Rains Named Medical Director of Emergency Medicine Services at Good Samaritan Hospital
LEXINGTON MESA Medical Group in collaboration with UK HealthCare announced the appointment of Dr. Allison Rains as the new medical director of Good Samaritan Hospital’s Emergency Medicine Services.
As medical director, Rains will work closely with the emergency services multidisciplinary team to enhance the emergency care provided at UK Good Samaritan Hospital.
A graduate of the University Of Kentucky College Of Medicine, Rains is board certified in emergency medicine and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Kentucky. Rains previously served as a resident representative for the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Emergency Medicine Physicians (KACEP) Board of Directors and the UK College of Medicine Scholarships and Grants Committee.
Housman Appointed to LifePoint Hospitals ® National Physician Advisory Board
LEXINGTON MESA Medical Group’s William Hunter Housman, MD, has been appointed to LifePoint Hospitals ® National Physician Advisory Board. LifePoint, a hospital company focused on providing quality healthcare close to home, says the National Physician Advisory Board will provide strategic guidance to the company on efforts related to enhance clinical quality, physician engagement, and innovative models of healthcare delivery.
“I am particularly honored for both the opportunity to stand among such remarkable physicians from across the U.S. and to work closely with LifePoint, who had the vision to formulate and empower our team as we lead healthcare towards a more patient-centered, outcome-based model,” said William Hunter Housman, MD, MESA Medical Group. “This opportunity falls directly in-line with and continues to help strengthen our mission at MESA.”
MESA Medical Group, a physician-led company, is a service provider of Emergency Medicine and Hospital Medicine to currently 26 hospitals throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
UK HealthCare Announces New Roles for Physicians
LEXINGTON UK HealthCare has announced additional roles for three physicians in key patient care areas:
Dr. Laura Fanucchi, UK HealthCare Enterprise Medical Director for Translational Care
In her new role, Fanucchi will work collaboratively within UK HealthCare, joining current initiatives to explore avenues to improve post-acute care for our patients. Fanucchi will help ensure that they provide high quality and efficient care across the continuum.
Fanucchi attended Emory University School of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine internship and residency at New York/Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell in New York, NY. In 2008, she also received her MPH from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.
Fanucchi is a respected Internist who also has focused her time in quality improvement. Since arriving at UK HealthCare in 2012, Fanucchi has been actively involved in quality and safety initiatives that include the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, the UK HealthCare Patient Safety Team, a co-leader of the IV Drug User and Substance Abuse PI group, the Post-Acute Care team, and the Provider Documentation Council.
Dr. Justin Fraser, Medical Director for Cerebrovascular Surgery
In this role, Fraser will work with the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute and Stroke Service leadership to enhance the comprehensive neurological care provided to our patients.
Since joining UK HealthCare in 2011, Fraser has been an integral member of the UK HealthCare Neurosurgery Department, where he serves as an assistant professor. Fraser is a highly skilled, dedicated and compassionate clinician. He was instrumental in the design of the Hybrid operating suite for cerebrovascular procedures. He is the current medical director for the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit and has been a very active member of the Stroke Program. Over the last three years, this team has led UK HealthCare in achieving the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Award three times, as well as a recent Primary Stroke Center recertification with The Joint Commission.
Fraser earned his medical degree from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he also completed his training in neurological surgery as well as interventional neuroradiology. His clinical interests in neurosurgery include cerebrovascular, skull base, and endovascular neurosurgery. The author of numerous papers and book chapters, Fraser lectures both nationally and internationally on these and other topics within the field.
Dr. Andrew Bernard, Chair of the UK HealthCare Intensive Care Unit Committee
In this role, Andrew and the team will work collaboratively across all of our ICUs to ensure the provision of high quality, safe, patient-centered and efficient intensive care.
Bernard attended medical school at the University Of Kentucky. He completed a general surgery residency and a trauma and critical care fellowship at UK. Bernard is recognized as a national leader in trauma care and is an excellent trauma and acute care surgeon. He is respected for his patient-centered approach.
