The Conrad Pearson Clinic is sponsoring the Great Prostate Cancer Challenge 5k run/1 mile fun walk on September 12, 2009 at 8:00 AM. The planned route for this event will start and end at the Germantown office. 

 

This is the third year of this national event, but Memphis' first year to participate. The goal for this event is to create the male equivalent of the Susan Komen Race for the Cure. The purpose of this event is to raise money for prostate cancer research and education. Zero - The Project to End Prostate Cancer, a non-profit agency based in Washington, D.C. is helping with this event.

 

Each participant receives a tee shirt. Some of the activities on race day include post-race food provided by Central BBQ, live entertainment, a kids zone, antique car show, etc. 

 

Please go to www.greatprostatecancerchallenge.com to register for this event.

 

The West Clinic is pleased to announce the opening of their newest satellite office in Somerville, TN on August 13, 2009. Johnetta Blakely, MD, and Michael Martin, MD, Medical Oncologists, will treat patients at the new clinic located at 201 Lakeview. The new clinic will provide laboratory services as well as chemotherapy in a compassionate and comfortable environment.

 

Dr. Johnetta Blakely is a nationally-respected medical oncology specialist, who joined The West Clinic in July, 2004. Board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, Dr. Blakely has a passion for research and plays an important role in The West Clinic's research efforts.

 

Mike G. Martin, MD, received his medical degree with highest honors from the University of Tennessee, College of Medicine. He went on to complete his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and his Medical Oncology Fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO.

 

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) can be successfully treated using a carefully personalized chemotherapy regimen without cranial radiation, investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found.

 

Despite radiation's success in treating ALL, it produces side effects that include second cancers, stunted growth, hormone imbalances and cognitive deficits. Optimized use of anticancer drugs, especially those instilled directly into the spinal fluid, have enabled clinicians to reduce radiation use, and only patients at highest risk for relapse have received cranial radiation.

 

Now, St. Jude researchers have established that radiation can be safely eliminated in all patients with the use of highly effective chemotherapy regimens. The investigators reported their findings in the June 25, 2009, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

William H. "Bill" Watkins Jr., Founding Member of Watkins Uiberall, PLLC Certified Public Accountants, has recently been recognized by the University of Memphis when a classroom was named in his honor in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics.

 

The classroom named for Watkins is a 144-seat auditorium where many business students are taught accounting principals. The naming ceremony capped an evening of awards and recognition of new members of Beta Alpha Psi, a professional society for accounting students. Taking part in the recognition of Watkins were Dr. Shirley Raines, president of the University of Memphis, and Dr. Charles Manning, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), which governs the University of Memphis and 45 other public higher education institutions in Tennessee.

 

Watkins earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from the University of Memphis in 1967. In the four decades since his graduation, Watkins has led a successful career in the field of accountancy. He began his career in public accounting with a large local firm, served as controller for the sixth largest industrial security firm in the U.S., and was divisional controller for a subsidiary of a security firm. Watkins returned to public accounting in 1971, founding the firm of Watkins and Watkins, which is now Watkins Uiberall, PLLC.

 

The Elvis Presley Memorial Level 1 Trauma Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The MED) was one of a select number of Level 1 trauma centers in the United States chosen to participate in a groundbreaking national clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The hypotheses associated with the study was that hypertonic solutions given early after trauma would benefit patients in hypovolemic shock by causing a rapid expansion of blood volume which would increase the blood pressure to a more normal level prior to hospital arrival and would benefit victims of severe head injury by preventing brain tissue swelling thus improving survival in both groups.

 

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the NIH has recently made the decision to end enrollment into this study based on a recommendation by the Independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) whose purpose is to periodically monitor data associated with the study.

 

NHLBI suspended enrollment into the shock portion of the study in August of 2008 when the DSMB observed that survival was similar after 28 days in patients receiving hypertonic saline compared to those who received normal saline (standard treatment) but recommended that the traumatic brain injury portion of the study continue. In April 2009, the DSMB reviewed an interim analysis of data collected on patients in the traumatic brain injury portion of the study and again concluded that hypertonic saline solutions were no better than the standard of care in improving survival. There were no safety issues associated with hypertonic saline in either group of patients.

 

Medical Education Research Institute (MERI) announced recently that it has launched a new Website www.meri.org.

 

Attractive, user-friendly and comprehensive, the new Website allows physicians, charitable donors and partners to learn more about the mission of the MERI, its team and courses offered. Visitors will find helpful links for booking simulation courses, donating to the MERI and offering feedback from experiences. Additionally, the revamped site will be kept up-to-date with stories about the MERI to keep visitors informed.

 

Surescripts, the nation's largest electronic prescribing network, presented Governor Phil Bredesen with a Safe-Rx Award recently as Tennessee joins Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Vermont as one of the top five most improved electronic prescribing states for 2008.

 

Bredesen joined Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, Surecripts CEO Harry Totonis and other elected officials for the 4th Annual Safe-Rx Awards ceremony today at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

 

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and Surescripts created the Safe-Rx Award to raise awareness of e-prescribing as a means of enhancing patient safety by providing a more secure, accurate and informed prescribing process.

 

Results are based on the annual review and ranking of electronic prescribing activity based on the electronic routing of new prescriptions and refill responses transmitted over the Surescripts network. States are ranked based on the number of prescriptions routed electronically in 2008 as a percentage of the total number of prescriptions eligible for electronic routing.

 

According to Surescripts' 2008 results, Tennessee also moves to position 18, up from position 29 in 2007, in the state-by-state rankings of e-prescribing activity.

 

The West Clinic is pleased to welcome David C. Portnoy, MD, to its team of Medical Oncologists.

 

Dr. Portnoy earned his Medical Degree cum laude from the State University of New York (SUNY) in Syracuse, NY, where he was appointed to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society. Dr. Portnoy completed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and performed his Hematology-Oncology Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. 

 

Join MBGH for our Annual Conference, "Do It Yourself: Health Benefit Tools for Employers", on August 26, 2009, 8:00 am until 3:45 pm, at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn where you will learn from national and regional experts how to improve performance of your health benefit plans by using the tools of: benefit design, strong vendor management, work site clinics, and employee activation.

 

Each session will include a national/regional expert as well as a speaker from the Memphis-area who will discuss how they have actually used the tool in our community.

 

You will have time to ask questions and discuss these important tools as well as network with your colleagues.