My mother in law, Edith, is 98 years old. I recently looked up her life expectancy and ac-
cording to some actuary her average life expectancy is 2.6 years. Impressive but less so
when you remember that George Burns continued to work until shortly before his death in
1996 at the age of 100. Must have been the cigars that did him in. He was married to
Gracie Allen who died at the age of 62 after only 36 years of marriage. George was grief
stricken and continued to talk about Gracie for the next 32 years. (It was good for the act.)
Burns remained in good health for most of his life, in part thanks to a daily exercise regi-
men of swimming, walks, sit-ups, and push-ups. He bought new Cadillacs every year and
drove until the age of 93, when he stopped, due to becoming so short that he couldn't see
over the steering wheel.
Grandma Edith never exercised a day in her life, never took a daily aspirin and never took a
statin. She has some mild hypertension and a benign tremor for which she takes medication
although doesn’t know why since her tremor is gone (think about it). Her husband, Dave,
died a year ago and grandma unlike Burns will never get over the loss of a spouse. After
my father-in-law came back from WWII, they were almost never apart. Living in NY they
did do a fair amount of walking but their diet was never healthy. Italian food is her favorite
but she will eat anything except things she is allegedly allergic to like nuts and chocolate
and eggs. Will never be able to convince her that it would be impossible to live as long as
she has and really be allergic to anything. She didn’t take a flu shot until recently because
of the egg allergy (even though she is a big cake eater.)
I found this in some ridiculous journal: “Despite advanced age, eating healthy and proper
exercise can contribute to living a significantly longer, more healthy life.” Good luck to
that as she complains if the Physical Therapist comes more than twice a week. Her life now
is pretty regimented living in an assisted living facility. She walks down to lunch and dinner
eating with the same group of women every day. That would comprise her exercise and her
healthy eating.
Her favorite for a long time has been Alex Tribeck, and if possible, she and her husband
would never miss an episode of Jeopardy, taping it if they were out. And they were out a
lot in NYC taking advantage of all it had to offer. Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson were
friends and patients of their dentist Archie who was also their good friend and unfortunately
their dentist but that is another story. When Wallach once appeared at the Kennedy Center,
Penny and I cautiously went back stage to meet him. When he learned Penny was Edith and
Dave’s daughter he couldn’t have been nicer. And of course I was in awe since “The Good,
The Bad and The Ugly” is one of my favorites.
A year before he died, Burns stated that he was looking forward to dying so he could be
reunited with Gracie. He certainly wasn’t in a big hurry. Losing her husband has taken a
lot out of Edith but imagine being married for 72 years (to the same person); how would
you feel?
Say goodnight Gracie!
June 2016 Volume 20, Issue 6
GW Medicine Notes A Monthly Publication of the GW Department of Medicine
From the Chairman
The AΩA induction dinner on May 12th was moderated by Alan Was-serman, M.D., M.A.C.P., Counci-lor of the GW Alpha Chapter of AΩA and the event was organized by Angelike Liappis, M.D., sec-retary-treasure of the GW chapter of AΩA, associate professor of Medicine at SMHS. It was exciting to see that 7 stu-dents are going into Internal Medi-cine. Housestaff Inductees: Betsy Kidder, MD, PhD, PGY2, Internal Medicine resident, Depart-ment of Medicine, Erin Vipler, MD, Internal Medicine Chief Resi-dent, and Jose Lucar, MD, Infec-tious Diseases Fellow Faculty Inductee: Dr. Jalil Ahari, Associate Profes-sor of Medicine Alumni Inductee: Dr. Lawrence R. Deyton, MD, Professor of Medicine and of Health Policy
Alan G. Wasserman, M.D.
