MINNEAPOLIS — This week at the annual Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) announced the Conformite Europeen (CE) mark and international launch of the PoleStar® N30 Surgical MRI system, the latest in neuro oncology surgical solutions. The PoleStar N30 System has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval.

 

Providing real-time imaging in the operating room (OR), the PoleStar Surgical MRI provides surgeons with targeting and navigational accuracy despite the anatomy movement that may occur during a procedure. With intra-operative imaging information, neurosurgeons have more confidence to achieve maximum tumor resection, while avoiding critical areas of the brain. Use of the PoleStar system may also reduce the need for revision surgeries and the length of stay at the hospital for the patient.

 

Jim Cloar, vice president and general manager of the Navigation division, part of the Surgical Technologies business at Medtronic said that this system represents the next generation of intra-operative MRI providing flexibility, enhanced ergonomics and confidence in the achievement of surgical goals. He continued saying that because of its unique compact design, the PoleStar Surgical MRI system allows neurosurgeons to benefit from intra-operative MR imaging without the compromises inherent in other systems, such as extensive renovation of the operating room or restrictions upon the surgeons' choice of instruments.

 

Dr. Moshe Hadani, Chairman of Neurosurgery, Sheba Medical Center in Israel, a frequent user of the previous model of the PoleStar Surgical MRI said that they had found the new PoleStar to have improvements in ergonomics. The scanner is smaller, easier to handle and it fits better into the OR environment. Using the PoleStar he has confidence in the extent of tumor resection prior to closing.

 

More than 50 PoleStar systems have been installed in ORs worldwide since 2001. The launch of the PoleStar N30 is the culmination of six years of research and development by Medtronic scientists and engineers working with surgeon customers from leading hospitals and clinics.

 

OAKBROOK, Ill. — Joint Commission International (JCI) is marking the tenth anniversary of the first health care organization to be awarded accreditation under its globally developed international standards for hospitals.

 

Established to respond to a growing demand around the world for standards-based evaluation of quality in health care, today JCI accredits or certifies more than 300 health care organizations and clinical care programs in 39 countries. JCI offers accreditation programs for hospitals, clinical laboratories, continuum of care (non-acute care settings such as home care), medical transport, ambulatory care, and primary care. JCI also offers a certification program for disease- or condition-specific clinical care programs. JCI's accreditation standards are the first and only international sets of standards that apply to health care organizations worldwide whilestill accommodating cultural differences.

 

In December 1999, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, a private, non-profit, non-governmental facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the first hospital accredited by JCI under the international standards. The hospital has also since achieved JCI Disease- or Condition-Specific Care Certification for its stroke program.

 

Methodist North Hospital recently received full Cycle III accreditation with PCI from the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) Accreditation Review Committee. The accreditation was achieved by utilizing the Society's process improvement tool to integrate best practices and newest paradigms into the care of acute coronary syndrome patients.

 

Methodist North's accredited chest pain center will partner with area emergency medical service teams to ensure patients that they are receiving the best treatment available during the critical early stages of heart attacks. Methodist North staff will use the best protocol-based procedures to make sure a patient avoids as much heart damage as possible during any cardiac-related episode.

 

As a result of the using the best protocols for cardiac care, Methodist North patients will experience better care, prognosis, quality of life and faster treatment.

 

In order to achieve the chest pain certification, Methodist North was evaluated in the following key areas: integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system; assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients quickly; effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms; continually seeking to improve processes and procedures; ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training; maintaining organizational structure and commitment; having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care; and supporting community outreach programs that educate the public topromptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack.

 

MEMPHIS — The Crisis Center, a 24-hour telephone hotline for those in distress, has relocated to space on the campus of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). Located in the heart of the Memphis Medical Center near downtown, UTHSC is providing the space to the non-profit organization at no charge.

 

With the support of the UT Health Science Center, the volunteers of the Richard G. Farmer & Allen O. Battle Crisis Center have a new home from which to continue to provide vital services to the community's vulnerable members. Richard G. Farmer, MD, and Allen O. Battle, PhD, founded the Crisis Center in 1970 as a 24-hour emotional lifeline for those in distress. 

 

Dr. Farmer, a UTHSC alumnus, is a psychiatrist who specializes in treatment for anxiety, major depression and opioid addiction. Dr. Battle has taught and practiced psychology at UTHSC for more than 53 years. In September, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award as a Health Care Hero for his decades-long impact in education and crisis intervention.

 

At the Crisis Center, trained volunteers, using a combination of empathic listening, risk assessment, and crisis intervention, provide callers with immediate assistance and link them with the long-term resources they need to cope and overcome.  The program is free, safe, and confidential. 

 

Roughly 150 Crisis Center volunteers staff its hotline and receive around 20,000 calls each year. They respond to such issues as mental illness, addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault, grief, and suicide.

