On Sept. 30, President John A. Fry hosted the dedication ceremony of the Raymond G. Perelman Plaza. Fry thanked Perelman for his $5 million donation towards the plaza’s construction and envisioned a future in which the plaza serves as the hub of Drexel’s campus life.
Perelman Plaza is the latest in a series of projects to have emerged from Drexel’s 2012 Campus Master Plan. The administration redesigned the space between Disque Hall and the Main Building because the previous configuration, titled the 32nd Street Pedestrian Mall by its architect, could not accommodate the increasing foot traffic on campus. Fry elaborated on how the Perelman Plaza design facilitates pedestrian travel. “The pedestrian log jams that have been a part of this thoroughfare in every previous configuration … are all gone,” he said. By removing the grass quadrangles that once populated the walkway, the Perelman Plaza architects created a new space on campus that can accommodate a large outdoor event.
Photo Courtesy: Alison Liu
The architects also focused on developing the ecology of the area. By Thanksgiving, the completed plaza will feature 65 native plant and tree species across 24,000 square feet of green space. The green space coupled with the porous paving of the plaza will make up a rainwater management system that is expected to keep 700,000 gallons of storm water out of Philadelphia’s sewage system — with the old design, the University would be slated to pay $4329.96 in storm water fees per year for the mostly impervious area. James Cirelli, president of the Drexel Sierra Student Coalition, explained that large cities like Philadelphia suffer from issues related to storm water runoff, such as pollution of surrounding bodies of water. “The new design here at the Perelman Plaza is a great example of Drexel’s continued commitment to sustainability,” he said.
Of the plaza’s many features, Fry emphasized its potential to foster a spirit of community within the Drexel public. Fry took the audience back to the 1930s, when Drexel students had no better place to gather than a room above a bar. In response, the University’s administration intervened to provide students with a place of their own; the result was the formation of Drexel’s first Student Union. “The moral of this story,” Fry explained, “is that a community needs common space to grow and flourish.” The vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association, Kevin Murray, shared Fry’s vision of students and faculty developing a sense of community in the new plaza. “Perelman Plaza is the latest development on this campus that will inspire thought in our students, community on our campus and spirit in the Drexel name,” he said.
Students and faculty who attended the ceremony and the reception that followed had mixed opinions of the new plaza. Many questioned why the Drexel administration continued to rework the same space and disturb campus life with ongoing construction projects. Even though Fry dubbed the Perelman Plaza “the most important community space that Drexel has ever had,” several students and faculty stated their preference for The Quad.
Overall, however, most students and faculty members expressed their faith in the Drexel administration and hoped the disturbances would eventually prove worthwhile. “For any dynamic institution, change is always a part of the equation,” Janson Jacob, a senior in the accelerated undergraduate-medical degree program, said. “But whatever they’ve got to do to find the right formula, I support them,” he continued. Till then, the new plaza will be the latest construction project in a long line of others over the coming years.
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Geekadelphia hosted the fourth annual Geek Awards at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Aug. 16. The sold-out awards show celebrated the Philadelphia geek community and its contributions toward building a better and more united city.
Drexel was featured in two of the 13 awards categories. Freshman engineering students were nominated for the “story of the year” category for their attempt to break a Guinness World Record to construct the largest Rube Goldberg machine back in April.
Fashion design professor and Director of the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Laboratory Genevieve Dion and Academy of Natural Sciences paleontologist Ted Daeschler were both nominated for “scientist of the year.” Daeschler was nominated for discovering a transitional fossil in the evolution of fish into land-dwelling tetrapods in January and Dion for her work in creating “wearable technology” in May.
The freshman Guinness World Record attempt ultimately fell to the story of Paine’s Park, a skate park that was established after 11 years of planning, a Kickstarter campaign and much community support. Daeschler’s discovery fell to Dion’s innovation, as she walked away with the lightning bolt trophy.
Dion has explored textile creation using digital fabrication and computerized knitting machines that may result in garments that could store energy or monitor vital signs in the wearer — perhaps even fetal movements in pregnant wearers. In her acceptance speech Dion said, “To bring design that can inform science, that is near and dear to my heart.”
The Geek Awards also included predictably geeky award categories, such as “comic creator of the year,” “web project of the year” and, of course, “geek of the year.” Nevertheless, the overarching theme of the awards was not celebrating all things geeky, but recognizing the geek community’s efforts to improve their surroundings. Whitney Nelson, the girlfriend of one of the event’s producers, explained, “It’s not about being geeky; it’s about being passionate.”
Kid Hazo was one such individual recognized for his passion to change Philadelphia for the better. His satirical street art designed to elicit smiles from Philadelphians earned him a nomination for “visual artist of the year.” One of his more notable projects was a whimsically oversized replica of a parking ticket that he placed on the windshield of a Philadelphia Parking Authority car.
Other nominees took a different approach in their mission to better Philadelphia. Benjamin Volta, who actually won the “visual artist of the year” category, used art to introduce Philadelphia students to science. In creating the mural “We Are All Neurons,” Volta’s students explored brain mapping and learned that people are all connected to each other through the past.
The winners of the “event of the year” also explored the past in their Funeral for a Home project, which celebrated the storied past of a house marked for demolition. Germantown, Philadelphia resident Molly Hayward, on the other hand, decided to make a difference abroad. Her business, Cora, which won “startup of the year,” offers a monthly subscription service of feminine products, and for every subscriber they also ship a month’s worth of products to girls in developing countries.
