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The Boston Children's Hospital pediatric doctor charged with receipt of child pornography was disciplined for using a school computer to access adult pornography when he was medical director at Phillips Academy boarding school, school officials said Friday.

Richard Keller, 56, who is also a pediatrics clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, was the medical director at Philips Academy for 19 years, according to John Palfrey, the head of the school.

In an e-mail to faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents on Friday, Palfrey said Keller was reprimanded in 1999 for using an academy computer to access pornography that featured adult subjects, and in 2002 was reprimanded for showing an inappropriate cartoon to students.

According to Palfrey, Keller was cited for "poor management and poor judgment," leading the Andover, Massachusetts, school to place him on administrative probation in 2009.

Palfrey went on to say that as recently as 2010, Keller sent an inappropriate voice-mail message to a colleague at the school. A claim by Keller that the school had discriminated against him was determined to be "groundless," according to Palfrey.

In April 2011, the academy informed Keller that his contract would not be renewed. The doctor resigned that month, the school said.

"We have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved in, or affected by, Dr. Keller's alleged criminal behavior," Palfrey said, adding the federal case made Thursday against Keller is unrelated to alleged misconduct at Phillips.

Keller's name came to the attention of authorities after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began a 2010 investigation into a movie production company that sold films featuring minor boys, according to the criminal complaint.

Investigators conducted a review of the company's customer database and located alleged customer Richard Keller, who had two addresses listed, authorities said.

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Boston Children's Hospital pediatric doctor allegedly used school computer to access adult pornography

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

When Dr. Richard Keller, the Boston Childrens Hospital pediatrician who had served 19 years as the medical director at Phillips Academy in Andover, was arrested Thursday on charges of receiving child pornography, school officials said the private boarding high school had refused to renew Kellers contract last year. They would not say why.

In an e-mail to parents, students, faculty, staff, and alumni Friday evening, Head of School John Palfrey provided more details and disclosed that Keller had been reprimanded in 1999 for using a school computer to view adult pornography. Palfrey wrote:

As always, our highest priority is the safety of our students. We offer many layers of support to ensure their well being while in our care. We have no reason to believe that any of our students were involved in, or affected by, Dr. Kellers alleged criminal behavior.

These are the facts surrounding Dr. Kellers departure from Phillips Academy. Dr. Keller was employed for 19 years as the schools physician on a year-to-year contract. In April, 2011, Phillips Academy informed Dr. Keller that his annual contract would not be renewed. Dr. Keller resigned his appointment and left the school that same month.

The reasons for the schools decision not to renew his appointment involved professional misconduct unrelated to the charges Dr. Keller faces from the US Attorneys office. The facts that led up to the schools decision not to renew Dr. Kellers contract were several; no single incident led to this decision. The salient facts include the following. In 1999, Dr. Keller was reprimanded for using an academy computer to access pornography involving adult subjects. In 2002, Dr. Keller was reprimanded for showing an inappropriate cartoon to students. Dr. Keller was also cited for poor management and poor judgment, which led the school to place him on administrative probation in 2009. In 2010, Dr. Keller sent an inappropriate voice-mail message to a colleague at the school. Dr. Keller subsequently claimed that the school had discriminated against him. The school investigated Dr. Kellers claim and determined it to be groundless. Upon conclusion of that investigation, the school informed Dr. Keller that his contract would not be renewed for violating his administrative probation.

We will continue to assist the US Attorneys office in all aspects of this investigation, while responding to the needs of our community in the days ahead. We encourage anyone with any information as it pertains to these charges to contact the US Attorneys office.

Keller has been placed on leave from his roles at Childrens Hospital and as part-instructor at Harvard Medical School, a role he has had since 1992.

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Dr. Richard Keller was reprimanded for viewing adult porn on Phillips Academy computer, head of school says

GE Healthcare pledged $32.9 million over 10 years Thursday for an imaging research facility at UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

The company and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation also announced an agreement for intellectual property and licensing practices from the research. Their 11-year collaboration has already resulted in 200 inventions and more than 80 filed U.S. patents, WARF said.

The imaging facility, to be located in the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research near UW Hospital, will focus on applications of medical imaging such as personalized medicine. For example, molecular scans of cancer patients' tumors after initial doses of chemotherapy could help doctors check if the drugs selected are best for the patients.

