NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2004
BULLETIN
In this issue:
Practi-Med
programs in Japan and Dubai tackle full spectrum of health care issues
- Hygeia
continues to lead at the cutting edge of care with implementation
of PET/CT scan
-
- UAE
neurologist is first to participate in Harvard-Dubai fellowship
program
-
- HMI
to collaborate with Hospital Management Italia on center of excellence
for clinical nutrition
-
- Medical
school in China looks to enhance research programs
-
- Leadership
and curriculum design are focus of Singapore program
-
- HMI
establishes operations in Dubai
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| The latest Specialty Practi-Med held in Dubai was attended by over 300 people. |
Practi-Med
programs in Japan and Dubai tackle full spectrum of health care issues
Practi-Med is in the news—again. This should come as no surprise to readers
of HMI World who have been reading about this program since it was
piloted in Brazil in 2000. Under the direction of Dr. Harvey Makadon, HMI vice
president of health systems and director of international CME programs, Practi-Med
has developed into one HMI’s most successful initiatives. HMI has recently
held programs in Yokahama, Japan and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Practi-Med
Dubai 2004, scheduled for December, will be the tenth time the course
has been delivered.
“I am continually amazed at the energy and earnestness of our audiences.
These physicians devour the medical literature that is available to them, and
it’s gratifying to me to have the chance to discuss with them how to apply
this knowledge to their practice,” said Makadon. “We have continued
to receive positive reactions from health care professionals who are confronting
a wide range of issues in primary care.”
A large part of Practi-Med’s success has been the depth of the faculty.
Sixty faculty members have taken part, including 35 from Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Beverly Woo, who practices internal medicine at Brigham & Women’s
Hospital, served as course director for Practi-Med Dubai 2003 and Practi-Med
Dubai 2004, and has spoken on issues such as obesity and disease prevention
in Brazil, China, and the United Arab Emirates. She echoes many of the HMS
faculty who have served as Practi-Med faculty when she says, “I look
at each program as an opportunity to learn. Talking with health care providers
in other countries and hearing about their top concerns enables me, after I
return to Boston, to step back from my own practice and have a broader view
of my own community.”
 |
| Dr. William Docken of Brigham and Women’s Hospital lectured on rheumatoid arthritis during a program focused on musculoskeletal health. |
In September, more than 300 health care professionals gathered in Dubai for
a Specialty Practi-Med program on musculoskeletal health and sports medicine.
Dr. Charles H. Brown, Jr. of Brigham and Women’s Hospital led a multidisciplinary
faculty that included six Gulf Region physicians.
Most recently, in October, the St. Luke’s Life Sciences Institute played
host for the third annual Practi-Med program in Japan. Held in Yokahama and
attended by over 300 physicians, the program addressed hypertension, HIV prevention,
pregnancy, and osteoporosis. Makadon moderated a panel discussion on quality
and evaluation. The night before the program began, Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief
of the New England Journal of Medicine, gave a talk on publishing
in the important medical publication.
Makadon and his cohorts hope to continue the success of Practi-Med in Dubai
in December. This year, the three-day program will include a number of topics
that have not previously been covered at Practi-Med, including emergency medicine,
dermatology, headache diagnosis and treatment, and counseling patients with
severe illnesses. The addition of these new topics isn’t accidental. “We
work with the regional medical authorities to determine what topics are most
relevant to the given audience—what do these health care providers need?” said
Woo.
Practi-Med Dubai 2004 will also feature presentations on oncology,
cardiology, health issues of mothers and children, infectious diseases,
and common medical problems encountered in primary care practice like
diabetes, stroke, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome. The program
will be held December 5-7 in Dubai at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. To
learn more, visit the program website.
HMI also makes sponsorship opportunities available to corporations
and exhibitors that are interested in building relationships with practicing
health care professionals. For more information, please email practi-med@hms.harvard.edu.