 

MEMPHIS — Dr. Nabeel Farooqui and Dr. Lekha George have joined the Department of Medicine at UT Medical Group, Inc.

 

Farooqui specializes in internal medicine and has an interest in medical information technology. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and currently serves on the UT faculty as instructor of medicine.

 

George is a nephrologist who specializes in hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and dialysis. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Florida in Jacksonville and at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. She completed fellowship training in nephrology at Baylor College of Medicine. George is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and serves on the UT Health Science Center faculty as assistant professor of medicine.

 

HealthGrades, a national, independent health care ratings company, recently announced that Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis ranks among the top 5 percent in the nation for cardiac surgery, stroke, gastrointestinal, pulmonary and critical care.

 

HealthGrades also ranked the hospital in the top 10 percent in the nation for orthopedics, spine surgery and prostatectomy. The nation's nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals were all included in the study, which examined mortality rates and complication rates from government data from 2006, 2007 and 2008.

 

As a result, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis received Specialty Excellence Awards™ in all services mentioned above, as well as five-star ratings in multiple diagnoses and procedures.

 

The findings were included in the 12th annual "HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study," which analyzed nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records. Top-performing hospitals had dramatically lower mortality rates than other hospitals, according to the study. For the 17 procedures and diagnoses for which HealthGrades analyzed mortality rates, patients at top hospitals had a 72 percent lower chance of dying when compared with the lowest-performing hospitals, and a 52 percent lower chance of dying when compared to the U.S. national average.

 

Across all procedures in which complications were studied, there was a 79.69 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more in-hospital complications in a five-star rated hospital compared to a one-star rated hospital. If all hospitals performed at the level of a five-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic in-hospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.

 

Arthur Nienhuis, M.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is the recipient of the 2009 Mentor Award from the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Nienhuis will receive the honor at the society's annual meeting this December in New Orleans.

 

ASH is the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatments of blood disorders. The Mentor Award recognizes hematologists who have excelled at mentoring trainees and colleagues. Award recipients are chosen because they have shown a sustained commitment to mentoring; have made a significant, positive impact on their mentees' careers ; and have advanced research and patient care in the field of hematology through those they train.

 

Two awards are given each year—one in the basic sciences and one to an outstanding clinical investigator mentor. Nienhuis will receive the award for clinical investigation.

 

Nienhuis' expertise in bone marrow transplantation, gene therapy and genetic testing paved the way for many advances at St. Jude, including breakthroughs in sickle cell disease and other hematological disorders. He also made significant achievements in the fields of cell therapy, HIV/AIDS research and inherited immunodeficiencies. Through his work, Nienhuis improved care for patients, while helping other researchers carry on the fight against catastrophic childhood disease.

 

Nienhuis has received numerous honors, including being named to the National Cancer Advisory Board by former President Bill Clinton in 1998. That same year, Nienhuis was awarded the Stratton Medal by ASH, one of the society's highest honors for an outstanding body of work in hematology. In 2002, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Nienhuis served as fourth director and CEO of St. Jude from 1993 to 2004.

 

Methodist University Hospital is proud to announce a partnership with Columbia University Medical Center's Heartsource sm, a cardiovascular clinical and management group services team from the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center (NYPH/CUMC).  Columbia Heartsource sm will partner with Methodist by providing its particular expertise and experience to establish Methodist University Hospital cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology quality assurance program.

 

Larry Beilis, Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Surgery and Executive Director of HeartSource sm, said this is the largest affiliation of this kind in the United States.  ìWe are excited about partnering with a large academic medical center such as Methodist University Hospital.  This will have a major positive impact on cardiac care in Memphis and the surrounding region that this hospital serves.

 

CUMCís cardiovascular divisions, ranked sixth in the nation during 2009 by the U.S. News and World Report Americaís Best Hospitals survey, will partner with Methodist University Hospital to make available clinical and quality guidance, access to Columbia clinical research trials, as well as physician training and education in innovative cardiovascular procedures.  Performing 2,000 adult and pediatric open heart procedures a year, the Cardiac Surgery Section is a leader in the region and among the most recognized in the world. Its surgeons undertake some of the most complex and challenging cases in the nation, such as combined bypass and minimally-invasive valve repair or replacement procedures, mostly in high-risk patients.

 

In keeping with the vision of both Methodist University Hospital (MUH) and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) to enhance the health of our community by creating a world-class, top 50 Cardiovascular Institute through excellence in clinical care, quality, academics, and innovation, Columbia University Medical Centerís HeartSource sm will collaborate with both MUH and UTHSC in support of their common goals of education, research, patient care and community service.

 

Methodist University Hospital is one of the primary clinical practice and teaching hospitals of UT Health Science Center.  The faculty comprises the physicians of the Transplant Institute and most of the Neuroscience Institute.