November 15, 2018 | Stephen Fine, Founder and President
MEF Evening of Perspectives
The Melanoma Education Foundation would like to thank everyone who braved the inclement weather on Friday, November 9 for our Evening of Perspectives event. We would especially like to recognize MS Walker, The Brody Family, William and June Braunlich, Mitch and Merrill Applebaum and Steve and Gail Fine for their sponsorship of the event.
In addition to the wonderful food, music and auction, MEF also used this event as a platform to recognize members of the medical and educational community who have demonstrated a commitment to our mission of providing education focused on Melanoma early detection and prevention.
2018 Melanoma Education Foundation Honorees
Dr. Joseph Kvedar
Dr. Joseph Kvedar, our keynote speaker and honoree, is a dermatologist and pioneer in the field of telemedicine. He is the Founder and Vice President of Partners Center for Connected Health, has been a Dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital since 1984 and Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School since 2002. He served as President of the American Telemedicine Association, Chairman of the American Academy of Dermatology Task Force on Telemedicine, co-founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board at Healthrageous, Inc. and serves on the advisory boards of many companies.
He is internationally recognized for his leadership and vision in the field of connected health and has authored over 90 publications on the subject. He established the first physician-to-physician online consultation service in an academic setting, linking patients from around the world with specialists at Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals.
He is using information technology – cell phones, computers, networked devices and remote health monitoring tools – to create a new model of health care delivery, moving care from the hospital or doctor’s office into the day-to-day lives of patients. His book, “The New Mobile Age: How Technology Will Extend the Healthspan and Optimize the Lifespan” best summarizes the benefits of his work for all of us. The topic of Dr. Kvedars speech was “Teledermatology.”
Janda Ricci-Munn, Manchester-Essex Regional Middle School
Janda Ricci-Munn is the MEF 2018 Honoree for Excellence in Health Education. He is the health teacher at Manchester-Essex Middle School in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts. He began his teaching career there in 2005.
In addition to teaching, Janda owned and operated a triathlon and cycling coaching business while concurrently racing as a triathlete on the national level. After winning two consecutive Ironman 70.3 amateur world championship titles, he left teaching for three years to pursue his dream of professional racing.
He returned to teaching in the fall of 2011, spurred in large part by the loss of his father, long-time Gloucester High School track & field coach, Jim Munn, to melanoma. Janda has been using the MEF melanoma lesson since then and, because of the lesson, a student had an early melanoma removed, 4 others had precancerous moles removed, and Janda’s brother, Corey, had an early melanoma removed.
After students watch the lesson video, he uses the MEF “See Spot bookmarks” as a homework assignment to teach their family members about melanoma. And he took the additional step of providing faculty members with bookmarks. Spanish teacher Kristen Cressey shared with Janda’s class that the See Spot bookmark tipped her off to a suspicious mole on her husband’s back that turned out to be an early melanoma. Janda resides in Gloucester with his wife and two children. We congratulate Janda on this prestigious honor!
Jennifer Linscott Tietgen Family Foundation
The Jennifer Linscott Tietgen Family Foundation was established in memory of Jennifer, who lost her life to melanoma in 2002 at the age of 27. The Foundation has been our single most magnanimous supporter for more than 15 years.