Michael Lovelace, a third-year student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Family Medicine Leads (FML) Emerging Leader Institute, sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation. The FML Emerging Leader Institute was created to identify family medicine residents and medical students who display leadership potential and to provide those individuals with training to help equip them for leadership roles in medicine. From 115 applicants, 15 medical students and 15 family medicine residents (30 total participants) were selected for participation in the year-long leadership development program.

“Michael's achievement in being named to the inaugural class of the Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute is an outstanding tribute to Michael and to the University of Louisville's commitment to primary care at the national level,” said Diane Harper, M.D., M.P.H., chair of the UofL Family and Geriatric Medicine department.

After obtaining his degree in finance and MBA, Lovelace spent 10 years in business, serving as a project manager and operations manager. Since enrolling in medical school at UofL, Lovelace led the student-run Family Medicine Interest Group and is a student member of the Admissions Committee.

“The FML Emerging Leader Institute intrigued me because it of the opportunity to gain leadership experience in a health-care setting that will complement my business background,” Lovelace said.

Lovelace will work with a mentor to complete an individual project over the next year designed to build his leadership skills. Projects are assigned in one of three tracks:  policy and public health leadership, personal and practice leadership, and philanthropy and mission-driven leadership. Lovelace plans to complete a project in personal and practice leadership based on an idea he proposed to assist medical students, residents and young physicians with personal financial planning.

“Michael is the rare visionary who is at home working on the front lines. He presents and supports family medicine with facts, dedication, humor and a knowledgeable realization of its rightful place in the health-care system,” said Stephen F. Wheeler, M.D., senior faculty member in the UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine.

Selection to the FML Emerging Leader Institute comes with a $1,000 scholarship for attendance at the 2015 AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in August and the Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute at the AAFP headquarters in Leawood, Kan. Each of the 30 projects completed by the FML Emerging Leader Institute Scholars will be evaluated by a special AAFP Foundation committee. Creators of the top two student and top two resident projects in each of the three tracks will earn additional $1,000 scholarships and will present their projects at the 2016 AAFP National Conference. The top project in each track will earn a $3,000 scholarship to participate in a designated major event related to their track.

About the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation

The AAFP Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Its mission is to advance the values of family medicine by promoting humanitarian, educational and scientific initiatives that improve the health of all people.

The University of Louisville School of Medicine recently was ranked third in the nation for career support for its students. The poll, produced by graduateprograms.com, defines career support as the quality of career planning, resources and support received during and after graduate studies.

“This is a very meaningful ranking for us because it says that our students believe we are preparing them for their futures,” said Toni Ganzel, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the UofL School of Medicine. “This is a reflection of the quality work of our Student Affairs leadership and staff and all our faculty as we prepare the next generation of physicians.”

UofL is ranked ahead of schools such as Vanderbilt, Duke, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Ohio State topped the rankings, followed by the University of Southern California.

Graduateprograms.com assigns 15 ranking categories to each graduate program at each graduate school. Rankings cover a variety of student topics, such as academic competitiveness, career support, financial aid, and quality of network. For a given graduate program, rankings are determined by calculating the average score for each program based on the 15 ranking categories. These scores are then compared across all ranked schools for that program and are translated into a final ranking for that graduate program, i.e., business and management. A given graduate program is not ranked until a minimum threshold of graduate student surveys is completed for that graduate program.

UofL also ranked in the top 25 of the graduateprograms.com rankings for Financial Aid.

Faul and Shiels will serve terms on the council expiring in May 2019. The council’s 15 representatives help the Kentucky Department for Aging and Independent Living identify ways to help Kentuckians with memory loss and their families. Council members include representatives from state government, local health departments and Alzheimer’s associations, as well as consumers, health-care providers and medical researchers.

Faul is the executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging (ISHOA) at the University of Louisville and the associate dean for academic affairs at UofL’s Kent School of Social Work. She also is a Hartford Faculty Scholar of the Gerontological Social Work Initiative, a national effort of the John A. Hartford Foundation to address gaps in social work education and research around the health and well-being of older adults.

“Only one-third of people with Alzheimer’s are properly diagnosed and that has a lot to do with awareness,” Faul said. “There needs to be a better way of delivering the diagnosis in a supportive environment. Once we have the diagnosis, the key is to create Alzheimer’s-friendly communities where these individuals and their families are supported and included.”

Shiels is the director of the Kentucky Person-Centered Care Program for Long-Term Care and the director of the Kentucky Emergency Preparedness for Aging and Long-Term Care Program, both administered through UofL’s Kent School of Social Work. She is the institutional director of the UofL Geriatric Education Center and manages the interprofessional training program in Alzheimer’s in collaboration with the UofL Department for Family and Geriatric Medicine, UofL School of Nursing, UofL’s Kent School of Social Work and Spalding University.

