A Note from Dean Cavalieri
While the summer may present a slower pace at many academic institutions, we are perpetually busy here on the Stratford campus and at our many clinical offices in South Jersey. I'm happy this month to acknowledge our graduating interns and residents and welcome to our campus the many high school and undergraduate students who may one day join the ranks of our physicians and researchers. I want to also offer a special thanks to our Family Medicine staff who were instrumental in achieving Level 3 PCMH designation and invite you to join me in congratulating our recently promoted faculty for their well-deserved honors.
My best,
Thomas A. Cavalieri, DO, MACOI, FACP
Dean
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RowanSOM OPTI PGY-1 Interns Celebrate Graduation
The interns in the SOM/Kennedy/Lourdes post-graduate year (PGY) 1 program celebrated at a graduation ceremony co-hosted by the two hospitals at the Mansion on Main Street in Voorhees on June 9. Terry Brown, Assistant Dean of Graduate Medical Education (GME) at SOM officiated over the ceremony celebrating the 61 graduating interns.
Several awards were presented that evening. Dr. E. Frederick Ashong, Director of GME at Lourdes Health System, honored Dr. Amelia Servin with the "RowanSOM OPTI Humanism Award," for her ability to foster relationships with patients, their families and other caregivers, while demonstrating compassion, altruism, respect, empathy and service. Mr. Brown presented the "GME Service Award" to Michele Bunnion, who recently retired from her position with the SOM Graduate Medical Education office. Martin O'Connor, Clinical Education Coordinator at SOM, presented the "Teaching Intern Award" to Dr. Sahil Patel. Dr. Christopher Barone, Vice President of Medical Affairs/Graduate Medical Education, Kennedy Health, presented the "Intern of the Year Award" to Dr. Fatima Patel. "Teaching Attending of the Year" awards went to four attending physicians recognized for their educational expertise: Dr. Gopika Banker, Kennedy Health - Stratford; Dr. Cindy Hou, Kennedy Health - Cherry Hill; Dr. Kelly Scheirs, Kennedy Health - Washington Township; and Dr. Daniel Berger, Lourdes Health System - Camden.
Individual departments also held events for their graduating residents and fellows throughout June.
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Top Area High School Students Experience Medical Education in New Summer Program (RAISE)
Thanks to the generous support of the Kal and Lucille Rudman Foundation, 24 high achieving high school students from nine area schools will have a unique opportunity to raise their academic game this summer at SOM.
The students and their parents attended an orientation program on July 7 to kick off the newly established RAISE (Recognizing Achievement and Inspiring Student Excellence) program at SOM. RAISE is a tuition-free, six-week science enrichment program that gives high school juniors and seniors an opportunity to get hands-on experience under the guidance of physicians, faculty and research scientists. The selected high school students will participate in a number of activities, including:
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Shadowing of SOM physicians in both the hospital and clinical office settings
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Learning advanced medical research techniques with the help of SOM libriarians
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Classroom lectures on anatomy, geriatrics and current research into chronic diseases
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Laboratory experiences that teach anatomical pathways through dissection.
Throughout the program, the high school students will be mentored by current Rowan medical students and graduate assistants who will help in developing individual research projects that will be presented at the program's end. The mentoring students will also chaperone field trips to science- and medicine-related destinations.
To enhance team building, problem solving and leadership skills, the RAISE students will also collectively participate in a group community service project. The project will involve a community organization and provide the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the value of giving, empathy and compassion, all of which are essential skills for medical professionals.
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Researcher Receives Grant to Develop Alzheimer's Disease Blood Test
 Under a three-year, $2,029,394 NIA grant, a team led by Dr. Robert Nagele, a professor of Medicine at the School of Osteopathic Medicine and the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, will continue their pioneering work to develop a blood test that can detect early stage Alzheimer's disease and can accurately track the disease's progression.
