World-Class Recognition
By Elissa Bass
Two renowned colleagues with the Behavioral Health Network were recognized nationally and globally for their work by Research.com — a leading research portal for scientists committed to advancing education and research through collaboration and innovation.
The website ranked Godfrey Pearlson, MD, founding director of the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center at the Institute of Living (IOL), 76 in the U.S. and 112 in the world in his field. He was also recognized with Research.com’s Neuroscience Leader Award for 2024.
David Tolin, Ph.D., ABPP, founder and director of the IOL’s Anxiety Disorders Center, ranks 8,959 in his field in the U.S. and 17,589 in the world.
“It’s not news to anyone at the Behavioral Health Network that we are home to world-class providers and researchers,” said John Santopietro, MD, senior vice president of Hartford HealthCare and physician-inchief of the BHN. “It’s always rewarding to receive this type of recognition for the work done by individuals and the teams that support them.”
Dr. Pearlson was awarded the 2019 American Psychiatric Association Mentorship Award, the 2015 Stanley Dean Award for Schizophrenia Research from the American College of Psychiatrists and, in 2015, was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars for the school’s distinguished alumni.
Dr. Tolin is an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He is past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, past president of the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and a principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health. He received the Awards for Distinguished Contribution to the Science of Psychology, Distinguished Contribution to the Practice of Psychology, and recognition of lifetime contribution to psychology from the Connecticut Psychological Association.
“While it’s nice to be recognized, I want to mention that all of my research activities are team-based, and would not be possible without the great team of colleagues I have at the Anxiety Disorders Center,” Dr. Tolin said.
A Life of Saving Lives
Dr. Len Jacobs honored for a lifetime of helping others
By Elissa Bass
How can you top a career spent saving lives and teaching others how to do the same?
That’s where the Lifetime Achievement Award comes in, and Hartford Hospital’s choice for this year’s honor was Lenworth M. Jacobs, MD, MPH, a world-renowned trauma surgeon and educator at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Jacobs was given the award at the annual Black and Red Gala.
It’s impossible to know the number of lives Dr. Jacobs saved over these decades. Beyond his hands-on work, he created LIFE STAR, Connecticut’s first critical care helicopter service, and the nationwide “Stop the Bleed” program to teach people proper tourniquet use after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“It is a real privilege to be able to take care of patients, especially those who are in some kind of distress,” Dr. Jacobs says. “Hartford HealthCare has allowed me to expand to influence the lives of large numbers of patients. I am honored and humbled to receive this award on behalf of all of those people who do everything to give the best care to their patients.”
Dr. Jacobs has served as the hospital’s director of trauma and emergency medicine for more than 40 years. In 2021, he earned the Medallion for Advancement of Surgical Care by the American Surgical Association for Stop the Bleed.
After joining Hartford Hospital in 1983, he was instrumental in establishing LIFE STAR, which now includes two airborne units making about 1,200 flights each year to help critically ill and injured patients.
Beyond that radius, Dr. Jacobs developed the Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) course to train trauma surgeons across the globe using standardized procedures, life-sized models simulating the human body and repeated practice. The program has trained more than 2,000 surgeons in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa and Japan.
His decades of life-saving work stems from one small incident when he was 7 and he watched his father, a surgeon, stop to help at a serious accident on the highway.
“Watching him help those people was a very profound event for me,” Dr. Jacobs says. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do from then on.”
Transplant team’s innovative approach leads to Twice the Kidney Transplant Rate
By Susan McDonald
Innovative approaches to securing and implanting donor kidneys in sick patients earned the Hartford Hospital adult kidney transplant program top honors from the Connecticut Hospital Association.
The 2024 John D. Thompson Award for “Excellence in the Delivery of Healthcare through the Use of Data” recognized the adult kidney transplant program for the best-observed patient outcomes for one-year kidney transplant survival out of all kidney transplant programs in the United States, as reported by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
In Top of Form
“Hartford Hospital reimagined the hospital’s approach to kidney transplant waitlist management, organ acceptance and post-transplant care,” the announcement says, noting the care has changed and saved lives.
“This program shows how a team can use data to support innovative and creative solutions to improve care and increase access to healthcare,” says Jennifer Jackson, CHA chief executive officer.
Faced with the prospect of performing fewer kidney transplants and using higher-risk organs, resulting in poorer patient survival, the HH team created weekly reviews of patients in all phases of kidney transplant evaluation including a list of patients most likely to be transplanted in the upcoming week. This approach more than doubled the hospital’s transplant rate.
First in the Nation: MSK Care Partner Program
By Susan McDonald
A decade ago, the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute became the first member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance; now, eyeing continued elevation and transformation of cancer care and research in Connecticut, the two announced an expansion of the relationship through the launch of the MSK Care Partner Program.
MSK announced the new program at the state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot cancer facility HHC is building at 4185 Black Rock Turnpike. The Fairfield Cancer Center will provide outpatient cancer services with expert HHC specialists on-site. HHC will also create a new dedicated inpatient cancer unit at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.
After an intensive review of its oncology program’s processes and outcomes, the new Fairfield Cancer Center, St. Vincent’s Medical Center and other Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute locations can become MSK care partners. MSK care partners commit to continually improving the quality of their oncology services based on MSK Standards of Care™.
Upon completion of the intensive review, care from HHC physicians would incorporate MSK’s world-class guidelines, practices and procedures.
Physicians can collaborate and interact with MSK physicians.
Through the relationship, MSK and HHC teams will also collect and track data on quality, outcomes and patient experience.