P I T T M E D

P U B L I S H E R

Arthur S. Levine, MD

E D I T O R I N C H I E F

Erica Lloyd

A R T D I R E C T O R

Elena Gialamas Cerri

S E N I O R E D I T O R

David R. Eltz

A S S O C I A T E E D I T O R

Dottie Horn

P R O D U C T I O N C O O R D I N A T O R

Chuck Dinsmore

S T A F F C O N T R I B U T O R S

Susanne Devore, Meghan Holohan,Edward Humes

O B I T U A R I E S C O N T R I B U T O R

Macy Levine, MD ’43

C H I E F E D I T O R I A L A D V I S O R

Steven L. Kanter, MD

E D I T O R I A L A D V I S O R S

Timothy Billiar, MD Steve N. Caritis, MD Cameron Carter, MD Jonathon Erlen, PhD

Ray Frizzell, PhD Michael Gorin, MD, PhD

Ronald B. Herberman, MD John S. Lazo, PhD

Margaret C. McDonald, PhD George Michalopoulos, MD, PhD

Ross Musgrave, MD ’43 Paul Paris, MD ’76

Charles F. Reynolds III, MD Ian Reynolds, PhD Peter Strick, PhD Ellen Wald, MD

Simon Watkins, PhD Mark Zeidel, MD

O F F I C E O F P U B L I C A F F A I R S

Robert Hill Mary Ann Aug, PhD

D E A N ’ S M E S S A G E

2 P I T T M E D

Pitt Med is published by the Office of the Deanand Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health

Sciences in cooperation with the alumni andpublic affairs offices. It is produced quarterly for

alumni, students, staff, faculty, and friends ofthe School of Medicine. PR 3191

The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmativeaction, equal opportunity institution.

Copyright 2001, University of Pittsburgh

Arthur S. Levine, MD

Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences

Dean, School of Medicine

As I write this, on September 11, 2001, I’ve just learned that nine MedEvac helicopters en route to the United

Flight 93 crash in Somerset County have turned around. The well-equipped Pitt emergency personnel on those copters had received word from Somerset’s local emergency services professionals: No survivors. There’s nothing you can do.

That thought numbs. “Doing nothing” is anti-thetical to the constitution of the professionals on those helicopters, just as it is antithetical to the American mind-set. What tomorrow will bring,we don’t know, except this: There will be many, many heroes. I expect that more Pitt peoplethan I could hope to trace have already found ways to lend their talents at this horrific time.

As we welcomed the Class of 2005 this August during our annual White Coat Ceremony, I reminded them that they are entering the medical profession during an unpredictable era,and that they will be counted on for their strength and creativity. A small consolation is thatthose challenges appear more manageable in light of what we will likely soon face together asa nation. Still, the climate could be defined by a series of paradoxes, which are both stark anddaunting: About 45 million people in the United States have no health insurance and verylimited access to health care. Most of these 45 million work full-time. Further, the cost ofhealth care continues to rise, largely explained by the cost of drugs, litigation, the nursingshortage, and the very costly focus of care on the end of life, rather than on care for infantsand children. And managed care, though it has devoted a needed emphasis to evidence-basedmedicine and to prevention, has turned out to be excessively bureaucratic and expensive. Theuniversity itself is fraught with paradox: Academic physicians have found less time for scholar-ship and teaching as solvency issues of academic medical centers demand that they increasetheir clinical productivity. Moreover, while the promise of biomedical research now is almostbeyond imagination, that promise stands to be compromised by the political process (both astrength and a weakness of our particular form of government). Finally, the need for physi-cian-scientists has never been greater, yet the ever-growing debt of our graduates decidedlydampens the appeal of a research career—or a career in primary care.

During this summer’s White Coat Ceremony, I also let our students in on a secret. Thoughthe white coat is a somewhat new tradition for physicians—dating back 120 years to whendoctors first embraced science and the uniform of the lab—taking part in a fecund scientificcommunity is not the MD’s greatest honor. The true privilege of donning that symbolic coat isbeing invited into another’s life, hourly and daily. Once invited to bear witness to our patients’stories, we are humbled to reflect on our own mortality and reconsider whether we are livinglives that are true to our own potential. That message has just been tragically reinforced as weare again reminded that the veneer of our civilization is thin indeed.

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