UI Heart and Vascular Center opens convenient new service at North Liberty clinic

Residents of the North Corridor between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids have a more convenient location for receiving diagnostic heart testing and consultation with the opening of a UI Heart and Vascular Center outreach clinic.

The new clinic is offered every other Tuesday at the UI Family Care Center, North Liberty.

“By partnering with family physicians at UI Family Care, North Liberty, we hope to offer the community convenient access to our cardiovascular specialists in order to help reduce the incidence and consequences of heart disease,” said Neal Weintraub, M.D., medical director of UI Heart and Vascular Center.

UI Heart and Vascular Center specialists perform stress echocardiograms, transthoracic echocardiograms, and treadmill stress testing on-site. Holter and event monitoring can also be performed.

People interested in an appointment may call UI Heart and Vascular Center outreach scheduling at 319-356-8930.

Prostate cancer debate: to screen or not to screen
A nationwide debate over routine prostate cancer screening for men is a special focus of this year’s official cancer projections for Iowa. The cancer projections are contained in Cancer in Iowa: 2005, an annual report from the State Health Registry of Iowa, based at the UI College of Public Health. The report projects 15,800 new cancer cases and 6,500 cancer deaths this year. The report notes that between 1990 and 1992, the number of newly diagnosed prostate cancers nationwide increased dramatically as a result of better screening. “However, the goal of screening is not to increase the number of newly diagnosed cancers but rather to decrease the number of deaths from the disease,” said Charles Lynch, M.D. Some national organizations say there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine screening; others encourage it. These groups are awaiting the outcomes of clinical trials, including a Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center study to assess prostate cancer screening practices for older men in Iowa. “We want to see if you can use a more tailored approach to prostate screening in older men and establish some treatment guidelines,” said Badrinath Konety, M.D.

Another robotic surgery ‘first’ at Children’s Hospital
University of Iowa Children's Hospital, located at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, continues to make pioneering advances using pediatric robotic surgery. In the latest breakthrough, surgeons repaired a congenital diaphragmatic hernia in 6-day-old Amber Vairo of Chariton, Iowa. The 5.06-pound girl was the first neonate to have this type of defect corrected with a robotic surgical system and the smallest patient to undergo robotic surgery of any kind anywhere in the world, according to pediatric surgeon John Meehan, M.D. The previous “smallest robotic patient” was Mason Allen at 5.7 pounds, who also underwent surgery at University of Iowa Children's Hospital.

UI program offers creative writing to chronically ill patients
Chronically ill patients at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics can take free creative writing classes under a new “Patient Voice Project” created by graduate students in the UI Writers’ Workshop and Arts Share. For more information, interested patients should call Arts Share at 319-335-1618, or e-mail the program at artshare@uiowa.edu.

Pediatric families served by new 16-room suite
A new 16-room University of Iowa Children's Hospital Family Suite opened March 29. The suite provides overnight lodging to families of hospitalized children, particularly those in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. Regional Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores raised more than $1 million and donated the money through Children’s Miracle Network.

Worth noting

• François Abboud, M.D., professor of internal medicine, received the Chapter Excellence Award from the Iowa Chapter of the American College of Physicians.
• Reginald Cooper, M.D., professor and emeritus head of orthopaedics, will receive the American Orthopaedic Association- Zimmer Award for Distinguished Contribution to Orthopaedics in June 2005.
• Paul James, M.D., has been named head of the UI Department of Family Medicine and head of the UI Family Care Center, effective April 1, 2005; James will also chair the UI Community Medical Services board of directors and direct the UI Family Care clinics in Johnson County.
• George Lawry, M.D., professor of internal medicine, co-received the 2005 Laureate Award from the Iowa Chapter of the American College of Physicians.
• Gregory Hageman, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, has been awarded an Honorary Professorship in the School of Medicine, Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland;
• Stuart Weinstein, M.D., professor of orthopaedics, was elected president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.