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CIMIT Announces Three Fast Forward Grants

CIMIT has announced the names of three successful applicants in its annual Clinical Fast Forward Awards: Stephen Chin, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston; Stephanie Morris, MD, of Newton Wellesley Hospital; and Dirk Hentschel, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Fast Forward Awards are designed to change the way care is delivered. This award provides funding up to $25,000 for a clinician to travel and learn a new skill or technique at a leading medical center, practice the technique in a laboratory setting and develop a proctoring plan to begin performing the technique at a CIMIT Consortium institution site. A one-to-one matching contribution (financial or in-kind) is required from the sponsoring department.

Through his Fast Forward project, “New Methods of Assessing Blood Flow and Oxygenation in Premature Infants,” Dr. Chin seeks to acquire and master the skills necessary to perform serial functional echocardiography (fEcho) in preterm infants. Secondary goals include testing the usefulness of fEcho in guiding clinical care decisions, and training other neonatologists in the new technique. Dr. Chin will spend time at the University of Southern California working with Istvan Seri, MD, PhD, a pioneer researcher in this field.

Dr. Morris’ project is “Ovarian Cryopreservation and Transplantation: Learning Techniques of Fertility Preservation for Female Cancer Patients.” Her goal is to learn the techniques to remove an ovary from a patient before cancer therapy; freeze it, then thaw and transplant it back into the patient when cancer therapy is completed and the cancer is in remission. Through this novel technique, Dr. Morris hopes her patients can resume ovarian function, including the ability to have children. Institutions where Dr. Morris will study are the Infertility Clinic in St. Louis, the Center for Reproduction Medicine and Infertility at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and the medical oncology department of the University of Manchester School of Medicine in the U.K.

Dr. Hentschel will be training in interventional nephrology in St. Louis with Thomas Vesely, MD, a leading interventional radiologist. He will focus on percutaneous endovascular procedures for dialysis access as well as vascular monitoring, surveillance and preemptive procedures. Dr. Hentschel has three goals: to learn new skills so he can improve the safety and efficiency of dialysis access, to become a competent partner in interactions with radiologists and surgeons, and to take the lead in managing patients and nurses in long-term dialysis facilities.