MUSC wins two Pfizer Visiting Professor Awards for 2009

MUSC wins two Pfizer Visiting Professor Awards for 2009

During the final week of April, two teams of MUSC researchers received good news from the Pfizer Medical & Academic Partnerships Program. Pediatric Cardiology/Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Rheumatology both won the opportunity to host Pfizer Visiting Professors in their respective fields. Visits may take place any time between June 2008 and June 2009.

Led by Philip Saul, MD in the Department of Pediatrics and T-Y Hsia, MD in the Department of Surgery, the Pediatric Heart Team will host Marc R. de Leval, MD, FRCS as ACCF/Pfizer Visiting Professor in Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine in May 2009. Dr. de Leval is a pre-eminent cardiothoracic surgeon at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, England. In addition to devoting his life to the care of children with congenital heart diseases, Prof. de Leval has trained hundreds of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons throughout the world. He is credited with introducing the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt as the primary tool in the palliation of cyanotic congenital defects, and his modifications of the Fontan operation are the standard of care today. In addition, Dr. de Leval is the standard bearer in the field of preventive cardiovascular medicine relating to human factors and systemic performance in error correction and patient safety. Using the complex high-performance arena of pediatric cardiac care as a model, his work has been extrapolated to many other areas of healthcare. Prof. de Leval’s considerable contributions are substantiated by more than 300 manuscripts, lectures, and books. This is the third such award for the Pediatric Heart Team and the fifth in cardiovascular medicine for MUSC since 1995.

The Division of Rheumatology and Immunology in the Department of Medicine will host Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, MD, DrPH, as a Pfizer Visiting Professor in Rheumatology. A Professor of Medicine at Northwestern Medical School in Chicago, Dr. Ramsey-Goldman is a highly successful clinical investigator, talented lecturer, noted educator, and international expert in lupus research. With an overarching goal of improving the quality of life for lupus patients through epidemiological, pregnancy, and drug studies, Dr. Ramsey-Goldman’s specific interests include the effects of lupus on pregnancy, the correlation between bone disease and immunosuppression, the epidemiology of lupus, vascular disease and lupus, and a range of clinical trials related to the treatment of lupus. Dr. Ramsey-Goldman is also recognized as an outstanding educator and currently serves as Chair of the American College of Rheumatology’s Committee on Education. She has an outstanding track record in mentoring young investigators and inspiring new trainees to pursue academic medicine. Dr. Richard Silver and Gary Gilkeson collaborated with a multidisciplinary team of basic, translational and clinical researchers in developing the proposal to invite Dr. Ramsey-Goldman. This is the fifth Pfizer Visiting Professorship in Rheumatology awarded to MUSC since 1995.

All told, the Pfizer Medical & Academic Partnerships Program currently offers Visiting Professorships in 11 fields (see http://www.promisingminds.com/AwardDetails.aspx?AwardID=2083. MUSC is grateful to Pfizer for sponsoring these important opportunities for research advancement and collaboration, and honored to host two distinguished visitors in the coming year with support from these prestigious awards.