“My work focuses on improving quality of care and quality of life for those living in Kentucky's nursing homes, of which 60 to 70 percent have Alzheimer's or related dementia,” Shiels said. “It is impossible to separate nursing home care and Alzheimer's disease.”

As members of the Governor’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Council, Faul said she and Shiels can work synergistically to promote the understanding, management and prevention of the disease.

May 28, 2015

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a new weapon in the arsenal of cancer fighting treatments: utilizing genetically modified viruses to invade cancer cells and destroy them from the inside.

University of Louisville researcher Jason Chesney, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center (JGBCC), and a team of international scientists found that stage IIIb to IV melanoma patients treated with a modified cold sore (herpes) virus had improved survival. The results of the findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

UofL was one of the major sites for the phase III clinical trial involving 436 patients who received the viral immunotherapy, Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC). Scientists genetically engineered the herpes simplex I virus to be non-pathogenic, cancer-killing and immune-stimulating. The modified herpes virus does not harm healthy cells, but replicates when injected into lesions or tumors, and then stimulates the body’s immune system to fight the cancer.

“The results from this study are amazing,” Chesney said. “Patients given T-VEC at an early stage survived about 20 months longer than patients given a different type of treatment. For some, the therapy has lengthened their survival by years. ”

Shari Wells from Ashland, Kentucky is one of those patients. She entered the trial in 2010 with stage IV, or metastatic, melanoma. Before entering the T-VEC trial, she had been through numerous procedures and major surgeries. According to Wells, nothing worked and she was facing a death sentence.

“When you hear that you may only have three to six months to live, it is very scary,” Wells said. “I would not be alive today if I had not been accepted into the T-VEC trial. Dr. Chesney and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center saved my life.”

Wells drove to Louisville every two weeks for about two and a half years to receive injections in each of the more than 60 lesions on her leg. The lesions eventually began to fade and finally disappeared. She has been in remission for almost eight years.

“I want everyone to know they should never give up hope. With research there will always be something new tomorrow that wasn’t here today,” she said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are considering findings from the trial to make the treatments available to more patients with advanced melanoma.

More Research

The Journal of Clinical Oncology report comes on the heels of Chesney’s findings from another study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article describes an immunotherapy for melanoma utilizing the checkpoint inhibitors, ipilimumab and nivolumab. In cell biology, their role is to reduce the effectiveness of two immune checkpoint proteins responsible for telling the immune system to turn off and not kill the cancer cells.

The study found that injection of the two inhibitors shrunk tumors in the majority of patients with advanced melanoma. The JGBCC was one of the top centers worldwide to enroll patients and find that ipilimumab combined with nivolumab resulted in the highest anti-cancer efficacy ever observed after treatment with a cancer immunotherapy.

Chesney and his team, working with the pharmaceutical company Amgen, are taking the success of their trials a step further – combining T-VEC with the immune checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab into a treatment regimen. The clinical trial is underway at the JGBCC and other sites in hopes of accelerating cancer immunity and curing patients.

“We finally understand how to activate the human immune system to clear cancer cells, having developed new classes of immunotherapies that dramatically improve the survival of cancer patients,” Chesney said. “I believe T-VEC combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors will not only reduce cancer-related mortality in melanoma but in all cancer types, and we are moving quickly to develop these methods.”

Learn more about all melanoma and sarcoma related clinical trials at : http://browncancercenter.louisville.edu/pcare-and-clintrials/mel-sarc/melanoma-and-sarcoma or by contacting the Clinical Trials Office, CTOInfo@louisville.edu, 502-562-3429.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – DentaQuest has selected David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA), University of Louisville, as one of its 2015 Health Equity Heroes, recognizing his distinguished work in making oral health care accessible to underserved populations. The inaugural Oral Health Equity Hero Awards were given to only seven people nationwide, each hero making significant contributions toward removing barriers to oral health.

“Dunn is a health leader who is committed to providing critical care in the Louisville community and beyond,” said Steve Pollock, CEO of DentaQuest. “He is connecting historically underserved populations with this care by employing the skills and traits that continue to mark his career - innovation: strategic outreach and compassion for the people he serves every day. The people of Kentucky are lucky to have him as a health advocate and ally.”

Tooth decay affects 20 percent of Kentucky’s preschoolers, 50 percent of second-graders, and nearly 75 percent of 15 year olds-- statistics that Pollock cites as being part of a national oral health crisis. More than 83 million people in the United States are facing barriers to dental care, barriers related to such factors as race, age, income level, language, health literacy, and geographic isolation.

