Recent News

Residents Practice Life-Saving Skills on “Cosmo” “Code Blue!” Most people have heard the term countless times on television dramas about hospitals and doctors, usually indicating a patient has gone into cardiac arrest. Because internal medicine residents are the first to respond to cardiac arrests at Northwestern-affiliated hospitals, Diane B. Wayne, MD, assistant professor of medicine[…]

In Memoriam (Lucita “Lucy” Rita) Lucida “Lucy” Rita, MD, GME ’64, associate professor emeritus of anesthesiology, died September 30 of subdural hematoma; she was 79. Born in Manilla, she completed her medical education at the University of the Philippines and obstetrics and gynecology residencies at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu and Franklin Square Hospital in[…]

Volunteers Needed for Clinical Trials Do you want to improve your health and at the same time aid medical progress? Consider participating in a clinical trial at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine or one of its affiliated teaching hospitals in the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. Clinical trials are carefully constructed research studies[…]

September 18, 2003 Beta Blockers Effective Against Malaria Parasites CHICAGO— Hormones that regulate cardiovascular function have been discovered to influence malaria infection. As a consequence, beta-blockers, which are safe, inexpensive, and commonly prescribed drugs used worldwide to treat high blood pressure, are effective against the deadliest and most drug-resistant strain of malaria parasites. These findings,[…]

In Memoriam (Theodor Braun) Theodor Braun, MD, PhD, professor emeritus of physiology, died August 28. He was 76. A resident of Skokie, Illinois, Dr. Braun was born in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia, and earned his MD degree in 1951 and CSc degree (equivalent to an American PhD) in physiology in 1964 at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences[…]

September 8, 2003 Contact: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or atfellman@northwestern.edu Findings May Lead to Design of New Drugs EVANSTON, ILL.— Scientists at Northwestern University have acquired new insight into how a specialized sensor protein that acts as an early warning system detects dangerous amounts of the “coinage metals”—silver, gold, and copper—inside cells. For the[…]

Medical Faculty Members Honored for Teaching This year’s Founders’ Day Convocation on August 29 offered the essential ingredients for an official opening of an academic year: a hearty welcome for the Class of 2007; words of wisdom by J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Irving S. Cutter Professor and chair of medicine; and recognition of the[…]

Recruitment Publication Wins AAMC Award Highly regarded by premed students and advisers, the Feinberg School’s primary recruitment publication for the MD degree program will receive national recognition on November 8, when it will receive an Award of Distinction from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) at the group’s annual meeting in Washington. Published in[…]

In Memoriam (Donald Bell) Donald I. Bell, MD, associate professor emeritus of medicine, died August 17 in Evanston, Illinois, at age 87. A native of Joplin, Missouri, Dr. Bell received his MD degree from Northwestern University in 1942 and completed his internship and residency at Evanston Hospital. A diabetes specialist, he served as head of[…]

Chicagoan Takes Pathway to Medicine When Alfred J. Cook Jr. graduated with the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Class of 2003, he achieved not only a personal milestone but also a major goal of Northwestern’s Pathways to Medical Education (PME) initiative. A member of the inaugural group to participate in PME—a program created in 1992 to[…]

Feinberg School Welcomes MD Class of 2007 This week the Feinberg School welcomes the 170 medical students of the Class of 2007. Orientation Week is filled with introductory sessions about the school, professionalism in medicine, and the curriculum as well as myriad social events. These include tours of Chicago, visits to its renowned museums, and[…]

August 12, 2003 Genetic Risks Missing from Patient Charts CHICAGO— Standard history-taking in internal medicine practices may not fully capture patients’ risks for developing certain diseases, and internists may lose opportunities to provide preventive medical recommendations, according to a study from the Feinberg School of Medicine. Researchers on the study included Theresa M. Frezzo, MS,[…]

August 19, 2003 Contact: Megan Fellman at (847) 491-3115 or atfellman@northwestern.edu Protein May Be Factor in Alzheimer’s Disease EVANSTON— Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered for the first time in humans the presence of a toxic protein they believe to be responsible for the devastating memory loss found in individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. An[…]

August 22, 2003 Risk Factor Almost Always Present in Most Heart Attacks CHICAGO— Results of a large-scale study from the Feinberg School of Medicine dispute claims that, at least half the time, fatal and nonfatal heart attacks occur in individuals who had shown no previous evidence of at least one coronary heart disease (CHD) risk[…]

Student Investigators Experience Challenges of Exploration This summer 65 eager young investigators participated in Northwestern’s Medical Student Summer Research (MSSR) Program. Successfully competing for funding, participants worked with Feinberg School faculty mentors during the 10-week program. While they may not have made great breakthroughs, the students most certainly experienced the challenges of exploration in basic[…]

Construction Season in Full Swing As the foundation of Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center is completed and its superstructure begins to rise, excavation of the site for Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s (NMH) new Prentice Women’s Hospital has begun. Pending receipt of the final permit from the City of Chicago, Turner Construction has scheduled[…]

July 29, 2003 Estrogen Therapy Raises Risk Factors CHICAGO— Women who use estrogen replacement therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms are more likely to develop risk factors for potentially fatal irregular heartbeats (arrythmias) and heart attacks than women who take hormone therapy combining estrogen and progestin. Prior to the early termination of the estrogen plus progestin[…]

Helping Minority Students Achieve Goals The Feinberg School of Medicine is serving as home base for more than 40 students taking part in the Minority Medical Education Program (MMEP) that runs from June 16 to July 25. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Association of American Medical Colleges, the program aims to help[…]

July 8, 2003 Immune System Genes Stave Off HIV Infection CHICAGO— Researchers have new answers as to why some HIV-infected individuals don’t progress to full-blown AIDS as rapidly as other HIV-positive people. Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine scientist Steven M. Wolinsky, MD, and colleagues found that individuals with certain rare variations, or alleles, of[…]

July 8, 2003 Stem Cell Therapy Doesn’t Improve Cancer Outcome CHICAGO— Adding high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation to conventional chemotherapy offers little benefit for women with primary breast cancer who are at high risk for recurrence, finds a study reported in the July 3 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, toxicities[…]