School Of Medicine

John Nicholas Diaconis, a Baltimore radiologist and medical professor who had been acting chairman of the department of radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine during the 1970s, died Sunday of cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts, at Gilchrist Hospice Center. The longtime Timonium resident was 74. Dr. Diaconis was born in Pittsburgh and moved with his family to Folcroft Street in East Baltimore after his parents established an Eastern Avenue bakery. He was a 1951 graduate of City College and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1955.

* Debbie Fleischman, a member of the Howard County General Hospital care team for 19 years, has been appointed director of the hospital's clinical education. She will be responsible for patient and staff education, quality improvement initiatives and grant and policy development, as well as community/business partnerships. Fleischmann is formerly the administrative director of Emergency Services. She holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Baltimore.

Having trouble concentrating? Can't sit still? Are you disorganized and always late? If so, and if you've always been that way, it might not be a flaw in your personality but a genuine clinical disorder known as adult ADHD. Everyone's heard of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, but left undiagnosed and untreated, it can carry over into adulthood, says Dr. David W. Goodman, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland in Lutherville.

Whooping cough sounds like one of those old-fashioned diseases that only the heroines of Victorian novels get. But whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious and sometimes fatal illness that has been on the rise in the United States in recent years, says Virginia Keane, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and president of the Maryland chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics. What is whooping cough? A bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis.

On February 4, 2009, LAURA MEACHAM WILSON, of Brooklandville, beloved wife of Bruce P. Wilson; devoted mother of Jay M. Wilson, Barbara W. Schweizer, Katharine W. Denby and Laura W. Werntz; cherished grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of six. The family will welcome friends at a reception at The Elkridge Club, 6100 N. Charles St., on Saturday, February 14 from 4 to 6 P.M. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Laura's name may be made to...

Dr. James Frenkil, a retired internist who practiced industrial and occupational medicine, died of pneumonia complications Saturday at his Northwest Baltimore home. He was 96. "As one of the oldest living graduates of the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, he was a source of strength to all of us when he came to reunions and university affairs," said Dr. E. Albert Reece, the school's dean. "James was a kind, gentle, generous and warm person. When he extended his hand, it was a shake of friendship, indicating 'My pal.' " Born in Baltimore and raised on Fernhill Avenue, he was a 1930 graduate of Forest Park High School, where he won a Mid-Atlantic Championship medal for pole vaulting.

Stem cell research pioneer Dr. Curt I. Civin has been named to lead the new Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The move ends Civin's 30-year career at the Johns Hopkins University's medical school. He takes with him 15 of his postdoctoral fellows and $21.5 million in research funding. Civin's work at Hopkins led in 1984 to the discovery of a key technology for isolating stem cells from other blood cells, critical for study and transplantation into patients.