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Back to: Clinical Center Home Page > About the Clinical Center > News and Events
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This file is provided for reference purposes only. It was current when it was produced, but it is no longer maintained and may now be out of date. Persons with disabilities having difficulty accessing information may contact us for assistance. For reliable, current information on this and other health topics, we recommend consulting the NIH Clinical Center at http://www.cc.nih.gov/.
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Clinical Center News, Building 10, Room 1C255, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892. (301) 496-2563. Fax: 402-2984. Published monthly for CC employees by the Office of Clinical Center Communications, Colleen Henrichsen, chief. News, articles ideas, calendar events, letters, and photographs are welcome. Deadline for submission is the second Monday of each month. |
On hand for a press conference to announce the event were Jim Schoenfeld, the team's head coach; Tod Button, assistant coach; and Dr. Susan Leitman, chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine's blood services section and medical director, NIH Marrow Donor Center. Button's father, a scout for the team, was stricken with leukemia last spring and was successfully matched with his sister for a marrow donation.
"I know I speak for my dad, my family, and all those people who care
for him when I talk about the importance of the bone marrow drive and the
bone marrow program," said Button, "and the importance of giving
somebody else, many more people, a chance at a second
life. The same chance that has been given to my father and our family."
Projects expected to begin this summer include:
A member of NHLBI's pulmonary critical care medicine branch since 1994, Dr. Van Dervort came to NIH in 1987. He studied communication systems employed by cells, research relevant to pulmonary disease in the critically ill patient. NHLBI officials described him as "an excellent physician, well-liked by his co-workers."
Dr. Van Dervort grew up in the Los Angeles area and trained in internal medicine at King's County Hospital/Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and later completed a fellowship in critical care medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital in New York City.
During his time at NIH, Dr. Van Dervort developed a reputation as an able, caring, and skilled clinician. His outstanding clinical instincts were appreciated by all those who worked with him. He loved discussing cases, always looking for a better way to do a procedure or solve a problem. He was board certified in internal medicine and critical care medicine.
While working in Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Van Dervort's research focused on developing new therapeutic approaches to treating septic shock. He was among the first to recognize that certain analogs of lipid A, the toxic moiety of endotoxin, could antagonize inflammatory effects of endotoxin and perhaps serve as a new class of agents for treating septic shock. He described lipid A analogs with agonist, antagonist, and mixed agonist-antagonist activity, defining the structure-function relationships of these molecules. This work was part of the foundation that led to the development of an endotoxin antagonist that has entered clinical trials.
Dr. Van Dervort made contributions to our understanding of neutrophil priming, an effect that enhances cytotoxic-responses and may contribute to tissue injury in sepsis. More recently, he studied the role of nitric oxide in regulating inflammation. At NHLBI, Dr. Van Dervort was investigating cGMP-independent nitric oxide signaling pathways involving tyrosine nitrosylation.
Most of all, Dr. Van Dervort's colleagues will remember him for his friendship
and his sense of humor. "Big Al," or just "Al," loved
basketball, tennis, and life. He frequently played basketball on the 14th
floor courts of the Clinical Center and was known as a tough but gracious
competitor.
He attended the Washington Bullets Basketball Summer Camp for amateurs and
as a season ticket holder frequently went to the Bullets home games with
friends and colleagues. He spent weekends playing tennis with his daughter,
Alana, or taking her to tennis tournaments.
He is survived by his wife, Annette, his daughter Alana, and his mother,
Caprice.
Memorials may go to the Alana Van Dervort Scholarship Fund, c/o Dr. Joel
Moss, Building 10, Rm 6D03, MSC 1590, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD
20892-1590.
-by Dr. Robert Danner
New chair named for women scientists
Did you know that:
A comprehensive review of what types and how often equipment should be tested prompted the move, according to Dr. Michele Evans, CC safety officer. CC administrators, safety officials, and biomedical engineers comprised the working group that made the recommendation. "The initial review resulted from more flexible accreditation standards. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations urged hospitals to find ways to ensure that equipment that was most critical to patient care received the priority in all testing," she says.
This reallocation of effort will mean nearly $500,000 in savings a year, mainly due to the elimination of routine testing of non-medical equipment.
