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Women bring balance, change to MUSC  Final articles in a series of eight honoring women who changed the face, landscape, and direction of MUSC and the Medical Center.   Buse turned adversity into opportunity by Heather Woolwine Public Relations The second World War created opportunities for Maria Buse and it would open more doors for women, especially in the medical and research communities. Dr. Maria Buse “Europe was always further along than other parts of the world in terms of women and their education,” said Buse, M.D., Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Medical Genetics. “Becoming a physician ran in my family, my grandfather and uncle were physicians and my mother had always wanted to be one. Of course in her day, women just didn’t become doctors.” Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1927, Buse remembered an experience during her first year of medical school at Pazmany Peter University School of Medicine, Budapest, which endeared her to science forever.  “We were discussing death and how it was the price for becoming multi-cellular organisms because, well, single-cell organisms just continue to divide,” she said. “I began to wonder why giving up immortality to become such complicated organisms wasn’t considered our original sin. It was marvelous and wonderful to think about and it made me want to learn more.” Buse’s educational training is what many students dream of today, receiving an education while traveling the world. But her travels were more out of necessity than a desire to learn abroad.  After her first year of medical school in Hungary she transferred to the University of Basel School of Medicine in Basel, Switzerland, which offered more opportunities than the bomb-damaged medical school in war-torn Hungary.  “As a foreigner in Switzerland I could obtain a medical degree but not a license to practice medicine upon completing my education,” Buse said. “If I couldn’t practice there once I graduated, what was the point in it? So when my uncle, in Argentina, told me that he could help obtain visas for my mother and I to come to Buenos Aires, we decided to go. I knew I could practice there once I graduated.” As a medical student in South America, Buse found herself in the company of Noble Prize winner (physiology) Bernardo Houssay, M.D., Carlos Rapela, M.D., and Eduardo Braun-Menendez, M.D., mentors who would influence her career and life greatly. “They were true believers in science,” she said. “Dr. Houssay even felt that it was okay for scientists and physicians to be poor because it focuses the mind.  I felt that wasn’t necessarily true, but I understood his commitment. They were like father figures for me.” After her internship in Buenos Aires, Houssay sent Buse to the United States for a fellowship in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and Cox Institute in 1955. There she met Dr. John F. Buse, another medicine fellow, and married him upon graduation in 1956.  “I had always noticed, in Europe and South America, that there were fewer women in my profession,” Buse said. “But it never occurred to me that it was a hindrance. When I came to America, I realized that some viewed it as a handicap. To be honest, being a woman was the least of my problems because I was a foreigner. It was only adding insult to injury.” Buse was proficient in English and when she and her husband moved to Charleston in 1957, she acquired a position at MUSC in the Department of Medicine as a research associate. “Neither my late husband nor myself were aware that foreigners were unable to obtain medical licenses in South Carolina at that time,” she said. “But he always said it was the best thing that could’ve happened to me because it made me focus on research. He was a great believer in research, but as a physician, he didn’t have the time for it. We never competed; we were able to work together. Eventually in 1960, I was allowed to take the exams and obtained a license to practice medicine in South Carolina.” Buse eased quickly into Charleston, thanks to a friend in the grocery store. “I saw Mrs. James Wilson in the grocery store and from across the aisle she said, ‘Welcome fellow foreigner!’ She was from North Carolina and she explained that if you weren’t born here in Charleston, no matter where you were from, you were foreign. It made me feel more comfortable knowing I wasn’t the only one.” Upon her arrival, Buse helped found the Nuclear Medicine Laboratory and served as its director until 1983. “We began in a modified bathroom with some minor equipment,” she said. “But it began to make money and now occupies half of the third floor in the main hospital.” By 1962, Buse became an assistant professor of research medicine and four years later an associate professor. In 1972 and 1974, respectively, she would become a professor of both medicine and biochemistry. As she ascended the research ranks during the 80s and 90s, she was chairman for the radiation usage and research committees. She also gave birth to three children, Johnny Bernard, M.D., Ph.D., director of UNC Chapel Hill’s Diabetes Research Center, Paul Edward, M.D., a gastrointestinal specialist in St. Louis, and Elizabeth Maria King, a businesswoman. “Motherhood was wonderful, but I have no clue how I did it,” she laughed. “I had a wonderful housekeeper who’s been with us for more than 40 years and she helped me a great deal. Once my father came to live in Charleston, he helped hold our family together too. He came over every evening for dinner and if it was getting late and I wasn’t home yet, he’d call my office and say, ‘The family that eats together, sticks together. It’s 6:30, time to come home.’ Because few mothers worked full-time when I was raising my children, I think some felt I was abandoning or deserting my children. But they’ve done well for themselves, and I think it’s because they learned independence at a young age.” Buse said it’s not so easy to trust in children’s independence these days. “I just trusted my kids and the world around them. The world today is a more dangerous place for children. Now I’m the one telling my children not to let my grandchildren be as independent. Times change.” And changing with the times is an important component to Buse’s personal and professional philosophies. She promotes learning modern techniques and added that as science expands, it’s important to pay attention to ideas, especially those not in the mainstream. “If you don’t follow an idea through, someone else will,” Buse said. During the last several years, Buse was the first woman at MUSC to receive the Distinguished University Professor award, was honored with the American Diabetes Association’s Albert Renold Award, and received a Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science. Remaining the cornerstone for all of her work is the simplest of concepts. “The entire research community is built on trust,” she said. “The worst thing you could ever do to your research is gloss it over. There is so much pressure to fudge things, especially now with the multiple grants and projects that researchers work on. But you have to trust yourself and the people  who work with you. Research shouldn’t be about incentives and how much people get paid, but should be done because it is the researcher’s love.” The author of more than 150 publications and recipient of almost 50 years of continuous NIH funding, Buse is the subject of bewilderment for some researchers curious as to what her secret is. Her answer is based on the principle of trust, “I believe in delivering the goods. It’s that simple.”   Reed's heart belongs to practicing medicine, seeking professional challenges by Heather Woolwine Public Relations Various levels of success are often equated with the ability to prioritize.  For Carolyn Reed, M.D., a precedence to seek and conquer challenges accounted for her high level of professional achievement. Dr. Carolyn Reed “I was convinced that I wanted to be a medical oncologist when I began my first summer externship,” said Reed, current director of Hollings Cancer Center. “But during the first week, the surgical intern became sick and I was put in his place. In that instant, I changed my plans. When I called to tell my mom, I made sure she was sitting down, and of course the first thing that came to her mind was that I was pregnant. ‘No, mom,’ I said, ‘I’m gonna be a surgeon.’ I’ll never forget it; there was just silence on the other end. Then she said, ‘Why, why, why, why do you always have to choose the hardest thing to do?’ She worried about me, but it’s her I credit for becoming a surgeon.” Reed was born in Farmington, Maine, along with twin sister, Joyce. After completing a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine in 1972, she wanted to become a physician but felt guilty about her mother, a nurse, having to put two children through college at the same time. (Reed’s father died at age 49 from renal cell cancer.) For Reed, that meant medical school was out, as there were no in-state medical schools in Maine. Although it wasn’t her true desire, Reed decided to go into nursing.  “I remember the day my mom confronted me with it,” Reed said. “She told me she knew I didn’t want to be a nurse, and I reminded her that in-state tuition was all we could afford. She said where there was a will, there was a way, and we would figure it out.”  The way becomes clear Reed enrolled at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York and heeded more of mom’s advice once she was there. “She told me never to upset the head nurse or the janitor. The head nurse made sense pretty quickly, but it took me awhile to figure out the janitor. I was up late, working on a 10-page report and the janitor came in to clean. All he said was ‘Up late?’ I nodded, smiled, and said, ‘Yeah, up late.’ Next thing I know there was a plate of cookies next to me.”  Reed graduated with her doctorate in medicine with honor and distinction in research in 1977 and began her path from surgical intern to chief surgical resident at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. In 1982, she moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for a fellowship in surgical oncology and by 1983 began her residency in cardiothoracic surgery while becoming an instructor in thoracic surgery. No secret that she was in a male-dominated specialty of medicine, Reed didn’t view the situation as hostile or threatening, but she did experience frustrating situations.  They would only strengthen her resolve to prove others wrong.  “As an intern, I know that I didn’t do the number of cases that the men in the program were able to do. In fact, the premier surgeon and the best teacher there made the comment that women belonged in the kitchen and the bedroom, and I had to continue to work with him. I couldn’t let it bother me and it didn’t stop me from becoming chief resident. I’m relieved that these situations don’t happen now.” Reed admitted that the length of time and training involved for surgeons, general or specialty, was and isn’t family-friendly. “There’s a movement to look more carefully at training and instead of substantiating it based on years, hold people accountable for achieving competency milestones as they progress through their education. There’s still a glass ceiling when it comes to surgery, and this would help pave the way for more female surgeons, faculty and professors,” she said “There’s no difference in the reason men or women decide to go into surgery,” Reed said. “We like to work with our hands and see results quickly. We’re all Type A, give me the bottomline, cut to the chase kind of people.” Reed heads south In 1985, Reed came to MUSC as assistant professor of surgery and chief of thoracic surgery at the VA hospital. In 1989, she achieved the title of associate professor and held tenure by 1993.  