Bigner, Lauf promoted to full professor
Two medical center faculty members
have been promoted to full professor. Dr.
Frederic N. Cleaveland, university
provost, announced this week.
They are Dr. Darrell D. Bigner of the
Department of Pathology and Dr. Peter
K. Lauf of the Department of Physiology.
Two additional promotions and the
appointments of three new medical
center faculty members were also
announced by the provost.
Dr. Peter C. Burger and Dr. Diane E.
McGrath have been promoted to
associate professor of pathology and
assistant professor of community and
family medicine, respectively.
Newly appointed faculty and their
positions are: Dr. Lennart Fagraeus,
assistant professor of anesthesiology; Dr.
Richard S. Surwit, associate professor of
medical psychology; and Dr. Bruce A.
Weber, associate professor of audiology.
Bigner, who also was promoted to
associate professor of experimental
surgery, is a native of Biloxi, Miss. He
earned a bachelor of science degree from
the University of Georgia in 1962 and his
M.D. from Duke in 1965.
He served residencies in neurology and
neurosurgery at the National Institutes
of Health and at Duke and was named
assistant professor of pathology in 1971
after completing a Ph.D. in immunology.
Bigner's research is directed toward
discovering techniques for the early
detection and better monitoring of brain
tumors. He also is studying the possible
role of viruses in tumor development.
Born in Wurzburg, West Germany,
Lauf received his undergraduate
education in Essen and then studied
medicine at the universities of Munich
and Freiburg. After earning an M.D. at
the University of Freiburg in 1960, he
served as research fellow and associate
there until 1964.
Between 1965 and 1967, he was an
associate at the Child Research Center of
Michigan in Detroit and assistant
professor of biochemistry at Wayne State
University. He joined the Duke faculty as
assistant professor of physiology in 1968,
and in 1970 he was named also assistant
professor of immunology.
A membrane physiologist, Lauf is
investigating alterations of potassium
and sodium transport in animal cells by
immunological reactions.
Burger earned his M.D. from
Northwestern University Medical School
in 1966 and was named assistant
professor at Duke in 1973 after
completing a pathology residency here.
McGrath, who also was just named
director of cancer control at the
Comprehensive Cancer Center (see
Intercom, 1/20/78), had been an associate in
Community Health Sciences since 1975.
She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from
The Pennsylvania State University in
1971 and 1974, respectively.
After receiving an M.D. in 1965 and a
Ph.D. in 1975 at the Karolinska Institute
in Stockholm, Sweden, Fagraeus served
on the institute faculty for a year and
then began anesthesiology residency
training at Duke.
Surwit, who completed his Ph.D. at
McGill University in Montreal in 1972,
was assistant professor of psychology at
Harvard Medical School before joining
the faculty here.
The University of Illinois awarded a
Ph.D. in audiology to Weber in 1966.
Prior to his medical center appointment,
he was associate professor of speech and
hearing at the University of Washington.
dl
DR. BIGNER
DR. LAUF
Professional news
DR. PALMORE
Dr. Erdman Pal-
more, professor of
psychiatry and soci-
ok)gy, has been elect
ed to the executive
committee of the Be
havioral and Social
Sciences Section of
the Gerontological
Society.
He has completed
an International
Handbook on Aging,
which will be published this year by
Greenwood Press.
Palmore is director of Dulse's Research
Training Program in Mental Health,
Ben F. Weaver, former director of the N.C.
Regional Medical Program, administered by
Duke, has joined the East Carolina School of
Medicine as assistant dean for administration.
Weaver will be responsible for the financial,
personnel and purchasing activities qf the
school.
The president of the N.C. Society of Hospital
Attorneys for 1978 is Dr. David G. Warren,
professor of health administration. He was
elected at the second annual meeting of the
organization this fall.
Warren also serves on the American
Hospital Association Committee on Hospital
Governing Boards, which met recently in
Washington. He is listed in "Who's Who in
American Law" and "Who's Who in Health
Care."
Mmm
A
Intercom
is published weekly by the Office of Public
Relations, Duke University Medical
Center, Box 3354, Durham, N.C. 27710.
Joe Sigler
Director
John Becton
Editor
Primary contributors: William Erwin,
Comprehensive Cancer Center medical
writer; Ina Fried, staff writer; Parker
Herring, public relations assistant; Edith
Roberts, staff writer; David Williamson,
medical writer.
Circulation: Ann Kittrell.
llrl
FINISHING TOUCHES—A group of students put the finishing packing on a snowman they built
near the Davison Building during last week's snowfall. Snowmen of different shapes and sizes
popped up all over the university and medical center campus as personnel and students rushed out
to play in the first snowfall of the season. (Phitto by Parker Herring)
CO-EDITORS Of BOOK—Dr. David Hamburg fleft), president of the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences, and Dr. H. Keith Brodie, chairman of the Department of
Psychiatry, examine a copy of a book they co-edited. The book, American Handbook of
Psychiatry, features 44 articles by psychiatrists and psychologists from across the country,
including Dr. Ewald W. Busse, dean of medical and allied health education. Hamburg was at Duke
Jan. 25 to give a talk on "Emerging Directions in Health Science Policy" sponsored by the
university's Roundtable on Science and Public Affairs. Before becoming chairman here, Brodie
was on the faculty at Stanford University, part of which time Hamburg was psychiatry
department chairman there. (Photo by Parker Herring)
Heart attack victims
(Continued from page 1)
If 45 per cent — 177,300 — were
discharged after one week, the
researchers said this would save $360
million annually.
Better psychologically
The doctors also said early release from
the hospital could help diminish heart
attack patients' fears about their health.
"Many of the patients — although they
don't have chest pains, shortness of
breath or any other symptoms — become
cardiac cripples," Rosati said.
"They don't go back to work. They
retire. They treat themselves as if they
still have symptoms that Umit them. By
shortening the length of hospitalization,
we might contribute to the impression
that they are not as bad off as if they had
been in the hospital for a long time," he
said.
No difference
In their study, the researchers followed
the medical progress of two groups of
heart attack victims, one that went home
after a week and another that was
discharged in 11 days.
Their outcomes were identical. No one
in either group had serious heart troubles
within six months of discharge, they said.
"Such low-risk patients can be spared
the economic and psychological stress of
prolonged hospitalization," the study
said.