A highly-recognized and respected transplant surgeon, Dunn has served as UofL’s EVPHA since 2011. He is an advocate for the importance of coupling dental coverage with medical coverage to promote enhanced overall health, noting that this “one-stop-shopping” approach helps eliminate barriers and connects more people with consistent preventive care. Under his leadership, UofL has made it a priority to establish medical-dental homes for children, ensuring access to health care is convenient and collaborative. Additionally, UofL medical and dental staff have partnered with the area’s public schools to advance health information and education programs.

“The University has a very robust community engagement initiative, particularly in Louisville’s West End, where there is unique opportunity to reach some of the most vulnerable populations in the state,” Dunn said. “Oral health is critical to overall health and our outreach programs emphasize that connection.”

Researchers at the University of Louisville have detailed a critical connection associated with a major environmental cause of silicosis and a form of lung cancer. Their study is reported in today’s Nature Communications.

Haribabu Bodduluri, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology and a researcher in the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, and his team made the crucial connection between exposure to inhaled silica and rapid progression of lung cancers. This study also outlines the critical role of the inflammatory mediator LTB₄ and its receptor BLT1 in promoting silica mediated lung tumor growth.

“We believe this is a significant step in our understanding of how environmental exposure alters the way lung cancer progresses,” Bodduluri said. “It is our hope that this new information will allow for the more rapid development of treatments for this currently incurable disease.”

Exposure to crystalline silica (CS) is common to a variety of industrial operations including mining, quarrying, sandblasting, rock drilling, road construction, pottery making, stone masonry, and tunneling operations. Chronic silica exposure causes severe health complications eventually leading to the irreversible, debilitating disease silicosis.

Approximately 2 million U.S. workers potentially are exposed to breathable crystalline silica. Silicosis in the developing part of the world is of an even higher concern as it is spreading like an epidemic with more than 10 million people affected around the world as a result of rapid industrialization, massive expansion of construction industry and possibly less regulated working environments.

“Silicosis continues to be a growing worldwide health issue. Being from Kentucky, where overall lung cancer is a major health issue, it is exciting that we may be able to develop treatments that impact people in our backyards, in addition to around the world,” Bodduluri said.

Silicosis keeps progressing post-exposure because people are unable to cough up the tiny particles, and macrophages that ingest silica particles end up dying, resulting in persistent sterile inflammation and may eventually lead to lung cancer. Though CS has been designated as a human carcinogen it also has been difficult to discern silicosis associated lung cancer because of a number of confounding factors including the fact that cigarette smoking is a common factor with workers likely to be exposed to silica.

Bodduluri and his colleagues report that in mice that develop spontaneous lung tumors, CS exposure accelerates lung tumor progression. Moreover, this result also was replicated in an implantable lung cancer model.

Their results highlight the importance of silica induced leukotriene B4 mediated inflammation in lung tumor promotion. Leukotrienes are involved in regulating inflammation, especially in the lungs. Mice deficient in leukotriene B4 receptor BLT1 are significantly protected from silica induced tumor promotion, suggesting the possibility for novel treatment strategies for both silicosis and associated lung cancers.

Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center said, “This work reflects the strong commitment of the Brown Cancer Center to better understand the important role of environmental factors in causing lung cancer.  Dr. Bodduluri and his team are world leaders in this field and this work may lead to novel therapies for lung cancer.”

Last year, the first year it was offered, the University of Louisville LGBT Center awarded 26 certificates in LGBT Health and Wellness Competency. This year, that number nearly quadrupled to 102 certificates awarded April 13 to students, faculty and staff members at the UofL Health Sciences Center campus. The year-long program educates health-care workers about treating individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

“It really speaks to the interest and the passion of all of those who have attended sessions for making sure they are doing their utmost in caring for a broad swathe of the population,” said Stacie Steinbock, director of the LGBT Center Satellite Office on the Health Sciences Center Campus, who organized the program.

The certificate program consists of monthly lunchtime sessions covering issues facing LGBT patients and their health-care providers. In all, more than 650 people attended this year’s sessions. Individuals who attended at least four of the sessions and completed a post-test were eligible to receive the certificate and lapel pin recognizing their completion of the LGBT Health and Wellness Competency program. Recipients included students in the schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and public health, as well as faculty and staff members from all parts of the Health Sciences Center campus.

“The speakers were dynamic and I couldn’t ask for a better certificate series,” said Ron Welch, of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, who received a certificate.

“It was really about diversifying and providing a more inclusive environment for our students, for our faculty, for our staff. Beyond that, it was also about improving the health and the care of our LGBT patients,” Toni Ganzel, M.D., dean of the UofL School of Medicine, said of the program.

