Casey Johnson has been named director of development for The DCH Foundation. She replaces Angela Fulmer, who retired at the end of April.
Johnson joined The Foundation in 2008 as special events manager. In that position, she managed the signature events of the DCH Health System, including Nite on the Green and The DCH Foundation Golf Tournament, and she partnered with local groups to raise additional funds through third-party events. She also handled marketing and communications for The Foundation and developed The Foundation’s website and social media.
In her new role, Johnson will focus on corporate giving, growing sponsorships and continuing to establish a positive brand for The Foundation, which supports the DCH Health System’s community efforts in West Alabama.
MAG Mutual Names Neil Morrell President and COO
MAG Mutual Insurance Company has named Neil Morrell as President and Chief Operating Officer. He will oversee the daily business operations and strategy of the medical professional liability insurance company.
“Neil’s strategic thinking and deep understanding of the medical professional liability insurance market will make him an invaluable asset and a strong leader for the MagMutual team as we move forward,” said Joseph S. Wilson, Jr., MD, company Chairman and CEO.
The relationship between Morrell and MagMutual began in 2003 when he became instrumental in representing the company to the reinsurance market. He has served as an advisor for the company since then and helped formulate the company’s reinsurance strategy and program.
“MagMutual is a wonderful company and is uniquely positioned to continue to lead the industry in serving its policyholders,” says Morrell.
Morrell served most recently as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Willis Re in Chicago where he was responsible for strategy and operations for the company’s U.S. Healthcare Practice Group. Before joining Willis Re in 2003, Morrell served with several Lloyd’s of London syndicates in the United Kingdom.
He holds a Law Degree, LLB, from the University of Reading and qualified as a Barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law in London.
CRMC and The North Alabama Pain Center Welcome Keith Morton, MD
Keith Morton, MD, a Central Alabama Anesthesiologist for 18 years, is now practicing at Cullman Regional Medical Center’s North Alabama Pain Center. He previously served as the Director of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper, Alabama.
Morton completed his undergraduate education at UAB in 1988 and received his medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1993. He completed his post-doctoral training internship at Carraway Methodist Medical Center and his residency in Anesthesia at UAB in 1997.
Morton is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and the National Board of Medical Examiners. He is an active member of the Alabama State Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Anesthesiology and the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. He has joined the Cullman Anesthesiology & Pain Associates Team with E. Jay Bray, MD; Peter Crisologo, MD; and Robin T. Hall, MD and will be providing procedural pain management services through CRMC’s North Alabama Pain Center as well as anesthesia care for CRMC Surgical Patients.
Crestwood Receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation
Crestwood Medical Center has received full accreditation with percutaneous coronary intervention from the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC).
“The accreditation is all about quality”, said Lora Porter, Crestwood Director of Cardiovascular Services. “Our process, from the patient’s first point of contact to discharge and follow up, is tracked, measured, analyzed and improved.”
The Accredited Chest Pain Center at Crestwood Medical Center has demonstrated its commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and undergoing an onsite review by a team of SCPC’s accreditation review specialists.
Senior Care Geriatric Physician Clinic to open at Mount Royal Towers
SeniorCare Geriatric Healthcare Services and Paul Roller, MD will open a geriatric physician clinic on-site at Mount Royal Towers Retirement Community and Health Center on June 1.
Scott Touger, MD will join SeniorCare as the primary physician in the clinic. He will also serve as the Medical Director for Mount Royal Towers’ skilled nursing health center and residential living programs.
The clinic is open to local seniors as well as all of the Mount Royal Towers residents. “This is a great opportunity for me to focus on geriatric medicine in a location that will serve my patients and residents at Mount Royal Towers both equally well,” Touger said.
SVMIC Declares $18.0 M Dividend
The Board of Directors of State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company (SVMIC) has approved an $18.0 million dividend to be returned to policyholders as a premium credit on all policies renewing between May 15, 2012 and May 14, 2013.
This is the fifth consecutive year SVMIC has declared dividends for its physician policyholders. Policyholders will receive the dividend in the form of a credit on the renewal premium. Additionally, no adjustments were made for rates on policies renewing during this time.
Lunceford Joins Warren Averett
Tammie Lunceford has joined Warren Averett Kimbrough & Marino as a healthcare consultant. Lunceford serves medical and dental practices by evaluating scheduling, patient flow, operating efficiencies, accounts receivable management, and EMR selection process and planning.