From start to finish, the event was studded with eccentricities and attractions to entertain guests. Upon arrival, for example, guests walked the red carpet to the jaunty music of an accordion player. Once inside, guests could explore the entire museum, including the Butterfly Room, Dinosaur Hall and various animal dioramas. The Academy staff members wound their way through the crowd, showing off animals such as a live python and an African pygmy hedgehog.
While snacking on the light vegetarian cuisine provided, guests could pose for pictures with the photo booth or try the Academy’s various interactive exhibits. Finally, the night concluded with an after party at North Bowl, where guests could socialize and enjoy the bowling alley’s famous tater tots.
More intriguing than the featured attractions were the guests themselves. The awards show was a black tie affair, so many guests dutifully showed up wearing suits, tuxedos or gowns. Others accented their outfits with plumes of feathers or LED lights in the styles of geek chic. One person even wore a squid dress, akin to Bjork’s swan dress at the 73rd Academy Awards.
Most guests were self-proclaimed geeks, but they came from diverse professional backgrounds. Amid the software engineers and web developers present, there was also a burlesque dancer, a taxidermist and a science fiction writer. Tracy Levesque of the web design and development company YIKES Inc. appreciated the opportunity to socialize and network with the diverse milieu at the Geek Awards. “I think it brings everyone together in a really fun and fancy way,” she said.
E.C. Myers is a young adult science fiction writer who also enjoyed the connectivity fostered by the Geek Awards. “I think it’s really great that Philadelphia has such a vibrant community that uses their skills to have an impact on other people’s lives, whether it’s for entertainment or something more meaningful like social change,” he said.
While Geekadelphia recognizes how people’s innovations impact Philadelphia, it also acknowledges the city’s impact on the geek community. Eric Smith, cofounder of Geekadelphia, wrote in his recap of the Geek Awards, “Thanks again Philadelphia. You make this a great city to be a geek in.”
Valerie Weber will join the Drexel University College of Medicine as the new vice dean of education beginning Oct. 1. Weber currently chairs the Department of Clinical Sciences at The Commonwealth Medical College, where she also serves as the associate dean for clinical affairs and as a professor of medicine.
Weber began her career in medical education through her work at TCMC. Prior to joining TCMC, she had growing concerns about the aging physician workforce and its implications for the future of the medical practice. When she was offered a position as the founding chair of clinical sciences at TCMC, she leapt at the opportunity to effect positive change on the medical field through education. Under Weber’s guidance, TCMC recently received full accreditation from the Liaison Committee for Medical Education.
Following her success at TCMC, Weber gladly accepted the opportunity to join DUCoM as the vice dean of education. “It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made,” she said.
One of the reasons Weber decided to join DUCoM is its complex and distinguished heritage. DUCoM emerged from the union of The Medical College of Pennsylvania with Hahnemann Medical College. Weber admires how DUCoM blended the influences of both medical schools and emerged with its own, distinct brand.
“I’m very glad, proud and honored to be taking part in that tradition,” Weber said. She also added that she looks forward to returning to Philadelphia, where she established roots as a medical student and a young physician.
Weber hopes to guide DUCoM into the next chapter of medical education. The medical field and the healthcare system have evolved rapidly in the past few decades, but medical education across the nation has been slow to change.
“Right now, there is a bit of a disconnect with what society needs from doctors, the skills doctors need to be most effective … and how doctors are being trained,” Weber explained.
She plans to use her past experiences of new program development, strategic planning and quality improvement to adapt the DUCoM curriculum in a way that best prepares students for the new demands of the medical field.
When she begins her term, Weber first plans to get acquainted with the students, faculty and leadership. She hopes to then engage the medical school community in a strategic planning process designed to determine the ideal DUCoM graduate. With this model in mind, she will then work with the medical school staff to ensure that the curriculum equips students with the skills they need.
“There are many talented educators at DUCoM and I am looking forward to working with them to create some truly innovative medical education programs which can become national models of excellence,” she explained.
Weber’s appointment tops off a long list of achievements in her medical career. After graduating summa cum laude from Washington & Jefferson College, she attended the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to complete her residency at the Graduate Hospital as chief resident and also earned her Master of Sciences in health care management from the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Weber has applied her extensive medical training in her position as vice chair of the division of medicine at the Geisinger Health System and as the department director of general internal medicine and geriatrics. In her 10 years at Geisinger, she also maintained her position as a clinical associate professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine, clinical assistant professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine and as adjunct clinical assistant professor of medicine at her alma mater, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
“It is not easy to be a pioneer — but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.”
— Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States
The Photograph that Started It All
Every now and again, something from a remote corner of the Internet emerges from obscurity and commands a global audience. Such was the case when blogger Jaipreet Virdi-Dhesi posted a photograph of three graduates from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, and the photo went viral within the medical community.
“It was a lucky find,” Virdi-Dhesi said of the iconic portrait. She had been researching her thesis on medical experiences of the deaf community in the late 19th century, when she chanced upon the photograph in the Legacy Center, Archives and Special Collections of the Drexel University College of Medicine. The image piqued her interest, so she shared it on her blog about the history of medicine. Although the photograph had made its rounds through the Internet before, Virdi-Dhesi’s post sparked a renewed interest in the story behind the three graduates.
There’s something powerful about the photograph, a certain “je ne sais quoi” that captivated millions of viewers around the world.
Underneath the yellowed countenance of the photograph, the three elaborate gowns — each representative of a distinct Asian heritage — suggest a perplexing scenario; given the apparent age of the photo, what could produce this rare confluence of cultures? A closer look at the photograph reveals that each of the women in the portrait wears an expression as distinct as her gown. Overshadowed by the mystifying garments and stares, the unassuming caption almost seems like an afterthought, and yet it’s the caption that confesses the true significance of the image.
