FRIENDS OF THE MEDICAL school packed the upper decks of Camden Yards on September 6 to cheer on the Baltimore Orioles against the first-place Boston Red Sox. The evening was the latest celebration of the school’s bicentennial, and included Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, throwing out a ceremonial first pitch.

Dean Reece shows great form as he throws out the game’s ceremonial first pitch.

As part of the bicentennial event, medical students from all four years manned a booth on the Eutaw Street concourse, where they handed out medical school pins and offered a unique glimpse into medical education with a display of plastinized body parts from their anatomy classroom.

In keeping with the bicentennial’s historical theme, the Orioles were dressed in the uniforms of the Negro League’s Baltimore Black Sox, to whom they paid tribute before the game. Despite the roars from the partisan crowd, the O’s lost 7–6 to the soon-to-be World Series champions.

The Bicentennial Lecture Series at the Hippodrome Theatre concluded September 24 with a presentation on the central nervous system from the point of view of both doctors and patients. Entitled “Perspectives on the Central Nervous System: The Scientists & The Patients,” the lecture was moderated once again by television correspondent Dr. Bob Arnot.
Former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno headlined the lecture, along with Mark McEwan, a former network TV weatherman and reporter. Both Reno, who has Parkinson’s disease, and McEwen, who suffered a stroke last year, spoke of their experiences as patients with central nervous system disorders. “My message is, if you feel that you are having a stroke, go to the hospital,” said McEwen. “Err on the side of caution. But there is life on the other side. I’m an example of that.”

Narlin Beaty, ’09, and other medical students mingled with fans to educate them on what goes on inside the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

     As is Reno. The first female Attorney General of the United States, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just two years after taking office. Rather than hide her condition, she chose to go public, educating the press and the public about the disease, while letting them see that it did not have to interfere with normal life. “You can live with Parkinson’s and enjoy life,” she insisted. Ms. Reno also recounted a story of how she once outdistanced her FBI detail while kayaking, a sport she still enjoys.

Dr. Bob Arnot, Mark McEwen, Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Janet Reno, Nancy Wexler, PhD, and William Weiner, MD, pose for a photo.

     Scientists are working hard to make living with these diseases easier for patients, and two of them were happy to share their work at the lecture. William Weiner, MD, professor and chair of the department of neurology at the school of medicine and primary author of The American Academy of Neurology’s new guidelines for diagnosing and treating Parkinson’s disease, spoke about the cutting-edge research his department is doing relative to the treatment of that disease and other movement disorders.

Speaker Nancy Wexler, PhD, a professor at Columbia University, was part of the team of scientists who discovered the chromosomal test that allows those at risk for Huntington’s disease to find out if they will develop this hereditary, untreatable and fatal brain disorder. This work is quite personal to Wexler, who, at the age of 21, lost her mother to Huntington’s and who has a one in two chance of developing the disease herself. “My message is that you should not take anything for granted,” she said. “Don’t take your health for granted. Don’t take the future for granted.”