"That can save patients a tremendous amount of challenges associated with chemotherapy," said Dr. Thomas Grist, chairman of radiology at the UW medical school.

GE Healthcare plans to invest the $32.9 million in equipment, researchers and research support. Some equipment might be installed this year, with the imaging center expected to be fully functional by early 2014.

It will be in the second tower of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, which is expected to open by the end of 2013. The $135 million, nine-story building, supported by $67 million in state funding, will also house the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and labs focusing on cardiovascular diseases, neuroscience and other areas.

The building is part of a $600 million, three-tower hub expected to eventually house some 1,700 researchers and lab workers. No date has been set for construction of the third tower to begin.

GE Healthcare's new partnership with the medical school could create up to 100 research scientist and related jobs, press materials said. The company employs about 6,500 people in Wisconsin, including about 700 at a plant on Madison's Southeast Side.

The partnership could lead to advances like a vascular MRI scanning technique already developed through the company's partnership with the university, officials said.

"The technology that we develop here will help health care around the world, as well as right here in Wisconsin," said Tom Gentile, president and chief executive officer of the company.

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GE Healthcare pledges $32.9M for imaging research facility at UW School of Medicine

Northampton Community College's (NCC) Alumni Association will hold its annual Recipes for Success 2012 Alumni Awards Presentation on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 5:30 p.m. at Alumni Hall, Gates Center.

The honorees will be Joan Christopher 91, Distinguished Service to NCC; Walter Bartholomew 97, Distinguished Service to the Community Award; Maryann Haytmanek, Educator's Award; Michael Caruso, Honorary Alumnus Award; Tara Fetzer 06, Outstanding Young Alumna Award; Richard Patricia 89, Professional Achievement Award; and John Posh 88, President's Award.

Christopher has been a volunteer of the Alumni Associations Fundraising Committee providing support to the annual White House dinner and auction. She has freelanced for Broadcast Images, Clark Production and RCN TV4, and is a radio/TV graduate of NCC. She lives in Northampton.

Bartholomew, an NCC alumnus, is scientific advisor to Teleflex Medical, Perouse Medical and Personal Medical Devices. He is also the board director of the Lehigh Valley Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He lives in Nazareth.

Haytmanek is the project director for NCC's New Choices, KEYS and Benefits Access for College Completion programs. She serves as co-president for Pennsylvania Women Work, part of the National Network for Women's Employment. She lives in Allentown.

Caruso is the founder and board chairman of Caruso Benefits Group. He is on the Lehigh Valley Partnership board of directors and acts as chairperson of the Lehigh Tower Society for Planned Giving. He is a past president of the NCC Foundation. He lives in Bethlehem.

Fetzer, an alumna of NCC's veterinary technician program, received her doctorate in veterinary medicine from North Carolina State University. She is a small animal intern/instructor at Texas A & M University College of Veterinary Medicine. She lives in College Station, Texas.

Patricia, a radio/TV graduate of NCC, is a broadcast media art teacher at Warren County Technical School, where he was named "Teacher of the Year, 2011-12. He is also a professional videographer. He lives in Phillipsburg.

Posh is an NCC alumnus in radiographic technology, who completed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. He is the director of the MRI internship program at the University of Pennsylvania and an adjunct lecturer in radiology and forensics at Quinnipiac University. He lives in Bethlehem.

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Alumni Awards mixer held at Northampton Community College

NORTHBRIDGE An open house took place yesterday afternoon at a home designed by Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School students for two school alumni who have 10-year-old twin boys with cerebral palsy.

The students also raised money to build the specially equipped four-bedroom home on Rebecca Road for Christopher and Amy Murray and their three children, twins Michael and Eric and 7-year old Katie.

The Murrays, who currently live on Benson Road, plan to start moving into their new home Sept. 20.

Christopher is a 1992 graduate of the school, and Amy is a 1994 graduate. About 200 students at the school, including graduated drafting student Eli Lurie, who designed the house, played a major role in several facets of the home, according to school health service instructor Janice Muldoon-Moors.

It was a tremendous effort by the students at the school, she said

I am absolutely proud of the efforts of the students at the school, Valley Tech vocational coordinator Thomas R Bellard said.

