World-Renowned Hand Surgeon Dr. Joseph Kutz Retires
LOUISVILLE Joseph E. Kutz, MD, co-founder of the Kleinert Kutz Hand Care Center and world-renowned hand surgeon, is retiring at the age of 87.
Kutz’s achievements in the medical field have impacted the future of hand surgery, microsurgery, and reconstructive surgery around the world. Patients worldwide, including the king of a middle eastern country, have received hand care from Kutz.
Kutz began working with Dr. Harold Kleinert in 1963. The Kleinert Kutz Hand Care Center was later established and remains one of the largest hand care referral centers in the world. At the center, Kutz and his team have developed breakthrough procedures for the repair of digital arteries and flexor tendons, as well as hand, forearm, and upper arm transplantation techniques. More than 1,400 physicians from nearly 60 countries have served as fellows in the center’s accredited fellowship program.
The renowned hand surgeon is part of, and at times has led, the Louisville Vascularized Composite Allograft (VCA) program, otherwise known as the hand transplant program, a partnership of physicians, researchers, and healthcare providers from Jewish Hospital, part of KentuckyOne Health; the Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery; the Kleinert Kutz Hand Care Center; and the University of Louisville. The VCA program is the nation’s oldest hand reconstructive transplantation program.
Kutz is a past director of the Christine M. Kleinert Fellowship in Hand Surgery, the teaching arm of Kleinert Kutz. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1958 and received his postgraduate training at the University of Louisville. Kutz is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
In honor of Kutz’s career and achievements in the medical field, Mayor Greg Fischer proclaimed April 27, 2016 as “Dr. Joseph Kutz Day” in Louisville.
Woods Elected Chair of an AAP Committee
LOUISVILLE Charles R. Woods Jr., MD, has been elected the incoming chair of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Section on Epidemiology, Public Health and Evidence (SOEPHE). His one-year term begins Nov. 1.
The SOEPHE supports development of high quality practice guidelines for children’s healthcare and fosters informed use of data to improve the health of children. It is composed of AAP members who practice or have interests in the fields of public health and epidemiology.
Woods is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is associate chair of the U of L Department of Pediatrics and director of the department’s Child & Adolescent Health Research Design & Support Unit. He has been at U of L since 2006.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Samford University and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a pediatric residency followed by a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital. He later earned a master’s degree in epidemiology from Wake Forest University.
Woods practices with University of Louisville Physicians-Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
Brown Wins Cardiology Award
LOUISVILLE It stands to reason: If you want to educate large numbers of people, go where large numbers of people go.
In Dr. Lorrel E. Brown’s case, that place was the Kentucky State Fair – and the nation’s premier cardiology association has presented her an award for her innovative thinking.
Brown, assistant professor of medicine in U of L’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, won first place in the category of “Young Investigator Awards in Cardiovascular Health Outcomes and Population Genetics” from the American College of Cardiology earlier this month. The award was presented at the organization’s 65th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago. It also was published in the April 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Brown headed a group of researchers that included Dr. Glenn Hirsch, associate professor of medicine, cardiology fellows Dr. Wendy Bottinor and Dr. Avnish Tripathi, medical student Travis Carroll, Dr. Bill Dillon, who founded the organization Start the Heart Foundation, and Chris Lokits of Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services, Office of Medical Direction and Oversight. They tackled the problem of surviving cardiac arrest – the sudden stopping of the heart – by increasing the number of people trained in hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Titled “CPR at the State Fair: A 10-minute Training Session is Effective in Teaching Bystander CPR to Members of At-risk Communities,” the research effort brought CPR training to the Kentucky State Fair’s Health Pavilion in August 2015.
Steltenkamp Honored as One of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT
LEXINGTON Health Data Management, the information resource for medical and information technology (IT) professionals, executives, and administrators, honored 75 of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT, including Dr. Carol Steltenkamp, professor of pediatrics at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and chief medical information officer (CMIO) at UK HealthCare, at the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT conference on May 12 in Boston.
Steltenkamp is chair of the Kentucky eHealth Board, which successfully launched and maintains the Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE). She also is the principal investigator for more than $10 million in healthcare information technology (HIT) grant funding including the foundational grant establishing the Kentucky Regional Extension Center from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (HHS/ONC).
As the first CMIO at UK HealthCare, Steltenkamp selected and ultimately led implementation of an electronic health record system across the clinical enterprise. She then became a leader for HIT in Kentucky and was named chair of the Kentucky eHealth Board, which successfully launched and maintains the Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE). She also is the principal investigator for more than $10 million in healthcare information technology (HIT) grant funding including the foundational grant establishing the Kentucky Regional Extension Center from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (HHS/ONC). Steltenkamp also has been an active volunteer member of the Health information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for many years.
Ephraim McDowell board Chair Honored by KHA
DANVILLE The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) presented several awards during the Association’s Awards Luncheon on May 13, at the 87th Annual KHA Convention in Lexington. KHA’s Health Care Governance Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals who have had a positive and sustainable impact on the quality of care in their community, was presented to Dale Kihlman, board chair of the Ephraim McDowell Health Board of Directors in Danville.
After serving our country in the U.S. Air Force, earning his bachelor of science in business from the University of Minnesota, and working for Tonka Toys, Kihlman relocated to Stanford, Ky. in 1978 to work for Ceramichrome, a Tonka Toys affiliate. He has more than 20 years of service as a member of various boards, and over 35 years of dedicated service and involvement with civic organizations and local agencies in the Danville and Stanford communities.
Kihlman has served the Ephraim McDowell Health System since 1994, when he began serving as a member of the Ephraim McDowell Health Care Foundation Board of Directors, as well as the Central Kentucky Cancer Advisory Board. He served as chair of the Foundation Board from 2009 to 2013 and he has served as chair of the Ephraim McDowell Health Board of Directors since 2014.
JGBCC Enrolling Patients in Recurrent Glioblastoma Trial
LOUISVILLE For patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), existing chemotherapies have offered limited survival benefit, and new therapies are clearly needed. Eric Burton, MD, is conducting a clinical trial with a new therapy at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center that may provide improved results for these patients.
Burton, assistant professor in U of L’s Department of Neurology and director of neurooncology at JGBCC, is seeking participants for a clinical trial at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health, to test a new treatment for recurrent GBM that attempts to halt tumor growth by reducing the blood supply to the tumor. Participants will be accepted for the trial over the next year.
The therapy to be tested aims to halt tumor growth by limiting the tumor’s blood supply, a process called angiogenesis inhibition, which is a well-established tumor treatment method. It uses VB-111, a modified version of a common virus, that delivers a gene specifically to the endothelial cells that spawn blood vessels for the tumor. The expression of this gene in the blood vessel cell causes cell death, resulting in decreased blood flow to the tumor. The VB-111 virus can be given to patients systemically with tolerable side effects and, based on early trial studies, it may improve survival in patients with recurrent GBM.
Avastin is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of recurrent GBM. In this trial, participants who experience either a first or a second recurrence of GBM will be randomized to be treated with either Avastin alone or Avastin with VB-111. The goal of the study is to determine if the addition of VB-111 to Avastin improves survival over treatment with Avastin alone.
The trial is open to adults over 18 years of age initially diagnosed with GBM who have already received upfront standard treatment with radiation and Temodar at initial diagnosis. Patients can only be in their first or second recurrence and may not have received previous therapy with Avastin or any other angiogenesis inhibitor.
The Brown Cancer Center currently is the only site in this region participating in the international clinical trial. To learn more about the trial, patients may contact the Brown Cancer Center at 502-562-3429 or email
ctoinfo.louisville.edu.
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