Student Updates
Jonathan Woodson, MD, Nominated for Biden Administration Role
President Joe Biden has announced the nomination of Jonathan Woodson, MD, as vice chair of the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Commission will spend the next year contemplating an overhaul of the VA health care system, based on the findings of a report to be released next week. More information about the work of the Commission can be found here.
Woodson is the Lars Anderson Professor in Management and professor of the practice at BU’s Questrom School of Business and holds joint appointments as professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and professor of health law, policy and management at the School of Public Health. He established and led the University-wide Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy.
From 2010-2016, Woodson was assistant secretary of defense for health affairs and director of the Tricare Management Activity in the United States Department of Defense (DOD). He was the principal advisor to the secretary of defense for all health and force health protection related issues and ensured the effective execution of the DOD medical mission. He exercised authority, direction and control over the Defense Health Agency, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, and the Tricare Health Plan serving 9.5 million beneficiaries.
Woodson holds the rank of major general, United States Army, Reserve, and is commander of the United States Army Reserve Medical Command, Pinellas Park, Florida.
December 2021 Faculty Appointments, Promotions Announced
Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.
Professor
Michael Fischer, MD, BUSM, Medicine/GIM, is a leader in the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practice in medicine and health services research. Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine, Fischer previously served as an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and was a primary care clinician, educator and investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research has focused on medication adherence; dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices; prescription drug reimbursement policy; and the impact of electronic prescribing. Building on this research program and experience as an active clinician-educator, in 2010 he created the National Resource Center for Academic Detailing (NaRCAD), which he directs. NaRCAD supports healthcare organizations and professionals in developing, implementing, improving and evaluating programs of academic detailing –evidence-based educational outreach to engage clinicians in data-driven practice changes to improve patient outcomes. Through NaRCAD, Fischer has collaborated with state and local governments throughout the U.S. to design and implement quality improvement interventions, including the development of a training program that has been delivered to almost 900 health professionals.
Clinical Associate Professor
Jonathan Berz, MD, BUSM, Medicine/GIM, is a clinician-educator with special interests in diet and health and nutritional epidemiology. He has built his career on practicing general internal medicine with a spotlight on prevention. Berz was director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program from 2014-20 where he focused on curriculum development, trainee mentoring and creation of a novel HRSA grant-funded combined training program in preventive medicine and internal medicine. Since 2009 Berz has been a preceptor in the internal medicine resident continuity clinic at Boston Medical Center; an inpatient ward attending on the internal medicine residency teaching service; lecturer for the pre-clinical and the fourth-year ambulatory medicine curriculums on nutrition topics; and lecturer for the Preventive Medicine Residency on prevention, public health and clinical teaching topics. He also serves as a member of the Academy of Medical Educators.
Renee Crichlow, MD, BUSM, Family Medicine, focuses on health policy and advocacy for community health. She serves as vice-chair for health equity and chief medical officer at the Codman Square Community Health Center. Crichlow comes to BUSM from the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine where she was the inaugural Mac Baird Endowed Chair in Family Medicine Advocacy and Policy. Crichlow received her BA in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her MD from the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, where she also completed her residency in family medicine. She has fellowships in health policy through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and in medical education from UCSF. Crichlow is the current president-elect of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and a commissioner on federal and state policy for the American Academy of Family Medicine.
Art Days 2022: A Two-Day Celebration of the Conversation Between Right and Left Brain
When Tania Lopez was 8 years old, she spent long days in the hospital on dialysis for the year preceding the kidney transplant that saved her life. Drawing made those days bearable said Lopez, now 28, and a first-year student at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
“All you can do is draw, and it helped me to get through that (time),” said Lopez, who was born in Mexico and moved with her family to Massachusetts 20 years ago.
In the last five years, her artwork took an unusual, but understandable, turn. Lopez found herself drawing kidneys, and other human organs. She starts out with pencil, followed by bold lines from a black marker and then fills in the design with colored markers and pencils.
“I wanted to have a colorful kidney for my room,” she said when asked what got her started. “I love putting life into the organs because that’s what my kidney brought to me.”
