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Bayfront Medical Center Celebrates 100 Years of Service
In 1906, a group of local doctors opened a 15-bed facility called the St. Petersburg Sanitarium.
It wasn't much, by modern standards, just a fledgling healthcare facility housed in a bungalow. But it served the residents of tiny St. Petersburg well.
Over the next hundred years, the city grew and evolved, and the little hospital grew and evolved along with it.
BY MARTY CLEAR |
Moffitt Cancer Center Offers New Precision Radiation Treatments
Tampa Bay area physicians will soon have access to state-of-the-art imaging technology designed to apply and monitor individualized, precision radiation treatments for cancer patients.
The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, based at the University of South Florida in Tampa, will soon receive three TomoTherapy Hi-Art® units and plans to begin treating patients in August.
With TomoTherapy, physicians monitor changes in a patient's body on a daily basis, allowing them to adjust the areas to conduct radiation. The advanced radiation technology combines a CT scan with radiation to selectively target and destroy cancerous tumors without harming surrounding tissue.
BY STEPHANIE DOYLE |
Parkinson's Experts Outline New Guidelines for Therapy, Diagnosis
Working to give people suffering from Parkinson's disease better odds at fighting the ailment while leading a fulfilling life, a group of experts has come up with new guidelines for diagnosing and treating the disorder.
The American Academy of Neurology wants to educate physicians on Parkinson's, a disease characterized by the steady loss of dopamine in the brain. A loss of dopamine leads to symptoms like shaking, stiffness, shuffling walk, slowness of movements, balance problems, small or cramped handwriting, loss of facial expression, and soft, muffled speech.
BY TRACY STATON |
Future Practice of Naturopathic Medicine in Florida Uncertain
It can't be cleared up with a shot, solved with a dozen slender acupuncture needles or gradually improved with suggestions for living a healthier lifestyle.
Nearly 50 years after Florida stopped licensing naturopathic physicians, the future of the profession in the Sunshine State remains murky.
For the third year in a row, a bill to re-establish licensing for naturopathic physicians and expand their allowable practices failed. The bill was defeated 7-2 in the Senate Health Care Committee on April 25.
BY MATTHEW HENRY |
Lessons Learned: Tampa Bay Well Prepared for Avian Flu Outbreak
When and if an avian flu epidemic hits the United States, local health and disaster experts say no place will be better prepared than the Tampa Bay area.
The area has traditionally excelled at being prepared for all manner of disasters, from hurricanes to terrorist attacks to epidemics, experts say.
But in April, more than 20 local, state and federal agencies — from such diverse fields as healthcare, disaster management and homeland security, joined together in Tampa for a drill designed to help prepare for an epidemic of avian flu.
BY MARTY CLEAR |
Medical Establishment Slow to Embrace CT Colonography as Preferred Diagnostic Tool
"Virtual" colonoscopy, otherwise known as CT colonography, holds much promise as a diagnostic tool for colon cancers and other abdominal abnormalities, but physicians and insurance companies have been slow to embrace this technology.
Despite recent studies highlighting a variety of promising outcomes for virtual colonoscopy, patients still choose the traditional, yet more invasive, colonoscopy the majority of the time.
As little as three years ago when the technology was still relatively new, Sion William "Bill" Carter, MD, Director of Outpatient Imaging for SDI Diagnostic Imaging in Tampa, performed up to one or two virtual colonoscopy scans a month. This year the numbers he sees have dropped to about one patient every three or four months.
BY ELLEN MOSES |
Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Are those head-bobbing, mall-wandering teenagers listening to MP3 players such as Apple iPods damaging their long-term hearing? They just might be if the volume is too loud, or they spend hours a day jamming to their favorite tunes, says Dr. Anand Devaiah, an otolaryngologist at Boston University School of Medicine
"Back when the Walkmans came out, people worried then too about increased acoustic trauma to the ear," Devaiah recalls.