"This certificate training further fosters diversity and inclusivity as we work together in the future as interprofessional teams," said Marcia Hern, Ed.D., C.N.S., R.N., dean of the UofL School of Nursing.

The certificate program coincides with the UofL School of Medicine’s incorporation of LGBT training competencies identified by the Association of American Medical Colleges into the formal curriculum beginning with the 2015-2016 academic year. UofL is the national pilot site for this program.

“Having additional training in the equitable, just and affirmative care of LGBT patients is critical. We as a medical school are going to be one of the first in the country to systematically build it into our curriculum and the certificate program was really something that preceded our ability to change the medical curriculum,” said Amy Holthauser, M.D., a member of the UofL School of Medicine faculty and certificate recipient.

To increase the relevance of the program to students and staff in the individual schools, next year’s program will offer four general sessions, with two sessions designed to be specifically relevant to each of the medical, dental, nursing and public health programs.

Some animals have developed the ability to survive in extreme conditions such being frozen, drying or with a complete lack of oxygen.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Michael Menze, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Louisville, will discuss how the mechanisms behind these animals’ survival in impossible conditions can be used to transform human medicine.

“I am fascinated with how these animals can survive the limits of life, so my research focuses on decoding the molecular mechanisms that protect animals exposed to harsh environmental factors,” Menze said. “Understanding how life can survive these intense insults allows us to solve medical challenges ranging from long-duration space travel to securing the human blood supply.”

Menze’s talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

To comply with recent CMS changes, UofL Physicians has modified current attending attestation statements and have added some resident attestations.
 
For billing purposes, CMS wants a summarization of the teaching physician role in the care of the patient. For the most part, current attending attestations are fine, but providers must briefly summarize key portions of the visit. Depending on the workflow, these changes may make it easier for attending physicians by essentially allowing the resident to document for them. 

For questions regarding documentation, please contact Laura Gilbert, director, Compliance & Audit Services with ULP, at laura.gilbert@ulp.org or 502-588-6462.

For six years, Tommy Gift Jr. and his brother, Alex Gift, have been helping cancer patients at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center through the Mary Jane Gift Quality of Life Fund. Later this month, the Gift brothers will raise the bar by hosting the inaugural Drive Out Cancer golf scramble to increase support for the fund.

Established in honor of the Gifts’ mother, who passed away from breast cancer in 2010, the Gift Fund helps patients and their families enjoy life while facing a cancer diagnosis. Over the years, the Gift Fund has provided more than 600 Thanksgiving turkeys for patients undergoing treatment at the UofL Brown Cancer Center.

Now, the fund also will support a year-round apartment for patients receiving bone marrow transplants. To raise additional funds to support this patient resource, they established Drive Out Cancer, a golf scramble to be held later this month.

“We have raised money for the fund only from the Spike It To Cancer Volleyball Tournament for years. Recently, when we learned the fund also will be supporting an apartment for bone marrow transplant recipients, we decided to host the golf scramble to raise even more money. This is a huge deal,” Tommy Gift said.

Bone marrow transplant procedures require patients to stay in or near the hospital for lengthy periods. Those who travel long distances to UofL Brown Cancer Center for this lifesaving treatment must be away from home for an extended period of time. This can create a substantial financial burden for the patients and their families. Having lodging available will ease this burden for many patients.

“The Fund was established to help keep spirits up for cancer fighters at James Graham Brown Cancer Center and let them know there are complete strangers in our community who are pulling for them, willing to help make their lives a little easier during this hard time,” Tommy Gift said.

Drive Out Cancer will be held at South Park Country Club, 915 S. Park Road in Fairdale., on Monday, Oct. 14 beginning at 10 a.m. Registration for the event is $400 for a three-person golf team. To register or sponsor the event, follow the link here.

University of Louisville heart transplant surgeon Mark Slaughter, M.D., has implanted two patients with an investigational device, the intravascular ventricular assist system (iVAS), at Jewish Hospital to improve heart function. The iVAS is a minimally invasive alternative to ventricular assist devices for use in patients with severe heart failure, allowing more mobility and implant without open-heart surgery. The iVAS supports heart function and can be used temporarily while patients await a heart transplant or as a more permanent treatment. UofL is the only site in Kentucky participating in the iVAS trial.

The iVAS is a counterpulsation heart device, assisting the heart by pumping between beats while the heart is resting to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Manufactured by NuPulseCV, Inc., the device consists of a balloon-type pump placed in the descending aorta. This pump is inflated and deflated to help move blood through the body. The intra-aortic pump is connected through the skin to an external drive unit. The new technology is an improvement over other heart assist devices such as the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) most significantly in that the iVAS is implanted with a minimally invasive procedure, not requiring open heart surgery.

