U N I V E R S I T Y O F I L L I N O I S AT C H I CAG O
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE 2018 ANNUAL REPORT
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DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
FROM THE HEAD OUR VISION, MISSION + VALUES LEADERSHIP CLINICAL AFFAIRS Clinical Programs Clinical Highlights Care in the Community Highlights Region’s Top Doctors EDUCATION Medical School Graduate Medical Education Taking Education to the Next Level Richard Weber Lecture Series Meet Our 2017-2018 Chief Residents Residents & Fellows SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES Selected Publications CULTURE & DIVERSITY Breaking the Bias Habit Closing the Gap: Diversity & Inclusion Impacting Women in Medicine DOM Events in FY2018 FACULTY AFFAIRS Divisional Rockstars Awards & Promotions In Memoriam DIVISION PROFILES Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Cardiology Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Gastroenterology & Hepatology Hematology/Oncology Infectious Diseases Nephrology Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep & Allergy Rheumatology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FROM THE HEAD Dear Colleagues and Friends, I am excited to present our inaugural annual report of the Department of Medicine (DOM) at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. The report highlights accomplishments for the fiscal year 2018. Since arriving in the DOM, it has been my pleasure to welcome seven new division chiefs, all who are physician-scientists with a strong commitment to clinical excellence and scholarship. In the ever-changing health care environment, we continue to provide excellent care in service to our underserved patients. In addition, we are expanding our strong portfolio of NIH and non-NIH funded projects and clinical research, which will deliver tomorrow’s treatments and cures to our diverse community. Each of our health care professionals have a strong commitment to delivering the highest quality health care to every patient who walks through our doors, while providing an outstanding educational experience. The DOM is committed to reducing health disparities in our community, the state of Illinois and beyond. Taking our education program to the next level, we recently developed 3 new residency tracks. The Academic Internal Medicine Track focuses on public health, clinical and translational research, the Urban Global Track focuses on urban and global public health issues and the Innovation Track focusing on technology and the development of intellectual property. With the help of a generous donation from Dr. Richard Weber, an alum of our medical school, we are greatly enhancing the experience of our trainees, faculty and staff by hosting distinguished lecturers as part of the Richard Weber Supported Lecture Series. We are proud to announce that we were the first site to participate in The Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine(BRIM) Study. The DOM is excited to be a site for this novel study aimed at breaking the unconscious bias habit and moving towards diversity and inclusiveness. I thank all our faculty, fellows, residents and staff for their excellence and dedication in providing exceptional care for all in the context of scientific discovery. It is the indefatigable spirit and passion of the team in the DOM of which I am proudest. I am grateful for all of you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Patricia W. Finn, MD
Earl M. Bane Professor and Head, Department of Medicine
ANNUAL REPORT 01
OUR VISION, MISSION + VALUES
T OUR MISSION IS TO STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION, AND EXCEPTIONAL CARE FOR ALL.
he University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Medicine (DOM) has a long tradition of providing thorough and comprehensive training in medicine. Since 1882, we have been moving academic medicine forward for the people of Illinois and beyond. The Department of Medicine is the largest of 25 academic departments in the College of Medicine. We are comprised of nine divisions, with faculty engaged in teaching, scholarly activity and patient care services. CLINICAL The DOM is committed to stewardship in the communities it serves by providing high-quality and costeffective patient care while increasing financial stability. SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY Our commitment to scholarly activity is essential to our overall mission. Germane to this concept is the naming of research and investigative activity as “scholarly activity”. In recognition of the fact that collaboration and teamwork are essential to success, the DOM does not define roles as
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“research” or “clinical”, but rather enhancing scholarly activity for all DOM members whether trainee, faculty or staff. EDUCATION The DOM plays a significant role in the education of medical students, internal medicine residents, and specialty fellows throughout their years of training. PHILANTHROPY & ENDOWMENTS Fundraising for the DOM has a renewed emphasis on both research grants and private philanthropy engaging alumni, community leaders, residents and faculty. FACULTY AFFAIRS With our goal of training the next generation in mind, the DOM formulated strategies to enhance faculty development in conjunction with programs for retention and recruitment. CULTURE & DIVERSITY The DOM is committed to promoting a culture of diversity, inclusion, and excellence.
231 F A C U L T Y 55 64 98 14
PROFESSORS ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS ASSISTANT PROFESSORS INSTRUCTORS
232 T R A I N E E S 152 RESIDENTS 80 FELLOWS
333 S T A F F
ANNUAL REPORT 03
LEADERSHIP
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ANNUAL REPORT 05
CLINICAL AFFAIRS
“Providing the best care for all while promoting health equality”
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CLINICAL AFFAIRS
CLINICAL PROGRAMS
T
he Department of Medicine (DOM) is committed to stewardship in the communities it serves by providing high-quality and cost-effective patient care. We are fully engaged on all fronts with the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UI Health) to expand clinical programs. The commitment to addressing community needs goes well beyond the traditional service role of an academic medical center. We advocate for reducing health disparities, which requires a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to the inequities in healthcare access and quality of care. We aim to raise awareness, conduct critical investigation and assist those communities in need. RECRUITMENT, REORGANIZATION & RESULTS To maintain and enhance the clinical mission, the DOM recruited key faculty members, including seven division chiefs since 2013. New chiefs were appointed in the Divisions of Cardiology, Endocrinology, Infectious Diseases, Hematology/Oncology, and Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy, as well as 2 new divisions. Each division chief oversees the clinical activities, education and scholarly activities of their division.
To better align clinical services we merged the Division of Gastroenterology and the Division of Hepatology, into one division, forming the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology under the leadership of a new division chief, Dr. Barbara Jung. To strengthen the commitment to exceptional patient care in parallel with translational scholarly activity, we reconfigured the Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics (AIM), encompassing three prior divisions (General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Health Promotion Research) under the leadership of a new division chief, Dr. Rachel Caskey, along with associate chiefs Drs. Benjamin Gerber and John Tulley. The energy and talents of the new recruits, both division chiefs and faculty, prompted a renewed commitment to excellence in the clinical mission and an expansion of clinical programs. The DOM conducts bi-weekly outpatient meetings with clinic medical directors, clinic directors, staff, division chiefs, and DOM business administrators every Friday. These meetings have resulted in the coordination of activities among the DOM clinics, improvements in services and the formation of new clinical programs which we invite you to learn more about within our division profile pages.
ANNUAL REPORT 07
CLINICAL VOLUME We continue to build our clinical volume with our commitment to providing exceptional patient care for all in the communities we serve. The DOM is responsible for approximately one third of overall adult hospital inpatient volume, with 21 inpatient services and procedure areas, as well as one third of outpatient volume, with 16 clinics. Our volume of outpatient specialty care has grown every year over the last 5 years. The Department of Medicine was responsible for 154,321 outpatient visits and 7,483 discharges in FY 2018. We had a 6% increase in discharges from FY17 to FY18. Furthermore, twenty-eight of our physicians were named among “Chicago’s Top Doctors”.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
OUTPATIENT OFFICE VISITS
INPATIENT PROCEDURES
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ACHIEVEMENT IN HEART FAILURE CARE The American Heart Association/American Stoke Association recognized the University of Illinois Hospital for achieving 85% or higher compliance with all Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Achievement Measures for one calendar year to improve quality of patient care and outcomes. Health systems that receive the Get With the Guidelines® -Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award meet specific quality-achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the patient, proper use of medications, and aggressive riskreduction therapies, including ACE inhibitors/ARBs, beta blockers, diuretics, anticoagulants, among other appropriate therapies. Before patients are discharged, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, in addition to other care transition interventions. IMPROVED ACCESS FOR HEART FAILURE PATIENTS In an attempt to impact heart failure hospital readmission rates and improve outcomes in our hospital patients with heart failure, a multifaceted program was developed to provide patients with improved access to the heart failure patient care team. A Heart Failure Hotline was developed to allow patients to call a single number staffed by the heart failure care team 7 days per week with questions regarding worsening symptoms, medication issues, social services, or any other concerns that impact their health. The heart failure care team includes a nurse who performs home visits for recently discharged patients deemed high risk for hospital readmission. The purpose of the home visit is to assess the patient’s condition soon after hospitalization, confirm patients have received and are complying with all recommended therapies, and to provide education regarding diet and other self-care measures. On a quarterly basis, the heart failure team invites patients to a lunch and learn educational session. Using new software developed by researchers in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, the Department of Medicine began testing the feasibility
of using wearable activity tracking technologies with text messages to enable continuous remote activity monitoring of our heart failure patients. OUTPATIENT ANTIMICROBIAL THERAPY PROGRAM (OPAT) OPAT is a system to monitor patients discharged from the University of Illinois hospital on IV antibiotics. We have seen a steady increase of our OPAT census so that our average census is now 37 patients per month with a 20% reduction in readmission of OPAT patients. TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT (TAVR) The UIC team successfully performed its first two TAVR cases on March 22, 2018. The TAVR procedure replaces a patient’s aortic valve using a small incision in the leg rather than opening the chest and putting the patient on the heartlung machine as done in conventional open heart surgery. To date, the Structural Heart Program, under the leadership of Drs. Elliott Groves and Adhir Shroff has completed over 65 successful TAVR procedures. The success of the program is attributed to the teamwork and collaborative efforts across many disciplines. Our team of highly trained interventional cardiologists together with the cardiac surgeons offer the latest medical treatments and therapies, leading the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of valve and structural heart conditions. GLUCOSE MANAGEMENT SERVICE Working closely with the University of Illinois Hospital administration, Dr. Brian Layden, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism started an inpatient glucose management service managed by an APRN in collaboration with the division’s clinicians. The glucose management service is an inpatient diabetes service that has improved outcomes for hospitalized patients, resulting in less hypoglycemia and infections. The need for these services were identified based on an analysis of the average glycemic control in various units of the hospital. This service manages patients on the inpatient service in need of glucose control. Our Diabetes Education program has been reinvigorated by our new lead diabetes educator and through our new community outreach efforts we have attended over five community events where we saw over 500 people in areas around the city that are heavily burden by diabetes. ANNUAL REPORT 09
CLINICAL AFFAIRS
CLINICAL HIGHLIGHTS
CARE IN THE COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS The Department of Medicine has a strong commitment to addressing community healthcare needs and education both at the local and global level. We address our goals through our Education Council, Urban Global Health Residency Track and community-based outreach. CHURCH-BASED HEALTH OUTREACH PROGRAM (CHOP) The Church-based Health Outreach Program (CHOP) was founded in 2011 as a student-run initiative led primarily by members of UIC’s LaRaza Medical Student Association [now Latino Medical Student Association] and the College of Medicine Chicago Medical Student Council (CMSC) in collaboration with the Departments of Medicine and Family Practice. CHOP’s mission is to improve health care access for underserved communities, while also providing an opportunity for medical students to gain meaningful clinical exposure. Since 2012, CHOP has been under the supervision of Dr. Olga Garcia-Bedoya, Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, with full support from the chair, Dr. Patricia Finn. This community engagement program is part of the DOM’s Urban Global Health Initiative, led by Dr. Max Brito, Division of Infectious Diseases, with a strong focus on addressing and eliminating health disparities in underserved communities. Accomplishments CHOP serves two predominately Hispanic neighborhoods: St. Pius V Parish in Pilsen and Immaculate Conception Parish in Brighton Park. At St. Pius V Parish, we held 9 health fairs during the academic year. The need for additional health fair locations emerged, resulting in 2 health fair events at Immaculate Conception. These health fairs occured on a monthly basis and alternated between the Pilsen and Brighton Park church locations. At St. Pius Parish, each event serves an average of 70-80 parishioners, with approximately 675 participants per year. By providing the attendees with basic health care screenings at no-cost (blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI) measurements coupled with culturally-sensitive health and nutrition information), the goal is to empower these populations to make more informed decisions about their own health and the health of their family members.
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Additionally, each participant receives a report card with their screening results. Through these report cards, CHOP providers have observed that 10-15% of the attendees are able to progressively reduce their BMI. In addition, participants are provided with contact information to the clinics at the University of Illinois Hospital (UIH). As a result of these outreach efforts, approximately 10% of insured patients have transferred their care to UIH. Medical Education and Leadership CHOP recruits 35 UIC medical students to volunteer at each health fair. In addition to recruitment, student leaders work with CHOP representatives to acquire supplies and train volunteers to properly perform screenings, as well as counsel participants alongside attending physicians. Furthermore, CHOP provides the medical students with a teaching framework that integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information. CHICAGO COMMUNITY CLINIC NETWORK (UCCN) The University of Illinois at Chicago Community Clinic Network is based in our Division of Infectious Diseases. UCCN was founded by medical director, Dr. Richard Novak in 1992 with the philosophy of bringing nonjudgmental Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) services into the communities where the clients reside, and to provide primary care for all clients. Since its inception, UCCN has provided a range of health services including outpatient medical care, mental health services, treatment adherence, gynecological care, nutritional assessments, and referrals to a range of medical and social service programs through program collaboration and linkages. All HIV services are provided regardless of an individual’s insurance status or income level. This unique program uses a multidisciplinary team to ensure positive client outcomes with a holistic approach to over 900 clients at 7 community-based sites throughout Chicago.
In 2016, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a competition for outside agencies to assume the care of their HIV affected clients at the CDPH-run facilities on the north and south sides. The UCCN competed successfully, and was awarded the clinic site in the Uptown neighborhood. In June of 2016, UCCN moved its existing Uptown clinic to this new location, and combined the patient populations to begin services there. UCCN offers comprehensive clinical services there 4 days per week, a substantial expansion of clinical activities. OFFICE OF HEALTH LITERACY (OHL) The Office of Health Literacy offers programs to promote health literacy, educate students and healthcare providers and engage diverse socioeconomic communities.
Through the course “Introduction to Health Disparities, Health Literacy, and Cultural Competence“ the OHL offered health literacy education to faculty and students representing every college within UIC. Approximately, 500 students have been educated about health literacy through this course. The OHL also serves the communities surrounding us through partnerships. Through “Doctors in the Community Series” our doctors visit churches and meeting places in our surrounding area to promote health literacy to members of underserved areas discussing illness prevention, selfadvocacy and more. We currently have partnerships with the Mexican Museum, UIC Cancer Center, Operation Push, Westside United, UIC Department of Pediatrics, and the Mile Square Health Center. Dr. Paula Allen-Meares, head of the OHL, works with doctors throughout our system to offer education and support to our faculty, students, and the diverse communities surrounding us. She educates others through her UIC radio show, The Dr. Paula Radio Show, during which she interviews UIC and Chicago-based health professionals on topics related to health literacy.
Dr. Paula Allen-Meares - Dr. Paula Radio Show
ANNUAL REPORT 11
CLINICAL AFFAIRS
Accomplishments In the past 5 years, the UCCN program continues to evolve. In 2014, the UCCN partnered with New Age Services in the Lawndale neighborhood to provide comprehensive HIV services on site in their methadone treatment center, with the intent of making these services more accessible to their clients with a substance abuse history. This program continues to provide HIV primary care, mental health, case management, outreach and pharmacy consultative services one day per week at this location.
REGION’S TOP DOCTORS
Twenty-eight of the Department of Medicine physicians were named among the region’s top physicians by Castle Connolly, the consumer healthcare guide. Physicians were nominated by peers in a nationwide survey, then chosen by a physician-led research group. Additionally, 10 of our recognized physicians were featured in Chicago magazine’s January 2018 ‟Top Doctors” list.
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES & METABOLISM
GASTROENTEROLOGY
Dr. Joan Briller Professor of Medicine
Dr. Elena Barengolts Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Russell Brown Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. George T. Kondos Professor of Medicine
Dr. Dan Mihailescu Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Allan Halline Associate Professor of Medicine
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CLINICAL AFFAIRS
HEMATOLOGY
Dr. Victor Gordeuk Professor of Medicine
Dr. David Peace Professor of Medicine
Dr. Asra Khan Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Dominic Ho Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Howard Jaffe Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Mark Kushner Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Robert Molokie Professor of Medicine
Dr. Min Joo Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Jonathan Radosta Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Howard Ozer Professor of Medicine
Dr. Kevin Kovitz Professor of Medicine
Dr. Neeta Venepalli Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Dean Schraufnagel Professor of Medicine
Dr. Damiano Rondelli Professor of Medicine
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Dr. Richard Novak Professor of Medicine
Dr. John Tulley Professor of Clinical Medicine
INTERNAL MEDICINE
MEDICAL ONCOLOGY
NEPHROLOGY
RHEUMATOLOGY
Dr. Reed Berger Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. Lawrence Feldman Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. Jose Arruda Professor of Medicine
Dr. William Swedler Professor of Medicine
PULMONARY DISEASE
Dr. William Galanter Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Michel Gowhari Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. Steven Dudek Professor of Medicine
Dr. Nadera Sweiss Professor of Medicine
ANNUAL REPORT 13
EDUCATION
“Pursing excellence in teaching while training our replacements”
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MEDICAL SCHOOL EDUCATION
The DOM plays a significant role in the education of medical students, internal medicine residents and specialty fellows throughout their years of training. MEDICAL SCHOOL DOM faculty actively participates in training approximately 200 M1, M2, M3 and M4 students. Dr. Asra Khan is the course director and Dr. Ananya Gangopadhyaya is the associate course director for the M1 and M2 Doctoring and Clinical Skills (DoCS) course formerly known as Essentials of Clinical Medicine (ECM). The course provides instruction on basic and advanced communication and doctoring and clinical skills. Students work in small group settings to develop their skills in the systematic interviewing of patients with varying medical and psychosocial conditions, learn physical exam skills, clinical reasoning, how to present and write patient histories and to work collaboratively with peers. In addition, to serving as working group tutors, numerous DOM faculty members also participate in the Introduction to Patient Care program, Physical Exam and Communication workshops and as Hospital Immersion Tutors. Drs. Fred Zar and Pavan Srivastava serve as the Synthesis course directors. This longitudinal course allows students to see how their basic science knowledge facilitates care of patients. Class sessions focus on cases that illustrate the interdependence of the organ systems studied to date and the management of complex, multi-system diseases.
