Jefferson Review - Summer 2012

HEALTH PROFESSIONS

T H O M A S

J E F F E R S O N

NURSING

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PHARMACY

U N I V E R S I T Y

Aging Baby Boomers: Challenging and Changing Tomorrow’s Health Care

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POPULATION HEALTH

S U M M E R

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Introducing 901 Walnut

Jefferson Today Among many milestone events at Jefferson this past year, the first graduation of the Jefferson School of Pharmacy, the Class of 2012, made history as we added yet another professional degree to our alumni ranks. Sixty-four new doctors of pharmacy proudly joined in our commencement.

Of the JSP graduates who applied for postdoctorate residencies through the national match program, 74 percent matched, compared with a national success rate of about 60 percent. This is a wonderful accomplishment for a new school. Our congratulations go out to the students and faculty of JSP for launching a new chapter in Jefferson’s history.

Graduation also marked a bittersweet goodbye to President Robert L. Barchi, MD, PhD. His vision for Jefferson as a premier university for the health sciences was celebrated on numerous occasions, including a student and faculty farewell event that packed the lobby of the Dorrance H. Hamilton Building on campus. We all wish him well as he takes on new challenges as president of Rutgers University. During the coming year, Richard Gozon, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees since 2003, will serve as interim president. His longstanding commitment to Jefferson while serving on the board’s Executive Committee and in other leadership roles makes him uniquely suited to this position as the board commences its recruitment of a permanent president.

In February, we opened and occupied the Health Professions Academic Building at 901 Walnut St. This new building, along with adjoining renovated Edison Building space, provides a contemporary

environment for all the programs of JSHP, JSN and JSP. In the future, JSPH will join us at 901. Included is new lounge space for students, updated career counseling and specialized testing accommodations and faculty meeting space. This newest campus facility reflects our vision of a university that welcomes all the health professions into a community focused on collaboration.

This issue of the Review highlights a number of ways that Jefferson is preparing its students for future developments in health care. The feature article focuses on the growing impact of older adults on society. Life span has increased, and with it, the demands for assistance in maintaining a high level of health and function. At Jefferson, interprofessional teams of faculty and students are pioneering ways to convert evidence-based, translational research into practice to achieve improved outcomes for older adults. Through innovative initiatives like Jefferson Elder Care, our School of Health Professions has led the way in developing community-based approaches to care.

Another example of how Jefferson is addressing innovation in health care is the research being conducted by the School of Pharmacy. With internal and external funding support, JSP faculty in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences are actively engaged in research designed to accelerate the process of translating new knowledge into clinically effective treatments and diagnostics.

Jefferson has also expanded its global reach as described in the article about the work abroad of JSPH faculty member Rob Simmons, DrPH, MPH. Our expanded international focus is further reflected in

Michael J. Vergare, MD

the establishment of the Japan Center for Health Professions Education and Research.

This initiative builds on the support we have received from the Noguchi Foundation by joining with the Japanese Association for Development of Community Medicine to promote international exchange among health professionals.

Jefferson programs continue to receive recognition for excellence in education and research. Recently, U.S.News & World Report ranked JSHP’s occupational therapy program sixth in the nation. In addition, JSHP’s DPT program was ranked 51st and JSN was named a “Top Online Education Program” for its graduate programs.

New initiatives on the horizon include the launch of JCGS’s Postbaccalaureate Pre-Professional Program in fall 2012 and the JSHP Physician Assistant Studies Program in fall 2013. Collectively, recent accomplishments and planned developments make us confident that the future of health professions education at Jefferson is bright indeed.

Sincerely, Michael J. Vergare, MD Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs The Daniel Lieberman Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Thomas Jefferson University

Contents Features

2 Geriatrics Comes of Age: Preparing to Care for an Aging Population 8 Rob Simmons: International Public Health Leader 10 Jefferson Takes Real-World Approach to Pharmaceutical Research 20 Health Professions Academic Building Opens 22 Dolores Grosso: JMC’s Singular Nurse Faculty Member

ON CAMPUS 15 School of Health Professions 18 School of Nursing 19 School of Pharmacy 21 School of Population Health 24 Class Notes Jefferson Review Summer 2012 Senior Vice President, Jefferson Foundation: Frederick Ruccius Editor: Gail Luciani Managing Editor: Jane A. Clinton Design: JeffGraphics Editorial Board Suzanne Berg Karen Brooks Ellen Caccia E. Adel Herge, MS ’93, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA Anne M. Markham, BSN ’93, DNP ’11 Patrick Monaghan Michael J. Paquet Kaarina Robson

The Review is published twice annually

by Jefferson Foundation to encourage alumni interest and support for the Jefferson Schools of Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy and Population Health.

Address correspondence to: Editor, Review Jefferson Foundation 925 Chestnut Street, Suite 110 Philadelphia, PA 19107-4216 215-955-7920 jeffconnect.jefferson.edu The Jefferson community and supporters are welcome to receive the Review on a regular basis; please contact the address above. Postmaster: send address changes to the address above.

Cover: Tim Fox, PT, GCS, MS ’95, DPT ’08, CEO of Fox Rehabilitation Copyright© Thomas Jefferson University. All Rights Reserved.

THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY

JG 12-2179/MC 12-04885

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Geriatrics Comes of Age: Preparing to Care for an Aging Population

summer 2012 3

W

hile downsizing appears to be the new normal in America, one sector of the economy is experiencing unprecedented growth. Health care is expected to create 3.2 million jobs by 2018 — more than any other industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This boom is precipitated by the simple fact that Americans are getting older. Each day, 10,000 baby boomers turn 65. By 2030, older adults will make up 20 percent of the population.

Aging is expected to have a profound impact on both the demand for healthcare services and the way they are delivered.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that chronic conditions account for 75 percent of all healthcare costs and that 80 percent of older adults have at least one chronic condition. These numbers will rise sharply unless better strategies are developed to prevent and manage chronic disease.

The healthcare industry must also respond to the changing character of older adults. Compared to previous generations, baby boomers are educated, active and well informed about health matters. “Thirty years ago, older adults typically did not ask questions of the doctor or therapist about their plan of care,” says Catherine V. Piersol, MS, OTR/L, clinical director of Jefferson Elder Care. “This population is different. They want to participate in their care.”

While research shows they have specialized needs, older adults in healthcare settings are often treated similarly to younger adults.

“There isn’t a great understanding behind the vast amount of evidence that supports geriatric rehabilitation and what is considered normal and abnormal aging,” says Tim Fox, PT, GCS, MS ’95, DPT ’08, CEO of Fox Rehabilitation. “There’s also a sense of ageism — discrimination as far as what practitioners may subjectively feel is an appropriate level of function for an elderly individual, as opposed to using objective tests and measures and referencing normative values to make clinical decisions.”