Lopez’s creative organ illustrations are on display alongside the artwork of other students, faculty and staff from the Medical Campus at Art Days, a two-day celebration of the conversation between right and left brain that has been ongoing for the past 32 years. Whether it’s a way to decompress, a distraction, or an appreciation of the world beyond classrooms, offices and labs that can lead to self-awareness and expression, the creative arts are integral to the life of many on the Medical Campus.
“It can be a stress reliever for some, or they may just have the urge to create something. Some have been doing it a long time,” said Keith Tornheim, PhD, an associate professor of biochemistry who has served as Art Days faculty advisor for 15 years.
Back in 1967, Tornheim was an undergraduate chemistry major, missing his girlfriend (now his wife) who was spending a study year in France. He wrote some poems and ended up one of five winners in a university poetry contest. Since then, he’s published five books of poetry and one of his poem cycles inspired choreographer Wendy Jehlen to create “Lilith,” a solo dance performance that played at the Boston Center for the Arts this December.
“My art and poetry tend not to reflect the science but that’s not true of all scientist/artists. Some things they do in their science or medical life may give them the inspiration,” said Tornheim.
The stereotype of scientists and doctors being rigid and eschewing creativity did not ring true to second-year medical student Jie Yin. “Yes, scientists do have to follow protocols, but if that line of thinking does not bear fruit, they still must come up with something else,” Yin argued.
Painting, she said, helps give her the open mind to approach a problem from a new direction.
Born in Shanghai, China, Yin moved to Reno, Nevada, when she was 17. She grew up an occasional painter, and never took lessons. Her interest sharpened when, as a post-bachelor’s degree researcher at the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, she looked for something more fulfilling to do in her down time.
“Watching television and reading books left me empty inside,” Yin said. She found she wanted to experience the creative mind that provoked the emotions she felt in the shapes and colors in the abstract paintings she’d seen at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“It started out as a way to relax, but as I got better at it, I felt this excitement in my brain that kept me going,” Yin said. The act of painting was an intriguing contradiction, a combination of focus and concentration in putting brush to canvas while ideas, like sparks of electricity, lights and colors, were firing in her mind, she said.
Her interest evolved from abstract art to impressionism, and that led naturally to Van Gogh, and her painting in the Art Days exhibit – a rendering of his masterwork “The Starry Night,” a fictionalized view from his asylum window in Saint Remy, France. She said she was touched by the movement, the kinetic energy of sky, clouds and trees.
“That’s why I’m interested in watercolors because water is so fluid,” Yin said. With watercolors, she felt she could pursue her goal of capturing a fleeting moment in time.
She sees a parallel between her art life and a future in internal medicine, possibly oncology.
“Art is a way you handle people’s emotions. It’s a fluidity in mixing colors and water,” Yin said. “As a future physician, I never know who will show up in a clinic. It’s difficult to control the flow of water. It’s unpredictable, in the way you could encounter a patient who might have a different story.”
Barbara Corkey, PhD, understands that feeling. She doesn’t have a plan or color scheme when she sits down to paint.
“I couldn’t verbalize where my brain is going. It’s on its own track,” said Corkey, professor emeritus of medicine and biochemistry. “We all need to have multiple lives we go in and out of. Stepping away from science is very important.”
As an undergraduate, she was torn between a chemistry and art major. After six decades as a scientist, she sees the creative thinking process and meticulous lab work as a partnership. There’s no sense in being a creative thinker, she said, if you’re not getting the work done.
“If you don’t get both, you don’t have anything,” said Corkey.
Music was the entry point into the creative mind for President Emeritus Aram Chobanian, MD. A world-renowned cardiologist known for establishing the connection between hypertension and vascular disease, he favored music over medicine growing up.
“As I went along in life, I liked it (music) more and more,” he said. He took cello lessons, and in retirement he has been composing, aided by full orchestration software that can reproduce the various instruments playing the notes he’s composed.
Chobanian’s experience as a faculty member and dean was that many physicians had musical backgrounds. That helped inform his decision to start Art Days 32 years ago.
