February 2003 A periodic round-up of news from Johns Hopkins Medicine designed to give busy executives easy-to-read reports and useful information from one of the region's largest private employers.
A new year is well upon us and as you will see from the accompanying article, Johns Hopkins Medicine is set to begin asking health-care workers to volunteer to be vaccinated against smallpox, so they can serve as "first-responders" in case of emergency. After much consultation, we decided to take a careful, cautious approach that should achieve the desired objectives without major disruptions. We also announced a new chief of surgery, Dr. Julie Freischlag, the first woman to head a large clinical department at Hopkins. Dr. Freischlag is a true "triple threat" as a teacher, researcher and physician. Our plans to reach out to the business community in new ways are chronicled below. So is a new outreach program in the East Baltimore community and our shift of offices to Fells Point and downtown, so we can make room for more funded research space on campus. You can read about some of the results of this research below. Please let us know if you have questions or comments about any of these topics. We welcome your suggestions.
HOPKINS TAKES 'GO SLOW' APPROACH TO VACCINATING WORKERS AGAINST SMALLPOX
In response to a federal recommendation to vaccinate "first response" health care workers against smallpox, Johns Hopkins Medicine has adopted a "low risk, go slow" approach that allows vaccinations without removing large numbers of workers from their hospital duties. A small group of Hopkins Hospital volunteers will be vaccinated each month, with a target of 250. Target numbers at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and Howard County General Hospital are 175 and 100, respectively. UCLA VASCULAR SURGEON, JULIE FREISCHLAG, NAMED HOPKINS' SURGERY CHIEF
On March 1, Julie A. Freischlag assumes her new roles as William Stewart Halsted Professor and Director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and surgeon in chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is the first woman in the medical school's 110-year history to hold these posts. Freischlag, a prolific researcher, was chief of vascular surgery at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine. NEW OFFICES BOLSTER BUSINESS LINKS AND TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION
Two university-wide offices have been set up to forge relationships with businesses and to commercialize innovations. The Office of Licensing and Technology Development will be directed by William P. Tew, assistant dean at the School of Medicine. Nora Zietz, formerly of the Abell Foundation, will head the Enterprise Development Office. TWO LARGE OFF-CAMPUS MOVES SET
Johns Hopkins Medicine has selected two prominent city locations - the new Bond Street Wharf in Fells Point and One Charles Center downtown - to house several administrative departments currently located on the East Baltimore campus. In total, Hopkins will occupy 50,000 square feet. URBAN HEALTH INSTITUTE STARTS HIV/AIDS PROGRAM IN EAST BALTIMORE
With support from Abbott Laboratories and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, the Division of Infectious Diseases and The Men's and Rose Street Community Centers have created a joint HIV/AIDS testing program in East Baltimore. It could serve as a national model. BIOTECH PARK ADVANCES
The City's plans to redevelop the blighted area north of the medical campus have moved ahead with passage of urban renewal legislation by the City Council. Plans for the 10-year project include a 2-million-square-foot biotechnology research park and up to 2,000 new and renovated homes. 10-YEAR MASTER PLAN FOR MEDICAL CAMPUS APPROVED
Trustees for Johns Hopkins Medicine have endorsed the most ambitious building plan ever for the East Baltimore campus, including a maternal and children's hospital, a critical care and cardiovascular tower, a second cancer research building and a basic science research building - at a cost of $1.2 billion. HOPKINS DISPUTES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LAWSUIT
While the Federal government has filed a lawsuit against The Johns Hopkins Hospital regarding billing for "procedures involving experimental cardiac devices," the Hopkins position is that the patients received the best available care, and the billing to the government was appropriate.
PIONEERING CARDIAC SURGERY TEAM PORTRAYED IN PBS DOCUMENTARY
On Feb. 10 at 9 p.m., PBS will air a television documentary about the 34-year partnership between Vivien Thomas, an African-American lab technician, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital's chief surgeon, Alfred Blalock. "Partners of the Heart" focuses on their pioneering "blue baby" heart operation that ushered in modern cardiac surgery. MEDICAL DEVICES SAFE, BUT COULD BE SAFER WITH BETTER REGULATION
Johns Hopkins infection control experts who last year traced the source of a bacterial infection in 32 patients to three defective bronchoscopes say more rigorous regulation and faster recall of the devices may have prevented the outbreak. LITTLE VALUE SEEN IN CT SCANS FOR LUNG CANCER SCREENING
Computed tomography (CT) scans, widely marketed to consumers, may not be valuable for mass screening of lung cancer due to its costs and potential harm for lung nodules that turn out to be benign. "We're not down on the technology, just its injudicious use," said senior author Neil R. Powe, director of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research. CANCER THERAPY MAY OFFER LUPUS PATIENTS NEW HOPE
Researchers at Johns Hopkins report success in using high doses of the anti-cancer drug cyclophosphamide to treat patients with moderate and severe forms of lupus, a chronic and sometimes fatal autoimmune disease. COMMON CANCER GENE CONTROLS BLOOD VESSEL GROWTH
Scientists from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and Northwestern University have found a new target to squeeze off a tumor's blood supply. Their study shows how a common cancer-causing gene controls the switch for tumor blood vessel growth known as angiogenesis.
BOMBS VERSUS BAND-AIDS
University President Bill Brody writes that fixing one defective step in a flawed process will not dramatically reduce medication errors in hospitals. Instead, we must set outrageously challenging goals, such as zero tolerance for errors and complications.
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