Drs. Radhika Sreedhar, Ananya Gangopadhyaya, Anne Polick, Mahesh Patel and Waddah Alrefai serve as block leaders during phase 1 of the curriculum. In addition, Dr. Sreedhar was recently named as director of curricular integration. Drs. Khan and Gangopadhyaya serve as the M3/M4 Internal Medicine clerkship directors and associate clerkship directors. Dr. Khan is also an active member of the College of Medicine Education Coordinating Committee (ECC). The ECC sets the learning objectives, program evaluation and student assessment for the M3 medicine clerkship. This clerkship is the highest rated M3 experience on the AAMC survey for two years as well. Approximately half of the M4s interact with members of the DOM in every division while doing their medicine sub-internship or electives in subspecialty internal medicine divisions. Numerous DOM faculty participate in COM Essentials of Clinical Practice and Professionalism (ECPP) course which acts as a bridge between medical school and residency covering numerous important educational topics. Dr. Alana Biggers serves as the sub-theme lead in Population Health. She is responsible for integrating population health topics into the curriculum including how to approach population health outcomes, social determinants of health, and clinical considerations for underserved populations.
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GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION We trained 115 residents in our preliminary and categorical Internal Medicine (IM) Residency program in addition to training 16 medicine/ pediatrics residents, 15 emergency medicine/ medicine residents and 6 neurology interns during the 2017- 2018 academic year. The program enjoys full ACGME accreditation with commendation and will have its next review and site visit in 2020. During recruitment for the 2017-2018 academic year, our Internal Medicine Residency program received more than 4,000 applications of which 700 were interviewed. PROGRAM DIRECTORS In addition to Dr. Fred Zar, as the program director, the Internal Medicine Residency program supports five associate program directors, Drs. Patrick Godwin, Anne Polick, Jonathan Radosta, Robert Sargis, and Rhadika Sreedhar. Dr. Patrick Godwin has been a faculty member since 2001 and became section chief of Hospital Medicine at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in 2008. His interests include clinical teaching, quality improvement, patient safety, health system reform, and telehealth. Dr. Anne Polick is an academic internist who was a UIC resident and chief resident. She has received the New Attending of the Year award on 3 different occasions. Dr. Jonathan Radosta serves as the medical director of the UI Health outpatient care general medicine resident clinic and works closely with faculty and house staff to improve their outpatient training. His research interests include improving healthcare disparities and quality improvement projects.
Metabolism. He is the director of the PhysicianScientist Training Program that leverages the immense and diverse resources at UIC to develop future leaders in academic medicine. Dr. Radhika Sreedhar is a general internal medicine physician in the Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics with a particular interest in evidence-based medicine and quality improvement. She mentors residents in longitudinal multidisciplinary journal clubs that translate into quality improvement projects and activities. MATCH RESULTS In spite of a declining number of US medical students matching in internal medicine, the quality of the students matched in the Internal Medicine Residency Program has never been higher as measured by the internal House Staff Selection Committee (HSSC) scores. The score represents a compilation of medical school performance, test scores, and interviews. In 2000, the HSSC scores were in the 20s and in the last 3 years have consistently been in the 60s.
Patrick Godwin, MD, MBA
Anne Polick, MD
Jonathan Radosta, MD
UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES (URM) IN INTERNAL MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM DOM has increased the number of URMs in the IM residency from a low of 6% in 2014 to its current all-time high of 35% in 2018. BOARD CERTIFICATION PASS RATE In 2018, the IM Residency achieved a pass rate of 97% (33/34). Currently the UIC IM Residency ranks 2nd in the country out of the 47 large academic programs with more than 100 residents. Within the Chicago area, UIC ranks #1.
Robert Sargis, MD, PhD
Dr. Rob Sargis recently joined the faculty in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and 16 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE Rhadika Sreedhar, MD
The DOM is training clinicians in internal medicine to serve the people of Illinois and beyond. It is also essential to train the next generation in academic medicine, i.e., “finding our replacements”. The newly formed residency tracks, described on the next page, and diversity and inclusion initiatives are contributing toward this goal. FELLOWSHIPS DOM faculty trained 80 fellows in 14 accredited fellowship programs in FY18. All are fully accredited by the ACGME, seven of which have accreditation with commendation.
MENTORSHIP Faculty within the Clinical Competency Committee (CCC) continue to provide mentorship support; in addition, highlynominated faculty outside the CCC are being recruited to provide additional mentorship and discuss potential career options. The DOM Education Council has initiated a session to provide mentoring opportunities as well as hosted “meet and greet” sessions to increase the exposure of residents to faculty. DOM faculty participate in and co-facilitate mentorship training workshops. These workshops utilize the “Entering Mentoring” curriculum and provide faculty with additional mentorship skills, such as mentor-mentee communication, aligning expectations, professional development and assessing mentee understanding. SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES DATABASE The DOM developed and maintains a database of scholarly activities including all divisions. Trainees at all levels can search the database to identify potential faculty mentors and available scholarly activities to participate in. The website providing an interface to search the database also includes additional information on mentoring, starting a research project, presentation, innovations, various tools and resources, and a list of frequently asked questions.
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EDUCATION
Year Pass/Total (%) 2015 29/31 (94%) 2016 32/32 (100%) 2017 30/30 (100%) 2018 33/34 (97%) FELLOWSHIP SUCCESS RATE Last year 16/17 (94%) successfully entered the subspecialty of their choice with the last 2 years having the match rates of 17/17 and 19/20 matching, resulting in a 3-year success rate of 53/54 (96%). The mean distance down their match list they went to match was 1.8, thus the average resident matches at his/her first or second choice.
TAKING EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL Success of New Residency Tracks The DOM instituted strategic enhancements to the IM Residency Program, including the formation of 3 new tracks in addition to the established Urban Global Health Track. ACADEMIC INTERNAL MEDICINE (AIM) TRACK The Academic Internal Medicine (AIM) Residency Track provides additional academic training to internal medicine residents who have an interest in conducting clinical research as generalists. The AIM Track is an opportunity for residents to receive training in public health and clinical and translational research, and actively participate in scholarly activities under the mentorship of Department of Medicine faculty. This track provides additional experience in various areas including clinical epidemiology and population health, behavioral science, public health, medical informatics, health interventions, research methods, health economics, and health services research. Since its inception 4 years ago under the leadership of Dr. Ben Gerber, the program has supported and trained 10 residents. Quarterly didactic sessions are available in conjunction with the Center on Global Health on conducting and presenting research (e.g., study design, ethics and literature search). Formal mentorship to support research is provided and the opportunity for applicants to obtain a certificate through the School of Public Health (e.g., Health Disparities or Medical Informatics). In 2018, one resident completed a certificate in Clinical Research Methods. PHYSICIAN-SCIENTIST DEVELOPMENT TRACK The goal of our Physician-Scientist Development Program is to train the next generation of physician-scientists by providing an intensive multi-year commitment that combines both residency and sub-specialty fellowship training along with training and mentorship in the formulation of scholarly work and successful grant programs. Under the leadership 18 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
of Dr. Rob Sargis, the Physician-Scientist Development Program has been rejuvenated. Our overall mission is to develop outstanding clinician-scientists who will become highly successful investigators on our faculty and at medical schools across the country. URBAN GLOBAL HEALTH TRACK The Urban Global Health Residency Track provides training to Internal Medicine residents who have an interest in pursuing health equity, locally and internationally. The goal of this track is to enhance awareness and knowledge regarding delivery of health care to vulnerable populations and to provide research opportunities and mentorship at both local and global levels. Under the leadership of Drs. Max Brito and Stockton Mayer the program has continued to match 4 applicants each year into this track which provides additional training in urban (Chicago) and international medicine. This track provided monthly didactic sessions, journal clubs, clinic opportunities in our HIV community clinics, international experience in the Dominican Republic, India, Guatemala along with local experiences including our Needle Exchange Van, HIV Community Clinics, and outreach to Chicago youth. INNOVATION IN INTERNAL MEDICINE TRACK The Innovation in Internal Medicine Track is our newest residency track. Spearheaded by Drs. David Perkins, Jalees Rehman, and Ben Gerber this three year track provides monthly didactic sessions, journal clubs and allows residents protected time to work on technology and creating intellectual property. Our goals are to offer opportunities through research collaborations across all schools and departments at UIC, stimulate the development of novel ideas, practices, and products, and tailor experiences for those with advanced degrees and extensive research experience.
RICHARD WEBER LECTURE SERIES
Thanks to the generous gift to the DOM donated by Dr. Richard Weber we formed the Life Long Learning committee which has been instrumental in developing the Richard Weber lecture series. The mission of the Richard Weber Lecture Series is to elevate the DOM as a leader in training our replacements and enhance the experience of our students, faculty and trainees. The lecture series provides ongoing access to world class speakers as a way to stay attuned to the latest information, cutting edge advancements in medicine, and provide the best care for all.
EDUCATION
Dr. Richard Weber, a 1976 College of Medicine alum and gastroenterologist, shared his story on the reason he chose gastroenterology as his specialty. A guest speaker in gastroenterology had such an impact on him while he was a resident that this speaker became his mentor. This experience is at the core of why he generously established a gift for education and learning in the Department of Medicine over a 5 year period. Dr. Weber believes this will add value and impact to our institution, specifically the DOM.
Dr. Richard Weber, MD FY18 LECTURES • “Intersectin-1s Deficiency in Pulmonary Pathophysiology” Sandra Predescu, PhD, Sept. 2017 • “An Invitation to Good Health and Lasting Happiness” Sanjiv Chopra, MD, Oct. 2017
‟This is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty and trainees to interact with guest speakers that may provide mentorship and expertise in a vast array of specialty areas. Upon my arrival at UIC, it was a goal of mine to revamp the structure of the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds to provide everyone as many experiences as possible. Without Dr. Weber this would not be possible. We want to take this opportunity to elevate the Department as a leader in training our replacements which also aligns with our mission. We will seek the best speakers and educators to join our family network to accomplish our goals of training the best, our replacements and providing the best care for all.” - Patricia Finn, MD Department of Medicine Chair
• “Implicit Bias: Manifestations, Consequences, and Remediation” Dr. Molly Carnes, MD, MS, Oct. 2017 • “Improving Quality, Achieving Equity, and Pursuing Value” Joseph Betancourt, MD, MPH, Nov. 2017 • “Diet, The Gut Microbiome, and its Metabolome in Health and Disease” Gary D. Wu, MD, Dec. 2017 • “Specific Aims for NIH Grants: The Key to Success.” “From bench to bedside, back to bench, back to bedside, etc.” Ken Adler, PhD, April 2018 • “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Settings: Opportunities, Barriers, and Pitfalls” Fazal Khan, MD, JD, June 2018
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MEET OUR 2017-2018 CHIEF RESIDENTS Rachel Bernard, MD Chief Resident: Ambulatory Medicine Medical School: University of Illinois at Chicago Future Plans: Academic Internal Medicine/Public Health I grew up in the city of Chicago, and went to UIC for medical school. When it came time to choose a residency, the combination of strong education, service to an underserved urban community, and the fun work environment of UIC could not be passed up! I was very excited to stay on as a chief resident because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my home at UIC. I also started my Masters in Public Health at UIC this year. As the Ambulatory Chief, I plan the outpatient medicine curriculum, and organize the clinic schedule for residents. Also I coordinate the Quality Improvement program and act as liaison to the Urban Global Health program and the Women in Medicine initiative. Upon completing chief year, I plan to work in academic internal medicine and pursue public health and policy work.
John Birchak, MD Chief Resident: Jesse Brown VA Hospital Medical School: The Ohio State University Future Plans: Fellowship in Cardiology After spending my entire life in Ohio, I decided to move to Chicago for residency and haven’t regretted it for a second. UIC is an excellent place to train. The attending physicians are great educators, and there is a strong sense of camaraderie within the residency. No matter what your future career plans are, this program will give you a strong foundation in clinical medicine to help you achieve your goals. During my training, I particularly enjoyed my time at the VA and working with our veterans. As the Jesse Brown VA Chief, I help with making the resident schedule, run the daily morning report, as well as organize procedure and rapid response simulation training. When I’m not working, I enjoy exercising, playing guitar, and going to the many concerts, sporting events, and festivals Chicago has to offer.
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Lila Glotfelty, MD, PhD Chief Resident: Research and Education Medical School/PhD: University of Illinois at Chicago Future Plans: Fellowship in Gastroenterology
Daniel Gutman, MD Chief Resident: University of Illinois Hospital Medical School: University of Florida Future Plans: Academic Internal Medicine Although I had never lived outside the state of Florida, I knew UIC was home from the moment I interviewed. Training at UIC has allowed me the privilege of caring for an underserved population. The breadth of disease presentations and rare cases I have seen, under the supervision of excellent mentors and clinicians, has given me a strong foundation in medicine. As the UIH Chief, my roles include running a daily morning report, overseeing mock codes, and providing the house staff with treats and a bad joke. I am also part of the wellness committee that was started by previous chiefs. When I’m not at work, I enjoy spending time with my wife and two kids, biking, and eating my way through Chicago.
ANNUAL REPORT 21
EDUCATION
I’m an East Coast transplant, so if anyone would like to reminisce about ketchup on hot dogs and non-monstrous pizza, I’m the go to person. As the Research and Education Chief, a priority is to enable every resident to successfully participate in research that generates posters and peer-reviewed publications. Research is a critical component of your academic training. By using a step-wise approach beginning during your intern year, we aim to make you as productive as possible. Additionally, by the end of your residency, you will be able to critically evaluate published data, enabling you to continuously improve your practice for the rest of your career. My responsibilities also include planning daily didactic sessions which cover topics tested on the Internal Medicine Board exam. Our high board pass rates reflect the strength of this curriculum and the dedication of our teaching faculty. It is my privilege to work here!
RESIDENTS & FELLOWS CHIEFS: 2017- 2018 Bernard, Rachel Birchak, John Glotfelty, Lila Gutman, Daniel S.
