Alumni Support Jefferson Through Service and Giving

On Wednesday, June 29th, the Department of Surgery hosted a reception to recognize Melvin Moses, MD, FACS, for his contributions and many years of service. Dr. Moses graduated from Jefferson Medical College (JMC) in 1962 and remained at Jefferson for his residency training and three separate clinical and research fellowships. He joined the hospital surgical staff in 1970 and became a JMC faculty member in 1982. In 1990, Dr. Moses was named the Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery, Methodist Hospital Division of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH), where he remained for the duration of his career- a career teeming with awards and diverse leadership roles. He served as President of the Medical Staff at TJUH from July 1999 to June 2001, received the JMC Leon A. Peris Memorial Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and Superior Patient Care in 2000 and implemented “Crew Resource Management” in the Methodist operating rooms in 2008. This strategy (originally developed for the aviation industry) aims to reduce medical errors. Methodist Hospital also paid tribute to Dr. Moses recently by presenting a portrait in his honor that hangs just inside the hospital’s main entrance on Broad Street. The Department of Surgery is the grateful beneficiary of $100,000 from the estate of Mrs. Maida M. Wichern to establish the Homer E. Wichern, MD, Class of S’44 Surgical Fellowship Fund, in honor of her late husband. Dr. Wichern graduated from Jefferson Medical College in the second of two classes for the year 1944, known as the Class of September 1944. During World War II, Jefferson students were placed on an accelerated curriculum in an effort to provide 500 to 600 new doctors by 1945. Students during these years completed medical school in three years instead of four. Dr. Wichern practiced surgery at Iowa Health - Des Moines for many years. He passed away in 1988. His widow, and wife of 46 years, Maida, died in December 2010. The Wichern’s endowed gift to Jefferson will remain in perpetuity with income from the fund supporting the surgical fellowship program each year. The fund will support the department’s well qualified post graduate trainees as they acquire advanced knowledge and skill in their particular fields of specialty. The department currently offers fellowships in transplant surgery, colorectal surgery, vascular & endovascular surgery, minimally invasive surgery and hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery, and will be initiating a bariatric surgery fellowship in July 2012. For additional information about planned giving, or to make a contribution to the Department of Surgery, please contact Lara Goldstein in the Jefferson Foundation at 215-955-8797 or lara.goldstein@jefferson.edu