Dr. Anandabai Joshee, Seranysore, India
Dr. Kei Okami, Tokio, Japan
Dr. Tabat M. Islambooly, Damascus, Syria
The women in the portrait braved incredible physical and societal adversity to study at the Woman’s Medical College and pioneer Western medicine for their countries.
Meet the Graduates
Tabat Islambouli is the most mysterious of the three graduates. She was known to wear her dark, silk kaftans while attending the Woman’s Medical College, and after graduation she returned home to Syria as the first female physician in her nation, but the rest of her life went mostly undocumented. Besides these meager details, little is known about Islambouli.
Keiko Okami’s life, on the other hand, is slightly more well known. She was the second female physician in Japan, but historians say that she was probably the first to have studied overseas. Following her graduation, she returned to her home in Japan and became the head of the gynecology department at Jikei Hospital in Tokyo. Though her appointment was a milestone for Japanese women, she resigned after Japanese Emperor Meiji visited her hospital and refused to receive her because she was a woman.
She went on to start her own private practice and opened the Eisei-En sanitarium to care for patients suffering from tuberculosis. Unfortunately, the sanitarium closed down from lack of funds and patients. Okami eventually gave up practicing medicine in deference to her husband, who did not approve of the profession. Nevertheless, Okami led a long, happily married life and was a stewardess in the medical profession.
Though Okami and Islambouli were both remarkable in their own light, Anandibai Joshi has always been the most iconic of the three graduates. Her epic life of triumph and tragedy inspired biographies, a novel, and even a play. With these resources and the letters she left behind, we can get a glimpse of her experiences as a woman in medicine.
Joshi started life in the highest echelons of Hindu society. As a member of the Brahmin caste, she enjoyed great social privilege. As a girl, however, she could not exercise the right to choose her own fate. At only nine years old, she was married off to a man 20 years her senior. The match was both unfortunate and fortunate. Gopalrao Joshi, Anandibai’s new husband, simultaneously exhibited the domineering attitude of the surrounding patriarchal society and progressive ideologies that were far ahead of his time. While other husbands beat their wives for not cooking, for example, Gopalrao beat his young wife for not focusing on her studies. He was keenly interested in her education and wanted to see her go to medical school.
As for Joshi, she had her own reasons for wanting to attend medical school. At the age of 14, she gave birth to a son. Within 10 days, her son died, leaving behind a bereft young mother. Most women were cut off from proper healthcare in those days because they were more afraid of seeing a male physician and breaking modest social customs than they were of dying. Joshi sought to fulfill this urgent need in her community and aspired to become a physician. In applying to the Woman’s Medical College, she wrote:
“[The] determination which has brought me to your country against the combined opposition of my friends and caste ought to go a long way towards helping me carry out the purpose for which I came, i.e. is to render to my poor suffering country women the true medical aid they so sadly stand in need of and which they would rather die than accept at the hands of a male physician. The voice of humanity is with me and I must not fail. My soul is moved to help the many who cannot help themselves.”
Attending medical school would take more than an earnest appeal to the dean of the Woman’s Medical College. Joshi and her husband could not pay the tuition fee themselves so they sought help from American missionaries. The missionaries agreed to pay her school fees but on the condition that she convert to Christianity. Although not an immensely spiritual woman, Joshi held fast to her Hindu religion and rejected the offer.
She found a sponsor instead in Theodicia Carpenter. In a rare meeting of worlds, the wealthy New Jersey woman and the ambitious Indian girl developed a relationship so affectionate that Joshi often called Carpenter her “dear aunt.” As Joshi prepared for the treacherous journey to America, she wrote to Carpenter.
“You have reason to think that this very distant voyage will be hazardous for a girl of 18 because the world is full of frauds and dangers, but dear Aunt, wherever I cast my glance, I see nothing but a straight and smooth way. I fear no miseries. I shrink not at the recollection of dangers, nor do I fear them.”
To fully appreciate Joshi’s courage, one must understand what she sacrificed to pursue a medical degree. Brahmin custom at the time prohibited travel across the ocean and eating food prepared by people of a different caste. Therefore, in order to travel to and live in America, Joshi would have to break with the rigid religious and social system that defined her upbringing. Defying cultural expectations in a society so rigidly bound by its traditions meant that she faced rejection from her community, friends and family. Gopalrao was the only person from her home that would accept her, but she had to move away from him and across the world. In abandoning her home and her customs, Joshi placed all her hopes and dreams on an American education.
America had just emerged from the Civil War and was still divided by racial tensions. When the Irish and Italians were treated as second-class citizens, this Indian woman with a thick accent faced the prospect of even greater discrimination. Despite the difficulties of her circumstances, Joshi made the journey to America with the following resolve:
“Though I cannot teach courage, I must not learn cowardice, nor at least leave undone what I so long since determined to do. I am not discouraged.”
— Anandibai Joshi
Joshi’s bravery and determination attracted attention from the moment she stepped foot in America. Reporters gathered for her arrival so that they could see the exotic “Hindoo” woman who would be the first foreign student at the Woman’s Medical College. Her stardom only increased as she worked toward her medical degree. When Joshi graduated as a physician, Queen Victoria, the Empress of India, sent a letter to the Woman’s Medical College expressing her interest in the accomplishment of her young subject.
Just as Joshi’s life had taken a turn for the better, she fell ill with tuberculosis. Her illness rapidly consumed her; the woman who had once crossed oceans spent her last moments unable to leave her house. It is said that Joshi was bright and cheerful to the end. When she finally succumbed to the tuberculosis, her words were, “I have done all that I could.” The young doctor died at the age of 21, without ever practicing medicine.
