Clinical psychologist Joseph McClernon, Ph.D., is director of the independent laboratory affiliated with the new Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research (CNSCR).

Every year the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) selects a number of laboratories around the country that are on the cutting edge of drug research and works to match those labs with accomplished young adults for a summer research experience. It matches the students and then provides them a stipend and an allowance for transportation and housing during the summer.

This year NIDA chose two rising seniors from North Carolina to work at Duke in the field of nicotine addiction. They are Mitchell Burley, an East Carolina University neuroscience/psychology double major, and Melissa Latorre, a premed and biomedical engineering major at Duke.

“I’m really pleased to work with Mitchell and Melissa,” says McClernon. “It’s been a fantastic experience for our lab and the center, and these two have done some excellent work. The NIDA program is great for enhancing diversity -- in our lab and in the broader field going forward.”

NIDA selects numerous sites around the country for this summer program, but this year the TNRL is the only lab participating at Duke University.

Fuchs, chief of pediatric neurosurgery, moderated a session on “Diagnosis and Treatment of Pediatric Brain Tumors;” Weisleder, clinical director of pediatric neurology, moderated a session on “Diagnosis and Treatment of the First Unprovoked Seizure in Children;” and Skinner, chief of general surgery, moderated a session on “Diagnosis and Treatment of Pediatric Thyroid Cancer.”

The forum, organized by the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, invites “prestigious pediatricians and scientists from China and abroad to present their latest clinical investigations and laboratory advances” in the field of pediatrics.

Organizing committee chair for the forum was Gui Yong-Hao, M.D., president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University. The Duke physicians were invited to participate by Wang Yi, M.D., a pediatric neurologist and deputy director of the Fudan Children’s Hospital who spent six months at Duke’s Division of Pediatric Neurology in 2003.

He received the award for his dedication to advocating for stroke research and programs and his efforts to improve treatment for stroke victims, both nationally and in the region. “Dr. Goldstein is a champion of stroke policy,” said LynnCarol Ray, vice president of advocacy of the Mid-Atlantic affiliate for the AHA.

This award is the highest advocacy award given annually by the AHA. It is given to the volunteer who has worked through public policy to improve the health, well being and quality of the life for the greatest number of people possible.

Every year hundreds of hospitals around the country are ranked by the AHA in terms of which facilities invest funds into IT (Information Technology) and which hospitals put the invested money to best use.

“It’s exciting for the Duke University Health System to be recognized with this prestigious award for the first time by the American Hospital Association. I’m proud to be working in an organization that understands the role that information technology plays in the delivery of high-quality health care,” said Rafael Rodriguez, associate chief information officer of Duke Health Technology Solutions (DHTS).

The Most Wired award is a prestigious recognition to those select health systems hospitals that are effectively deploying technological integration across their entire hospital system.

The winners of the award were chosen upon review of 502 surveys, representing 1,255 hospitals across the country. Results from the survey were used to measure the nation’s hospitals on their use of information technology in five areas: quality, customer service, public health and safety, business processes and workforce issues.

“Duke has been investing in and integrating a large amount of clinical technology into the health system, especially over the last two years,” said Asif Ahmad, DHTS vice president and chief information officer. “It’s an honor to be recognized among the best of the best for the use of technology to provide better care and to integrate our hospitals into a better system.”

There are three key differences in how hospitals apply and use information technology to improve care, said Alden Solovy, executive editor of Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the AHA. “The Most Wired use a wider array of IT tools to address quality and safety, they have a significantly larger percentage of physicians who enter orders themselves and they conduct a larger percentage of clinical activities via information technology.”

Along with the list of the 2005 Most Wired winners, Hospital & Health Networks released the results of an analysis showing that those hospitals and health systems that have made a substantial investment in health information technology have lower mortality rates than other hospitals.

“It’s not a random observation, even if it is not necessarily cause and effect,” said Kaveh Safavi, M.D., chief medical officer of healthcare information firm Solucient, which conducted the mortality analysis.

“We have long believed that a commitment to using the latest innovations in information technology can help us run a more efficient operation and provide better quality care to our patients,” said Ahmad.

The 2005 Most Wired winners will be honored at the AHA’s annual Health Forum and Leadership Summit on July 28-30 in San Diego.

McKay comes to Duke from Maria Parham Medical Center in Henderson, N.C., where she has served as director of education since 1996. A graduate of Trident Technical College and the Medical University of South Carolina, McKay worked in a variety of clinical and administrative nursing roles prior to completing her Master’s Degree in Health Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003.

Thomas C. Clark of New York City and Litchfield County, Conn., Robin A. Ferracone of Los Angeles, Kenneth W. Hubbard of Greenwich, Conn., David M. Rubenstein of Washington, D.C., Robert S. Saunders Jr. of Durham, Alan D. Schwartz of Greenwich, Conn., and Anthony Vitarelli of Marlton, N.J., began their terms on the 37-member governing body on July 1.

For more information, go to www.duke.edu.

The team consists of Cynthia Bridges, Ernestine Charles, Margaret Holland, Johnicia McNeil and Tammy Matthews. Working with their health center administrator, Bernie Stewart, the team put together a performance improvement team and improved professional mannerisms related to the registration process at the front desk.

“Collectively, Clinic 1G’s clerical staff’s attentiveness to service, high level of performance, consistent professionalism and dependability has earned them the honor of being our First Quarter Service Champions,” said Paul Newman, executive director of the PDC.

The award is given to the investigator who has submitted the most original scientific abstracts and made the most significant contributions to basic or clinical radioassay. Zalutsky and his team were specifically commended on their work in targeting radionuclide therapy for cancer applications.

The society established the award in 1977 to honor research influenced by Nobel Prize winners Rosalyn S. Yalow, Ph.D., and the late Solomon A. Berson, M.D., who in the 1950s developed methods of using radioactive isotopes to investigate physiological systems that allow detection of minute concentrations of biological or pharmacological substances in blood or other fluids.