BIDMC News and Notes
11/20/2009 (10:33:51am)Tags: violence recovery Arab-Israeli conflictComments: (0)
Robi Damelin lives in Tel Aviv and lost her son to a sniper while he was on military reserve duty in March, 2002. Mazen Faraj lives in Bethlehem and lost his father in April 2002 when a member of the Israeli Defense Force mistook the bag of groceries for something else.
Damelin and Fraj channeled their grief into the Parents Circle-Families Forum, created in 1995 as a way to spearhead a reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Damelin and Faraj will tell their stories -- and their efforts to stop violence and bloodshed -- in a special forum sponsored by BIDMC's Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery on Wednesday, Dec. 16.
The event is free and open to the public who RSVP by Dec. 11. For more information or to reserve a spot, contact Margaret Brevig
11/20/2009 (9:43:22am)Tags: noneComments: (0)
Amy Ship, a primary care physician at BIDMC, has been named this year's "Compassionate Caregiver" by the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center.
Ship's personal and professional story was highlighted at last night's annual awards gala in Boston and in a story on NECN.
11/18/2009 (4:14:13pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC neurologists Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, and Daniel Tarsy, MD, have been awarded grants totaling more than $1.5 million from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) to conduct investigations aimed at improving the quality of life for patients with Parkinson's disease.
Pascual-Leone, Director of BIDMC's Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, will oversee a three-year $1.498 million grant to investigate the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Tarsy, Director of BIDMC's Parkinson's Disease Center, will lead a study comparing two types of speech and voice therapy to determine which is more effective in treating the decreased voice volume experienced by many Parkinson's patients.
For more, click here.
11/17/2009 (9:57:13am)Tags: breast cancer mammographyComments: (0)
BIDMC oncology social worker Hester Hill offers her observations on U.S. Preventive Service Task Force's new recommendations to woman about mammography and breast self-examinations.
A quick summary:
"This is clearly very different from what we have all been told for years. It is, however, not so different from what doctors have known and what the evidence has demonstrated. Mammograms are not as good a screening test in younger women as they are for post-menopausal women. The reason for this is the difference in breast tissue; dense tissue makes it more difficult to read the scans."
11/16/2009 (3:06:04pm)Tags: cardiovascular care Thomson ReutersComments: (0)
BIDMC has earned a spot in the Thomson Reuters annual study identifying the 100 U.S. hospitals that set the nation's benchmarks for inpatient cardiovascular care.
The study examined the performance of 971 hospitals by analyzing outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery or percutaneous cardiovascular interventions (PCI) such as angioplasties.
The study, in its 11th year, found the top performing hospitals perform over 50 percent more cardiac surgeries than peer hospitals.
For more details, click here.
11/12/2009 (3:23:11pm)Tags: quality top hospital patient safetyComments: (0)
Atrius Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are expanding their relationship to establish a new model of health care delivery between a large ambulatory multi-specialty practice and a leading academic medical center, according to Gene Lindsey, MD, president and CEO of Atrius Health.
The boards of directors from Atrius and BIDMC both voted Wednesday evening to build the expanded relationship.
For more details on what this will mean, click here.
11/9/2009 (1:10:25pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
Emergency preparedness is the watchword at all health care facilities these days.
Go behind the scenes with the BIDMC Emergency Management Team as it held its first full-scale decontamination drill at night, simulating the Emergency Department response to a "dirty bomb" explosion at a nearby college campus.
11/9/2009 (12:44:44pm)Tags: archives Ruth FreimanComments: (0)
Long before BIDMC was born in 1996, Beth Israel and New England Deaconess hospitals were leaders in health care with a long history of personalized patient care and community service.
That history has been carefully preserved in an archives maintained by one of the hospital's longest serving staff members. Archivist Ruth Freiman has held the job for 30 years, following 20 years of service as a volunteer.
The BIDMC Board of Directors recently honored her commitment by designating the Ruth and David Freiman Archives at BIDMC. Dr. David Freiman was the former Chief of Pathology at Beth Israel Hospital and assisted with the development of the archives during his retirement.
