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UAB Begins Clinical Trial for Brain Tumor Treatment
Your next sniffle could be a cure for the deadliest form of cancer: malignant glioma, which kills 90 percent of its victims within two years. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are starting a clinical trial using a common respiratory virus, which almost all of us have been harmlessly exposed to, which could turn into a deadly cancer fighter in the brain.
"We've turned something negative into something positive," said Dr. James M. Markert, professor and director of the UAB division of neurosurgery and principal investigator of the trial.
BY VERNA GATES |
Changes Hover on the Horizon for Birmingham's Medical Spaces
Birmingham's healthcare delivery square footage will continue to offer physicians new options in 2007. That's the forecast from those associated with planning, building, staffing and managing these facilities.
Once limited to downtown hospitals and hospital-owned satellite offices, the city's medical community is becoming more real estate diverse, from upscale, physician-owned suburban medical office spaces to new downtown treatment centers.
BY JEAN M. MCLEAN |
Physician Spotlight: Richard Champion, MD
When Dr. Richard Champion feels the need to decompress, it's not necessarily because he's feeling stressed. More than likely, he has a patient who needs to spend some time in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Carraway Methodist Medical Center.
The chamber is a submarine-like room used mainly to treat decompression sickness in divers, pilots, astronauts and others prone to suffer the physical effects of pressure reduction. It's also useful in treating certain non-healing wounds, particularly in diabetic patients, and a few other conditions. But as a pulmonologist, Champion uses the chamber to treat lung-related problems.
BY JUNE MATHEWS |
Healthcare Fraud Investigations "Predictions" for 2007
Eliminating Medicare fraud and abuse continues to be a top priority for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Congress has also approved additional funds for investigations and Rep. Pete Stark, who will head the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, has expressed concern over the lack of oversight by government agencies. Each year, thousands of healthcare fraud complaints from various sources are brought to the OIG's attention for investigation, and in its fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, the government collected back $1.3 billion in improperly billed claims.
by Howard E. Bogard |
Certificate of Need Programs Still Strong In Deep South
Is competition a good thing in the healthcare business?
That's a question that may well come up with a Democrat-controlled Congress in Washington, which could lead to more scrutiny of certificate of need (CON) laws — a key part of the healthcare picture in most of the Southeast.
CON programs date back to 1974, when Congress set up a federal CON system in an attempt to contain healthcare costs. It was repealed in 1986.
BY DEBORAH LOCKRIDGE |
Healthcare Recruiters Challenged by Physician Shortage
More than a decade ago, experts predicted a massive influx of doctors, more than would be in demand in today's world.
They sprung into action, reducing the amount of residency slots and making it harder for more people to get into the profession at once.
More than 10 years later, it would seem the experts did not quite hit that nail on the head, making recruitment a problem across the nation.
BY GARTHIA ELENA HALBERT |
Intelligent Design
Even those outside the healthcare industry generally recognize that creating a functional but healing environment is a highly specialized skill … part science, part art.
For those actually faced with the task of expanding, renovating or creating a new facility, finding that balance of form and function for a variety of audiences with very different needs, all while staying on budget and without disturbing the flow of care, can be a very daunting prospect indeed.
BY CINDY SANDERS |
Hospital Association Honors Healthcare Heroes
Who is a hero? The winning football coach? The star of "American Idol?" The actor? If you ever wonder if our priorities are slightly out of whack, you might be heartened by the actions of the ten Birmingham area healthcare workers who were honored recently as Health Care Heroes by the Alabama Hospital Association.
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Halted Heart Drug Distribution "Disturbing," Say Doctors
Goodbye, Torcetrapib.
Pfizer (PFE) stock plummeted in early December when the most important of its drugs in development — a successor to the pharmaceutical giant's cholesterol-lowering Lipitor® — was scrapped after independent safety monitors surmised that patients taking the drug died of cardiovascular problems at higher rates than enrollees not taking the drug. Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, was in a race against Roche and Merck to market a drug to raise good cholesterol, or HDL.
BY LYNNE JETER |
Cardiophonics Improves Telemedicine Technology
Physicians and many cardiology patients are certainly familiar with conventional ambulatory cardiac monitoring to detect heart arrhythmias, but a Maryland-based company's new software advances take telemedicine a step further — detecting dangerous heart rhythms and producing an electrocardiogram for immediate physician review.
"What we're doing today is actually attaching an EKG file to e-mail and sending it directly to your doctor.
