UIMC Supporting Haiti
From raising money, to raising awareness, to actually donating medical services on Haitian soil, the UIMC community has been pouring their energies into helping Haitians during this desperate time of need.
The UIC Emergency Medicine group wasted no time deploying to aid victims in Haiti. For the past two weeks, Dr. Janet Lin, along with physicians Stacey Chamberlain, Kristiana Kaufmann, and Nurse Practitioner Mark Jasper have been volunteering medical treatment to those injured in the earthquake. Our help did not stop there. A second UIC group is leaving February 11–25th and a 3rd group will be in Haiti from February 25 to March 11th. Subsequent groups will depend on projected needs.
On the home front many departments have begun their own efforts to help with the relief effort. The Department of Nursing organized a fundraiser in UIMC’s main lobby. January 25th through February 1st they collected funds that directly supported the American Red Cross International Response Fund. To date their efforts raised $2316.18! This donation will directly provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help Haitians in need.
The Office of Leadership, Community Service/Volunteerism, and Commuter Resources has compiled several ways that our community can reach out to those suffering from the disaster in Haiti. The following relief organizations are verified for their legitimacy and donations will be utilized in a manner consistent with its purpose.
- American Red Cross
www.redcross.org; 800-RED-CROSS - CARE
www.care.org; 800-521-CARE - OXFAM
www.oxfamamerica.org; (800) 77-OXFAM - World Vision
www.worldvision.org; 866-280-6587
In addition to these organizations there are now several ways to donate easily by texting. Sending a text to the following sites authorizes a charge billed directly to your cell phone.
Text “HAITI” to “90999” — $10 donation to the Red Cross
If you have any questions about the legitimacy of the organization you are donating to The Center for International Disaster Information (www.cidi.org) has a link to a database where you can to verify if a particular relief organization is registered.
If you know of something that is being done, please contact serve@uic.edu. The Office of Leadership, Community Service/Volunteerism & Commuter Resources is hoping to begin a database of efforts to coordinate and inform the university community.
New Heart Pump Helps Treat The Sickest Patients
Cardiologists at the University of Illinois Medical Center are using a new heart pump that can be inserted without the need for surgery and allows them to treat high-risk patients with a procedure to unblock their heart arteries.
The recently FDA-approved device was used to assist in three angioplasty procedures at the Medical Center last week.
Patients with the worst blockages are often the sickest, making it too dangerous to treat their coronary artery blockages with standard angioplasty or even with a bypass operation, says Dr. Adhir Shroff, assistant professor of cardiology at the UIC College of Medicine.
Shroff and his partners, Dr. Mladen Vidovich, assistant professor of cardiology, and Dr. John Kao, assistant professor of medicine, performed these procedures using the Abiomed Impella 2.5 ventricular assist device, which has been used only about 1,000 times in the country.
“Often these patients, who may have complicating conditions like cancer, renal failure, severe lung disease, or heart failure, are poor candidates for more invasive procedures like bypass surgery and are left with few options,” said Shroff. “We only proceed with high-risk angioplasties after reviewing the patients with our heart surgeons.”
Angioplasty is done by threading a thin, flexible tube, or catheter, into the coronary arteries through a small opening in a leg artery. It is much less invasive than open heart surgery, but has been largely restricted to managing low- to middle-risk patients.
The Impella heart pump makes it possible for cardiologists to offer the less invasive procedure to high-risk patients. “Our ability to continuously maintain blood flow will decrease complications during these high-risk cases where the patient had no other options to fix their heart arteries,” Shroff said.
The Impella system uses a narrow catheter, which is threaded up from the groin, through the ascending aorta, and into the left ventricle. From this position, the Impella pumps blood from within the heart into the aorta, supplementing the weakened pumping of the patient’s heart. The pump itself is smaller than a number-2 pencil eraser. Although it provides a large portion of the heart’s work, it is silent and virtually imperceptible to the patient.
The Impella can be regulated during angioplasty to maintain blood flow, giving the physician the time needed to remove the blockage. If the patient needs further support, the Impella can be continued while the patient moves up to the ICU and until the heart is able to take on the task.
“We have created a seamless transition from the cath lab to the ICU,” Shroff said. “We could not have done this without the collaboration of everyone who sees these patients as they move through the hospital, from the emergency room to the cath lab to the ICU. This exceptional effort on everyone’s part, especially Nursing Services and the Cath Lab staff, allows UIMC to offer the best possible care for patients with heart disease.”
New Chief of Hematology/Oncology Named
Howard Ozer, MD, PhD joined the Department of Medicine as Chief of the Section of Hematology/Oncology on February 1st. He will also be the Associate Director of Clinical Research in the Cancer Center. In this role Dr. Ozer will be part of the senior leadership of the Cancer Center. He will direct and shape the Center’s clinical trials enterprise, foster translational science and contribute to a Cancer Center Support Grant Application. Dr. Ozer received his MD and PhD degree at Yale University, completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship at Sidney Farber and Roswell Park. At Roswell Park he became an Associate Professor and later moved to the University of North Carolina where he was Professor and Head of the Division of Oncology. Since 2000, Dr. Ozer has been Professor and Head of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Oklahoma. He is an authority in the use of white blood cell growth factors and an expert in lymphoma treatment. He has published over 150 articles and is a member of many prestigious societies.