AA Induction
Dinner
SAVE THE DATE
END-OF-THE-YEAR PARTY
FRIDAY, JUNE 10th
RITZ CARLTON HOTEL
Department of Medicine June 2016 Grand Rounds
Medicine Team Contacts
Page 2 GW Medicine Notes
WHITE TEAM (202) 715-5669 YELLOW TEAM (202) 715-6041 GREEN TEAM (202) 715-6062 RED TEAM (202) 715-6039 BLUE TEAM (202) 715-6156 SILVER TEAM (202) 715-6040 PURPLE TEAM (202) 715-6042 GOLD TEAM (202) 715-6044
ADMITTING RESIDENT 741-0161 pager
Resident Lecture Series June 2016 Noon Conference
MAR 1 Journal Club MAR 2 GME Core Lecture
MAR 3 Medicine Grand Rounds MAR 4 Chairman’s Rounds
MAR 7 “Oral Health in Primary Care”- Dr. Pierre Carter MAR 8 Mortality & Morbidity-
Drs. Dana Kay and JoeDelio MAR 9 “Genetic Screening”- Dr. Macri and Andrew Nance, MS4 MAR 10 Medicine Grand Rounds
MAR 11 Chairman’s Rounds MAR 14 TBD
MAR 15 “Chronic Disease Prevention and Management: A Dentist’s Perspective”- Dr. Pierre Carter
MAR 16 GME Core Lecture MAR 17 Medicine Grand Rounds
MAR 18 Chairman’s Rounds MAR 21 “Special Topics in Adult Oral Healthcare: Geriatrics,
Oropharyngeal Cancer, Infectious Disease Prevention, and Women’s Health”- Dr. Pierre Carter MAR 22 Clinicopathologic Conference-
Drs. Abeer Alfaraj and Rami Al Sharif MAR 23 TBD
MAR 24 Medicine Grand Rounds MAR 25 Chairman’s Rounds MAR 28 TBD MAR 29 TBD
MAR 30 TBD MAR 31 TBD
JUNE 2 Wipplinger Lecture
Resident Grand Rounds
“The Trip May Be Over But The Mission Never Ends"
Maggie Gloria, PGY3"
“The opioid epidemic ”
Paul Blaire, PGY3
GW Internal Medicine Residents
JUNE 9 “Cardiac Oncology”
Gurusher Panjrath, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Director, Heart Failure and Mechanical Circulatory
Division of Cardiology
Department of Medicine
GW Medical Faculty Associates
JUNE 16 Tamagna Endowed Lecture
“Preeclampsia: from Science to Medicine“
Ravi Thadhani, MD
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Executive Director, Clinical Trials Office at
Partners Health Care
Chief, Division of Nephrology
Massachusetts General Hospital
JUNE 23 “Bipolar Disorder”
Daniel Lieberman, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Clinical Director
Department of Psychiatry
GW Medical Faculty Associates
JUNE 30 “SPRINT Trial”
Dominic Raj, MD
Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Director, Division of Renal Disease and Hypertension
Department of Medicine
GW Medical Faculty Associates
The George Washington University Medical Center (GWUMC) is accredited by
the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to
sponsor continuing medical education for physicians. GWUMC designates this continuing medical education activity on an hour-for-hour basis in Category I of
the Physician’s Recognition Award of the American Medical Association.
(AMA).
Cardiology Grand Rounds 5:00 PM, Ross Hall, Room # 104
JUNE 1 Mortality & Morbidity Conference JUNE 8 Mortality & Morbidity Conference JUNE 15 Allen Solomon, MD Professor of Medicine Director, Cardiology Fellowship Director, CCU Division of Cardiology Department of Medicine GW Medical Faculty Associates TBD JUNE 22 Summer Recess JUNE 29 Summer Recess
JUNE 1 GME Core Lecture JUNE 2 Medicine Grand Rounds
JUNE 3 Chairman’s Rounds JUNE 6 “Why Medicaid Matters”- Dr. Raymond Tu
JUNE 7 Journal Club
JUNE 8 “Anaphylaxis”- Dr. Richard Nicklas JUNE 9 Medicine Grand Rounds
JUNE 10 TBD JUNE 13 “Drug Allergies”- Dr. Richard Nicklas
JUNE 14 Mortality & Morbidity Conference– Drs. Adrienne Poon and Sonia Taneja
JUNE 15 GME Orientation JUNE 16 Medicine Grand Rounds
JUNE 17 GME Orientation
JUNE 20 Program Orientation JUNE 21 Program Orientation
JUNE 22 Program Orientation JUNE 23 Medicine Grand Rounds
JUNE 24 No Conference JUNE 27 No Conference JUNE 28 No Conference JUNE 29 No Conference
JUNE 30 Medicine Grand Rounds
GW Medicine Notes Page 3
Voluntary Faculty Awards GWU SMHS 2016 Diploma Ceremony
The American College of Physicians (ACP) recognized three GW SMHS voluntary faculty members for their out-
standing contributions to medicine in 2016:
Carole Horn, MD ‘69, associate clinical profess of medicine, was awarded the Ralph O.Claypoole Sr. Memo-rial Award for Devotion of a Career in Internal Medicine
to the Care of patients
Alan Stone, MD, FACP, clinical professor of medi-cine, received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation ACPT
Award for Medical Humanism
Robert Wilkerson, MD, MACP, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine, received the Outstanding Volunteer
Clinical Teaching Award.