CHIEFS: 2018- 2019 Lewis, Michelle King, Rachael Meyer, Jonathan Vergis, Anthony
PGY -1 Avdagiv, Ema (P) Basha, Amina Borah, Brian Bounds, Rachel Bovenberg, Maria (P) Cheng, Lily (IM/EM) Chun, Penuel (P) Darlington, Ashley Dermarkarian, Christopher (P) Desai, Binnie Fallen, Amy Fisher, Steven Flores, John (M/P) Freedman, Michael Gokhale, Sanket Grand, Jacob Griggs, Theodor (PhySci) Haemer, Zoe (M/P) Hill, Michael Hodge, David (M/P) Homuth, Daniel (P) Hung, Hsiang-Hua (P) Kaimakliotis, Paul Kang, Jennifer
22 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Kang, Sandra Kennedy, Kathleen Kreston, Rebecca (IM/EM) Kwok, Alyssa (IM/EM) Lal, Kumar Laterza, Francesco (Neuro) Lopes, Caitlin Ma, Daniel (P) Marrero-Rivera, Gabriel Mathew, Alice McNamara, Stephanie (P) Megahed, Tarick (P) Muhaj, Fiorinda (P) Nayak, Shashank Pan, Alexander Parikh, Amar Patel, Armani Patel, Jayleenkumar Patel, Rishi Peninger, Emily Puri, Sashant (Neuro) Qian, Shuo (Neuro) Rabinovich, Emma Ramadugu, Ajit Ranjan, Sinthu (P) Saleemi, Sarah Sattarnezhad Oskouei, Neda (N) Savani, Umair Sita, Timothy (P) Srisuwananukorn, Andrew Tian, Frances Urias, Elizabeth (P) Yadollahikhales, Golnaz (Neuro) Yu, Andre Zeb, Muhammad (Neuro) Zilberstein, Ashley (M/P) Zilberstein, Netanel
PGY - 2 Abdul-Kafi, Owais Ali, Umayer Bice, Tristan Brook, Melissa (M/P) Brumley, William (IM/EM) Case, Aaron (IM/EM) De Leon, Sherryl Eng, Jason (PhySci) Geary, Kyle Gonzalez, Rodolfo Goodman, Colin Guzman, Yasmin Haider, Danish Hanscom, Mark Hardin, Mary Hassan, Ahmad Hughes, Lauren Kalina, Michael Keiser, Jennifer Khan, Ghulam Khong, Hoai Trinh (M/P) Kibrit, Jacob Kosloff, Adam Kudia, Ramsha Ladner, Benjamin Layer, Senuri Mauro, Ana (M/P) Patel, Roshan Pham, Trinh Rock, Adam Sahni, Sakshi Sanyal, Shuvani (M/P) Singh, Sanmeet Thaker, Sarang Viner, Maya Weller, Katherine
Westphal, Glenn Wheelis, Emily (IM/EM) Woo, Emily Wu, Catherine
PGY - 3 Arges, Alexandra (M/P) Ash, Daniel Atisha, Patrick Calo, Sal (IM/EM) Chia Li, Ricardo Davies, Alexander (IM/EM) Elhofy, Ashraf Goyal, Amita Goyal, Vatsala Iusim, Stephanie Jandura, David Kapoor, Victor Katz, Ari King, Rachael Kosirog, Justin (IM/EM) Kuder, Margaret Kuppy, Jessica Kwan, Jennifer Leone, David (M/P) Leung, Vania Levytska, Natalia Lewis, Michelle Lipovetsky, Roman Luo, Xixi (M/P) Martinez, Brent Maskell, Kenneth Mbachu, Jean Mbachu, Sheena Meyer, Jonathan O’Toole, Matthew Paredes, Daniel
PGY - 4 Charles, Michael (M/P) Dedania, Nishi (M/P) Hoffman, Gabriel (IM/EM) Naughton, Mary (IM/EM) Pearce, Elspeth (IM/EM) Ramallo, Jorge (M/P) Rotman, Lily (M/P)
PGY -5 Binder, Ashley (IM/EM) Mikkilineni, Vinay (IM/EM) Nobile, Joseph (IM/EM)
FELLOWS Cardiology Al-Yafi, Mohammed Balouch, Mohammad Casey, David Dai, Shengchuan Danavi, Joseph Evans, Kaleigh Feldman, Daniel Abraham Indorkar, Raksha Prakash Jameria, Zenith Arvind Krishna, Hema
Mehta, Arjun Palm, Denada Sharra Parikh, Devang S Phillips, Stephen Tyler Romer, Benjamin Salazar, Pablo Shih, Timothy Leland Trybula, Michael White, Brent Edward Endocrinology Matani, Sara Murad, Shatha Yousef Tzelepis, Elias Vydro, Leonid Zapater, Joseph Geriatrics Henriquez, Kristian Rafael Lwaga, Anita Mirza, Afia Sharma, Anuj Gastroenterology Ahmed, Zohair Bromberg, David Bul, Vadim Khan, Ruben Hasan Nelson, Kirbylee Omino, Ronald Patel, Kumkum Skef, Wasseem Hematology/Oncology Abraham, Ivy Baig, Jalal Saeed Christian, Sonia
Ghimire, Krishna Kalakota, Nandini Khan, Basharath Kondragunta, Vinod Lin, Yuankai Meier, Anne Motilal, Vijeyaluxmy Nyatsanza, Ignatius Rana, Saud Singh, Naina
Shakir, Zaid A Tan, Ai-Yui Tole, Mateo Usmani, Asharul Islam Willoughby, John Patrick Zaidi, Farhan
Infectious Diseases Elsheikh, Malak Gomez Abundis, Gerardo Maita Coronel, Dayana Moritz, Donna Thompson, Andrew Blatt
Rheumatology Small, Ben John Ziauddin, Ozair M
Sleep Assaf, Wassim Manhas, Saveena
Nephrology Ando, Akika Chakravarty, Bishan Dabbas, Walaa Kovacevic, Jelena Pathak, Lakshmi Silverman, Jonathan Michael Singh, Kunal Pulmonary and Critical Care Anis, Mariam Ascoli, Christian Jose Brillante, Christie Ann Cruz Damodaran, Ashvini Doumit, Jimmy Htwe, Yu Imayama, Ikuyo Labedz, Stephanie Manhas, Saveena
ANNUAL REPORT 23
EDUCATION
Raju, Bharath Reddy, Avinish Rischall, Ariel Shah, Sujay Shay Valle, Elizabeth Siddiqi, Aminaa Vergis, Anthony Wessel, Sean Willits, Sarah (M/P) Wong, Elizabeth
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
“To provide the best health for the people of Illinois through discovery”
T
he Department of Medicine (DOM) commitment to scholarly activity is essential to ensure exceptional care, training/ education, and the generation of new knowledge. Germane to this concept is the naming of research and investigative activity as “scholarly activity”. The longstanding expectation is that all members of the DOM contribute to scholarly activity. The DOM does not define roles as “research” or “clinical”, but rather enhancing scholarly activity for all Department members whether trainee, faculty, or staff. Collaboration and teamwork are essential to our success. The DOM actively fosters research success by providing the tools and capacity initiatives for faculty, staff and students, spearheaded by the Scholarly Activities Council (SAC).
RESEARCH FUNDING In the past year, the DOM focused on increasing funding from multiple sources in addition to the NIH (including state, other government and private sources). These efforts led to a 55.5% increase in awards, mitigating recent challenges associated with decreases in total grant expenditures by the NIH. The DOM’s NIH and non-NIH funding increased to $28.5 million from $28.1 million, representing approximately 20% of the UIC College of Medicine’s total awards. In demonstration of our strong commitment to advancing the careers of the next generation of researchers, seven junior faculty members received a K or career development awards. The department received a total of 63 new awards. RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT Peer Review of Grant Applications: The DOM offers an internal grant peer review program for all types of grant applications. The goal of the review is to provide advice of how to strengthen the application by improving structure, presentation, logical flow and also eliminating possible errors or inconsistencies in the experimental design. The internal grant review panel includes all SAC members and other internal experts experienced in grant writing and reviewing. This initiative has been highly successful. In the past year, over 10 faculty utilized this service, with a particular interest by junior faculty applying for career awards. SAC reviewed 4 career awards (K23, K08, KL2 and K99/R00. Three of these grants were funded (75% success rate [Herrick, Singla, Kendall]). SAC also reviewed 4 R01 applications (3 full applications and 1 subcontract) and
635
24 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
PUBLICATIONS DURING FY18
3 out of 4 were also funded (2 full and 1 subcontract [Finn, Levitan, Caskey]), constituting 75% success rate. One of the successful applicants noted: “the SAC grant review prior to my resubmission was very helpful and resulted in dramatic changes to key pages of the proposal that I think helped get it funded.” Grant Writing Boot Camp: The DOM led an annual grant writing boot camp in the spring of 2018. Eight applications were submitted, and after a competitive selection process, 4 junior faculty were enrolled. Selection criteria required that faculty submit a grant proposal with a high potential for successful external funding. The boot camp consisted of 8 sessions over 4 weeks and was facilitated by 13 experienced NIH-funded investigators who provided guidance in grant writing. Each session included mini-presentations led by facilitators, cohort/peer mentoring, and individualized mentorship by senior faculty with successful grant funding. At the conclusion of the boot camp, participants finalized their proposals which were submitted for mock peer review conducted by DOM faculty. Our participants have reported a wealth of knowledge gained from participating in the program. Of the 9 participants to date, 100% submitted their applications to NIH for funding and 5 have been awarded. Resident and Medical Student Research Training: Our Division of Academic Internal Medicine in conjunction with the chief residents created a website of scholarly activity opportunities to facilitate resident and medical student involvement in research. The DOM website lists over 30 active opportunities for residents and students along with a variety of tools and resources to enhance research productivity. We are delighted to report that we have seen
a significant increase in resident and medical student engagement in research and an increase in additional mentorship. ENHANCING DOM’S CULTURE OF SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES Ideas on Tap: The DOM implements a regular series of research get-togethers to increase multi-disciplinary research projects. Each quarter, the DOM sponsors an “Ideas on Tap” research event, informal forums for DOM faculty and trainees to discuss research ideas and present ongoing projects. The goal is to foster intradepartmental research collaborations. In 2018, attendance was high; approximately 170 faculty and trainees attended across the three events (the spring quarter coincides with Scholarly Activities Day as detailed below) and approximately 45 individuals presented posters of their work.
2018 Scholarly Activities Day - Left to Right: Claudia Lora, MD, MPH; Patricia W. Finn, MD, David Perkins, MD, PhD; Susan Cheng, MD
Each year, Scientific Excellence Awards are given to individuals who received the highest scored poster in their category. Our 2018 categories and winners are listed below.
Category
Awardee
Poster Title
Staff
Yue Huang | Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy
“Comparison of Bronchoalveloar Lavage Micro-RNA Signatures between Pulmonary Sarcoidosis and Lung Adenocarcinoma”
Student
Benjamin Turturice | Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy
“Lower Perinatal Exposure to Proteobacteria is Associated with Maternal Atopy and Childhood Wheezing”
Resident
Armani Patel | Division of Academic Internal Medicine
“A Rare Case of Invasive Esophageal Actinomyces in a Patient with Malabsorption”
Fellows/ PostDoc
Dayana Maita | Division of Infectious Diseases
“Implementation of a Female External Urinary Device to Decrease Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections”
Faculty
Weiguo Chen | Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy
“Simvastatin Upregulates Endothelial Cell Integrin β4 Expression by Promoter Activation and Epigenetic Modification” ANNUAL REPORT 25
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
Scholarly Activities Day: Our sixth annual DOM Scholarly Activities Day themed “Women’s and Global Health”, was held March 8, 2018 with approximately 100 poster presentations by faculty, junior faculty, fellows, residents, students and staff. The day included 5 presentations by DOM residents and faculty representing 4 divisions, and a keynote address titled “Cardiovascular Aging and Paths to Resilience” given by Susan Cheng, MD, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. The following UIC faculty and residents gave oral presentations; Olamide Jarrett, MD, MPH (Infectious Diseases), Aminaa Siddiqi, MD, PGY-3 (Internal Medicine Residents – Urban Global Health Track), Ghulam Karim Khan, MD, PGY-2 (Internal Medicine Residents – Urban Global Health Track), Joan Briller, MD (Cardiology), and Mary Jo Ladu, PhD (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology).
Ideas on Tap Research Mixer - Left to Right: Patricia W. Finn, MD, Yue Huang, PhD; Jeff Jacobson, MD
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS ACADEMIC INTERNAL MEDICINE 1. Choi N, Successful Use of Interventions in Combination to Improve Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Coverage Rates Among Adolescents-Chicago, 2013 to 2015. Academic Pediatrics. 2018;18(2s):S93-s100. Epub 2018/03/06. 2. Caskey R, A Behavioral Economic Approach to Improving Human Papillomavirus Vaccination. The Journal of Adolescent Health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. 2017;61(6):755-760. Epub 2017/10/14. 3. Abraham J, Reasons for Computerised Provider Order Entry (CPOE)-based Inpatient Medication Ordering Errors: an Observational Study of Voided Orders. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2018;27(4):299-307. Epub 2017/07/11. 4. Kannampallil TG, Effect of Number of Open Charts on Intercepted Wrong-Patient Medication Orders in an Emergency Department. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA. 2018:25(6):739-743. Epub 2017/10/13. 5. Sharp LK, Community Health Workers Supporting Clinical Pharmacists in Diabetes Management: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Pharmacotherapy. 2018;38(1):58-68. Epub 2017/11/30. 6. Tsai SA, Association of the Cardiometabolic Staging System with Individual Engagement and Quality of Life in the US Adult 26 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Population. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2017:25(9):1540-1548. 7. Ma J, Profiles of Sociodemographic, Behavioral, Clinical and Psychosocial Characteristics Among Primary Care Patients with Comorbid Obesity and Depression. Prev Med Reports. 2017:8:42-50. 8. Williams LM, The ENGAGE study: Integrating Neuroimaging, Virtual Reality and Smartphone Sensing to Understand Self-regulation for Managing Depression and Obesity in a Precision Medicine Model. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2018;101:58-70. Epub 2017/10/28. 9. Bhattacharyya S, Chondroitin Sulfatases Differentially Regulate Wnt Signaling in Prostate Stem Cells and Prostate Cancer through Effects on SHP2, phosphoERK1/2, and Dickkopf wnt signaling pathway inhibitor (DKK3). Oncotarget. 2017;8(59):100242100260. 10. Tussing-Humphreys LM, Maternal Weight in the Postpartum: Results from the Delta Healthy Sprouts Trial. Maternal Health, Neonatology and Perinatology. 2017;3:20. 11. Vergis S, Diet Quality and Nutrient Intake of Urban Overweight and Obese Primarily African American Older Adults with Osteoarthritis. Nutrients. 2018;10(4). Epub 2018/04/13.
CARDIOLOGY 1. Tsang KM, Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation to Functional Arterial Endothelial Cells through Sequential Activation of ETV2 and NOTCH1 Signaling by HIF1Îą. Stem
Cell Reports. 2017 9(3):796-806. 2. Cheng KT, Caspase-11-mediated endothelial pyroptosis underlies endotoxemia-induced lung injury. J Clin Invest. 2017 127(11):41244135. 3. Romano S, Feature-Tracking Global Longitudinal Strain Predicts Death in a Multicenter Population of Patients with Ischemic and Nonischemic Dilated Cardiomyopathy Incremental to Ejection Fraction and Late Gadolinium Enhancement. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2018, S1936878X(17)31147-6. 4. Mogos MF, Heart Failure in Pregnant Women: A Concern Across the Pregnancy Continuum. Circ Heart Fail. 2018; 11(1):e004005. 5. Romano S, Left Ventricular LongAxis Function Assessed with Cardiac Cine MR Imaging Is an Independent Predictor of AllCause Mortality in Patients with Reduced Ejection Fraction: A Multicenter Study. Radiology. 2018; 286(2):452-460. 6. Avitall B, Characteristics of Ice Impedance Recorded From a Ring Electrode Placed at the Anterior Surface of the Cryoballoon: Novel Approach to Define Ice Formation and Pulmonary Vein Isolation. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol. 2018, 11(4):e005949. 7. Argenziano M, Electrophysiologic Characterization of Calcium Handling in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Atrial Cardiomyocytes. Stem Cell Reports. 2018 10(6):1867-1878. 8. Alzahrani Z, The role of family
9. Challa KK, Coronary artery rotation in native and stented porcine coronary arteries. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv. 2018 91(6):1092-1100. 10. Rexius-Hall ML, A microfluidic oxygen gradient demonstrates differential activation of the hypoxia-regulated transcription factors HIF-1α and HIF-2α. Integr Biol (Camb). 2017; 9(9):742-750.
12. Chalazan B, Genetic modulation of atrial fibrillation risk in a Hispanic/ Latino cohort. PLoS One. 2018; 13(4):e0194480. 13. Gunja A, The implications of cocaine use and associated behaviors on adverse cardiovascular outcomes among veterans: Insights from the VA Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking (CART) Program. Clin Cardiol. 41(6):809-816. 14. Chalazan B, Relation of Body Mass Index to Symptom Burden in Patients wit hAtrial Fibrillation. Am J Cardiol. 2018; 122(2):235-24. 15. Jambusaria A, A computational approach to identify cellular heterogeneity and tissue-specific gene regulatory networks. BMC Bioinformatics. 2018; 19(1):217.
ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES & METABOLISM 1. Sargis RM, Evaluation and Treatment of Male Hypogonadism. JAMA. 3;319(13):1375-1376.
3. Fernandes GW, The Foxo1inducible Transcriptional Repressor Zfp125 Causes Hepatic Steatosis and Hypercholesterolemia. Cell Rep. 2018 Jan 9;22(2):523-534.
GASTROENTEROLOGY & HEPATOLOGY 1. Kumar A, Activation of NF-κB by Tumor Necrosis Factor in Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Mouse Intestinal Epithelia Reduces Expression of the Chloride Transporter SLC26A3. Gastroenterology. 2017 Aug 17. pii: S0016-5085(17)36040-7. 2. Kumar A, Cryptosporidium parvum disrupts intestinal epithelial barrier function via altering expression of key tight junction and adherens junction proteins. Cell Microbiol. 2018 Feb 14. 3. Manzella CR, Serotonin is an endogenous regulator of intestinal CYP1A1 via AhR. Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 17;8(1):6103. 4. Overgaard NH, Genetically Induced Tumors in the Oncopig Model Invoke an Antitumor Immune Response Dominated by Cytotoxic CD8β+ T Cells and Differentiated γδ T Cells Alongside a Regulatory Response Mediated by FOXP3+ T Cells and Immunoregulatory Molecules. Front Immunol. 2018 Jun 7;9:1301. 5. Principe DR, TGFβ engages MEK/ ERK to differentially regulate benign and malignant pancreas cell function. Oncogene. 2017 Jul 27;36(30):4336-4348. 6. Staudacher JJ, (2017) Activin in acute pancreatitis: Potential risk-stratifying marker and novel therapeutic target. Scientific
Reports 7(1):12786. 7. Staudacher JJ, (2017) Activin signaling is an essential component of the TGF-b induced prometastatic phenotype in colorectal cancer. Scientific Reports 7:5569. July 17, 2017. 8. Coffing H, Clostridium difficile toxins A and B decrease intestinal SLC26A3 protein expression. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2018 Jul 1;315(1): G43-G52. 9. Zhang YG, Infection with enteric pathogens Salmonella typhimurium and Citrobacter rodentium modulate TGF-beta/Smad Signaling Pathways in the Intestine. Gut Microbes, 2018 Jan 30:1-12. 10. Muthusamy S, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4α Regulates the Expression of Intestinal Epithelial Na+/H+ Exchanger Isoform-3 (NHE3). Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2018 Jan 1;314(1): G14-G21.Sep 7. 11. Malhotra P, Overactivation of intestinal Sterol Response Element Binding Protein 2 promotes diet-induced non-alcoholic steatohepatitis Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2017 Aug 3: ajpgi.00174.2017. 12. Rong Lu, Presence of Salmonella AvrA in colorectal tumor and its precursor lesions in mouse intestine and human specimens. Oncotarget, 8(33): 55104–55115, 2017. 13. Jing Sun, Inhibition of p70 S6 kinase activity by A77 1726 induces autophagy and enhances the degradation of mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) protein aggregates. Cell Death & Disease. CDDIS-17-1795R. Accepted on Feb. 20, 2018. 14. Rong Lu, Stat activation in infection and infection associated cancer. For special issue ”JAK-STAT Signaling ANNUAL REPORT 27
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
11. Liu E, Global geographical variation in patient characteristics in percutaneous coronary intervention clinical trials: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Am Heart J. 2018 Jan;195:39-49.