Though Joshi’s promising life was cut short, her legend lives on. In addition to the researchers looking to learn more about this brave soul, Indian men and women visit the Drexel archives just to see her files. “In some ways, it’s like a pilgrimage,” Drexel archivist Matt Herbison explained. “She did things that even men in India didn’t do at that time.”
A Time of Troubles
Joshi, Okami and Islambouli entered the Woman’s Medical College at a time of great crisis in the medical field. The traditional Western school of medical thought focused on literally removing a disease from the body. In order to relieve a fever, for example, a physician would employ bloodletting, using a flawed logic that fever resides in the blood and, therefore, a dosed loss of blood could remove the fever from the body. Similarly, purgatives and radical surgeries aimed to remove the source of the illness with little regard for the patient’s wellbeing following the procedure.
This misguided approach became known as “heroic” medicine for its severe and questionably effective techniques. The public sentiment turned on it in the 1800s because heroic medicine often did more harm than it did good. Moliere, the famous French playwright, even commented, “Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.”
While doctors struggled to preserve the traditional approach in an increasingly skeptical medical landscape, alternative ideologies cropped up and offered a more gentle, though often ineffective, approach to healing. Hydropathy, for example, rejected drugs and surgery and instead emphasized the healing power of water. Botanics, on the other hand, emphasized the use of plant-based remedies instead of pharmaceuticals. Homeopathy advocated a “like cures like” approach to medicine and gained popularity simply because, unlike mainstream medicine, its practices did not kill the patient. These sectarian approaches fragmented the medical industry such that the very definition of “medicine” was in question.
In the midst of this theoretical debate, medical practitioners were of dubious caliber. Physicians considered themselves superior to other professional classes, but the standards of medical education had been lowered over the years, and many physicians had poor medical training before entering the field. Others claimed to be doctors and “treated” patients without ever having received admission to a medical school, let alone graduating with a medical degree. The rising practice of quackery and sectarian medicine fractured the reputation of medicine so greatly that women like Okami, Islambouli and Joshi could slip through the cracks.
The Fall of Man, the Rise of Woman
Women had long been excluded from practicing medicine on the grounds that medicine was a “man’s job.” Many claimed that women couldn’t stomach the gruesome practices of medicine, such as amputating a limb while the patient was fully conscious. When the advent of anesthesia made medical practices more humane, opponents of women’s education claimed that higher education would compromise a woman’s domestic and reproductive capabilities. Some said that a woman would neglect her responsibility to her children and husband while studying for a medical degree, while others argued that a woman’s very physiology precluded her ability to survive the academic gauntlet of medical school.
Harvard professor E. H. Clarke used this biological angle to argue against co-education when he wrote, “In the education of our girls, the attempt to hide or overcome nature by training them as boys has almost extinguished them as girls. Let the fact be accepted that there is nothing to be ashamed of in a woman’s organization, and let her whole education and life be guided by the divine requirements of her [reproductive] system.”
He based his prescriptions on the idea that a woman’s body could not manage two processes — such as thought and the development of the ovaries — and one process would lose out to the other. The old guard of medicine also turned to economic arguments: they lamented that an industry already flooded with sectarians and quacks could not support an influx of female physicians as well.
Historian Regina Morantz highlighted the fear underlying all of these arguments when she wrote, “More subtle and more insidious was the fear that the influx of women would alter the image of the profession, by feminizing it in unacceptable ways.” Most physicians were reluctant to surrender the masculine reputation they had earned through centuries of hacking limbs and bleeding patients.
Paradoxically, the same Victorian sensibilities that kept women in the domestic sphere also propelled a daring few into medicine. The cultural expectations demanded that women hold delicacy and modesty paramount. Visiting a male physician for feminine issues, therefore, threatened this exaggerated idea of womanhood, so most women, as articulated by Joshi, deferred medical treatment until it was too late. The famous 19th century obstetrics professor Charles Meigs commented.
“I confess I am proud to say that…there are women who prefer to suffer the extremity of danger and pain rather than waive those scruples of delicacy which prevent their maladies from being fully explored. I say it is an evidence of the dominion of a fine morality in our society.”
Despite his personal convictions, even Meigs admitted that women could not maintain their Victorian delicacy and health at the same time.
The medical field needed female physicians to treat female patients.
Though there was an emergent need for female physicians, the existing medical schools provided no means to educate aspiring female physicians. A few enterprising women, including the tenacious Elizabeth Blackwell, managed to earn admission into medical colleges, but they did so through loopholes and under great duress. Blackwell, for example, was admitted to Geneva Medical College after the all-male student body jokingly voted for her admission. Most schools were quick to avoid the same error. For example, Emily Blackwell, Elizabeth’s sister, was denied readmission after successfully completing her first year at Rush Medical School.
Those who managed to survive the admissions and readmissions process faced ridicule from their peers and faculty, and rejection from their families and friends.
The world’s first medical college for women arose unsurprisingly in Philadelphia, otherwise known as “Quaker City.” Philadelphia had long been home to the Quakers, whose progressive ideas were far ahead of their time. “At this time in history,” Herbison explained, “if you saw anything progressive going on, there was a pretty good chance that the Quakers were behind it.” Indeed, the Quakers fought for abolition, temperance and a woman’s right to education.
Establishing the Woman’s Medical College proved to be a difficult task, since few would fund the enterprise and even fewer would teach women medicine. With limited means, the Woman’s Medical College put out its first graduating class of eight students. As the years went on, however, the school matured into a bustling hub of diversity. Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead described the ambience, calling the old halls of the college “gay with foreign costumes.”