As a leader in health professions education, Jefferson is preparing students and practitioners for the coming change by pioneering evidence-based programs designed to improve quality of care for older adults. “Jefferson is on the cutting edge,” says Tracey Earland, MS, OTR/L, assistant professor of occupational therapy. “The commitment we’ve placed to increasing students’ knowledge about teamwork in the care of older adults is going to be an asset for the community as a whole.”

Geriatric pharmacist Emily Hajjar, PharmD, BCPS, CGP, reviews medications with patient Myron Heard. Photo by Sabina Pierce.

“ There’s a poor understanding of the evidence behind geriatrics and what is considered normal and abnormal aging.”

– Tim Fox, PT, GCS, MS ’95 and DPT ’08 CEO of Fox Rehabilitation

4 Jefferson REVIEW Opposite page: OT student Lauren Lovinger works with a patient at the Riverview Home in Philadelphia.

Community-Based Care

Catherine Piersol, MS, OTR/L, assists a JEC client in the home.

Photo by Ed Cunicelli.

“ There are many strategies that can be implemented, including changing the environment to minimize distractions and teaching caregivers ways to communicate with their family member.”

– Catherine V. Piersol, MS, OTR/L Clinical Director of Jefferson Elder Care

In an apartment at Philadelphia’s Riverview Home, an occupational therapy student works with a 75-year-old resident to prepare a simple meal. The patient, who has low vision, uses a black cutting board to safely slice an onion.

The Riverview Home Occupational Therapy Department represents a decade-long partnership between Jefferson and the city. Student therapists sharpen their clinical skills while providing physical activity, education and assistance with the tasks of daily living to an underserved elderly population.

This approach illustrates a growing trend in the care of older adults — the shift from inpatient treatment toward communitybased approaches. By providing personalized, proactive care, practitioners can help elders manage chronic conditions and maintain function and independence. “We look at people in the context of where they live — their physical and social environment,” says Arlene Lorch, OTD, OTR/L, CHES, clinical supervisor of the Riverview program. “That’s different from the older model where we just looked at illnesses, problems and disabilities.”

This shift is crucial to meet the complex needs of people living with heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases. “We developed a system in the latter part of the twentieth century that was really effective at managing acute problems,” says Christine Arenson, MD, associate professor of family and community medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care.

“But we don’t have very good systems in place to support patients and families in the less glamorous, day-to-day grind of managing chronic conditions.”

Coordination and Communication

Coordination of care is a particular challenge in caring for older patients. Careful communication among patients, providers and caregivers is crucial, especially when elders see multiple providers or move from one setting to another. For many practitioners, this requires involvement beyond a traditional office consultation.

“We need to be problem solvers and patient advocates,” says Emily Hajjar, PharmD, BCPS, CGP, assistant professor of pharmacy.

To meet the needs of patients with chronic conditions, Jefferson Family Medicine Associates has adopted the patient-centered medical home model developed by the National Committee on Quality Assurance. Medical homes are primary care practices that provide patient-centered care using a multidisciplinary approach.

At Jefferson, each practice employs a guided care nurse who offers support and education to patients and caregivers and coordinates care among providers. Jefferson is one of few health systems to hold the NCQA’s highest level of medical home certification.

The medical home model is also popular among nurse practitioners, who play an important role in caring for local elders. “As nurses, we’re trained to look at the whole person, to communicate and run our practices much like a medical home,” says Jennifer Bellot, RN, PhD, MHSA, assistant professor of nursing, who researches older adults’ use of nurse-managed centers. Philadelphia currently has one of the highest concentrations of such centers in the country.

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A health mentor discusses her medical history with a student. Photo by Ed Cunicelli.

Caring across Disciplines

Once a month, a team of pharmacists, physicians, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and physical therapists gathers at the Philadelphia Senior Center to assist older adults who are at risk of falling. Patients receive a comprehensive assessment that covers balance, cognitive status, social support and medication safety. Many of these screenings are conducted by Jefferson students as part of their clinical experiences.

Afterward, the team meets to share findings and formulate recommendations. Together, they create a detailed picture of the

patient’s functioning and needs. “Our students are participating, which is really exciting,” says Earland, who coordinates the falls prevention clinic. “They get practice, feedback and exposure.”

Research demonstrates that interprofessional approaches like this one can significantly improve health outcomes for older adults. Jefferson is among the first universities to put this evidence into practice on a large scale. Multidisciplinary teams can be found in many of Jefferson’s clinical settings, including the family medicine practice at the Philadelphia Senior Center and within

Summer 2012 7

“ As nurses, we’re trained to look at the whole person, to communicate and run our practices much like a medical home.”

– Jennifer Bellot, RN, PhD, MHSA

Assistant Professor of Nursing

the Senior Adult Oncology Program at Kimmel Cancer Center.

“Everyone has a voice, and we’re all working for the common good,” says Hajjar. “I think all the disciplines realize that no one discipline can do everything.”

Interprofessional competency is an integral part of health professions education at Jefferson. One example is the Health Mentors Program, in which teams of four to five students from nursing, medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy and couple and family therapy work together to create a multidisciplinary plan of care for an adult with one or more chronic conditions. Many students report that working with their health mentor helps them see older adults in a new light.

“Time and again, they say things like, ‘I had no idea someone who was 80 would be so busy,’” says Arenson.

Jefferson also supports interprofessionalism as a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania-Delaware Geriatric Education Center, a grant-supported consortium of area universities and healthcare providers. Members work in multidisciplinary teams to develop education and training opportunities that enhance quality of care for older adults. Recent topics include chronic disease management, end-of-life care and oncology care. Materials developed by the group are used across the country and have been integrated into many of Jefferson’s health professions curricula.

Translating Research into Practice

The caregiver of an 85-year-old patient with Alzheimer’s disease watches an occupational therapist arrange clothes on a bedspread. The therapist demonstrates how the caregiver can help the patient dress independently by setting up the task in advance and using gentle prompting. Strategies like these may allow the patient to remain at home, despite recent declines in function.

Dementia represents one of the greatest challenges in caring for older adults. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 5.4 million people are living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and that 70 percent of them live at home.

While practitioners often regard dementia as untreatable, research has identified interventions that can improve function, activity engagement and the quality of life of both patients and caregivers. “There are many strategies that can be implemented, including changing the environment to minimize distractions

and teaching caregivers ways to communicate with their family member,” says Piersol.

Jefferson Elder Care (JEC) was cofounded by Laura Gitlin, PhD, a former professor of occupational therapy and internationally recognized researcher in geriatrics, and Janice P. Burke, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, dean of the School of Health Professions.

JEC serves as a living laboratory for the development, testing and dissemination of innovative home- and community-based health and human services. The center also strives to translate research into practice quickly and effectively. Evidence-supported interventions tend to have a slow “speed to market” — it often takes a decade or longer for practitioners to adopt new findings.

Through professional training, consultation and community partnerships, JEC equips health professionals to offer older adults the most advanced care available.