The primary function of section staff is to repair medical equipment and to make sure that all clinical equipment is electrically safe and provides correct readings to health-care staff. That equipment includes ECGs, EEGs, infusion pumps, external pacemakers, non-invasive blood pressure machines, pulse oximeters, and electronic thermometers.
Equipment is tested at least annually. "Some pieces are tested more frequently," Corsey points out. "External pacemakers, for example, are tested monthly. We are also testing to see if cellular phones cause any interference with medical equipment."
Section staff no longer provide routine, annual testing for non-clinical equipment, refrigerators in patient rooms and microwave ovens on units, for example. "It's something the Joint Commission no longer requires. We will test the equipment for safety when it is new and apply an identification sticker," Corsey explains. "If the equipment stops working, the patient-care units call us for repair and another safety check."
Another benefit of having biomedical engineering within Materials Management, Corsey points out, is that the department buys most of the supplies and equipment for the Clinical Center. "Medical equipment is our area of expertise. We are able to work with the CC standardization committee when new supplies and equipment are being considered for standardization."
Assuring the safety of electrical equipment used in hospitals became a national
issue in the early 1970s, Corsey explains, when consumer advocates asserted
that more than 1,000 hospital deaths a year could be attributed to unsafe
equipment.
Mary Haughey was named Nurse of the Year for "exemplary practice skills, patient teaching capabilities, and a commitment to excellence." Haughey has cared for neurology and endocrine patients, as well patients under a new program of care for rheumatic arthritis, dermatomyositis, and lupus. "Within her first months of transferring to the new program, [she] volunteered to take complex patients with muscle weakness and severe pain." She has enhanced education opportunities for her peers by serving as preceptor for new nurses and by developing programs for her unit, service, and the nursing department. Haughey has been staff nurse on 10 East for the last nine months. Her CC career also included five years working with adult endocrinology patients and two years with neurology patients.
Anne Knebel received the Distinguished Nurse Award. She was recognized for leadership in clinical practice, educational activities, and standards development. She coordinated the development and revision of three major standards of practice-noninvasive ventilation support, tracheostomy, and bronchoscopy. Knebel also served as research mentor to three nursing research projects, and developed an important liaison with NINR.
Recipient of the Research Award was Christopher L. Geyer for his work on the protocol, "Clinical Correlates of Post-Lumbar Puncture Headache."
The study sought to identify some of the clinical and psychological variables related to the development of post-lumbar puncture headache. It's one of the most commonly performed procedures among NIAAA protocols and is critical to the understanding of neurotransmitter systems in alcoholism.
Recognized for earning an NIH Director's Award was Jean Harris. It was given in recognition of her exceptional initiative and leadership in coordinating accreditation review in the Clinical Center and for her work with the Workforce Diversity Program.
Merry Danaceau was the CC's nominee for the Maryland Hospital Nurse of the Year Award. A psychiatric clinician, Danaceau works with women's health studies, including perimenopausal depression and mood disorders related to menstruation.
Other award recipients included:
They are used for medical pathological waste (MPW), waste contaminated with infectious material or low levels of cytotoxic drugs.
To protect from potential exposure to infectious diseases, MPW is managed differently than regular office trash. It's double bagged in a special MPW box and burned.
Reducing the volume of MPW would help shave disposal costs, which are eight times that of regular office trash, cut the cost of buying MPW boxes, and save Housekeeping and Fabric Care staff time and effort in transporting thousands of MPW boxes each week, NIH environmental protection branch officials note.
How can the volume of MPW be reduced? "Easy," says Gyula Kovach, chief of the environmental protection branch, NIH Division of Safety. "Put only what is really medical pathological waste in the MPW boxes."
Random surveys of the contents have shown some surprises, including soda cans, newspapers, books, research records, and-at least once-a new microscope.
Another way to reduce MPW volume is to decontaminate the material by autoclave or disinfecting process, which will transform the MPW into regular trash.
Because of the warnings and symbols on an MPW box anyone seeing an MPW box must treat the box contents as contaminated.
To avoid misunderstandings:
Comments?
webmaster@cc.nih.gov
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Last modified 6/14/96
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