THE NMDINFO NEWS
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In Memorium

Mark A. Wineinger, M.D.

September 7, 1953 – June 19, 2004

Mark A. Wineinger, dedicated physician and teacher, husband and father, lost a valiant fight to brain cancer on Saturday, June 19, 2004. He was surrounded by the family and friends he loved during his last days as he continued to be involved in teaching of students and resident doctors whom he served over the years as a tremendous physician and human role model.

Dr. Wineinger was a native of Indiana. Born in Gary, he attended Purdue University where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975. He then attended Indiana University School of Medicine and was awarded his M.D. degree in 1979. He served his internship at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Oakland, CA, after which he joined the staff of the Oakland Naval Hospital as a General Medical Officer. The next years were some that he treasured; first at flight surgeon training at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, Florida, followed by two years as a U.S. Navy, Flight Surgeon (Aviation / Occupational Medicine and Emergency Room) with the 2 nd Marine Air Wing at Cherry Point, NC. This enthusiasm for flying was reflected in his favorite movie, Top Gun, and his favorite television program, JAG.

Back in civilian life Dr. Wineinger completed his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. This was followed by appointment as an Instructor, a Mayo Foundation Scholar and a Senior Associate Consultant at the Mayo Clinic. His inquisitive mind led him to a National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) fellowship in the Department of Human Physiology at the University of California, Davis where he began investigations on the effect of aging on the function of injured muscles in a rat model. Upon completion of the fellowship Dr. Wineinger joined the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UC, Davis where he went from being a visiting assistant professor to assistant professor to associate professor. As a faculty member he continued his research work with NIDRR as a project director at the NIDRR funded Center for the Study of Neuromuscular Diseases at UC Davis. Prior to his diagnosis with brain cancer, in addition to directing one of the projects, he served from 1994-1998 as the Director of the NIDRR Rehabilitation Research and Training center in Neuromuscular Diseases. He continued as a project director from 1998 until December 2003.

Fittingly, his first committee positions as a faculty member at UC Davis were on the Continuous Quality Improvement Committee, the Bioethics Committee and Medical School Admissions Committee. His scientific side was also recognized by his serving on the Magnetic Resonance Users Group Committee. He was on the cutting edge in adapting the latest scientific techniques to his projects. In 1998 he received the Excellence in Writing Award for the Best Paper presented by The Association of Academic Physiatrists.

Dr. Wineinger was a compassionate, empathetic physician, caring for his patients, students and his fellow physicians. He was a role model for his fellow faculty physicians, as well as the medical students and the resident physicians who served under him. He was a dedicated teacher and always received superb evaluations by medical students and medical residents. His compassion was also demonstrated by his desire to serve the underserved as the attending physician at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, a state correctional facility, and as the attending physician at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Sacramento. He was a pastor to his patients and, even in the academic university atmosphere, did not hesitate to go out of his way to make house calls to visit a patient in need.

As one of the UC Davis resident physicians recently stated, “Dr. Wineinger not only taught me to be a better physician, he also taught me to be a better person.“ The care and compassion of Dr. Wineinger will be greatly missed, but will live on in the many lives that he touched: family, friends, students, fellow workers and fellow physicians.

Gratefulness Practices Sweeten Life's Circumstances:
	A ground-breaking series of experiments conducted by RRTC/NMD researcher Professor Robert Emmons at UC Davis suggests that counting your blessings makes you happier. Abstract of research may be viewed at Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, Vol. 84, No. 2, 377–389. For more information about Dr. Emmons and this story, contact: Susanne Rockwell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu.
Evaluation and Treatment of Respiratory Complications in Neuromuscular Diseases.
	This summary of online resources alerts physicians to recent information on the evaluation of respiratory function and management of ventilatory support in patients with neuromuscular diseases. It also contains valuable information that can help guide patients in selecting treatment options.
Pain Management in Neuromuscular Diseases.
	Pain is often an unrecognized and undertreated complication of living with a neuromuscular disease.
Roundtable 2001: Role of Physical Activity and Exercise Training in Neuromuscular Diseases
	Top clinicians and researchers (pdf 1.8 MB) in the fields of exercise physiology and medical rehabilitation convened in the Fall of 2001 to discuss current knowledge, identify research gaps, and outline future research goals. Conference proceedings were published as a Supplement to the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, November 2002, and are now available online.
	Related Links: Selected Roundtable 2001 Presentations for Classroom Instruction.
MDA Scientists Find New Disease Mechanism Causes Common Dystrophy
	TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 9, 2002 - Scientists funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the FSH Society have shown that a unique defect in gene regulation, never before seen in human disease, causes one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy. The finding offers hope for people with the disease, and might hold clues to the causes of other puzzling diseases, including insulin-dependent diabetes and bladder cancer. For more information visit the MDA Web Site.

Liusuwan A, Widman L, Abresch RT,McDonald CM Altered body composition affects resting energy expenditure and interpretation of body mass index in children with spinal cord injury.(J Spinal Cord Med.;27 Suppl 1:S24-8 2004)

Aitkens S, Kilmer DD, Wright NC, McCrory, MA Metabolic Syndrome in Neuromuscular Disease (In press Arch Phys Med & Rehab 2004)

McDonald CM, Widman L, Walsh DD, et al Use of step activity monitoring for continuous physical activity assessment in chldren with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (In press Arch Phys Med & Rehab 2004)

Smith CO, Lipe HP, Bird TD Impact of Presymptomatic Genetic Testing for Hereditary Ataxia and Neuromuscular Disorders (Arch Neurol 2004 Jun;61(6):875-80)

McDonald CM, Widman L, Abresch RT, et al Utility of a step activity monitor for the measurement of daily ambulatory activity in children (In press Arch Phys Med & Rehab 2004)

Jensen MP, Abresch RT,Carter GT, McDonald CM Chronic pain in persons with neuromuscular disease (In press Arch Phys Med & Rehab 2004)

Fitts RH. Effects of regular exercise training on skeletal muscle contractile function. (Apr;82(4):320-31 2003) [Medline]

Carter GT, Hecht TW, Han JJ, Weise MD: Multidisciplinary care of adult motor neuron disease: The ALS Center. In: Grabois M, Henely EJ(eds). Critical Reviews in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. New York, Begel House, Inc, Vol 15, 2003.

Emmons RA, McCullough ME. Counting blessings vs. burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. J Pers Soc Psychol 2003;84(2):377-89. [Medline]

Krivickas LS, Carter GT: Motor neuron disease. In: DeLisa JA,(ed). Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Principles and Practice, 4th edition. Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins, 2003.