JEC also provides an in-home clinical service for people with dementia and their families, including occupational therapy, the Skills2CareTM program for family caregivers and a home safety assessment. Services are designed to promote “aging in place,” the concept of helping elders live independently at home regardless of age, income or disability. “That’s a very big movement that I think everybody, including the government, is interested in,” Lorch says. “Having too many people in nursing homes creates problems in terms of funding and facilities. And of course, most people do wish to stay at home.”

Rich Rewards

The challenging field of geriatrics offers a wealth of opportunity for health professionals. Jefferson’s geriatric practitioners emphasize the many rewards of their work. “I only hope that I can live to have as rich of life experiences as I’ve heard from my patients,” says Hajjar. “It’s inspiring to see how they handle things.”

Arenson agrees. “Working with older patients is incredibly intellectually stimulating,” she says. “We get to take care of them for many years and see them have lots of successes. Yes, they will eventually pass. But at age 95 after a life well led, that’s really not so terrible a thing.” ■

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SUMMER 2012 9

Jefferson Faculty Rob Simmons: International Public Health Leader Rob Simmons, DrPH, MPH, MCHES, CPH, likes his students to experience public health.

It’s not out of the ordinary for Simmons, director of the School of Population Health’s Master of Public Health program, to arrange for students to spend half a day with Philadelphia Department of Public Health inspectors as they make their rounds at restaurants throughout the city.

Or to lead a group of public health students to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional representatives during the National Health Education Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C. “Public health is an applied science, so it is important to emphasize experiential learning as much as possible, taking concepts from the classroom and applying them in the community,” says Simmons, who has led Jefferson’s MPH program since 2007. “An essential part of public health learning is the active engagement of our students in their education, in applied research initiatives and in community service.”

In March 2012, Simmons received the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations’ Health Education Advocate Award at the 15th Annual Health Education Advocacy Summit in Washington. The award is given annually to a health education leader who has demonstrated outstanding advocacy skills and served as a mentor for others — a fitting tribute to someone who has dedicated his 40-year career to public health education, working with local and state government, community-based health organizations, private health foundations, healthcare organizations and, more recently, in academic public health programs. Fifteen Jefferson MPH students accompanied him to the summit.

“Dr. Simmons works tirelessly to help students achieve their goals,” says Manisha Verma, MD, MPH ’10. “He is determined to get every student motivated and passionate about population health.”

The annual advocacy trip to Capitol Hill is one of Simmons’ favorites. “This is a great learning opportunity for students to see how to apply some of the concepts and a framework for developing public health policy, and how you advocate for those things,” he says. “What the students learn is the importance of their beliefs and their voice. The result is that young people gain a lot more confidence in their roles as future public health leaders.

It changes their perspective of their congressional leaders and their role in serving their constituents.”

A native of Southern California, Simmons began his public health career after receiving his Master of Public Health in health education from Loma Linda University School of Public Health in 1973. Simmons then spent several years working for San Diego

County’s public health department in substance abuse prevention and poison control. He had a steady paycheck and lived within a block of the beach. But he felt there was something lacking from the “creature comforts” he was experiencing.

So he joined the Peace Corps. “San Diego was beautiful, but I felt there was something I needed to connect with. I really wanted to help others.”

He found himself in Colombia, working with the Secretary of Health in Medellín, the country’s second-largest city. He also ventured out into the rural areas, “the campo,” including spending a week helping another Peace Corps volunteer capture mosquitos for a malaria eradication program in the country’s densely forested and highly impoverished Chocó region. He was inspired by the positive attitude displayed by the people of the region, despite deplorable living conditions.

“That’s one of my main takeaways, coming back to the United States — you really appreciate all we have. We have so much, and I’m not sure we appreciate it as much as we should,” he says.

The trip to Colombia was life-changing in many ways, most notably because he met Roselena, the woman he would marry and raise three children with. The couple plans to retire one day to the foothills of Medellín, known as the “City of Eternal Spring.”

But one gets the feeling that Simmons will never really retire.

Recently, he has expanded his work in global health, having been accepted as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar in Public and Global Health. The program sends U.S. faculty and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning and related subjects at overseas academic institutions for a period of two to six weeks.

Simmons recently returned from Mexico, where he attended the Fifth Inter-American Health Promotion and Education Conference and delivered a pre-conference workshop on public health policy and advocacy as well as two other presentations — in Spanish — to public health faculty and practitioners.

In August 2012, he’ll return to Universidad CES in Medellín as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar. Building on his previous trips to Universidad CES, considered the top health sciences university in Colombia, Simmons will provide training and technical assistance for program directors and faculty at Universidad CES and at the Universidad de Antioquia, the country’s only school of public health.

“Public health is wedded in a social consciousness of social justice, human rights and health inequities ... We’re working with people, systems and communities that have real challenges and needs, certainly here in Philadelphia. To do that work, you have to have a passion that you really want to make a difference.” ■

10 Jefferson REVIEW

Jefferson Takes a

Real-World Approach TO Pharmaceutical RESEARCH

Above: Ashiwel Undieh, PhD; Roger Armen, PhD; and Takemi Tanaka, PhD. Photo by Ed Cunicelli.

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“Developing a new intervention

or prevention strategy to reduce breast cancer metastases is urgently needed.”

— Takemi Tanaka, PhD, researching ways to prevent cancer cells from disseminating throughout the body

ccording to PhRMA, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s advocacy group, it takes more than $1 billion and 10 to 15 years to bring a new drug to market. In today’s economy, that expenditure of resources is the basis for some hard questions.

Local and global communities are asking, what kinds of treatments are worth that investment? How can we ensure high-quality patient care at reasonable cost? How can the healthcare industry and government work together to deliver balanced policy that equally serves insurers, healthcare providers and patients?

The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Jefferson School of Pharmacy is facing these questions head on.

In many ways, the department is ahead of the curve by talking openly about the economic aspects of research. “We cannot be shy about this discussion,” says Ashiwel Undieh, PhD, department chair. “This is a necessary conversation because we want to get the discoveries to the patient. And that requires strategic use of limited resources.”

In speaking with a number of pharmaceutical companies, Jefferson School of Pharmacy faculty learned that if institutions do not have their intellectual property protected, pharmaceutical companies will not pursue them. With this in mind, Jefferson emphasizes securing intellectual property protections for these discoveries.

Progress is being made as this discussion comes to the forefront. Driven by more than the goal of advancing knowledge, institutions are finding new ways to translate that knowledge into clinically useful treatments and diagnostics.

Working to Bridge the Gap

Laura Pizzi, PhD, MPH, associate professor in Jefferson’s Department of Pharmacy Science, is the first faculty member in the Jefferson School of Pharmacy to focus on interpreting and applying the tools of economic evaluation to the challenges of today’s healthcare landscape. With combined funding from the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University; the Center for Disease Control in collaboration with Wills Eye Institute; and several pharmaceutical sponsors, Pizzi is working to bridge the gap between effective treatments, compassionate care and economic realities.

