The key to nursing across three continents? Empathy
Abheena Jacob, BSN, RN, MEDSURG-BC, an award-winning night shift nurse in Pennsylvania Hospital’s Medical-Surgical unit, joined Penn Medicine in 2017. Her nursing experience spans over 18 years and three continents, beginning nearly 8,000 miles away in India. Here, she shares…
Breaking through the mysteries of predicting coma recovery
In November 2023, Cassie Wolfe had not regained consciousness. Her mother, Ann Louise, spent long, agonizing days by her bed, willing her to wake up and holding on to all hope that she would. The last time the world saw…
not your typical primary care
Travel back in time to 2017—even though it wasn’t that long ago, the world of health care looked different than it does today. This was the year Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health debuted the first Penn Medicine HealthWorks clinic to…
This HR leader hears, heeds, and helps those who heal others
By Abby Alten Schwartz There’s a radiance that beams from Kenya Pitt, MA, MBA, chief human resources (HR) officer for Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC). It’s easy to imagine her walking through the hospital, lighting up each person she encounters…
A medical student learns the meaning of patient trust
By Ella Eisinger Ella Eisinger Ella Eisinger is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The essay below was a winner in this year’s American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s Building Trust Essay Contest,…
Gender-affirming care and a future “not in the shadows”
Klauser performing earlier this year. Photo by Eric Lee. As a lifelong performer who began her professional career singing opera music and now produces music for other artists, teaches aspiring musicians, and has performed with many different musical projects over…
Charting a new frontier with psychedelic drugs
Are psychedelic drugs about to begin a long, strange trip toward use in a clinical setting? Or do the challenges of studying psychedelics, and the ethical risks of therapy, raise too many questions to introduce them into mainstream medicine? As…
Welcoming the first babies from Penn Fertility in Lancaster
Ashlee (right) is holding Eleanor who is two years old this month and her partner Lauren (left) is holding Edie who was born in February 2024. When Ashlee Rineer and her wife Lauren began fertility treatments in 2020 they were…
How adverse childhood events can exacerbate substance use
Physical and sexual abuse, having parents who misuse substances, and witnessing violent crime are tragic events that don’t remain locked in a single point in time. Rather, they are termed adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and 64 percent of American adults…
The art and science of cancer care
Photo by © ASCO/Phil McCarten 2024 Lynn Schuchter, MD, recently completed her term as the 2023-2024 President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)—the leading professional society for cancer care—as part of a career that began at Penn Medicine…
Stream Award-Winning Documentary on Penn’s CAR T Cancer Cure
The award-winning documentary “Of Medicine and Miracles” details the emotional journey of one family alongside a team of Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) doctors who developed a revolutionary cancer cure with CAR T cell therapy technology and…
How ‘invitations’ brought mammogram rates up
The first few waves of COVID-19 slowed life across the United States, affecting everything from attending school to eating out for dinner and going on vacation. Segments of health care were also affected: Services that were not considered immediately crucial…
Providing medical care on professional golf’s biggest stage
U.S. Women’s Open Trophy at Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, PA. Copyright USGA/ Jason E. Miczek Beginning May 28, more than 100,000 spectators will line the fairways at the Lancaster Country Club for the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship. While…
Trust, equity, and hospitals’ ‘front door’
Emergency departments are hospitals’ “front door,” so Penn Medicine is doing everything it can to make them a trusted space for everyone.
Concrete steps to preventing violence in the workplace
By Kevin B. Mahoney Chief Executive Officer University of Pennsylvania Health System The statistics are daunting: U.S. health care workers are five times more likely to experience workplace violence than employees in other industries, according to government reports. A Press Ganey survey…
How nurses and other staff are training to de-escalate threats
By Abby Alten Schwartz You’re an emergency department (ED) nurse on a hectic Saturday night. A patient has been waiting for hours to be seen. He’s in pain, but a dozen people ahead of him have more urgent needs. Suddenly,…
It’s all in the family for these bone marrow transplant nurses
“Each member of the family—Jackie, Rachel, and Kim—touched an important part of this patient’s care journey,” said David Porter, MD, director of Cell Therapy and Transplant, pictured at left with the three nurses. The patient was at the Hospital of…
One patient’s gene mutation could save others from ‘2nd skeleton’
Fred Kaplan, MD “I’ve seen about a thousand patients worldwide with FOP,” said Fred Kaplan, MD, a professor of Orthopaedic Molecular Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Most of them are immobilized by the…
A Penn team’s push to make research more inclusive
Research is a driving force of medical progress—but is it truly inclusive of the voices and experiences of those it seeks to help? The way research is conducted can often leave out important voices, like people from underrepresented racial and…
When studies conflict, how can you know which meds work?