Last year, more than 1,200 health care professionals and students from
the Gulf Region gathered for Practi-Med Dubai 2003 to hear
about advances in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Hygeia
continues to lead at the cutting edge of care with implementation of
PET/CT scan
Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece continues to solidify its reputation for
high-quality medical services. Truly ahead of the curve regionally in its use
of cutting-edge technology, Hygeia is partnering with HMI to offer a series
of conferences that introduce advances that are changing the way many diseases
are diagnosed and treated. Earlier this year, Hygeia became the first hospital
in Greece to implement gamma knife technology. Now the region’s leading
private health care provider has introduced PET/CT scan technology. In October,
Hygeia commemorated its latest step forward with a three-day conference on
diagnostic imaging.
Dr. J. Anthony Parker, associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical
School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, delivered the main lecture
on PET/CT scanning during the first day, and took part in a demonstration of
Hygeia’s new PET/CT scan machine. Positron emission tomography (PET)
and computerized tomography (CT) are standard imaging tools that allow clinicians
to pinpoint the location of cancer within the body before making treatment
recommendations. The highly sensitive PET scan picks up the metabolic signal
of actively growing cancer cells in the body, and the CT scan provides a detailed
picture of the internal anatomy that reveals the size and shape of abnormal
cancerous growths. Alone, each test has its limitations but when the results
of the scans are fused together they provide the most complete information
on cancer location and metabolism. Unlike an x-ray or magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) that looks at the body’s structure and anatomy, the PET/CT scan
looks at the body’s metabolic activity and yields important information
about the body’s tissue. Because the PET/CT scan is able to discover
changes in the body’s biochemical processes in their earliest stages,
the technology is of significant value in detecting certain cancers, neurological
conditions, and cardiac diseases.
“Hygeia Hospital sees the PET/CT scanner as the clinical tool to provide
up-to-date imaging, especially for oncology patients,” said Parker.
The second day covered diagnostic imaging with respect to cardiology. Dr. Dennis
V. Razis of Hygeia said, “The diagnosis of myocardial viability and coronary
disease is achieved by non-invasive techniques using PET/CT, MRI, CT, echocardiograms,
and SPECT.” On the final day of the conference, Parker and his Hygeia
colleagues discussed research in molecular imaging that holds promise for further
enhancing diagnostic capabilities.
UAE neurologist is first to participate in Harvard-Dubai fellowship program
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| Dr. Jacob Daniel |
Dr. Jacob Daniel of Fujairah Hospital in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) has completed a month-long observership at Massachusetts
General Hospital (MGH), the first physician to benefit from the establishment
of the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center (HMSDC) postgraduate training
program. The program, which was launched by Harvard Medical International
and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) earlier this year, is designed to provide
opportunities for physicians and scientists in the Gulf Region to advance
their careers in medicine and biomedical research and as a resource for
faculty development for the Dubai Healthcare City project. The program’s
underlying objective is to identify and nurture leaders in academic medicine
in order to expand the professional workforce and institutional resources
of Dubai Healthcare City, and ultimately the region.
Daniel, a neurologist, worked in the Department of Neurology at MGH under the
tutelage of Dr. Walter Koroshetz and Dr. Philip Kistler. His main objectives
were to increase his knowledge of the advances in the management of stroke
and in the applications of technology for the critical care of neurological
patients. His observership included participating in daily morning rounds in
the intensive care unit with members of the neurology care team, and attending
weekly Grand Rounds, as well as stroke and critical care conferences. He also
participated in a weekly “brain cutting” neuropathology conference.
“My aim is to improve the management of stroke at Fujairah Hospital, and
possibly develop a dedicated stroke unit,” said Daniel, who since 1994
has been engaged as an internist and neurologist by the Ministry of Health in
Fajairah, one of the seven autonomous sheikdoms (emirates) comprising the United
Arab Emirates.