“I work with applied health economics because I want to help shape decisions about the costs and real-world effectiveness of medicines and other treatments,” Pizzi says. “Healthcare resources are limited, so research is critical to informing which treatments should be covered and chosen by patients and healthcare providers.”

Pizzi applies her research to a broad spectrum of healthcare concerns, from studying the cost effectiveness of non-

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Omar Tliba, PhD, with students Sandy Apugo and Patricia O’Malley. Photos by Ed Cunicelli.

pharmacological support programs for depression and dementia to the costs of anticoagulation treatments to adherence to follow-up retinopathy care among diabetic patients of neighboring Wills Eye Institute.

Predicting the Future

Roger Armen, PhD, works in the department as a computational medicinal chemist, developing computer models capable of generating information and projections before other investigators begin real-life testing. Armen can create a model, derive a multitude of properties about that drug and determine if the proposed molecule is optimal before going into synthesis. As a result, instead of making hundreds of compounds, scientists can develop just a handful whose properties can be predicted. The path from starting point to end product is shortened, and the economic benefits are substantial.

In addition, Armen’s modeling allows researchers to develop ideas that would not otherwise have gotten off the ground. Prior to modeling, considerable time and money were needed to determine the active site of a protein before a targeted drug could be formulated. But today, researchers can streamline that process by looking at how the protein folds, figuring out the shape of the pocket and — much earlier in the process — making a molecule that fits.

These models can also predict potential toxicities. If a molecule is found to be too toxic at the outset, course corrections can be made early on. Researchers can make pivotal decisions before the molecule is developed and the first human trials have begun.

Because of the predictive nature of his work, Armen collaborates with a number of scientists. Some develop potential targets while others attempt to inhibit pathways to treatment.

In both instances, Armen develops a model that helps limit some of the risk.

While a position like Armen’s is fairly common in pharmaceutical companies, it is far less common in today’s pharmacy schools. Jefferson recognized the importance of the role and created a position early on.

Getting to the Site of Action

An increasing number of drugs based on a protein structure are being created. One of the toughest challenges is knowing how to get them to the site of action. This is the research focus for assistant professor Sunday Shoyele, PhD. Shoyele developed a process that converts proteins into nanoparticles of the size, shape and form that can be delivered in alternative formulations. For example, drugs previously delivered by injection might be delivered by inhalation instead. Minimal amounts get into circulation so it is safer for the rest of the body and more effective for the target tissue; the protein is directed to the precise location where it is needed.

For example, in the treatment of lung cancer, the drug needs to get to the lungs while minimizing access to other sensitive tissues such as the brain and kidneys. By looking at alternative ways to deliver the proteins, Shoyele can bypass some of these adverse mechanisms.

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Driven by more than the goal of advancing knowledge, Jefferson is finding new ways to translate pharmaceutical research into treatments and diagnostics.

Sunday Shoyele, PhD, and his lab assistant, Asha Srinivasan.

Laura Pizzi, PhD, MPH, and student Ephraim Alvero.

High Recognition

Asthma affects 25 million people in the United States.

Unfortunately, for a subpopulation of asthma sufferers, the standard treatment — corticosteroids — fails to provide adequate relief. These resistant patients are an important field of research, not only for asthma, but in other glucocorticoid resistance, such as in Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Omar Tliba, PhD, assistant professor, recently received a five-year, $1.2 million R01 grant from the NIH to examine this important area. Specifically, Tliba investigates the mechanisms by which inflammatory cytokines — crucial for immune responses towards infection and inflammation — alter airway-resident cell responsiveness to anti-asthma drugs mainly in severe asthmatics.

“By advancing our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to the development of steroid insensitivity in airway cells, we will ultimately be able to knock out lung-specific target genes responsible for the attenuated steroid responsiveness in severe asthmatics,” Tliba says.

Finding Answers for Breast Cancer

Another one of the department’s highly recognized researchers is Takemi Tanaka, PhD. The focus of this assistant professor’s work is twofold. First, she and her team develop therapeutic aptamers to prevent cancer cells from disseminating to the rest of the body. The compound they discovered was patented as a new agent for cancer prevention and targeting.

“No one dies from primary breast cancer. What really takes women’s lives are metastases. So developing a new intervention or prevention strategy to reduce breast cancer metastases is urgently needed,” says Tanaka. When cancer

metastasizes, cancer cells enter the distal organs through the blood vessels. Tanaka envisions those vessels as a gateway for the cancer cells, and her research goal is to block cancer entry to the distal organs for the prevention of metastases.

Tanaka’s research has been funded by multiple funding sources including the Department of Defense and American Cancer Society. She is also one of two grant awardees from Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition 2012 and was recently awarded for R01 at the top fifth percentile from the NIH. Tanaka also has developed several drug delivery systems using nanoparticles to specifically target breast and ovarian cancer. Her research in this area has received awards from the Department of Defense and Alliance for Nanohealth.

Leading the Way

Undieh’s own research centers on the roles of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers and also helps regulate movement and emotional responses. Prior research has indicated that people with low dopamine activity may be more prone to addiction. Undieh builds on this finding by looking at the signaling pathways that dopamine uses together with epigenomic programming to mitigate addiction and prevent depression.

Undieh’s work supports the theory that the difference between healthy and sick individuals is not the presence or absence of particular genes, but the level at which the genes are functioning.

Recent data suggest that drugs that induce addiction reset the activity level of a number of genes. Undieh says, “We did a study that indicated that 390 genes were affected by exposure to cocaine. By examining how the normal functions of dopamine work hand in hand with the impact of environmental exposure, we not only understand these diseases but also new ways of treating them.”

As the Jefferson School of Pharmacy graduates it first class of students this year, Undieh reflects on the school’s accomplishments to date.

“When you consider the quality of grants Jefferson School of Pharmacy has been awarded, the quantity of papers we have published and the number of research faculty who have been recognized through appointments to editorial boards or grant review committees in four short years,” Undieh says, “we have much to be proud of.” ■

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Dolberry

Kern

University Japan Center Opens

The Japan Center for Health Professions Education and Research at Jefferson opened in January 2012 to promote the exchange of training and research among Jefferson, the Japanese Association for the Development of Community Medicine and the Noguchi Medical Research Institute.

Since 1987, Jefferson has hosted more than 300 Japanese medical students, physicians and nurses for training.

With the new center, Jefferson expects to support as many as 55 Japanese health professional visitors per year. So far, 36 nurses, physicians, medical students and residents have been scheduled to visit in 2012. Most spend one week at Jefferson for clinical skills training in various areas of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the University Clinical Skills and Simulation Center.

“We designed the program to have a cohort of students who will progress as a group,” says Adrienne Dolberry, PhD, P4 director. “The goal is to build community so the students can support each other while in the program and have a network when they move on to medical or pharmacy school.”