Students held several fundraisers to benefit the home-building effort.

Mrs. Murray said the twins' medical condition they have spastic quadriphegia cerebral palsy means they can't move their arms and legs, which could leave them in danger if fire struck the house.

The boys attend the Kennedy Day School in Brighton.

The home is totally handicapped-accessible and includes a lift in the boys' bedroom that will get them out of bed. A powered chair will be built in their room that can take them to the specially equipped bathroom attached to the bedroom. Ms. Muldoon-Moors said the Wilcox Foundation is giving a $10,000 grant to pay for a generator that will supply power to run the special equipment if the electricity goes out.

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Valley Tech students design house for twins with cerebral palsy

NORTHBRIDGE An open house took place Wednesday afternoon at a home designed by Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School students for two school alumni who have 10-year-old twin boys with cerebral palsy.

The students also raised money to build the specially equipped four-bedroom home on Rebecca Road for Christopher and Amy Murray and their three children, twins Michael and Eric and 7-year-old Katie.

The Murrays, who currently live on Benson Road, plan to start moving into their new home Sept.20.

Christopher is a 1992 graduate of the school, and Amy is a 1994 graduate. About 200 students at the school, including graduated drafting student Eli Lurie, who designed the house, played a major role in several facets of the home, according to school health service instructor Janice Muldoon-Moors.

It was a tremendous effort by the students at the school, she said

I am absolutely proud of the efforts of the students at the school, Valley Tech vocational coordinator Thomas R Bellard said.

Students at the school also held several fundraisers to benefit the home-building effort.

Mrs. Murray said the twin boys medical condition they have spastic quadriphegia cerebral palsy means they cant move their arms and legs, which could leave them in danger if fire struck the house.

The boys attend the Kennedy Day School in Brighton.

The home is totally handicapped-accessible and includes a lift in the boys bedroom that will get them out of bed. A powered chair will be built in their room that can take them to the specially equipped bathroom attached to the bedroom. Ms. Muldoon-Moors said the Wilcox Foundation is giving a $10,000 grant to pay for a generator that will supply power to run the special equipment if the electricity goes out.

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BV students design very special home

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Imagine a place where doctors can tell patients in advance if cancer treatment will work for them, without going through an entire course of chemotherapy.

The University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health, GE Healthcare and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) today announced new agreements focused on bringing that vision to life. The agreements celebrate 30+ years of research collaboration and technology invention with an anticipated $32.9 million GE investment in a state-of-the-art imaging research facility. The center will be located in the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR), which is connected to the UW Health Sciences Learning Center and UW Hospital and Clinics.

The 10-year research agreement, under which GE research support is re-evaluated and committed annually, comprises GE Healthcare providing up to $32.9 million in anticipated research support, including cash funding, diagnostic imaging equipment and research personnel, to support its collaborative research program with UWs existing Departments of Radiology and Medical Physics, which plans to expand its research activities into additional space in WIMR.

A new patent and technology agreement between GE Healthcare and WARF governs the intellectual property and licensing practices of the research agreement. According to WARF, during the past 11 years collaborations between GE and UW researchers have resulted in nearly 200 invention disclosures, more than 80 filed U.S. patents and numerous licensing agreements and technology improvements.

Through our collaboration with GE Healthcare, we will have one of the few imaging centers in the world that brings together state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging systems with physicians, engineers and scientists focused on improving patient care and personalizing medicine, in an environment that is connected to an outstanding academic medical center at UW Hospital, said Dr. Thomas Grist, chair of the department of radiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

The center will also be a nexus for the development of new products for GE and other Wisconsin-based start-up companies that arose from research in the Departments of Radiology and Medical Physics, like Neuwave, Novellos, and Tomotherapy, Grist added.

Tom Gentile, president and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems, GE Healthcare, said the partnership will have not only a global but a local impact. GE Healthcares research collaboration with UW-Madison not only will yield significant economic benefits to the state of Wisconsin but it will enable us to partner to create protocols that will fundamentally change clinical care both here and around the world, Gentile said. I am proud of GEs longstanding relationship with these important thought leaders in medical imaging.

The agreement ushers in the next frontier of medical and imaging research, according to UW School of Medicine and Public Health Dean Robert Golden. The long and productive partnership with GE Healthcare has yielded many advancements in imaging, and we look forward to the next era in research, said Golden.

