Medical School

Two hundred and fifty young men and women walked into a Center City hotel conference room yesterday afternoon, a colorful array of suits and ties, slacks and dresses. They all walked out clothed in the same starched white coat. Amid a backdrop of hope and jitters, and basking in the loving gaze of family and friends, the first-year medical students at MCP/Hahnemann School of Medicine joined at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel in a White-Coat Ceremony, the symbolic beginning to their professional career.

Milagros Torres joined a chorus of parents advocating for alternatives to public schools in Camden after her 9-year-old daughter was attacked in March by bullies in a Thomas H. Dudley Elementary School bathroom. Moneke Ragsdale, however, says it was the Lanning Square School, a traditional, public elementary school, that made sure her son Eric Lee wouldn't fall behind. Lee, now 19, went on to graduate with honors from Camden High School, just finished his first year at Camden County College, and hopes to go on to medical school.

NORTH PHILADELPHIA has experienced an explosion of building activity that is changing the face of a section of the city once considered blighted and unsafe. Just last month, the Temple University School of Medicine welcomed its Class of 2013 into a striking new 13-story high-rise on Broad Street, between Tioga and Venango. And, soon, the city is expected to announce plans for a major transit, housing and community-revitalization project for Broad Street and Erie Avenue, just north of the new medical school building.

The two men followed starkly different paths to the witness stand. The 49-year-old was raised in the outer suburbs, graduated from medical school, got married, and had five children. The 23-year-old from Northeast Philadelphia was kicked out of two high schools, attempted suicide, and spent much of the last decade hooked on heroin and prescription drugs. But in tense and emotional testimony to a Common Pleas Court jury Wednesday, both former altar boys described a bond: Each said he was sexually abused by his parish priest, Edward Avery.

Nightmare, disaster, catastrophe, an unholy mess. We're running out of descriptions to match the desperate situation of the Allegheny health care system. Just when it seems it can't get worse, it gets worse. Now, with Drexel University's rejection of a plan to manage the Allegheny medical school, the deal to buy eight local hospitals could fail. Tenet Healthcare bid a fire-sale price of $345 million for the hospitals, which translates to only a few cents on the dollar for Allegheny's 80,000 creditors.

Every so often, Jayne Robertson and Kevin McGibney get to wondering whether there will be enough time for them to get it all done. "Let's see," McGibney was saying last week at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, 3300 Henry Ave., where he and Robertson are students. "We'll graduate in 1991, do four years' residency, and -. " "And all the while," Robertson said, interrupting, "the clock will be running on us. " Jayne Robertson and Kevin McGibney, see, are pretty special people at the medical school.

At a University of Pennsylvania cocktail party recently, business magnate Ray Perelman expounded on why he had bestowed $225 million on Penn's medical school - a gift that means the place now bears his name. David L. Cohen, the Comcast executive and chair of Penn's board of trustees, recalled listening intently as Perelman talked about the university's role in health care, civic life, and so on. Suddenly, Perelman paused. "If it wasn't for that man, I would never have made this gift," Perelman said, pointing over Cohen's shoulder at a slender fellow who had walked nearby.

Temple University has agreed to pay the U.S. government $412,474 to settles claims stemming from two fraud schemes by a hospital department chairman and a trio of plastic surgeons that netted more than $4.5 million. Dr. Joseph J. Kubacki, former Chairman of Temple's Ophthalmology Department, was convicted in August on 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of making false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Kubacki, also a professor at the medical school and an attending physician at Temple University Hospital, billed federal agencies more than $1.5 million claiming he had performed services at the hospital performed by residents when he wasn't there.

Surgeon John M. Daly, a graduate of Temple University's School of Medicine, was named the school's new dean yesterday. Daly has been chairman of the department of surgery at Weill Medical College at Cornell University in New York City and surgeon-in-chief at the New York Presbyterian Hospital at Cornell since 1993. His specialty is surgical oncology. Daly will take over Nov. 1 for Richard Kozera, the acting dean of the medical school since January, when former dean Leon Malmud stepped down to resume teaching.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has put a brake on plans to take over Camden County's Lakeland hospital as a teaching institution, thereby skirting an increasingly testy political feud over the facility. Dr. Frederick J. Humphrey, dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine, wrote to Camden County Freeholder Michael J. DiPiero last week that the university would be unable to offer an immediate proposal to affiliate with the county's embattled hospital, the Camden County Health Services Complex at Lakeland.