2. Yamamoto S, Autophagy Differentially Regulates Insulin Production and Insulin Sensitivity. Cell Rep. 2018 Jun 2;23(11):32863299.
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
history in early-onset atrial fibrillation across race-ethnic groups. JAMA Network Open 2018;1(5):e182497.
and Cancer”. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 451(C): 80-88, 2017. 15. Danika Bakke, Regulation of microbiome by Vitamin D receptor: a nuclear weapon in metabolic diseases. Nuclear Receptor Research. Vol. 5 (2018).
HEMATOLOGY/ONCOLOGY 1. Gordeuk VR, Patrolling the endothelium in sickle cell disease. Blood. 2018 Apr 5;131(14):15031505. 2. Zhang DL, Erythrocytic ferroportin reduces intracellular iron accumulation, hemolysis, and malaria risk. Science. 2018 Mar 30;359(6383):1520-1523. 3. Molokie R, Oral tetrahydrouridine and decitabine for non-cytotoxic epigenetic gene regulation in sickle cell disease: A randomized phase 1 study. PLoS Med. 2017 Sep 7;14(9):e1002382. 4. Stolley M, Efficacy of a Weight Loss Intervention for African American Breast Cancer Survivors. J Clin Oncol. 2017 Aug 20;35(24):28202828.
Marrow Transplant [GlobalBMT] Conference in Kathmandu with experiences from Nepal, India, Singapore and Sri Lanka. J Glob Health. 2018 Jun; 8(1): 010204. Published online 2018 Apr 16.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES 1. Schmitt S, Early Infectious Diseases Specialty Intervention Is Associated with Shorter Hospital Stays and Lower Readmission Rates: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Clin Infect Dis. 2018 Jun 13. PMID: 29901775. 2. Kendall A, (2017). A Two-Week Psychosocial Intervention Reduces Future Incarceration and Aggression in Clinically Aggressive Juvenile Offenders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 56, 10531061. 3. Samai M, The Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine Against Ebola: An Evaluation of rVSV∆GZEBOV-GP Vaccine Tolerability and Safety During the West Africa Ebola Outbreak. J Infect Dis. 2018 May 18;217(suppl_1):S6-S15.
5. Landsburg DJ, Outcomes of Patients With Double-Hit Lymphoma Who Achieve First Complete REmission. J Clin Oncol. 35:2260-67, 2017.
4. K Buchacz, Disparities in HIV Viral Load Suppression by Race/ethnicity among Men who Have Sex with Men in the HIV Outpatient Study. 2018. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2018 Jan 9. PMID:29316797.
6. Hien Anh Nguyen, A novel L-asparaginase with low L-glutaminase coactivity is highly efficacious against both T- and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias in vivo. Cancer Res. 2018 Jan 17. pii: canres.2106.2017.
5. Moritz E, Notes from the Field: Outbreak of Severe Illness Linked to the Vitamin K Antagonist Brodifacoum and Use of Synthetic Cannabinoids - Illinois, March-April 2018.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018 Jun 1;67(21):607-608.
7. Tayo BO, Fixed Low-Dose Hydroxyurea for the Treatment of Adults with Sickle Cell Anemia in Nigeria. Am J Hematol. 2018 May 14.
NEPHROLOGY
8. Rondelli D, First Global Blood & 28 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
1. Batlle D, Hyperkalemic Forms of Renal Tubular Acidosis: Clinical and Pathophysiological Aspects. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis. 2018 Jul;25(4):321-333.
2. Turturice BA, Lower Perinatal Exposure to Proteobacteria is an Independent Predictor of Early Childhood Wheezing. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018 Sep 8. pii: S00916749(18)31277-6. 3. Feng L, Repeated Exposure of Epithelial Cells to Apoptotic Cells Induces the Specific Selection of an Adaptive Phenotype: Implications for Tumorigenesis. J Biol Chem. 2018 Jun 29;293(26):1024510263. 4. Lora CM, Acculturation and Chronic Kidney Disease in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Prev Med Rep. 2018 Apr 4;10:285-291. 5. Ricardo AC, Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) Study Investigators. The Association of Sleep Duration and Quality with CKD Progression. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2017 Dec;28(12):37083715.
PULMONARY, CRITICAL CARE, SLEEP AND ALLERGY 1. Kruklitis R, Investing in New Technology in Pulmonary Medicine: Navigating the Tortuous Path to Success. Chest 2017 Sep;152(3):663-671. 2. Lacasse Y, Home Oxygen in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. AM Respir Crit Care Med. 2018 May 15;197(10):1254-1264. 3. Jackson DJ, Quintupling Inhaled Glucocorticoids to Prevent Childhood Asthma Exacerbations. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute AsthmaNet. N Engl J Med. 2018 Mar 8;378(10):891-901. 4. Le Master E, Proatherogenic Flow Increases Endothelial Stiffness via Enhanced CD36-Mediated Uptake of Oxidized Low-Density Lipoproteins. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2018 Jan;38(1):64-75.
5. Nyenhuis SM, Race is associated with differences in airway inflammation in patients with asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2017 Jul;140(1):257-265.e11. 6. Moon HG, Airway Epithelial Cell-Derived Colony Stimulating Factor-1 Promotes Allergen Sensitization. Immunity. 2018 Aug 21;49(2):275-287.e5. 7. Bikkavilli RK, K-homology splicing regulatory protein (KSRP) promotes post-transcriptional destabilization of Spry4 transcripts in non-small cell lung cancer. J Biol Chem. 2017 May 5;292(18):7423-7434.
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
8. Ascoli C, A Circulating Micro-RNA Signature Serves as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Indicator in Sarcoidosis. ACCESS Research Group. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2017 Aug 16.
RHEUMATOLOGY 1. Mirsaeidi M, Hypoalbuminemia is related to inflammation rather than malnutrition in sarcoidosis. Eur J Intern Med. 2018 Jul;53:e14-e16. 2. Korsten P, Increased Whole Blood Viscosity Is Associated with the Presence of Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis: Results from a Cross-Sectional Pilot Study. Autoimmune Dis. 2017;2017:3529214. 3. Van Raemdonck K, Impact of obesity on autoimmune arthritis and its cardiovascular complications. Autoimmun Rev. 2018 Aug;17(8):821-835. 4. Elshabrawy HA, IL-11 facilitates a novel connection between RA joint fibroblasts and endothelial cells. Angiogenesis. 2018 May;21(2):215-228.
ANNUAL REPORT 29
CULTURE & DIVERSITY “Fostering an organizational culture of interdisciplinary collaboration with our faculty, colleagues and academic community”
30 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
BREAKING T H E T he program, called BRIM for Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine, was developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its aim is to help make participants aware of biases and cultural stereotypes they may subscribe to, even if they do so unconsciously. “Nobody thinks that their thoughts or actions are based on internalized stereotypes or biases, but the truth is that these ideas can be so ingrained that even the most sensitive person can be influenced by them in their behavior at work, towards colleagues or towards students,” said Dr. Patricia Finn. “BRIM has been shown in early trials to be effective at helping faculty recognize and reduce that biased behavior. I knew immediately after I saw those results presented at a conference that I wanted our department of medicine to participate in the further evaluation of the program.” The UIC Department of Medicine (DOM) was the first to sign up to participate in a larger, nationwide study of the BRIM program, which was developed by Dr. Molly Carnes, professor of medicine, psychiatry and industrial and systems engineering at the University of WisconsinMadison and colleagues at Madison. Dr. Carnes says the ongoing study includes 15 departments of medicine and will last approximately two years at each institution. The DOM elected to have four leads, Drs. Waddah Alrefai, Alana Biggers, Geri Donenberg, and Andrew Trotter.
“UI Health — our health enterprise comprised of UIC’s seven health science colleges and the University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics — is dedicated to advancing health equity for all. That commitment is rooted in a faculty and staff who are aware of and can recognize biases and inequities they themselves might hold,” said Dr. Robert Barish, vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Engaging in the BRIM program is one way that we can foster this mission in our interactions with our fellow
faculty, staff, patients and students.” Professional interactions, performance evaluations and hiring decisions can also be inadvertently influenced by opinions people hold about others based on who they are, where they’re from or the language they speak without getting to know the individual, Dr. Carnes explained. Race, gender, age, sexual preference and even weight can play into these biases. As a result, some people and groups experience a more positive and supportive work environment than faculty or individuals of other groups. At the heart of the BRIM program is a three-hour workshop titled, “Breaking the Bias Habit: Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine.” Dr. Carnes and colleagues designed the program to help participants recognize their own biased behaviors, and provide strategies for reducing those behaviors. Some of the strategies include perspective taking — or putting oneself in another’s shoes, and stereotype replacement, where a stereotypical perception is questioned and replaced with real information based on an individual. In the ongoing BRIM study, half of the DOM’s faculty and staff will receive the BRIM program delivered by its developers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The other half will receive BRIM training from their UIC colleagues, known as “BRIM implementers,” who have been trained by the Madison researchers. Participants will complete a survey before BRIM starts on the department climate and the respondent’s feelings about the value of the BRIM program and expectations. Three months after the workshop is delivered, participants in both groups will complete a follow-up survey asking about the department climate, their feelings about BRIM and if they have noticed changes in their own behavior that resulted from BRIM. “Our program looks at biases as habits, and these habits, like any others, can be changed by increasing awareness and supporting self-efficacy in the practice of evidence-based strategies like those presented through BRIM,” Dr, Finn said. “While this program focuses on faculty, we look forward to using these skills and tools in training the next generation of physicians.”
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Providing a good departmental climate through reducing race, gender and other biases can help increase faculty retention, explained Dr. Carnes. “The average cost of losing a faculty member exceeds $400,000, so climate is also important on a cost-basis,” said Carnes. “Women who work in more supportive climates also have lower levels of work/ family conflict, even if they work up to 70 hours per week.”
BIAS HABIT
CLOSING THE GAP: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
T
College of Medicine curriculum change. In addition to the patient experience, students receive structured sessions on mentorship, career advancement, test taking, and residency application topics.
Approximately two-thirds of patients at University of Illinois Hospital are African American or Latino. The student body of our medical school is one of the most diverse in the nation with underrepresented minorities (URM) comprising approximately 25% of our students. In contrast, prior to 2013, only 6% of internal medicine residents were URMs. In January of 2013, the DITF was established to strategize and promote a culture of inclusion, regardless of ethnicity, gender or sexual identification, or economic background.
internal Medicine Summer Immersion Program Our annual summer externship in internal medicine launched during summer 2016. The 2-week rotation externship was offered to two underrepresented minority medical students, one from UIC and one from UI-Rockford, in the summer of 2017 between their first and second year. During the 2-week rotation students received clinical exposure to outpatient and inpatient internal medicine and actively participated in community experiences working with faculty at community clinics and nursing homes. The aim of this program encourages and supports students considering careers in internal medicine by providing first-hand exposure to the breadth of opportunities available in general internal medicine and its subspecialties.
he Department of Medicine’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (DITF) aims to promote and support diversity in DOM programs, foster a culturally-rich and diverse environment that promotes interest in internal medicine, and attract and retain faculty, housestaff, and students from diverse backgrounds who mirror the population we serve.
INITIATIVES AND SUCCESS Restructuring the URM Mentorship Program A new collaboration with the College of Medicine’s Urban Health Program and the Department of Pediatrics began
As a scholarly project, students present a case presentation to submit as an abstract at the American College of Physicians (ACP) regional student competition. The program was very well received by the second cohort of medical students and garnered positive feedback for the novelty of its structure, content, and implementation. Collaboration with the Office of Health Literacy Several members of the DITF spoke at various community venues, such as shelters, community hospitals and churches, providing information and best practices for prevention and health promotion for various chronic disease topics including Latinas and Cardiovascular Disease at St. Pius church and Cardiovascular Health at a homeless shelter. These were well received and presentations have continued.
SNMA Conference - Left to Right: Alana Biggers, MD, MPH , Rachael King, MD, Ashley Binder, MD, Fred Zar, MD
restructuring the URM mentorship program. First and second year medical students were paired with a faculty and a resident mentor. Each student would join their faculty and resident mentor 8 times a year in clinic, hospital rounds and/or procedure rooms to expose the students to the daily practice of internal medicine (IM) and subspecialties. Restructuring occurred in FY2018 to better incorporate the 32 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
A course titled ”Introduction to Health Disparities, Health Literacy, and Cultural Competence” was developed to increase healthcare professionals’ awareness and knowledge of these important topics. To date, more than 200 individuals have registered for these sessions. Participants hailed from 11 colleges across the university and include students, faculty, residents, fellows, and other allied health professionals. Some of the topics covered in the course included: health equity; the social determinants of health; health disparities in managed care; the definition of and prevalence of health literacy; and strategies for becoming culturally competent and communicating with diverse populations. The course was well regarded and met a need for this type of training in the institution.
Residency Review Process Members of the DITF reviewed, provided direct input, and participated in the scoring process of the ERAS applications for underrepresented minorities applying to the UIC internal medicine program. In addition to providing assistance in evaluating the candidate’s academic record, the IM program leadership relies on the DITF to examine an applicant’s potential for an academic career. Interview Season Applicant Mixer Prior to URM applicants visit to UIC, our internal medicine residents contact URM applicants to introduce themselves and answer any questions about our program’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. An interviewee welcome packet with information about the task force and an invitation to a weekly happy hour mixer is given to URM applicants. The goals of our mixer are to foster camaraderie and to encourage applicants to ask questions to residents and chief residents. Information on LGBTQ life at UIC is also provided. National Medical Student Conferences The DITF actively participates at the national and regional meetings of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) and Student National Medical Association (SNMA). These are the largest national organizations attracting students from underrepresented backgrounds. Since 2014, the DOM has sponsored a booth at both national society meetings to highlight the DOM and its training programs. Several faculty members from the DOM served as speakers at these meetings, increasing the visibility of DOM programs. Engagement with URM students increased by over 200% since 2015. The number of URM residents in the IM residency training program have ranged from 14-35% since 2015 (a year since first attending the conferences). Prior to increased participation at LMSA and SNMA, the number of URM trainees ranged from 2-11%.
Survey Highlights: • 95% were satisfied or very satisfied with their UIC residency training. • 68% specialized and 20% are in general medicine practice through primary care or as a hospitalist. • Our graduates work in a variety of settings including academia, private practice, community-based practice, the Veterans Administration hospital, and technology companies. • 36% have published, 41% conduct research, and 38% are engaged in community-based programs.
Faculty Survey In June 2018, the DITF created a faculty survey to evaluate the faculty’s impressions on characteristics of an ideal resident candidate. This survey was in preparation for the DITF retreat held in July 2018. The survey was used to develop a holistic residency interview process for implementation during Fall 2018. The top desired characteristics were: • • • • • • • • • •
Medical Knowledge Communication Skills Strong work ethic Cultural humility and unbiased attitude Empathy Reliability and Dependability Ability to work well with teams Good bedside manner Resilience and Adaptability Professionalism
Diversity and Inclusion Retreat The DITF began planning its first retreat to be held in July 2018 for strategic development and to discuss short-term goals for the DITF in FY19. Members (FY18): Alana Biggers, MD, MPH (Co-Chair); Olga Garcia-Bedoya, MD (Co-Chair); Max Brito, MD, MPH; Jorge Cavero, MD; Claudia Lora, MD; Sharmilee Nyenhuis, MD; Jorge Ramallo, MD, MPH; Ramon Garcia, MD; Paula AllenMeares, PhD; Geri Donenberg, PhD; Patrick Godwin, MD; Karriem Watson, DHSc, MS, MPH; Fred Zar, MD; Rachel Bernard, MD; Rachael King, MD; Daniel Paredes, MD
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Post-Residency Survey In April 2018, the DITF developed and distributed a postresidency survey to over 500 IM residency graduates dating back to 15 years of residency classes. The survey evaluated the IM residency graduates’ current employment, postresidency training, involvement with the community, and their experience as a resident at UIC.