Dr. Ozer will be seeing patients in the Oncology Care Center in 1E of the Outpatient Clinic Center. For appointment information, call 312.355.1625.
Congrats CCTS KL2 Scholar
Congratulations Dr. Edith Nutescu for being selected as the 1 out of 3 recipients of the 2009 Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) KL2 Scholars Award.
Dr. Nutescu, Pharm.D., FCCP, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research. She also serves as the Clinical Manager of the Antithrombosis Center at the University of Illinois Medical Center, which is a pharmacist run clinic located in the Outpatient Care Center. Dr. Nutescu maintains an active clinical practice and research program. As a clinician and educator, she has contributed extensively to the care of patients and the education of students and healthcare providers on topics related to vascular diseases and antithrombotic medication safety.
As a CCTS scholar KL2 scholar recipient, Dr. Nutescu will be provided 75% release time for professional development to take courses and conduct clinical and translational research over the next 2 years. The purpose of the CCTS KL2 Program is to help ensure that a diverse pool of highly trained scientists are available in adequate numbers and in appropriate research areas to address the nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. The KL2 award, specifically, supports recipient scientists in two primary areas: patient-oriented research & translational research. The program seeks to reward a track record of academic success and clear potential for the future.
Stem Cell Research Making Headlines
Adult stem cells from bone marrow can prevent acute lung injury in mice, U.S. researchers report.
Acute lung injury, which is caused by major inflammation or injury to the lungs, causes about 74,500 deaths each year in the United States. There is no effective drug treatment for the condition, which is a major cause of death among patients in intensive care units.
A team at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine identified progenitor stem cells in the bone marrow of mice that could prevent and treat acute lung injury. The researchers also found a way to culture the cells — called Flk-1 and CD34 — to increase their numbers and ability to attach to targets and make repairs.
When the purified and cultured Flk-1 and CD34 stem cells were injected into mice with acute lung injury, the cells repaired the lung injury, prevented fluid build-up and improved survival of the mice, the researchers found.
The study not only showed that stem cell treatment may be a promising therapy for acute lung injury, "but also provided us with the means to understand how these progenitor cells did their repair work. These therapeutic cells employed integrins to stick to the site of injury and turn on cellular and molecular repair machinery," lead author Kishore Wary, an assistant professor of pharmacology, said in a university news release.
The researchers hope to test this stem cell therapy in human acute lung injury.
The study was published recently in the online edition of the journal Stem Cells.
UIMC Cheers on the UIC Flames!
Saturday, January 23 marked the much anticipated UIMC sponsored UIC Flames men’s basketball game. UIMC ticket sales benefited the I-CARE fund.
Employees, family and friends enjoyed a pre-game pizza party followed by a heated battle between the UIC Flames and 20th-ranked Butler Bulldogs. K.C Robbins led the Flames with an early 5 point lead. But the Flames could not keep up with Butler in an 84-55 loss.
Interested in attending the next UIC Flames basketball game? Click here
UIMC Running Team Rocked and Rolled at The Las Vegas Marathon in 2009
The UIMC running team participated this winter in the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half Marathon to benefit the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America last month. The team, which was supported by many of our corporate partners, raised close to $15, 000 coming in as one of the highest fundraising teams from Illinois!
Runners took to the streets with a revamped, glitzy new course. In unprecedented fashion, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas event closed Las Vegas Boulevard to all vehicular traffic and instead rocked with tens of thousands of runners in both the northbound and southbound lanes of the Strip.
Nine of the 11 UIMC runners ran as Elvis! They participated in an Elvis parade on Saturday before the event where approximately 200 "running Elvi" paraded through the convention center complete with Elvis wigs, glasses and running style leisure suits to the sounds of none other than the King himself.
The UIMC running team which is on hiatus are back in training preparing for the start of the outdoor running season where we will run the Shamrock Shuffle on March 21.
The UIMC running team consists of: Camille Baxter (marketing), Joel Karman (Hospital admin), Mary Ortiz (Assistant to the CEO), Derrick Tung (hospital admin), Rose Ann Laureto (CIO), Rob Tashiro (Rose Ann’s husband), Marc DeVar (Director, Patient Accounts), Carolyn DeVar (Marc’s wife), Clara Guixa (CE), Marc Reberg (IS), Gus Aldaba (IS), Arlin Ospina (Surgery) team supporter. Jan Spunt also participated by walking the half marathon.
About Chrohn’s disease
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are painful, medically incurable illnesses that attack the digestive system. Crohn’s disease may attack anywhere from the mouth to the anus, while ulcerative colitis inflames only the large intestine (colon). Symptoms may include abdominal pain, persistent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fever and weight loss. Many patients require hospitalization and surgery. These illnesses can cause severe complications, including colon cancer in patients with long-term disease. Some 1.4 million American adults and children suffer from Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, with as many as 150, 000 under the age of 18. Most people develop the diseases between the ages of 15 and 35.