Grateful Patient Discovery Fund
Patients made a gift in the physician’s honor to the Grateful Patient Discovery Fund, which supports crucial priorities for GW’s Department of Medicine. Dr. David Parenti, Infectious Diseases Dr. James Gehring, Hospital Medicine Dr. Brad Moore, General Internal Medicine Dr. Chavon Onumah, General Internal Medi-
cine Dr. Robert Jablonover, General Internal Medi-
cine Dr. Caitlin Mingey, PGY 1
Master Teacher Leadership Development
Program Graduation
June 15th- Weingold Conference Center
Chavon Onumah, MD, MPH- General Internal
Medicine
Nora Taylor, MD- Rheumatology
Sara Wikstrom, MD- Hospital Medicine
The GWU SMHS 2016 Diploma Ceremony was held at the Lisner Auditorium on May 15th, 2016. Presentation of the Graduates: Medicine Richard J. Simons, MD Senior Associate Dean for MD Programs Professor of Medicine W. Scott Schroth, MD, MPH Associate Dean for Administration Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Akman noted that this will be Dr. Schroth’s last graduation as he is retiring and thanked him for his many years of service to GW.
The Department of Medicine was represented with 5 of our faculty receiving Emeritus Status: Dr. James K. Cooper Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. David Goodman Clinical Professor Emeritus Dr. Frederick Rickles Clinical Professor Emeritus in Residence Dr. W. Scott Schroth Associate Professor Emeritus Dr. Manuel Velasquez Clinical Professor Emeritus in Residence Department of Medicine Student Awards: Phillip S. Birnbaum Award in Primary Care Sarah Elizabeth Knapp Jorge C. Rios Award in Internal Medicine Noah Quinn Haroian Mark Millen Memorial Award in Rheumatology Caitrin Margaret Coffey
Student Honor Societies: Alpha Omega Alpha Nathaniel Duong Khoa Nguyen, 4th year student and will be PGY 1 starting June 23rd.
Chairman’s Rounds GWU Hospital Auditorium, 12:00 Noon
All Faculty Invited to Attend
June 3 Dr. Sruti Chintamaneni Dr. Katie Cramer
The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates
Department of Medicine, Suite 8-416
2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
GW Medicine Notes Page 4
Rheumatology Academic Conference Schedule June 2016
2300 M Street, Suite 3-332
8 AM– 11:30 AM Questions? Call (202) 741-2488
JUNE 2: Intra-City Rheumatology Grand Rounds NOTE LOCATION: WHC NOTE TIME: 7:30 AM JUNE 2: Didactic Sessions JUNE 9 : Radiology Conference Dr. Kathleen Brindle, Associate Professor of Radiology Chief, Musculoskeletal Radiology NOTE LOCATION: GWU Hospital Radiology Conference Room JUNE 9: Didactic Sessions JUNE 16 : “Quality Improvement Project” Dr. Miller and Dr. Almanabri JUNE 16 : Faculty Meeting JUNE 23: Summer Recess JUNE 30: Summer Recess
Kudos and Congratulations Kudos… to Dr. Katalin Roth, Geriatrics, as she received a letter of
praise from a patient, “…she makes you want to be involved in your care,
she’s the best doctor I’ve ever had and I’m 81!”
Kudos... to Dr. Pedro Jose and Dominic Raj, Division of Renal Diseas-
es and Hypertension, on being nominated to the National Heart Lung
Blood Institute (NHLBI) Working Group that will critically evaluate the
“The Role of Microbiota in Blood Pressure Regulation”.
Kudos… to Drs. Juan Reyes, Hospital Medicine, Steven Zeddun, Gas-
troenterology, Paul Silver, General Internal Medicine, and the green team
as they received a letter of praise from a patient for the great care and
treatment he received during his stay at the hospital.
Kudos… to Dr. April Barbour, General Internal Medicine, as she has
been asked to join the Editorial Advisory Board of Internal Medicine
News.
Congratulations… to Dr. Marco Mercader, Cardiology, on being hon-
ored by the University of Puerto Rico. The Association of University of
Puerto Rico Alumni and Friends Abroad (UPRAA) presented Dr. Mercader
the UPRAA’s Excellence and Achievement Award for outstanding accom-
plishments in in Medicine.
Congratulations… to Dr. Dominic Raj, Renal Division, and his family
on his daughter, Elizabeth Dominic, recent wedding.
See you next month! The Editor