Upstate’s prostate cancer team helped raise money for prostate cancer research at Upstate Medical University through a
Movember Mustache Challenge involving the Syracuse Crunch hockey team. The men grew facial hair throughout the month
of November, and fans voted by making online donations which totalled $4,467.58. Participating in the check presentation
at the hockey game are, from left, Upstate’s Gennady Bratslavsky, MD, Michael Lacombe, MD, Dmitriy Nikolovsky, MD, and
Srinivas Vourganti, MD. Joining them is Jim Sarosy of the Syracuse Crunch.
Here’s a roundup of news and information you’ll find about Upstate in the January issue of Physicians Practice magazine:
More long-time smokers may seek screening for lung cancer now that the federal Medicare program has indicated it will pay for the test.
Upstate’s lung cancer screening program began two years ago, with patients paying for the test out of pocket. The test consists of a low-dose computerized tomography scan designed to identify small tumors. Screening is designed for current or former heavy smokers who quit within the last 15 years, who are between 55 and 74 years old. Heavy smoking means a pack a day for 30 years, or two packs a day for 15 years.
A draft decision from Medicare in November said the annual screenings would be covered; the decision is expected to become final in February.
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One page from the January issue of Physicians Practice. Click on the page to read all of the content.
Spencer M. Wallace Jr., who has been living with Type 1 diabetes for an astounding 81 years, donated several diabetes-related items that he has collected over his years of care to Upstate’s Joslin Diabetes Center at a reception in November.
Wallace is the first recipient of the Joslin Diabetes Center’s 80-year medal. He is part of a study at Joslin that is aimed to understand why certain people who have had Type 1 diabetes for 50 years or more do not develop many of the serious complications associated with the disease.
The donation of diabetes-related books and devices will be displayed at the center.
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Upstate University Hospital nurse Shannon Tilbe received an American Red Cross “Real Hero” award in December. Tilbe is credited with helping to save a young woman’s life in May. She was driving home from a soccer match with her daughter when she stopped to help care for a woman whose motorcycle catapulted off the road and into a muddy, water-filled creek.
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Upstate received a 2014 Customer of the Year award from New York State Industries for the Disabled, Inc. The award recognizes Upstate for creating jobs for New Yorkers with disabilities through its partnership with NYSID and NYSID vendors that contract through New York’s Preferred Source Program.
During 2014, Upstate has employed 181 individuals with disabilities through NYSID member agencies.
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One of Upstate’s most influential couples, Carlyle “Jake” F. Jacobsen, PhD, and his wife, Ellen Townley Cook Jacobsen, MD, were honored for their work and support of Upstate Medical University with the dedication of Weiskotten Hall’s first floor lobby as the Carlyle and Ellen Cook Jacobsen Foyer.
Carlyle was Upstate’s first president, from 1957 to 1965, and oversaw the construction of University Hospital. He married Ellen in 1958. She was the first woman resident in internal medicine at Upstate and the first woman faculty member of the College of Medicine. Carlyle died in 1974. Ellen retired in 1990 and died in 2013 at the age of 94.
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A conference room was dedicated in October in the name of Nell Theresa Connor, who saved several of her coworkers from a deadly fire in Binghamton, at the Occupational Health Clinical Center of the Southern Tier. The center is affiliated with Upstate.
Thirty workers were killed in the 1913 fire at the Binghamton Clothing Company. Coming just two years after the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, the Binghamton fire aided in pressing New York officials to create the state’s Workers Compensation system and advance fire-fighting capabilities.
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Upstate’s College of Nursing used its largest contribution in history to create an endowed lectureship.
Fay Whitney, PhD, a national leader and advocate for advanced nursing practice, and her husband Roy, gave $50,000 to create The Whitney Lectureship Endowment for the College of Nursing.
The Nursing Alumni Association pledged the match the gift, which will enable the college to invite nationally recognized speakers to campus. “This will expose our students to important national trends that are essential to health care,” says Joyce Griffin-Sobol, PhD, dean of the college.
The bachelor’s and master’s degree programs recently were received a 10-year reaccreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education’s Board of Commissioners.
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Richard Aubry, MD, established the RMB Aubry Motherhood Fund shortly before he died in a car wreck in October. He retired from Upstate’s obstetrics and gynecology department after 50 years of aiding public health efforts to improve maternal and infant mortality rates in Central New York. Contributions to the fund can be made through the Upstate Foundation at 315-464-4416.
Aubry also left a legacy gift for the department to endow a professorship, so that his life’s work will carry on in perpetuity.
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The National Institutes of Health awarded four grants of $1 million or more to researchers at Upstate in 2014, including Sijun Zhu, MD, PhD, Christopher Turner, PhD, Timothy Damron, MD, and David Pruyne, PhD.
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A new publication for anyone touched by cancer is available for distribution in health and medical offices throughout Central New York. Cancer Care magazine is provided quarterly by the Upstate Cancer Center. Articles are designed to be educational and useful to patients.
Request copies by calling 315-464-4836 or emailing magazine@upstate.edu
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Here’s an electronic version of the January 2015 issue of Physicians Practice.