“I always felt it (a medical education) should be broad. Physicians should not be narrow in their life goals,” said Chobanian. “I urged them to be involved in other things.”
Chobanian credited his late wife Jasmine, a portrait painter educated at Brown University and the Boston Museum School, for being one of those active in keeping the tradition going and he is very proud of his granddaughter, a fourth-year medical student who is exhibiting in this week’s event.
Chobanian lost his wife in 2014 and said the creative arts has meant a lot to him in retirement, as it has for many others coping with isolation and despair brought on by the pandemic.
“The arts, in general, can fill a void, an emptiness and improve the quality of life in times like these,” he said. “I’m pretty old now, and I get a lot of pleasure when, even though I think I’m going to bed, I go to the piano and entertain myself for 20 minutes.”
The Art Days exhibit takes place Feb. 22-23 in Hiebert Lounge. Please see the Facebook album for photos of the exhibit.
November 2021 Faculty Appointments, Promotions Announced
Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.
Professor
Naomi Hamburg, MD, BUSM, Medicine/Cardiovascular Medicine, is a clinical-translational scientist whose research focuses on the role of the endothelium in cardiovascular health and disease. Her group pioneered the use of vascular endothelial cells isolated from patients to understand blood vessel health. She is a national leader in the effort to understand the cardiovascular risks of electronic cigarettes, studying vascular health measures to provide early evidence of cardiovascular consequences of electronic cigarettes. Additionally, Hamburg is chief of the department’s vascular biology section and interim director of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute. An associate editor of Circulation Research, she has leadership roles in key societies including the American Heart Association, where she served as chair of the Peripheral Vascular Disease Council co-leading the development of a National Action Plan for Peripheral Artery Disease, chair of the Vascular Track Scientific Session Planning Committee for the American College of Cardiology, and vice chair of the Advanced Training Statement in Vascular Medicine writing committee with the Society of Vascular Medicine.
Rebecca Perkins, MD, MSc, BUSM, Obstetrics & Gynecology, focuses on decreasing overall rates of cervical cancer and reducing race/ethnicity/income disparities in this disease through Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination and secondary prevention through screening and management of precancerous lesions. She is the leading author of critical clinical guidelines vital to women’s health. Perkins directs resident research in the department. Her mentee portfolio includes more than 60 MD, PA, GMS and MPH students. She holds leadership roles related to HPV vaccination and cervical cancer prevention with the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She co-chaired the 2019 ASCCP Risk-Based Management Consensus Guidelines and the President's Cancer Panel Cervical Cancer Subcommittee. Perkins currently co-chairs the Enduring Cervical Cancer Screening and Management Guidelines and the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable.
Manish Sagar, MD, BUSM, Medicine/Infectious Diseases, is a physician-scientist dedicated to understanding the pathogenesis of viral diseases, improving their clinical management and training the next generation of physician-scientists that will tackle those infections. His work spans bench research to clinical trials. His studies primarily focus on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mucosal transmission and humoral responses, which has importance for the ongoing efforts to prevent HIV-1 spread. His expertise in virus pathogenesis has allowed him to address new challenges imposed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and he has led clinical trials aimed at developing COVID-19 treatments. In addition, Sagar provides infectious disease clinical care both in the inpatient and outpatient setting, and he routinely guides the training of MD and PhD students, residents and fellows.
Clinical Professor
Gene Deune, MD, MBA, BUSM, Orthopaedic Surgery, specializes in hand surgery and microsurgery with a focus on complex soft tissue problems. Deune comes to BUSM from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine where he was the director in the hand surgery section from 2019-21. Prior to that he was at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where he was chief of hand surgery and specialized in adult and pediatric hand surgery, microsurgery and plastic surgery reconstruction. He received his undergraduate degree from MIT, medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and an MBA from the Carey School of Business (Johns Hopkins). Deune completed his residency in general and plastic surgery and his hand and microsurgery fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Clinical Associate Professor
Charles Bliss, Jr., MD, BUSM, Medicine/Gastroenterology, is a clinician-educator who has been involved in translating novel optical advances in endoscopic technology into clinical practice focusing on personalizing screening approaches. A critical member of the GI section, Bliss holds the most GI clinical sessions at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and serves as a resource and mentor to junior faculty, residents and students. He created department guidelines on identification and treatment of gastric intestinal metaplasia based on research and guidelines from several GI societies and has been concentrating on testing and treatment protocols for the pathogen H. pylori. In addition, Bliss played a key role implementing EPIC at BMC and now is an “Epic Lead,” a position created to help the members of the section with optimization of Epic and to help with any Epic issues.