One day you hear that red wine is good for your heart. The next day, it’s not. The same goes for chocolate. And coffee. The see-saw of contradicting information isn’t anything new, but what happens when clinicians hear conflicting studies…
From Lancaster to Peru, a social worker sows seeds of service
Maria Del Carpio grew up in Sabandia, a hilly village in rural Peru, where nearly half of the population lives in poverty. Even as a child, she noticed the stark disparity between her own comfortable existence and that of her…
Evolving the use of incentives to treat stimulant use disorder
Are gift cards and cash one way to help ease the drug overdose crisis? The number of overdose deaths in the United States has doubled since 2015, exceeding 106,000 deaths in 2023. Although the overdose crisis is commonly referred to…
Meet the Penn doctor leading the way with TAVR innovation
In the world of cardiovascular medicine, the advent of the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure stands as a transformative milestone, rewriting the narrative for people suffering from severe aortic stenosis, a serious condition that narrows the aortic valve in…
Treating the whole patient: Bridging oncology and wellness
Jennie Barbieri, MD, FACP A cancer diagnosis 20 years, even 10 years ago, meant something different than it does today. With today’s advanced treatment options, including chemotherapy and radiation, Proton therapy, CAR T cell therapy, and other forms of immunotherapy,…
Princeton Health’s Three Wishes Project fulfills last requests
Overnight, the Three Wishes Project organized a surprise birthday party for patient Devyn. The patient was dying of cancer. All options for saving or prolonging their life had been exhausted. Now, the patient most wanted to spend one more carefree,…
How the next generation of physicians will combat climate change
Farah Hussain, MD It started with sea anemones at a college lab. As an undergrad in Swarthmore College’s marine biology program, Farah Hussain, MD, used the organisms to study coral bleaching, where a coral turns white from stressors like high…
How Penn Medicine Staff are Making Health Care Sustainable
Mim Lambros, an equipment planning specialist, is repurposing furniture throughout LG Health facilities. Every April, people worldwide come together to celebrate Earth Day, bringing attention to new ways we can better treat our environment. People working in health care have…
Answering patients’ cancer questions for 30 years and counting
Heather and Rich Badt in the summer of 2023 When Heather Badt and her husband learned within a week and a half of each other that they both had cancer, she felt like she had another question every hour. Badt…
Lessons in empathy and curiosity from Penn’s Trauma Center
During the second semester of their junior year, most high school students are hunkering down as they prepare to apply to college in the fall: focusing on schoolwork to get their GPA as high as possible, touring college campuses, and…
Penn celebrates Match Day 2024
MD/PhD candidate Joseph Aicher, bound for the University of Michigan, hugs his wife Bernadette Bucher, PhD, while Peter (in wagon) and Madeleine look on. The Jordan Medical Education Center fifth floor lobby was brimming with giddy nerves and excitement on…
LG Health employee’s “pawsitively” inspiring volunteer journey
For over 20 years, Maria Wright, BSN, RN has served others as a nurse, first as an LPN and working her way up to RN in 2020 and BSN in 2022. Now a Rehab Case Manager with the Neuro Recovery…
Small gifts spread joy and comfort for hospitalized patients
Vascular surgery patient Debra Samuels, shown here with nurses Sara Tarangelo, left, and Kelsey Long, was always thrilled to receive her favorite Starbucks drink. One day during Debra Samuels’ lengthy stay on the vascular surgery unit at the Hospital of…
Mapping pancreatic cancer to improve immunotherapy
Penn Medicine researchers are repurposing an old technique in the hopes of improving the success rate of immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
Bringing the Hospital Home
Michelle and Steve Lengle Since his 2020 diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, Steve Lengle has had good and bad days. The bad days are becoming more frequent as his condition continues to decline, causing debilitating pain, weakness, and fatigue, and affecting…
A Living Legend of Health Equity in Stroke and Heart Disease
By Queen Muse The name Edward S. Cooper adorns a bustling internal medicine practice at Penn Medicine in University City. The patients who come for a variety of routine medical care every day might not know the story behind the…
A personal companion to heart health—starting with your thumbs
Imagine having a personal health companion by your side, guiding you towards a healthier heart every step of the way. Heart experts at Penn Medicine have created a tool that, they say, can fill that very role through text messaging. …