Take a tour of the archives with this remarkable woman.
11/4/2009 (1:33:14pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC has instituted new patient and visitor guidelines and restrictions to help protect the medical center's most vulnerable patients - and everyone - now that the flu has become widespread.
Visitors with symptoms of the flu are asked to delay their visits until they are well. Areas of the hospital that care for patients most vulnerable to the flu have instituted the most stringent guidelines. For example, on many of our floors, children under 12 are no longer allowed to visit.
Visit the Flu Facts page on bidmc.org for updated guidelines and restrictions as well as tips on fighting the flu, caring for someone with the flu and when to call a doctor.
11/4/2009 (1:31:29pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
Here's a moving story about a young auto accident victim and a remarkable recovery, made possible in part by the trauma team at BIDMC.
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.
10/13/2009 (1:42:41pm)Tags: research NIHComments: (0)
BIDMC has been awarded $38.2 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
BIDMC scientists received a total of 69 grants across all medical-center departments, including surgery, neurology, pathology and a wide swath of divisions within the Department of Medicine including cardiology, hematology/oncology, nephrology, gastroenterology and geriatrics.
For more details, click here.
10/13/2009 (1:30:05pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
Clifford B. Saper, MD, PhD, Chairman of BIDMC's Department of Neurology has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Saper is one of the country's leading neuroscientists studying the brain circuitry that controls basic physiologic functions. His work has greatly extended the understanding of the body's wake-sleep cycles, brain responses to immune stimulation, and the brain's control of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and has helped lead to advances in treating sleep disorders, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute is one of four distinguished organizations that make up the National Academies, which provide scientific and technological advice to the nation.
For more, click here.
10/13/2009 (1:12:38pm)Tags: flu emergency careComments: (0)
BIDMC emergency room physicians Peter Smulowitz and Stephen Epstein have been discussing a new poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians that expresses concern about readiness for an H1N1 outbreak.
Smulowitz tells WCVB-TV that pandemic planning should continue with the idea that all hospitals are prepared for a worst-case scenario.
And Epstein repeats the message on WBZ-AM, along with some common sense tips on how to care for yourself.
10/8/2009 (3:41:30pm)Tags: noneComments: (0)
BIDMC's men (and women) in blue have gone green.
When Chief Operating Officer Eric Buehrens and Facilities Senior Vice President Walter Armstrong discovered that Public Safety was in the market for a new vehicle, they asked Chief Chris Casey to check out a hybrid model.
"I talked with my lieutenants and agreed that it could be a win-win," Casey said. "We would get a much needed second car while meeting a medical center goal to go green for energy savings and emissions reduction."
Casey worked with BIDMC's Sustainability Coordinator, Amy Lipman. She estimates the Ford Fusion hybrid will save the medical center $1,300 a year in gas.
"The new strategic plan includes a hybrid replacement policy," Lipman said. "As we replace existing cars, we hope to replace them with hybrids. Because we do a lot of around-town driving and idling, the kind of driving where hybrids are at their best and traditional cars are at their worst, hybrids are a much better fit for us."
10/8/2009 (3:30:48pm)Tags: Red Sox first aidComments: (0)
At the heart of BIDMC's relationship with the Red Sox is the skill, enthusiasm and commitment to service that a team of BIDMC staff brings to every home game.
Last Saturday, representatives of that team - BIDMC First Aid - took to the field during pre-game ceremonies and received a hearty cheer from Fenway fans before the start of the game against the Cleveland Indians.
"The First Aid team has had a busy year, not only having the Red Sox games, but five concerts as well," said Sue Pacheco, RN, and leader of the First Aid team.
Some Fenway First Aid Facts
*Thirty BIDMC nurses, physicians and technicians from the Emergency Department, the post-anesthesia care unit, intensive care units and operating rooms rotate through the First Aid and the Green Monster stations for all home games - including the upcoming play-offs.
*Staff receive anywhere from 25 to 70 visits per game at the First Aid station. Last year more than 2,000 patrons were treated with almost 200 transferred to BIDMC.
*Staff treats cuts, injuries from foul balls and heat related illness to name a few.
