Maryland Med

Sinai head to lead AHA

2008-07-17T21:03:27Z

Neil M. Meltzer, president of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and senior vice president of LifeBridge Health, also in Baltimore, has been named chairman-elect of the American Heart Association. He'll assume the post in July 2009.

Meltzer will be responsible for the overall administration of the association's business affairs, public relations and fund raising and will preside over meetings of the Board of Directors.

He began volunteering for the association in 1995 and has been a member of the organization’s national Board of Directors and Administrative Cabinet since 2005. Meltzer has also been a constant advocate for improvements in cardiovascular emergency response and treatment systems.

How your neighborhood rates

2008-07-17T15:30:17Z

Today I have a story on how neighborhoods can harm heart health through stress. Some areas in Baltimore are as bad for you as smoking.

Here's how the 64 neighborhoods in the study rate.

Higher numbers are worse.

Neighborhood Name Psychosocial hazard scale
DRUID HEIGHTS 19.21
GREENMOUNT WEST 17.57
OLIVER 16.99
BARCLAY 16.64
UPTON 16.47
CHARLES NORTH 15.49
HARLEM PARK 14.05
GAY STREET 13.38
EAST BALTIMORE MIDWAY 12.84
BETTER WAVERLY 11.69
OLDTOWN 9.88
MADISON PARK 9.58
JOHNSTON SQUARE 9.44
HARWOOD 8.94
COLDSTREAM HOMESTEAD MONTEBELLO 8.6
RESERVOIR HILL 7.65
SETON HILL 7.25
WOODBOURNE-MCCABE 6.73
REMINGTON 6.05
PEN LUCY 5.76
WAVERLY 3.65
RICHNOR SPRINGS 3.18
HAMPDEN 2.71
WASHINGTON HILL 2.55
WILSON PARK 2.4
WINSTON-GOVANS 1.93
MID-TOWN BELVEDERE 1.78
MOUNT VERNON 0.85
STONEWOOD-PENTWOOD-WINSTON -0.17
KERNEWOOD -0.23
LITTLE ITALY -0.63
BELAIR-PARKSIDE -0.89
CHARLES VILLAGE -1.21
KENILWORTH PARK -1.58
WALTHERSON -2.06
NEW NORTHWOOD -2.72
HILLEN -3.42
RIDGELY'S DELIGHT -3.94
BOLTON HILL -3.95
LOYOLA/NOTRE DAME -4.14
LAURAVILLE -4.36
EDNOR GARDENS-LAKESIDE -5.12
MEDFIELD -5.71
ABELL -6.14
WILSON HEIGHTS -6.24
PERRING LOCH -6.85
ARCADIA -6.87
BEVERLY HILLS -7.27
WYMAN PARK -7.4
RADNOR-WINSTON -7.84
OAKENSHAWE -8.08
MORAVIA-WALTHER -9.01
HOES HEIGHTS -9.92
OTTERBEIN -10.06
ORIGINAL NORTHWOOD -10.56
EVERGREEN -11.68
ROLAND PARK -11.97
CROSS KEYS -12.61
GUILFORD -13.91
MAYFIELD -14.01
TUSCANY-CANTERBURY -14.34
VILLAGES OF HOMELAND -14.87
KESWICK -19.05

Famed heart surgeon comes to University of Maryland

2008-07-14T17:19:15Z

A world expert in minimally invasive heart bypass surgery has joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland.

Johannes Bonatti has moved to Baltimore from Innsbruck University Hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, where he was a cardiac surgeon and an associate professor of surgery. He begins here tomorrow.

Bonatti has performed more than 300 heart surgeries using the DaVinci robot. Most were performed in a completely endoscopic way -- without even a small incision.

With the minimally invasive technique, patients can return to usual activities and light exercise after about two weeks compared to 2 to 3 months recovery time after traditional bypass surgery.

Only a few heart surgeons around the world have experience in performing a completely endoscopic heart bypass operation.