Through 2000, she served as associate program director for the cardiothoracic surgery residency program, became a full professor with tenure, and was associate director for clinical affairs for the Hollings Cancer Center.  In 2000, she was named director of the Hollings Cancer Center and the Alice Ruth Reeves Folk Chair of Clinical Oncology. “My heart has always belonged to the practice of medicine before the administration of it,” Reed said. “But I found myself joining various committees at MUSC. I’d always liked to write, and working on those committees broadened my outlook. Like teaching, they expanded my knowledge and experience.” A member of more than 70 MUSC, community, state, and national committees and 16 scientific and medical societies, Reed has been published more than 100 times and received numerous teaching awards and honors throughout the country. “Some of those committees might have thought they were getting a token woman,” Reed said. “But they soon found out I was not a token.” The first woman to serve on the American Board of Thoracic Surgery's 55-year history, Reed was recently named chairman, another milestone in female representation for the ABTS.  But Reed’s accomplishments, especially at the Hollings Cancer Center, are not based on committee or board involvement. She also works to better the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors, and proved her concern through projects like The Looking Glass store and Bealer’s Buddies, a cancer survivor support group. “Eyeing NCI designation” When most people look at Reed’s role as director for Hollings, many would comment on her drive for NCI status, or her self-described passion to bring Hollings Cancer Center to elite status as one of the nation's top cancer center and research institutions.  “NCI-designated centers are on the cutting edge of research and are the most capable of translating results from the laboratory to the clinic,” Reed said. “We’ve spent a the last few years preparing and expanding our infrastructure to accommodate the state’s thousands of cancer patients and survivors. NCI designation is the ultimate goal for this center.” A three-part process, NCI status is defined by the capacity to support core cancer facilities, the ability to conduct clinical trials, and the development of effective prevention and control programs that connect education and community efforts. The only cancer center in South Carolina seeking NCI status, Hollings will join centers such as Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, University of Alabama-Birmingham, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa and St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis. It is this commitment during the last few years that makes Reed’s departure as director in June bittersweet. “I truly feel that I was not able to practice and be with patients as much as I needed and wanted to be,” she said. “And at this point in the process, Hollings really needs a full-time administrator to ensure NCI status. Bringing in Dr. Andrew Kraft is the right move for the center. I will remain a part of the administrative team in an active role as director of clinical affairs.” Reed sees positive future Reed likes to think of the present as a time of transition, not only for MUSC and Hollings, but also for those in the medical community. “Our students are more concerned with lifestyle than in the past and I think that’s great,” she said. “Lifestyle is defined by time, and that’s not gender specific. It’s this concern that initiated the change to the 80-hour work week and continues the push for competency- based training. There used to be this macho ‘If I did it that way, you can too’ attitude and I think it’s becoming extinct. I’m glad, because we’re better off without it.” According to Reed, leaders must lead by example with vision and direction, otherwise no one will follow. Openness and the courage to change resonate with Reed, and serve as lessons in her own life as she strives to become more flexible and accepting of failure, traits she feels that she and all surgeons struggle to embrace.  But the biggest challenge for Reed, and her priority as a surgeon, is to remain cognizant of what’s really important. “If we lose focus of why we’re here, then we lose everything,” she said. “The day I walk out of here and can’t cry over a patient, that’s the day I will hang it up.”   Women’s History Month Celebration Calendar March 3 - 31 Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility- Celebrating the Creative Spirit Harper Student Center/Courtenay Gallery. 45 Courtenay St., 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday;  and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday. Featuring a wide variety of work by Lowcountry women artists. March 19 Violin Portraits by the Class of Lee Chin Siow  St. Luke’s Chapel, 8 p.m. Desserts provided by Saffron. March 23 Women’s Resource Fair  10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 171 Ashley Ave., MUSC Horseshoe and Portico. Featuring businesses, community organizations and services for women. Music by Fire and Ice. Lunch will be for sale by the following female-owned businesses: Bodacious Bagels, Crepe Stand, Doe’s Pita, Gullah Cuisine, Martha Lou's Kitchen, One of a Kind Smokehouse, Savory Market, and Uptown Oriental Cafe. March 24 Panel Presentation: Celebrating MUSC Women Making A Difference  12 p.m., 173 Ashley Ave., Room 100, Basic Science Building Auditorium. Boxed lunches free to first 35 students with valid ID, additional lunches for sale to the audience March 25 Panel Presentation: Looking Back, Looking Forward 5 p.m., 167 Ashley Ave., Storm Eye Institute Auditorium. Featuring Inez Tenenbaum, Superintendent of Education for South Carolina. All events are free.  Cosponsored by MUSC and the Center for Women.  For more information, call the Office of Diversity at 792-2146. Visit  http://www.musc.edu/diversity/womenshistorymonth.pdf.     Friday, March 26, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.