Penn’s Wheelchair Clinic makes orders easy
Shortly after I was born, my parents noticed I had severe muscle weakness, and I was eventually diagnosed with Central Core Disease, a rare (but thankfully non-progressive) muscle disease that weakens and quickly fatigues just about every muscle in the…
The art of cancer recovery
Rohlfing’s paintings are inspired by fallen leaves and petals on her neighborhood walks. Ginger Mimmo Rohlfing was staring down breast cancer. To shift her attention away from the frightening diagnosis and the overwhelming thought of upcoming appointments, Rohlfing, a mother…
What Makes a Breakthrough?
In popular culture, scientific discovery is often portrayed in “Eureka!” moments of sudden realization: a lightbulb moment, coming sometimes by accident. But in real life—and in Penn Medicine’s rich history as a scientific innovator for more than 250 years—scientific…
Building a more diverse healthcare workforce
February 13, 2024 | by Jonathan B. Waller Iris Reyes, MD Iris Reyes, MD, helps to open doors for new generations of physicians from populations historically underrepresented in medicine (URiM) to reach successful and impactful careers in medicine. Reyes, a…
From flatline to the finish line
Oatman and Kohler running together during the 4.3 mile leg of the Ragnar Race Imagine one day you decided to head to your local gym to get some exercise. You start your workout when suddenly you hear a loud thump…
Addiction consult team at PPMC combines empathy with medicine
Peer Recovery Specialist Eric Ezzi and his wife with their daughter. For any patient in the hospital, their stay entails a constant stream of health care professionals visiting the room; physicians and nurses and techs monitor their condition and map…
Penn Medicine earns high Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores
Good health care involves treating the whole person, which includes medical, psychological, and social aspects of care. Patient experience—making sure patients feel listened to and their concerns cared about, in a comfortable environment with thoughtful consideration of their needs—is an…
Nurse wins IRONMAN World Championship
Warfel, pictured here, during her IRONMAN race in Kona, Hawai’i in October 2023. On a typical day, Ava Warfel, RN, wakes up around 3 a.m. The nurse supervisor at the new Penn Medicine HealthWorks Alvernia University practice in Reading, PA,…
70-year-old bench press competitor tackles rare cancer
In January 2023, 70-year-old fitness coach Howard Aaron was preparing for the Arnold Classic, an international weightlifting competition—one of the many he has participated in throughout his nearly 40 years as a fitness coach. In March, training came to a…
Reducing Eye Strain from Screen Time
Mina Massaro-Giordano, MD A seemingly endless cycle of switching between your phone, computer, and TV has created a sort of digital permanence where a screen is always within reach. Though most of us require this type of access for work,…
Black Scientists Lead the Push for Equity in Science and Medicine
By Tonya Russell Donita Brady, PhD The Juneteenth holiday celebrated on June 19 is one of delayed recognition. It’s a day for Black Americans to celebrate freedom and civil rights. It commemorates a date, in 1865, when the last large…
Three Penn Teams Awarded for Maternal Health Equity Initiatives
For the past several years, Penn Medicine has been taking bold action to reverse maternal health disparities. In the United States, Black women are approximately three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. In addition to…
Improving maternal care for new moms in the Hispanic community
At Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital (CCH), the Maternal Child Health care team is always striving to meet the needs of patients while searching for ways to improve patient care. CCH’s latest patient care initiative focuses on improving postpartum outcomes…
Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD Hunts for a Cure for Kidney Disease
By Lauren Malecki Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD, a professor of Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, never envisaged she would one day pioneer groundbreaking advancements in kidney…
Breaking Down Barriers to Blood Donation for LGBTQ+ People
For decades, LGBTQ+ patients have faced stringent requirements to donate blood—most gay and bisexual men were not allowed to donate at all. Now, however, many more of them will be able to give this selfless gift. The U.S. Food and…
Voices of Penn Medicine Pride
June 29, 2023 | by Jonathan B. Waller Dubbed the “Love, Light, and Liberty” March, the demonstration was open to the entire community, and called for renewed commitment to fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights and equal protection under the law….