A highlight of the program is a linkage agreement with Jefferson Medical College, which gives a select group of students from the program the opportunity to qualify for early-decision acceptance or a guaranteed interview with JMC. For more information, visit www.jefferson. edu/JCGS/p4.cfm.

BST Partners with JMC to Offer Honors Program

In the fall 2012 semester, the Department of Bioscience Technologies in JSHP will launch the Bioscience Honors Program, a partnership with the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology at JMC and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s clinical laboratories. The first year of the program will target second-year BS or BS/MS students interested in genomic pathology or molecular genetics. In subsequent years, all bioscience technology students will be eligible to apply to these and other highly specialized areas in laboratory diagnostics.

Jefferson Launches Pre-Medical/ Pre-Pharmacy Program

In fall 2012, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies will launch the Postbaccalaureate Pre-Professional Program (P4), which focuses on helping individuals fulfill the basic science requirements needed for entrance to medical and pharmacy schools. In addition, the program offers professional development activities, opportunities to volunteer within the healthcare community and MCAT & PCAT exam preparation. The program initially will launch a two-year track and will introduce an accelerated one-year pre-medical track in summer 2013.

OT on the Radio Clinical Assistant Professor Tina DeAngelis, EdD, OTR/L (second from right); Bobby Walsh, MS ’11 (second from left); and occupational therapy students Joshua Springer, Lauren Pasciuto, Tony Williams and Houman Ziai joined local talk show host Derrick Ford on his radio program in April 2012. They discussed the field of OT and the skills the profession can offer to those dealing with addiction recovery. Ford, a behavioral health specialist, is a guest speaker in DeAngelis’ “Historical Perspectives on Theory Based Practice” class and shares the story of his recovery from addiction and homelessness. He has been clean for 22 years and now works to help others achieve sobriety and mentors youth in Philadelphia.

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U.S.News & World Report Ranks OT Program Sixth in Nation U.S.News & World Report has ranked the Department of Occupational Therapy in the Jefferson School of Health Professions sixth in the United States — a jump from 13th in 2008, the last time the publication ranked occupational therapy programs.

Department of Occupational Therapy Chair and Jefferson School of Health Professions Dean Janice P. Burke, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, credits the OT faculty for the program’s success, saying, “The ranking is a reflection of the distinguished group of faculty who publish, lecture, are widely recognized nationally and internationally and are known for developing innovations in education, practice and research.”

Jefferson’s OT department includes many leaders in the field. Several faculty members hold leadership positions within the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association: Mary Muhlenhaupt, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is president-elect; Tracey Vause-Earland, MS, OTR/L, is co-chair of the Commission on Organizational Affairs of the Board of Directors; and E. Adel Herge, OTD, OTR/L, is chair of the Commission on Conference.

And Jefferson OT faculty are recognized for their contributions at both national and international levels. Department Vice Chairman and Professor Roseann C. Schaaf, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, was recently invited to England, Ireland and Finland to share her expertise in sensory integration and autism. She and Janice Burke have received the A. Jean Ayres Research Award, conferred annually by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation in recognition of outstanding scholars who have demonstrated sustained commitment to the application, development or testing of theory in occupational therapy. The department has assembled an international cohort of online students who are enrolled in

Advanced Practice Certificate programs in autism, neurorehabilitation, older adults and teaching in the digital age.

Burke, a recipient of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) 2010 Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship Award — the highest academic honor that AOTA bestows — is currently chair of PRODEC (Professional Program Director’s Education Council), a group that includes all occupational therapy professional program directors in the United States.

Other faculty members participate in occupational therapy task forces and AOTA interest sections, and many are frequent contributors to OT Practice magazine as well as peer-reviewed journals and textbooks.

During the 2011 AOTA Annual Conference and Expo, held in Philadelphia, Catherine Verrier Piersol, MS, OTR/L, served as conference chair, and Herge was the hospitality chair. Jefferson was highly visible, with faculty and many students attending and delivering presentations, sharing their “insiders’ picks” of things to do in the neighborhood and hosting a tour of Jefferson’s University Clinical Skills and Simulation Center.

Jefferson OT students are leaders in the profession, too. Most recently, Houman Ziai and Josh Springer founded Brothers in Occupational Therapy (BrOT), a group with a mission to increase the male presence within the occupational therapy profession while creating a more powerful and diverse workforce. Other students have partnered with faculty to write papers and make presentations at conferences. This year’s AOTA conference included student copresentations with Drs. Shelley Wallock, Stephen Kern and Roseann Schaaf.

“The U.S.News & World Report ranking places us among a group of very elite occupational therapy programs across the country,” Burke says. “There has been a qualitative and quantitative surge in the applicant pool to our program in the past years, which is a strong indication of a program on the rise. We are proud of this ranking and have worked hard to achieve it.”

Like Us on Facebook The Thomas Jefferson University Department of Occupational Therapy and Department of Physical Therapy now have Facebook pages. “Like” us to see what is happening on campus and connect with others!

Save the Date: Radiologic Sciences Master’s Program Reunion August 11, 2012, 3 to 6 p.m.

Jefferson Health Professions Academic Building, 901 Walnut St., Philadelphia For more information, contact: Gary Lunger, MS ’08, RT(R)(N) ARRT at gjlunger@gmail.com.

16 Jefferson REVIEW

Synnestvedt

Brajot

Snyder

Piersol

Covelman

School of Health Professions OT Students Working with Refugee Families

Some first-year occupational therapy students are partnering with refugee families referred from Philadelphia’s Nationalities Service Center, helping them adapt to life in America. The students work with families on activities such as personalizing their homes, learning how to use public transportation, connecting to library resources or getting a driver’s license.

Many of the refugees come from third-world countries, and “they often bring the emotional scars of trauma and years of living displaced,” says Associate Professor Stephen B. Kern, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA. “While students practice their OT skills, they also learn about their clients’ cultural and political histories and how to communicate with limited shared language.”

Students Receive Scholarships

BS/MS occupational therapy student Tova Ganz is the first recipient of the Ethel Beard Burstein Scholarship, established

by Ethel Beard Burstein, an occupational therapist with roots in Philadelphia. In her application essay, Ganz wrote: “Together with my clients, I have experienced the joy of learning to walk again, the frustration of losing friends after a stigmatizing diagnosis, the intricacies of dealing with various family and team members and, most of all, the exhilaration as people come to understand and realize that they can and will live their life to the fullest extent possible.”

Entry-level master’s OT student Annalisa Synnestvedt is one of four students awarded a scholarship by the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association. Synnestvedt became active with the POTA board task force in April 2012.

Two senior radiologic sciences multicompetency students, Marie Brajot (MRI/general sonography) and Rebecca Snyder (general sonography/vascular sonography), received scholarships from Lambda Nu, the National Honor Society for Radiologic and Imaging Sciences. Scholarships were awarded to 11 students nationally.

