“One of the guys called me ‘Doctor Guinan,’ ” sophomore John Guinan remarks of the physician-written commentary that accompanied his research paper. His study, “Management of Health-Care-Associated Infections in the Oncology Patient,” was published in the March 2003 issue of Oncology. Guinan is lead author of the peer-reviewed article along with two scientists from Penn’s medical school: Maryanne McGuckin, GEd’79, GrEd’81, a senior research investigator, and Professor
Peter Nowell, M’52.

The journal article started out as a term paper for an honors seminar on cancer taught by Nowell in 2001. A high-school senior at the time, Guinan took the course through the Young Scholars program, which gives exceptional high-school students the opportunity to take SAS courses for college credit. “He was obviously younger than the other students, but he was enthusiastic and interested and worked hard,” recalls Nowell, a leading cancer researcher who has taught courses on cancer to undergraduates for almost 25 years. “That class is what led me to a continued interest in healthcare management,” says Guinan, now a Health and Societies major.

Every year, 2.4 million U.S. patients develop infections from the medical care they receive. About 30,000 of them die from the complications. The cost of treatment adds nearly $4.5 billion to the nation’s medical bill. Cancer patients, whose immune systems have been ravaged by potent anti-cancer drugs, are particularly susceptible to urinary-tract and bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and surgical-site infections. Guinan’s paper reviews the risks and discusses preventative measures.

“ It certainly is unusual for a college sophomore to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal like Oncology,” remarks Nowell. “ I thought he had done good research, bringing together a fair amount of the important information. For clinicians, it’s interesting reading about a problem that’s not often discussed in the cancer journals.”

“ You know what the punch line of that paper is?” summarizes Janet Tighe, a history-and-sociology-of-science professor and Guinan’s advisor. “Wash your hands! It’s a really elegant piece, putting common sense together with sophisticated science to make a very important clinical point.”

Guinan is now expanding his research on hospital-acquired infections, looking at the part they play in the malpractice crisis plaguing Pennsylvania’s—and
the nation’s—healthcare system. To pay for that phase of his research, Guinan was awarded the Louis H. Castor, M.D. (C’48) Undergraduate Research Grant through Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. “Students need grant support for research just like faculty,” notes Tighe.

“ All of the letters I get from the [oncology] journal now address me as ‘Dr. Guinan,’ ”the young researcher confides. “I don’t want to say anything or somebody’ll get real confused.”