BY SHARON H. FITZGERALD |
Panel Recommends Ear Drops Over Oral Antibiotics to Treat Swimmer's Ear
A group of doctors and scientists have issued new guidelines recommending that physicians use ear drops instead of oral antibiotics to treat swimmer's ear.
Key among the new guidelines was a recommendation to use antiseptic and antibiotic ear drops because they are safe, quickly relieve discomfort and do not promote resistant bacteria, while oral antibiotics were found to be less effective and may have a greater number of side effects.
Publication of the guidelines in the April edition of Otolaryngology -— Head and Neck Surgery, the medical journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, marks the first time such treatment guidelines have been issued for acute otitis externa.
BY DEANNA SHEFFIELD |
Physician Spotlight: Dr. Jack J. Wazen, MD
Twenty three years after completing his research fellowship at Sarasota's Silverstein Institute's Ear Research Foundation, Jack J. Wazen, MD has returned to his training ground to serve as the Institute's Director of Ear Research.
Having had the distinction of being the Institute's first research fellow, Wazen, an otolaryngologist, went on to build a successful medical practice in New York City with affiliations at Columbia University and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
A graduate of the American University of Beirut, Wazen is considered one of the nation's leading authorities on hearing and balance disorders and has contributed significantly to research and development of new treatment options for people with single-sided deafness and complex cases of hearing loss.
BY WENDY R. LEVINE GROSS |
Sarasota Hospital Acquires Digital Mammography Technology
Heart disease is one of our nation's most common health problems — a leading cause of death for Americans age 35 and older. To help physicians provide faster and more effective cardiac care to residents of Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Doctors Hospital of Sarasota recently announced the opening of its state-of-the-art cardiovascular lab.
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Manatee Memorial Hospital Receives National Award for Patient Safety
Manatee Memorial Hospital announced recently that it has been named in an independent national research study as a recipient of the 2006 Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety, according to HealthGrades, the nation's leading healthcare ratings company.
This distinction ranks Manatee Memorial Hospital among the top five percent nationally for patient safety outcomes.
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LifeMasters Announces Four Year Disease Management Outcomes for Florida Medicaid Beneficiaries
Demonstrating that the benefits of disease management programs are sustainable and can even improve over time, LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc., a leading provider of disease management programs and services in the nation, announced a continuing trend of significantly improved outcomes for Medicaid (MediPass) beneficiaries with congestive heart failure (CHF) from its disease management program with Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
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JSA Healthcare Corporation Announces New General Counsel
Kathleen Premo has become JSA's new Chief Legal Officer/General Counsel.
Premo joins JSA from the Shriners Hospitals for Children, International Headquarters in Tampa where she served as Health Care Counsel to 21 pediatric hospitals.
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Faculty Published in Head and Neck Journal
An upcoming issue of the journal Head and Neck features a study by Linda Stachowiak, M.S., Moffitt's speech pathologist, and Joy Gaziano, M.A., CCC-SLP, manager of Moffitt's Speech Pathology department, in collaboration with a team from Northwestern University. The study discusses swallow motility disorders for head and neck cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
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UCH Appoints New Vice President of Ancillary and Support Services
University Community Hospital (UCH) recently appointed Jeff Oskin as its new vice president of ancillary and support services, responsible for the Laboratory, Pharmacy, Neurodiagnostics, Plant Operations, Safety/Security, Dietary, Environmental Services and Construction.
Oskin comes to UCH with eight years of experience as the corporate director of hospital operations for Kaleida Health in Buffalo, N.Y.
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TGH Child Safety Seat Program Receives $67,000 Donation
A generous donation from the USAA Foundation recently will help Tampa General Hospital continue its infant car seat program, ensuring that every child born at TGH goes home in an approved safety seat.
The check for $67,000 was presented to the TGH Foundation yesterday during a Trauma Awareness Luncheon held by Tampa General to call attention to safety and injury prevention.
Last year, TGH distributed 4,700 infant car seats. The donation will underwrite nearly two-thirds of the program for this year.
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