Grand Rounds April on Arkansas Medical News Inc.

Grand Rounds April

New Chairman To Lead Lammico

The Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Company Board of Directors has elected J. Michael Conerly, MD of Alexandria, Louisiana, as its new Chairman.

A general surgeon currently practicing with Mid-Louisiana Surgical Specialists in Alexandria, Dr. Conerly is a board certified surgeon and a fellow of the American College of Surgery. A graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. Conerly earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical School in Jackson.

Dr. Conerly was first elected to the LAMMICO Board of Directors in 1999. He has also served on and chaired several LAMMICO committees, including the Underwriting, Governance, and Marketing committees. These committees assist the Board of Directors in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities for the company. Dr. Conerly succeeds John E. Lemoine, M.D., who has been LAMMICO’s Chairman of the Board since 1996. Dr. Lemoine will continue to serve as a member of the LAMMICO Board of Directors.

St. Anthony’s Becomes St. Vincent Morrilton

St. Vincent Health System has announced that the name for St. Anthony’s Medical Center is now St. Vincent Morrilton.

At a public event announcing the name change to the community, St. Vincent President and CEO Peter Banko explained that changing the name to St. Vincent Morrilton is a symbol of the efforts they are taking to create one, aligned, and integrated health system serving the community.

Sparks Celebrates A ‘Phenomenal’ Physician

Sparks Health System is pleased to announce one of our physicians is being recognized as “phenomenal.”

Dr. Katherine Irish-Clardy has been selected as a 2011 Phenomenal Woman by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Irish-Clardy is one of 29 women statewide receiving this distinction as a part of the school’s annual Women’s History Month celebration.

A full-time faculty member of the UAMS Area Health Education Center in Fort Smith, Dr. Irish Clardy practices both general medicine and obstetrics to provide care for people of all ages.

Baptist Health Foundation Launches Capital Campaign

Baptist Health launched a three-year, $110-million fundraising campaign as part of an initiative aimed at renovations to Baptist Health’s flagship campus in Little Rock.

Baptist Health’s Little Rock hospital was built in 1974, and the renovations made possible through this campaign will improve patient care in Central Arkansas by allowing Baptist Health to expand state-of-the-art surgical suites, purchase new cutting-edge technology, and provide all private rooms to patients and their families.

In recent years, Baptist Health has added more technology such as the da Vinci robotic surgical system, the NanoKnife system, the HeartMate left ventricular assist device, and Therapeutic Hypothermia. With technology improving and expanding every year, the surgical suites at BHMC-LR require additional space and equipment compared to operating rooms when the hospital was built.

Contributions to the Foundation capital campaign will help create four types of surgical and treatment suites within the new surgical technology center: General Surgical Suite; Robotic Suite; Endo and Hybrid Suite

The fundraising campaign will also improve the patient and visitor experience at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock.

NARMC Welcomes Susan Butler, Occupational Health Officer/Wellness Coordinator

Susan Butler, APN recently joined NARMC as the Occupational Health Officer/Wellness Coordinator. She graduated Southwest Missouri University in Springfield, Missouri, in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Susan continued her education at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, in 2009 with a Master of Science in Nursing. Susan is an Advanced Practice Nurse with a specialty in Adults, allowing her to see ages beginning at 12 - geriatrics.

Prior to joining NARMC Susan worked as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Feet Plus, LLC in Bentonville, Arkansas. While completing her Master’s degree, Susan also worked as a Community Health Nurse Specialist for the Arkansas Department of Health where she covered seven different counties.

Susan is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and the Arkansas Public Health Association. Susan currently holds Registered Nurse licenses in Arkansas and Missouri, Registered Advanced Nurse Practitioner license and Advanced Practice Nurse Certification.

Washington Regional Selected as Site for Huntington Study Group

Washington Regional has become the only hospital in Arkansas approved to conduct clinical research on Huntington’s disease, an inherited, degenerative brain disorder that typically strikes adults in mid-life.

The Huntington Study Group (HSG) Credential Committee approved Dr. Alan Diamond, Director of Washington Regional’s Movement Disorder Center, to lead the research. Dr. Diamond, a neurologist who is fellowship-trained in movement disorder with emphasis on Huntington’s disease, previously served as Medical Director of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence at Colorado Neurologic Institute in Englewood, Colo. He has been at Washington Regional since 2007.

