Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System

While still in medical school, David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc saved his own life by repurposing an existing drug to treat his rare Castleman disease. Now, he's using AI algorithms to find other uses for FDA-approved drugs, with the same goal in mind: providing hope and lifesaving care to patients struggling with rare conditions.

David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc saved his own life by repurposing an existing FDA-approved drug to treat his rare Castleman disease. Now, he's doing the same for others who have run out of options. Joseph Coates was diagnosed with POEMS syndrome and about to be put on hospice care when his partner, Tara, reached out to Dr. Fajgenbaum for help. Using AI technology, Dr. Fajgenbaum and his team were able to find a drug that helped Joseph get healthy enough to receive a lifesaving stem cell transplant. Watch their moving story and see how Penn Medicine's focus on patient impact helps propel discoveries like this one forward:

Help us congratulate Charles Nelson, MD, on his recent induction to the presidency of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, where he will help to maintain the high quality of patient care through the board certification process for all US and Canadian orthopaedic surgeons.

Peripheral artery disease with long-segment femoropopliteal chronic total occlusion (CTO) presents limited therapeutic options. The DETOUR™ System (PTAB) offers a percutaneous alternative to open bypass surgery, even in patients with prior interventions. At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, this approach helps restore blood flow while minimizing hospitalization, recovery time, and procedural risk.

Surgeons at Penn Medicine are at the forefront of using augmented reality in spine surgery, which allows them to visualize and navigate the intricate structures of the spine for greater precision and safety. “Augmented reality allows us to superimpose a 3D rendering of the pre-operative CT scan into our glasses, exactly over the actual anatomy inside the patient in real-time, directly where I’m looking,” says John H. Shin, MD, MBA, director of the Penn Spine Center. “Here at Penn Medicine, we are really driving innovation in advanced technologies, like augmented reality, which can make surgery safer and arms surgeons with the best tools possible.”