*****
University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 12, No. 24
June 13, 2008
*****
To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm
*****
This week’s news:
* UW School of Medicine graduating class honors faculty, staff, and fellow student with annual awards
* Survival rate very low for student-athletes with sudden cardiac arrest, UW-led study finds
* J. Ward Kennedy, pioneering cardiologist and former head of UW Division of Cardiology, dies at 74
* Jack Docter, longtime leader at Seattle Children's Hospital and UW emeritus clinical faculty member: 1915 - 2008
* UW Medicine 2008 Mini-Medical School series airing this month on UWTV
*****
GRADUATING CLASS BESTOWS AWARDS ON TEACHERS AND MENTORS
The UW School of Medicine graduating class honored faculty, staff, and a fellow student with its annual awards last Saturday at this year's hooding ceremony. Each year, the medical school graduates for that year cast votes to decide recipients of several awards honoring those who teach, mentor, and inspire the students.
Medical student Nigel Campbell received the Ellen Griep Award for inspiring his peers in the medical school. The award was established by the class of 1983 to honor a classmate who has provided inspiration to his or her peers, staff, and faculty by successfully managing both the academic demands of medical education and continued excellence in other endeavors in his life. The award includes $250 for personal use.
Mary Lambeth, director of student affairs programs, received the Margaret S. Anderson Award. The award was established by the graduating class of 1982 to honor a deserving staff or faculty member who has shown exceptional concern for, and support of, medical students. The award includes $250 for personal use. Previous award recipients are ineligible for further consideration and include the following current UW faculty and staff: Michelle Fleming, Diane Noecker, Daniel Olson, Constance Lamb, Michael Copass, Hugh Foy, Erika Goldstein, Daniel Hunt, Michael Laskowski, Carol MacLaren, Thomas McCormick, Terry Mengert, Douglas Paauw, Paul Ramsey, Timothy Pohlman, John Sheffield, and Sherilyn Smith.
Heidi Combs, Hugh Foy, and Chuck Murry were all recipients of the Distinguished Teacher Awards. Combs, the psychiatry clerkship director and an acting instructor of psychiatry and behavioral science, received a clinical distinguished teacher award. Foy, associate professor of surgery and member of the Wind River College faculty, received a clinical distinguished teacher award. Murry, professor of pathology and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Biology, received a basic science distinguished teacher award.
Each year, the awards recognize two clinical faculty member and one basic science faculty member for excellence in teaching. The honor carries with it a $5,000 monetary award for classroom and teaching use. The following faculty have received this award four times, and as such are now recognized as Teachers Superior in Perpetuity and ineligible for further consideration: Michael Copass, Erika Goldstein, Brian Goodell, Daniel Graney, Steven McGee, Terry Mengert, Douglas Paauw, Thomas Preston, William O. Robertson, Cornelius Rosse, Michael Ryan, David Saunders, John Sheffield, and Fred Silverstein.
Brenda Davis, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Caldwell, Idaho, received the WWAMI Distinguished Teacher Award. The award honors a faculty member in the WWAMI region who has played an important role in educating medical students. It includes teachers involved in all types of WWAMI education, including the Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program, preceptorships, basic science courses (all first-year sites), clerkships, and electives. This honor includes $5,000 for classroom and teaching use.
Carol MacLaren, associate dean for student affairs, also received a special award from the School of Medicine for her longtime service to the medical students. MacLaren has served as associate dean for student affairs for nearly 20 years.
*****
STUDY EXPLORES RISK OF DEATH FROM SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST IN STUDENT-ATHLETES
Only one in 10 student-athletes who experience sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survives, according to a new UW-led study that examined exercised-related SCA events among youth in the United States. The study is the first to identify this extremely low survival rate among young athletes and is published in the June edition of the HeartRhythm Journal, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society.
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death in the country, claiming more than 250,000 lives per year, and is also the leading cause of death in young athletes. SCA occurs suddenly and without warning. The heart suddenly stops beating, so no blood can be pumped to the rest of the body. In essence, the heart's electrical system stops working. Approximately one case of sudden cardiac death occurs every three days in organized youth sports.
The annual incidence of sudden cardiac death in young athletes is approximately one out of 50,000, but there is little knowledge about the survival rates of youth after experiencing an exercise-related sudden cardiac event, said Jonathan Drezner, UW associate professor of family medicine and lead author of the study. The study set out to monitor exercise-related sudden death in the United States and assess survival trends following exercise-related SCA in young people.