Additional research programs anticipated through the joint UW/GE Healthcare program include:

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UW, GE Announce Anticipated $32.9MM Investment toward Next Frontier in Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology

Sen. Ron Stollings honored with Marshall med school award

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- During its annual alumni gathering last weekend, the Marshall University School of Medicine gave Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, its 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Stollings was celebrating his 30th class reunion from the medical school.

"I was eternally honored to receive the medical school's second Distinguished Alumnus Award," Stollings said. "It was great to see my fellow classmates.

"During my response last Friday evening, I shared the award with all the significant mentors on my life. Many were in the room," Stollings said.

Dr. Elizabeth Spangler, now at the Charleston Area Medical Center, received the first Distinguished Alumnus Award from Marshall's medical school.

Stollings is board certified and specializes in internal medicine today. Previously, he was also certified in geriatric medicine for 10 years.

Stollings is a partner of the Madison Medical Group in downtown Madison, along with Dr. Robert Adkins and Dr. Mark Snyder.

"I thanked my fellow physicians for covering for me and allowing me to do all the public service I have done over the years."

First elected to the West Virginia Senate in 2006, Stollings is now chairman of the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.

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Sen. Ron Stollings honored with Marshall med school award

Vicki Sato, professor of management practice, Harvard Business School

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Its no surprise that a pervading theme at a conference Monday sponsored jointly by Pfizer Inc. and the Harvard Business School Health Industry Alumni Association was the growing trend toward partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and academia.

What was a surprise, however, was the time and attention focused on the limits of such partnerships at this weeks event, titled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Drug Discovery and Development: Emerging Business Trends in Biomedicine. Conflict of interest issues in recent years - some of which have involved Harvard Medical School itself - were addressed by many of the speakers, including, notably, a talk by Jeffrey Flier, dean of Harvard Medical School.

But one speaker with the distinction of being on both sides of the equation - in academia as well as industry - was Vicki Sato, former president and chief scientific officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and vice president of research at Biogen Inc. who now serves as a professor at Harvard. She said that research partnerships between universities and pharmaceutical companies are needed more than ever as industry doesnt have the money to spend on discovery, and universities - which are short on funds themselves - are looking for corporate sponsors. Whether such partnerships have been a benefit to either side yet, she said, is yet to be seen.

The jury is still out, because weve yet to see sustained medical output from one of these partnerships, Sato said from the podium of the Joseph P. Martin Conference Center on the Harvard Medical School campus.

Sato said that strict conflict of interest rules have changed the dynamic between industry and academia. We no longer trade pens with Pfizer. We now trade lab notes, she said. But the fundamental differences in the end goal of each side - academia to do pure research, and pharmaceutical companies to make drugs - lead to inevitable tensions over the amount of secrecy needed, ownership of new discoveries, speed of research and mutual financial dependence, she said.

Sato sees a middle ground between pure and applied research for which she uses the term Pasteurs quadrant, taken from a 1997 book of the same name by Donald Stokes. She said that historically, drug companies have approached research from the standpoint of practical invention, in the style of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb through trial and error. She used the term, Edisonian quadrant to describe a mode of research driven toward a specific end goal.

For many years, pharmaceutical science was very much in that quadrant... now were in a different place in how we think about drug discovery, she said. Namely, she said, in a kind of research which is aimed both at expanding the body of knowledge as well as finding new drugs. While such an approach may be new to both sides, and comes with its own tensions, she said the key will be getting young people involved, looking for the right problems to solve, and, of course, a big commitment of money.

The evolution of drug discovery is one of collaboration. Were discovering together, she said.

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Sato: Academic-pharma partnerships fraught with tension

LAKE FOREST, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Move over, gamers avatars arent just for entertainment anymore. While most graduate business schools prepare their MBA students for the world of business that awaits them after graduation, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (LFGSM) is changing the game by immersing a new cohort of students into that world of business through an innovative approach to learning. In LFGSMs new Immersion MBA (iMBA) program, part-time students live out the experiences of business by being the primary actors in a simulated corporate environment where colleagues are avatars and business problems play out on the computer screen rather than through case studies in a classroom. This virtual-reality curriculum is available anywhere in the world, and takes LFGSMs 66-year heritage and its expertise in providing practical business learning from 100% business leaders to a new, and perhaps unexpected, level.

