News & Events
Whole Foods Market Supports The Miller School's Ear Institute
10/9/2007
Whole Foods Market, a Miller School corporate partner, recently opened a new store in Coral Gables. The grand opening included a bread breaking ceremony where Whole Foods executives, with the help of donors, presented the UM Ear Institute with a check for $20,000 to help deaf and hearing impaired children in Miami. "We thank Whole Foods for their dedication and commitment to the deaf and hard of hearing in our community," said Fred F. Telischi, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of the University of Miami Ear Institute and vice chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, who accepted the check.
Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick, Whole Foods Market staff, UM faculty and donors all gathered for the event on Sept. 26.
Sherilyn Adler; donor, Robert Lefkowitz; donor, Thomas J. Balkany M.D. ; Chairman of the department of Otolaryngology, Dr. Fred F. Telischi, Lyle Stern; donor
UM Miller School of Medicine Names New Chair of Psychiatry
11/5/2009
One of the world's leading experts in the field of psychiatry, Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., is joining the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and UHealth – University of Miami Health System, as professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Nemeroff spent the past 18 years building the psychiatry department at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta into one of the top ten departments in the United States. Currently he is the Reunette W. Harris Professor of Psychiatry at Emory.
"The Miller School of Medicine needs a strong leader in psychiatry and behavioral health and we have found that person in Charlie Nemeroff," said Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Miller School and CEO of UHealth. "Like other large metropolitan areas, South Florida has a sizeable population of individuals with significant mental health disorders, and the presence of a world class leader in psychiatry can positively impact the community in a broad and deep manner."
Dr. Nemeroff says academic psychiatry departments have three main missions: research, clinical care and teaching. In the research realm, he plans to build on already very strong areas at UM such as aging and its related complications, including memory loss and depression; HIV, especially as it impacts women patients and caregivers; and drug abuse. He also plans to enhance the research portfolio by recruiting experts in mood disorders, schizophrenia and the interface of physical illness and psychiatry.
On the clinical front, the medical campus currently has more than 300 hospital beds licensed for psychiatry patients. "I am extraordinarily dedicated to working closely with the leadership at Jackson Memorial Hospital, which has a very large psychiatry service, to provide the best care possible," says Dr. Nemeroff. "In addition, I plan to expand the department's role in psychiatry at University of Miami Hospital and enhance its presence at the Miami VA Medical Center."
Because of his role in developing screening tools for the assessment of depression, anxiety and eating disorders in college students, Dr. Nemeroff hopes to help ensure the best mental health care for students at all levels at the University of Miami.
When it comes to medical students, Dr. Nemeroff says he is committed to encouraging the best medical students to go into psychiatry and to developing a nationally competitive residency program. He has plans to reach out to physicians in the community through continuing medical education opportunities.
"As academic psychiatrists we should be a resource for the entire community, and we have an obligation to take evidence-based medicine and pass that knowledge on to physicians in the community to help elevate the level of care everywhere," says Dr. Nemeroff. "I like seeing patients, especially receiving referrals of hard-to-treat patients, and I believe I can help serve the South Florida psychiatric community and that should absolutely be part of the job we do."
Over the course of his career Dr. Nemeroff has compiled a remarkable record of scientific contributions to the field of psychiatry. For the past two decades he has focused his research on the relationship between child abuse and neglect as a risk factor for the development of depression and anxiety disorders in adulthood. In particular, he has examined through brain imaging and neurochemical testing what happens to children's brains when they are exposed to traumatic life events that leave them vulnerable in adulthood.
"It turns out that individuals with depression and a history of child abuse or neglect physically have a different brain than patients with depression without child abuse," explains Dr. Nemeroff. "In patients with chronic depression, two years or longer, two-thirds of those patients had a history of child abuse (sexual or physical), loss of a parent or severe neglect."
Dr. Nemeroff plans to use brain imaging, along with genetic markers, to tackle one of the big issues in psychiatry today -- the failure of patients to respond to treatment. Dr. Nemeroff explains that it is critical because "antidepressants take three to five weeks to work, and during that time a patient's family is affected, their work suffers, and the risk for suicide increases. It is very important to match a patient with a treatment that will work, and hopefully one day soon we will be able to predict who will respond to what treatment."
Another key area of research for Dr. Nemeroff is what he calls the "curious" relationship between depression and heart disease. "I am very excited about moving this area forward at UM because of the very strong cardiology program already in place at the medical school," says Dr. Nemeroff. "Surprisingly, depression is as great a risk factor for developing heart disease as is smoking, and even one episode of depression can increase that risk."
Many patients with cancer have concurrent depression, and treatment of their depression improves their quality of life and adherence to their cancer treatment. "There is some evidence that treatment of depression might even increase survival time," adds Dr. Nemeroff. "I am particularly interested in studying whether depression, with all of its biological effects, is a risk factor for the development of certain forms of cancer."
Dr. Nemeroff received his M.D. and Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency training in psychiatry took place at both the University of North Carolina and Duke University. Following his residency, he joined the faculty at Duke as professor of psychiatry and pharmacology and chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry. He moved to Emory in 1991 as chairman of psychiatry.