“The iVAS is put in through a peripheral artery so it does not require opening the chest or placing the patient on a heart-lung machine,” said Slaughter, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in the UofL School of Medicine and surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical assist devices for UofL and Jewish Hospital. “Through this clinical trial, we may find additional advantages such as the opportunity for patients to disconnect from the device intermittently. With the VAD, you are always tethered to the device. With the iVAS, you may be able to be untethered or turn it off for short periods,” Slaughter said.

Another benefit, Slaughter said, is patients are not required to be on long-term blood thinners, which can have serious side effects.

Robert Hughes, one of the patients who received the iVAS implanted by Slaughter in Louisville, had a heart attack in May and subsequently learned he had heart failure.

“I finished chemo for leukemia in January. I had gone from 200 pounds to 145 pounds and I was pretty weak,” Hughes said. “Then I had the heart attack on May 17. Afterward I was getting dizzy just standing. I felt like I would faint. It was very unnerving. I didn’t want to get out and do a nosedive at Pic Pac,” Hughes said.

Hughes’s diagnosis was advanced heart failure, but he did not qualify for either a heart transplant or open-heart surgery, so when he was presented with the iVAS as a long-term option, he was ready to participate in the trial. His iVAS was implanted on Aug. 13. Within a few weeks, he was able to go home.

“Since the surgery, I feel stronger and haven’t had dizzy spells. I am gaining my weight back,” Hughes said. “I am very pleased with the outcome. As far as I’m concerned, everything is a plus.”

Hughes said he has been able to get out for trips to the drug store or grocery store without fear of passing out. The external drive unit for iVAS weighs only 8 pounds, permitting patients to be discharged from the hospital to await transplant or continue their lives at home and free to go out in the community.

The goal of the clinical trial is to determine whether iVAS is as effective as the LVAD. Including the two patients at Jewish Hospital, 70 patients have been implanted with the iVAS device in 12 centers across the United States. 

Learn more about clinical trials at UofL here.

Sept. 30, 2019

The search for effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease continues, as new cases are diagnosed at an ever-increasing rate. Unfortunately, every drug tested to treat the disease so far has been proven ineffective. The focus now is on prevention with healthy habits and mitigating other health risks.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Sam Cotton, Ph.D., program manager of Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) at the University of Louisville Trager Institute and director of the Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias program, will share the latest updates on what we all can do to prevent development of Alzheimer’s disease. Plus, for those who have developed Alzheimer’s and their caregivers, Cotton’s talk also will include how to care compassionately for people who have the disease.

This month’s Beer with a Scientist event is part of Research!Louisville, a citywide event going on Sept. 10-13 highlighting health research for physicians, nurses, researchers and other health care providers and students. In addition, September is Optimal Aging month, with a focus on aging well.

Cotton’s talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

The University of Louisville has enrolled the first patient in AngioDynamics’ NanoKnife^® Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) “Data IRE Cancer Treatment” clinical study (DIRECT). The DIRECT Study supports a proposed expanded use of the NanoKnife System in the treatment of stage III pancreatic cancer.

“We are pleased to be the first enrolling site. The DIRECT Study represents an important milestone in the standardization of care for patients with stage III pancreatic cancer,” said Robert C.G. Martin, MD, co-principal investigator of the DIRECT Study; director, Division of Surgical Oncology; professor of surgery, University of Louisville and surgical oncologist with UofL Physicians – Surgical Oncology.

“Our goal is to generate important data that should standardize and optimize the use of IRE in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer, significantly improving outcomes for patients with this late-stage diagnosis,” Martin said.

Annually, there are approximately 57,000 new cases and 46,000 estimated deaths from pancreatic cancer in the United States. Deaths from pancreatic cancer are projected to increase dramatically in the coming years, with a trajectory of becoming the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths before 2030.

The mortality rate is high due to the aggressive nature of the disease and lack of early warning signs. Less than 20 percent of patients are candidates for surgical resection at time of diagnosis.

Approximately 35 to 40 percent of patients will initially present with stage III and 45 to 55 percent with metastatic disease. Regardless of the stage of pancreatic cancer, it is one of the least survivable cancers, and survival rates have not improved substantially for more than 40 years. For all stages combined, the five-year relative survival rate is 8 percent and, for those with advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, the five-year survival rate remains at 3 percent.

The DIRECT study continues the research of Martin and other health care providers at UofL that has helped lead to results that have tripled the overall survival in stage III pancreatic cancer.

