Faculty Bibliography

The researchers used standard textbooks to classify whether different cancers were generally responsive to chemotherapy. Responsive cancers included in the study were breast, colon and ovarian. Unresponsive cancers included gallbladder, kidney, liver, pancreatic and melanoma. Additional studies are needed to confirm such findings nationally and to develop guidelines for when chemotherapy should be stopped in terminal cases, [Ezekiel Emanuel] said. He also urged studies to determine how much managed care and traditional fee-for-service practices influenced the timing of chemotherapy. [Gary Morrow]'s team found that although a drug on the market, Paxil, could relieve depression among cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, it failed to relieve symptoms of fatigue. 'While the study does not totally disprove the theory, it certainly casts doubt on it,' Morrow said

[Ezekiel J. Emanuel]'s team from Boston University and Stanford University used standard textbooks to classify whether different cancers were generally responsive or unresponsive to chemotherapy. Responsive cancers included in the study were breast, colon and ovarian. Unresponsive cancers included gall bladder, kidney, liver, pancreatic and melanoma

Bioterrorism was a main reason that Dr. Katherine A. Feldman's team from the C.D.C. was summoned to investigate five cases of rabbit fever pneumonia on Martha's Vineyard last summer. One man had died. Rabbit fever, or tularemia, is caused by a bacterium that usually is transmitted by ticks and by handling animal carcasses. But the bacterium is ranked high on the list of biological warfare agents in part because inhaling the microbe is particularly dangerous and the death rate is high if antibiotics are not started early. Health officials were puzzled when four men who developed typhoid fever in Cincinnati reported no foreign travel or common meals. Through interviews Dr. [Megan E. Reller]'s team learned that the men were gay. By reviewing hospital records and alerting health officials in other states, the epidemiologists identified a total of nine cases in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. They found that one man was a typhoid carrier and that seven of the other eight patients said they had sexual relations with him before becoming ill. Dr. Reller's team concluded that the men acquired typhoid through fecal-oral transmission during sex. The allergist then looked up articles that pointed Dr. [John T. Redd]'s team to exposure to caterpillars of the Douglas fir tussock moth (Orgyia pseudotsugata) that are widely distributed through the western United States. Dr. Redd's investigation showed that the allergic reactions occurred more commonly at certain camp sites, affecting as many as 55 percent of the scouts. For a number of reasons, Dr. Redd's team is advising the scouts not to play a game in which they they put caterpillars on the forearm, allow them to crawl on to the index finger, then flick the insects into a fire

Lamm and Couzens offer suggestions for staying healthy while traveling. People planning a vacation should let their doctor know of the plans six weeks in advance so that shots can be brought up to date

The purpose of this study was to test a three-day course model for medical school faculty designed to promote self-directed learning, teaching skills, personal awareness and interdisciplinary collegiality. The training program described was conducted three times in our medical school. Fifty-eight faculty from 11 clinical departments have participated in this intensive experience of learning how to teach, based on principles of learner-centered learning and adult education theory. Participants defined their own learning objectives and worked collaboratively in facilitated small groups to develop teaching skills. Reflection groups engaged in discussion on critical incidents of experience as teachers and learners, and promoted awareness regarding personal approaches to teaching. Qualitative and quantitative data showed that the course was effective in: (1) providing an academically and emotionally safe environment for learning; (2) enabling participants to recognize and value learner-centered learning; (3) increasing participant personal awareness, and (4) promoting interdisciplinary collegiality. End-of-course data assessing the following course attributes, using a five-point scale, where 1 was 'not effective' and 5 was 'very effective', showed: (a) exploration of needs: mean 4.20 +/- SD 0.91; (b) interactive sharing of ideas; mean 4.60 +/- SD 0.58; (c) opportunity to receive feedback: mean 4.26 +/- SD 0.80; (d) opportunity to practice new skills; mean 4.11 +/- SD 0.72. In terms of participation in further faculty development, 92% of participants committed themselves to continue the work begun at the course. It was concluded that the faculty development program created a safe, learner-centered environment for participants that promoted both awareness of and commitment to self-directed learning, and facilitated teaching skill development and interdisciplinary collegiality. Our three-day course appears to be highly effective in initiating a long-term faculty development process. Additionally, we conclude that there is a need for longitudinal follow-up to support and expand mastery of these teaching skills.

Dr. [Kevin L. Winthrop] said spot checks of other nail salons elsewhere in California showed that the microbe was present in the vast majority of footbaths. Although only one nail salon customer outside Watsonville, a San Diego woman, is known to have been infected with the microbe, Dr. Winthrop and Dr. Ben Werner of the California health department said they strongly suspected that other outbreaks would occur. Dr. Winthrop said his team discovered whirlpool footbaths used in pedicures were teeming with M. fortuitum. By summer, Dr. Winthrop said, California officials are expected to issue regulations for rigorous cleaning and disinfection of footbaths in nail salons. M. fortuitum and its bacteriological cousins are often found in potable water and are ubiquitous elsewhere in the environment. Although the microbe has occasionally caused infections among patients with traumatic injuries, the Watsonville outbreak was the first spread in a community, Dr. Winthrop told the 50th annual meeting of the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the centers

My other E.I.S. job was to write the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the C.D.C.'s scientific journal, which went to health officials and doctors. Working by telephone with a colleague, Dr. J. Donald Millar, we produced for the next issue the first detailed account of the final tally of 17 cases, including five deaths in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. The tally did not include the Michigan couple because the whitefish they had eaten had been sold at a roadside stand and had not been vacuum-packed. 1955 -- E.I.S. officers set up a national surveillance system after scores of children develop polio after being vaccinated against the disease. Ultimately, E.I.S. officers link 260 cases to unsafe manufacturing processes at a California lab. 1984 -- In what is believed to be the only bioterrorist event in the United States, E.I.S. investigators determine that people sickened by salmonella, left, in a small Oregon town were deliberately poisoned by members of a religious commune. But C.D.C. does not report the episode until 1997