BY SHARON H. FITZGERALD |
Implantable Heart Pumps Offer Hope
While more than 2,000 heart transplants are performed each year in the United States, thousands more adults would benefit from a heart transplant if more donor hearts were available. But new cardiac technology is making it possible to extend the lives of many of these patients who suffer from heart failure and give them greater quality of life as well.
BY ANN B. DEBELLIS |
Robotic Technology Increases Success of Mitral Valve Repair
When the Federal Drug Administration cleared the use of robotic surgical systems for use in endoscopic cardiac surgery in 2004, it opened new doors for the treatment of patients who suffer from mitral valve regurgitation. The surgical robot allows physicians to repair the valve using a lateral approach between the ribs on the right side of the chest, making it unnecessary to open the patient's chest.
BY ANN B. DEBELLIS |
Local Physicians Discover that Intervertebral Differential Dynamics Can Help Avoid Surgery
Two Birmingham-area physicians say a relatively new, noninvasive therapy for lower back pain has surpassed their expectations and is allowing many patients to avoid surgery and reclaim a normal life.
"I was tired of seeing so many people end up in surgery and come back not better," says Dr. David Wilhelm, a family care practitioner operating Greystone Back Pain Center in conjunction with Greystone Internal Medicine. "So we began to search around for a viable option to surgery."
BY DEBORAH LOCKRIDGE |
Trinity Medical Center Ranks Top in State for Cardiac Care
For the second year in a row, Trinity Medical Center has been ranked number one in Alabama for clinical excellence in overall cardiac services, according to a comprehensive study released by HealthGrades, the nation's leading independent healthcare ratings company. In addition, the study rated Trinity Medical Center best in the Birmingham area for cardiology services and cardiac interventional procedures including angioplasties and stents. The hospital received five-star ratings for interventional procedures and treatment of heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
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Health Crisis Looms as Shortage of Geriatricians Grows
Every year, about 300 doctors begin their careers specializing in geriatrics in the United States. By every account, it's nowhere close to enough.
By 2030, the American Geriatrics Society estimates the country will need 36,000 geriatricians to care for a country that has been growing steadily grayer.
"We're way behind the eight ball here," said Dr. David B. Reuben, former president of the American Geriatrics Society and a prominent geriatrician who runs the UCLA Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. "There's this huge mismatch, and every year it's getting larger."
BY JOHN CARROLL |
G-spot Amplification Hottest Trend in Boutique Cosmetics
Though it's unclear which came first, life mimicking television or vice versa, a recent "Nip/Tuck" episode on Grafenberg Spot (G-spot) enhancements is one example of the ever-growing blur between Hollywood reality television and the real world.
Now, just as depicted in the FX smash hit, there really is a G-Shot® to heighten female sexual pleasures. In fact, show producers approached Dr. David Matlock, the Beverly Hills physician that invented the shot, to make sure of the details, which patients say is "the ultimate in sexual ecstasy achieved in an effortless manner."
BY GLORIA BUTLER BALDWIN |
UAB Study Holds Promise for Parkinson's Disease Patients
A new drug under trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) promises to be effective in reducing tremors, muscle rigidity and other debilitating symptoms that mark the onset and progression of Parkinson's disease. Results of the study, led by a team at UAB, were published January 3 in the online edition of Neurology.
BY KATHY C. BOWERS |
Medicare Part D Update
Embarking on its second year, the Medicare Part D prescription benefit is taking the lessons learned from the first 12 months and building upon its success.
"The first year, if you measure by almost all indices, went very, very well," said Jeff Nelligan, CMS director of media affairs. "We have guaranteed more than 38 million Medicare beneficiaries now have some form of prescription drug coverage."
BY CINDY SANDERS |
Magnetic Leadership: People Remember — And They Talk!
"I tried to tell them something wasn't right, but nobody would listen to me. They thought they had all the answers. Now look what happened. If only they would have done something earlier, we wouldn't be going through this."
"You wouldn't believe how long we had to wait! Those doctors act like they're the only ones with a schedule. My time is important, too!"
by Beverly Smallwood |
The Impact of New Democratic Majorities on Healthcare Policy
January 2007 brought a sea change to Washington. New Democratic majorities in both the Senate and the House will result in significantly different healthcare policies and priorities over the next two years. California Congressman Pete Stark, the author of the Stark Act restrictions on physician referrals, now chairs the the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, chief advocate of a single payor delivery system, now chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. Already, House Democrats have passed significant new legislation on federal funding of stem cell research and negotiation of drug prices for the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.
by Colin H. Luke |
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