AngioDynamics’ DIRECT clinical study features a comprehensive data collection strategy that will provide meaningful clinical information to health care professionals, support a regulatory indication for the treatment of stage III pancreatic cancer and facilitate reimbursement for hospitals and treating physicians. The next-generation study is classified as a Category B IDE by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which allows participating sites to obtain coverage for procedures performed, in addition to related routine costs.

The DIRECT Study includes a randomized controlled trial at up to 15 sites, as well as a real-world evidence, next generation registry at up to 30 sites, each with a NanoKnife System treatment arm and a control arm. AngioDynamics expects each NanoKnife arm to consist of approximately 250 patients with an equal number of control patients. The primary goal of the study is overall survival.

As part of the DIRECT Study, AngioDynamics launched AngioDIRECT.com to facilitate the enrollment of participants. The online platform provides patients and their families with information about pancreatic cancer and details about the study. It also features a physician locator to help prospective participants and referring health care professionals identify clinical study locations.

An important mission of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville is to encourage citizens to participate in research to understand and improve the health of our community. A new online data resource hosted by the Envirome Institute will allow citizen scientists and researchers to access and contribute to public knowledge about the health of the air, water and soil in Greater Louisville.

Louisville Data Commons is a new online data repository available to anyone interested in the state of our local environment or involved in citizen science or related data-gathering projects.

“For many years, we have been fortunate to have a strong Metro Government open data portal, a resource for sharing data gathered by the city. However, there is not a place to store and review data gathered by citizens that could ultimately help us gain a better understanding of our city,” said Ted Smith, Ph.D., director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil of the UofL Envirome Institute.

“The growth of citizen science and the excitement around low-cost sensors has highlighted the great need to have a place where information gathered by our community, in our community, about our community can be made available to our whole community and governed by our community,” Smith said.

To provide credibility for the data, Louisville Data Commons is hosted by the Envirome Institute and governed by a volunteer board of community members. These community members will ensure the data sets maintained on the site are reliable, objective and useful to researchers. Members of the volunteer board will review data submitted by the public or non-profit organizations prior to making it available within the portal.

An example of the need for objective third-party validation of data is the recently released odor-reporting app, “Smell My City.” Members of the community expressed concern whether the data could be altered and sought assurance that the data was protected. Louisville Data Commons now archives reports from Smell My City that has been validated by a public process and maintained for future research by anyone using the portal.

Other sources of data will include information gathered by Brightside and Internet of Things sensors, as well as local environmental information provided by the federal government. As more residents discover new things to measure and share in the future, additional data can be held and shared on this portal.

"Louisville Data Commons is a great example of educational institutions, community partners and Louisville Metro Government working together to create a new tool to help local innovators change lives for the better,” said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. “That's the type of collaboration and focus on big ideas that we need as we work to become a city where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential."

Data may be uploaded to LouisvilleDataCommons.org by individuals, citizen scientists or non-profit organizations and may include information related to sensor projects, air or water quality, weather, odors, noise or other community health characteristics. Other data related to the city of Louisville also may be approved. The data is reviewed by at least two members of the Louisville Data Commons committee prior to being published to ensure validity and appropriateness.

The current Louisville Data Commons committee includes Smith, Grace Simrall, chief of civic innovation and technology for Louisville Metro Government, Aaron Drake, a technology consultant, and Nur Ozgener, a Brightside board member.

"Louisville Metro Government is proud to be a part of the Louisville Data Commons. We are focused on using innovation to address the challenges residents face each day and on expanding access to the digital tools and skills of the future,” Simrall said. “As we work toward these goals, the community needs access to data and good partners.”

The Louisville Data Commons portal uses open source data portal platform CKAN. 

After a Guatemalan sport diver discovered ancient Maya ruins in the depths of Lake Atitlan, underwater archaeologist John R. Hale, Ph.D., director of the Liberal Studies program at the University of Louisville, was invited to map the site, located in the Sierra Madre mountains of Guatemala. 

“Working with UofL archaeology majors who also were scuba divers, we were able to show that the site was in fact a 2000-year-old ceremonial center that the Maya had constructed on a small circular island in the middle of the large lake,” Hale said. “Using newly developed mapping techniques that linked sonar with satellite data, our UofL team was able to reconstruct the original contours of this Maya ‘Atlantis’ and reveal the extraordinary array of altars, standing stones and processional ways which had played a vital role in early Maya ceremony, cult and myth-making.”

A real-life “Indiana Jones,” Hale received a Ph.D. in archaeology from Cambridge University and has performed field work for more than 40 years. He has published works on ancient Scandinavian, Greek and Maya civilizations and technologies.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Hale will recount the exploration of the ancient, underwater site. His talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

August 9, 2019

A new initiative called the UofL Bridges to Baccalaureate (ULBB) program will provide a pipeline of support and mentoring for underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students enrolled in two-year science degree programs at Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC). The program will be for students who plan to complete a four-year degree at the University of Louisville in a biomedical or health-related field.