LMSA Conference - Left to Right: Karriem Watson, DHSc, MS, MPH and Olga Garcia-Bedoya, MD
IMPACTING WOMEN IN MEDICINE
In 2015, Dr. Finn convened the Women’s Task Force to address the status of women in the DOM with goals of examining the DOM’s own organizational practices and promoting equity. The mission of the task force is to enhance career and leadership opportunities for women faculty, students, and staff, promote visibility and recognition of women’s contributions to the department and campus, cultivate an environment that fosters women medical students’ interest in an academic career, attract excellent faculty members and promote gender-based research.
MENTORING LUNCHEON SERIES In FY18 the Women’s Task Force established the Strategies for Success Mentoring Luncheon series. Faculty and trainees gathered to learn about career advancement, developing skills as a medical educator and maintaining a portfolio, leadership opportunities, tools for negotiation, work life balance, translational science services and resources, and tips for crafting effective presentations.
An initial survey of our faculty was performed in the spring of 2015. When looking at rank by gender, our survey reflected numbers very similar to the national averages with the most significant loss of women as academic faculty occurring between the assistant and associate professor level, suggesting that the DOM needed to address advancement of women faculty once they start their academic career. The Women’s Task Force surveyed women faculty to explore perceived barriers to promotion and retention among women. The top 3 cited areas of concern were: clarify the requirements for promotion and tenure, information on improving visibility within the academic community, and finding and developing successful mentor/mentee relationships. PROMOTION Since the inception of the Women’s Task Force, the number of women proposed for promotion has significantly increased. In academic year (AY) 2015 only one woman was proposed for promotion. in AY16, 4 women were proposed (including 2 women at the full professor level), and in AY17, 10 women were proposed resulting in 9 promoted. In AY18, 10 women were promoted from assistant to associate level and 1 was promoted to professor level.
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Left to Right: Drs. Biggers, Garcia-Bedoya and Allen-Meares presenting at Scholarly Activities Day
Members (Past and Current): Joan Briller, MD (Co-Chair); Geri Donenberg, PhD (Co-Chair); Paula Allen-Meares, PhD; Rachel Bernard, MD; Alana Biggers, MD, MPH; Susan Bleasdale, MD; Cheryl Conner, MD; Martha Daviglus, MD, PhD; Olga Garcia-Bedoya, MD; Min Joo, MD, MPH; Claudia Lora, MD; Krystle Stewart, BS; Nadera Sweiss, MD; Beata Wolska, PhD
DOM EVENTS IN FY2018 1
2
3
4
6
5
2. Scholarly Activities Day / March 8, 2018 3. Bernie Mac Gala / April 19, 2018 4. Career Mixer for Residents / November 1, 2017 5. Coffee Hour with the Chair / Summer 2017 6. 2018 Summer Education - Dr. Alex Auseon Presenting / August 15, 2017 ANNUAL REPORT 35
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1. Richard Weber Supported Lecture - Best Selling Author and Motivational Speaker Sanjiv Chopra, MD, MACP “An Invitation to Good Health and Lasting Happiness” / October 13, 2017
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DIVISIONAL ROCKSTARS AMER K. ARDATI, MD, MSC Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine Division of Cardiology Dr. Amer Ardati served as chief cardiology consultant to UIC’s Solid Organ Transplant program to develop a comprehensive risk assessment protocol that standardized and streamlined the care of patients being considered for solid organ transplant at UIC. His efforts resulted in significant improvements in patient care. Dr. Ardati also served as co-chair of the Emergency Care Committee that developed a database of all cardiac arrests that occur in our hospital, which became instrumental in improving resuscitation management. As director of Coronary Care Unit and Inpatient Cardiology Services, he developed guideline-based protocols for the assessment and management of patients presenting with acute coronary care syndrome and in collaboration with his interventional colleagues expanded the ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Network. Dr. Ardati also won multiple teaching awards, including the UIC Excellence in Teaching Award. ALANA BIGGERS, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Academic Internal Medicine
Dr. Alana Biggers was awarded a twoyear NIDDK research administrative
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supplement to study type 2 diabetes mellitus and sleep. Dr. Biggers enjoys teaching residents and students on best practices in urban health and providing medical care for underserved populations. As a co-leader of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, she aims to improve diversity among faculty and trainees. Dr. Biggers spearheaded a successful effort to survey internal medicine resident alumni. The survey provided the department valuable information about our residents’ careers and perspectives on training. She contributes to UIC’s educational mission through participation on the Education Affairs Council and as a lead for population health within the medical school. JOSE CORDOBA-CHACON, PHD Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Dr. Jose Cordoba-Chacon has a current K01 for 5 years and already published over 40 peerreviewed articles. He began his postdoctoral work in February 2011 and was awarded the Presidential Poster award and the Eugenia Rosemberg Abstract award from the Endocrine Society’s 2014 and 2015 annual meetings. Based on his significant progress, he has been promoted to Assistant Professor, tenure-track. Dr. Cordoba-Chacon’s research focus is on understanding molecular mechanisms that control hepatic lipid metabolism and how these are essential to promote nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic disturbances. He is also studying the role of hepatocyte PPARg, the target of TZDs (a drug commonly prescribed to diabetics), in the impact to hepatic lipid metabolism
and systemic insulin resistance. He is using adult-onset hepatocyte-specific PPARg knockout mice and inducing non-alcoholic hepatic liver disease and insulin resistance with different experimental approaches. DUSTIN FRAIDENBURG, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy Dr. Dustin Fraidenburg directs our Pulmonary Hypertension program and provides outstanding care to a large volume of patients who suffer from this complex and often a highly morbid condition. In the past year he assumed responsibility for organizing and moderating the monthly DOM Morbidity and Mortality conference, which is one of the most popular and educational conferences for the Internal Medicine housestaff. The housestaff greatly value and appreciate these and other educational efforts by Dr. Fraidenburg and recently voted him “New Attending of the Year”. Dr. Fraidenburg earned a highly competitive NIH K08 award in support of his novel research into the mechanisms by which inflammation adversely affects hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. He is very active in the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and has participated in lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., in support of ATS health priorities. IRUM KHAN, MD Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology Over the last 5 years, Dr. Irum Khan was able to accomplish outstanding results in all three aspects
of our academic mission. Dr. Khan continuously grew an outpatient program for chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and her patient visit volume is among the highest in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. This has allowed her also to be involved with clinical trials in MPN and AML. She has successfully developed a research interest in the role of FOXM1 gene in AML with the goal to demonstrate an innovative path towards targeted therapy in leukemia. Through the collaboration with another researcher in the division of gastroenterology she produced and published two papers in high impact journals as first author. Dr. Khan received a two-year CATS KL2 Scholars Award. As a teacher, she has incredible passion in working with residents and fellows. STOCKTON MAYER, DO Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases
ANJALI MEHTA, MD Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine Division of Rheumatology Dr. Anjali Mehta is deeply passionate about the best interests for her patients and the care they receive. She is an excellent teacher and mentor to the fellows, residents, and medical students with whom she interacts. Dr. Mehta has taken the initiative to develop a musculoskeletal ultrasound education program, following American College of Radiology and The Ultrasound School of North American Rheumatologists course guidelines. Our fellows often seek her out for her input and advice because they find her a valued resource. ANA C. RICARDO, MD, MPH, MS Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Nephrology Dr. Ana C. Ricardo has led research studies evaluating the impact of lifestyle factors including sleep, smoking, physical activity and diet on outcomes in individuals with chronic kidney disease. Her research has been recognized nationally and internationally and has been invited to give presentations at the NIH, the American Diabetes Association, American Society of Nephrology and Colombian Association of Nephrology. Dr. Ricardo has published 50 manuscripts and served as lead or senior author on 17 of these.
Dr. Ricardo’s work is currently funded by an NIH K23 mentored award. She has collaborated with UIC faculty, as well as investigators at other institutions including University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, and Kaiser Permanente Northern California. In addition to being an outstanding researcher, Dr. Ricardo is a fully committed clinician and contributes greatly to the delivery of care to patients with chronic kidney disease. She is an excellent teacher and her contributions to teaching are very well received by students, residents and other trainees. CEMAL YAZICI, MD Clinical Instructor of Medicine Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Dr. Cemal Yazici is an excellent clinician, a dedicated researcher and an engaged teacher and mentor to younger trainees. During his fellowship, he examined whether there are colorectal cancer associated differences in the gut microbiome that are more prominent in the African American population that may underlie the increased incidence and severity of this disease in this population. He discovered an increased abundance of Bilophila wadsworthia in this population which may stimulate the inflammatory process and generate more genotoxic insults leading to cancer. Dr. Yazici’s research was published in one of the highest tier GI research journals and presented by Dr. Yazici as an oral presentation at Digestive Diseases Week.
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Dr. Stockton Mayer hit the ground running and has not stopped since joining the faculty. He has taken on all aspects of our academic mission. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, he actually requested additional weeks of service beyond what he was originally assigned. He is the director of the Urban Global Medicine track of our Internal Medicine Residency program. He partnered with the School of Public Health and the School of Nursing to deliver care to People Who Inject Drugs, particularly related to skin and soft tissue infections via a mobile van. More recently he received a grant from the Hearst Foundation to expand primary care services at one of
the HIV community clinics. Dr. Mayer is a co-director of the Infectious Disease Department’s Clinical Research Center, Project Wish, where he collaborates on the HPTN 083 study among others. Dr. Mayer also has developed a partnership at the Ministry of Public Health in Jalapa, Guatemala, where he travels regularly to train physicians and develop strategies to test and treat high risk HIV populations.
AWARDS AND PROMOTIONS 2017 Clinical Sciences Distinguished Researcher and Scholar of the Year Richard Novak, MD
2017 Basic Sciences Distinguished Researcher and Scholar of the Year Papasani Subbaiah, PhD
The Researcher and Scholar of the Year Awards celebrate the efforts and commitment of individuals who are making exceptional progress advancing knowledge in their area of research and scholarship.
2018 College of Medicine Distinguished Faculty of the Year Dr. Patricia W. Finn was selection as recipient of the 2018 College of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award. Dr. Finn was chosen for this honor by her peers in recognition of her national and international reputation as an expert pulmonary scientist, strong record of extramural funding and scholarship, commitment to the championing of health equity and social justice, and impactful contributions to the College as a passionate and innovative clinical leader. 2018 Department of Medicine Faculty of the Year Dr. John Tulley was recognized for the excellence he has shown in teaching, research, and service.
2018 Department of Medicine Rising Star Dr. Robert Sargis was recognized for his strong potential to be a future leader in his field.
Dr. Fred Zar is the recipient of several awards bestowed by this year’s medical students. Dr. Zar was awarded: M3 Golden Apple, M4 Golden Apple, and the Bombeck Award for the best teacher in the medical school.
During the celebration held for the Internal Medicine/Emergency Medicine Graduation Class of 2018, Certificates of Excellence in Teaching were awarded to DOM faculty who received 85% or above on the annual faculty teaching survey. Shiva Arami, MD Susan Bleasdale, MD Rachel Caskey, MD Cheryl Connor, MD Ananya Gangopadhyaya, MD Kevin Haas, MD 40 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Shivi Jain, MD Mayank Kansal, MD George T. Kondos, MD Tanjeev Kaur, MD Jeffrey Jacobson, MD Melvin Lopata, MD
Stockton Mayer, DO Alfredo Mena Lora, MD Mahesh Patel, MD Anne Polick, MD Bradley Recht, MD Sunit Singla, MD
Thomas Stamos, MD Paul Szyperski, MD Stefan Tchernodrinski, MD Jeremy Young, MD, MPH Annette Zacharia, MD Fred Zar, MD
Attendings of the Year
Ergün Önal, MD
Anne Polick, MD
Stefan Tchernodrinski, MD
Fred Zar, MD
New Attending of the Year Dustin Fraidenburg, MD
Chief’s Choice Award Jerrold Levine, MD Jose Arruda Fellow of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching Scott Borgetti, MD
PGYs of the Year PGY-1 - Andrew Srisuwananukorn, MD PGY-2 - Owais Abdul-Kafi, MD PGY-3 - Vatsala Goyal, MD Humanistic Resident of the Year Karim Khan, MD
John E. Tulley UIC General Medicine Attending of the Year Award Radhika Sreedhar, MD
Ergün Önal Resident of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching Vatsala Goyal, MD
Paul K. Schlesinger JBVA Attending of the Year Award Patrick Godwin, MD
Faculty Award for Outstanding Graduate Nishi Dedania, MD
Non Medicine Attending of the Year Award James Bui, MD
Medical Spanish Program Daniel Paredes, MD Jorge Ramallo, MD
PharmD of the Year Scott Benken, MD
FACULTY PROMOTIONS Michel Gowhari, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Pritesh Patel, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Susan Bleasdale, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Jeffrey Jacobson, MD Professor (CT) of Medicine
Bharati Prasad, MD, MS Associate Professor (CT) of Medicine
Brian Boulay, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Barbara Jung, MD Professor (CT) of Medicine
Jonathan Radosta, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Jiwang Chen, PhD Research Associate Professor
Lyn Sue Kahng, MD Clinical Associate Professor
Ana Ricardo, MD Associate Professor (CT) of Medicine
Steven Dudek, MD Professor (RT) of Medicine
Sean Koppe, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Radhika Sreedhar, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Olga Garcia-Bedoya, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Claudia Lora, MD Associate Professor (CT) of Medicine
Neeta Venepalli, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Ravinder Gill, PhD Associate Professor (RT) of Medicine
Roberto Machado, MD Professor (CT) of Medicine
Suncica Volkov, MD Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Patrick Godwin, MD, MBA Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Robert Molokie, MD Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
Howard Gordon, MD Professor (RT) of Medicine
Gye Young Park, MD Associate Professor (CT) of Medicine
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Waddah Alrefai, MD Professor (RT) of Medicine
IN MEMORIAM H
oward Ozer, MD, PhD, Eileen Lindsay Heidrick Professor of Oncology, director of the UIC Cancer Center, and former hematology/oncology division chief, passed away on April 6, 2018. Dr. Ozer’s successful career in hematology/oncology was demonstrated by his leadership role in multiple prestigious institutions, innumerable clinical trials and publications in journals with the highest impact factor, research funding and training of many young investigators. He specialized in treatment of blood cancers and is internationally known for his work on biological therapies for cancer. He made significant developments in research related to blood cell growth factors and cytokines. He also conducted clinical trials in leukemia and lymphoma. In 2017, Dr. Ozer was named a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for his extraordinary dedication and service to the field of cancer.
‟In my 37 years in oncology and hematology, I’ve been able to witness and participate in clinical trials that cure and ameliorate many different kinds of tumors, and save many patients’ lives. To be recognized in this fashion by the American Society of Clinical Oncology whose membership was responsible for so many of these advances is truly an honor.” - Howard Ozer, MD, PhD
Remembering HOWARD OZER (1949-2018)
Prior to joining UIC as chief of the division of hematology/oncology from 2010-2012, and then director of UIC Cancer Center from 2012-2014, he served as division chief of medical oncology at the University of North Carolina; chairman and director of the Winship Cancer Center at Emory University School of Medicine; director of the Cancer Center at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia and chief of the section of hematology/oncology, and director of the OU Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Ozer graduated from Yale University, where he completed his MD and PhD and completed a training program in microbiology and immunology. He interned and completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He received fellowship training in hematology/oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Ozer’s passion for research and clinical studies made him a senior leader of the gastrointestinal cancer working group at UIC and the director of the UI Health tumor registry. Howard was a great colleague, always smiling, willing to collaborate, and also to share his passion for Africa and hunting. Those who knew him miss him as a friend and colleague.
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L
awrence Frohman, MD, colleague and former UIC department of medicine head passed away on March 4, 2018. Dr. Frohman had a remarkable career as a scientist and endocrinologist and was recognized for his outstanding teaching, service, and administrative achievements. He successfully led research, education, and clinical programs, directing fellowship training programs for MDs and PhDs, many of whom are now in leadership positions throughout the world. Dr. Frohman made groundbreaking discoveries in understanding pituitary disease and pathologies throughout his distinguished career, writing and contributing to over 300 publications. He performed pioneering work on the control of growth hormone (GH) secretion and identified and partially purified a GH releasing factor from pancreatic and lung tumors, which preceded the isolation of growth hormone-releasing hormone. He developed one of the first radioimmunoassays for rat GH and published extensively on regulation of GH secretion and on GHRH expression and action. He was a master teacher of basic and clinical scientists and excelled at clinical care and professional service. He served as division chief of endocrinology at Michael Reese Hospital and at the University of Cincinnati, and as department head of medicine at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine. He received countless honors throughout his career, including membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Clinical and Climatological Association.
Remembering LAWRENCE FROHMAN (1925-2018)
He received the 2018 Endocrine Society Laureate Award for Outstanding Leadership. He was also the recipient of the Society’s Rorer Clinical Investigation Award, an Honorary Member of the Japanese Endocrine Society, and the Bane Scholar and Distinguished Faculty Award at the University of Illinois. Dr. Frohman served as president of the Pituitary Society and the Central Society for Clinical Research. He served on the Endocrinology Study Section, chaired the Endocrinology Program Advisory Group, and the NIH National Hormone and Pituitary Program. Additionally, he sat on the VA Endocrinology Merit Review Board, the FDA Endocrine-Metabolism Review Committee, and also chaired the USP Expert Advisory Endocrinology Committee. Dr. Frohman will be remembered as a dedicated and outstanding scholar. He was selfless, engaged, and a role model for young and old physicians and scientists. Dr. Frohman was a friend and mentor to many of us and was willing to share his sage advice. He will be sincerely missed.