Sheila Chapman, MD, BUSM, Medicine/GIM, is a clinician-educator with extensive expertise in addiction medicine. She developed educational materials for students, trainees, faculty and community members regarding the experience of addiction in pregnant women, those with HIV, and those from under-represented groups. Chapman is associate chair for diversity and inclusion for the department supporting trainings on implicit bias, microaggressions and the relationship of African American history to distrust with the current system of health care. She supports the Internal Medicine Residency Program with recruitment and educational activities focusing on inclusion and belonging. Chapman co-created and implemented the Evans Student Scholars Program in 2017, a six-week summer program for under-represented rising second-year BUSM students, providing clinical and research opportunities and the Willock Faculty Development Program for BUMC URiM faculty. Her most recent activities supported Boston Medical Center’s community COVID outreach and vaccine hesitancy efforts.
Robert Joseph, MD, BUSM, Psychiatry, is a clinician-educator who focuses on Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, integrated behavioral health and population-based depression care management in primary care. He is co-program director of the Combined Residency in Psychiatry and Family Medicine program, and serves as medical director for behavioral health at Manet Health Systems. Joseph previously served as vice chair for integrated behavioral health at Boston Medical Center. His clinical and research interests grew from an early recognition of the magnitude and morbidity associated with untreated psychiatric disorders, the adverse effects of these disorders on medical outcomes, and the limitations of access to mental healthcare especially within disadvantaged populations.
October 2021 Faculty Appointments, Promotions Announced
Congratulations to the following faculty on their recent appointment or promotion.
Clinical Associate Professor
Robert Canelli, MD, BUSM, Anesthesiology, is a clinician educator with expertise in point-of-care ultrasound and medical simulation. A Diplomate with the American Board of Anesthesiology with subspecialty certification in critical care medicine, he is a sought-after provider when complex cases arise. Canelli is director of critical care for anesthesia and associate director of the Surgical and Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center, where he works alongside colleagues on multidisciplinary projects. He also is point-of-care ultrasound director for the Trauma Acute Care Surgery fellowship program. He has spent six years as clinical director of simulation for anesthesiology at BMC’s Solomont Center for Clinical Simulation, where he served as a mentor to junior faculty, fellows, residents and medical students.
Theresa Davies-Heerema, PhD, BUSM, Medical Sciences & Education, is a biomedical researcher specializing in dementia-related pathogenesis who now focuses on graduate education and administration, serving as assistant dean for Graduate Medical Sciences overseeing all master’s programs as well as marketing, recruitment and communications. The inaugural director of the MS in Oral Health Sciences (OHS) Program, a credential enhancing pipeline program, Davies also teaches in multiple OHS courses and at the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and is a strong student advocate and mentor. She is known for her ability to develop pedagogy, foster community and create opportunities for students of all backgrounds to succeed, as illustrated by the recent launch of the GMS Community Catalyst Center.
Qing (Grace) Zhao, MD, MSc, PhD, BUSM, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, is the first woman leader of the Anatomic Pathology service since its inception at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in 1864. A clinical pathologist, scientist and educator, Zhao played an essential role in the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic as the hospital’s Anatomic Pathology Chief, test validator and advisor. She led the team that developed one of two SARS-Cov-2 PCR tests, offered by the BMC laboratory to support patients, staff and their families. Zhao served as one of the behind-the-scenes leaders to help found the BMC-BUSM COVID-19 biobank by ensuring remnant specimens were carefully preserved and made available to scientists. Additionally, she served as a catalyst to ensure that essential autopsy services were maintained during the surge. Zhao is an expert in subspecialty field of GI/Liver and Pancreas, while continuing practice in broader interests in all pathology fields at BMC. Her research interests focus on colon, pancreatic and liver cancers, and their molecular prognostic markers.