To learn more about postgraduate education opportunities offered by the Harvard
Medical School Dubai Center, please visit the DHCC
website and download the program brochure.
HMI
to collaborate with Hospital Management Italia on center of excellence
for clinical nutrition
Often overlooked in studies of the effectiveness of hospitals is the emphasis—or
lack thereof—placed on nutrition. It is well known that nutrition plays
a critical role in disease risk reduction and overall health promotion, an
idea that continues to inspire interventions targeted at healthy as well as
sick individuals. Yet in Italy a gap remains between management of nutritional
information and implementation of healthy nutritional practice among care providers.
HMI has teamed with Hospital Management Italia (HM Italia) to collaborate on
the design of evidence-based guidelines and protocols in nutrition. These standardized
tools will support nutritionists and physicians in Italian hospitals who are
addressing pathologies in their effort to improve care delivery and hospital
performance.
HM Italia partnered with HMI in 2003 with the goal of expanding upon its range
of consultant services in administration, management, and clinical services
and biomedical research. “This partnership and HMI’s involvement
in the Italian health care sector comes at a time when the government of Italy
is looking closely at ways to radically reform its health care system,” said
Dr. Andrew Jeon, HMI executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Ing. Stefano Ali, chief executive officer of HM Italia, said that the project
has begun in collaboration with INRAN (Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli
Alimenti e la Nutrizione). INRAN, a leading government-supported research organization
led by its president Prof. Ferdinando Romano, carries out basic and applied
research in the various areas of study in food science and human nutrition.
For this project with HM Italia, Romano has assembled a team of senior scientists
at IRNAN, including Prof. Amleto D’Amicis, Laura Rossi, and Doct. Phd
Andrea Ghiselli.
“Currently, departments of clinical nutrition are not very common in Italian
hospitals, and a centralized resource housing standardized protocols does not
exist,” said Ali. “Our objective is to work with INRAN, with strategic
advice from HMI, to establish an extranet that will link all of the hospitals
in Italy and provide access to nutrition information.”
The Center of Excellence for Clinical Nutrition, which will be the first center
of excellence to be developed in Italy, is a virtual center hosted in the southern
Italy city of Catania, which has been sponsoring and supporting its development.
Initially, HM Italia and INRAN will pilot the center’s IT platform with
a small group of hospitals, and later expand access to all hospitals, targeting
pharmaceutical companies as well. An expert team led by Prof. Alberto Savoldelli,
project manager in several IT European Union Projects and Professor at the
Business School of Politecnico di Milano, will implement the studies carried
out by the INRAN scientists and the HMI / HMItalia advisors so that they will
be available in an electronic format, in order for them to be adopted by physicians
and nutritionists through a regular computer terminal in any part of Italy.
Ali expects the nutrition protocols to be in place by August 2005, at which
point a train-the-trainer program will be launched to create a cadre of professional
experts that will lead other nutrition centers throughout Italy.
“The second phase of this project will focus on helping hospitals become
better at using nutrition information to prevent disease and to really change
practice in the Italian health care system,” said Ali.
Medical
school in China looks to enhance research programs
In October, a faculty from HMI visited the campus of Xinjiang Medical University
(XMU) for a series of workshops designed to help XMU develop models for research
and medical education. The three-day program kicked off with the inauguration
of XMU’s Cardiovascular Research Center (CRC).
HMI’s Dr. Tom Aretz, vice president of education, and Dr. Lynn Eckhert,
director of academic programs, led a workshop on instituting a systems approach
to research and medical education. Their discussions with XMU’s leadership
covered research regulations, ethics, and infrastructure; the training of research
technicians; and guidelines for conducting research on humans. They were joined
by two members of the Harvard Medical School faculty whose experience in research
settings provided a context for addressing XMU’s challenges as they further
develop the CRC. Dr. Roger Hajjar, of the Cardiovascular Research Center at
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), led discussions on general cardiovascular
research and experimental transplantation. Dr. Steven Niemi, who directs the
Center for Comparative Medicine at MGH, focused on developing successful animal
research initiatives.
