Huda Akil, Ph.D., Gardner C. Quarton Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry and co-director of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors attainable by an American scientist. Her current research investigates the genetic, molecular and neural mechanisms underlying stress, addiction and mood disorders. She also serves as co-director of the U-M node of the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Research Consortium, which engages in large-scale studies to discover new genes and proteins that cause vulnerability to major depression, bipolar illness and schizophrenia.

Carol Bradford (M.D. 1986, Residency 1992), professor and chair of otolaryngology, was named president of the American Head and Neck Society at the organization’s annual meeting in May. Her term will run through July 2012. Bradford specializes in head and neck cancers, including the removal of skin cancer and reconstructive surgery.

Edward Goldman, J.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and former associate vice president and deputy general counsel for the Health System, has been elected as a fellow of the American Health Lawyers Association. This is the highest honor the association can award; there are only 60 fellows among its 10,000 members. Goldman is also an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health, the Law School and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Carmen R. Green, M.D. (Residency 1992), professor of anesthesiology, of obstetrics and gynecology and of health management and policy, has joined the advisory committee of the Mayday Fund, a New York City foundation dedicated to alleviating the incidence, degree and consequences of physical pain. Green also serves as principal investigator for the Michigan Pain Outcomes Study Team, attending physician in the Multidisciplinary Pain Center, director of the Health Disparities Research Program for the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, and director for the Dissemination and Health Policy Core for the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research.

Timothy R.B. Johnson, M.D. (Residency 1979), Bates Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the Louis M. Hellman Midwifery Partnership Award from the American College of Nurse Midwives, the ACNM Foundation and the Midwifery Business Network. The award was presented at the annual clinical meeting of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists in recognition of Johnson’s career-long support of collaboration in practice, research and teaching.

Howard Markel (M.D. 1986), Ph.D., has been named to the membership committee of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Medicine. His term will last from 2011 through 2015, and will include service as the vice chair (2011-13) and chair (2013-15) of the Section on Social Sciences. Additionally, in May, Markel delivered the Harry Feldman Memorial Lecture to the American Epidemiological Society. Markel is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and director of the Center for the History of Medicine.

Professor of Biological Chemistry Alexander J. Ninfa, Ph.D., and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Katherine R. Spindler, Ph.D., were among 78 microbiologists to be inducted as fellows in the American Academy of Microbiology in February. Fellows are elected annually through a highly selective peer-review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. Ninfa studies signal transduction mechanisms of bacteria, and uses a synthetic biology approach to study the functions of genetic networks. Spindler studies contributions of both viral and host genetics to the pathogenesis of mouse adenovirus type 1 infection, and is interested in the pathogenesis and host genetics of susceptibility to bunyaviruses.

Chung Owyang, M.D., the H. Marvin Pollard Collegiate Professor of Gastroenterology, professor of integrative physiology and of internal medicine, and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, is the 2011 recipient of the American Gastroenterology Association Distinguished Mentor Award. The award recognizes his exceptional mentorship to individuals, as well as contributions to programmatic development in the fields of academic gastroenterology and medical education. Additionally, the Royal College of Physicians in Thailand has awarded Owyang an honorary fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to mentoring physicians and modernizing clinical practices in Singapore, Thailand and China.

Georgios Skiniotis, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological chemistry in the Medical School and research assistant professor in the Life Sciences Institute, has been named a 2011 Pew Scholar. The Pew Charitable Trusts selected him along with 21 other early- to mid-career scientists across the nation. Skiniotis uses electron cryomicroscopy to study the 3-D structure of protein complexes, which provides insights into how proteins come together and perform different tasks. —MF

The New Life of Janet Gilsdorf, M.D.

Janet Gilsdorf’s 2006 account of her experiences as a patient, Inside/Outside: A Physician’s Journey with Breast Cancer, changed her life — and, potentially, the lives of countless others — almost as much as her malignancy did.

Physicians inevitably become patients, and Gilsdorf isn’t the first to write about the subject. She was, however, especially well-positioned for the task. There was substantial distance between her own expertise as a professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and the skills her treatment required; her husband is a surgeon; and she had been writing seriously for years. The result is eloquent and unflinching; it pulls no punches about the patient experience, and patients responded.

“Sales are important,” Gilsdorf says, “but what’s more important to me is the mail and e-mail I received about the impact this had on people who were going through cancer themselves or had a relative going through it.”

She shares one example: “A nurse here had recently lost her mother, and not long after that her sister developed the same kind of breast cancer I had. The nurse’s father couldn’t handle the illness of his daughter. He wouldn’t talk about it, seemingly wouldn’t think about it. The nurse had my book in her living room; he sat down and started to read it, then took it to his bedroom and finished it that night. If I could help that man understand it wasn’t necessarily going to be all bad for his daughter, that was a very rewarding thing.”

It was also rewarding to sign a contract for the publication next year of the novel she put on hold when she wrote the book, but what truly lights up her life these days is what she calls “the new life” of Inside/Outside.

“During my time as a patient, some really wonderful things happened, and then there were some things that everyone wished hadn’t happened,” she says. “There were things in my book that didn’t always put the U-M in an excellent light, although I received excellent care.”

When Ora Pescovitz, M.D., the U-M executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the Health System, read the book, “She told me she was very taken,” says Gilsdorf. “What she brought away from it was that we have some work to do as a health system in making sure that patients have a good experience here.”

Pescovitz distributed copies to the Health System’s senior leaders, and they’ve asked Gilsdorf to serve on committees regarding the patient experience. “Every organization can always do better, and I’m thrilled that this organization is taking this seriously,” she says. “These attitudes flow from the top, and Dr. Pescovitz, right at the top, has embraced this.”

Toward the end of Inside/Outside, Gilsdorf describes a few telling interactions that reveal how her approach to her own patients has been informed by her experience. “I have a heightened awareness to their situation,” she says, “and I think, in some ways, I enjoy them even more because of that.” —JEFF MORTIMER