There he took an average department to become one of the top ten in the country.
Dr. Nemeroff will begin his new position on December 1. "I believe all the pieces are in place to allow me to lead the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to be one of the preeminent departments in the country," Nemeroff said. "The support of Dean Goldschmidt, of the medical school leadership team and of the University of Miami during the recruitment process has been phenomenal and I look forward to working with them in achieving goals for the department and goals for the school."
Miller School and UHealth Partner with Alonzo Mourning Charities and Overtown Youth Center to Launch Clinic
10/29/2009
For many years, the Miller School of Medicine has provided compassionate health care that has made a difference in the lives of thousands of people in Overtown. That longstanding relationship, built on the Miller School's commitment to the community, took another leap forward today with the announcement of a new clinic at the Overtown Youth Center (OYC), born through a partnership among the OYC, Alonzo Mourning Charities and the Miller School and UHealth – University of Miami Health System. The clinic will bring high quality health care to the center's children and young adults.
Through the new partnership, announced by Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., NBA great Alonzo Mourning, and Carla Penn, executive director of the youth center, UHealth physicians will screen OYC participants for various illnesses, refer them to other doctors in certain cases, and provide care as needed.
At a time when the country is mired in discussion over extending health care to those least able to afford it, Dean Goldschmidt elicited applause at the launch ceremony when he spoke about how, in the United States, there are still examples of how organizations can come together to provide health care and other services to people who need them. This agreement, he said, is one shining example, further evidenced by the strong support from the Miller School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, the UM Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and the medical school's Jay Weiss Center for Social Medicine and Health Equity.
Additionally, on October 7, the Department of Otolaryngology conducted hearing screenings for about 82 of the center's children and plans to offer more services. Fred Telischi, M.D., the department's interim chairman, Hillary Snapp, Au.D., senior audiologist, and others from the department attended today's event.
"This kind of partnership is what this country is all about," said Goldschmidt, who is also the CEO of UHealth, after he was introduced by Mourning to an audience of OYC personnel, parents and other community and government representatives, and the physicians from UM and volunteers from other institutions.
Goldschmidt also described the Miller School's long involvement with Overtown as a "continuous affair" with many phases. In this phase, "we will be identifying the issues and illnesses that limit kids from being all they can be. These services will help our children get better and do better."
Mourning, whose namesake charitable organization was created "to encourage the educational development of our youth by creating programs and youth enrichment centers that promote positive change in low socioeconomic communities," has been a solid supporter of the OYC and its various programs since the center opened in 2003.
Overtown Youth Center was built by local real estate developer Martin Z. Margulies through his Margulies Foundation, with the support of Mourning and Alonzo Mourning Charities, as a safe haven for the children in Overtown. The center offers in-school, after-school, weekend, and summer programs that include academic enhancement, physical fitness and nutrition, creative arts and family-oriented activities. Mourning said the additional ties with UHealth would allow more children to maintain proper health – and live a better life.
"This relationship is truly a blessing," Mourning said. "It will give us an opportunity to recognize some of the obstacles that might keep our young people from getting an education … I truly know that if they don't have their health it will be difficult for them to focus on the things that will make them successful."
Penn, the center's executive director, began the morning celebration by showing a video in which several young participants commented on how the center had changed their lives and exposed them to people and events they likely would not have encountered. The program also included testimony from Gwendolyn McNair whose two sons, ages 17 and 15, and 13-year-old daughter attend OYC.
The program and the clinic are "phenomenal," McNair said. "I just thank God for all of you who put your heads together and launched this."
Penn made special mention of Arthur Fournier, M.D., assistant dean for community health, who has been a stalwart among Miller School faculty working with the people of Overtown. The clinic, he said, is the latest step in the Miller School's commitment to Overtown and further illustrates the University's understanding of its duty to help maintain the health of its neighbors.
That duty, Dean Goldschmidt said, is one that he takes seriously.
"As Dean of the Miller School it humbles me to see the great work that is being done here," Goldschmidt said.
The event closed with a tour of the new clinic.
A Decade Later, Lifestyle Changes or Medication Still Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk
10/28/2009
Study reports on persistence of benefits seen in the Diabetes Prevention Program
After following participants in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study for 10 years, researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at 26 other medical centers in the United States conclude that intensive lifestyle changes aimed at modest weight loss reduced the rate of developing type 2 diabetes by 34 percent compared with placebo in people at high risk for the disease. Results of the study, which examines the persistence of the interventions first tested in the Diabetes Prevention Program, appear online in The Lancet on October 29.
Participants randomly assigned to make lifestyle changes also had more favorable cardiovascular risk factors, including lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels, despite taking fewer drugs to control their heart disease risk. Treatment with the oral diabetes drug metformin reduced the rate of developing diabetes by 18 percent after 10 years compared with placebo.
