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At the Heart of an

Unprecedented Procedure

ANDREW DAGLAS

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Kenneth Berger has survived three heartattacks and a triple bypass. But last

summer, the 56-year-old retired truck

driver rom Lowell, Indiana aced a new

complication that could have cost his

lie, had it not been or the ingenuity o

his physicians at the University o

Chicago Medicine.

Berger came to the medical campus

ater experiencing severe congestive heart

ailure. His let ventricle ejection raction

the amount o blood being pumped out

o his heart and into his bodywas just

15 percent, ar below the normal 6570

percent range. While Bergers lungs,

liver and kidneys were ailing due to a

shortage o blood, his heart was swelling

with an excess o it. He was bed-

bound, said Atman Shah, MD, FACC,

FSCAI, assistant proessor o medicine.

Te moment he would even sit up in

bed, he would become very distressed.

Attempts to alleviate the stra in were

unsuccessul. Physicians implanted a

device to pump blood directly rom

Bergers let ventricle to the rest o his

body. Berger then developed a leaky aortic

valve, allowing blood to ow backwards

to his heart. Surgical repair o the aulty

valve would have required another veryhigh-risk open heart surgery.

Physicians decided to try to repair the tear

percutaneously with a device normally

used to close holes between the hearts let

and right atria. According to Mark J.

Russo, MD, co-director o the Center or

Aortic Diseases, this unprecedented

approach carried more than a ew risks.

Vascular injury, stroke and even death

were all possible. Furthermore, the device

had never been used to x a leaky valve.

Shah recalled presenting the proposal,

and the risks, to Berger. He said, I

know i nothing happens Im going to

die. I this gives me a 10 percent chanceo living the lie I want to live, Im okay

with it.

Te odds turned out to be in Bergers

avor. On September 1, the procedure

was perormed successully ; within 24

hours, his liver and kidney unctioning

had improved markedly. While several

months ago he had diculty getting out

o bed, today hes able to spend hours

walking a shopping mall with his

grandchildren.

Texting Against Diabetes

ROB MITCHUM

STAFF WRITER

ext messaging is now a common

orm o communication or people o

all ages and backgrounds. As more andmore people learn how to type with

their thumbs, a team o the University

o Chicago Medicine physicians looked

at whether all that texting could be used

to help community members manage

chronic disease.

In some areas o Chicago the diabetes

rate is as high as 25 percent, and Arican-

American populat ions have much higher

rates o diabetes complications such as

blindness and amputation. So UChicago

Medicines Shantanu Nundy, MD, clini-

cal instructor o medicine at UChicago

Medicine, and Jonathan Dick, MD,

currently a resident at ColumbiaUniversity Medical Center, decided

to test whether an automated text-

messaging system could help patients

control their diabetes.

Te study recruited 18 participants who

are not your typical teenage texters,

instead reecting an age range (38 72)

more commonly aficted with diabetes.

Participants received regular reminders

to check their blood sugar, examine their

eet and take their diabetes pills.

It needs to be able to work in people

I see in clinic, said Monica Peek, MD,

assistant proessor o medicine andco-designer o the study. I it works

or a 55-year-old black woman with

diabetes, Im interested.

Te results o the pilot study were very

encouraging, with all but one partici-

pant reporting high satisaction with the

text reminders. For a ollow-up study,

the researchers plan to recruit UChicago

Medicine employees with diabetes

(call 773-702-2939 i you are interested,

or email ino@southsidediabetes.org ).

What surprised and inspired us the most

was how much people seemed to care

about it, and how such a little thing asa text was such a big deal in somebodys

schedule, said resident Dick. It doesnt

take a whole lot to make people think

that somebody cares about them, and

that little thing can be enough to moti-

vate behavior.

Students Have Questions,

Senior Leaders Have Answers

MEGAN E. DOHERTY

STAFF WRITER

On November 10, Pritzker medical

students met with Kenneth Polonsky,

MD, dean and executive vice presidentor Medical Aairs, and Sharon OKeee,

president o the University o Chicago

Medical Center, or a brown bag dinner

in the Billings Auditorium. Tese

orums acilitate a direct conversation

between students and senior leaders.

Te November event ocused primarily

on questions about the New Hospital

Pavilion (NHP), which is on track to

serve its rst patients in January 2013.

