BIDMC News and Notes
10/28/2009 (10:37:55am)Tags: hand hygiene infection controlComments: (0)
BIDMC's latest effort to improve hand hygiene is a contest among units to see who can score the highest in terms of compliance.
BIDMC Bowl-a-rama (Knock Down the Germs) is highlighted in this post on the OSHA Health Care Advisor blog.
10/27/2009 (12:08:24pm)Tags: NIH transplant carbon monoxideComments: (0)
Leo Otterbein, PhD, a scientist in the Division of Transplantation at BIDMC whose novel research has revealed medical applications for carbon monoxide gas, has been awarded a $1.4 million, four-year EUREKA grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The award will enable Otterbein to continue to study the underlying biology behind this seemingly paradoxical idea and, if successful, could lead to new therapies for a range of medical applications from adjunct cancer treatments to fighting bacterial infections to helping kidney-transplant patients avoid organ rejection.
An acronym for Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration, EUREKA grants are part of an initiative unveiled last year by the NIH to fund innovative research and test new, unconventional ideas.
To learn more about Otterbein's work, click here.
10/27/2009 (11:49:24am)Tags: RFID pumps technologyComments: (0)
Instead of a floor by floor search of the hospital it recently only took two elevator rides and a walk across Brookline Avenue to track down a missing medication delivery pump.
"I renamed RFID to Really Finds Infusion Devices," David Mangan, a clinical pharmacist supervisor, says with a laugh.
RFID actually stands for Radio Frequency Identification. All of BIDMC new pumps feature this tracking device. Mangan had loaned one pump to a floor to practice accessing the medication library. But the test pump had accidentally gone into general circulation, and Mangan quickly alerted Clinical Engineering.
"We were not concerned for patient safety about this pump being in general circulation," Mangan says. "The medication library on this pump was accurate, but set up differently than what nurses are used to."
It took technology toordinator Pam Dicapua and Clinical Engineering Manager Dick Hatch, Manager 30 minutes to locate the pump thanks to RFID.
Hatch says the RFID tags on each pump send out a signal to access points around the hospital, pinpointing the floor a particular pump is on. If this system had not been in place, Clinical Engineering staff would have had to manually search each of the medical center's 1,275 pumps.
"This saved us from searching through two million square feet of office space," Mangan says.
For realizing the test pump had gone into general circulation, Mangan was honored by BIDMC's Board of Directors during their Oct. 21 meeting.
To lean more about the "Caller Outer of the Month," click here.
10/26/2009 (2:36:13pm)Tags: breast cancer mammographyComments: (0)
There is a new digital mammography van now in Boston - one of the first such digital mobile vans in the country - thanks to the support of national and local foundations and businesses,
The vans are scheduled at several BIDMC-affiliated health centers including the Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester.
In 2002, the City of Boston launched the Mayor's Cancer Crusade that included the purchase of a mammography van to offer breast screenings at local health centers. Operated by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the program has provided more than 25,000 mammograms to 11,000 women, 60 percent of whom speak a language other than English. Sixty confirmed diagnoses of breast cancer have been made and thousands of women have benefited from breast health education programs.
10/26/2009 (11:26:39am)Tags: obstetrics gynecology community healthComments: (0)
The South Cove Community Health Center offered a warm welcome to Dr. John Yeh, the newly appointed Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the hospital affiliate of SCCHC, where more than 300 Asian-American babies are born each year.
Among those on hand were, from left: Hee Man Chie, MD, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, SCCHC; John Yeh, MD Chief OB/GYN, BIDMC; Helen Chin Schlichte, Vice Chair, Board of Directors, BIDMC; Steven Tang, MD Board member, SCCHC; April Tang; Board member, SCCHC; Board of Overseers, BIDMC; Cindy Chen Board member, SCCHC.
For more on the visit, click here.
10/23/2009 (1:00:37pm)Tags: intensive care patient-centered care qualityComments: (0)
BIDMC has been honored by an international group of critical care specialists for its work to improve the experience of patients and family members in intensive care units (ICUs).
The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), with 14,000 members in 80 countries, named BIDMC the winner of the 2010 Family-Centered Care Award, given annually to one hospital or ICU to "recognize innovation that improves the care provided to critically ill and injured patients and their families."
To learn more, click here.
10/21/2009 (4:12:54pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC has been named to the 2009 Harvard Pilgrim Hospital Honor Roll, which includes hospitals whose performance was among the top 25 percent of those measured nationally on a set of composite quality metrics.
For more information, click here.
10/21/2009 (3:54:15pm)Tags: surgery science educationComments: (0)
Students at Madison Park and Brookline high schools recently got a chance to view surgery up close and personal.
The classes taught by Julie Joyal Mowschenson, RN, combines classroom lessons with putting the theory into action by running simulated medical cases on a robotic patient at Harvard Medical School.
For more, click here. And to see the Boston Globe's coverage, click here.
10/16/2009 (12:34:34pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC geneticist John Rinn, PhD, whose research has helped uncover a new class of RNA, has been named to this year's "Brilliant 10" list of top young scientists by Popular Science magazine. The list appears in the magazine's November issue.
Check out Rinn's accomplishments and those of his nine other brilliant colleagues.
10/16/2009 (12:28:28pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC has been honored with an Institutional Leadership Award from MassEcon, a private, non-profit partnership of business, industry leaders, and government dedicated to fostering economic growth in the Commonwealth.
The award will be presented at a Nov. 24 luncheon that will also recognize 17 other companies from across the state. The Sixth Annual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Award is the only event of its kind in Massachusetts recognizing companies for their outstanding contributions to the Massachusetts economy.
To learn more, click here.
