Donlan Joins DCH Center for Occupational Health

Robert Donlan, DO has joined The DCH Center for Occupational Health.

Donlan graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine with a fellowship in primary care sports medicine after completing a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine and received his bachelor of science in biology from Loyola College in Baltimore.

Donlan is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and sports medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. He has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and given presentations at national meetings.

New Law to Help Prevent Opioid Overdoses

A newly enacted law expands access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse some opioid overdoses in certain emergency situations. The law allows Alabama pharmacists to dispense the medication to people in a position to assist others at risk of an overdose as well as to an individual at risk of experiencing an opiate-related overdose.

Mark Jackson, executive director of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, said that expanding access to the medication would put a powerful life-saving tool in the hands of first responders and save time when lives could be at stake.

"The Association applauds the members of the Legislature and Governor Bentley for recognizing the importance of significantly expanding access to naloxone," Jackson said. "This new law will not only save lives but also help curb drug abuse and heroin deaths in our state."

Naloxone poses no danger to individuals who come into contact with it, and it has no potential for abuse. It is effective only if a person has opioids in his or her system; the medication has no effect if opioids are absent.

UAB's Zhang to Custom-Engineer Living Tissue to Protect Heart

Jianyi "Jay" Zhang, MD, PhD brought his biomedical engineering expertise to UAB with a dream to create new tissue that can replace or protect damaged muscle after a heart attack.

Zhang took a major step toward that goal when he and colleagues protected pigs from post-heart attack heart failure. The researchers placed a mat of fibrin over the area where muscle had died and injected three types of cardiovascular cells underneath the mat. This is somewhat akin to starting new lawn by scattering grass seeds beneath a protective layer of hay. The fibrin helped some of the injected cells survive and grow, and they in turn protected the heart from further damage.

Zhang is launching a new effort to improve heart repair. Instead of injecting individual cells and hoping they take seed, Zhang plans to robotically build and grow a mat of heart tissue made from individual cells, using a custom 3-D printer. Surgeons will then place this custom mat of living cells over the dead, infarcted tissue of the heart, somewhat akin to starting a new lawn by laying sod.

"We will make our own printer, using machinery, robotic and computer science experts," said Zhang, who is the leader of UAB Biomedical Engineering, a joint department of the UAB School of Medicine and School of Engineering. "A robotic arm will pick up cells of various types from petri dishes and place them onto fine needles that are a few microns apart. The growing cells fuse after three to seven days, and the shape is based on the needles. Then we can lift off the tissue. It is scaffold-less tissue engineering."

The piece of engineered tissue will be printed-to-order to match the size and shape of the dead tissue in the heart, as measured by MRI. All the work must be done under sterile conditions in a culture medium that provides the oxygen and nutrients to keep the cells alive.

This UAB myocardial tissue patch will be tested in a pig model before it can move to human trials. "We want to take it to clinical practice in seven years," Zhang said.

UAB's expertise in heart electrophysiology will be vital because the patch could cause heart arrhythmias if it interferes with the timing of the electrophysiological wave that directs each smooth contraction of the pumping heart.

UAB Physicians Named to Association of American Physicians

Four physicians from the UAB School of Medicine have been named to the prestigious Association of American Physicians.

• Ravi Bhatia, MD, director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, and deputy director of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Smita Bhatia, MD, professor and vice chair for Outcomes in the Department of Pediatrics and director of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship
• William Britt, MD, professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics
• Victor Thannickal, MD, director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and vice chair for strategic planning, Department of Medicine

Election to membership is a widely recognized measure of scholarly excellence among senior faculty members, particularly in departments of medicine and pediatrics.

"It is unusual to have so many physicians from one institution inducted into the association at one time," said Robert Rich, M.D., former dean of the UAB School of Medicine and chair of the UAB nominating committee. "We were extremely gratified that four outstanding faculty members from UAB were chosen."

Ferniany and Shufflebarger Named to AlaHA Board

Will Ferniany, PhD, CEO of UAB Health System, has been named chairman-elect of the Alabama Hospital Association (AlaHA) and Tom Shufflebarger, COO of Children's of Alabama, was elected to the AlaHA Board as a representative of Birmingham-area hospitals.

Ferniany became CEO of the UAB Health System in September 2008. A senior leader in health care since 1975 and in academic medicine since 1988, Ferniany came to UAB from his position as associate vice chancellor and CEO of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, having previously held key leadership positions at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and at UAB.

Shufflebarger is an honors graduate of Duke University, having earned undergraduate and MBA degrees there, and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. He has served on the Boards of The Lakeshore Foundation, Magic Moments, The American Red Cross, and Riverchase United Methodist Church.

Douglas Joins Norwood

Gilbert F. Douglas, IV, DO has joined the Norwood Clinic Gardendale Primary Care practice.

Douglas is board-certified in Internal Medicine. He received his medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and started his residency at Physicians Medical Center Carraway as Chief Resident and completed his residency with Baptist Health System in Birmingham.

Brookwood Baptist Opens Interventional Neurology Practice

In June, Brookwood Baptist Medical Center opened the Acute Stroke Program, which is focused on interventional neurology treatment.

Jitendra Sharma, MD, Medical Director of the program, is board-certified in both general neurology and vascular neurology. He obtained his medical degree from MGM medical college in India and completed his Neurology residency at SUNY at Buffalo. He went on to complete a Serono Research fellowship with Brigham & Women's Hospital and two fellowships in vascular neurology and neurointerventional at University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Sharma is trained in performing neurointerventional procedures, acute stroke interventions, aneurysm evaluation and endovascular management (aneurysm coiling), diagnostic cerebral angiogram, carotid disease evaluation and management, stroke and general neurology.

Pearce, Bevill, Leesburg, Moore Recognized as Member Firm of the Year

The National CPA Healthcare Advisors Association (HCAA) has recognized Pearce, Bevill, Leesburg, Moore P.C. as Member Firm of the Year at their 2016 Super Conference held earlier this month in Miami, Florida.

PBLM Partner, Hal "Buzz" Coons, is completing his term as president of the HCAA and was present to receive the award on PBLM's behalf. "We are proud to be associated with such a distinguished national network of CPA Firms. To be named the 2016 Firm of the Year is truly an honor, especially with all the changing complexities and regulations affecting physician practices. "

The HCAA is a nationwide network of over 60 CPA firms devoted to serving the healthcare industry.

Brookwood Baptist Health Now Offering Online ER Check-In

Patients across all Brookwood Baptist Health locations can now check-in to emergency rooms online and wait remotely using the newly launched, web-based InQuicker program.

To use the program, patients can login at CheckIn.InQuicker.com and choose the Brookwood Baptist Health location nearest to them to hold their place in the line. The program then estimates treatment times based on patient traffic conditions to give users a projected time of arrival at the care location - even sending real-time notifications via text message or email in the case of a delay.