in this issue...
After Hours
Be Well: For Your Healthl
Around BIDMC
In The News
BID-Lexington Celebration
Employee Service Awards
In Memoriam 
Calendar
Here Come the Holidays
Honors

Previous Issues


New BIDMC Web Site Enhances Service for Users

Building upon a tradition of leading-edge technology support for clinical practice, BIDMC recently introduced its redesigned external Web site for clinicians and lay audiences. The fully integrated Web site divides information about medical center services into separate sections for patients and health care professionals, making it easier for users to access what they need.

“Technology has enormous potential to help people find information, if it’s organized in the right format,” notes Chief Medical Information Officer John Halamka, M.D. “That’s why so many people at BIDMC worked so long and hard on this project.”

In addition to useful information for external audiences, the new Web site contains convenient features for staff. BIDMC departments can update their Web pages with approval from administrators or chiefs, ensuring that each department presents complete and timely information.

Other advantages include:

Clinicians can obtain an at-a-glance summary of the clinical, research and educational activities in specific departments at the medical center.

“Care Centers” organize related specialties in one location, helping patients quickly determine the most relevant sites to visit. Patients can also scan listings of upcoming support group meetings.

Improved search mechanisms help users instantly locate physician biographies and contact information.

News and research stories are available directly from the home page.

“A simple click provides an up-to-the-minute snapshot of the latest happenings at the medical center,” says Jaime Andrews, Web/marketing manager, communications. “The unified format and better navigational techniques help all Web users quickly find information about our services, and what’s going on at BIDMC.”

To view our new Web site, go to www.bidmc.harvard.edu.


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Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.

Produced by Beth Israel Deaconess communications, (66)7-7300

director, internal communications:
   Cindy Whitcome
managing editor:
   Valerie Hope Goldstein
print layout & design:
   Jen McGrath & Jane Hayward
web layout & design:
   Jim Dwyer & Lisa Jean Graf
contributing photographers:
   Oran Barber, Bruce Wahl



© BIDMC, Boston, MA, USA, 2003. All rights reserved. Material may be reproduced only with the express written consent of communications.














Research Day 2003
Showcases Vascular Biology

Research Day 2003, the annual autumn program highlighting the work of BIDMC’s more than 250 key researchers, celebrated its fifth anniversary on Oct. 10 with a packed house in Sherman Auditorium. Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Flier, M.D., opened the morning lecture sessions on an especially upbeat note by announcing that former medical center resident and 2001 Research Day presenter Roderick MacKinnon, M.D., had just been awarded the Nobel Prize (see below). The morning lecture sessions were followed by an equally crowded afternoon program in which 152 scientific abstracts and related posters were on display in Kennedy.

This year’s event focused on some of the promising vascular biology research being conducted at BIDMC. “The field of vascular biology encompasses a broad range of disciplines – from cardiology to nephrology, from molecular imaging to tissue engineering,” explains William Aird, M.D., molecular and vascular medicine, who together with Harold Dvorak, M.D., pathology, is leading BIDMC’s development of a Vascular Biology Center. “Vascular biology is the study of endothelial cells, which line the inside of the body’s blood vessels. As such, it will provide us with a multitude of opportunities to investigate the nature of disease at a basic cellular level, including treatments for cancers, as well as many other conditions.”

Following the opening plenary lecture by guest speaker Bradford Berk, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center, presentations were delivered by vascular biologists Aird; Raghu Kalluri, Ph.D., gastroenterology; Jack Lawler, Ph.D., pathology; Bruce Furie, M.D., hemostasis/thrombosis; Vikas Sukhatme, M.D., Ph.D., nephrology; Simon Robson, Ph.D., gastroenterology; J. Peter Oettgen, M.D., cardiology; and Laura Benjamin, Ph.D., experimental pathology. They discussed some of the investigations being conducted in BIDMC labs, including angiogenesis research.

- Bonnie Prescott



Former Resident Wins Nobel

Roderick MacKinnon, M.D., a former resident at BIDMC (then Beth Israel Hospital) and 2001 Research Day presenter, will be awarded this year’s Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. MacKinnon, who is now at New York’s Rockefeller University, worked in the laboratory of BIDMC’s James Morgan, M.D., Ph.D.

"The research enterprise at BIDMC has spawned many a valuable discovery and equally as many talented investigators," notes Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Flier, M.D. "The announcement of Dr. MacKinnon's award is a particularly nice endorsement of the medical center's research and training programs."