Since 2002, Bernard has been very active in quality and safety initiatives that include the Interdepartmental Trauma Quality Assurance Committee, UK Organ Donation Council where he has served as chair since 2007, and the Transfusion Subcommittee. He is currently the medical director of UK HealthCare’s Trauma and Acute Care Surgery service line and chair of the Kentucky Trauma Advisory Committee, which oversees Kentucky’s trauma system.
UK HealthCare Names Lee Medical Director of Stroke Care
LEXINGTON Dr. Jessica D. Lee has been named UK HealthCare Medical Director of Stroke Care. Lee assumes the responsibilities formerly held by Dr. Michael Dobbs.
In her new role, Lee will work with members of the enterprise stroke leadership team on maintaining compliance with stroke core measures, stroke center certification, and other quality initiatives in stroke care.
Lee attended the University Of Mississippi School Of Medicine and is a fellowship-trained vascular neurologist with a strong background in patient safety. Since 2009, Lee has been actively involved in the American Academy of Neurology’s Patient Safety and Education Committees. She has spoken regionally and nationally on “Patient Safety 101 for Neurologists” and has worked to develop curricula for neurology residency training programs.
From 2009–2011, Lee was the medical director of the Parkland Health and Hospital Systems Neurology Clinic. From 2010–2012 she was named the medical director of the Acute Stroke Unit and 5th Floor Medical-Surgical Unit of the University Hospital-Zale Lipshy. In this role, she (with nursing leadership) improved hand washing compliance of the physician staff to 100 percent as well as completed a successful Meaningful Use implementation with the stroke related measures. From 2011–2012 she also served as the medical director of the Inpatient Neurology Services at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Since coming to UKHC in 2012, Lee has been leading development of a vascular neurology fellowship training program, as well as a telehealth stroke care clinic within the Stroke Care Network.
CMKI Announces 2013–2014 Class of Hand Fellows
LOUISVILLE The Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery (CMKI), a world-renowned nonprofit education and research organization, is proud to announce the 2013–2014 Class of Fellows. Individuals accepted into the Hand Surgery Fellowship include: Michael Coffey of Dayton, OH; James Donovan of Flint, MI; Scott Farner of Louisville, KY; Micah Jones of Farmington Hills, MI; Camela Pokhrel of Chicago, IL; James Treadwell of York, PA; Haritha Veeramachaneni of Los Angeles, CA; Kiley Ziegler of Kansas City, MO; Francisco Aguilar of Bogota, Columbia; Sajjad Hussain of Lahore, Pakistan; Fernando Polo of Toledo, Spain; Chris Milner of Sheffield, United Kingdom; Javier Ruiz of Monterrey, Mexico; Gregorio Santana of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Luis Vicentela of Santiago, Chile; and, Eduardo Zancolli of Buenos Aires, Argentina. University of Louisville Orthopedic Surgery Residents rotating in hand surgery in 2013–14 from Louisville, KY are: Adam Cochran; Victor Fehrenbacher; Shane Kibbe; and, Zach Yenna. CMKI congratulates this year’s Senior Hand Surgery Fellows: Anas A.R Altamimi of Irbed, Jordan; Carlos Lozano of Monterrey, Mexico; and, Shihheng Chen of Taipei, Taiwan. CMKI’s Research Fellow is Dong Han from Shanghai, China.
UofL Pediatrician Investigates Genetic Testing
University of Louisville pediatrician Kyle Brothers, MD, is a co-investigator on a new National Institutes of Health study seeking to improve diagnoses of genetic disorders and to examine the impact of genetic testing. The multi-year grant, potentially totaling more than $7.6 million, was announced in a HudsonAlpha press release.
Brothers’ research will consider whether learning a child’s diagnosis helps decrease parents’ uncertainty about the future. He will also explore how families are affected when advanced technologies don’t turn up a diagnosis for a child.
The study grant is part of the NIH’s Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research program under the direction of the National Human Genome Research Institute. CSER supports both the methods development needed to integrate sequencing into the clinic and the ethical and psychosocial research required to responsibly apply personal genomic sequence data to medical care.
Dobbs Publishes “Psychiatric Manifestations of Neurotoxins”
LEXINGTON Dr. Michael R. Dobbs, associate professor and interim chair of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and director of the UK HealthCare/Norton Healthcare Stroke Network, has edited and published the latest edition of “Psychiatric Clinics of North America” titled “Psychiatric Manifestations of Neurotoxins.”
