Heroes and Healing

"With Love, From Haiti"
In 2015, alum Henri Ford, who graduated from Pitt fellowships in '89 and '93, successfully led the first separation of conjoined siblings in his native Haiti. The story of Ford, dean of University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is not just a chronicle of surgical capability. It’s a love story.

"Oct. 27, 2018"
After the national tragedy at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Pitt Med first responders and emergency and trauma teams were prepared. “It was eerie,” recalls Professor of Emergency Medicine Ronald Roth. “We had just done this [in a drill].” 

"You Don't Understand!"
Elizabeth Miller, director of adolescent and young adult health and of community health at UPMC Children’s Hospital and its department of pediatrics and übergodmother for the young people of Pittsburgh, helps others tune in to teens.

"Electronic Saviors"
“When I tell you I wouldn’t have made it without music,” says Jim Semonik, a cancer survivor, "I can tell you the same about him”—his physician, Pitt's Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery David Medich.

"Home Again"
A UPMC Montefiore program led by alum Jodie Bryk (MD '09) is improving quality of care for patients with complex medical and psychosocial needs.

"Surviving Survival"
The HPV epidemic has led to a sharp increase in HPV-related head and neck cancer. Many patients survive, thanks to today’s treatments. But then they face new obstacles related to their condition. MDs and other clinicians at Pitt have realized that these survivors need coordinated care long-term. 

"Cut Off"
Someone once told Eve, a teen with severe intractable depression, "You just aren’t working hard enough in therapy." And then her doctor, Lisa Pan, learned that she can’t seem to make critical neurotransmitters. Pan, now adjunct professor of human genetics, was assistant professor of psychiatry, human genetics, and clinical and translational science at the time.