The study identified exercise-related sudden-death events in youth through a systematic online search of public media reports from 2000 to 2006. A total of 486 cases of exercise-related sudden cardiac arrest in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college students were identified over the seven-year period. The average overall survival rate was 11 percent, ranging from 4 percent to 21 percent per year. Of the 486 cases identified, 83 percent were male and 17 percent were female.
The researchers hope that determining the poor survival rate among young athletes with sudden cardiac arrest will encourage efforts in prevention and emergency planning. It is critical for organized youth sports to be prepared for cardiac emergencies, Drezner said, with strategies such as CPR training for coaches and easy access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to help protect athletes in the event of a cardiac arrest.
*****
J. WARD KENNEDY, PIONEERING CARDIOLOGIST AND FORMER CARDIOLOGY HEAD, DIES AT 74
J. Ward Kennedy, 74, professor emeritus of medicine and former head of the UW Division of Cardiology, died at his home June 8. The cause was lung cancer.
Kennedy pioneered the study of heart function and trained many cardiologists who practice locally, nationally, and internationally. Kennedy, working with colleague Harold Dodge, helped develop quantitative measures of heart valves and function in the 1960s and 1970s. By injecting radiopaque dyes directly into the pumping heart chambers, they were able to assess heart function directly. Kennedy had diverse interests, including the study of the safety of sexual activity among patients with cardiac disease, the comparison of surgery to medical therapy for coronary artery disease, and the testing of blood-clot-busting thrombolytic drugs in treating heart attack.
Kennedy served in many leadership positions at the UW and in the field of cardiology, including as president of the American College of Cardiology. He directed the UW cardiology fellowship program, the only such program in the five-state WWAMI region, from 1982 to 1997.
Kennedy was raised in Amherst, Mass., where his father was professor of philosophy at Amherst College. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1955 and the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1959. He completed an internship and residency in medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at the UW, before serving as a Peace Corps physician in India in 1962-1963. His entire academic career was spent as a faculty member at the UW. He served as the chief of cardiology at the Seattle Veterans Hospital from 1967 to 1982 and was chair of the UW Division of Cardiology from 1982 to 1997.
He is survived by his wife, Kathryn Davis Kennedy; sister, Margaret Kennedy Gogerty; his children, Will and Nina Kennedy, David and Ellen Kennedy, and Celia and Auky Kennedy; his stepchildren, Sarah and Dirk Holt, Mike and Julie Davis, and Ann Davis; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service for Kennedy will be held at Saint Marks Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E., Seattle, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. An endowed professorship has been established to honor the longtime faculty member, and the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the University of Washington Foundation for the J. Ward Kennedy Chair, Box 358045, Seattle, WA, 98195, or to the Union Gospel Mission in his name.
*****
JACK DOCTER, LEADER AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND LONGTIME UW FACULTY MEMBER: 1915-2008
Jack Docter, longtime physician and administrator at Seattle Children's Hospital and clinical faculty member in the UW Department of Pediatrics, died June 4. He was 92.
Docter served as the medical director of Children's Hospital for more than 20 years. He was a clinical professor emeritus of pediatrics at the UW.
Docter started working in medicine when still in high school, first at a psychiatric hospital in Seattle, and then at Harborview Medical Center. He earned his undergraduate degree at the UW, and then his medical degree at Columbia University in New York. He started in a pediatric practice in Seattle in 1947, and joined Children's Hospital in 1959 as medical director. He worked at the hospital until 1981.
Docter specialized in cystic fibrosis, which at the time was an incurable children's disease that claimed most victims by adolescence. Docter treated patients with the disease because few other doctors would do so, according to his son, Jeff Docter. Cystic fibrosis is now more survivable, and many people with the disease live longer lives.
Docter is survived by his wife, Marion Docter; his daughter, Marion Bicary; and his two sons, Jeff and James Docter. A remembrance ceremony will be held at Seattle Children's Hospital, in the Sound Café, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 14.
*****
MINI-MEDICAL SCHOOL AIRING THIS MONTH ON UWTV
The UW Medicine 2008 Mini-Medical School series is being broadcast this month on UWTV. The series was held earlier this year, and includes lectures and presentations by leading clinicians and scientists at UW Medicine talking to the public about issues like obesity and diabetes, the fight against "superbug" infections, and the state of the country's health care system.
More information about the series, including airdates and times, and streaming video of the lectures, can be found on the UWTV Web site:
http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayseries.aspx?&fID=5349&pID=497
*****
Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu
Online News is copyright 2008. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.
*****