Bonatti hopes to bring minimally invasive heart surgery using the robot into the mainstream of practice, much in the same way that the DaVinci robot is commonly used today for prostate surgery.

Post Vs. JAMA

2008-07-11T21:21:10Z

So on Wednesday, The Washington Post broke the AMA racism apology story, which the Sun published today.

The Post also broke the Journal of the American Medical Association embargo, by almost a week. JAMA takes that stuff seriously, and has punished the Post, revoking its privileges.

So the paper won't get emargoed material ahead of time. No word yet on length of sentence.... Post national desk assignment editor Steven Holmes, who edited the story, says the paper didn't break the embargo. "We got the information from another source," he told me.

Here's the now un-embargoed article and commentary.

Mercy doc wins lifetime award

2008-07-07T19:04:15Z

Dr. Neil Rosenshein, medical director of the Weinberg Center for Women’s Health & Medicine, in Baltimore, has been awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Snowmass Institute, a women's health think tank.

Dr. Rosenshein is a gynecologic oncologist. Since 1995, he has been the director of The Gynecology Center at Mercy Medical Center, and Medical Director of The Center for Women’s Health & Medicine at Mercy since 2000.

Vitamin A: good for kids

2008-07-02T14:40:51Z

A single oral dose of vitamin A, given to infants in the developing world shortly after birth, can reduce their risk of death by 15 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The study is published in the latest issue of Pediatrics.

"It has long been known that vitamin A supplementation can reduce mortality in children over 6 months of age. Our study showed that vitamin A given at birth can also improve infant survival within the first 6 months of life," said Rolf D.W. Klemm, the study's lead author.

The study enrolled 15,937 newborns from rural communities in northwest Bangladesh, where over 90 percent of babies are born at home. Half received vitamin A, while the other half received a placebo. The vitamin A was given orally to the infants within a few days of birth, usually by 7 hours after delivery.

The mortality rate for the vitamin A group was 38.5 deaths per 1,000 births compared to 45.1 deaths per 1,000 births for the non-vitamin A group. Although vitamin A reduced infant deaths from all causes, lives were likely saved by reducing the severity of potentially fatal infections which are responsible for most deaths in early infancy in South Asia.

"We are excited by the results of this study, that build on two previous studies in South Asia, confirming this low cost intervention can significantly contribute to reducing mortality in the first 6 months of life," said Kent R. Hill, assistant administrator for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Counterfeit pesticides in Europe

2008-07-01T19:03:47Z

Here's a scary story from the Financial Times on counterfeit -- and highly toxic -- pesticides being used in Europe. Here too?

New chair of St. Agnes Hospital’s board of directors

2008-06-30T16:43:56Z

Barbara Bozzuto has been appointed Chair of St. Agnes Hospital’s board of directors, a position previously held by Albert “Skip” Counselman.

Bozzuto has served on many boards, including WYPR’s board of directors, where she recently served as chai. He has previously served on the St. Agnes Hospital board of directors, and as chair of the hospital's $25 million Capital Campaign.

She now serves as Commissioner of the Maryland State Commission on Public Art, and has worked with the Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Choral Arts on fundraising initiatives.

In her new position, Bozzuto will oversee the budget; guiding the consensus of the board on stewardship, credentialing of medical staff, fundraising, and mission; and evaluating CEO performance.

Gun-related homicide among young men rose in U.S.

2008-06-26T14:35:59Z

Gun-related murder among young men has risen sharply in the United States even as the overall homicide rate remained flat, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Between 1999 and 2005, homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age. The study appears in the Journal of Urban Health.

“The recent flatness of the U.S. homicide rate obscures the large increases in firearm death among males ages 25-44, especially black males,” said Susan Baker, MPH, co-author of the study. According to the study, the overall homicide rate remained between 6.0 and 6.1 deaths per 100,000 from 1999 to 2005, except for an increase in 2001 attributed to the terrorist attacks of September 11.