S
tanley Blumenthal, MD, professor emeritus, passed away on December 4, 2017. Dr. Blumenthal was a long time provider in the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. He joined the division in 1994.
Dr. Blumenthal was originally from New York where he attended medical school and completed his clinical training. He began his career in academic medicine and endocrinology as a member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and at the State University of New York in Syracuse. In 1992, he came to Chicago as the internal medicine program director for Advocate Christ Medical Center.
Remembering STANLEY BLUMENTHAL (1929-2017)
He remained actively engaged in teaching, patient care, and learning until late in the summer of 2017 when, at the age of 88, the development of medical problems no longer allowed him to do so. Dr. Blumenthal will be sorely missed for his knowledge, love of learning, compassion, integrity, friendship, and wisdom.
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Dr. Blumenthal had an extensive understanding of human metabolism and its various metabolic pathways and cycles, especially as it relates to diabetes. He served as a supervising clinician for fellows at the Veterans Administration and the University of Illinois Hospital. He loved to read, teach and kept current with advances in the field. Trainees were amazed with his knowledge of current literature and his vast clinical acumen. He had a passion for the history of medicine and loved to write and teach about many of the great discoveries in the field.
DIVISION PROFILES
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46 ACADEMIC INTERNAL MEDICINE AND GERIATRICS 48 CARDIOLOGY 50 ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES AND METABOLISM 52 GASTROENTEROLOGY & HEPATOLOGY 54 HEMATOLOGY/ONCOLOGY 56 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 58 NEPHROLOGY 60 PULMONARY, CRITICAL CARE, SLEEP AND ALLERGY 62 RHEUMATOLOGY
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ACADEMIC INTERNAL MEDICINE AND GERIATRICS The Division of Academic Internal Medicine and Geriatrics (AIM) had a successful and productive fiscal year 2018 (FY18). AIM faculty have diverse roles including clinicians, physician educators, and physician researchers and is actively growing and developing our clinical footprint, educational efforts and scholarship.
CLINICAL AIM physicians practice general internal medicine and geriatric medicine in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Outpatient care is provided in four on-site clinics and one off-site clinic in the South Loop neighborhood, all of which provide comprehensive care across the life course. Our geriatric faculty care for patients at three nursing home facilities in the Chicago area. AIM has a robust inpatient general medicine practice at University of Illinois Hospital. All AIM clinical services are teaching services for resident physicians and medical students.
The Precision Lifestyle Medicine and Translation Research (PREMIER) Postdoctoral Training Program (T32 funded) post-doctoral fellowship for fellows who aspire to be both independent investigators and team scientists in lifestyle medicine. Fellows can focus their research and skill development in behavioral sciences in any of the thematic cores of this training program: 1) mechanistic exploration of behavior change; 2) prevention and control of multimorbidity; and/or 3) population health equity and policy.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
AIM saw an increase in new sponsored award funding with 20 new sponsored awards. Notably, new awards include an AHRQ R03 (PI: Rachel Caskey, MD) and an NHLBI T32 (PIs: Ben Gerber, MD; Jun Ma, MD, PhD). Throughout the year, over 20 AIM faculty participated in scholarly activity mentoring of junior faculty and trainees. Additionally, AIM faculty participated in over 60 peerreviewed publications, over 60 intramural presentations and over 60 extramural presentations at regional, national and international conferences. FY19 is bringing a continued focus on expanding the Division’s research portfolio with the anticipation of multiple new large research projects.
All AIM faculty participate in educational efforts at UIC, including both undergraduate and graduate medical education. Multiple AIM faculty have leadership roles in the IM Residency program and in the medical school. Our faculty have been integral to the medical school curriculum transformation over the past two years, taking an active role in curriculum development, assessment and implementation. Our Division offers three fellowship programs. Our Geriatrics fellowship is an ACGME-accredited comprehensive one-year fellowship focused on the care of our aging population. Our program is one of the largest programs in the country and provides medical and interprofessional education on normal aging, chronic diseases, palliative care and senior healthcare. The Clinical Leaders and Academic Scholars (CLASS) fellowship is designed to provide concentrated preparation through mentoring, for-credit education and training, and practical experience on a substantive project in one of three tracks: Clinical Services Leadership, Educational Leadership, or Research.
46 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
INSTITUTE FOR MINORITY HEALTH RESEARCH Under the direction of Dr. Martha Daviglus, the Institute for Minority Health Research is committed to promoting interdisciplinary research, training, policy development and community partnerships to improve the health of vulnerable minority populations. Dr. Daviglus is principal investigator (PI) or multiple-PI on several large NIHsponsored longitudinal studies.
Martha Daviglus, MD, PhD
DIVISION PROFILES
Rachel Caskey, MD Chief of Academic Internal Medicine
HIGHLIGHTS •
“Use of a Reproductive Life Planning Tool at the Pediatric Well-
transdisciplinary, translational research training infrastructure
Baby Visit with Postpartum Women” was awarded to Dr. Rachel
for postdoctoral fellows who aspire to be both independent
Caskey (PI); co-investigators are Drs. K. Rankin and A. Handler.
investigators and team scientists in lifestyle medicine. (NIH/NHLBI
The objective of this research project is to determine whether use
T32HL134634)
of a simple self-administered Reproductive Life Plan Tool among
•
women’s health care and contraception at 6-months postpartum.
This training award builds on Dr. Man’s thesis work, “Diabetes
(AHRQ R03HS025265)
Screening in US Women with a History of Gestational Diabetes,”
“Integrating Contextual Factors into Clinical Decision Support to
NHANES 2007-2012 (published in Preventing Chronic Disease).
Reduce Contextual Error and Improve Outcomes in Ambulatory
The research of interest focuses on addressing the barriers to
Care” was awarded to Dr. Saul Weiner; co-investigators are Drs.
diabetes prevention in women with prior gestational diabetes. Dr.
A. Schwartz, W. Galanter, K. Kochendorfer, and T. Kannampallil.
Man’s mentors are Drs. Ben Gerber and Alan Schwartz. •
A new training elective called “POCUS” will be offered to all PGY1s
decision support enhanced with patient contextual information to
in the academic year 2018-2019. This elective started as a pilot
reduce contextual error rates, improve health care outcomes and
with 20 PGY3s who completed 10 ultrasounds within a 2-week
reduce unnecessary care. (AHRQ R01HS025374)
duration and who received intensive training in diagnostic POCUS.
“mHealth for Diabetes Adherence Support” was awarded to
The objective of this elective is to train Internal Medicine residents
Drs. Ben Gerber and Lisa Sharp. The research supplement is for
to perform and interpret focused cardiac, pulmonary, renal, and
Dr. Alana Biggers, a co-investigator on this grant. The mHealth
venous ultrasound studies for rapid bedside clinical decisions
supplement study will characterize sleep among African-
and to familiarize them with current literature on the topic. The
Americans and Latino-Americans with uncontrolled diabetes, evaluate the effectiveness of mHealth in monitoring sleep and
•
UIC BIRCWH / Center for Research on Women and Gender (CRWG) awarded Dr. Bernice Man a research training grant.
The aim of this research project is to assess the potential of clinical
•
•
postpartum women increases the proportion of women receiving
“POCUS” Training Director is Dr. Stefan Tchernodrinski. •
Reuters Health News quoted one of our faculty, Dr. Alana Biggers,
explore the relationships between sleep and diabetes outcomes.
in the November 17, 2017 health news article entitled: “Risk of
(NIH/NIDDK supplement R01DK108141)
Breast Cancer Recurrence Lasts for Decades” by Lisa Rapaport.
“Center for Health Equity Research (CHER)” was awarded
•
to Drs. R. Winn, M. Daviglus and J. Ramirez-Valles. Drs. Lisa
“The Golden Apple” and the “C. Thomas Bombeck MD Award for
Tussing-Humphreys (Div. of AIM) and Paul Grippo (Div. of GI) are co-leading along with a team of multidisciplinary investigators on a 5-year project to examine the influence of structural violence and individual behavior and health on the gut microbiome and
UIC Chicago Medical Student Council awarded Dr. Fred Zar the Excellence in Medical Education” awards.
•
Several organizations have honored our faculty as the Best (Top) Doctor: •
colorectal cancer risk. (NIMHD U54MD012523) •
“Conservative Prescribing: Profiling and Education Project” was
Asra Khan and Robert Rosman) •
awarded to Dr. William Galanter. The study objective is to assist on the development of the prescriber profiling metrics and locally
Castle and Connolly’s Top Regional Doctor in Internal Medicine (Drs. Asra Khan and Jonathan Radosta)
•
securing and analyzing the data from its organization to create
•
Best Doctors in America® 2018 (Drs. Raymond Curry,
American Registry: America’s Most Honored Professionals (Dr. Asra Khan)
and evaluate the prescriber conservative prescribing datasets and
•
Marquis Who’s Who in America® (Dr. Raymond Curry)
metrics. (Brigham & Women’s Hospital Inc.)
•
2018 Chicago Area Top Doctor-featured in January 2018
“Precision Lifestyle Medicine and Translation Research (PREMIER)
issue of Chicago Magazine (Drs. Asra Khan and Jonathan
was awarded to Drs. Ben Gerber and Jun Ma. This is a five year
Radosta)
post-doctoral training grant. The program goal is to build a ANNUAL REPORT 47
CARDIOLOGY The Division of Cardiology is dedicated to fostering excellence in clinical care; medical education; basic, clinical and translational cardiovascular research; and serving underrepresented minorities (URM) and underserved population of Chicago. The University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System serves a uniquely diverse population of patients with cardiovascular disease that naturally lends itself to patient-oriented research initiatives. Thus, the Division of Cardiology is committed to leveraging this tremendous resource to develop the infrastructure for truly transformational clinical and translational research. The Division of Cardiology experienced a robust growth in our clinical practice. We are especially pleased with the growth in the procedural volumes in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory which has experienced an annualized growth rate of over 12%. This is in part due to the opening of the state-of-the-art Hybrid Operating Room (OR) and the launching of the Structural Heart Disease (SHD) program. The continued expansion of the clinical electrophysiology service will be greatly aided by the renovation of the third cardiac catheterization room to a fully functioning second electrophysiology laboratory.
in the SHD program. Cardiac procedures such as laserlead explantation of cardiac implantable electronic devices, implantation of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), left atrial appendage closure devices (WATCHMAN) and percutaneous mitral valve replacement (mitraclips) can now be performed in collaboration with our cardiac surgery program. The growth of the SHD program has been spear-headed by the hiring of a director, Dr. Elliott Groves, who has received extensive training in these procedures at the Scripps Clinic. While our general cardiologists provide excellent preventive care for cardiac patients, investment in a program dedicated to the prevention of heart disease is essential for our URM population. A new Preventive Cardiology Clinic led by Dr. Noreen Nazir, dedicated to the evaluation, risk stratification and counseling has been launched. Dr. Nazir, a general cardiologist trained in imaging and preventive cardiology, joined the faculty in 2017.
Left to right: Khaled Abdelhady, MD (Surgery), David Casey, MD (Cardiology Fellow), Adhir Shroff, MD (Cardiology), Elliott Groves, MD (Cardiology)
Over the past year, we are especially excited by the launching of two new programs in cardiology and a major initiative to expand cardiology outreach services. The opening of the new Hybrid OR has facilitated a rapid growth 48 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
A major initiative over the last year has been to expand our clinical outreach footprint. We successfully negotiated contracts and are currently providing cardiology services (2 1/2 day clinics/month) to patients attending the Mile Square Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). This provides a base for cardiology referrals from other FQHCs in the Chicagoland area. We have also started a General Cardiology Clinic in Chinatown at Dr. Shirley Wong’s Internal Medicine practice and provide sub-specialty clinical electrophysiology services to Cardiovascular Consultants in Munster, Indiana. There has been continued growth in our marquee programs.
DIVISION PROFILES
Dawood Darbar, MD, PhD Chief of Cardiology FAMILIAL HEART DISEASE CLINIC: This center provides personalized care across the spectrum of cardiovascular diseases (atherosclerosis, heart failure, arrhythmia, and hypertension) for individuals and families with counseling for diagnosis, management and risk prediction. Over the past year, we partnered with our pediatric cardiologists so that these services can be provided to the children of probands with inherited heart disease. We have expanded this program to now include taking care of patients and families with familial dyslipidemias.
PROGRAM IN ONCO-CARDIOLOGY: Led by Dr. Chris Gans, this program has seen a steady growth in the number of referrals. In collaboration with the Cancer Center, Dr. Gans developed clinical protocols whereby all breast cancer patients at the University of Illinois Hospital on potentially cardiotoxic regimens are now screened with speckle tracking echocardiography to detect changes in myocardial function before a decrease in left ventricular function. A personalized approach is critical in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced heart disease.
PROGRAM IN HEART FAILURE: Dr. Thomas Stamos spearheaded a shared ventricular assist device (VAD) program with Advocate Christ Hospital which allows our patients to be considered for advanced heart failure therapies such as VADs, and heart transplants, and be cared for at the University of Illinois Hospital.
PROGRAM IN HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN: This nationally-recognized program led by Dr. Joan Briller provides specialized care for women from URMs during pregnancy and those with heart disease. The growth in this program necessitated the hiring of an advanced practice nurse to assist Dr. Briller in providing care for these patients.
HIGHLIGHTS • •
Joan Briller, MD – Castle Connolly Top Doctor Cardiovascular
Electrophysiology 2018 Gold Reviewer Recognition Award
George Kondos, MD – Chicago Magazine Spotlight on Top
(Circulation) • • •
•
3rd Annual Update in Cardiovascular Disease for the Primary Care Physician – April 28, 2018
the “Nursing Investigator Award” at Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting for her
Mladen Vidovich, MD, FACC, FSCAI – American Heart Journal Associate Editor
Pioneer in Research Award Carolyn Dickens, PhD, APN, ACNP-BC – First Runner Up for
Adhir Shroff, MD – ACC2019 Scientific Sessions Planning Committee
Dawood Darbar, MD, PhD – Elected to the Association of University Cardiologists and awarded the Michael Reese
•
Niyada Naksuk, MD, FACC – Arrhythmia and
Disease 2018 Cardiologists 2018 •
•
•
Successful funding (2018-2023) of the NIH/NHLBI
research titled “Factors associated with heart failure self-care
Cardiology T32 Training Program In Personalized
in a low socioeconomic urban patient population”
Cardiovascular Medicine (TPIPCVM) – Program Director:
Cristopher Gans, MD – Teaching Recognition Program (TRP)
Dawood Darbar, MD; Co-Director: Jalees Rehman, MD
Award 2017-2018 Rose Gonzalez, RN – Excellence in Nursing Award 2018
•
ANNUAL REPORT 49
DIVISION PROFILES
•
ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES & METABOLISM The Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Illinois at Chicago made substantial strides in our goal to become a leading division in the coming years, in clinical and research activities. CLINICAL HIGHLIGHTS The Division’s clinical volume increased over 30% in 2 years while maintaining minimal wait times. We have opened access to urgent slots and will continue to expand our volume by hiring new faculty and nurse practitioners. We expanded our American Diabetes Association accredited diabetes education program, and have currently over 1000 patients per year who receive diabetes education (a 10 fold increase in volume from previous years). Our new leader, Kat Koller, CDE, RD, revived the program and expanded its access to all patients within the University of Illinois Hospital. Even better, this program has generated additional income and we are reviewing the need to expand by recruiting another certified diabetes educator. We have included Occupational Therapy in our diabetes care-team, with Dr. Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, the Head of the Department of Occupational Therapy, and as outlined below, we have multiple joint grants under review. With the support of the hospital, we started an inpatient diabetes management team (APRN-driven, with Laura Olson, APRN). Laura currently is seeing 6-10 patients and we have only opened the service to two services (Neurology/ Neurosurgery and Hematology/Oncology). We hope to expand this program as we review the outcomes in terms of better glucose control, prevention of hypoglycemia and decreased length of stay and cost/benefit analysis in a period of 6 months. Lastly, we are also working with the Ambulatory Quality Improvement committee, and embarking on an aggressive outpatient diabetes improvement campaign across all our outpatient clinics. OUTREACH We actively attend multiple health fairs and events as a diabetes team and with the Church-based Health Outreach 50 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Program (CHOP), run by Dr. Olga Garcia. We attend events at the Mexican Consulate, the American Diabetes Association and other church-driven events. Additionally, our Division has a variety of grants pending to support activities, including a PCORI grant with Dr. Suarez-Balcazar. Excitingly, we have a program developed with Dr. Janet Lin (ER medicine), to screen patients for diabetes (using a model developed by her for HIV and HCV screening) and capture those diagnosed prior to development of complications. The outreach, research and clinical impact of this program are vast, and we have multiple promising grants pending to support initial stages, one of which just received funding from Novo Nordisk. RESEARCH The Division’s research dollars has continuously increased in recent years. In one to two years, we will be the primary diabetes and metabolism group in the Midwest. Our research spans islet biology and transplant programs, adipose functional studies, hepatic metabolism, environmental impact on metabolism, and central nervous system (CNS) driven mechanism of obesity and diabetes. The Division published 58 publications last year, including high impact articles in Cell Report by Dr. Brian Layden and Nature Communications Dr. Xu. In collaboration with the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and College of Applied Health Sciences, the Division has multiple emerging recruits and a research focus on diabetes. In this past year, the Divsion of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be part of 1 of 12 NIH funded Diabetes Training and Research Centers in the country. This is a joint grant with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University who are also members of the Chicago Diabetes Training and Research Center.