Aspiring female physicians from all over the world flocked to Philadelphia seeking the warm, accepting atmosphere of the Woman’s Medical College. At a time when racism and sexism were rampant, the Woman’s Medical College trained the first female African American, Omaha Native American, Indian and Syrian female physicians.
As women started practicing medicine, the all-male schools capitulated. One by one, the medical schools across the nation and across the world opened their doors to female students. The Woman’s Medical College eventually went co-ed and became the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1970.
A few decades later, MCP joined forces with Hahnemann University, making MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine the largest private medical school in the country. Five years after the merger, however, the parent corporation of MCP Hahnemann declared bankruptcy. As the medical college and its associated hospital had become an integral part of the surrounding community by that point, Drexel University decided to intervene to save the school and hospital from collapse.
Today, the Drexel University College of Medicine remembers its roots in the Woman’s College of Medicine. The dedicated staff at the Legacy Center work to preserve the history of the medical school, its graduates and its founding ideologies. The traditions of the Woman’s Medical College live on through programs such as the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship program, which helps prepare women in medicine for a medical administrative position.
All of this tracks back to the three graduates from Woman’s Medical College, our story’s three heroes. They overcame overwhelming odds. They faced discrimination not only for their ethnicity but also for their gender. They endured the perilous journey to America, the rigorous medical training and the condemnation of society to learn the medical skills their countrywomen so desperately needed. As the first of their kind to conquer these difficulties, the intrepid three paved the way for women at the time, today, and for the endless future.
Colophon
Photography and Images
Margaret Graham & The Legacy Center, Archives and Special Collections of the Drexel University College of Medicine
Content and Interviewed Sources
Dr. Virdi-Dhesi of the blog “From the Hands of Quacks”
Matt Herbison, Archivist at the Legacy Center, Archives and Special Collections of the Drexel University College of Medicine.
Dr. Scott Lind, chairman of surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine, has partnered with Operative Experience Inc. to change the face of surgical accreditation in the United States by introducing a competency-based assessment of surgical skills using the lifelike dummies created by OEI.
Currently, surgical residents need to pass both a written and oral exam in order to certify as surgeons. Similarly, surgeons looking to recertify need to take a written exam every few years. “Nowhere in there do you have to demonstrate that you can operate,” Lind said.
The lack of a hands-on skills assessment is exacerbated by a developing problem in surgery today. Surgeries are trending toward minimally invasive procedures that rely on small incisions and technology to reduce postoperative pain, scarring and recovery time.
While this method benefits the patient, it also means that residents have little experience with open surgery. When complications arise and the body cavity needs to be opened up further, residents must employ a skill set they have hardly practiced before.
That’s where OEI comes in. Dr. Robert Buckman, the founder of OEI, has spent the past decade developing models for surgical training. His mannequin-like creations preserve much of the anatomical and surgical intricacies of the body.
“Bob Buckman has created what I think are the best operative mannequins available for doing surgery,” Lind said.
The two hope to implement these models into surgical residency programs so that residents have a chance to practice procedures such as an open body surgery before operating on patients.
Photo Credit: Kristy Wegner
Patient simulations can also be used to train doctors in many other skill sets. For example, Lind worked to develop the first mixed-reality human interaction patient for intimate exams. These models consisted of a virtual patient that would respond to medical students while the students perform an exam on a mannequin.
In this way, students learned how to navigate through not only the technical aspects of procedures such as breast and pelvic exams but also the communication skills necessary to perform such sensitive procedures. Lind explained that patient interaction is a highly complicated skill set that needs to be developed through experience.
“It’s probably as complicated as any sophisticated robotic surgery; we just don’t realize that,” he said. By using patient simulations, medical students can practice their skills before they even step onto the hospital floor.
Lind said he hopes to incorporate these simulations into both the training and assessment of medical school students and residents. He envisions a surgical accreditation process that involves a series of competency tests in which surgical residents must demonstrate their ability to perform certain procedures on mannequins such as those made by OEI. Though initial changes may only occur locally, he said he hopes that competency-based assessment will become a national requirement in the validation of surgical skills.
The proposed changes have received mixed reviews so far. “It’s a fantastic if you’re trying to learn surgery, but I’m afraid it’ll be very expensive,” Brendan Ferraro, a junior biology major and pre-med student, said. Students worry that the costs of these patient simulations will result in higher tuition and fees.
While the long-term impact of incorporating surgical dummies in training and assessment remains to be seen, Lind and Buckman are steadily gathering evidence to prove the efficacy of their program. The two surgeons are honing their models in hopes that they can one day change the face of surgical accreditation for the better.
Vice President Joe Biden visited 30th Street Station Feb. 6 to debut Amtrak’s latest type of locomotive. While helping to unveil the new Cities Sprinters service, Biden stressed the importance of passenger rail in the infrastructure of the United States.
30th Street Station, which stands adjacent to a large tract of Drexel-owned property, and specifically the Amtrak services that use the station, have been touted as a key asset of Drexel’s University City campus.
Photo Credit: Ajon Brodie
“This asset, particularly our urban rail stations and their surrounding neighborhoods, has potential that extends well beyond expanded transportation infrastructure,” Drexel President John A. Fry wrote in a June 2013 post on the Drexel News Blog. “It can significantly affect long-term economic growth through commercial, residential and retail development.”
