MedTips: April Awards and Announcements

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State University Hospital East have earned an “A” grade – the highest possible – for patient safety by The Leapfrog Group. In the 13 times grades have been awarded, this is the eighth time the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center has been awarded an “A” and the seventh time that University Hospital East has earned this distinction. Designed to rate how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections, the score is calculated under the guidance of Leapfrog’s Blue Ribbon Expert Panel. The Hospital Safety Score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm. Of the approximately 2,500 hospitals issued a score, only 30 percent earned an A. To see how Ohio State Wexner Medical Center’s score compares to other hospitals, as well as more patient safety information, visit the Hospital Safety Score website.

 

 

Dr. Peter Lee, a cardiothoracic surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, has a serious interest in space travel and its effects on the body. Through a grant from NASA, he’s sharing that passion for space travel with 85 students at Eli Pinney Elementary School in Dublin. He’s leading the group on a 12 week program learning about scientific process, space, microgravity, and what happens to the human body in space. The program will culminate with a student-designed experiment launching on a Blue Origins sub-orbital rocket in the fall. Lee said the experiment will use jellyfish to examine the effects of microgravity on their gravireceptors, which provide feedback about the direction of gravitational forces.      

 

Dr. Diane Gorgas, director of the Office of Global Health and professor of clinical emergency medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, was elected to the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) Board of Directors. The ABEM Board of Directors is comprised solely of volunteer, board-certified, clinically active emergency physicians who are actively participating in ABEM Maintenance of Certification, a program of continuous learning and periodic assessment. Dr. Gorgas will begin her term at the close of the summer board meeting.

 

 

The New York Academy of Medicine, in collaboration with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), has awarded the 2018-20 Jeremiah A. Barondess Fellowship in the Clinical Transaction to Bethany Joy Brisbin, MD, chief fellow of palliative medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The Barondess Fellowship is unique in its goal to enhance the ability of young physicians to conduct the essential elements of the clinical transaction—capacities that are required for effective clinical care, but have significantly declined among graduate trainees in recent decades. The program invites junior faculty in internal medicine to develop innovative programs that enhance this fundamental element of clinical care through educational innovation.

 

 

Cynthia Roberts, professor of ophthalmology and visual science at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Havener Eye Institute, was featured on The Ophthalmologist’s 2018 Power List. The list includes the top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology, and is made up of surgeons, scientists, engineers, CEOs and more.

 

 

Kristie Harris, an intern in the Department of Psychiatry at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, has been awarded the Young Author Achievement Award from the American College of Cardiology. Harris is one of ten young authors to receive this award in recognition of outstanding research published in one of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology’s sister journals. The awards are given to researchers within the first five years of their training. Harris’ study is titled, “A New Clinically Applicable Measure of Functional Status in Patients with Heart Failure: The 60-Foot Walk Test”. 

 

 

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Hospital East was honored at the 2018 Eldon and Elsie Ward Family YMCA Legacy Celebration for its commitment to education and youth development. The Legacy Celebration is the Eldon & Elsie Ward Family YMCA’s largest fundraiser, with all sponsorship and donations directly benefitting the youth, families and individuals of the Eldon & Elsie Ward Family YMCA. 

 

 

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is one of 24 academic medical research centers across the United States designated by the Lewy Body Dementia Association as a Research Center of Excellence. The Lewy Body Dementia Association is the leading advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness and advancing research about Lewy body dementia. These Research Centers of Excellence will provide a centralized, coordinated research resource that supports an expanded effort in conducting clinical trials while helping to provide expert clinical care for patients, families and caregivers. Ohio State’s Research Center of Excellence is in the Center for Cognitive and Memory Disorders and the Memory Disorders Clinic led by Dr. Douglas Scharre. The center has a long history of clinical expertise in Lewy body dementia, with specialists in both cognitive neurology and movement disorders. 

 

 

New technology developed at Ohio State’s Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies and Ohio State’s College of Engineering won the Silver “Edison Award” in the medical/dental category for cellular research. Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT) is a simple non-viral technology developed for direct cell conversion in-vivo. Using animal model tissue and a specific combination of reprogramming factors, skin fibroblasts can be successfully converted to a cell type. TNT has potential to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue, including organs, blood vessels and nerve cells. Chandan Sen, director of the center, co-led the study with L. James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, in collaboration with Ohio State’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. The Edison Awards honor excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centered design and innovation. 

 

 

Dr. Dean Boudoulas, director of interventional cardiology research at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Patricia Blake, manager of quality and operations at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Julia Salinas, clinical program manager of quality and operations, and Don Logan, quality data manager of quality and operations were awarded the Peoples’ Choice Award for their poster presentation at the 2018 National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Annual Conference. Each year, attendees select the Peoples’ Choice award for one poster among those presented by their peers. Posters submitted reflect important changes these participants have implemented in their organizations, including quality improvement projects, education approaches, innovative processes and research.

 

 

Dr. Latifa Sage Silski, senior surgical fellow at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Comprehensive Transplant Center, received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Sage Silski was nominated and elected by students because of her commitment to teaching and compassionate treatment of patients and families, students, and colleagues. This is the second year in a row a physician at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Transplant Center was recognized by the Gold Foundation.

 

 

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Media Contact: Alexis Shaw, Wexner Medical Center Public Affairs and Media Relations, 614-293-3737 or Alexis.Shaw2@osumc.edu