Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, the Ronald P. Lynch Associate Professor of Urologic Oncology and director of Robotic Prostatectomy and Outcomes Research, has been named the winner of the 2009 Culters' Surgical Prize, an award presented by the Worshipful Company of Cutlers of London in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons. The annual prize is bestowed upon a clinician, or a team with one clinician, for outstanding design of a surgical instrument or technique. A leader in the field of robotic prostatectomy, Dr. Tewari and his group, including Department of Urology fellows Gerald Tan, Anil Mandhani and Sandhya Rao, developed a device to minimize urethral discomfort and complications associated with conventional urethral Foley catheterization following robotic prostatectomy.
The Culters' Surgical Prize consists of the Clarke Medal, an elegant mounted Victorian silver-gilt medal, and an award of £1,000. The Cutlers is a centuries-old organization dedicated to the craft of cutting instruments, which included swords, daggers, rapiers, and similar tools. The Company has a long connection with the manufacture of surgical instruments and for the last hundred years has maintained its interest by fostering apprenticeships in the surgical instrument-making industry. Dr. Tewari's award will be presented March 11.
Dr. Rajiv Yadav, a fellow in the Department of Urology, had been awarded first prize for the 2009 American Urological Association/Gyrus Prize Essay Contest (Clinical Research Category) for his essay "Real-Time Tissue Recognition of Periprostatic Tissue Architecture and Its Relevance to Nerve-Sparing Radical Prostatectomy: A Pilot Study Using Multiphoton Microscopy and Second Harmonic Generation." The award consists of a $1,500 grant provided through an educational grant from Gyrus ACMI. Dr. Yadav will present a moderated poster session on April 29 during the annual AUA meeting in Chicago.
Dr. Joseph Fins, professor of medicine, public health, and medicine in psychiatry and chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, recently presented two noteworthy lectures. On Feb. 3, speaking at the Center for Health Ethics and Law at West Virginia University, he presented the 17th annual Wilhelm S. Albrink Memorial Lecture on Bioethics. The title of his talk was "Minds Apart: Neuroethics and Severe Brain Injury." On Jan. 12, Dr. Fins gave the Sheila Hutzler Rives Memorial Lecture at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His topic was, "Neuroethics and Disorders of Consciousness: Making Sense of an Emerging Nosology." Following his lecture, Dr. Fins conducted a proseminar with the Greenwall Foundation Fellows in Bioethics on ethical issues in emerging biomedical technologies.
Dr. Lisa Kern, assistant professor of public health and medicine, received a three-year grant from the Commonwealth Fund for her study "The Effects of Primary Care Practice Redesign on Quality, Cost and Patient Experience in the Hudson Valley." Working with Dr. Rainu Kaushal, Yolanda Barrón-Vaya and Rina Dhopeshwarkar, the study aims to determine the effects of medical home implementation on quality, cost and the patient experience in the Hudson Valley, a region comprised of eight suburban and rural counties immediately north of New York City.
Dr. Kenneth Griffin, associate professor of public health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, was awarded a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism titled "Adolescent Alcohol Use and Young Adult Psychosocial Functioning." Dr. Gilbert Botvin, professor and chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, and Dr. Heejung Bang, associate professor of biostatistics in public health, are co-investigators. A central goal of the study is to examine how alcohol use during early adolescence affects subsequent alcohol and drug use/abuse, negative consequences of use, related risk behaviors, and other indicators of psychosocial adjustment during late adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. The project will run from February 2009 to January 2011.
February 23, 2009