Building on work that he had done with co-editor Dan Rusyniak of Indiana University for Neurologic Clinics, this compilation addresses cognitive and behavioral aspects of neurotoxic exposures.
Dobbs, one of only a handful of neurologists in the world with specialty expertise in clinical neurotoxicology, has previously published through Elsevier/Saunders the reference text, “Clinical Neurotoxicology: Syndromes, Substances, Environments,” which has become the leading book in the field. He has also published several journal articles and book chapters on clinical neurotoxicology and two editions of “Neurologic Clinics” devoted to neurotoxicology.
UK Researcher Earns 2013 Discovery Award
LEXINGTON The Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine recently named the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Allan Butterfield as the recipient of its 2013 Discovery Award.
The SFRBM’s Discovery Award is given out every other year to a researcher who has presented significant advancements in the field of redox research. Recipients must be nominated by a SFRBM member with details justifying their consideration. Butterfield was nominated by professor Daret St. Clair of the UK Department of Toxicology, with a seconding letter written by professor Barry Halliwell, from the National University of Singapore.
The Senior Awards Committee evaluated eight candidates that were nominated for the 2013 Discovery Award. Butterfield was recognized for his role as a pioneer in developing and investigating the model of amyloid beta-induced early oxidative stress in the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. He has been a leader in the field of redox proteomics, having applied these and other tools to unravel relevant targets of brain protein oxidation in neurodegeneration and relevant mechanisms of cancer chemotherapy-mediated cognitive dysfunction. This highly mechanistic and translational work provided relevant contribution as a worldwide reference in this area of investigation.
Butterfield will give a featured lecture at SFRBM’s 20th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Nov. 20, titled, “Pathogenesis and Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease and Potential Mechanisms of Chemotherapy Induced Cognitive Impairment: Roles of Oxidative Stress and Insights from Redox Proteomics.” He will also be presented with a cash award, medal and offered an invitation to publish a review article in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, SFRBM’s journal.
Butterfield is the Alumni Association endowed professor of Biological Chemistry at UK and serves as director for both UK’s Center of Membrane Sciences and the UK Markey Cancer Center’s Free Radical Biology in Cancer Shared Resource Facility. Additionally, he is a faculty associate for UK’s Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center and is a faculty member of UK’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging.
Kentuckiana Heart Walk Aims to Raise $1 Million
LOUISVILLE More than 10,000 Louisville and Southern Indiana residents are expected to lace up their sneakers in support of the American Heart Association’s Kentuckiana Heart Walk on Saturday, September 21. The annual event, which hopes to raise a record $1 Million to fight heart disease and stroke – America’s No. 1 and No. 4 killers – begins at 8:00 am. For the first time, Kentucky and Southern Indiana walkers will start at Waterfront Park and travel together down River Road, making it the largest crowd in the Heart Walk’s history.
The non-competitive, 1- to 3-mile walk includes teams of employees from local companies, along with friends, family members and survivors of all ages. Attendees will have the opportunity to remember survivors and loved ones lost to heart disease and stroke through a special memorial wall. The event will also include a kid’s zone, games, music and heart-healthy snacks.
The Kentuckiana Heart Walk is a component of the My Heart. My Life. behavior platform, the American Heart Association’s groundbreaking national movement that calls on all Americans to create and embrace an overall healthier lifestyle in order to improve cardiovascular health. This new platform is an important component of the American Heart Association’s sweeping national goal: to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent and to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20 percent by the year 2020.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans do not engage in regular physical activity. This inactivity doubles the risk of heart disease – which is largely preventable through a healthy lifestyle.
Lexington Clinic Offers New Spinal Cord Stimulator Compatible with MRIs
LEXINGTON Lexington Clinic is the first medical center in Kentucky to provide a new line of spinal cord stimulators that are compatible with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Spinal cord stimulation therapy uses a small pulse generator and electrodes implanted in the spine, to send electrical pulses to the spinal cord. These electrical pulses disrupt the nerve impulses that make you feel pain, and can offer patients significant relief from chronic back and leg pain.
