Two medical research studies by resident physicians at Monmouth Medical Center received the top award in the 2014 Ellen M. Cosgrove, M.D., Housestaff Research Awards competition for advancing medical and surgical knowledge. The two studies received the Award for Overall Excellence, which was shared among orthopedic residents Adil Samad, Alexander Willis and Jigar Chauhan.

Photo Credit: Medical Center

Monmouth Medical Center, located in Long Branch, N.J., is one of the state’s largest teaching hospitals and an academic affiliate of the Drexel University College of Medicine. It has been recognized as a leader in surgical advancement and was the first to introduce robotic surgery and other medical techniques to the region.

Samad and Willis received the Award for Overall Excellence and the F&J Orthopaedic Award for their paper titled “Radiographic Fusion of Multi-Level Anterior Cervical Decompression and Fusion with PEEK Interbody Implants and Local Autograft.” The study was mentored and co-authored by spine surgeons Steve J. Paragioudakis and  Jason D. Cohen and radiologist Andrew Kwak.

The aim of the study was to assess how quickly multiple vertebrae in the neck fused together after undergoing a surgical procedure called “multi-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion”. ACDF is the removal of spinal discs located between the separate vertebrae in the neck and may be necessary for several reasons, one of which is a herniated disc.

The study looked at the rate of bony fusion in the neck vertebrae when several discs were removed and replaced, as opposed to one or two. The aim of the study was to disprove the assumption that as the number of operated discs increased, the rate of fusion decreased.

“We chose to work on this project because there is limited data demonstrating fusion rates in multilevel ACDF”, Willis wrote in an email. “Historically, evidence has shown that as the number of operated discs increased, the rate of fusion tends to decrease. Some articles suggest that to improve radiographic fusion rates, a multi-level ACDF should be combined with a posterior cervical procedure. However, posterior cervical surgery is associated with a high rate of complications such as infection. Our goal was to challenge this notion and demonstrate that the technique utilized at our institution would show high rates of fusion with multilevel ACDF.”

The unique technique utilized at Monmouth uses interbody devices made of polyetheretherketone packed with local autograft bone from the vertebrae, rather than the hip, which was the standard practice for a long time. Once a patient underwent the procedure, the patient’s follow-up X-rays were examined four to eight months after the surgery by a radiologist to determine if fusion had occurred.

The radiologist was unaware of which patients underwent the procedure and which didn’t, to avoid bias. The results of the study showed that multilevel ACDF is associated with a high level of fusion when used with PEEK interbody implants and local autograft and that the technique is safe and effective.

The Award for Overall Excellence was shared with pediatrics resident Jigar Chauhan at The Unterberg Children’s Hospital for his paper titled “Improvement in the Timing of Administration of Antibiotics to Neonates with Suspected Sepsis.” The study was mentored and co-authored by pediatrician Richard DeGroote.

The study looked at ways to reduce delay in the initiation of antibiotic treatment to newborn infants suspected of having sepsis, a potentially life-threatening medical condition associated with bacterial infection. Newborn children are highly susceptible to infection and the symptoms associated with the condition are often non-specific and subtle, which delays the identification and treatment of the illness.

The identification process involves obtaining a blood, urine, and spinal fluid sample, which can take up to 30 to 45 minutes under the best conditions. After the infection has been identified, the administration of antibiotic treatment can take up to four to five hours after the symptoms presented. The delay leads to high infant mortality and morbidity rates, and the study provided solutions that streamlined the process for administering antibiotics at Monmouth to newborn children suspected of having sepsis.

The Housestaff Research Awards competition is held annually to promote academic and clinical growth and to reward scholarly activity in 14 categories among 107 residents. The awards were presented to the residents June 5 at ceremony, during which the recipients gave a presentation about their studies to an audience of other award winners and attending physicians from all departments at Monmouth.

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Dean Donna De Carolis of Drexel University’s Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship has been honored with an endowed professorship of $2 million by alumnus Stanley W. Silverman and his wife, Jackie. De Carolis. Now The Silverman Family Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership, she is the 68th recipient of an endowed professorship since Drexel’s founding. De Carolis is also the sixth female professors to be named at Drexel. An endowed professorship is a very high recognition for a faculty member to receive.

The professorship allows a faculty position permanently funded by the revenue from an endowment fund specifically set up for that purpose. The professorship is awarded to a faculty member to enable them to develop new research ideas, create opportunities for global collaboration and make innovative advances in their field of study. Endowed professorships are crucial for attracting and retaining the brightest and highest-quality scholars. Building a strong base of talent enriches the academic environment and therefore also attracts the brightest students.