Dr. Nagele's earlier published research showed that it is possible to identify the presence of Alzheimer's years before symptoms arise by detecting the presence of a small number of autoantibodies in the blood. In that 'proof of concept' study involving blood samples from 236 individuals, the Nagele team's blood test had an overall accuracy, sensitivity and specificity rate of 100 percent in identifying subjects whose mild cognitive impairment was actually caused by an early stage of Alzheimer's disease.
In addition to replicating the earlier findings of detecting and staging the disease, the current study will also determine the ability of the test to detect very early stages of the disease in blood samples from patients who were originally enrolled in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative as healthy controls, but later transitioned to either mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.
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This year, we have had an impressive number of faculty who were granted promotions for their academic excellence in the areas of medical education, patient care, and research that has been nationally and internationally recognized. The caliber of their extraordinary work has proven them worthy of this achievement. SOM is fortunate to have dedicated faculty who are committed to our school's mission and will continue to build our legacy of excellence that will help SOM grow well into the future.
Congratulations are extended to the following SOM faculty members who were promoted effective July 1, 2017.
To the rank of Professor:
Millicent Channell, DO - Osteopathic and Manipulative Medicine
Xinhua Chen, MD, MSMC - Obstetrics and Gynecology Research
Joshua Coren, DO - Family Medicine
Adarsh Gupta, DO - Family Medicine
Richard Jermyn, DO - Rehabilitation Medicine
Alan Shienbaum, DO - Pathology
To the rank of Associate Professor:
Jennifer Caudle, DO - Family Medicine
Martin Forsberg, MD - Geriatrics and Gerontology/Psychiatry
Kevin Overbeck, DO - Geriatrics and Gerontology/Family Medicine
Andriy Pavlenko, MD - Pathology
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Family Medicine Offices Achieve Level 3 NCQA PCMH Designation
On June 30, Rowan Medicine received notification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) that the Hammonton, Mount Laurel and Stratford Family Medicine offices are recognized as Level 3 accredited Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH). These offices join the Sewell office, which was named a Level 3 NCQA PCMH in October 2016. This is a tremendous accomplishment that resulted from many hours of preparation and work by the faculty and staff of the Departments of Family Medicine and Managed Care.
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Students Participate in Interprofessional Hotspotting Learning Collaborative
Two teams of students from SOM participated in the Interprofessional Student Hotspotting Learning Collaborative sponsored by the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Partners. The collaborative is an annual program that trains interdisciplinary teams of professional students from schools around the country to learn to work with complex medical and social needs using a patient-centered approach.
The six-month program provides education and support to teams as they connect with patients, learn about the root causes of high health care utilization, and share this learning with their institutions. Participating second- and third-year students from SOM include: Nora Mustafa, Christian DiLiberto, Ruchi Shah, Kevin Lipat, Jessica Kabrt, Anna-Kaye Brown, Anna Ayum, Karen Coustodio and Komal Trivedi.
The Student Hotspotting progam is part of the Camden Coalition's efforts to educate and provide mentorship for the next generation of health care and beyond.
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Family Medicine Docs Share Knowledge in China
Department of Family Medicine members Drs. Joshua Coren and Danielle Cooley recently returned from China, where they taught local physicians at Beijing Capital University the approach of family medicine. Their visit is part of an ongoing collaborative effort to educate Chinese physicians in primary care and preventive medicine.
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Upcoming Events
White Coat Ceremony
Sunday, August 6
10:00 am
Pfleeger Theater, Glassboro Campus
Annual General Faculty Meeting
Tuesday, September 26
5:00 pm
Academic Center, Multipurpose Room
SAVE THE DATE: 20th Annual Golf Classic
Saturday, September 16
11:00 am lunch; 12:30 pm shotgun start
Riverwinds Golf & Tennis Club, West Deptford, NJ
SAVE THE DATE: Calling All Angels Gala
Benefits CARES Institute
Thursday, October 19
6:00 pm
Lucien's Manor, Berlin, NJ
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