MSE lobby dedicated for Freeman

Attending the dedication are Gibson Gayle, JD, president of the M. D. Anderson Foundation and with Fulbright and Jaworski; from left, Charles Hall, JD, of Fulbright and Jaworski,; Uriel Dutton, JD, of Fulbright and Jaworski; and Jack Trotter, M. D. Anderson Foundation board trustee, seated.

John H. Freeman, one of the founders of the Texas Medical Center, was posthumously honored at the Medical School Expansion April 18.

Since the Medical School’s first building, the two-story Freeman Building, was razed to make way for the six-story Medical School Expansion, Medical School leadership decided to dedicate the entry of the new facility in honor of Freeman, and unveiled a portrait of Freeman, which hangs in this space.

“Mr. Freeman and his friends dreamed of a medical center beyond anyone’s expectations,” said President James Willerson. “We are here to honor John Freeman and have many special guests with us today.”

Freeman grew up in Houston’s Fifth Ward and became a partner in Fulbright, Crooker, and Freeman in 1924. He prepared the legal documents that established the M. D. Anderson Foundation and was a trustee of that foundation until his death in 1980.

Dr. Margaret McNeese, associate dean of admissions and student affairs, served as emcee of the lunch event as many guests shared their personal recollections of Freeman.

“The history of the M. D. Anderson Foundation and the birth of the Texas Medical Center is a remarkable story – without the M. D. Anderson Foundation and individuals with the foresight of Mr. Freeman, there would be no Texas Medical Center – and we would not be sitting here today. My father thought so much of Mr. Freeman – he had a quiet strength and conviction, and he was a true gentleman,” McNeese said.

Dr. Mavis Kelsey, founder of the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, said that he became close friends with Freeman, who became the lawyer for his business. “He wrote up our partnership in 1956,” Kelsey said.

Joanie Jaworski Moncrief said she was happy for the occasion to honor Freeman. “People like Mr. Freeman were not recognized for what they contributed. A day like today thrills me,” she said. “My father wrote that ‘no one in my professional life was dearer to me than John Freeman.’”

Dr. Cheves Smythe, first dean of the Medical School, said he approached Freeman about naming the first two-story Medical School Building after him. “I asked him if it was OK, and he said, ‘yes,’” Smythe recalled.

-D. Brown

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Faculty Senate addresses SACS, MSRDP bylaw changes

The Faculty Senate discussed the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmation, postdoctoral affairs, faculty appointment criteria, and Medical Service, Research and Development Plan (MSRDP) bylaw changes at its April 17 meeting.

Dr. Bryant Boutwell, associate vice president for accreditation & international programs, gave an overview of the SACS reaffirmation process, which will include a site visit in 2010. He reported that there are 84 standards with which the institution must comply and that many teams are already in place working on the project.

“All of this is Web-based this time around, and if you want to learn more about the project, see www.uth.tmc.edu/sacs,” he said, adding that a featured component of the process is a quality enhancement plan that must be outlined and funded by the institution.

The Postdoctoral Association (PDA) presented on its organization and goals to improve the culture of the more than 150 postdoctoral fellows across the UT Health Sciences Center. The group aims to focus on mentoring, collaborate with administration, and create an academic and social community with the founding of its new organization. More information on the group may be found at www.uth.tmc.edu/pda. Leslie Shields, coordinator of Postdoctoral programs, gave full support for the efforts of the PDA and encouraged faculty involvement in development of their fellowship training.

Dr. Skip Gleason spoke about faculty appointments for those without terminal degrees. It has been proposed that the criteria for appointments and promotion of these faculty be the same as any other faculty tract. These employees include genetic counselors and physician assistants, and Gleason estimated there are about 80 of these employees at the Medical School.

The Faculty Senate had a lively discussion on the topic of an MSRDP bylaw change which deals with the income of less than full-time employees.

“We need to review this more carefully to receive clarification on specific areas and see how any changes would affect both full and part-time individuals in our departments,” said Dr. Jeffrey Actor, president of the Faculty Senate.

Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo reported on the sole finalist for the president position, Dr. Larry Kaiser.

“He has been at the University of Pennsylvania since 1991 and has built one of the most successful academic departments of surgery in the country. In addition, they have more than $140 million in endowments for surgery – whereas we have $60 million for the whole health science center,” Dean Colasurdo said. “His track record is truly phenomenal.”

Regarding chair searches, Dean Colasurdo said there were two strong candidates for psychiatry and that a new chair for the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was expected later this summer

“The internal medicine search is a different type of search,” Dean Colasurdo said. “You may know that Baylor has been searching for this position for approximately two years. We are having challenges with resources – it will likely be a long search.”

-D. Brown

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Gestational age not only factor in assessing outcomes of premature infants

Dr. Jon Tyson

Medical School researchers say a crucial decision on whether to give intensive care to extremely premature infants should not be solely based on the infant’s gestational age.

Published in the April 17, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study titled “Intensive Care for Extreme Prematurity: Moving Beyond Gestational Age” found four other factors that are of comparable importance: female sex, treatment of the mother with antenatal corticosteroids, singleton birth, and higher birth weight.

“My hope is that this study will put more information into the hands of doctors and parents to help them make better informed decisions about the care of these extremely premature infants,” said lead author Dr. Jon Tyson, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and Michelle Bain Distinguished Professor in Medicine and Public Health.

Decisions on whether to administer intensive care or comfort care to infants born 15-18 weeks before their due date (at 22-25 weeks gestation) are highly controversial. Comfort care avoids all painful procedures. Such care is given when the intensive care is judged to be extremely unlikely to be beneficial and would cause needless pain and suffering for the infant. In deciding how to treat extremely premature infants, most centers have relied solely or largely on gestational age.

This study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NICHD). It involved nearly 4,500 infants who were born at 22 to 25 weeks gestation between 1998 and 2003 in hospitals of the Neonatal Research Network, including Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and LBJ Hospital. The network is made up of 16 U.S. academic institutions that have extensive experience in multi-center clinical research involving high-risk babies.

The infants in the study group were then assessed at 18 to 22 months by certified examiners.

“We found that about half of the infants survived and that about half of those who survived had neurodevelopmental impairments. This is a very, very high risk group of babies,” said Tyson, who is also director of the Center for Clinic Research and Evidence-Based Medicine Clinic.

“The risk factors identified in this study are all known at birth. Antenatal corticosteroids are often administered to mothers before delivery to help mature the infant’s lungs and reduce the likelihood of bleeding into the brain. Further research is needed to assist obstetricians and neonatologists in knowing how best to consider these factors in making treatment decisions,” said co-author Dr. Nehal A. Parikh, assistant professor of pediatrics.
Other co-authors include: Charles Green, Ph.D., of the UT Medical School; John Langer of RTI International and Rosemary D. Higgins, M.D., of the NICHD.

To view the full article, “Intensive Care for Extreme Prematurity: Moving Beyond Gestational Age” in the New England Journal of Medicine, click here.

-M. McDonald

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