Lunceford earned her Bachelor of Science in Health Administration from UAB in 1995. Prior to obtaining her degree, she was registered with the American Society of Clinical Pathologists as a registered medical laboratory technician, bringing her collective clinical and administrative experience to more than 25 years.
Presley Burton & Collier, LLC Joins Balch & Bingham LLP
Presley Burton & Collier, LLC will join Balch & Bingham LLP, marking the continued expansion of Balch & Bingham’s public finance practice and healthcare capabilities.
“The attorneys of Presley Burton & Collier have a reputation as outstanding lawyers serving tax-exempt transactions across the nation,” said Balch & Bingham Managing Partner Alan Rogers. “This addition to our team represents a continued commitment to the healthcare industry and an investment in our finance offerings. It allows us to help more public entities and nonprofit corporations - especially in the healthcare sector - to succeed.”
“The healthcare industry is facing ever increasing challenges, and our combined team of public finance attorneys is well positioned to partner with healthcare clients to help them navigate the complex road ahead,” said J. Hobson Presley, Jr., who is a founding partner of the previous firm.
Alabama Power Partners With Hospitals
Alabama Power is partnering with 27 hospitals across the state and Birmingham-based Proventix Systems to help reduce healthcare-associated infections, improve patient outcomes and help push down health costs.
The “Putting Power into Healthcare” initiative focuses on increasing hand hygiene in hospitals, which studies show can cut down on infections.
The hospitals involved in the project have installed Proventix’s nGage System, which uses radio-frequency badges tied to a data monitoring system, allowing hospitals to measure how often badged employees and healthcare professionals wash their hands.
A team at Princeton Baptist conducted a seven-month study to determine whether increased hand-washing prompted by the nGage System could reduce infection rates. During the study period, infection rates dropped 22 percent, translating into 159 fewer patient days and estimated health cost savings of more than $133,000.
Charles McCrary, Alabama Power president, said the program is a natural extension of Alabama Power’s health and wellness programs, which have played a role in keeping employees healthier, thereby improving productivity.
UA Names Streiffer Dean of College of Community Health Sciences
Richard H. Streiffer, MD, professor and past chairman of the department of family and community medicine at Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans, has been appointed dean of The University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences, the Tuscaloosa branch campus of the UA School of Medicine.
Streiffer completed a residency in family medicine at UA’s College of Community Health Sciences and received the Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement from the College. He has more than 25 years of experience in the training of physicians for family and rural practice.
Streiffer said he sees his role as dean as leading the College in its mission of training physicians and serving the needs of West Alabama families.
“A place like the College, based in the community with a primary-care mission, has a unique opportunity to focus on the needs of the community,” Streiffer said.
A native of New Orleans, Streiffer is a graduate of Tulane University and the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. After completing a residency at UA, he spent several years in rural practice in Mississippi and served as a preceptor students in his office.
He began his teaching career at the University of Mississippi and later served as director of the Mercy Family Medicine Residency in Denver. He also worked as the pre-doctoral education director in family medicine at LSU School of Medicine and as founding director of Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency program. In 1998, he joined the Tulane faculty to start the department of family and community medicine.
Streiffer has maintained an active primary care practice throughout his career, and he holds board certification in family medicine and a Certificate of Added Qualification in Geriatrics. In addition, he has been the project director on several federal training grants with a focus on primary care education and development of a rural physician work force.
He was appointed to the Louisiana Health Works Commission by Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2009, and he has served as the co-chair of the Governor’s Interagency Task Force on the Future of Family Medicine in Louisiana from 2004 to 2012.
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Institute Forming
Former CVA administrator Bill Cockrell is leading an effort to establish a network of cardiovascular and pulmonary practices that will serve as an umbrella for physicians and hospitals to experiment with ways to provide documentable quality and cost effective care. Other specialties will be added as appropriate. In addition, ancillary services such as nutritional counseling and rehabilitation services might be included at future dates.
The organization is being founded based on the realization that the current fee for service system is not a delivery model that can continue to exist without significant changes. These changes must focus on payment for results, not volume.
Preliminary discussions have been held with specialty physicians in Birmingham, and hospital discussions are underway. Member organizations must agree to the concept of shared data and reporting requirements. The Institute will not employ physicians, but will contract with groups and hospitals. The Institute will be lead by physicians who will serve on a managing board.
