SAGES Newsletter
IS S UE
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Message from
1-2
the Director
The Newest
2
SAGES Baby!
SAGES Team
3
Party
Staff Profile:
4-5
Amy Callahan
Staff Profile
7-8
Tamara Fong
Follow-Up MRI
Message from the Director
A PR I L
2 01 4
Dear Study Participant,
As always, we want to first thank you for participating in
our study. You are contributing so much to our efforts to improve
care in the future.
We have another SAGES baby, the newborn son of Jacqui
Nee (formerly Yee). Please enjoy the picture of handsome Patrick
on the next page. Jacqui will come back from maternity leave in
April and is looking forward to visiting many of you again.
6
Sarah Rastegar
Clinical Profile:
7
The beautiful hand-knitted scarves in the picture below
were created by Dr. Sharon Inouye, the Overall Principal
Investigator of the study. We all received scarves in our favorite
color. Thank you, Sharon!
9
Back row: Dulce,
Eva, Sarah D,
Emese, Cyrus
Front row: Sarah R,
Amanda, Guoquan
Please enjoy the many pictures of our team in this edition as well as
the interviews with Amy Callahan, Sarah Rastegar, and Dr. Tamara Fong.
Amy works with the MRI sub-study and designed this wonderful
newsletter. Thank you, Amy! Sarah Rastegar and Dr. Tamara Fong both
work with the Clinical Outcomes sub-study. Dr. Fong, a neurologist at
BIDMC, explains the importance of this sub-study in her interview. Finally,
Dr. Alsop, Director of the Center for Advanced MRI at BIDMC, provides
you with some background information on why the MRI one year followup visits are so valuable for the study.
As always, please do not hesitate to call me on my direct line
(617-971-5392) if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you again for
all your support. We could not do the study without you.
With my very best wishes,
Eva Schmitt, PhD, Study Director
The Newest SAGES Baby!
Many of you have sat down
with Jacqui Nee (formerly Yee)
for one of your interviews. We
are so happy to announce the
birth of her first child,
Patrick George Nee Jr.
He was born on
December 14, 2013 and
weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces.
Patrick is featured here with
his SAGES onesie!
http://www.hebrewseniorlife.org/sages
1200 Centre Street, Boston, MA 02131 | phone 617.971.5390
PAGE 2
PAGE 3
Team SAGES Party!
We celebrated another successful year of the study with a party in January!
Jackie Gallagher, Margaret Puelle, and Sarah Rastegar
Cyrus Kosar and Dr. Sharon Inouye
Due to the craziness of the holiday
Dr. Tamara Fong, Dr. Ed Marcantonio,
Dr. David Alsop, and Dr. Sharon Inouye
Dr. Donna Fick, Emese Nemeth, Dr. Eva Schmitt,
Margaret Puelle, Cyrus Kosar, Amanda Brown,
Sarah Rastegar, Jennifer Inloes
Featured right (from L to R):
Dulce Piña, Dr. Weiying Dai (in back),
Dr. Guoquan Xu, Sarah Dowal, Dr. Long Ngo
PAGE
4
Staff Profile: Amy Callahan
Hi everyone! I am the new editor of the SAGES
Newsletter. I hope that the following details provide
some helpful information for you to get to know me
better! Also, if there is anything in particular that you
would like to be included in the newsletter, please email
me and let me know at [email protected].
My Role in the SAGES Study:
Quote from a
Study Participant:
“I participated in
the SAGES
program in the
past 6 months. I
just want to tell
you how excellent
Emese was as a
presenter/tester.
She was so
respectful and
interested and
such a bright
spirit. It always
made my day
when she came.
It was my great
pleasure to serve
as part of this
study.”
-I am the Clinical Research Assistant for the MRI portion
of the SAGES study. I am responsible for calling those of
you who completed a baseline MRI to see if you are
willing to return to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center for a 1 year follow-up MRI. I have met with many
of you to guide you through the MRI experience. I have
enjoyed meeting you, and I look forward to meeting
many more participants!
My Background:
-I grew up in Syracuse, NY and graduated from St.
Lawrence University in May 2013. I majored in English
with a focus on creative writing, minored in biology, and
completed all of the Pre-Med pre-requisites. In college, I
enjoyed working as a tour guide for the admissions
office as well as a teaching assistant in the biology
department. I am in the process of deciding if I want to
apply to medical school or to nurse practitioner
programs. I welcome any and all advice on that matter!
PAGE
5
Staff Profile: Amy Callahan
What I Like to Do for Fun:
-I enjoy spending time with my two older brothers who are close
by. I also love to sing! I have been singing since I could talk, and I
was a member of a select choir while I was at St. Lawrence. We
traveled to France during my sophomore year to perform around
the country!
My Travels:
-Yes! I spent nearly 4 months studying abroad in Tuscania, a
small town in Italy. I lived with a host family that didn’t speak any
English, so I really had to work on my Italian! They became my
second family, and I can’t wait to go back and visit! While I was
there, I traveled to Barcelona, Vienna, Ireland, as well as to many
other cities/towns in Italy. It was a life-changing experience that I
will always treasure.
My Favorite Part of My Job:
-YOU! I have truly enjoyed my interactions with the participants.
I also appreciate the fact that you have been willing to return to
BIDMC for another MRI. It is a crucial aspect of the study!
Here is the view from the park in
Tuscania, Italy. I lived here for 3.5 months!