"At the Miller School's Diabetes Research Institute we enrolled 150 patients in the initial study, and 130 continued in the ten year follow-up arm," said Ronald Goldberg, M.D., professor of medicine and principal investigator of the study. "When you break down the findings they are dramatic. In ten years, participants in the lifestyle group, who made exercise and diet changes, delayed type 2 diabetes by about four years compared with placebo, while those in the metformin group delayed it by two years. When you consider the devastating medical complications that go along with type 2 diabetes, these are very significant findings."
The benefits of intensive lifestyle changes were especially pronounced among the elderly. People age 60 and older lowered their rate of developing type 2 diabetes in the next 10 years by about half.
"The spiraling epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes in this country and worldwide show no signs of abating," said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. "In the United States, about 11 percent of adults -- 24 million people -- have diabetes, and up to 95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes. An additional 57 million overweight adults have glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet in the diabetic range. This condition substantially raises the risk of a heart attack or stroke and of developing type 2 diabetes in the next 10 years. Many could delay diabetes for years and possibly prevent the disease altogether if they lost a modest amount of weight through diet and increased physical activity."
The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS) is a continuation of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a large, randomized trial in 3,234 overweight or obese adults with already elevated blood glucose levels. Researchers announced the initial findings of the DPP in 2001, a year earlier than scheduled, because results were so clear: After three years, intensive lifestyle changes reduced the development of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent compared with placebo. Metformin (850 milligrams twice a day) reduced it by 31 percent compared with placebo.
"Striking as the findings were, we could not say how long the benefit would endure, since the results were based on just three years of data," said Goldberg. "This is why it was so important to continue a much longer period of follow-up, and we were fortunate that the NIH agreed and funded the continuation of the study."
After a "bridge" period from January to July 2002, when all participants learned the results and were offered a 16-session program explaining how to make intensive lifestyle changes, the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study began, with 88 percent of volunteers from the original study taking part.
Intensive lifestyle changes consisted of lowering fat and calories in the diet and increasing regular physical activity to 150 minutes per week. Participants received training in diet, exercise (most chose walking), and behavior modification skills. In the first year of the DPP, this group lost 15 pounds on average but regained all but about five pounds over 10 years. The metformin group has maintained a loss of about five pounds, and the placebo group lost less than two pounds over the decade.
About five to six percent of those in the lifestyle intervention group developed type 2 diabetes annually, an incidence rate that remained steady throughout the DPPOS. When the DPP ended in 2001, the metformin and placebo groups were developing diabetes at the rate of eight and 11 percent a year, respectively. In 10 years, however, the yearly diabetes incidence rates for the drug and placebo groups had also fallen to about five to six percent, and the lifestyle intervention group's rate remained at this lower level. The researchers are looking at a number of explanations for the convergence of diabetes incidence rates for the three groups. One may be that lifestyle changes adopted by the drug and placebo groups after the DPP ended may have lowered their rate of type 2 diabetes over time.
At enrollment in the DPP, participants ranged from age 25 to 85 years, with an average age of 51. They had an average body mass index (BMI) of 34, which is in the obese range. Forty-five percent of participants were from minority groups disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes: African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The trial also recruited other groups at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, including people age 60 and older, women with a history of gestational diabetes, and people with a first-degree relative with type 2 diabetes.
Other studies have shown that diet and exercise delay type 2 diabetes in at-risk people. However, the DPP is the first major trial to show that lifestyle changes can effectively delay diabetes in a diverse population of overweight American adults at high risk of diabetes.
Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute Patient Wants “Life Back’
10/26/2009
A Miller School component whose mission is to redefine how medicine is practiced held its official coming out party Thursday evening, Oct. 22.
More than 100 people, including Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., and University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala, were present for the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute’s open house ceremony.
Simply stated, the goal of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) is to use stem cells to replace human cells and organs that have been damaged by disease and age.
“Every once in a while in medicine, new opportunities materialize that can really change the way medicine is conducted, and offer new opportunities to improve human health,” ISCI Director Joshua Hare, M.D., told an audience under a white tent erected alongside the Biomedical Research Building.
“These cells have an amazing therapeutic potential for many, many diseases that we now consider to be untreatable,” added Hare, who is also the Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine.
“Many, many medical schools around the country have started stem cell institutes, notably places like Harvard and Hopkins,” Hare said. “But we are going to be the stem cell institute in the United States that has the greatest impact on human health in the quickest amount of time, because of our emphasis on translational research.”
Putting a human face on medical research that’s incredibly involved and complicated, Hare introduced the audience to Albert Veloz, M.D., a physician and heart-attack patient participating in one of several trials being conducted at the ISCI.
“I am a 48-year-old man and the reason that I’m here is because I had a myocardial infarction back in June,” Veloz said as a hush descended over the tent. “Two months ago, my cardiologist referred me to this wonderful team.
“My interest with this study is to get my life back,” Veloz said. “I have shortness of breath when I do exercise and I want to see my little kid, who’s two and a half years old, grow up and be a good man. I want to enjoy my family again and I want to enjoy the activities that I used to do before.”
ISCI’s open house culminated with tours of the Institute’s laboratories inside the Biomedical Research Building.
