The time has come once again for us to come together as a center at our Annual Scientific Retreat in less than two weeks. Members, fellows, post-docs and trainees have the opportunity to enjoy each other's company, hear updates from leadership, discuss research findings across the spectrum from colleagues and participate in program-specific breakout sessions.

 

New this year, we have opened a portion of our retreat to the community with engaging TED-style talks from three prominent researcher leaders from each of our affiliated institutions. These talks will take place beginning at 5pm on Thursday in the ballroom at Tinkham Veale University Center. While I know you will enjoy each of these talks, I hope you will invite others to take the opportunity to hear from them as well.

Leadership 101

Deputy Director for Cleveland Clinic for the Case CCC, Brian Bolwell, MD will kick off Thursday's talks discussing leadership. As Chairman of the Taussig Cancer Institute, his leadership comes from more than just the roles he takes on, but in his commitment to personal development and sharing his experiences in retrospect so that each of us can excel in the research and/or patient care we steward. Bolwell oversees a staff of over 140 physicians, has authored hundreds of articles and abstracts concerning bone marrow transplantation, lymphoma and other hematologic malignancies, and has taken on several roles in editing, reviewing and writing as you'll often see his op-ed features in Oncology Times.

From Healing and Hospitals to Healthy at Home

Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM joined University Hospitals in October 2018 as Chief Clinical

Transformation Officer and is  Clinical Professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at CWRU. He is a world-renowned champion of patient safety, critical care physician, prolific researcher and thought leader, informing US and global health policy. Pronovost's scientific work leveraging checklists to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infections has saved thousands of lives and earned him high-profile accolades, including being named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, receiving a coveted MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2008 and regularly recognized as one of the most influential executives and physician executives in healthcare. The life-saving intervention has been implemented state by state across the US. Today, reducing catheter infections that used to kill as many people as breast or prostate cancer by 80 percent compared to 1999 before the "To Err is Human" report was published.

How Holographic Visualization Will Disrupt Our World

Professor of radiology and biomedical engineering, Mark Griswold, PhD is a member of our Cancer Imaging Program. Griswold received a Medal for Excellence in Health Science Innovation in 2014, chaired the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Annual Meeting Program in 2016 and his continued research in   magnetic resonance fingerprinting,  an innovative approach to imaging data, aims to allow quicker and more accurate detection of developing diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or heart trouble. He is frequently called upon as an expert in imaging and his knowledge of Microsoft's HoloLens mixed-reality glasses in use at CWRU to allow students to explore the human body in various health scenarios through life-size transparent holograms in a way that traditional cadavers don't allow.

Thursday's program is open to all and the full retreat agenda is available for those members, fellows, post-docs and trainees registered for the two-day event. We look forward to seeing you there!

The grant recipients are Distinguished University Professor and Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law, Max Mehlman, and Associate Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences, Ronald Conlon, MD, a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. more>