Family Challenge Encourages Others to Go Back to School
Regina Whittick, on right, with her daughter Charlotte. Regina Whittick’s journey to a bachelor’s degree started long ago. It ended as a celebration with her daughter Charlotte, who also graduated the same day with her own bachelor’s degree. In between,…
How Dermatology Research Touches More Areas of Medicine
Aimee Payne, MD, PhD, a professor of Dermatology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was recently named president-elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID), the nation’s leading organization for skin research. Having been a…
How Penn’s Lung Rescue team provided a lifeline for failing lungs
Most days began with Joey Porch at his demanding job as the manager of a popular Chislehurst, NJ bagel shop, where he would routinely work on his feet. However, consistent back pain eventually sent him to the emergency room, beginning…
Coping with Anxiety Through Virtual Reality
Picture this: As you float peacefully in a crystal blue sea, dolphins swim gently around you. One performs a slow barrel roll, while another nudges its pod mate to play. They’re so close you could touch them. While it may…
Penn Medicine Partners on Community Cancer Screenings
Rev. Miles in his office at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Leroy Miles has somewhere to be. In fact, he has about a dozen places to be, but in speaking with him, the Associate Pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church projects…
Helping Parents Heal After Loss
Candles bearing the names of babies lost during pregnancy or in the days after glow during a remembrance ceremony held at Princeton Medical Center. Luciano. Julian Angel. Caden James. Bernadette Flynn-Kelton, BSN, RN, outpatient bereavement coordinator with the Community Wellness…
From Aspiring Ballerina to Future Health Care Leader
By Mariel Harden Mariel Harden, MHA, is in her second year of Penn Medicine’s Administrative Fellowship and is pursuing her doctorate in organizational leadership. Here, she shares how she found her passion in health care administration. Mariel Harden, MHA Growing…
Penn’s mRNA Scientists Get a Delayed Heroes’ Welcome
Dotted amongst a night of stars like Lilly Collins, Mila Kunis, Maria Sharapova, and Kristen Bell sat Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, and Katalin Karikó, PhD. The two mRNA pioneer scientists may have begun the night feeling not much in common…
How simple questions and behavioral nudges are improving care
If opioid use disorder is a disease, then why not treat it with medicine? Although it is a simple question, it has often been a fraught one. Attitudes toward opioid use are decidedly not uniform, even in the medical community,…
Hospital Horticulturalists Compete to Sharpen Their Skills
An annual competition at Pennsylvania Hospital helps the Grounds team strengthen their skills and refresh their horticultural knowledge.
