University Breaks Ground on New Science Center

Medical AlumniT h e U n i v e r s i T y o f s c r a n T o n

N e w s l e t t e rFA l l 2 0 0 9

Unified Science Center Quick Facts

The University of scranton presented plans for the largest capital project in its 121-year history – an approximately 200,000 square foot unified science center - at a groundbreaking ceremony on campus in the spring.

The new unified science center represents the largest capital project in the 121-year history of the university. It integrates a new structure on what is now a parking lot along Monroe Avenue and Ridge Row into a renovated space in the Harper McGinnis Wing of St. Thomas Hall.

The facility incorporates today’s most innovative science teach-ing techniques into a dynamic, modern design that includes in-viting spaces for student/faculty collaboration, visible glass-walled laboratories and the efficiencies of using shared instrumentation.

“The new science center matches the unparalleled excellence of the science programs for which The University of Scranton is so well known and will serve all our students through the engaging and innovative pedagogies fostered by this design,” said Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., University president. As part of Scranton’s Jesuit lib-eral arts curriculum, all undergraduate students are required to take at least two natural science courses.

The unified science center will provide the university’s depart-ments of biology, chemistry, computing sciences, physics/electrical engineering and mathematics with classroom, office, laboratory and meeting spaces. This building will also serve several interdisciplinary programs, including neuroscience and biochemistry, cell and mo-lecular biology.

The University expects the new building to enhance further its already stellar reputation for preparing students for careers in medi-cine, health care and the sciences. Of the 353 senior applicants to medical schools over the last nine years, an average of 81 percent were accepted, well above the national average. According to the 2008 NSF Survey on Earned Doctorates, in 2006 (the most recent year reported), Scranton ranked 9th out of 568 master’s institutions that reported data for alumni who earned doctoral degrees in life sci-ences, and 37th of 568 in the physical sciences.

The unified science center is among the transformational build-ing projects of the University’s $100 million capital campaign. “I am also grateful to our benefactors who have already made significant and special commitments to science education at the University. Our efforts to raise funds for this project will continue,” said Fr. Pilarz.x

• approximately 200,000 Sq. Ft.• approximately 150,000 Sq. Ft. of new construction• approximately 50,000 Sq. Ft. of renovation• Groundbreaking: May 14, 2009• expected occupancy Date: Fall Semester 2011• number of floors: 4

ACAdemiC depArTmenTS HoUSed in CenTer: Biology, chemistry, computing sciences, Physics/electrical engineering and Mathematics

deSign/FeATUreS:• Designed for silver LeeD certification (“Green” construction) • a 180-seat lecture hall for symposia & seminars• several faculty/student research & meeting areas• a faculty meeting room modeled after the tea room at oxford University.• a rooftop green house for research• an atrium & a vivarium• 22 classrooms & seminar rooms• 34 laboratories• 80 offices

Science center rendering

Science center rendering

Fall 2009

unknownThese things i know. As summer draws to a close, I will leave my family in Northeast Pennsylvania for the first time. I will move about 120 miles southeast of Scranton (population approximately 74,000) to attend medical school in New York City (population approximately 8.3 million). Nine days later, I will be standing, stethoscope around my neck, at a New York City Free Clinic in the Lower East Side, helping second year students monitor the blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI of patients in an underserved neighborhood. Two days later, I will begin rigorous professional training and hopefully choose the path of my career in medicine.

I don’t know how to quantify a patient’s glucose or cholesterol. Even if I could quantify those chemicals, I don’t know what those numbers mean for a patient’s overall health. I don’t know how to talk to the patients about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. These are real people with real lives that I’ll be dealing with, and I don’t know what to do when I make a mistake. I don’t know how to study the volume of material I’ll be given, and I certainly don’t know how to choose and pursue a field of medicine.

As a new medical student, the unknowns significantly outnumber and outweigh the knowns. But I think my successes as a student and physician will be grounded in my ability to manage the unknowns that characterize patient care. When I feel overwhelmed from all that I don’t know, I rely on

my experiences at The University of Scranton which have prepared me for the unknowns of medicine.

In the unknown slums of Haiti I worked with Scranton students and physicians to ease the medical woes of unknown people with faces aged by untold suffering. In research labs from Scranton to Illinois, I worked through the night with my faculty mentor who, after years of his own sci-entific experimentation, taught me to stay hungry for the objective truths found only in the womb of the unknown. In the halls of Loyola, where decades of unknown students sequestered in their spirits the Ignatian search

for truth and justice, I became part of a tradition of both scholarship and service. In the rooms of the hospice unit, I volunteered with patients as they related to me their narratives before passing, often peacefully, into the greatest unknown I know. I am shaped, molded every day, by all that I do not know.

Through my experiences at The University of Scranton I have learned to find peace in the unknown. This peace in the unknown, some call it faith, is my greatest asset as a medical student. I have faith that Scranton has given me the most important tool of all when, as I begin this new chapter of my life, I volunteer for the first time in a free clinic in New York City, adorned by my first white coat.x

mediCAl SCHoolMelissa Linskey, Biology, Honors Program, Temple University School of Medicine

Edward DelSole, Biochemistry, SJLA Program, New York University School of Medicine Melissa Bertha, Biology, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Kevin Berry, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

Jason Stankiewicz, Biochemistry/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Honors Program, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University

Kimberly Pacovsky, Biochemistry, The Commonwealth Medical College

Coral Stredny, Biochemistry, Honors Program, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University Mary Theresa Veglia, Biology, Creighton University School of Medicine Kyle Packer, Biology, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

Jennifer Sidari, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, The Commonwealth Medical College

Margaret Mathewson, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, The Commonwealth Medical College

Rimsha Ahmed, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Honors Program, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