Milagros Torres joined a chorus of parents advocating for alternatives to public schools in Camden after her 9-year-old daughter was attacked in March by bullies in a Thomas H. Dudley Elementary School bathroom. Moneke Ragsdale, however, says it was the Lanning Square School, a traditional, public elementary school, that made sure her son Eric Lee wouldn't fall behind. Lee, now 19, went on to graduate with honors from Camden High School, just finished his first year at Camden County College, and hopes to go on to medical school.

Question: Father helped send two sons to law school, though they have student loan debt they'll be paying for decades. Father has much younger stepdaughter. The sons are not particularly close with father's "new" family. Stepdaughter plans to go to medical school. Sons suspect that financial support for her will be greater than they received. Should they insist the stepdaughter receive the same? Less? Don't sons have right to better treatment? Answer: Ugh, no. First of all, "sons suspect" is not the same thing as "sons know," so treating suspicions as actionable facts is a bad idea to begin with.

Here is an excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen. " No one can say I did not try. I spent an entire afternoon giving my children a lesson in what I would like for my Mother's Day meal. But did I get miso-marinated cod with mushroom risotto? Of course not. Since my oldest son was the only one able to make it home, my husband pitched in. And what did they make? Chicken fajitas. Well, I do love chicken fajitas. And Tim added his first blog post. Tim: My mom asked me to take over blogging duties for my sister who is heading to medical school in July (congratulations Sally!

Temple University has agreed to pay the U.S. government $412,474 to settles claims stemming from two fraud schemes by a hospital department chairman and a trio of plastic surgeons that netted more than $4.5 million. Dr. Joseph J. Kubacki, former Chairman of Temple's Ophthalmology Department, was convicted in August on 73 counts of health care fraud, 73 counts of making false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Kubacki, also a professor at the medical school and an attending physician at Temple University Hospital, billed federal agencies more than $1.5 million claiming he had performed services at the hospital performed by residents when he wasn't there.

The two men followed starkly different paths to the witness stand. The 49-year-old was raised in the outer suburbs, graduated from medical school, got married, and had five children. The 23-year-old from Northeast Philadelphia was kicked out of two high schools, attempted suicide, and spent much of the last decade hooked on heroin and prescription drugs. But in tense and emotional testimony to a Common Pleas Court jury Wednesday, both former altar boys described a bond: Each said he was sexually abused by his parish priest, Edward Avery.

The Inquirer is presenting a daily profile of participants in the May 6 Blue Cross Broad Street Run, considered the country's most popular 10-miler, with 40,000 people. See full coverage at www.philly.com/broadstreetrun . Kate Zalesky, 25, was never an athlete. She was the girl in high school who dreaded the annual day in gym when she had to run a timed mile. She was the kid running a 15-minute mile and dying by the end. She was the typical video-game and book nerd.

TRENTON - A dozen or so high-level Democrats and top university officials have been meeting privately in recent weeks to discuss ways of tweaking Gov. Christie's plan to restructure three New Jersey universities so it is more acceptable to opponents. The meetings involve well-known Democratic leaders and at least four members of the Rutgers Board of Governors, whose approval is needed to make the plan happen. Legislative sign-off is also likely necessary for at least parts of the plan, which Christie wants agreement on by July.

A Gloucester County doctor who shot and killed his former colleague at Virtua before committing suicide Wednesday apparently believed the victim was behind his alleged dismissal from the hospital's medical residency program. Authorities said Giocondo "Joe" Navek, 39, shot Payman Houshmandpour, 32, a resident at Virtua, multiple times at 7:30 a.m. as the victim prepared to leave for work from his home at The Club at Main Street in Voorhees. Houshmandpour had just said goodbye to his wife and their 20-month-old infant and was pulling his silver Audi out of a parking space when Navek approached him. Navek, a former Virtua resident, fired through Houshmandpour's car window and was driving away in a silver Nissan when police stopped him about a mile away on Centennial Boulevard, authorities said.

Perhaps best known for the two-wheeled vehicle called the Segway, Dean Kamen has also invented the wearable insulin pump, a home dialysis machine, a high-tech prosthetic arm, and a wheelchair that can climb stairs. He was in Philadelphia last week to foster support for FIRST, the national robotics competition for elementary and high school students, which has a regional contest Thursday through Saturday at Temple University's Liacouras Center. The finals are later this month in St. Louis.

In January 1957, Dr. John B. Flick Jr. cut out of the heart of a 9-year-old girl a bullet that had been lodged there for 17 days. "Doctors said every time her heart beat, the bullet pushed against the wall of the heart," the Evening Bulletin reported. "In time, they said, it would have worn a hole in the muscle. " Thanks to Dr. Flick, the spent bullet became a belated Christmas present for the girl. "He followed up on her a couple of years later, and she was doing fine," Dr. Flick's daughter, Louise, said in an interview.