Holding the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Staff Profile: Sarah Rastegar
Sarah Rastegar is a Clinical Research Assistant with the
SAGES study. She received her master's in psychology in
2012 from the University of Southern California in Los
Angeles, CA. Sarah’s professional and educational
background has focused on clinical research exploring
cognitive functioning and mental health in older adults.
Amy: What is your job?
Sarah: I work as a research assistant with the SAGES study.
I spend most of my time outside of the office doing
interviews with study participants. I also help to coordinate a sub-study of the SAGES
project called the Clinical Outcomes sub-study (see Dr. Fong’s interview on pages 7
and 8).
Amy: What has been the most challenging aspect of your job?
Sarah: Driving directions have never been my strength - I’m not the best at figuring
out the most direct route to participants’ homes. Thank goodness for GPS (global
positioning systems)!
Amy: What is your favorite aspect of your job?
Sarah: Working with the SAGES team has been a great experience. My
favorite part of my job has been getting to know the participants in our study. I also
really enjoy the fact that research involves constantly learning. I am taught
something new all the time, both by my colleagues at SAGES and by participants in
the study!
Amy: How do you spend your free time?
Sarah: Some favorite hobbies of mine are cooking and baking. I also love doing arts
and crafts, and particularly enjoy hunting for bargain vintage furniture pieces and
then working to restore them. I recently found a beautiful old cabinet which, with a
fresh coat of paint, is now sitting in my dining room!
Amy: What is your favorite thing to do in Boston?
Sarah: One of the best parts of Boston as a city is how walkable it is. Weatherpermitting, my favorite thing to do in Boston is to take the T downtown and then to
walk from neighborhood to neighborhood.
PAGE 6
Clinical Profile: Dr. Tamara Fong
Tamara Fong, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of
Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She attended
Ohio State University College of Medicine to earn
her medical degree, and she later completed her
residency and fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center. Tamara works with Sarah Rastegar
(from page 6) on the Clinical Outcomes sub-study.
Here she explains her role. Enjoy!
Amy: What is your job?
Tamara: I am a Neurologist and I specialize in the evaluation of memory
and thinking in patients.
Amy: How would you describe the Clinical Outcomes sub-study?
Tamara: It is a sub-study of the SAGES study in which patients undergo
additional cognitive testing, lab work, and neuroimaging, in order that we
can take a closer look at memory and thinking abilities. In addition, patients
are also interviewed and examined by a neurologist who has expertise in
memory functioning.
Amy: Why do you think this sub-study is important?
Tamara: It’s an important study because we really wanted to take a closer
look at how people’s thinking and memory skills might change after surgery.
In the SAGES study we do collect a lot of important measurements from
which we can get a good picture of how people are doing, but nothing
really beats having a chance for an expert doctor to meet with someone
one-to-one and do an evaluation that way.
PAGE 7
Clinical Profile: Dr. Tamara Fong
Amy: What has been the most challenging aspect of your job?
Tamara: Probably juggling my research responsibilities with my clinical and
teaching responsibilities, and taking care of my family – it’s like I have three
full time jobs!
Amy: What is your favorite aspect of your job?
Tamara: I love working with patients. In particular, I really enjoying talking
with older patients and hearing stories about things that they do and things
that they used to do. Our patients have done some pretty interesting things
and made huge accomplishments in their field. Others are still actively
involved in surprising things.
Amy: How do you spend your free time?
Tamara: Well, I don’t have very much of that! Our youngest is just turning
one so he has kind of slowed us down a bit, but we enjoy biking, hiking,
and traveling. When I first came to Boston as a neurology resident I took
sailing lessons on the Charles River. I’d love to get back into that and sail out
in the ocean if I ever had enough time!
Amy: What is your favorite movie and why?
Tamara: I enjoy a wide range of films, from spy thrillers that feature James
Bond, Jack Ryan, or Jason Bourne, to rom-coms like Love Actually, and then
of course due to popular demand at my house, anything with a Disney
Princess in it (especially Rapunzel or Cinderella). But if I were stuck
somewhere with only one film, I’d have to say the Shawshank Redemption
would be the one I’d take. It’s just so well written and superbly acted, and
the themes of friendship and hope are really inspiring.
PAGE 8
Why is the 1 Year Follow– Up MRI Important?
By: David Alsop, PhD (Project Investigator for the SAGES Study)
The key focus of the SAGES study is to understand how the
experience of undergoing surgery and being hospitalized affects the health
and activity of older adults. The MRI sub-study of SAGES is designed to
measure any detectable changes in the brain one year after surgery using
state-of-the-art measures of brain tissue structure and activity. In order to
measure these changes, we first imaged a subset of the SAGES
participants before undergoing their surgery. To learn about the effects of
hospitalization and surgery on the brain, we need to image these subjects
again one year later. Though we cannot be sure until we study the results,
we hope that the knowledge gained from this study will help to improve
the hospital and surgical experience of future patients and will reduce
effects on their brain and brain function. We understand that coming to
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to be reimaged can be an added
burden in our participants’ lives, but the benefit to the understanding of
surgery’s effects on the brain is tremendous. If you participated in an MRI
before your surgery, you should be contacted near the anniversary of your
surgery. We hope you will consider continuing to donate your time by
scheduling a time for your scan when we call. Our MRI study staff are
looking forward to seeing you again!
This is the MRI Scanner where all of the imaging takes place!
PAGE 9