The Cities Sprinter trains, which will operate on the Northeast Corridor line, are bringing a number of technological updates to Amtrak’s train system. With 70 units planned, one of the widely praised changes is the use of energy efficient regenerative braking technology. Siemens, the international technology company building the new locomotives, projected that adaptive braking will save 3 billion kilowatt hours of energy, for savings of approximately $3 million. The new locomotives also incorporate a crash-energy management system designed to enhance safety, in accordance with the latest federal safety regulations.
Joseph Boardman, president and CEO of Amtrak, explained the need to replace the old fleet of trains: “We’re replacing stuff that’s had over four million miles on it and things that have been around for over 35 years,” he said.
In order to fund the new fleet, the U.S. Department of Transportation granted Amtrak a loan of over $560 million, the largest loan in the history of the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program.
Additionally, the congressionally mandated Buy America program required that the assembly of the trains be carried out by U.S. workers.
“There are manufacturing towns and cities all across America where a family has food on the table and a roof over their heads because a mother or father worked to put these trains together,” Anthony Foxx, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, said.
Biden praised this investment in U.S. citizens, but also called for further improvements to transportation systems in the country. In a controversial moment of his speech, he stated that the quality of infrastructure in the U.S. has plummeted. “If I took you blindfolded and took you into LaGuardia Airport in New York, you’d think ‘I must be in some Third World country,’” he said.
Biden did, however, express high hopes for the future of rail. “Amtrak and passenger rail provide an extremely vital service to the transportation net, and most Americans don’t know it,” he said.
Shravan Savant, a senior Bachelor of Science-Doctor of Medicine student, said, “We all stand to gain from [Obama’s] mission to upgrade our transportation infrastructure, which will put us on par with the advanced transit systems found around the globe.”
Biden went on to say that building more highways and airports is no longer the solution to the transportation problem. As an example, Biden cited the fact that 50 percent of the worst highway bottlenecks occur in the Northeast corridor and that New York and Philadelphia are responsible for over half of airlines’ flight delays.
In contrast, Amtrak has demonstrated that it can absorb the extra ridership, if more commuters were to switch to rail travel. He added that investing in railways would not only provide jobs, but also provide energy-efficient travel. “That’s all good for Amtrak, it’s all good for passengers, but it’s also good for America,” Biden said.
The event concluded after Biden left the podium. Although none of the speakers addressed Drexel specifically, some Drexel students were in attendance. Kevin Garvey, a sophomore engineering major, was impressed by Biden’s speech, saying, “I have never seen someone speak so passionately about something.”
The Drexel Office of Government and Community Relations encouraged students to attend the event in an email that was sent to students, faculty and staff Feb. 4. A limited number of tickets were available to students on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University, in collaboration with the Pentimenti Gallery, held an opening reception for “Raw to Refined: String, Tape, Sponges and Vinyl” Jan. 16. The exhibition features the works of four artists who used unconventional materials in the creation of their pieces.
“We decided to investigate materials that are not necessarily what you think of when you think of art,” Amber Lauletta, exhibition curator, said, starting off the evening with a short introduction to the exhibition and its theme.
Nami Yamamoto expanded on this theme in the “Artist Talk” segment of the evening. Her work, “Fog Catcher,” celebrates redwood trees and the fog catchers they inspired. Redwoods evolved to condense the water droplets suspended in fog on their needles. Similarly, fog catchers condense water vapor on their surfaces and have been used to collect drinking water in regions that receive little rain.
Yamamoto constructed two such fog catchers out of waxed linen and redwood timber, weaving a story into each. The first of the fog catchers depicts a character from ancient Japanese folklore. This mythical character is said to eat mist and is depicted in Yamamoto’s work with its natural counterpart, the redwood. The second fog catcher shows fog clouds on the ocean.
“This is the beginning of the fog,” Yamamoto said, gesturing to her first fog catcher, “and this is the end of the fog,” she said while gesturing to the second.
Derrick Valesquez, of the Pentimenti Gallery, explained his artistic approach to another unconventional material, marine vinyl. Valesquez first encountered vinyl in his previous job as a book binder. He realized that he could turn this material — often found as a seat cover on boats or diner booths — into a sculpture.
“I’m kind of exposing this side of the material that you’re not really supposed to see,” Valesquez said. His works consist of multiple strips of vinyl on top of a wooden base, creating a layered effect.
Like Valesquez, Mark Khaisman used experience from his past jobs to help create art from packing tape . Khaisman said he appreciates the humbleness and throwaway nature of his medium. Drawing upon his past as a stained glass designer, he designed lightboxes to illuminate his tribute to film noir.
“From stained glass I borrowed this idea of painting with light,” Khaisman said.
By carefully layering strips of packing tape, he formed the faces of Old Hollywood. One of his works, made specifically for this exhibition, is a 40-foot-tall mural of James Dean and Ursula Andress that consists entirely of packing tape.
He explained his interest in film noir, saying, “I grew up on the other side of the Iron Curtain and was always wondering what was behind it,” referencing his childhood under the Soviet regime in Ukraine.
“It’s interesting how he creates a three-dimension[al] effect using space and depth … especially because tape is so linear,” Libby Mulory, a sophomore graphic design major, said.
Margery Amdur concluded the talk by discussing her sculpture made from cosmetic sponges.
“They’re really kind of luxurious, but they’re also architectural,” Amdur said. After many experiments with sponges, she finally established a technique that she liked. Amdur first glues her sponges to a canvas and then stuffs the canvas in a way that gives her pieces a three-dimensional look.
“It’s an intersection of art and landscape coming together,” she said.
The final event of the evening was a dance performance by Leah Stein. Stein, a professor of dance at Drexel, collaborated with a local musician to celebrate Yamamoto’s work in a dance piece.