JEC Receives Pew Funding

Jefferson Elder Care has received a Pew Fund Grant for $150,000 to provide dementia services to families in the Delaware Valley. Clinical Director Catherine V. Piersol, MS, OTR/L, says that nearly half of JEC referrals do not qualify due to income level, type of insurance or Medicare Part B eligibility.

This funding will allow 140 clients and their caregivers to receive services over the next three years.

Medical Dosimetry Students Score High

One hundred percent of Jefferson’s 2011 medical dosimetry graduates (Department of Radiologic Sciences) passed the medical dosimetry certification exam in September 2011. The national pass rate was 52 percent.

Interprofessional, International Interaction via the Internet

In spring 2012, the Jefferson School of Health Professions and Kitasato University in Japan engaged in a fourday online conference that focused on the nature of collaborative care in each country’s healthcare system and explored similarities and differences in team functioning. Groups from the two universities met via synchronous online conferencing.

Jefferson’s Departments of Couple and Family Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Radiologic Sciences developed a program around a scenario based on the interprofessional care required for a traumatic brain injury.

During the conference, the Japanese students also presented about the impact of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami on Japanese people as well as the healthcare system and its response to the disaster.

“The presentations sparked discussion between the Kitasato and Jefferson students, but also among the Jefferson students from the different departments, leading to better understanding of each profession’s role on the healthcare team,” says Kenneth Covelman, PhD, chair of the Department of Couple and Family Therapy.

Students learned cultural differences in health care, such as how Japanese students must earn a bachelor’s degree and graduate as generalists in radiologic sciences, ready to work in several modalities. The crosscultural experience showed physical

SUMMER 2012 17

Fox

Herge

therapy student Justine Belschner that “no matter what culture we’re in, the prime directive in health care is still the care of our patients and their well-being.”

Soon after the conference, two Kitasato students traveled to Jefferson to spend two weeks with the Department of Bioscience Technologies. Two Jefferson students will visit Japan in summer 2012 in this exchange program that dates back nearly 20 years.

JSHP Faculty Accomplishments

Faculty from the Jefferson School of Health Professions have achieved a variety of accomplishments in recent months: Kenneth Covelman, PhD, was profiled in the December 2011 newsletter of the New

Jefferson Students Visit Cuba Faculty members Stephen B. Kern, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, and Louis Hunter, MS, PT, and four OT students spent spring break 2012 at El Centro de Rehabilitacion y Neurodesarrollo (the Center for Rehabilitation and Neurodevelopment), a pediatric facility in Cardenas, Cuba. The group accompanied former faculty member Debra Tupe, PhD, OTR, and some of her students from Columbia University.

The goals of the visit were to share knowledge, exchange and demonstrate rehabilitation procedures and evaluate healthcare delivery.

Kern observed that although the therapy methods are dissimilar, “the Cuban therapists care desperately about the children they see, so there was no real difference in that aspect.”

Muhlenhaupt

Weening

Jersey Chapter of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.

Traci Fox, MS, RT(R), RDMS, RVT, received the Elsevier Faculty Development Scholarship from the Association of Collegiate Educators in Radiologic Technology. Fox also co-presented a paper, “Teaching and Learning Visions: Transforming Schools of the Future (SoF) Learning Environments,” at the 2012 Hawaiian International Conference on Education in Waikiki, Hawaii, in January 2012. She co-presented with Joyce Pittman, PhD, a professor from her doctoral program in educational leadership and management at Drexel University. The paper discussed the benefits of project-based learning in education and evolved from an assignment to design a school of the future.

E. Adel Herge, OTD, OTR/L, received the Roster of Fellows Award at the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Annual Conference and Expo in Indianapolis in April 2012.

Mary Muhlenhaupt, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is president-elect of the Pennsylvania Occupational Therapy Association.

Richard H. Weening, PhD, RT(R) (CT) (MR), was named a fellow of the Association of Educators in Imaging and Radiologic Sciences Inc. He has also been named a visiting scientist to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he is collaborating on research.

18 Jefferson REVIEW

Frisby

Speakman

Zukowsky

Kennedy

Phalen

School of Nursing JSN Named Top Online Program

U.S.News & World Report ranked JSN a Top Online Education Program for its graduate programs in three categories: Teaching Practices and Student Engagement; Student Services and Technology; and Faculty Credentials and Training. “Jefferson School of Nursing has 120 years of excellence in teaching nursing,” says Michael J. Vergare, MD, senior vice president of academic affairs.

“This national recognition reflects the School’s efforts to maintain a high level of standards as we create online programs.”

Anthony Frisby, PhD, director of education services for Jefferson’s Academic and Instructional Support and Resources, says that nursing was the first Jefferson program to offer a completely online course. “When ‘Epidemiology for Advance Practice Nursing’ debuted online

in 1998, it received several awards and was widely cited as a model for others to follow,” Frisby says. “Since then, JSN has continued to explore new instructional technologies and evaluate their impact on student achievement and satisfaction with preparation for the clinical environment.”

JSN offers the DNP degree completely online and the MSN in nursing program both synchronously and asynchronously online.

Speakman Named JCIPE Co-director

Associate Professor Elizabeth Speakman, EdD, RN, CDE, ANEF, has been appointed co-director of the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Education (JCIPE).

In this role, she will help JCIPE set and achieve goals and provide direction in planning, implementing and evaluating

interprofessional education programs.

She will focus on involving health professionals from across Jefferson’s campus in JCIPE activities. “This is an opportunity to be part of an initiative that will redesign how future healthcare is delivered,” Speakman says. “The opportunity to co-lead such an endeavor is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

JSN Appoints New Leadership Team Three Jefferson School of Nursing faculty members have been appointed to leadership positions. Ksenia Zukowsky, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, is associate dean for graduate programs; Rosemary Kennedy, PhD, RN, MBA, FAAN, is associate dean for strategic initiatives; and Ann Phalen, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, is associate dean for undergraduate programs.

New Clinical Options for BSN Students Pre-licensure BSN students have two new opportunities for clinical rotations. Some can complete their community clinical practices working with well elderly at a continuing care retirement community, Foulkeways at Gwynedd. During the spring 2012 semester, students conducted weekly health lectures to gain experience in developing patient education appropriate to diverse residents in the promotion of health and wellness and the prevention of disease.

Others can work in the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Wills Eye Hospital.

David Jack, PhD, RN, CPN, CNE, assistant professor at JSN, teamed up with Wills Eye’s chief of pediatric ophthalmology and ocular genetics, Alex Levine, MD, MHSc, to offer this opportunity. Jack provides didactic content in class, and students apply the nursing process to children at the clinic. They generate a reflection log and develop a care plan considering the disorders and their effects on the children’s daily activities.

Jefferson BSN students at Foulkeways at Gwynedd.