ULBB launches this fall thanks to a $900,000 National Institutes of Health five-year training grant. The funding will support eight JCTC freshman the first year, with eight additional students to be added in each of the second through fifth years.

Sham S. Kakar, PhD, MBA, is a professor in the Department of Physiology and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. Kakar, along with JCTC Dean of Academic Affairs Randall Davis, PhD, are program directors on the grant.

"Our goal is to improve success rates not only of the transfer students in the ULBB program itself, but also to help develop an environment in which more STEM students make a successful transition from JCTC to UofL to biomedical careers," Kakar said.

Highlights of the program include:

• Mentoring, help with courses, career counseling and advising both prior to and after transferring to UofL
• Opportunity to take a UofL biology course at JCTC tuition rate
• Summer research program after first year at JCTC to learn biomedical research skills; $5,000 salary
• Summer research program after second year at JCTC working full-time in a UofL lab conducting research; $5,000 salary
• Research presentation opportunities at local and national scientific conferences
• Networking and planning for next steps after college

The first group of JCTC students are expected to start the ULBB program in October.

Other collaborators on the grant include: Joshua Irving, PhD, chair, Department of Physiology; Cynthia Corbitt, PhD, associate professor, Department of Biology; Adrienne Bratcher, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Exercise Physiology and Paul Florence, MS, professor, JCTC.

Sand volleyball teams from around Kentuckiana are invited to the seventh annual Spike it to Cancer sand volleyball tournament on Saturday, Aug. 10, at Baxter Jack’s Volleyball Cub, 427 Baxter Ave. The tournament will raise funds to support patients at the University of Louisville James Graham Brown Cancer Center through the Mary Jane Gift Quality of Life Fund.

Established in 2013 by Alex and Tommy Gift in honor of their late mother, who passed away from breast cancer in 2010, the Gift Fund helps patients and their families enjoy life while facing a cancer diagnosis. For the past several years, the fund has provided Thanksgiving turkeys for patients at the UofL Brown Cancer Center.

To continue the tradition, the Gifts and former volleyball player Paige Sutton are sponsoring the tournament. Coed Quad Open Division play starts at 9 a.m. (check in at 8:15 a.m.). The Coed Sixes Division will start at about 2 p.m. (check in at 1:30 p.m.). 

Team registration fees of $300 go directly to the fund. A cash prize of $3,000 to be divided among winning and runner up teams has been donated by The Power Agency. To register a team or make a donation, go to the event’s online link.

Ward 426 on Baxter Ave., directly across the street from Baxter Jack’s, has once again agreed to donate a portion of all food and beverage sales throughout the day to the Gift Fund.

“Mary Jane taught us countless lessons throughout the course of her life. Stay Positive. Be thankful. Step away from it all,” Alex Gift said. “The fund can help do this by providing simple gifts to patients that could help improve their quality of life, even if it’s for a short period of time.”

The event has brought in more than $45,000 over six years.

A new Kentucky Rare Disease Advisory Council will bring together the best minds in the Commonwealth to help raise awareness, secure funding and speed the development of treatments and medical protocols that lead to cures.

Gov. Matt Bevin today ceremonially signed a bill establishing the council which will help provide a focus to finding cures for the 7,000 known rare diseases that affect approximately 30 million men, women and children throughout the United States.

“The creation of the Rare Disease Advisory Council will provide an important mechanism to raise public awareness about rare diseases and develop centralized resources for patients, caregivers, and family members,” said Gov. Bevin. “The council will bring together medical professionals and experts from across the state to work on advancing research, diagnosis, and treatment efforts. Kudos to Sen. Raque Adams and the General Assembly for passing this legislation with overwhelming, bipartisan support.”

Gov. Bevin also presented a proclamation declaring August 2019 as Gastroparesis Awareness Month.

University of Louisville physicians and other health care providers were on hand for the ceremonial signing at the Novak Center for Children’s Health.

“We know all too well the challenges and hurdles that people with rare diseases face,” said Kim Boland, MD, interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Louisville School of Medicine. “The impact felt by patients and families who face these diseases is just as great as any resulting from more common maladies.”

A rare disease is defined as one that affects fewer than 200,000 people. Jennifer Dunegan is one of the few with the stomach condition gastroparesis. She and her husband Patrick created the support organization, Gastroparesis Support Services Inc. They also serve as ambassadors of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Patrick Dunegan will now take on the role of inaugural chair of the new council.