HIGHLIGHTS
•
•
•
•
High Impact Publication- Evaluation and Treatment of Male Hypogonadism. Sargis RM, Davis AM. JAMA.
and help purchase specialized research equipment and
3;319(13):1375-1376.
materials. Researchers will work
High Impact Publication-Autophagy Differentially Regulates
collaboratively with scientists at the University of Chicago
Insulin Production and Insulin Sensitivity.Yamamoto S,
and Northwestern University who are also members of the Chicago Diabetes Training and Research Center.
Kuramoto K, Wang N, Situ X, Priyadarshini M, Zhang W, Cordoba-Chacon J, Layden BT, He C. Cell Rep. 2018 Jun •
•
investigating diabetes and other endocrine-related diseases
•
Dr. Jose Cordoba-Chacon published 32 peer-reviewed
12;23(11):3286-3299.
scientific manuscripts as a postdoctoral research fellow
High Impact Publication-The Foxo1-Inducible Transcriptional
at our institution. He has been awarded the presidential
Repressor Zfp125 Causes Hepatic Steatosis and
poster award and the Eugenia Rosemberg Abstract Award
Hypercholesterolemia. Fernandes GW, Bocco BMLC,
from the Endocrine Society’s 2014 and 2015 annual
Fonseca TL, McAninch EA, Jo S, Lartey LJ, O-Sullivan I,
meetings. He has obtained funds to support his salary and
Unterman TG, Preite NZ, Voigt RM, Forsyth CB, Keshavarzian
his own research endeavors from the Endocrine Society and
A, Sinkó R, Goldfine AB, Patti ME, Ribeiro MO, Gereben B,
Chicago Biomedical Consortium. He has a pending K01
Bianco AC. Cell Rep. 2018 Jan 9;22(2):523-534.
award that likely will be funded by NIDDK (Impact score 13),
Became a member of the Chicago Diabetes Training and
which will strongly support his career development. These
Research Center, 1 of 12 National Institutes of Health (NIH)
achievements are proofs that pose him as a well-qualified
funded diabetes centers in the country. The membership
candidate for one of the prestigious Early Investigator Awards
comes with a five-year, $600,000 grant from the NIH, which
of the Endocrine Society.
will support researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago
ANNUAL REPORT 51
DIVISION DIVISION PROFILES PROFILES: ENDOCRINOLOGY
Brian Layden, MD, PhD Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
GASTROENTEROLOGY & HEPATOLOGY The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is situated in one of the largest state medical schools in an unparalleled urban location dedicated to promoting excellence in clinical care, advances in cutting edge research and educating future leaders in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. We are fully dedicated to our mission of serving our patients, educating future leaders and pursuing scholarly activities. PATIENT CARE he Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is staffed by physicians and scientists who specialize in the diseases and discovery of cures of the liver and gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The GI subspecialty includes the esophagus, stomach, gallbladder, pancreas, small and large intestine (colon) and rectum.
T
The Division also provides patient care for the treatment and management of all liver disorders, including viral hepatitis (hepatitis B and C), autoimmune liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver lesions, alcohol liver disease, cirrhosis, and patients in need of liver transplantation. Dr. Sean Koppe, director of Hepatology, leads our multidisciplinary approach to treating liver disease providing a system of comprehensive care. Depending on the individual need, the University of Illinois Hospital has two state-of-the-art facilities to ensure consistent and cohesive quality of care. The teams of expert physicians at the Bobbie and Marvin Fink Liver Clinic and the Walter Payton Liver Center are motivated through innovative care, scientific collaboration and patient-focused methods to combat liver diseases. We provide dedicated inpatient and outpatient care to GI and Liver patients of Illinois and beyond. We also provide hepatology services at four clinics outside Chicago. The University of Illinois Hospital Liver Transplant team is one of the most experienced and leading-edge programs in transplant and research in Chicago and the region. Our physicians are continuously working on the next advances and our center is a pioneer in living-donor liver transplantation.
52 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Our hepatologists work closely with a team of pharmacists and mid-level providers to take advantage of new treatments for liver disease and develop the best treatment plans for patients. Unlike other transplant programs, we closely monitor and provide one-on-one care throughout the entire transplant process, from the pre-transplant workup to postoperative care. Our team’s primary focus is the patient and every effort is made to be culturally sensitive to all ethnicities, races and religions. We tailor our program to provide the best experience possible for the patient and their family. RESEARCH Research in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology encompasses a wide array of lines of investigations with particular focus on epithelial transport & diarrheal disorders, GI cancer research, host-pathogen interactions & gut microbiota, inflammation and nutrition & metabolism. We are fortunate to have garnered substantial extramural funding to include government and private foundations sources as well as philanthropy. FELLOWSHIP The Division offers 1-3 fellowship positions each year, for highly qualified physicians dedicated to obtaining the highest quality training in all aspects of gastroenterology and hepatology. The UIC program is distinctive because of its commitment to provide fellows with: • The opportunity to learn all diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. • An intensive exposure to all aspects of clinical hepatology, including transplantation. • The ability to obtain additional formal education, including a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree. • Exposure to clinical, bench and translational research.
DIVISION PROFILES
Barbara Jung, MD Chief of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
ADVANCED ENDOSCOPY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM The Advanced Endoscopy Training Program is program designed to provide trainees with skills required to excel in their career as a therapeutic endoscopist in an academic setting. While gaining exposure to advanced endoscopic procedures, fellows also participate in various clinical activities (i.e., inpatient consult service, endoscopy sessions, outpatient clinics, evening and weekend call) relating to the biliary service as well as general gastroenterology as directed by the division chief.
TRANSPLANT HEPATOLOGY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Our Transplant Hepatology Fellowship Program provides fellows with full exposure to all aspects of clinical hepatology and transplantation. We offer one fellowship position each year for highly qualified physicians dedicated to obtaining high quality training in Transplant Hepatology. Fellows are exposed to ambulatory pre and post-transplant clinics, inpatient transplant hepatology, inpatient transplant surgery, interventional radiology, and clinical hepatology.
We maintain an active clinical and basic science research environment. Approximately ¾ of our program trainees are in private practice throughout the United States; the remainder occupy positions in academia around the world.
The Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division is an academically vibrant Division offering all subspecialty patient services, a vast array of cutting edge investigations and renowned training.
HIGHLIGHTS •
Dr. Zohair Ahmed - Annual GI fellow research award recipient
•
Dr. Reed Berger - Castle Connolly top doctor award recipient
•
Dr. Pradeep K. Dudeja - Takeda Distinguished Research Award
• •
•
•
Dr. Wasseem Skef - poster of distinction (2018). Selected for the Editorial Board for Hepatology Communications
•
Dr. Jun Sun - Leading editor of a Nature/Spring book entitled
from American Physiological Society: GI & Liver section for
“Mechanisms underlying host-microbiome interactions in
the year 2018 awarded at Experimental Biology April 21-25,
pathophysiology of human diseases.” This book has shown a
2018 at San Diego, CA. Elected as Vice Chair for American
novel theme and multiple disciplinary topics of microbiome
Gastroenterology Association’s Basic and Clinical Intestinal
research for broad audience. Chair-elected for the American
Disorders (BCID) Section, 2018-2019. State-of-the-art Lecture
Gastroenterological Associate (AGA) microbiome section.
Invited Speaker: Indian Society of Gastroenterology Conference,
Trainees received multiple awards from AGA and CCFA for their
Bhubaneswar, India, December 14-16, 2017. State-of-the-art
research in microbiome. Poetry collection “Let time stay still at
Lecture Invited Speaker at Digestive Disease Week on June 5,
this moment” 《让时间停留在这一刻 》published in January
2018 at Washington DC
2018 by Chinese Literature and History Press.
Dr. Ravinder K. Gill - Senior Research Award from Crohn’s and
•
Dr. Cemal Yazici - CATS (Clinical and Translational Science)
Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) 2017-2020.
Scholars Affiliates Award. Center for Clinical and Translational
Dr. Paul Grippo - Oral presentation at the 110th Annual AACR
Science, UIC, (Chicago, IL), 2018. Young Investigator Travel
Meeting in Chicago. Oncogene. 2017 Jul 27;36(30):4336-4348.
Award, American Pancreatic Association, 2018. Travel Award,
Dr. Carolina Torres (post-doc).
Fellows’ Symposium, 2018 National Pancreas Foundation.
Dr. Barbara Jung - Oral presentation at the annual American
PancreasFest Travel Scholarship, 2017 CAPER (Collaborative
Pancreas Association meeting to present new data on
Alliance for Pancreatic Education and Research)
pancreatitis.
ANNUAL REPORT 53
HEMATOLOGY/ONCOLOGY The Division of Hematology/Oncology (HemOnc) strives to provide the highest level of care to every patient and offer the highest level of education to new generations of doctors by continuous success in laboratory and clinical research. There are approximately thirty faculty members who have established outstanding programs in solid tumors, blood cancers and other non-malignant blood diseases. PATIENT CARE & CLINICAL RESEARCH he Division experienced continuous growth in clinical volume with approximately a 10% increase in outpatient visits especially for cancer patients. The Division was instrumental in the University of Illinois Hospital being rated as a high performing center in Oncology by the U.S. News and World Report. Our inpatient volume has sustained high census due to the increase of stem cell transplants performed.
T
In FY 2018, the Blood & Marrow Transplant (BMT) program completed its highest number of transplants (n=85) since its inception in 1997. The BMT program gained a center of excellence (COE) status with major insurance companies of Illinois, such as Blue Cross Blue Shields, CIGNA or Optum Health based on high volume and outcome of transplants. In 2017, the BMT program was re-accredited for autologous and allogeneic transplant in adult patients by the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The BMT program established itself as one of the most renowned centers in the country for stem cell transplantation in adult patients with sickle cell anemia. Our program attracts patients from many states, and even foreign countries. In FY 2018, the first results of transplantation in sickle cell anemia from incompatible (haploidentical) donors were published by Dr. Santosh Saraf in the journal of the American Society of BMT. The BMT program also published the results of Dr. Pritesh Patel’s initiated phase 1 clinical trial combining high dose chemotherapy and total marrow irradiation (TMI) in myeloma patients. This technique is available in less than 5 centers in the United States. In FY 2018, Dr. Patel and other colleagues opened the first phase 2 clinical trial in the country testing the combination of TMI with high dose chemotherapy in allogeneic BMT for patients with myeloid leukemia. 54 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
The Division has worked very closely with the University of Illinois Cancer Center providing leadership support in clinical trial operations. In FY 2018, HemOnc faculties were principal investigators in 135 therapeutic or noninterventional clinical studies ranging from multicenter national studies, to pharma-sponsored phase 1/2 and UIC investigator-initiated clinical trials. In addition, members of HemOnc serve in leadership positions in the Cancer Center. These include: the clinical trial office (CTO) led by Dr. Oana Danciu, the protocol-review committee (PRC) led by Dr. John Quigley, the data safety monitor board (DSMB) previously led by late Dr. Howard Ozer and currently by Dr. Neeta Venepalli, and the breast (Dr. Kent Hoskins), lung (Dr.
Hematology/Oncology Faculty and Staff
Lawrence Feldman), GI (Dr. Rozi Chowdhery in co-leadership with surgery and division of GI) and hematologic cancer (Drs. Patel, Peace, Quigley, Khan) working groups. This represents a strong commitment also for the forthcoming application for National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation.
DIVISION PROFILES
Damiano Rondelli, MD Chief of Hematology/Oncology Our Sickle Cell Program led by Dr. Victor Gordeuk, is an international center of excellence for its academic achievement as demonstrated by continuous NIH funding and over 30 peer-reviewed publications in FY 2018. The sickle team has a unique 360 degree exceptional level of expertise that covers both basic science investigators, translational researchers and clinical leaders. In addition to the science, the sickle cell program has continued to grow by extending coverage of its outpatient acute care unit in the hospital to six days per week. This effort led by Dr. Michel Gowhari is recognized as a unique asset in the City of Chicago and has reduced UI Hospital emergency room visits and hospital re-admission of sickle cell patients. GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT The Division of HemOnc is actively engaged with the DOM Urban and Global Medicine program, co-led by Dr. Damiano Rondelli, Dr. Max Brito, Infectious Diseases, and the Center for Global Health in the College of Medicine. Their engagement led to obtaining a UIC Chancellor pilot grant, the publication of two papers, and mentoring medical students and internal medicine residents and fellows, both in Chicago, South East Asia and Central America.
Patient and Dr. Santosh Saraf
PUBLICATIONS Our faculty members authored, either as first, senior, or coauthor, 53 articles in peer reviewed journals with 6 of these in high impact journals, obtaining an I.F >10 . In addition, multiple faculty members are principal investigators and co-investigators in new clinical trials in hematology and oncology, or maintain NIH funded research projects.
HIGHLIGHTS •
the census of the outpatient acute care unit in the hospital.
“Fifty-three publications in peer-reviewed journals were authored by faculty members of the Division of Hematology/
•
UIC established itself as one of the main centers in the U.S.
Oncology in FY 2018.
for the cure of adult patients with sickle cell by means of
•
Six of the publications were in journals with an I.F. >10
non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation from matched or
•
Outpatient clinical volume increased 10%
• •
Inpatient volume of BMT reached a UIC record of 85
haploidentical related donors. •
The Division played a key role in the development and
transplants in one year.
continuous growth of clinical research within the Cancer
The Sickle Cell Center greatly succeeded thanks to excellent
Center, and multiple members of the Division have leadership
scholarly work (U54 active grant, many publications and
roles in the Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office.
clinical trials), as well as by increasing
ANNUAL REPORT 55
INFECTIOUS DISEASES The Division of Infectious Diseases at UIC continues to expand its activities in all aspects of the subspecialty. With strong and lasting partnerships with the School of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and the Chicago Department of Health, the Division offers a range of services and expertise to the greater campus and the local and global communities. The Division consists of eighteen faculty members and 42 clinical, laboratory and administrative staff under the leadership of Dr. Richard Novak, the Harry F. Dowling Professor of Medicine and infectious Diseases. Dr. Novak has been at UIC for the past 37 years. The Division is devoted to teaching, research, patient care and community service. HIV DISEASE Dr. Novak is the director of the University of Illinois at Chicago Community Clinic Network (UCCN). Six community based clinics located in the highest prevalence communities in Chicago serve about 1200 active patients with HIV. The UCCN has been in operation since 1992 with continuous federal funding. These clinics offer comprehensive services including case management, outreach, mental health, pharmacy, women’s health and clinical care. A partnership with the Chicago Department of Health was developed to consolidate our respective clinics in the Uptown neighborhood under our management. Our community presence directly address health disparities and offers a unique training experience for our fellows, residents and students. Project Wish is our clinical research center, which is primarily focused on HIV prevention trials and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) clinical research and has been self-sustaining since 1995, working with HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others. We are currently participating in two federally funded trials: HPTN 083, a randomized double blinded, double dummy comparison of injectable Cabotegravir vs Truvada for prevention of HIV acquisition in high risk HIV-seronegative men who have sex with men (NIH); NEST Study: Network Epidemiology of Syphilis Transmission, Dr. Andrew Trotter is directing this CDC sponsored study with Dr. Novak describing the epidemiology and transmission of syphilis in high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM) in Chicago. 56 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Our clinical research facility is supported by a Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GLCP) lab for processing of clinical samples. With experienced staff, this project provides excellent infrastructure for clinical research. URBAN AND GLOBAL HEALTH Dr. Max Brito is the director of the Urban Global Health program. Dr. Brito developed and leads an extramural Global Medicine elective, based in the Dominican Republic (DR), to educate trainees on tropical infectious diseases, social determinants of health and the practice of medicine in resource-constrained settings. The 2 week training includes a series of lectures on tropical medicine and global health, as well as rounds with the ID services of two hospitals. Over the past 15 years, more than 120 trainees have participated in the Department of Medicine’s Global Medicine elective. This educational activity has become one of the most popular and requested in the department. Dr. Stockton Mayer, co-director of the Urban Global Medicine program, partners with the School of Public Health and the School of Nursing to deliver care to People Who Inject Drugs (PWID), particularly related to skin and soft tissue infections in our community clinics and by mobile van. Dr. Mayer has been making regular journeys to rural Guatemala to develop a training program for local physicians in HIV medicine. Dr. Olamide Jarrett’s research focus is on understanding what characteristics of the female genital microbiome and immune response are related to the prevention or acquisition of HIV and STIs in women. She became involved in Ebola
research, working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from August 2015-October 2016 in Sierra Leone as the medical management lead for the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola (STRIVE). She is currently developing a proposal looking at Ebola from the standpoint of a sexually transmitted disease. Dr. Geri Donenberg (Rwanda, South Africa, Chicago) expertise is in longitudinal research, prevention and intervention development and adaptation, evidencebased program delivery and testing, and the conduct of randomized controlled trials with diverse populations of children, adolescents and adults. With over 100 peerreviewed publications, her research focuses on family factors, individual attitudes and beliefs, and peer and partner characteristics related to youth sexual behavior and substance use. Dr. Vijay Yeldandi works with three hospitals in Hyderabad, India on design and implementation of Patient Safety and Infection Control programs. Dr. Yeldandi is also the PI for two CDC Cooperative Agreements providing technical support to the Government of India’s National AIDS Control Organization for addressing HIV and tuberculosis. We are assisting with setting up HIV Viral Load Testing laboratories across the country, including technical assistance for quality management systems.