“Nami Yamamoto’s work has always been very inspirational to me,” Stein said to the audience before the routine. The dance consisted of a series of fluid movements around the fog catchers to the tune of a saxophone solo.
The public is invited back March 1 to watch a longer, 40-minute dance which will include Drexel students.
A reception followed the performance during which attendees were able to meet and speak with the artists.
Orlando “Dino” Pelliccia, director of the Pearlstein Gallery, was pleased with the way the opening was received.
“We’re proud of ourselves, proud of our gallery and proud of our artists,” Pelliccia said.
The exhibition came together when the Pearlstein Gallery decided it wanted to collaborate with the Pentimenti Gallery. After reviewing a number of artists they wanted to exhibit, they decided to choose artists based on the common theme of unconventional materials. Gallery assistant Marnie Lersch explained that the inspiration of the gallery is the Drexel community. “One of our major goals is to be a venue for discussion for students,” she said.
It seems that the students appreciated the opportunity. Po Lin, a sophomore graphic design major, came to the opening reception because he had seen Khaisman featured in an article on the website Reddit and wanted to see the artist and his work in person. “He’s definitely one of the coolest artists out there,” Lin said.
In addition to students, the opening reception was attended by Drexel faculty, the artists’ supporters and regular visitors of the Pearlstein Gallery.
The exhibit is free and open to the public Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
A workshop led by Khaisman and assistant professor Nicole Koltick from the Department of Architecture & Interior Design about using translucent tape will take place Feb. 12. Amdur is holding ongoing workshops every Wednesday in which students are invited to assist her in constructing and creating with cosmetic sponges.
Yamamoto is holding a filet lace-making workshop March 5. Refreshments will be provided for these events. To sign up for any of the events above, email gallery@drexel.edu .
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Drexel University will switch from annual billing to quarterly billing in fall 2014, President John A. Fry announced in an email to the student body Nov. 19.
The email explained the impact of the new system, which only applies to full-time undergraduate students. Amy Bosio, vice president for financial planning, described quarterly billing as a “pay-as-you-go” system in which students pay as they attend each quarter. The bill may vary from term to term, depending on how the term is spent. During class terms, students will pay both tuition and general university fees. Students on a co-op term, however, will pay only general university fees. Overall financial aid and the total cost of tuition will not be affected by the new system.
“We want to make sure that you pay no more tuition under this methodology than you would have under the old system,” Bosio said.
All students will receive a letter in December detailing their individualized financial plan under the new system. The letter is one in a series of measures taken to ensure the smooth transition from annual to quarterly billing. Staff members will also reach out to the student body through information sessions, online videos and one-to-one help sessions. Bosio explained that a number of departments are involved in the transition, including the Office of Information Resources and Technology, University Communications and Drexel Central.
“It’s a collaborative team across various functions in the University pulling resources together,” Bosio said.
Fry explained that the change from annual to quarterly billing is in direct response to student concerns. Annual billing is somewhat unique to Drexel, so parents with children at other colleges were confused by the Drexel system. Quarterly billing, on the other hand, is more in line with other universities and is expected to simplify the billing process. The new system is also expected to ease the process of changing majors by eliminating back billing. Parents and students also complained that annual billing requires payments for classes that students have not yet taken, as the bill must be paid at the start of each academic year. Bosio explained that quarterly billing counteracts this problem.
“The point is you will be paying for as many credits as you consume,” she said.
The student response to this upcoming change has been positive but also apprehensive.
“It seems like a pretty logical system overall, but with all the different types of schedules that exist at Drexel, I have my doubts that it’s going to be implemented smoothly,” junior biology major Ariel Fishbein said.
Bosio also anticipated that some difficulties would arise with the launch of the new system. One of the main problems, she said, will be students’ concern that their tuition or financial aid will be affected. She hopes that the measures taken to inform students of the change will assure students that tuition and financial aid will not be affected by the implementation of a quarterly billing system. Instead, financial aid will be distributed over all the terms in which students are enrolled.
“Just make sure you plan appropriately for that,” she cautioned.
Drexel’s Graduate Student Association hosted its first Creativity and Innovation Colloquium Nov. 14 at the Edmund D. Bossone Research Enterprise Center, featuring two lecturers who spoke on the role of creative ideas in research and development.
Ross Cagan began the session by speaking about his technique for fostering innovation. As a professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cagan has developed his own method of bringing out creativity in his students. By challenging his students to produce a high volume of ideas in a limited amount of time, he ensures that the students put forth all of their ideas, including the less conventional ones.
According to Cagan, professors play an essential role in maintaining an innovative environment. He especially emphasized the importance of embracing risk, likening the field of biology today to the field of computational science in the early 1980s. Researchers in the biological sciences are facing government caps on funding and need to consider the world beyond traditional academia, just as the computational scientists who gave birth to the era of Microsoft and Apple once did. Cagan encouraged students to embrace the risks of entrepreneurship, which could help the field of biology to grow in the future.
“Risk is a good thing. It pushes you to become creative,” he said.
Cagan summarized his point by providing an example of how he implemented these methods in his own research. Quoting Thomas Edison, Cagan explained that the heart of invention lies in finding an unmet need and then resolving that need. Cagan was able to do this in the field of medullary thyroid cancer by using fruit flies to produce a more predictive model for the effects of cancer therapeutics. Cagan’s second streak of innovation was his approach to finding a cure for cancer. Though research has mostly sought to understand the disease and then find a cure, Cagan wanted to do the opposite.
“If we understand cancer but don’t have a therapeutic, we lose. But if we have a therapeutic but don’t understand cancer, we win,” Cagan said.