Community Refrigerator Offers Cancer Patients Free Prepared Foods
When people become seriously ill, their ability to work may be diminished, and this can often lead to a number of tough circumstances, including food insecurity. “Sometimes patients have to choose between food and medicine,” explained Meredith Doherty, PhD,…
New Physician Response Vehicle Advances Care in Emergencies
In an emergency, advanced training and equipment can make the difference between life and death. Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (LG Health)’s new physician response vehicle brings high-tech gear and medical expertise directly to the scene, with a mission to…
Chasing the Mysteries of the Microbiome
Maayan Levy, PhD, and Christoph Thaiss, PhD When we hear about gut bacteria, we may think about probiotics and supplements marketed to help with digestion, about how taking antibiotics might affect our intestinal tract, or perhaps about trendy diets that…
Carl June on The Boundless Potential of CAR T Cell Therapy
Carl June, MD, and Daniel Baker For most of modern medicine, cancer drugs have been developed the same way: by designing molecules to treat diseased cells. With the advent of immunotherapy, that changed. For the first time, scientists engineered patients’…
A nurse’s passion for books and babies aids NICU families
The 90 minutes that Whitney Zachritz, MSN, RN, CPNP-BC, spends offering books and snacks to parents of the hospital’s littlest patients are typically the most special of her week. Zachritz, an Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) clinical practice leader at the…
Time—and Technology—Heals One Patient’s Wounds
Andrew Holmes Jr. A chronic wound on his leg was gradually eroding away at Andrew Holmes Jr.’s quality of life over the course of many years. His wound caused him significant and constant pain that could only be mitigated by…
Embracing Life’s Rhythm: Kathleen’s Robotic Surgery Journey
Michael Ibrahim, MD, MBBS, PhD Kathleen Tierney had always lived life at full speed. Over a career that spanned over four decades, Tierney devoted her life to coaching, and later as an athletic administrator, serving as the athletic director of…
Penn Makes Health Care Easier
The modern conveniences of the 21st century have touched most areas of our lives. As just one example, think about how fueling up for the day has changed. You can use an app to send your order to Dunkin’ Donuts…
How Penn Brings Early-Career Nurses to Home Health Care
By Frank Otto and Alex Gardner Carolyn Coladonato, BSN, RN The American “cowboy” image evokes someone who is unapologetically free, unpredictable, and cool under pressure as they roam across the open range. But, to be successful, cowboys needed practicality and…
Should Patients and Clinicians Embrace ChatGPT?
Note: This article was written by a real person. If you ask the artificial intelligence text generator called ChatGPT how it can help in medicine, it will answer you. “ChatGPT can be a valuable tool in various medical applications,” before…
Meet the Parking Attendant Lifting Patients’ Spirits
Comfort often comes in unexpected places. At Penn Medicine’s 3600 Civic Center Boulevard parking garage, just down the street from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, entrance greeter Thomas “Tommy” Barbieri provides a friendly, helpful, and calming presence for…
Meet the AI Expert Using Machines to Drive Medical Advances
César de la Fuente, PhD In an era peppered by breathless discussions about artificial intelligence—pro and con—it makes sense to feel uncertain, or at least want to slow down and get a better grasp of where this is all headed….
A Day With Nobel Laureates, from Celebration to Inspiration
The morning of October 2nd was an ordinary one at the University of Pennsylvania in many ways. Students strolled the campus leisurely in shorts or studied on benches, sipping iced coffee in the warm, early fall sunshine. On the medical…
A Community Hospital is a Destination for Advanced Cancer Care
Picture this: You are diagnosed with cancer and not only do you have to process your new diagnosis, but you also have to choose when and where you will begin treatment. You discuss with your doctor, search your web browser…
Autism study could open new possibilities for parents, caregivers
From a very early age, Scarlett Adams spent a lot of time in what her parents called “Scarlett World,” where she would not speak and rarely made eye contact. When someone called her name, she wouldn’t respond, and she resisted…
A New Tool to Measure Brain Tumor Response to Treatment
Patient Lynn Oxenberg Five years ago, at age 67, Lynn Oxenberg had a seizure, which doctors found to be caused by glioblastoma (GBM), the most common—and most aggressive— type of cancerous brain tumor in adults. Individuals with GBM usually expect…
Ben Stanger Developmental Biology Q&A
Ben Stanger, MD, PhD Ben Stanger, MD, PhD is a practicing Gastroenterologist at Penn Medicine. He is also the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research and professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Stanger…
