UW School of Medicine Online News 11-30-07

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University of Washington School of Medicine

Online News

Vol. 11, No. 46
Nov. 30, 2007
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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm

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This week’s news:

* Team care can be beneficial in treating older adults with depression, UW researcher Jurgen Unutzer argues in New England Journal of Medicine clinical review article

* UW alumnus William H. Foege honored by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's Best Leaders

* HIV/AIDS expert Merle Sande, UW School of Medicine alumnus and recent addition to faculty, dies at age 68

* Department of Pathology hosts 11th Annual Earl P. Benditt Endowed Lectureship; Mount Sinai Medical School's Gwen Randolph to speak on atherosclerotic plaque

* Carlos Pellegrini inducted into National Academy of Medicine in Argentina

* James Haviland to be remembered by UW community in celebration of life program, Monday, Dec. 3


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UW RESEARCHER REVIEWS DEPRESSION IN OLDER ADULTS FOR NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

Jurgen Unutzer, UW professor and vice-chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is the author of a clinical review on depression in older adults, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The article discusses the prevalence of depression in older adults and the toll that the condition can take in that population. About 10 percent of those who are 65 or older have clinical depression, and in many cases the condition is not diagnosed or treated. Depression can lead to lower quality of life, difficulty with social and physical functioning, poor adherence to medical treatment, worsening of chronic medical conditions, and higher morbidity and mortality from suicide and other causes.

The article also covers the importance of team care in treating depression in older adults. Unutzer and his colleagues with the UW-led IMPACT project (Improving Mood -- Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment for Late Life Depression) have found that such a collaborative model of care can improve outcomes and reduce medical costs in treating older adults with depression. The article refers health-care professionals to the UW IMPACT Web site, http://impact-uw.org/


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WILLIAM H. FOEGE NAMED ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST LEADERS BY U.S. NEWS

UW alumnus William H. Foege, senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report. A special issue of the news magazine this month highlights the accomplishments and skills of 18 leaders around the country, including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael J. Fox, founder of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University, and Harold Varmus, CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Foege earned his medical degree from the UW School of Medicine, and a master's in public health from Harvard. He worked in the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and was one of the public health leaders who helped eradicate smallpox. He served as director of the CDC under President Jimmy Carter, and later directed the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, a nonprofit organization aimed at improving global health. In 2006, the UW honored its alumnus by naming a new building on the south end of campus the William H. Foege Building, home of the Departments of Genome Sciences and Bioengineering.

Foege is recognized in a U.S. News article by Jim Yong Kim, a professor of health and human rights at Harvard University who was named one of the U.S. News America's Best Leaders in 2005. To read the article about Foege, visit:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/best-leaders/2007/11/12/william-h-foege.html

All of this year's Best Leaders are profiled here:
http://www.usnews.com/features/news/special-reports/best-leaders.html


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HIV/AIDS EXPERT MERLE SANDE, UW ALUMNUS AND RECENT ADDITION TO FACULTY, DIES AT 68

Merle Sande, UW professor of medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the country’s foremost authorities on HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, passed away Nov. 14 at his home in Seattle at the age of 68. Best known for his dedication to the international fight against AIDS, he made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of bacterial meningitis and endocarditis, as well as opportunistic infections in patients with HIV.

A Washington native and graduate of the UW School of Medicine, Sande joined the UW in 2005 after holding faculty positions at the Universities of Texas, Virginia, California, and Utah. At Utah he chaired the Department of Internal Medicine and directed the residency program. It was during his time at UCSF in the early 1980s that he became involved with the epidemic that concerned him for the rest of his career. As vice-chair of Medicine and service chief at San Francisco General Hospital, he established the first known ward for AIDS patients and wrote the world’s first AIDS infection-control guidelines. He went on to many state, national, and international positions of leadership in the field and wrote the widest-selling AIDS textbook in the world.