International medicine opportunities are available in South and West Africa, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Nepal and most recently Vietnam (Drs. Jarrett, Brito, Mena Lora, Mayer, Yeldandi, Trotter and Bhatia). INFECTION CONTROL AND ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP Dr. Susan Bleasdale is the physician lead for infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship at the University of Illinois Hospital and is a leader in related research. She is a lead investigator for a study to reduce surgical site infections as part of the CDC Epicenters for Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs). TRANSPLANT INFECTIOUS DISEASES Our clinical service provides inpatient consultations for patients with solid organ and bone/stem cell transplants. TELEHEALTH The HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) telemedicine program led by Drs. Mahesh Patel and Jeremy Young partnered with Illinois Department of Corrections provides telehealth to the 26 state correctional facilities in Illinois, serving 500700 patients. This program is staffed by PharmDs and case managers, who facilitate continuity of care when our patients are released back to their communities.
HIGHLIGHTS • •
Jesica Herrick, MD - Michael Reese Pioneer in Research
•
Richard Novak, MD - UIC Researcher and Scholar of the Year
awardee
•
Susan Bleasdale, MD - Chair, IDSA Stewardship Centers of
in Medical Education • •
Excellence Selection Committee
Mahesh Patel, MD - UIC M1 Golden Apple Award for Excellence •
Alfredo Mena Lora, MD and partnering institution, St. Anthony
Stockton Mayer, DO - William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Hospital, were recipients of the Illinois Health and Hospital
grant recipient
Association Hospital Improvement Innovation Network
Andrew Trotter, MD, MPH - UIC Physician of the Year finalist
Innovation Challenge: Partners in Progress award
ANNUAL REPORT 57
DIVISION DIVISIONPROFILES PROFILES: INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Richard Novak, MD Chief of Infectious Diseases
NEPHROLOGY The Division of Nephrology at the University of Illinois at Chicago has a long history of excellence in the field. In the early 1960’s, the University of Illinois Research and Education Hospital was combined with Presbyterian Hospital and the first chief of the Division was Dr. Robert Kark. Dr. Kark developed the percutaneous kidney biopsy as a clinical tool in the United States and his group published seminal papers describing biopsy findings of several kidney diseases including preeclampsia, various forms of glomerulonephritis, lupus, and diabetes. In 1968, Dr. Olga Jonasson, who established the Division of Transplantation at the University, performed the first kidney transplantation in Illinois. She laid the foundation for one of the largest and most successful transplant programs in Chicago. By the late 1960’s, the University of Illinois and Presbyterian Hospital ended their affiliation and the Division was led by Dr. Clarence Gant and then by Dr. Neil Kurtzman. Dr. Jose Arruda, whose research focuses on acid-base physiology and renal tubular acidosis, became chief in 1985.
T
here are currently sixteen faculty members in nephrology with a wide range of clinical expertise and a robust research portfolio. Of note, almost two-thirds of the faculty are women and nearly one-fifth are underrepresented minorities. Nephrology members have been recognized for their excellence in teaching and research. Dr. Claudia Lora was the recipient of the 2016 Department of Medicine Rising Star Award; Dr. Jerrold Levine, recipient of the 2018 Chief Resident’s Choice Teaching Award; and Dr. John Daugirdas, recipient of the 2018 American Society of Nephrology Scribner Award. The 2018 US News and World Report ranked the Division of Nephrology as a high performing specialty at the University of Illinois Hospital. The Division provides clinical services for the evaluation and treatment of the full spectrum of kidney diseases, hypertension, and fluid-electrolyte disorders, with a strong commitment to serving minority populations. At the University of Illinois Hospital, the Division provides over 4,000 dialysis treatments per year. Faculty and fellowstaffed outpatient clinics accommodate up to 100 patients per week. The Division has a robust program for outpatient in-center and home dialysis which is based at the University and at a nearby Fresenius Medical Care unit. The Division also excels in providing care to transplant patients. Led by Dr. David Perkins and four full-time faculty members, the transplant nephrology service provides comprehensive care, staffing both outpatient and inpatient services. The transplant program performs over 100 kidney transplants per year and 15 kidney pancreas transplants.
58 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
The program is known for its expertise in obese and high immunological risk patients. The Division has a strong commitment to training the next generation of clinicians and researchers in nephrology. The nephrology fellowship program, which has four positions per year, is one of the largest in Chicago. Clinical rotations take place at the University of Illinois Hospital and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. In addition, trainees rotate at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, which has had a longstanding academic affiliation with the Division. These three large public hospitals provide trainees with exposure to the full spectrum of clinical nephrology. Nephrology Fellows have consistently been first place winners at the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Controversies in Nephrology annual debates. An optional third year of research training is available. Research fellows have access to a T32 training program in health disparities, as well as enrollment in the School of Public Health Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Science program. The Division has had significant success in transitioning trainees to academic positions.
DIVISION PROFILES
Jose A.L. Arruda, MD Chief of Nephrology
National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Debate - Left to Right: Amit Joshi, MD (former UIC Nephrology Fellow), Rishi Kora, MD (fellow), Sajid Ansari (fellow), Ana Ricardo, MD (Faculty)
HIGHLIGHTS •
The 2018 US News and World Report ranked Nephrology as a
•
Dr. John Daugirdas - recipient of the 2018 American Society
high performing specialty at the University of Illinois Hospital.
of Nephrology Scribner Award in recognition of outstanding
•
Over $2 million in annually federally-sponsored research
contributions that have a direct impact on the care of patients
•
Nephrology Fellows have consistently been first place winners
with renal disorders
the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois Controversies in
•
Dr. James Lash was awarded a renewal of a Midcareer
Nephrology annual debates.
Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24)
•
60% of the faculty in Nephrology are women
which focuses on providing mentorship and training for new
•
Dr. Jerrold Levine - recipient of the 2018 University of Illinois
physician-scientists in the area of health disparities in chronic
at Chicago Department of Medicine Chief Resident’s Choice
kidney disease.
Teaching Award •
ANNUAL REPORT 59
PULMONARY, CRITICAL CARE, SLEEP & ALLERGY The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, and Allergy has advanced the mission of the Department of Medicine along multiple fronts in FY 2018, including clinical, research, and educational achievements. CLINICAL The Division provides many valuable and essential clinical services to our institution’s patients and is honored to participate in the care of the underserved patient population that comprises the majority of those receiving healthcare at University of Illinois Hospital and the Jesse Brown VA Hospital. We are expanding access to subspecialty care for these patients and increased patient volumes in all of our outpatient clinics in the past few years, especially in the Sleep Medicine Center led by Dr. Bharati Prasad. Other growing specialty clinics include Pulmonary Hypertension (led by Dr. Fraidenburg), Lung Nodules, Sarcoidosis (in close collaboration with Dr. Nadera Sweiss in the Division of Rheumatology), Bronchiectasis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, a separate Sleep Medicine consult service was established to facilitate evaluation for inpatients at the University of Illinois Hospital. Our interventional pulmonology program led by Dr. Kevin Kovitz has been growing for several years. In FY2018 we obtained state-of-the-art navigational and thoracoscopic equipment that allows us to optimize patient care by providing the full spectrum of procedural approaches. Interventional pulmonology is closely aligned with our growing Lung Cancer Screening program that is dedicated to bringing this potentially lifesaving process to our underserved patient population. The success of this Lung Cancer Screening program is made possible by an outstanding team that includes APRN Mary Pasquinelli, Drs. Kevin Kovitz and Kevin Haas, and our colleagues at the University of Illinois Cancer Center led by Dr. Robert Winn. The Allergy program, led by Drs. Sharmilee Nyenhuis and Jyothi Tirumalasetty, continues to expand with the addition of Dr. Andrea Pappalardo as a joint recruitment in association with the Department of Pediatrics. The Pulmonary Function 60 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
Testing laboratories at both University of Illinois Hospital and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, led by Dr. Min Joo, continue to experience an increase in demand. Quality improvement initiatives are a major emphasis in the UI Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). In the past year our MICU director, Dr. Jeffrey Jacobson, spearheaded hospital-wide efforts to improve the diagnosis and treatment for patients suffering from sepsis. EDUCATION The educational mission of the Division is to train and develop leaders in the fields of pulmonary medicine, critical care, sleep medicine, and allergy. The Division houses two high quality fellowship programs that are fully accredited by the ACGME, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine directed by Dr. Sunit Singla and Sleep Medicine directed by Dr. Bharati Prasad. A new Interventional Pulmonology fellowship program is set to begin FY2019. These training programs are thriving in terms of demand, curriculum growth, and graduate success. The Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship program incorporated several new elements in FY 2018. New elements include a formal airway management curriculum in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesia, expanded bedside ultrasound training, and a new Intensive Care Unit rotation at Mercy Hospital for senior fellows. The Sleep Medicine fellowship program incorporated enhanced didactic and polysomnography interpretation sessions and expanded in FY 2018 to three annual fellowship position because of increased demand. The Division is in the process of renewing our highly successful NIH T32 training program for developing future leaders in pulmonary-related research. Our T32 environment has produced four NIH K awardees among our recent MD fellow graduates and is a leader in training the next generation of impactful physician-scientists. The educational success of the Pulmonary Division is reflected in the multiple teaching awards earned by our faculty. In FY2018, the Internal Medicine housestaff voted
DIVISION PROFILES
Steve Dudek, MD Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep & Allergy
Dr. Dustin Fraidenburg the “New Attending of the Year”, while Dr. Ergün Önal was voted the “Alpha Omega Alpha Faculty Teaching Award” by the medical students. After 40 years of meritorious service to our university and hospital, FY 2018 represented the final year for Dr. Önal as a member of our Division. For many years he led the monthly DOM Morbidity and Mortality conference, which is always one of the most popular and educational conferences for the Internal Medicine housestaff. Dr. Fraidenburg has now assumed this important duty. Of Dr. Önal’s many impressive accomplishments, his legacy of teaching and dedication to education may be his most impactful and long lasting contribution and many generations of UIC physicians will forever be thankful for the honor of having worked with him. SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES The Division participates extensively in scholarly pursuits and has excelled in advancing research along multiple fronts. Many of our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized as leaders in their fields. In FY2018, the total amount of research funding earned by members of the Division was $3.8 million, including about $3.1 million in direct funding, and approximately 90 original scholarly works were published. One example of the innovative research being performed, a team led by Drs. Hyung-Geun Moon and Gye Young Park reported in 2018 a ground-breaking study describing a novel mechanism by which airway epithelial
cells regulate immune responses to aeroallergens. This work highlighted a potential new therapeutic target in allergic asthma and has been published in Immunity, a leading high impact factor journal in the field. We are proud of our success in training and nurturing the next generation of pulmonary-focused scientists, with our Division earning five new NIH K level Career Development awards in the past several years. The most recent addition to this list in FY2018 is the K08 awarded to Dr. Sunit Singla to study the role of a novel protein in vascular leak during inflammatory lung injury. As another example of how our junior faculty are thriving, recent K awardee Dr. Sharmilee Nyenhuis received in 2018 the Early Career Development Award and funding from the Central Society of Clinical and Translational Research for her exploration of tools and strategies to increase physical activity among minority women suffering from asthma. We are pleased with the achievement of the Division in FY2018 and are very optimistic about our current trajectory for even more success in the future.
HIGHLIGHTS •
Growth in patient volumes across the spectrum of our clinical
•
21;49(2):275-287.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2018.06.009.
activities • •
Epub 2018 Jul 24. PMID: 30054206
Expanded research portfolio with total funding for FY2018 equaling $3.8 million, including $3.1 million in direct funding.
V, Ackerman SJ, Christman JW, Park GY. Immunity. 2018 Aug
•
Dr. Sharmilee Nyenhuis - Early Career Development Award from the Central Society of Clinical and Translational Research
Multiple high impact scholarly publications: Airway Epithelial Cell-Derived Colony Stimulating Factor-1 Promotes Allergen
•
Dr. Dustin Fraidenburg - New Attending of the Year
Sensitization. Moon HG, Kim SJ, Jeong JJ, Han SS, Jarjour NN,
•
Dr. Ergün Önal - Alpha Omega Alpha Faculty Teaching Award
Lee H, Abboud-Werner SL, Chung S, Choi HS, Natarajan
ANNUAL REPORT 61
RHEUMATOLOGY FY18 was a year of transition for the division of Rheumatology with the retirement of Dr. William Swedler and Dr. Subhash Kukreja assuming the role of interim division chief. A nationwide search for a new rheumatology chief began, with a plan to finalize a candidate during FY19. CLINICAL hanging both the billing process in the Outpatient Care Center and proposed changing in how income is recognized has led to improvements in the pro fee revenue. These changes correlate to an increase in the FY18 professional fee revenue to $1,004,112 (vs $622,582 in FY17). The Division of Rheumatology continues to grow, with an increase of 6.5% in patient visits to the Arthritis and Kidney clinic.
C
which is focused on improving mental and physical functioning in the elderly population.
Under the leadership of Dr. Nadera Sweiss, sarcoid clinic volumes are at capacity, as we continue to gain over 400 new sarcoid patients each year in the Bernie Mac Sarcoidosis Translational Advanced Research (STAR) Center. The STAR Center consists of a multidisciplinary team made up of pulmonary and critical care physicians, rheumatologists, pharmacists, clinical nurses, research nurses and research associates. The group works closely with specialists in cardiology, ophthalmology, neurology, and dermatology. As a result of this collaborative approach, our patients receive the most comprehensive care and benefits of cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art treatment options. These patients also provide a cohort for inter-disciplinary research projects in sarcoidosis.
Our research team has a record of accomplishment in translational research in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Dr. Shiva Shahrara’s research laboratory has been very successful by taking a bench-to-bedside approach. These studies have allowed to: determine novel targets that inhibit neovascularization, leukocyte migration and bone erosion in the RA joint and identify biomarkers that reflect RA disease severity and/or response to effective treatments.
RESEARCH The Division is involved in basic science and clinical research programs funded through the National Institutes of Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as national research organizations, industry, and endowments. Drs. Shiva Arami and Suncica Volkov participated in several landmark studies in scleroderma such as Scleroderma Lung Study I and II as well as DETECT study that was focused on early detection of pulmonary arterial hypertension in scleroderma. ‘The Fit and Strong’ clinical research project is underway, with Dr. Tina Chang as the lead rheumatologist,
During 2018, Dr. Suncica Volkov was appointed as the new fellowship program director. With input from the faculty, Dr. Volkov began to modernize the program and expand the interdisciplinary aspects of training. The program provides musculoskeletal ultrasound education led by Dr. Anjali Mehta, following the American College of Rheumatology and Ultrasound School of North American Rheumatologists course guidelines.
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Dr. Suncica Volkov is in the process of implementing the ‘telemedicine’ program for inmates in the Illinois prison system. The program is modeled after the successful program for HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) care through the Division of Infectious diseases. This program should provide timely and efficient care and serve as a model.
EDUCATION The Division has a strong education program for students, residents and fellows. We continue to develop outstanding rheumatologists qualified to independently practice at the highest level of competence and to be leaders.
DIVISION PROFILES
Subhash Kukreja, MD Chief of Rheumatology
Bernie Mac Gala - Left to Right: David Perkins, MD, PhD, Patricia Finn, MD, Christian Ascoli, MD, and Nadera Sweiss, MD
HIGHLIGHTS •
Increase in professional fee revenue to from $622,582 to
•
•
Over 400 new sarcoid patients in the Bernie Mac Sarcoidosis Translational Advanced Research (STAR)
Dr. Suncica Volkov named rheumatology fellowship program director
$1,004,112. •
Began developement of Telemedicine program for inmates with RA requiring biologic drugs.
Center
ANNUAL REPORT 63
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Project Manager/Design Lead/Editor Krystle Stewart, BS Editor/Project Consultant Lisa Butler, MPA Design Support Megan Williams, BA Contributors/Reviewers: Patricia W. Finn, MD George T. Kondos, MD Jeffrey Jacobson, MD Karishma Parekh, MS Bryan Blaha, MS Special Thanks to: DOM Administration Staff DOM Division Administrators DOM Division Chiefs DOM Councils Breaking the Bias Habit p.31 UIC Today - Sharon Parmet This publication is produced by the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Medicine 312-996-7700 dom.uic.edu
64 DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
ANNUAL REPORT 65
University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Medicine 840 South Wood Street Suite 1020N, MC 787 Chicago, IL 60612 (312) 996-7700 dom.uic.edu