De Carolis was honored with the professorship by the Silverman family for her unique leadership style and ideas with respect to entrepreneurial education, her work as founding dean of the Close School, and  devotion to imparting entrepreneurial education to all students.

Silverman, who is vice chairman of the board of trustees at Drexel and the donor of the professorship endowment, had the opportunity to work closely with the dean and observe her leadership style and interactions with students. “Dr. De Carolis is a visionary with respect to entrepreneurial education,” Silverman wrote in an email. “She inspires her students to greatness and encourages them to pursue their dreams, as she pursues her dream of changing entrepreneurial education. She connects with and is very supportive of her students and takes a personal interest in what they want to achieve. She is an extraordinary leader, by creating an environment for her staff where they feel a sense of ownership in what they do, and she empowers them to do their jobs. She asks for advice and respects the views [of] everyone who are on the staff of the Close School.”

De Carolis confessed, “People would say to me, ‘You can’t teach people to be entrepreneurs.’ I used to say that’s true. … I don’t have a magic wand that can make a person an entrepreneur. However, now I say I think we can teach people to be entrepreneurs, and the magic wand is the Close School of Entrepreneurship.”

The Close School of Entrepreneurship is the first freestanding degree-granting school of entrepreneurship in the country and is itself a new venture that began in January 2013. As founding dean, De Carolis’ vision with the Close School was to establish a separate entity from the LeBow College of Business in order to make it accessible to all students, regardless of their major. The courses taught at the Close School focus on experiential learning and are mostly electives. Most courses do not require any or minimal prerequisites. De Carolis believes that the education, values, and approach taught in the Close School are invaluable qualities and skills every student must possess in order to become successful not only in entrepreneurship, but any professional career.

“The philosophy of the Close School is that there is a difference between an entrepreneur, the person and entrepreneurship, the process,” she explained. “Most business schools teach the process of entrepreneurship but the Close School teaches both.” De Carolis continued, “Companies are looking for innovative self-starters — people that will bring something to the company. … They are looking for a breadth of skills beyond finance, biology or marketing. They want somebody that can collaborate, build a team and lead an initiative. These are entrepreneurial skills, and what better experience can a student get than start something in college and learn how to take an idea and bring it to fruition? The experience involves everything from people skills to getting resources to planning and executing a strategy.”

Silverman, a highly successful entrepreneur himself, agreed with De Carolis’ philosophy. “We believe in entrepreneurial education for all students because it helps develop a mindset that is creative, innovative and pushes the boundaries of possibilities,” Silverman wrote. “This is a key to success, whether an individual starts his or her own firm, or works for an established firm. Entrepreneurial education also teaches an individual to take risks, and if it results in a failure, that individual can pick himself or herself up and try again. A great lesson of life.” De Carolis has done remarkable work in the short 18 months since the Close School was established. For example, one of the 40 courses taught at the Close School is an entrepreneurship class titled “Launch It!” that allows student entrepreneurs to launch their own ventures with the help of up to $2,000 in seed funding per idea.

“We provide students with funding to help ‘de-risk’ their business idea, which means to test if their idea is going to work before they start their company,” De Carolis said. “So let’s say you have a product and you think it’s great, how do you know people are going to want it? What are the things you have to do to test your assumptions? If you need to hire a web designer or need market research, a focus group, or need to travel somewhere, the funding is supposed to help you do that. It’s a new wave in entrepreneurship that’s disruptive. We don’t really do business models anymore; we de-risk the idea.”

De Carolis took the Close School and entrepreneurship education to the next level by collaborating with the Steinbright Career Development Center to establish an entrepreneurship co-op, in which students are paid $15,000 by Drexel over the course of one co-op to develop and expand their own companies. “It’s Drexel’s and Close’s way of encouraging entrepreneurship,” De Carolis said. “What better way than saying we’re supporting you? Instead of working for an existing company for a co-op, the Close School supports you with a salary of $15,000 while you work for your own company for six months. It’s a rigorous and competitive co-op that can be overwhelming because you really have to go out and build your own company. It isn’t for the faint of heart.”

De Carolis has also created the Entrepreneurship Living-Learning Community, which will host 20 incoming freshmen of different majors with the goal of providing students with the opportunity to explore and investigate entrepreneurship within the local community. The community offers the opportunity to go on field trips to other parts of the country to visit companies such as Apple, PayPal and eBay. She is currently working extensively with the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship, located on the third floor of Gerri C. LeBow Hall, to reinvent it and make it an effective incubator for new ventures by providing students with access to collaboration labs, conference rooms, projectors, dedicated office space and everything that comes with it — such as phones, desks and Internet access.

