Lankenau Medical Center

About: Lankenau Medical Center is a healthcare organization based out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Atrial fibrillation & Medicine. The organization has 436 authors who have published 414 publications receiving 7095 citations. The organization is also known as: Lankenau Hospital.

A Strategy to Detect Emerging Non-Delta SARS-CoV-2 Variants with a Monoclonal Antibody Specific for the N501 Spike Residue

Abstract: Efforts to control SARS-CoV-2 have been challenged by the emergence of variant strains that have important implications for clinical and epidemiological decision making. Four variants of concern (VOCs) have been designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), namely, B.1.617.2 (delta), B.1.1.7 (alpha), B.1.351 (beta), and P.1 (gamma), although the last three have been downgraded to variants being monitored (VBMs). VOCs and VBMs have shown increased transmissibility and/or disease severity, resistance to convalescent SARS-CoV-2 immunity and antibody therapeutics, and the potential to evade diagnostic detection. Methods are needed for point-of-care (POC) testing to rapidly identify these variants, protect vulnerable populations, and improve surveillance. Antigen-detection rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) are ideal for POC use, but Ag-RDTs that recognize specific variants have not yet been implemented. Here, we describe a mAb (2E8) that is specific for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein N501 residue. The 2E8 mAb can distinguish the delta VOC from variants with the N501Y meta-signature, which is characterized by convergent mutations that contribute to increased virulence and evasion of host immunity. Among the N501Y-containing mutants formerly designated as VOCs (alpha, beta, and gamma), a previously described mAb, CB6, can distinguish beta from alpha and gamma. When used in a sandwich ELISA, these mAbs sort these important SARS-CoV-2 variants into three diagnostic categories, namely, (1) delta, (2) alpha or gamma, and (3) beta. As delta is currently the predominant variant globally, they will be useful for POC testing to identify N501Y meta-signature variants, protect individuals in high-risk settings, and help detect epidemiological shifts among SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Long-term overall- and progression-free survival after pentostatin, cyclophosphamide and rituximab therapy for indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Abstract: In a prospective phase II trial, pentostatin combined with cyclophosphamide and rituximab (PCR) induced strong responses and was well-tolerated in previously untreated patients with advanced-stage, indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). After a median patient follow-up of more than 108 months, we performed an intent-to-treat analysis of our 83 participants. Progression-free survival (PFS) rates at 108 months for follicular lymphoma (FL), marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) were 71%, 67% and 15%, respectively, and were affected by clinicopathological characteristics. Ten-year PFS rates for those with beta-2-microglobulin levels <2·2 and ≥2·2 mg/l prior to treatment were 71% and 21%, respectively. Patients without bone marrow involvement had 10-year PFS rates of 72% vs. 29% for those with involvement. At time of analysis, the median overall survival (OS) had not been reached. The OS rate was 64% at 10 years and differed significantly based on histology: 94% for FL, 66% for MZL and 39% for SLL. Long-term toxicities included 18 (21·7%) patients with second malignancies and 2 (2·4%) who developed myelodysplastic syndrome after receiving additional lines of chemotherapy. Our 10-year follow-up analysis confirms that PCR is an effective, robust and tolerable treatment regimen for patients with iNHL.

Quality drives innovation.