“It an honor to advocate for all of those with rare diseases. Following my wife’s gastroparesis diagnosis in 2014, we knew it was important to join with others who face similar difficult rare disease health journeys,” Patrick said.

As part of his work in the council, Patrick said he hopes to secure funding for genetic testing for earlier diagnosis of rare diseases.

This year, the Gold Foundation’s annual essay prompted students with a Maya Angelou quote: “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”

For one UofL medical student, this quote struck a particularly personal chord. 

“‘Home is wherever I’m with you,’ a patient wrote on a marker board to his daughter. He lay in a hospital bed thin and frail, with the sound of his ventilator whirring in the background, a wash cloth hanging in his mouth to soak up saliva, a fentanyl patch tucked behind his ear. Out of his entire body, he could only use his right hand. In a few hours he would be taken off his ventilator and placed on a morphine pump. His daughter held his hand with tears in her eyes. This is ALS.”

These are the opening words of the winning submission by April Butler, which chronicles her father’s battle with ALS – the disease commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s – from the outside in.

“I had this unique parallel in school about learning anatomy and how the body is supposed to work, and at home I was witnessing the manifestations of what happened when the body didn’t follow the rules we learned,” said Butler, who learned of her father’s diagnosis before starting medical school. “In medical school – especially the first two years – it can sometimes be hard to see in the thick of all the exams and the stress why we’re doing this. I was lucky enough to always have my ‘why’ on the forefront of my mind.”

It’s easy to understand why this perspective on medicine would be shared by the Gold Foundation, whose mission statement includes the evolution of healthcare through both compassion and “scientific excellence.” The Hope Babette Tang Humanism Contest (named for Hope Babette Tang-Goodwin, MD, who devoted her career to treating HIV-infected babies) is overseen by a panel of experts that includes various healthcare professionals, writers/journalists and educators.

There were 300 submissions this year. By winning first place, Butler’s essay will be published in two esteemed medical journals: Academic Medicine, in the October, November, and December issues, and Journal of Professional Nursing, in the September/October, November/December and January/February issues.

“A physician once told me, ‘you will not be able to cure or save every patient in your career. However, you do have the opportunity to heal every patient,’” she writes in The Healing Yellow Raincoat. “I did not truly understand what this meant until my experience with my dad. […] I am thankful for some of his final ‘words’ that I will carry with me throughout my medical career and life: ‘Because of the challenges I face, I am less than half the man I used to be on the outside, but more than twice the man on the inside.’”

Now in her fourth year of medical school, Butler will take this experience with her as she applies for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residencies this fall.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a common hereditary eye disorder that leads to the gradual deterioration of rod cells causing reduced peripheral vision and night vision. Subsequent loss of cone photoreceptors cause the loss of high-resolution daylight and color vision.

Ophthalmology researchers at the University of Louisville have discovered the loss of vision in RP is the result of a disruption in the flow of nourishing glucose to the rods and cones. This disruption leads to the starvation of the photoreceptors.

In research published today in Cell Reports, the researchers, led by Douglas C. Dean, Ph.D., and Wei Wang, M.D., Ph.D., of the UofL Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, described metabolic changes that result in the reduced availability of glucose in the cells.

As research provides a better understanding of the progression of RP, this knowledge may lead to therapies that could slow or stop this process before the rods and cones are destroyed. In addition to the relevance for RP, the researchers discovered the failure in glucose metabolism in RP is similar to changes seen in lung cancer and may be useful in developing therapeutic targets for both diseases.

“Interestingly, these metabolic changes appear similar to those we also are investigating in other studies into lung cancer in the laboratory,” Dean said. “Both lung cancer and neurons in the retina use glucose as a primary source for their metabolism. Attacking glucose utilization is a major strategy in fighting lung cancer. This unexpected connection in retinal and lung cancer metabolism has led us to link these seemingly unrelated systems to search for common drugs that target both lung cancer and retinal degeneration.”

RP is an inherited disease in which the photoreceptor cells in the retina – rods and cones – deteriorate over time. Photoreceptors absorb and convert light into electrical signals, which are sent through the optic nerve to the brain. Rods, located in the outer regions of the retina, allow peripheral and low-light vision. Cones, located mostly in the central part of the retina, allow perception of color and visual detail.

In RP, rods deteriorate first, causing the peripheral and low light vision loss typically associated with the disease. In later stages, the cones also deteriorate. Without cone function, RP patients lose the high-resolution daylight vision necessary for reading, facial recognition and driving. As a result, this stage of RP vision loss is more debilitating than the loss of nighttime or peripheral vision. RP affects 1 in 4,000 people globally.

This research is supported by grants from the National Eye Institute, BrightFocus Foundation and Research to Prevent Blindness.