Newsbriefs Development management team adds two new members ----------------------------------------------------------------- Robert R. Lindgren, vice president for development and alumni relations, has announced two appointments to the institutional development staff. Jan M. Corazza, previously executive assistant to the vice president and director of principal prospects, now serves as executive director for campaign and development operations. As of May 8, Mary K. Blair, who served 10 years as associate director of the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine, will become executive director for divisional and regional programs. The two join Steve Martin, Jerry Schnydman, Erv Sekulow and John Zeller on Lindgren's campaign and management team. "I am fortunate to have such a superb team as momentum builds for our $900 million campaign, the Johns Hopkins Initiative," Lindgren said. Hopkins joins consortium for study abroad program in Berlin ----------------------------------------------------------------- The university has announced the launch of a new yearlong study abroad program in Berlin for its undergraduates. Hopkins German Department chairman David Wellbery said the lure of studying in a city on the verge of becoming Europe's economic Goliath will attract Hopkins students specializing in a variety of academic fields. "Berlin is such an exciting place to be right now," said Dr. Wellbery. "Many people are calling it Europe's economic capital. It has certainly become the major crossing point between East and West Europe. And culturally, it is a wonderful, vibrant place." The program is the product of a consortium with the University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University. Associate dean for academic affairs Carol Burke said the consortium is modeled after a similar, successful program created by the same universities, excluding Hopkins, in Japan. "It's a real advantage for us to be part of this consortium," Dr. Burke said. "We haven't been able to start any overseas study programs on our own because of our relatively small student size. We do, however, allow our students to use programs from other schools. Unfortunately, because they are not Hopkins programs, we don't have any real academic quality control of the courses they take." The Free University of Berlin, eager to establish ties with the West, has donated a villa in Berlin that will serve as the consortium's headquarters. Students will be housed in dorms at the university. For every five students a university sends, that university will accept one Free University of Berlin graduate student, Dr. Burke said. To apply for the program, Hopkins students have to show second-year, college-level proficiency in German. When they arrive in Berlin, they will take a six-week intensive language course. From there on, they will work with a professor from one of the consortium universities staying in Berlin to chart out their curriculum. The program will cost the same as a normal year at Hopkins, excluding travel costs. Students will be able to participate in the program in the 1996 spring semester. After that semester, the program will be offered for a full year. Report shows potential medical costs savings for Baltimore area ----------------------------------------------------------------- In anticipation of increased managed care, researchers at the School of Public Health released a report on Friday that shows the types and amount of savings that health-care providers in the greater Baltimore area could realize if hospitals reduced their number of beds and medical specialists. The projections were based on experiences of four other metropolitan areas that are similar to Baltimore in size but more advanced in using integrated health care delivery systems. "We wanted to demonstrate that the Baltimore area has an opportunity to manage the changes that are going to occur in health care delivery, rather than let those changes force us to adapt without planning," said Gerard Anderson, professor of health policy and management and the lead researcher for the Midatlantic Healthcare Purchasing Coalition, which funded the report. The report, which compared use-rates in Hartford, Conn., Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Francisco and Seattle, indicates that up to one-third of the current patient days could be eliminated in Baltimore area hospitals and one-third of the hospital beds could be eliminated. The reductions could be achieved by either downsizing, saving an estimated $159 to $394 million per year, or closing some hospitals, potentially saving $265 to $657 million annually. Based on an estimate that 50 percent of the population will be enrolled in HMOs, the report also estimated that as much as $364 million could be saved by reducing the number of medical specialists. For a complete copy of Dr. Anderson's report, call 955-6878. SHPH program helps motivate contraception use in Zimbabwe ----------------------------------------------------------------- At the halftime show in a Zimbabwe soccer match, actors dressed as a giant condom, birth control pill, IUD and an injectable contraceptive danced around a couple, encouraging them to use family planning. The match--the 1994 Family Planning Challenge Cup--was part of a multimedia campaign designed to involve men in family planning decisions. The campaign, conducted by the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council with technical assistance from the School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs, was a follow-up to the first Male Motivation Campaign held in 1988-89. The current campaign reached more than a million men and women with the dual goal of involving men and promoting the use of modern, long-term methods of birth control. About 80 percent of family planning users in Zimbabwe now use the pill. Campaign planners developed their communications strategy on the premise that men have a great influence in many couples' family planning decisions. They reasoned that involving men would encourage women to use the desired contraceptive methods. Reports from 23 health facilities showed that the campaign reversed a downward trend in overall contraceptive use. During and after the campaign, demand for all methods of contraception increased, with long-term and permanent methods showing the largest gains. Use of long-term methods reversed course and more than doubled by the end of the campaign.