While spinal cord stimulators are immensely beneficial to patients with chronic pain, they can prove problematic for disease diagnosis; because they render full-body MRI scans unsafe. MRI scans provide extremely detailed images of soft tissues including joints, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and ligaments, allowing for faster and more accurate diagnosis of multiple health conditions.
“An MRI is a giant magnet. The stimulator models currently being used contain a significant amount of iron, which if exposed to an MRI, could cause damage to the device and injury to the patient,” said Michael Harned, MD, Lexington Clinic pain management physician.
Due to the potential for harm, stimulator patients have been limited to CT scans, which utilize X-rays and show far less detail, for diagnostic purposes. For those in critical need of an MRI, the only option was removal of their stimulator, triggering the return of their pain. To make matters worse, many of these patients, due to the formation of scar tissue, are unable to have their stimulators replaced.
“This new device uses specialty components and shielding that does not interfere with MRI scans. This is a significant breakthrough for stimulator patients, many of which will require one or more MRI scans at some point in their lifetime.” said Harned.
Harned is the first physician in Kentucky to implant and offer this device, which he hopes will replace previous models in the near future.
UofL Studying Adult Stem Cell Treatment for Peripheral Arterial Disease
LOUISVILLE A network of cell therapy research centers established by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant at the University of Louisville is now enrolling patients in its first clinical trial – a Phase II study of a novel adult stem cell treatment for peripheral arterial disease (PAD).
In 2012, Dr. Roberto Bolli was awarded $3.4 million over seven years from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to participate in the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), a consortium of seven adult stem cell centers in the United States with expertise in conducting clinical trials of novel treatments for cardiovascular diseases.
With UofL, CCTRN members are Stanford University, Texas Heart Institute, University of Florida, University of Miami, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, and Indiana University.
At UofL, the study will be led by Bolli, director of the Institute of Molecular Cardiology, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Jewish Hospital Heart & Lung Institute Distinguished Chair in Cardiology. The clinical trial, “Patients with Intermittent Claudication Injected with ALDH Bright Cells,” is known as PACE. The goal is for the CCTRN sites to collectively enroll 80 patients in one year.
PACE is a randomized, placebo-controlled study in which patients will be followed for one year. The treatment group will receive what are known as aldehyde dehydrogenase bright cells, which are stem cells taken from the patient’s bone marrow and then processed through a technology owned by the company Cytomedix Inc. (OTC: CMXI), an industry partner in the trial.
Markey Earns Prestigious National Cancer Institute Designation
LEXINGTON The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center was joined by national, state and local leaders on July 12 to celebrate its designation as a National Cancer Institute cancer center. The UK Markey Cancer Center is the 68th medical center in the country to receive this prestigious designation, and is the only NCI-designated cancer center in the state of Kentucky.
Earning NCI designation was a lengthy process that required strong efforts in research, recruiting, and improving many of the programs at Markey. As a result of the designation, patients will have access to new drugs, treatment options, and clinical trials offered only at NCI centers. The UK Markey Cancer Center will be able to apply for federal research grants available only to NCI-designated cancer centers, with the potential to bring millions in additional funding to the area.
Additionally, the NCI designation allows Markey to communicate and collaborate on new advances in cancer care with other NCI-designated cancer centers across the country. Locally, Markey will be able to increase community engagement, including volunteers, patient advisory groups, and education and intervention programs.
UofL Diabetes & Obesity Center Wins Second Multimillion-Dollar NIH Grant
LOUISVILLE A center created with a five-year National Institutes of Health grant at the University of Louisville in 2008 has won its second five-year grant. The NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded an $11.25 million “Center of Biomedical Research Excellence” grant to UofL’s Diabetes and Obesity Center.
Part of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at UofL, the Diabetes and Obesity Center was created as a way to address the profound effect that diabetes and obesity have had on our nation’s health and general quality of life, said its director, Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D.
Also a key component of the grant is its continued support of junior investigators. Within the past four years, seven junior investigators within the center have acquired independent federal funding, making it one of the most successful COBRE programs in the nation.
Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation Announces New Board Leadership
LEXINGTON The Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation, part of KentuckyOne Health, is pleased to announce new appointments to its 2013–2014 executive committee and board of directors.
Executive committee appointments include:
Chair, Alan VanArsdall, President, Central Bank, Nicholasville, Ky.
