthritis caused by psoriasis. Feldmann, an Australian immunologist, and Sir Ravinder, who was born in India, overcame major scientific skepticism when they began their anti-TNF work in 1984. It has led to the development of three licensed drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune disorders -- Remicade, Enbrel and Humira. [Robert G. Roeder] will receive $50,000, and Feldmann and Sir Ravinder $25,000 each. The public service award does not have a monetary prize. Since the Laskers were first awarded in 1946, 66 winners have later received Nobel Prizes

The daily squeeze hit me hardest the morning I saw a likable 68- year-old patient of mine waving at me through my waiting-room window. I'd been treating him for years, but he didn't have an appointment and I barely recognized him with his newly bald head, yellowed skin and shaking hands. My office staff wanted to turn him away because the day's schedule was already packed, but I sensed his desperation and made time for him. In the examination room, he told me that his oncologist had informed him bluntly that his cancer had spread and then dismissed him. I was the man's internist, his gatekeeper to the medical world, and he had returned to me -- not for expertise, but for warmth. The pressures are fierce for doctors to compromise their professionalism, their humane instincts, for business reasons. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission suggested last year that the United States needs a payment system that more accurately reflects doctors' rising costs. Most doctors would agree. While it is true that we still make a decent living, at the same time we must hire more and more staff members to handle certifications, pre- certifications and referrals while also accepting lower payments. And with the new fee reduction almost certain to filter down from Medicare to the HMOs the way such reductions have done in the past, it will become increasingly harder to stay level. Struggling with my professional identity, I try to find myself in the famed physicians' Hippocratic Oath, which says, in part, 'In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction. . . .' Well, doctors abandoned making house calls and gave up accepting a chicken in lieu of payment long ago in most parts of the industrialized world. But 'for the good of the patient' remains a noble ideal that has guided physicians for centuries. I feel it must continue to guide me

A puzzling cluster of pneumonia cases among U.S. troops in Iraq and other countries in the war region seems to be partly related to the fact that many had taken up smoking shortly before they became ill, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday. He said that the military had investigated the cluster because of the particular severity of the pneumonia -- all patients needed assistance from mechanical ventilators to breathe. Most responded 'fairly dramatically' within days after such therapy and antibiotics, said Col. Bob DeFraites, the Army's chief of preventive medicine. Tobacco smoke is a prime suspect because it is known to damage lungs and increase their susceptibility to pneumonia. Also, at least one published paper has reported a similar link between smoking and severe pneumonia

A puzzling cluster of pneumonia cases among American troops in Iraq and other countries in the war region seems to be partly related to the fact that many had taken up smoking shortly before they became ill, Pentagon officials said yesterday. He said the military has investigated the cluster because of the particular severity of the pneumonia -- all patients needed assistance from mechanical ventilators to breathe. Most responded ''fairly dramatically'' within days after such therapy and antibiotics, said Col. Bob DeFraites, the Army's chief of preventive medicine. Tobacco smoke is a prime suspect because it is known to damage lungs and increase their susceptibility to pneumonia. Also, at least one published paper has reported a similar link between smoking and severe pneumonia

He said the military had investigated the cases because of the severity of the pneumonia; all patients needed assistance from mechanical ventilators to breathe. Most responded 'fairly dramatically' within days after such therapy and antibiotics, said Col. Bob DeFraites, the Army's chief of preventive medicine