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UI Consult Deep Archive Home
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UI Consult Winter 2006
Welcome to UI Consult quarterly The benefit to patients is enormous when the referring physician’s relationship with the specialist is strong. If you send a patient to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, it’s because you feel they need specialized care that we’re best equipped to provide. And one of our jobs, beyond meeting—and exceeding—your expectations in that regard, is to keep you informed as an integral part of the health care team. When we keep you apprised of your patient’s case and other important matters, that patient’s health care team is strengthened dramatically. That’s something they’ll live longer to appreciate. And for all those other “important matters”— including updates on new faculty, technology, clinical procedures, and initiatives to improve our services to you—we’re launching UI Consult newsletter. Welcome aboard. Ultrafiltration added as option for heart failure patients University of Iowa Heart and Vascular Care has added a treatment known as ultrafiltration to its options for patients with symptoms of volume overload and diurectic resistance. Using the Aquadex™ FlexFlow™ advanced fluid removal system, UI physicians are now able to remove excess water from patients in a less invasive manner similar to dialysis. The FDA-approved Aquadex system can safely remove up to four liters of fluid in an eight-hour period. “It’s a rapid, well-tolerated, controlled treatment that shows potential to reduce the length of hospitalization significantly,” said Barry Cabuay, M.D. Using diuretic drugs, the traditional treatment to help control fluid buildup in patients with congestive heart failure can have drawbacks such as impairing kidney function and altering the balance of electrolytes in the body. The long hospitalizations invovled also can become a financial burden to patients. Use of this ultra- filtration technique is offered through the Heart Failure Treatment Program headed by Cabuay and John Chase, M.D. For more information, call 319-356-1028. Image-guided radiation therapy center opens The Center of Excellence in Image-Guided Radiation Therapy opened this summer on the west side of the Pomerantz Family Pavilion at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (across from Kinnick Stadium). The Center features machines that lock on cancer sites and deliver quick, high doses of radiation that have minimal contact with patients’ healthy tissue. Treatment can be delivered to within 0.7 millimeters rather than the traditional 5 to 15 millimeters. John Buatti, M.D., professor and head of the Department of Radiation Oncology, leads the Center. Bed Placement Center improves access to services Referrers can expect patient admissions and transfers to go more quickly thanks to UI Hospitals and Clinics’ new Admission and Bed Placement Center. The Center tracks the availability and status of all 762 beds within UI Hospitals and Clinics. The software system used by the Center has the ability to conduct searches for beds with specific attributes (i.e., cardiac monitoring, negative airflow, etc.) and, to increase the speed of bed availability, an automated process for notifying environmental services staff when a bed has been vacated and is ready to be cleaned. NCI designation affirms Cancer Center’s excellence Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa has received a five-year renewal of its formal designation as a cancer center from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI also increased its financial support to Holden by 50 percent to more than $2.2 million per year, or a total of $11.6 million. “The increase in funding over our current grant is significant, but it is equally as important that our center was viewed as being ‘excellent’ by cancer researchers from cancer centers across the country who reviewed our activities,” said George Weiner, M.D., Cancer Center director and C.E. Block Professor of Cancer Research. Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center is Iowa’s only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. The honor places Holden in the top tier of cancer centers across the nation. Cardiothoracic surgery now a department The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, recently approved the creation of the UI Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, formed from the existing Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery within the Department of Surgery. “My goal is to improve services for the referring community by providing easy access and open communication while offering you and your patients surgical advances and new treatment options that are unparalleled in Iowa,” said Mark Iannettoni, M.D., the Johann L. Ehrenhaft Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, who leads the newly formed department. Each year, cardiothoracic surgeons at UI Hospitals and Clinics perform more than 700 heart surgeries, including coronary bypasses, transplants, and placement of mechanical cardiac assist devices; and more than 600 surgeries for other conditions related to general thoracic surgery, with special expertise in both benign and malignant diseases of the esophagus and lungs. UI Hospitals and Clinics is currently the only heart transplant center in Iowa. Bariatric surgery designated a Center of Excellence UI Hospitals and Clinics has been identified by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield as a Bariatric (weight loss) Surgery Center of Excellence for having a well-integrated program that helps promote patient safety and provides cross-functional team support to bariatric surgery patients. “We are honored to receive this designation,” said Isaac Samuel, M.D., director of the Bariatric Surgery Program. “Our multi-disciplinary team approach to care offers patients a comprehensive approach before, during, and after surgery.” Samuel was part of the team that was the first to introduce laparoscopic, or minimally invasive, gastric bypass surgery to Iowans in 2000. UI Hospitals and Clinics and the UI Carver College of Medicine are pleased to introduce the following faculty, by department:
Latest Appointments
Upcoming Continuing Medical Education Activities For the full list of upcoming University of Iowa continuing medical education events, visit: www.medicine.uiowa.edu/cme/ or call the CME office, 319-335-8599.
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