The multidisciplinary care team at Washington Regional’s Movement Disorder Center includes a neurologist, neuropsychologist, social workers, nurses and therapists to provide evaluation and management of Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Takeshi Shinkawa, MD, Named Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgeon for ACH/UAMS

Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have appointed Takeshi Shinkawa, MD, as the institutions’ newest pediatric cardiovascular surgeon. He joins the hospitals after a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a visiting professorship with the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Shinkawa will assist ACH Chief of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery Michiaki Imamura, MD, PhD, in the hundreds of open-heart surgeries and dozens of heart transplants performed each year at ACH. He also will serve as an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Division of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery.

Educated at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, Dr. Shinkawa graduated with a doctorate of medicine in 1996. He went on to hold residences and surgical fellowships at several hospitals in Japan, including the Kyoto First Red Cross Hospital and the Children’s Research Hospital at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. He also has served as a visiting clinical lecturer in pediatric cardiovascular surgery at the University of Michigan.

He is a member of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, the Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery and the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery.

Burton Named Physician of the Year

St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System announced that Dr. James F. Burton has been named the Physician of the Year. Burton is a urologist with Mercy Clinic and has been with St. Joseph’s Mercy for 33 years.

Burton is a consummate professional and very deserving of the recognition said St. Joseph’s Mercy President Tim Johnsen. One of the components of the award is patient satisfaction.

Burton has a long history with St. Joseph’s Mercy and Hot Springs. He was born here in 1947. He went to UAMS in Little Rock and did his residency at LSU. He originally worked with his father, Dr. Frank Burton, a general surgeon at the Burton Eisele Clinic on Whittington Avenue.

APCF Participates in National Prostate Cancer Forum

The Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation (APCF) was invited to participate in the Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today (IMPaCT) conference held March 9-12, 2011, in Orlando, Florida, to showcase the Foundation’s progress against the prostate cancer problem in Arkansas. The conference’s goal was to discuss the “challenges and successes in prostate cancer research,” according to the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP).

APCF Board of Directors member Raul Blasini was one of 130 consumer reviewers to participate in the conference. According to the Department of Defense, consumer reviewers are prostate cancer survivors from around the nation whose roles are to help shape the implementation of research and treatment. More than 300 survivors have participated in the program since its inception. Blasini started as a consumer reviewer in 2006.

Executive Director Helen Baldwin conducted a poster presentation at the conference and met with more than 600 prostate cancer researchers. Baldwin said the conference helps the APCF focus its future strategies, which will improve prostate cancer outcomes.

The IMPaCT conference brought together some of the top minds in prostate cancer research, DoD Consumer-Reviewers and other prostate cancer stakeholders.

The DoD stated that “a unique and important feature of the PCRP has always been the strong partnership between scientists, clinicians, and prostate cancer survivors and advocates, all of whom play an integral role in the execution of the program.”

More information can be found on the APCF’s website, www.arprostatecancer.org.

UAMS Names Aronson Myeloma Institute Development Director

Janet Aronson has been named director of development at the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Aronson will be responsible for fundraising and philanthropy in support of the Myeloma Institute, the first center in the world devoted exclusively to research and clinical care of patients with multiple myeloma and related disorders. She has been with the Myeloma Institute since 1998, previously serving as communications director and before that as an administrative manager.

Prior to joining the Myeloma Institute, Aronson was a health care analyst with Electronic Data Systems in Little Rock.

Aronson received a master’s degree in health services administration in 1981 from George Washington University. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.

SOAPware Named Preferred EHR Vendor by HITArkansas Regional Extension Center

SOAPware, Inc., a market leader in electronic health record (EHR) software, announced today that it was named as a preferred vendor by HITArkansas (http://www.hitarkansas.org), the Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center (REC) for the state of Arkansas. As a preferred vendor, SOAPware, Inc. will allow the medical providers of Arkansas to improve patient care and lower costs by implementing electronic health records and qualifying for incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

HITArkansas a division of AFMC works in cooperation with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to provide training, support, technical assistance, outreach and collaboration to health care providers across the state as they work to achieve meaningful use of EHRs.

UAMS Researcher Childs Named Prestigious AAA Fellow

Gwen Childs, Ph.D., a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher and professor who is internationally recognized for her research in reproductive endocrinology, has been named a fellow of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA).

Childs is one of fewer than 70 scientists nationwide and just the second from Arkansas to have earned the distinction. UAMS’ John Pauly, Ph.D., was among the first group of AAA fellows named in 2007.