Robot Assistants Are on the Job at Lancaster General Hospital
The nursing staff at Lancaster General Hospital (LGH) has some new helping hands in the form of two robot assistants. “Roxy” and “Rosie” assist with routine non-clinical tasks, such as pickup and delivery of supplies, enabling nurses to focus on…
An Inspiring Journey From PSOM Student to Fulbright Scholar
October 26, 2023 | by Jonathan B. Waller At the outset of Zonía Moore’s application process for the prestigious Fulbright scholarship program, her father Gordon Moore suddenly died from a heart attack on the eve of a decisive step in…
Families and Staff Reconnect at PAH’s ICN Reunion
Seventeen years ago, Madaline Bell experienced one of the scariest times of her life, when her twin daughters were born prematurely at 23 weeks. Weighing 1 pound each with numerous health complications, the babies—Sydney and Payton—required care in Pennsylvania Hospital’s…
From Harm Reduction on the Streets to Research in the ED
By Brittany Salerno Brittany Salerno, MPH, is project manager of Substance Use Research in Emergency Medicine at Penn Medicine’s Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy and recently earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School…
From High School to the Hospital
Jonathan Szeto at his White Coat Ceremony at the Perelman School of Medicine. How often do high school students get the chance to peek at a potential future in the medical field? One immersive program at the Perelman School of…
Surprise Reunion for Penn Trauma with Fallen Combat Surgeon’s Son
By: Abby Alten Schwartz Photo by Katie Burke Friday, October 6, 2023, was an unforgettable night for the trauma team at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) and other Penn Medicine staff. That evening, military and civilian trauma staff and dignitaries…
Kidney Donation Bonds Two Veterans Who Were Once Strangers
How did a kidney donation from one veteran to another originate? Morgan Slaughter saw a sign—literally. While scrolling Facebook looking for a new restaurant to try, the Air Force veteran noticed a post by Collegeville Bakery in Collegeville, PA, with…
Patient’s Story Puts National Spotlight on Cancer Clinical Trials
When Marcy (Martha) and Bill Korson walked onto the Good Morning America stage on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, and—together with dozens of family members and friends—hugged their surprised daughter, Kate, it was the latest in a series of “full circle”…
How Penn Medicine Is Changing the World with mRNA
Vaccines for COVID-19 were the first time that mRNA technology was used to address a worldwide health challenge. The Penn Medicine scientists behind that technology were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Next come all the rest…
Could A Single Shot Heal Heart Disease?
Oftentimes, though, these innovations are first used in relatively rare diseases. What about the most common ones, like the leading cause of death worldwide—heart disease? Multiple research teams at Penn Medicine are continuing to advance the science to develop new…
Man Gives 35 Gallons of Blood, 50+ Years of Donations
Marc A. Satalof was recognized by the Red Cross with this framed certificate several years ago after he had given 25 gallons of blood given. Around the perimeter, he added the pins he has collected from the Red Cross over…
The Mind on Mental Health Podcast Gets Personal
Andrew Dean, LCSW The grief of losing a loved one to substance abuse, even if they’re still alive. The terror of a cancer diagnosis. The challenges facing teens who identify as LGBTQ+—and their families. All of these are topics of…
Emergency staff are on a mission: Know My Name
By Abby Alten Schwartz Something as simple as a name can make a big impact. Just ask M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS. “Instead of saying, ‘Hey, you—can you do this?’ it’s nice to say, ‘Hey, Sarah, can you help with…
Parkinson’s Support Group Fosters Friendship Among Patients
A support group at Pennsylvania Hospital not only provides resources on how to manage symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but also fosters friendship among the participants. The Support Group for Black Patients with Parkinson’s Disease, launched in February, serves as a…
Spotlighting primary care triage nurses
By: Christina Smith & Olivia Kimmel Philadelphia Nurse Triage Team Top row (left to right): Jasmine Gaskins, LPN; Honorio Freeland, RN; Julie Schiowitz, RN Bottom Row (left to right): Mercedes Johnson, LPN; Kaleisha Dillette, RN; Tanya Gaston, RN; Shannon White,…
Cancer Survivor Comforts Patients With Reiki
Volunteer Reiki practitioner Vince Gilhool provides a session to cancer patient Richard Cummings. At nearly 80 years old, master Reiki practitioner Vince Gilhool has volunteered over 6,700 hours providing Reiki sessions to patients, caregivers, and others at the Hospital of…