SUMMER 2012 19

JSPH Hosts 21st Annual Grandon Lecture On May 3, 2012, the Jefferson School of Population Health hosted the 21st Annual Dr. Raymond C. Grandon Lecture, “Health Care Reform, Two Years On,” led by physician and economist Mark McClellan, MD, PhD. Once commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, McClellan now directs the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution.

From left: JSPH Dean David B. Nash, MD, MBA; Mark L. Tykocinski, MD, Jefferson Medical College dean and TJU senior vice president; McClellan; Michael J. Vergare, MD, TJU senior vice president of academic affairs; Vijay Rao, MD, David C. Levin Professor and Chair of Jefferson Medical College’s Department of Radiology; Donald F. Schwarz, MD, MPH, deputy mayor of health and opportunity for the City of Philadelphia; and Robert I. Field, JD, MPH, PhD, professor at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University and the Drexel University School of Public Health.

School of Pharmacy JSP Graduates First Class

Monday, May 14, 2012, marked a major milestone for Jefferson. Sixty-four students received their Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the University, becoming the first alumni of the Jefferson School of Pharmacy.

JSP opened in fall 2008 in response to an ongoing shortage of pharmacists. The program fit well with the University’s overarching model of interprofessional, collaborative education.

In four years, the program has rapidly earned widespread respect and has already been recognized in practical terms. In March 2012, nearly 75 percent of JSP’s graduating class who applied to a residency or fellowship program in the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Match Day for accredited pharmacy residencies were matched, compared with a national rate of approximately 60 percent. This success is particularly impressive in the Philadelphia region and especially for a first graduating class.

Students Named to National Roles

Second-year pharmacy student Miranda Law has been named the National Student

Exchange Officer for the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) International Pharmaceutical Students Federation. Law will promote and help facilitate U.S.-member involvement in the organization’s student exchange program, which enables student members to explore pharmacy education, practice and research in countries other than their own. As a former participant in the program, Law trained in a hospital pharmacy for one month in Cairo, Egypt.

Hazel Atienza, another second-year student, was elected regional member-atlarge for APhA-ASP. Each year, only eight pharmacy students from across the country are elected to this post. Atienza will assist in organizing student membership, coordinating the society’s regional caucus and promoting initiatives such as the APhA-ASP’s Patient Care Programs and International Student Exchange Program.

(ASHP) Clinical Skills Competition (CSC). The national competition is a prominent feature of the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, the single largest annual gathering of pharmacists in the world.

Law

Atienza

Ravi

Tran

Student Team Takes Third Place

Students Saranyu Ravi and Jennifer Tran placed third in the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

20 Jefferson REVIEW

Health Professions Academic Building Opens In February 2012, Jefferson opened the doors to its newest facility, the Health Professions Academic Building, located at 901 Walnut St. This 11-story, state-of-the-art highrise is connected by several bridges to the Edison Building on 9th Street and is the new academic home for the Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy and Health Professions, including the Departments of Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Radiologic Sciences as well as the Jefferson Clinical Neuroscience Center. By consolidating physical spaces that were previously scattered across the 13-acre campus, Jefferson has created a centralized hub for administrators, educators, students and clinicians; this provides enhanced opportunities for collaboration and research.

The building was designed with the environment in mind. “Green” initiatives — including a rooftop vegetation island to reduce urban heat and storm water management, occupancy sensors to reduce lighting energy use and waterefficient, low-flow plumbing fixtures — are incorporated throughout the space.

The building is so “green,” it is expected to earn the internationally recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

SUMMER 2012 21

Maio

Nash

Abatemarco

Chernett

Comer

School of Population Health Project Connects Jefferson and Italy A collaborative project between the Jefferson School of Population Health, the Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care and the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy, a large region located in northern Italy with a population of about 4.6 million, was featured in a number of Italian newspapers and television networks earlier this year.

Vittorio Maio, PharmD, MS, MSPH, was a featured speaker at a press conference on the project, called “Read Health.” “Read Health,” a key component of the establishment of patient-centered medical homes in Emilia-Romagna, includes the use of methods developed by the Jefferson team to provide primary care physicians with information to assist in the care of patients with chronic diseases. Information provided to primary care teams and medical homes includes performance on quality indicators for patients with chronic conditions and profiles of patients at risk of hospitalization aimed at identifying opportunities for primary care physicians and the healthcare system to proactively take the initiative in improving patient care delivery.

Nash on Radio Times

Dean David B. Nash, MD, MBA, was a recent guest on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, which airs in Philadelphia on WHYY (90.9 FM). The program followed testimony in the U.S. Supreme

Court regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, particularly the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Nash was joined in the discussion by constitutional scholar Theodore Ruger from the University of Pennsylvania and one of the nation’s top political reporters, Dick Polman.

JSPH Faculty Published

Diane J. Abatemarco, PhD, MSW, associate professor and director of doctoral studies, recently published “Using genograms to understand pediatric practices’ readiness for change to prevent abuse and neglect” in the Journal of Child Health Care. Abatemarco and her co-authors hypothesized that the genogram would inform researchers and practice staff participating in a child maltreatment prevention study how members function in a practice.

They describe the use of genograms and show how the genogram results are associated with intervention uptake.

“This article is about how you can affect real practice change with physicians and staff,” Abatemarco said. “The research presented here changes the way we think of practice change. It provides a snapshot into practices and allows you to see what can easily be adapted or be changed in a medical practice and just takes a bit more effort.”

Nancy Chernett, MA, MPH, director of academic and student services, recently published “Using evidence-

based programs to get beyond high cost medical care for an aging population” in Philadelphia Social Innovations Solutions.

The article outlines how evidencebased programs (EBPs) to help adults to maintain their health and independence have been deployed by 27 states through both public and private partnerships. These EBPs do not require expensive technology, are acceptable to adults across the age span and have shown to be effective in managing as well as preventing the consequences of chronic conditions.

Comer Receives Fellowship

Dominique Comer, PharmD, health economics and outcomes research fellow, has been awarded a PhRMA Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Health Outcomes. The program provides stipend support for individuals engaged in a research training program that will create or extend their credentials in health outcomes. The program aims to support post-doctoral career development activities for scholars preparing to engage in research that will strengthen representation of health outcomes in schools of pharmacy, medicine, nursing and public health.

Comer’s project will use linked pharmacy claims data to focus on primary nonadherence and therapeutic inertia in hypertensive patients. ■

22 Jefferson REVIEW

JMC’s Singular Nurse Faculty Member

summer 2012 23

Dolores Grosso, BSN ’81, RN, CRNP, DNP ’09, always wanted to be a nurse. But she never expected to become an expert in transplant donor selection.

Grosso started her nursing career in surgery at Jefferson and eventually moved to other units, trying to find her niche. When she finished her critical care NP degree in 1995, Neal Flomenberg, MD, chair of the Department of Medical Oncology, was in the process of founding Jefferson’s bone marrow transplant (BMT) program and needed a nurse practitioner to perform bone marrow biopsies and manage patient care.