Lake Forest iMBA students will graduate not just with a degree, but with a degree of meaningful experience, explains LFGSM President and CEO John Popoli. As more and more millennials join the workforce, it is increasingly critical that they can demonstrate a true understanding of how business works. Imagine being a hiring manager choosing between two candidates for a job both candidates each have a bachelors degree and two years of work experience in a marketing department, but one candidate has an MBA through which she participated in mergers and acquisitions, projects to improve manufacturing efficiency, sensitive HR issues, and financial analysis. Who would you hire or promote?

Since its founding in 1946, Lake Forest Graduate School has been the Chicago areas only independent, not-for-profit, accredited business school that focuses exclusively on serious working professionals. Its flagship program, the Leadership MBA, has graduated more than 8,000 alumni and has produced entrepreneurs, not-for-profit executives, and C-level leaders across the Fortune 500. Historically, the kind of rigorous, practical learning available in the Leadership MBA program was only available to candidates with significant work experience; the average Leadership MBA student at Lake Forest is 38 years old with 14 years of professional experience. Now, LFGSM has developed a way to offer the unique value and experience of its practical MBA model to aspiring professionals who have as little as one year of work experience. The Immersion Master in Business Administration (iMBA) is a different path to the Lake Forest MBA credential, and one that is best suited to professionals early in their careers who want to rapidly develop and practice critical business skills.

A typical student in our Leadership MBA program, explained LFGSM Vice President of R&D and Innovation, Kathy Leck, is an Abbott scientist, a CDW sales manager, a marketer from Kraft, a Motorola engineer, or an Allstate finance professional. Those professionals come to Lake Forest Graduate School mid-way through their careers to help them get a broader perspective outside their area of functional expertise and to work on their leadership skills so they can rise even higher. Our new iMBA program, on the other hand, attracts professionals earlier in their business careers when they have perhaps just a few years of experience, or when they are transitioning from a non-business career, like nursing or the military. iMBA students are men and women who like to learn by doing and are looking for a chance to earn a been there, done that perspective on how organizations really run, but dont want to wait another 10 or 15 years into their career to get that perspective.

What makes the iMBA program so powerful and unique is not that its delivered online, but that its virtual reality learning environment engages students emotionally and intellectually, and leaves them with memorable, sticky learning that they can apply on the job right away and for years to come. The virtual reality platform for the iMBA takes what we know to be effective about other kinds of simulated learning like flight simulators for pilots and surgical simulators for medical students and applies it to the world of business, where the stakes are arguably higher than ever. Mentoring, networking and career services are built into the program, too.

Students in the iMBA program become management trainees in a simulated manufacturing company, where they spend time in each of the fictional companys key departments, such as finance, marketing and human resources, corresponding to the curriculum. They interact with other classmates from various geographies, computer-generated colleagues and customers inside the online platform, and business-leader faculty from the Chicagoland area and beyond encountering and handling situations they will eventually face in the actual corporate world. LFGSM faculty members help students translate the learning to their current jobs and understand how their performance in the virtual reality informs their careers.

We feel immersion-based learning is the next generation of online education. LFGSM iMBA students will have an advantage over their peers in the job market, having already interacted, managed and navigated a corporate environment, says Popoli. We can offer employers graduates who already have hands-on experience in multiple departments. And what we offer to students is powerful and unique. With an estimated 60% of millennials wanting to start their own businesses someday, the practical approach of the iMBA allows these future business owners to experience major business scenarios in the safety of the virtual environment.

The program is ideal for aspiring leaders seeking a career boost as well as those transitioning out of non-business professions. LFGSMs iMBA program enables students who may be unfamiliar with the corporate world to confidently and quickly gain practical experience they can add to their resumes.

The 22-month MBA program is 100% online and is designed to fit into busy schedules. Admission requirements include a Bachelors degree and at least one year of professional work experience. To learn more about the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management iMBA, view a program demo now, fill out the inquiry form at http://www.immersion.lfgsm.edu or contact an enrollment counselor at 800-890-7340.

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Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Introduces the Next Generation of Online Learning