Vice-Chair, Greg Yeary, Wealth Management Advisor, Assistant Vice President, Merrill Lynch, Lexington, Ky.
Treasurer, Susan A. Dean, Vice President Commercial Banking, U.S. Bank, Lexington, Ky.
New members to the board of directors include:
Susan A. Dean, Vice President Commercial Banking, U.S. Bank, Lexington, Ky.
William E. Henderson III, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, RJ Corman Railroad Company, Lexington, Ky.
Stephen Hillenmeyer, President, Stephen Hillenmeyer Landscape Services, Lexington, Ky.
Kimberly Stigers, MD, radiologist and co-director of the Saint Joseph Breast Center, Lexington, Ky.
The primary purpose of the Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation is to raise and administer funds to support the core values and mission of Saint Joseph Hospital, Saint Joseph East, and the Saint Joseph Jessamine RJ Corman Ambulatory Care Center. One of the Foundation’s goals is to bridge the gap between medicine and compassion. The Foundation is always looking for ways to assist those in need and is funded solely by the generous contributions of those wishing to assist our efforts.
Baptist Health Hospitals Make State’s Top Five in National Rankings
LOUISVILLE Two of Baptist Health’s seven hospitals were named to the top five of Kentucky hospitals ranked by U.S. News & World Report. This is the second year for the publication to issue rankings for each state and metro area of at least one million in population.
Baptist Health Louisville was named #1 in the Metro Louisville area and #2 in Kentucky – tied with the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital.
Baptist Health Lexington made the rankings for the first time this year, coming in at the #4 spot for Kentucky.
Baptist Health Louisville performed nearly at the level of nationally ranked U.S. News Best Hospitals in 10 adult specialties: cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; orthopedics, pulmonology and urology.
Baptist Health Lexington performed nearly at the level of nationally ranked hospitals in eight specialties: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; gynecology; neurology and neurosurgery; and pulmonology.
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Baptist Health Announces New Physicians
LOUISVILLE Tracy Ander, DO, neurology, has joined Baptist Neuroscience Associates, part of Baptist Medical Associates.
Ander is a 2009 graduate of the Ohio College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, Ohio. She completed her traditional rotating internship and adult neurology residency at Grandview Hospital & Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Ander is board eligible in neurology.
Ismat Asad, MD, family medicine, has joined Baptist Medical Associates’ location at 10216 Taylorsville Road, Suite 600, in Jeffersontown.
Asad is a 1998 graduate of the Sylhet Osmani Medical College and Hospital in Sylhet, Bangladesh. She completed her family and geriatric medicine residency at the University of Louisville in 2013. Asad is board certified in family medicine.
Jonathan Hodes, MD, MS, FACS, neurosurgery; Kelley Kiesler, MSN, APRN, and Angela Mullins, MSN, APRN, have joined Baptist Surgical Associates as Baptist Health Center for Advanced Neurosurgery. The practice is located at 3900 Kresge Way, Suite 41.
Jonathan Hodes, MD, MS, FACS, is a 1980 graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.
He completed his internal medicine residency at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis in 1982. Hodes completed fellowship at the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md. in 1984. He completed neurosurgical residency at the University of California-San Francisco in 1988, a neurovascular surgery clinical fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in 1989 and a neurointerventional radiology fellowship at Lariboisiere Hospital in Paris, France in 1991.
Blakely Dueitt Kute, MD, oncology and hematology, has joined CBC Group: Consulting in Blood Disorders and Cancer, part of Baptist Medical Associates, located at 4003 Kresge Way, Ste. 500.
A Louisville native, Kute is a 2007 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Alabama, Birmingham in 2010. Kute completed a medical oncology and hematology fellowship at James Graham Brown Cancer Center in 2013, serving as chief medical fellow her final year. She is board eligible in oncology and hematology.
SHELBYVILLE/LOUISVILLE Jennifer Ford, MD, has joined Baptist OB/GYN Associates, part of Baptist Medical Associates, with offices in Shelbyville and St. Matthews.
Ford is a 2009 graduate of the Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Ga. She completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Louisville in 2013. Ford also holds a master of social work from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She is board eligible in obstetrics and gynecology.