Spring 2003

   Dr. Richard Zaino Receives Distinguished Educator Award

Richard J. Zaino, M.D., Professor of Pathology, was chosen as a winner of the Distinguished Educator Award for 2002-2003.  Dr. Zaino was honored on May 19, 2003, at the First Annual Distinguished Educator Awards presented here at Penn State College of Medicine.  He was one of ten exemplary faculty members who were recognized for demonstrating exceptional scholarly work in medical and/or graduate education.  A Society of Master Educators will be formed to include these award winners.

   Dr. Loren Clarke Receives Resident Teaching Award

Loren Clarke, M.D., Resident 2, received the 2003 Arnold P. Gold Foundation's Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award.  The Class of 2004 chose six residents who have demonstrated exceptional teaching skills and are role models for compassionate, relationship-centered care.  He received this award at the Student Clinician Ceremony on June 19, 2003.

   HIPAA Training Sessions

ALL faculty and staff are required to attend HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) training before April 14, 2003! 

It is important to recognize what is termed “Identifiable Information” - health information that could be used alone or in combination with other information that might allow for identification of a patient’s protected health information. Remember to disclose these identifiers for treatment, payment and operational purposes only, and to keep documents containing any of these identifiers from public view. The list of identifiers is as follows:

• Name

• Address
• Zip code
• Dates – birth, admission, discharge, treatment
• Telephone Number
• Fax Number
• Email Address
• Health Plan Number
• Account Number
• Certificate/License Number
• Social Security Number
• Medical Record Number
• Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs)
• Medical Device Identifiers
• Vehicle Identifiers
• Internet Protocol (IP) Address
• Finger and Voice Prints
• Full Face Photos

   New to the Automated Testing Lab

BNP - B-type Natriuretic Peptide is used as an aid in the diagnosis and assessment of severity of congestive heart failure. It is also used for the risk stratification of patients with acute coronary syndromes. The test is run on a Triage Meter, which is a point of care device. The normal range is <100 pg/ml. It is expected that the main use will be in the E.D. when they have a patient that is in respiratory distress and they need to rule out congestive heart failure

HsCRP - High sensitive CRP (hsCRP) is the newest test for cardiac risk assessment. It is the same CRP or C-Reactive Protein that has been used for years as an indicator of inflammation. The new test detects CRP at very low levels. If there has been buildup of plaque in the arteries, there may be very low levels of inflammation. Normal CRP tests detect down to 2.0 mg/dl. The new hsCRP method detects down to levels of 0.05 mg/dl. A value of <0.07 is considered normal. Values between 0.07 and 0.17 are considered moderate cardiac risk. This test has had lots of press lately and it is recommended that it be used like Cholesterol and HDL for cardiac risk assessment in certain patients. Because this test does detect inflammation from other sources the results need to be interpreted with care.

Architect XR - The Automated Testing lab has just received a new Abbott Architect. This is an immunochemistry analyzer that does Thyroid tests, CEA, Progesterone, etc. We already have one analyzer, however, the new one has a special specimen handling track on it that improves specimen handling and allows for stats and easier repeats. The analyzer also comes with enhanced software. We are the first U.S. customer to use this analyzer in a clinical setting.

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