For the past 18 years, Sande was intensely involved in HIV/AIDS research and clinical training in Uganda, where he was visiting professor of medicine at Makerere Faculty of Medicine. One of his great legacies is the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa, which he co-founded and co-chaired. In recent years he served as president of the Academic Alliance Foundation. In 2000 he received the UW School of Medicine Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Here at the UW he was based at the Center for AIDS and STD at Harborview, where he continued his work on HIV/AIDS-related programs and his editorial work during the past several years.

Sande's family requests that any donations be made to the Dr. Merle A. Sande Memorial Fund, Academic Alliance Foundation, 1611 North Kent St., Suite 202, Arlington VA 22209, or through the organization's Web site:
http://www.academicalliancefoundation.org/


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MOUNT SINAI'S GWEN RANDOLPH TO SPEAK AT BENDITT LECTURE

Gwen Randolph, associate professor in the Department of Gene and Cell Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, will present the UW Department of Pathology’s 11th Annual Earl P. Benditt Endowed Lecture at 4 p.m., Friday, Nov. 30, in the Health Sciences Center, Turner Auditorium, Room D-209. Randolph’s presentation is Where Do the Cells of the Atherosclerotic Plaque Come from and Where Do They Go? The lecture is free and open to the public.

Randolph has pioneered the interface between two fields: immunology and vascular biology. She has studied interactions of immune-system cells called monocytes with the lining of blood vessels, observing that monocyte-derived cells could emigrate into atherosclerotic plaques and then differentiate into dendritic cells, a type of cell that helps the immune system identify an invader. Randolph has found that these dendritic cells migrate from the plaque to regional lymph nodes and that the migrating cells actually can deplete lipid from the plaque. Her work provides a new look at the development of atherosclerotic lesions, and shows more evidence for connections between the immune system and atherosclerosis.

The lectureship is dedicated to the memory and scientific legacy of Earl P. Benditt, professor with the Department of Pathology from 1957-1996 and department chair from 1957-1981.


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PELLEGRINI HONORED BY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE IN ARGENTINA

Carlos Pellegrini, the Henry N. Harkins professor and chair of surgery at the UW, has been granted honorary membership in the National Academy of Medicine in Argentina. He is one of only a handful of people living outside of Argentina to receive this honor. Pellegrini was born in Argentina and earned his medical degree there at the University of Rosario Medical School.

Pellegrini is a world-renowned surgeon, researcher, and educator, and has helped lead many different medical organizations during his career. He joined the UW faculty in 1993 as chair of the Department of Surgery, after serving for many years at the University of California, San Francisco.

He may be reached at pellegri@u.washington.edu


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UW COMMUNITY TO HONOR LIFE OF JAMES HAVILAND ON MONDAY, DEC. 3

James Haviland will be remembered during a celebration of life program at 5 p.m., Monday, Dec. 3, in Hogness Auditorium, Room A-420 of the UW Health Sciences Center. Haviland, a leader in the UW School of Medicine’s development and founder with Belding Scribner of the world’s first free-standing outpatient dialysis facility -- the not-for-profit Northwest Kidney Centers -- died of natural causes at his Bremerton home on Nov. 14 at age 96.

Speakers will include Paul Ramsey, dean of the UW School of Medicine, Loren Winterscheid, Christopher R. Blagg, Robert Wilkens, Alvin Thompson, Haviland’s son Don Haviland, other family members, and Joyce Jackson. Ramsey will read comments by David Dale.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the newly forming University of Washington School of Medicine was taking shape, Haviland became a key liaison between the Washington State Medical Association and the medical school’s administration. Haviland is considered the father of the world’s first out-of-hospital dialysis treatment center, the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center, established in 1962 and known today as the Northwest Kidney Centers.

He is survived by his wife Mary; brother, Morrison; children, James, Elizabeth, Don and Martha; stepchildren, Steven, Jeremy, Joshua and Sarah; grandchildren Charlene and Chrissy; six great grandchildren; and many beloved nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 1, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 4400 86th Ave. SE, Mercer Island.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be sent to the James W. Haviland Endowment at the Northwest Kidney Centers, P.O. Box 3035, Seattle, WA, 98114.


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Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu

Online News is copyright 2007. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.

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