Dean Flaherty And John DeNardo On ‘East Meets West’ Heart Walk

JOHN DENARDO: Last year, 270 members of the UIC & UIMC community participated in our special edition of the American Heart Association’s “Start!” Heart Walk. Together they raised about $51,000 — surpassing our previous year’s contribution

DEAN FLAHERTY: This year, our second annual UIC East Meets West Heart Walk will be held on Friday, October 9th, and the goal is to raise $75,000. Like last year, the event is also an opportunity for East Campus and West Campus to come together for a good cause.

JOHN DENARDO: East campus walkers will walk from the Forum to the Pavilion and West campus walkers from the Hospital to the Pavilion where they will all be celebrated with a complimentary lunch and a short program.

DEAN FLAHERTY: Dr. Sam Dudley, our Chief of Cardiology, will also be on hand to greet the walkers with a few remarks. Please support the East Meets West Heart Walk in any way you can, by walking, volunteering or making a donation to this campus wide effort.

Dr. Timothy McDonald, chief safety and risk officer at UIMC, is leading the charge against patient safety awareness and policies nationwide. Recently featured in an article about hospitals admitting medical mistakes in the Wall Street Journal, he shares what we’re doing at UIMC to prevent future errors, and addressing previous mistakes.

You can read the article here.

Andrea Rudser ATC, RD from Nutrition and Dr. Mark Hutchinson M.D, Director of Sports Medicine and Head Team Physician at UIC both served Team USA at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia in July. Andrea was the athletic trainer for USA Swimming and Dr. Hutchinson was the Team Physician for USA Basketball and orthopedic consultant for all Team USA sports. Go USA!

Bronchiectasis (bron·chi·ec·ta·sis), bronchiectasis, bronchiectasis. Try saying that three times fast! While this may sound like a foreign disease, it actually is a condition that hits close to home. Bronchiectasis is the abnormal enlargement of the bronchi, airways within the lung, which is generally caused by an infection or multiple infections in the lung. A very under diagnosed and misdiagnosed disease, it impacts more than 120,000 people nationwide.

Symptoms include chronic cough, mucus (sometimes significant amounts) and fatigue. Because these conditions can be mild or confused for symptoms of other illnesses, some doctors do not take an aggressive treatment approach, which often is required. Therefore, in many cases the illness becomes chronic. Often, treatment may include multiple antibiotics, not always readily available, to prevent the body from becoming immune to one type of antibiotic.

Here at UIMC, we have one of the leading doctors in pulmonary medicine, Dr. Dean E. Schraufnagel, who is very well known for his work with both bronchiectasis and tuberculosis. His expertise and knowledge of this condition have helped many patients with faster diagnoses and more thorough treatments than they had received previously.

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology was honored when 13 of our doctors were named to the annual “Best Doctors in America” list. This doubles their number from last year. Congratulations OBGYN!

For a full list of OBGYN’s best docs as well as all of our UIC best docs visit topchicagodocs.com.

Thanks to all who attended the UIMC sponsored WNBA SKY game. Employees and their families were treated to a pre-game reception in the SKY Terrace followed by a nail-biting game for a spot in the playoffs. In the end, SKY superstar Candice Dupree’s 27 points could not beat the Detroit Shock who gained the lead in the 3rd quarter and won the game.

For information on the SKY’s 2010 season at the Allstate Arena click here.