Abstract: I [International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery] really is a dynamic group, and I think it is the future of cardiothoracic surgery.What I want to talk about today are some ideas. There’s not much I can tell anyone in this room about innovation but I want to try and, if I have your patience, to put together some thoughts about quality and how quality can lead to successful innovation. So just a little recap or commercial for ISMICSVI can’t help it. As we know, we were formed in 1997, and it was really by people who are the innovators. It’s easy to be an innovator when everyone’s going in your direction, but at the time, most of your professional colleagues may look at you as crazy or just out of your mind, and that you don’t know what you’re talking about. And individuals, outliers if you will, like that to get together and form a group is an impressive accomplishment. Because you know you’re worried about your peers, you’re worried about your professional standing and then to take a radical departureVthat’s been a hallmark for the leaders of ISMICS. Aswe continue to grow, most importantly, we have lots of residents and fellows increasingly joining. We have recently created an affiliate membership to collaborate with and make a strategic outreach to the physicians’ assistants group; whose representatives are here with us today, to help them grow because the professional physician assistant is not widely recognized or accepted in most of the world. Next year at our meeting in Berlin, we will have made an alliance with our perfusionists as well, which was initiated at our last meeting in Prague. When I was working as the senior registrar in the Academic Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, the EACTS [European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery] meeting that year was in Prague. I was a foolish American, I guess, who wanted to work, work, work and do all the cases and stay behind. Everyone else went to Prague. They all came back and said how great it was. I always regretted never going to Prague at the time and so I was thrilled that I had the opportunity to go there for an excellent ISMICS 2013. This is some of our faculty after the meeting (Fig. 1), and although we don’t have the Charles Bridge here in Boston, we do have the Charles RiverVand an awesome ISMICS 2014. It’s important that ISMICS reaches out internationallyVit’s in our DNAVand we’ve been well received in partnering with colleagues around the world. This has been very beneficial to our group, and it’s also very educational to understand how people train in different countries. If we want to increase innovation and quality of care,we can’t do that from themicrocosm of just our own experience. We have to see what is out there and howwe can share ideas with our international colleagues. This is the ISMICS faculty from our most recent Winter Workshop in Seoul, South Korea (Fig. 2), under the leadership of our board directorYoungTaeKim.Youngput on an outstandingworkshop. Every one of our colleagues who work on these Winter Workshops puts in an enormous amount of effort to partner with groups all around the world. We had a simply terrific program; it was well organized, and we were treated like being invited to someone’s home. Now you can’t really do everything by yourself. You need a partner in life, and I have my wife and our children as well as my mother-in-law here today and wish to thank them for all of their understanding and support. You need partners and you also need colleagues. The old saying relates to ‘‘standing on the shoulders of giants.’’ There’s noway we could accomplish what we have without the ISMICS past presidents (Figs. 3A, B). The great thing about ISMICS is that most of these individuals are still attending and contributing to our meetings. You can usually find them in the first or second row taking notes. For just a partial example, Alan Menkis, who led a very successful ISMICS 2013; Michael Mack’s Kit Arom Lecture about surgeon innovation and professional growth; Bob Emery has been a presence at virtually every meeting; Mani Subramanian cochairs the evermore in-demand Technical Challenges session; Randy Wolf continues to lead our outreach to Asia; Narish Trehan chairs our development group and has hosted a Winter Workshop; Jim Fonger spearheaded our industry relations process; Rex Stanbridge runs our poster sessions now widely copied by other professional society meetings; John Puskus chaired our first and our most recent Consensus Conference on OP-CAB [off-pump coronary artery bypass]; Ranny Chitwood cochairs the Minimally Invasive Valve Masters Class; John Knight formulated our strategic planning initiative; and Ralph Damiano is the editor for our recently National Library of MedicineYindexed journal Innovations. All these individuals pictured in Figure 3 have contributed to ISMICS in ways too numerous to cite here and continue to contribute to ISMICS with their science; outreach; or with mentoring the young surgeons, residents, and fellows. They’ve all made significant contributions to our field as well. I personally am indebted to all

The association for surgical education CESERT grant program: the first 15 years

Abstract: Background The Association for Surgical Education established the Center for Excellence in Surgical Education Research and Training (CESERT) program in 1999 to support innovative research and education projects and programs that will advance surgical education. We sought to examine scholarly outcomes of the projects during the first 15 years of the program. Methods E-mail surveys were sent to the 24 researchers who were awarded CESERT grants. Data collection focused on recipient professional experiences, publications, and presentations stemming from CESERT-funded research and impact on career development. For grant recipients who were unable to complete the survey, we obtained publication information on studies authored by the grant recipients that described the same grant-funded topic, described similar methods, and fell within the study timeline. Results Complete survey data were obtained from 18 of the 24 grant recipients. Grants were most commonly awarded to General Surgeons (40%) and Education and Psychology PhDs (24%). Overall, 23 of the 25 projects had reached completion at the time of contact, and from these, 70 articles were published or in press. presentations were more common, with respondents documenting 84 projects locally, nationally, and internationally. Grant awards ranged from $8,122 to $97,000, with an average of $39,026. In total, the Association for Surgical Education Foundation distributed $988,000 in grant funding from 1999 to 2013. Respondents reported that CESERT funding was critical to their career as it legitimized their pursuit of educational research, helped them establish multidisciplinary and multi-institutional collaborations, provided greater visibility for their research, and helped them develop an understanding of educational principles and grant writing skills. Conclusions Overall, the CESERT program has produced remarkable results. The careful review process and monitoring protocol have ensured that high-potential studies are funded and successful. These data support continued efforts to garner resources such that CESERT grants may be awarded to fund high-quality, high-impact projects.