In this approach, research focuses on finding a cure first rather than learning about the disease. Cagan applied this theory to his research and developed the current frontline treatment for medullary thyroid cancer, a drug called Vandetanib.
Mauricio Reginato of Drexel’s College of Medicine also spoke about cancer research. In keeping with the theme of innovation, he referenced author Jacob Bronowski.
“Ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer,” he quoted.
To exemplify this statement, he told the audience about his colleague, Mina Bissell, and the advances she made in cancer research. By asking “impertinent questions,” Bissell explored areas of cancer research that had been overlooked. The experiments that followed helped to show that tumor growth is affected by the microenvironment of cancer cells. They also helped to develop a method of culturing cells in an environment more representative of physiological conditions. Reginato went on to explain the work that his own lab has done to expand our understanding of cancer.
Following the speeches by both Cagan and Reginato, Aleister Saunders, associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, brought the two guest speakers together for a roundtable discussion. Audience members, who were mostly graduate students, had the opportunity to ask the speakers about collaboration in research, staying focused on a research topic and how to approach research as a first-year graduate student. Justin Mathew, president of the GSA, wrapped up the session after a few questions by presenting the speakers and Saunders, the moderator, with a small gift.
During the reception that followed, both students and faculty members expressed their appreciation of the colloquium’s topic and execution. Vivian Allahyari, a first-year doctoral student in biology, especially appreciated the speakers’ encouragement to think outside the box.
“It gets you out of the tunnel vision associated with a Ph.D.,” she said.
Teck-Kah Lim, associate vice provost for graduate studies, thought that the graduate students should take away the idea that research is not straightforward and that students should be aware of the dead ends they will encounter in research.
The Creativity and Innovation Colloquia series was created by the GSA to demonstrate to graduate students the different ways in which creativity and innovation feature in research. Alison Novak, a GSA executive board member and culture and communication doctoral student, explained her idea behind the colloquia’s conception.
“We want to start to showcase creativity and innovation,” Novak said.
The next event in the colloquia is scheduled for February.
Drexel trustees, faculty, students and partners gathered Nov. 1 to celebrate the ceremonial groundbreaking of the largest building project in Drexel history. The upcoming mixed-use development at 34th Street and Lancaster Avenue is a $170 million investment that will feature student housing, retail locations and a dining center.
James Tucker, senior vice president of Student Life and Administrative Services, began the ceremony by introducing notable attendees. Among these were representatives from the Hunter Roberts Construction Group, the contractors responsible for the recent completion of Chestnut Square, as well as representatives from the architectural firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz, designer of the new development.
The new 24-story development is to be located at the site of the recently demolished Frederic O. Hess Engineering Research Laboratory. By fall 2015, the project managers expect that the 580,000-square-foot development will encompass 20,000 square feet of retail space, a new dining center that seats 400, and an additional 1,348 student housing beds. This project will be the largest in both Drexel and American Campus Communities history.
President John A. Fry took the podium to express his gratitude to the many people involved in the conception and realization of this project. He started by acknowledging Tucker and his role in conceptualizing and negotiating the details of the project with ACC, a Texas-based property management group that also manages Chestnut Square and University Crossings. Fry thanked the University Facilities team, the real estate team, and the Office of Government and Community Relations for their dedication and commitment to the project.
“We are accomplishing extraordinary things; we’re doing them at the highest level of quality and in record time,” Fry said.
Fry also explained his personal connection to the project, referencing his convocation speech from three years ago. As the newly selected president of the University, Fry had announced his vision for better relations with Drexel neighbors and for the revitalization of the Lancaster Avenue commercial corridor. The magnitude of these commitments and the resulting projects prompted Fry to partner with ACC.
ACC is also involved in transferring the land, sub-surface and air rights from University Crossings to Drexel — a donation with an approximate $12 million value.
“They have developed a relationship with us that I don’t think anyone could’ve foreseen in terms of its scale and its impact and its strategic importance to us,” Fry said of ACC.
In honor of the event, Fry presented Bill Bayless, the CEO of ACC, with a memorial plaque.
Bayless highlighted the longstanding partnership between ACC and Drexel. He especially emphasized the speed and the efficacy with which Drexel staff worked, mentioning that the groundbreaking ceremony occurred only 30 months after the two parties first met to discuss the project.
“We hope that what we put forth here isn’t just concrete and steel and glass but is a living legacy of the Drexel community,” Bayless said.
In addition to fostering the revitalization of Lancaster Avenue, this new development is intended to improve Drexel’s relationship with the surrounding community by consolidating students close to University property. The additional beds to be offered by new student housing are expected to draw students from the surrounding neighborhoods toward the center of campus.
Alan Greenberger, deputy mayor for economic development and executive director for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, spoke to the audience about his enthusiasm for the mixed-use development project and the impact it will have on the local economy.
“When the University grows, the city grows,” he said.
Mahmoud Shurbaji spoke for the students as the president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association. Shurbaji compared the past and present symbolism of Drexel architecture. Whereas the Drexel Shaft once stood for administrative letdowns, he stated that the new building will represent Drexel’s dedication to its students.
“This building will stand tall as a testament to the hard work of students, and that’s why we can indeed replace the idea of the Drexel Shaft,” he said.
The speeches were followed by a reception that offered food and Drexel paraphernalia to commemorate the event.
Though few students attended the groundbreaking ceremony, which occurred on a soggy day with morning rains, there seemed to be a common feeling of excitement for the new property among the undergraduate population.
Gregory Kunkel, a junior international area studies major, said, “I think that the project has the potential to be a great step forward for the University as it expands. … I’m excited to see how the next two years shape up.”