Jennifer Lewis, English/Philosophy, SLJA Program, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University

John Kotula, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, The Commonwealth Medical College

Michael Nordsiek, Grad. Biochemistry, Biochemistry (2008), Honors Program, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Allison Greco, Biology, Honors Program, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University

Mark Romanowski, Biology/History, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Emily Nebzydoski, Biology, Honors Program, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine David Fryzel, Biochemistry/Philosophy/Biology(2008), Honors Program, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

Thomas Churilla, Biochemistry The Commonwealth Medical College

Christine Koshel, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Honors Program, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Colin McHugh, Neuroscience (2008), Drexel University College of Medicine

Emily Klonoski, Neuroscience/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Brian Rueter, Biology (2007), Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

John Graham, Post-baccalaureate (Syracuse grad), Temple University School of Medicine

Gary Valvano, Biology, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Haley Walsh, Philosophy (2008), Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Beatrice Desir, Biology, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine

opTomeTry SCHoolKatie Jo Tempaugh Biology, Salus University (formerly Pennsylvania College of Optometry)

denTAl SCHoolAlexandra Biga, Biochemistry/Philosophy, SJLA Program, University of Maryland, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery

Tessie Buraczewski, Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine Kimmie Patel, Biology, Temple University, The Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry

Leann Skoronski, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Temple University, The Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry

Ryan Dell’Aglio, Biology, Temple University, The Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry

Thomas Langan, Biology/Philosophy, SJLA Program, Temple University, The Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry

VeTerinAry SCHoolDenise M. Hardisky, Biology, Honors Program, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Sarah Nebzydoski, Biochemistry/Biology (2007), University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine

The UniversiTy of scranTon placement in Health professions program FAll 2009 AdmiSSionSFall 2009

“...I became part of a tradition of both scholarship and service.”

Finding peace in What I Do Not Knowedward Delsole ’09

physician re-entry: An emerging Issue of Importance

erin e. tracy, M.D.M.P.H. ’88

The American Academy of Pediatrics (on its phenomenal Web site addressing this issue, www.aap.org/reentry) defines physician reentry as “returning to professional activity/clinical prac-tice for which one has been trained, certified or licensed after an extended time period. This is an issue that cuts across genders and specialties.” This doesn’t only include physicians who stop practic-ing medicine for a period of time. Some physicians may stop doing certain parts of their specialty, for example obstetrician/ gynecologists may start doing a gyn-only practice, or eliminating major surgeries, while their children are younger. When their children get older, or other life circumstances change, they may want to start delivering babies again. There is no established mechanism for physicians to do that, from a licensing, credentialing or certification standpoint. A recent AAMC study re-vealed that 22% of women and 6.5% of men had taken more than a 6 month leave of absence from medicine. While 43.3% did so to take care of family members, the majority identified other reasons.

Among surveyed pediatricians, 79.4% had no retraining before reentry, while 20.6% did. The reasons for returning to clinical prac-tice were varied: 57% missed taking care of patients, 42% perceived a community need and 38% missed their colleagues/ practice.

Thirty state medical boards currently have policy addressing physician-reentry requirements. Of those that stipulate a time away from practice after which a reentry program completion is required,

most specify two years as the minimum. In 2008 the American Medical Association adopted a com-prehensive report identifying physician reentry as an issue that needs to be formally dealt with na-tionally. In this report, 10 principles were adopted that should be considered in any physician reentry program. The aforementioned American Academy of Pediatrics has organized the Physician Reentry into the Workforce Project, consisting of more than 17 national medical organizations working

on this issue. The Web site has many resources for interested pro-viders and educators. Despite the increased attention to this topic, there are still very few formal physician-reentry programs, including programs at Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Center for Per-sonalized Education for Physicians in Denver, the Interinstitutional Reentry Program at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Port-land and the John Peter Smith Health Care Consortium in Fort Worth, Texas. These programs are often very expensive, and based on the limited geographic availability of sites usually require partici-pants to move across the country, potentially uprooting families in the interim. Clearly this is an issue our profession needs to be proac-tive on, especially regarding the creation of new programs. Mentor-ing is also essential so providers who decide to take time away from their practices understand their own state licensing boards’ require-ments for re-entry and their options for potentially “reentering” the field at a later date.x

more than 100 medical professionals, medical school students and students gathered for a Medical Alumni Symposium hosted by The Medical Alumni Council of the University on March 28. The symposium, designed for physicians, dentists and medical school students, was attended by alumni and medical profession-als throughout the region. The Symposium included presentations about a variety of topics. Andrew S. Quinn, Esq. ’84, principal of Compliance Concepts, Inc., discussed the federal government’s in-creased scrutiny of the health care industry and practical compli-

ance strategies medical professionals can use to avoid allegations of waste, fraud and abuse. Pamela Q. Taffera, D.O., M.B.A. ’02, chief resident and post graduate year-two family medicine resident at Saint Joseph Medical Center, discussed the art of negotiation in administrative medicine. Geno Merli, M.D. FACP ’71, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Thomas Jefferson Uni-versity Hospital, presented a lecture on the safety and efficacy of the new class of oral anticoagulants. Other distinguished alumni presented lectures on topics ranging from coronary disease risk factors to the ethical dilemmas faced by military physicians.x

medical professionals gather for Symposium

800 Linden street • scranton, Pa 18510

Members of the Medical Alumni Council are invited to submit articles and professional announcements for consideration.

Please send your submissions to Lynn King andres ’89, assistant Director of alumni relations at Lynn.Andres@scranton.edu.

request for Submissions

Submission requirementsArticles w/ photo: Up to 500 wordsArticles w/o photo: Up to 550 wordsProfessional announcements: Up to 50 words