The HMI faculty and the leadership of XMU discussed how to continue and expand
their collaboration in the area of research into cardiovascular disease and
diabetes. “XMU has a unique opportunity to take advantage of the region’s
multiple ethnic groups, which have different prevalences of Type 2 diabetes
and hypertension. This special situation provides an excellent setting for
research in population genetics and pharmacyogenetics,” said Aretz.
Going forward, XMU plans to explore the possibility of conducting gene therapy
studies, as well as stem cell research. Hajjar has agreed to welcome scientists
from XMU into his laboratory in Boston for further training. HMI and XMU are
also looking ahead to 2005, when they plan to collaborate on a second workshop,
this time focused on oncology research.
Leadership
and curriculum design are focus of Singapore program
 |
As part of its faculty development program, the National
University of Singapore (NUS) Medical School invited Dr. Tom Aretz and
Dr. Elizabeth Armstrong from HMI to conduct a medical education course
for its medical teachers with four of its own faculty as co-facilitators.
The course, held in Malaysia in October, brought together thirty educators
from various disciplines, both clinical and non-clinical, and was designed
to help NUS as it continues to introduce major curricular reforms.
The course focused on the curriculum development process, teaching and learning,
assessment, educational management issues, and research in medical education.
Aretz and Armstrong used case studies to create an interactive learning environment.
A significant outcome from the program was the formulation of six organizational
research projects that focus on curriculum reform initiatives. Professor Matthew
Gwee of NUS said that the school is committed to implementing these projects
and studying their impact within the next three months or so.
“The outcomes from these research projects can be expected to have important
bearing on policy decisions and future directions for our medical school. Endowed
with their newly acquired educational skills and with a ‘fire in the belly,’ many
participants expressed a strong desire to be more actively engaged in the educational
reform activities in our medical school,” said Gwee. “This reflects
a positive behavioral change as a consequence of the new learning, and also provides
clear testimony to the strong impact that Dr. Aretz and Dr. Armstrong have had
on the course participants through their highly effective teaching style. It
is our fervent hope that all participants will remain committed to further promoting
and enhancing professionalism and excellence in medical education and also will
continue to sustain their interests as a community of scholars in education actively
engaged in the educational affairs of our medical school.”
The five-day program combined elements of the two annual programs offered by
the Harvard Macy Institute, one of which focuses on leadership and creating
change, the other designed to help health care professionals become better
educators.
HMI establishes operations in Dubai
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| From left to right: Sarper H. Tanli, Arlene V. Asgard, Terry Motiuk, Richard Beadleston (seated), Andrew E. Barrer, and Anan Nathif. |
In order to manage the growing complexity of the strategic collaboration between
HMI and Dubai Healthcare City, HMI has built a team of industry veterans
who will be based in Dubai and carry forward a number of initiatives. Richard
Beadleston, MHA, as Chief of Operations, will head a seven-member team whose
activities will cut across all aspects of the HMI-DHCC partnership, including
the oversight of quality and licensing for DHCC tenants, continuing medical
education, and clinical planning. This group will also form the core of the
Center for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ), the entity established
by HMI and DHCC to provide health care systems development and medical education
services to DHCC and the broader Gulf Region.
The other members of HMI’s landed Dubai team are:
• Arlene V. Asgard, RN, MSN, Director of Quality & Credentialing
• Andrew E. Barrer, PhD, Regional Director, HMI Gulf FZ, LLC
• Elizabeth Elwy, Manager, Postgraduate Medical Education Institute
• Terry Motiuk, DBA, CMA, CGA, Deputy Director of Operations
• Anan Nathif, Med, Manager, Continuing Medical Education
• Linda A. O’Connor, MA, Manager, Quality Improvement
• Sarper H. Tanli, MD, MHA, Director of Clinical Planning
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