In addition to her extensive work at the Close School, De Carolis is an active member of the Alliance for Women Entrepreneurs, the Academy of Management, and the Strategic Management Society. She serves on the advisory board of several start-up companies and is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, a league that represents the Philadelphia region’s elite in business, education, religion, as well as the arts and culture. Her research has appeared in various journals, including the Strategic Management Journal, The Journal of Management, Journal of Business, and Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

De Carolis intends to use the endowment to improve and expand existing programs, such as the living-learning community in the Close School and to continue to encourage entrepreneurs. She also plans to create new programs with a focus on family businesses, social capital, collaboration, and women in entrepreneurship with the goal of encouraging more young women to develop leadership skills and pursue their dreams. A ceremony will be held in the fall of 2014 to officially honor De Carolis with the endowed professorship.

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Daniel Korschun, assistant professor of marketing in the LeBow College of Business, co-authored a study and subsequent article titled “Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Orientation, and Job Performance of Frontline Employees,” published in the May 2014 issue of the Journal of Marketing.

His study concluded that frontline employees who identify with the company as a result of its Corporate Social Responsibility — the practice of a company taking responsibility for its corporate actions and any detrimental effects they may have — are 87 percent more likely to be among its best performers and twice as likely to intend to remain employed at the company for more than a year.

While most research in the past studied the impact of CSR from the perspective of the company, this study is the first to analyze the effects of CSR from the perspective of individual employees.

The study examined the link between CSR and job performance in frontline employees by matching employee surveys with supervisor evaluations of job performance of 221 frontline employees at a Global 500 financial services firm. Frontline employees are defined as employees whose primary role involves interacting with customers such as salespeople, customer service representatives, account managers and other similar professions. They are often caught in the middle trying to meet the competing demands of their organization and the customers and as a result often feel disconnected from both the company they work for and the customers they are expected to serve.

Frontline employees are the essential means through which companies interact with their customers, so the extent to which they achieve their objectives can have a huge impact on the company’s revenue.

Korschun’s research showed that CSR can have a direct impact on the individual job performance of these employees for three main reasons. The first is that corporate level CSR promotion allows employees who share that value to better identify with the organization. The bond built on CSR is one in which the employer and employee are working toward a common goal that transcends the company itself and as a result motivates the employee to work harder to achieve the goal.

Secondly, Korschun found that an employee receives a boost in self-esteem by being affiliated with a company actively involved in CSR. The increase in self-esteem also increases organizational identification and positively affects an employee’s behavior toward a customer.

Finally, the most unique find of this study is that employees use CSR to build a relationship not only with their company but with their customers. If both the frontline employees and the customer share a common CSR value, it helps the employees build a relationship with the customer and motivates the employees to please the customer.

“An employee told me that, once that bond is created, then they want to move mountains for that customer. So [a CSR bond is] very motivating from their side, and it’s something we’ve never seen in any other research before,” Korschun said.

According to Korschun, that doesn’t mean that companies should push CSR values on their employees in hopes of increasing job performance. Arm-twisting techniques often backfire and lead to declined performance or even the loss of an employee. Instead, Korschun suggests that the most effective CSR techniques involve those in which the employee is personally involved and “free to act on their own terms.”

Korschun said, “We find that the more people are personally involved, the more effective [CSR] is, the more it translates to better performance. Even if you ask an employee to give a check to a general fund, that might be nice, but if the employee can choose where the money goes, that’s even better. The more people are involved, the more they get to decide how CSR is enacted and the more they get to decide, the more they can tailor it to their personal needs.”

Companies that are most effective at promoting CSR often have management communicating their values to their employees on a daily basis in meetings and through announcements. The more the company builds the CSR values into the overall company strategy, the more successful the company is at promoting CSR.

Some programs that are effective are matching programs in which the company matches the dollar amount donated by employees and also allowing the employees decide which charity or organization receives the money. Another activity that is effective is the implementation of joint volunteering programs, in which both the frontline employees and customers work alongside each other.

“What happens is the next day, you go to work and the customer or someone that looks similar shows up, and now the employee and customer have something in common to talk about and build a relationship on,” Korschun said.

This study adds to the evidence that companies can substantially benefit from CSR investment if the programs are promoted effectively and managed wisely.

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