Many students wondered how the use

o space in the NHP will aect current

patient logistics, sta-patient ratios and

the medical student experience. Because

o the added space in the NHP, other

areas o the medical campus can be

repurposed or example, Mitchell may

house a new student lounge area.

One student asked about nurse-patient

ratios, particularly outside o the ICU.

With the increase o ICU beds at the

NHP, the senior leaders were optimistic

that the medical campus will oer an

improved ratio o nurses to pat ients or

general care, as increasing ICU resources

will put less strain on general care sta.

Another topic close to the student s

hearts was ood. Te NHPs seventh

oor will house the Sky Lobby with anew caeteria. Whi le Polonsky and

OKeee are in talk s with vendors,

they said they intended to bring in

healthier ood options, which generated

much excitement among the students.

Students wanted to know about the

medical campuss vision or the next 10

years and how students can benet rom

the new Bucksbaum Institute. Polonsky

and OKeee emphasized that the

University o Chicago Medicine will

continue to ocus on complex cases,

transplants, neuroscience, building

high-tech operation rooms and improv-

ing access to primary care or its aculty

and sta.

Te Bucksbaum Institute will oer

scholarships and ellowships to students

and junior aculty who are particularly

interested in patient care. Inaugural

student scholars are Liese Pruitt, Alex

Ruby and Jasmine aylor; aculty ellows

are Monica Peek, MD, and Alexander

Langerman, MD. It also will recruit and

support one master clinician each year to

serve as mentor to students and aculty.

Reaching into the

Asian Community

MAGGIE HIGGINS

STAFF WRITER

Te Oce o Community Engagement

and Cancer Disparities is educating the

community one population at a time.

Most recently, theyve reached into

the Asian community, a population

that is oten short-changed by public

health initiatives.

Generally, Asian-Americans are lumped

together as other or as a homogenous

group, which ignores the dierences in

immigration history, culture, language and

health resources, said Karen Kim, MD,

associate proessor o medicine and

director o the Oce. Dovetailing her

role as president o the Asian Health

Coalition, a nonprot based in Chicago,

Kim looks at the disaggregated groups tounderstand their individual health needs.

Over the years, Kim has conducted

signicant outreach around hepatitis B,

a disease that disproportionally aects

the Asian-American population.

Hepatitis B aects about 1.5 million

individuals in the United States o whom

over 50 percent are o Asian descent,

Kim explained. Currently, she and her

team are pushing the Chicago City

Council to support more active hepatitis

advocacy and education.

Kim and her team have also worked

closely with the network o 1,500

Asian-American homemakers in

Chicago, introducing breast and liver

cancer awareness programs. Results o

this initiative will soon be published

in a paper examining the attitudes and

belies about breast cancer among

Chinese immigrants.

In partnership with the Chinese-American

Service League, the Oce launched an

annual health air to provide ree u

vaccinations. Students rom the Pritzker

School o Medicine volunteered to screen

or hypertension, eye checks and provide

breast cancer education. We use every

opportunity to talk about cancer whileproviding other needed services,

Kim said.

Tis coming year the team will look

at culturally competent linguistic

practices within the Korean-American

community and kick o a cancer

survivorship program in the Chinese-

American community.

Its amazing what a small group can do

with great partnerships and hard work,

Kim said.

American

Heart Month

KAREN KIM, MD, LEADS OUTREACH PROGRAMS

IN THE ASIAN COMMUNITY FOR THE OFFICE OF

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND CANCER

DISPARITIES. PHOTO BY DAVID CHRISTOPHER

MEDICAL CENTER PRESIDENT SHARON OKEEFE

AND DEAN KENNETH POLONSKY, MD, HOSTED A

BROWN BAG DINNER FOR PRITZKER STUDENTS.

PHOTO BY MEGAN E. DOHERTY

MONICA PEEK, MD, LEFT, AND SHANTANU

NUNDY, MD, ARE USING TEXT MESSAGING TO

HELP PATIENTS CONTROL THEIR DIABETES.

PHOTO BY MEGAN E. DOHERTY

ATMAN SHAH, MD, LEFT, AND PATIENT

KENNETH BERGER. PHOTO BY MEGAN E. DOHERTY

ADVANCING OUR MISSIONS

PATIENT CARE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH EDUCATION & LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT