Eight of ϳԹ’s health care experts—with fields ranging from neurology to dental medicine—earned spots on this year’s Crain’s Cleveland Business for excellence in their fields.
The recognition “puts the spotlight on those working each day to improve the lives and health of those in NEO.”
Of the 14 Northeast Ohio health care professionals designated as this year’s Health Care Heroes, eight have faculty connections to ϳԹ:
- Francis Afram-Gyening, adjunct instructor of epidemiology and biostatistics;
- Linda Bradley, professor of surgery at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine;
- Alfred Connors, professor of medicine and senior associate dean for the MetroHealth System at ϳԹ;
- Suchitra Nelson, professor of community dentistry and assistant dean of clinical and translational research at the School of Dental Medicine;
- Ronald Riechers, assistant professor of neurology;
- Cathy Sila, the George M Humphrey II Chair in Neurology;
- Charles Wellman, clinical assistant professor of medicine; and
- Jackson T. Wright, emeritus professor of medicine.
Alfred Connors—Lifetime Achievement Award
Alfred Connors has played an instrumental role in improving the quality of care patients in Cuyahoga County—and beyond. As a teacher, he’s trained countless students who have gone on to become successful doctors. As a researcher, he’s worked extensively to enhance care of the critically ill and care at the end of life. And as a senior leadership member at MetroHealth, he’s instituted changes that have greatly improved the quality of care available to Cleveland-area residents. For all of those contributions to the community and the medical field in general, Connors was named the Crain’s Cleveland Business 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient. Here at ϳԹ, Connors has given lung physiology lectures to School of Medicine students for 31 years, a pursuit for which he was honored in 1991 with the Kaiser-Permanente Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also serves as the senior associate dean for the MetroHealth System for ϳԹ. Connors’ research has had far-reaching implications. He was principal investigator of the Cleveland site on the Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatments (SUPPORT). This study demonstrated how patients died in American hospitals and prompted increased use of advance directives, palliative care and hospice care for patients at the end of life. As part of SUPPORT, Connors also was lead author of a study of the effectiveness of right heart catheterization in critically ill patients—finding that, while the method was used 2.5 million times a year, it was largely ineffective in improving outcomes for patients. As a result, the method is used infrequently today.Francis Afram-Gyening
Francis Afram-Gyening began helping those experiencing homelessness in 2003 by volunteering three hours a month at Camillus House, Camillus Health Concern in Miami. When the opportunity arose to relocate to Cleveland in 2007 to provide leadership at an organization that provides health care to those most in need, Afram-Gyening seized at the opportunity. Now, as president and CEO of the nonprofit Care Alliance Health Center, Afram-Gyening leads an effort to provide high quality medical, dental, behavior health, podiatry, pharmacy and physical therapy services to those experiencing homelessness or living in or around public housing in Cleveland. Under Afram-Gyening’s leadership and with the support and guidance from Care Alliance board of directors, the organization recently opened a flagship location in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood—one of the most impoverished neighborhood’s in the city. Meanwhile, he serves as an adjunct professor of school of public health at ϳԹ, educating the next generation of health-care leaders.Linda Bradley
Internationally known for her work in gynecologic surgery, Linda Bradley has advanced the field for more than 20 years in Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She holds a shared professorship in surgery at School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Women in Northeast Ohio have benefited from her many areas of expertise, including:- Diagnostic and operative hysteroscopy,
- Endometrial ablation,
- Alternatives to hysterectomy,
- Hysteroscopic sterilization and the
- Evaluation of abnormal uterine bleeding.