Princeton Celebrates 90 Years of Service
Princeton Baptist Medical Center celebrated its 90th birthday on Tuesday, April 10 with a party for employees and physicians.
Princeton BMC began in West End in 1922 when the Birmingham Baptist Association contracted with William Christopher Gewin, MD and acquired his Birmingham Infirmary located on Tuscaloosa Avenue along with its nurse’s training school. Over the next 90 years, the small infirmary underwent many changes and expansions, growing to become a tertiary care hospital covering 60 acres in West End.
In 1937, the hospital added a new kitchen, a maternity ward and X-ray equipment at a cost of $75,000.
“Now in our 90th year, we are nearing the completion of a $57 million expansion which will give us state-of-the-art surgical suites, new GI/Endoscopy suites, a new main entrance and a new chapel,” said Betsy Postlethwait, Princeton BMC President.
The new expansion project, to be completed in 2013, includes renovation of 60,000-square-feet of existing space and the addition of 90,000-square-feet of space.
Study Finds Gel Reduces Tremors In Parkinson’s
An experimental treatment for Parkinson’s disease reduced by nearly two hours on average patients’ “off-time” – the period each day when medication fails to control slowness and shaking. The results are from a double-blind, phase III clinical trial that compared Abbott Lab’s levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel against the same medication in pill form.
UAB was among the sites for the study, and David G. Standaert, M.D., PhD, chair of the UAB Department of Neurology, among its authors
Parkinson’s disease results from the loss of brain cells that make dopamine, which helps control movement. The levodopa-carbidopa combination works because the body converts levodopa into dopamine and carbidopa escorts levodopa to the right part of the brain. Unfortunately, the treatment wears off, leaving patients to face hours each day of uncontrollable slowness and tremors.
One reason for the break in treatment coverage is that the pills sit in the stomach for up to six hours waiting for it to empty into the small intestines. It is only there that levodopa encounters the proteins capable of transporting it into the bloodstream en route to the brain. Thus, researchers envisioned a system that avoids the stomach to steadily deliver levodopa gel directly into the small intestine through a surgically placed tube, and with the help of a pump worn on the belt.
Patients using the gel system saw an average reduction in daily off-time of 1.91 hours, and an increase in “on-time” without troublesome dyskinesia of 1.86 hours compared with the pill form. Nearly all subjects experienced at least one side effect, although most were short-lived and moderate.
Key protein interaction linked to cast nephropathy
For the first time, UAB researchers identified protein-binding sites on molecules known to cause kidney failure in multiple myeloma patients and demonstrated that a peptide can prevent that binding in an animal model.
Researchers say this could pave the way for drug development to delay or prevent this deadly complication in their study findings published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“If a patient develops severe acute kidney injury, their life span is significantly shorter,” says lead author Paul Sanders, MD, professor of medicine in the UAB Divison of Nephrology. “Until now, the process by which this occurs has been unknown. With the publication of this study, I am hopeful a compatible inhibitor can be designed to help these patients.”
Multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, accounts for slightly more than one percent of all cancer diagnoses in the United States. Myeloma kidney, a condition also known as cast nephropathy, is a common complication; proteins usually eliminated by the kidneys are overproduced because of the cancer and the build-up leaves the kidneys unable to filter and organ failures often result. Nearly half of multiple myeloma patients will develop kidney failure, most caused by cast nephropathy.
Sanders says the development of cast nephropathy is directly related to the production of free light chains, which are normal components of immunoglobulin, a large Y-shaped protein produced by B-cells used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as bacteria and viruses. These free light chains bind with Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein, the most abundant protein in urine, causing a gel-like substance to form, obstructing flow in the kidneys as the body tries to filter it from the blood.
The research team analyzed the binding interaction between the free light chains and the Tamm-Horsfall glycoproteins and found the site that the molecular interaction occurred. They used this information to develop a cyclized peptide that prevents the bond between the proteins in the rats and inhibited cast nephropathy in the rat model. The cyclized peptide was easily absorbed into the kidney, and it allowed the kidneys to filter despite the presence of the toxic free light chain.
Sanders says the next steps include modeling all of the compounds involved in the creation of the cyclized peptide. By doing this, he and his research team hope to find an already-approved compound that mimics this process, enabling a protein inhibitor to get to patients quicker.