Although she wasn’t especially interested in oncology, she was ready for a change.

“It’s not that I didn’t like the jobs I’d had — I’d bounced from staff nurse to manager to clinical nurse specialist to nurse practitioner — I just wasn’t in the right area and didn’t know it. I would never have guessed oncology to be my area.”

Grosso took the job.

“It was very stressful at first, because I was no longer an expert in anything. I had no background in oncology or transplant.

But I liked the patients, and they liked me,” Grosso says.

Not long after she joined the BMT, she was surprised to see her name as a co-investigator on a patient research protocol that Flomenberg had written. Realizing that now she was involved in research, she says, “I tuned in a bit more. I tried very diligently to be aware of the patients and the research efforts.” A few years later, she wrote her first protocol, which Flomenberg sponsored.

By the mid-2000s, Grosso and Flomenberg were frequently writing protocols together. “Some of them were more my work than his,” she says. “He had trained me, and I had been under his tutelage for 10 years. But I could not be a principal investigator because I wasn’t a faculty member.”

As Grosso continued to develop as a researcher, she enrolled in Jefferson’s DNP program. “The program did strengthen my research skills, but it was more than that,” she says. “It also put me back in touch with what was good about nursing practice. It sharpened my skills as a nurse.”

Grosso says she is grateful for Jefferson’s DNP faculty, including Beth Ann Swan,

PhD, CRNP, FAAN; Jennifer Bellot, PhD, RN, MHSA; Ksenia Zukowsky, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC; and Mary Lou Manning, PhD, CRNP, CIC. She appreciated their push to evaluate her nursing practice and consider how she could improve it. “I don’t know that I would have done that exercise by myself,” she says.

For her DNP research project, Grosso developed a schema to identify the best blood marrow donor for patients with blood malignancy. The research focuses on half-match donors — parents, children or siblings of a patient — and assigns points based on relationships, natural killer cell reactivity and HLA mismatching. Whoever receives the most points becomes the donor.

Grosso still uses this tool in her research and occasionally revises it as she learns new information.

When Grosso finished her DNP, Flomenberg and several other physicians wrote recommendations for her to become a faculty member at Jefferson Medical College.

At the end of 2009, she was appointed a research instructor in the Department of Medical Oncology (she is the only nurse with a JMC faculty appointment). With a doctoral degree and faculty appointment, Grosso can now serve as principal investigator on her own research studies.

Last year, Grosso’s research was cited in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (May 2011), and the results of her first

haploidentical (half-match) transplant trial were published in Blood (August 2011), the medical journal of the American Society of Hematology. She is currently writing papers on haploidentical transplant donor selection for Seminars in Oncology and the peer-reviewed journal Bone Marrow Transplantation.

Although she worked hard to earn her DNP, Grosso is particular about using the title “doctor,” noting that “when it comes to the research, every piece of paper identifies me as Dr. Grosso. The attendings acknowledge that I am the PI, and they treat me as the PI. But in the outpatient area in the day-to-day care of patients, I identify myself as the nurse practitioner, because that’s what I am. Some patients will say, ‘but you have a doctoral degree!’ And I say yes, but I function here as your nurse practitioner.

I am your nursing advocate.”

Grosso spends half her time in outpatient clinics, where she screens patients before they receive transplants, performs bone marrow biopsies and evaluates their performance status. This provides a good balance to her research, and she enjoys the dual roles. “I love seeing patients in the outpatient area, but I also love writing research results and publishing,” she says. “When I do too much of one, I miss the other.” ■

24 Jefferson REVIEW

ClassNotes John W. Sharpe, MPT ’99, received board certification in healthcare management as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2011. ACHE is a professional society dedicated to promoting the highest standards of professional, educational and leadership performance; the highest ethical standards and conduct; and the advancement of healthcare management excellence.

Joseph T. DeRanieri, DM, MSN, RN, CPN, BCECR, BSN ’92, was appointed a Baldrige National Quality

Award Program Examiner for his knowledge of nursing and business. In this role, he is responsible for reviewing and evaluating applications submitted for the National Quality Award, a program organized through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Anne M. Fink, BSN ’92, completed her PhD in nursing at Villanova University in December 2011. She is a tenured assistant professor at Alvernia University in

Thalia Cordaro with her four children at her TJU commencement in 2011.

Thalia Cordaro, MSN ’11, earned the Most Outstanding Capstone Award in her Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program for her final project, an evidentiary review of the use of skin wraps in the delivery room for preterm, low-birth-weight infants. Her work was then published in the June 2012 issue of Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, and her poster presentation has been accepted for the National Association of Neonatal Nurses Annual Educational Conference in Palm Springs, Calif., in October 2012. Cordaro is a neonatal nurse practitioner in the neonatal intensive care unit at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa. She plans to pursue a doctorate in nursing in the next few years.

Reading, Pa. Her recent publications include “Early hospital discharge in maternal and newborn care” in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing and “Toward a new definition of health disparity: A concept analysis” in the Journal of Transcultural Nursing.

Ellen Marcolongo, BSN ’96, MSN, lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., and has entered doctoral candidacy at the University of South Florida.

April L. Lyons, MSN ’97, RN, was accepted to the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health, a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support that works to empower public health professionals to address public health issues in their communities.

Lyons is part of the team representing Burlington County, N.J. Their project is focusing on primary lead poisoning prevention efforts through the use of geographic information systems in children under

the age of six years. She is the director of Virtua Community Nursing Services – Health Promotion Services and Burlington County Health Department Public Health Nursing Services.

Colleen (Carey) Merrell, BSN ’94, and her husband, Scott, are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Emily Jessie, on April 10, 2012. Emily has brought love, joy and laughter to their home in Marlton, N.J.

Physical Therapy Grads Recognized

At the American Physical Therapy Association’s annual Combined Sections Meeting in Chicago in February 2012, several Jefferson graduates were recognized by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties for attaining clinical specialization:

Neurologic Physical Therapy

Erin Blaustein, DPT ’10 Amanda B. Morina, DPT ’08 Erin J. O’Donnell, DPT ’08

Sports Physical Therapy

Matthew P. Donlin, MPT ’05

What’s New? Tell us what you’re up to.

Please send class notes to: Marketing and PR 901 Walnut St., Room 1110, Philadelphia, PA 19107 or jchp.editor@jefferson.edu Be sure to include your name, program, graduation year and city of residence along with your personal or professional news.

Commencement Jefferson Graduates

May 2012 brought a dose of cheer to Jefferson as the University celebrated its 188th commencement season. Students from the Schools of Health Professions, Pharmacy and Nursing attended commencement on May 14, and students from the School of Population Health followed on May 21.

Speakers and honorary degree recipients at the ceremonies included Henri R. Manasse Jr., PhD, ScD, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists; Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Barbara F. Atkinson, MD, a 1974 graduate of Jefferson Medical College and executive dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

2012

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