Jan. 29 Winter Storm Advisory: BUMC Closed
Boston University Medical Campus will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 29.
This includes the School of Medicine, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and its Patient Treatment Centers, School of Public Health and the Alumni Medical Library.
Employees in essential services should report as scheduled. Essential services include, but are not limited to Public Safety, Animal Care Services, Research lab personnel, Facilities Management & Operations, Emergency Patient Treatment, Occupational Health, and Environmental Health & Safety. Staff should check with their managers if they have questions.
Submit Work for Art Days 2022
Calling All Artists!
Submit your work for Art Days 2022
Tuesday-Wednesday, Feb. 22-23
Instructional Building, Hiebert Lounge
Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to submit artwork of any medium to the 32nd annual BUMC Gallery for the Arts, sponsored by the Provost's Office. Art Days was started by Dean Emeritis Aram Chobanian to foster the support and growth of the creative arts at BUMC. The exhibition is mounted by the Creative Arts Society. To be placed on the "submit list" or if you have any questions, please contact Keith Tornheim, PhD, at tornheim@bu.edu or 617-358-4172.
Artwork (paintings, photos, poetry, sculpture, needlework, etc.) will be collected on Friday, Feb. 18. Pieces should be framed if possible. Security will be provided. Work will be returned Thursday, Feb. 24. Specific instructions will be sent at a later date to those who respond to this announcement.
BUMC Moves to Unobserved COVID Testing
Effective Thursday, Jan. 27, the Medical Campus will transition to unobserved COVID testing for all students, staff and faculty. Testing becomes fully unobserved on Thursday, Feb. 3.
Please note the following:
• You will receive an unobserved kit (swab, tube, and plastic bag) when you arrive for your observed test during the transition period (Jan. 27-Feb. 2) and then receive a new kit when you drop off your unobserved kit.
• Only one kit is provided to each person. Lost or damaged kits will be replaced, but please try to avoid that from happening.
• Appointments are still required for unobserved drop-off. The same scheduling mechanisms will be in place as for observed testing along with the same hours.
• It is critical that the test is performed no more than 24 hours in advance of the drop-off to ensure the validity of the sample.
Spring 2022 Library Hours
The Alumni Medical Library and the L11 Testing Center will be closed Monday, Jan. 17. Regular hours will resume Tuesday, Jan. 18.
| LIBRARY (Floors L12-L13 | TESTING CENTER & 1110 CLASSROOM (Floor L11) | |
| Monday - Friday | 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. | 6 a.m.-9 p.m. |
| Saturday & Sunday | 10 a.m.-6 p.m. | 6 a.m.-6 p.m. |
Save Zoom Recordings from Auto-deletion | New Ed Media Resources
THREE important updates regarding BUMC IT-Educational Media technical support, documentation, resources, consulting/training:
1. Zoom Recordings older than six months set for March deletion: As noted in previous announcements from Provost Morrison and IS&T, Zoom recordings that are six months and older will be deleted on March 13. On this page find helpful documentation/instructions for how to preserve recordings you wish to keep, office hours with our techs through the end of February.
2. NEW: Technology FAQ for addressing Spring 2022 absences of students and faculty. DL&I recently published a guide on their site and it points to this sister page for the Medical Campus.
3. NEW: Classroom Audio-Visual System Guides’: Access the instructional AV job aides found in the classrooms. This week we conducted virtual sessions for new instructors/TAs so they can familiarize themselves with the rooms before arriving to campus; if we get consent, we’ll post those recordings on this page for video walkthroughs of key spaces.
As always, reach out with questions to edtech@bu.edu or contact Associate Director Jana Mulkern/617-358-0990 or Director Lucy Milne/617-358-0880.