The researchers found significant increases in the rate of gun murders for white males ages 25 to 34 and for black males ages 25 to 44. The increase was not distributed evenly throughout the country. The most significant increases occurred in Alabama, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. Other states did not see significant change.

Most of the increases occurred in and around big cities. “The increases in firearm homicide we measured were almost twice as high among blacks as among whites and they were mostly concentrated in central metropolitan and fringe metropolitan areas,” said co-author Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH, co-director of the Bloomberg School’s Center for Gun Policy and Research. He suspects that early exposure to lead and unusually high rates of gun homicides may be part of the explanation.

M. Night Shyamalan on science, fiction and his new film

2008-06-25T14:09:50Z

Monday I talked with M. Night Shyamalan (that's him on the left), director of The Sixth Sense and The Village. He's just released a new movie, The Happening, an apocalyptic tale in which the environment rises up in vengeance against Mark Wahlberg and the rest of us short-sighted, SUV-driving humans.

Here's the podcast.

We talked about his new film, science, B movies, and his non-green lifestyle.

Check out the official movie Web site, more about M. Night and the Wikipedia entry about the movie (warning: the last site gives away the plot).

Sinai earns stroke award

2008-06-24T16:18:33Z

The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have awarded Sinai Hospital the Gold Performance Achievement Award for reaching and maintaining high standards at its stroke center.

The award is presented to hospitals that demonstrate a minimum of 85 percent compliance in key measures for two years. The measures focus on improvement in stroke treatment, prevention of strokes, and evidence-based diagnosis and discharge of stroke patients.

Sinai and Johns Hopkins Hospital are the only institutions in Maryland that have earned the award, along with about 30 other hospitals nationwide.

New clue to Alzheimer's culprit

2008-06-23T18:49:08Z

Harvard researchers have found that a certain type of plaque is likely to blame for Alzheimer's.

Too many premature babies

2008-06-19T22:41:36Z

There are too many preemies in the U.S. And health officials want to fix the problem.

Shock Trauma helps out in China

2008-06-18T21:20:35Z

Five trauma specialists from the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center returned yesterday after spending ten days in China helping earthquake survivors in Sichuan Province.

They worked at West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, about 50 miles from the epicenter of the May 12 quake. The facility is a modern, 4,300-bed hospital, considered to be one of China’s best for trauma care. It was not damaged by the quake.

"I'm really glad we went," said Dr. Thomas Scalea, a trauma surgeon who led the team. He said that while there were enough Chinese doctors, and they had adequate training, they didn't have the trauma expertise of the visitors.

Dr. Scalea said the group worked constantly while there.

More than 2,000 critically injured survivors of the earthquake have been treated at West China Hospital. The team saw many patients with crush injuries and amputations, as well as patients with kidney failure, a common complication after a crush injury. The Maryland team said they felt welcomed by their Chinese colleagues. During their visit, the Shock Trauma team also gave lectures about care at Shock Trauma.

The five Shock Trauma team members who went to China were Dr. Thomas Scalea, physician-in-chief at Shock Trauma Center; Dr. Thomas Grissom, M.D., a specialist in critical care and anesthesiology; Dr. Geoffrey Sheinfeld, a specialist in critical care and nephrology; Karen Karash, a neurotrauma critical care nurse, and technologist Peter Hu, who coordinated telemedicine consultations with colleagues in Maryland.

The five were the first U.S. medical team officially invited to assist the Chinese following the earthquake. The invitation came from the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Zhou Wenzhong.

Shock Trauma Center has been working with Chinese health authorities since 2004. Last year, Shock Trauma co-hosted an international conference in Shanghai with a Chinese Emergency Medicine group.

Photo: Shock Trauma Chief Technologist Peter Hu with a Chinese patient. (Photo courtesy of University of Maryland Shock Trauma)

Wanna lose weight? Eat a big breakfast

2008-06-18T19:45:42Z

Eating a big breakfast may help you drop pounds...