News from UTMB

Untangling the mysteries of Alzheimer’s

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 01:00:00 EST

UTMB researchers have found new evidence that confirms the significance of tau to Alzheimer’s.

UTMB dedicates Sugar Land clinic for women and children

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:00:00 EST

UTMB has served the families in Fort Bend County for many years with a Regional Maternal and Child Clinic in Stafford.

A 5-step combo to prevent and recover from cancer

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:00:00 EST

An estimated 70 percent of cancers are related to or modifiable by lifestyle choices.

Scientists learn how stem cell implants help heal traumatic brain injury

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:00:00 EST

UTMB Researchers have identified key mechanism by which implanted human neural stem cells aid recovery from traumatic axonal injury.

UTMB Health schools, offices, and most clinics closed Monday, Jan. 16 for MLK Day

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:00:00 EST

The University of Texas Medical Branch will salute the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. UTMB Health schools, business areas, administrative offices, and most of UTMB’s clinics will close in honor of the national day of recognition.

UTMB Hospitals and the Emergency Department WILL BE OPEN, along with the following Pediatric Urgent Care Clinics (walk-in patients welcome):

Pediatric After Hours Urgent Care (League City)
Open Noon – 8 p.m. on MLK Day, Jan. 16 (open regular hours during weekend, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.)
3023 Marina Bay Drive, Suite 101 (next to CVS, across from South Shore Harbour)
(409) 772-3695 or (888) 886-2543

Pediatric After Hours Urgent Care (Galveston)
Open Noon – 8 p.m. on MLK Day, Jan. 16 (open regular hours during weekend, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.)
2027 61st St. (just south of Heards Lane)
(409) 772-3695 or (888) 886-2543

All other clinics are closed on MLK Day.

All UTMB Health facilities will reopen on their regular schedules on Tuesday, Jan 17. For more information about UTMB Health clinics and patient services, please visit www.UTMBhealth.com, or call the UTMB Access Center at (409) 772-2222 or toll-free at (800) 917-8906.

Risk of stillbirth associated with factors known early in pregnancy

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:00:00 EST

Largest, most comprehensive study finds previous stillbirth, prior pregnancy history strongest indicators of stillbirth risk; lifestyle choices also play a role

$5 million grant from U.S. Department of Labor will train workers in Clinical Laboratory Sciences

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:00:00 EST

A stimulus grant of $5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor will fund a new four-year program at UTMB to educate long-term unemployed individuals as clinical laboratory science professionals

On a mission in Mexico to restore vision in needy

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 01:00:00 EST

During a recent medical mission to Mexico, UTMB glaucoma fellow Dr. Silvia Lara-Moses brought leading-edge treatments from UTMB to help impoverished eye patients in her homeland.

Lara-Moses, an ophthalmologist specializing in glaucoma research and treatment, has volunteered for 12 years to join Mexican ophthalmologists for the annual medical mission in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero, Mexico

During the six-day mission in November, she and 10 other doctors, several technicians and a dozen nurses, treated almost 500 patients. They performed approximately 200 cataract surgeries, as well as other eye surgeries.

The annual mission is sponsored by Medicina Assistencia Social (MAS), a non-profit organization based in Mexico.

Lara-Moses said, “Many of these patients walked for days to see an eye doctor. We restored vision in many patients who have no access to such medical care.

“One young man saw his children for the first time after his cataract surgery. It was very moving.”

As a glaucoma postdoctoral research fellow at UTMB Health Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in Galveston, Texas, Lara-Moses also brought her knowledge of glaucoma imaging technology, early diagnosis and disease progression and treatment to help patients with glaucoma.

Lara-Moses earned her medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. She completed her post doctorate work at the Hospital General de Mexico in Mexico City and then held a glaucoma fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Fla. She has been chief of the glaucoma department at Hospital General de Mexico since 1999 and is a professor of medicine at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

She has extensive experience in clinical research, including the link between glaucoma and genetics, controlling eye pressure in glaucoma patients with diabetes and the effectiveness of certain glaucoma drugs.

Glaucoma specialists Dr. Juan Ignacio Babayan Mena and Dr. Silvia Lara-Moses examine a young patient during a medical mission in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero, Mexico.

SUBSIDY AVAILABLE on UTMB Health Multi-Share Plan

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

Subsidy dollars from the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) are available to qualifying small businesses in Galveston County.

Lung-cancer screening can save patients' lives

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

New research showed that lung cancer deaths were definitively reduced when patients received screening CT chest scans.

Medical Discovery News launches new column

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

Medical Discovery News, the popular radio science show developed and produced by UTMB Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, is extending its reach to a print audience. Starting today and continuing every Tuesday, the Galveston County Daily News will publish Medical Discovery News as a column. Originally supported by a President’s Cabinet Award, Medical Discovery News started with a single station, KTEP-FM in El Paso in November 2006.

The show is now broadcast on 100 stations in 13 states, Puerto Rico and Monterrey, Mexico. Locally, Medical Discovery News airs at 10 a.m. every Saturday on KUHF-FM (88.7).

Journal highlights work on John Sealy, Jennie Sealy Hospitals

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

Work on John Sealy Hospital was recently featured in the online journal, Construction Today.
From the article:

One of the biggest challenges facing any healthcare organization is the struggle to balance the resources available to it with the need to modernize its operations to provide the most effective care. John Sealy Hospital is one of those facilities keeping up with the times as it engages in a modernization project aimed at allowing it to offer more family-centered patient care. UTMB’s Kim McKay says the hospital’s design was in keeping with the methodologies of the time when it was built. “At the time the hospital was built, the move was to go to private rooms, but they were a lot smaller,” she says, adding that the typical patient room at John Sealy Hospital was originally about 150 square feet. Today, however, hospitals are focused on more family-centered care, where a patient’s loved ones play a bigger role in their recovery. Because of this, the original floor plans of the hospital seemed cramped and confining.

***

UTMB is addressing that concern with the construction of the new Jennie Sealy Hospital building. Demolition to clear the site for the $438 million facility will begin this fall. The Jennie Sealy Hospital will feature approximately 250 family centered patient rooms. Other features will include state-of-the-art surgical suites and intensive care space. The Sealy & Smith Foundation pledged a commitment of $170 million toward the project, which is expected to be completed in 2016.

As for the John Sealy Hospital modernization, McKay says the hospital will change 100 patient beds into 54 family centered patient rooms. Along with renovation and reconfiguration of these rooms, the project also includes some work on the core of the building, infrastructure and nurse’s stations.

In keeping with the emphasis on personalized care, the nurse’s stations are being relocated to put them near the patient rooms, with additional charting added directly outside patient rooms. One goal, she says, is for patients to have a visual connection to hospital staff. But rooms are being renovated with windows into the hallway to allow nurses to check in on patients, with blinds so that patients can still have privacy when they want it.

To read the full article, visit:
http://www.construction-today.com/index.php/sections/civil/275-john-sealy-hospital

UTMB Health's Super Doctors 2011

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

Congratulations to every one of our Texas Super Doctors® featured in a special advertising section in the December 2011 issue of Texas Monthly. Whether providing excellent patient care, conducting biomedical research or educating tomorrow’s physicians, each demonstrates an unwavering commitment to improving the health of Texas.

UTMB Super Doctors® honorees

From Left:
Dr. Karl E. Anderson, Gastroenterology; Dr. David H. Walker, Pathology; Dr. Scott D. Lick, Cardiothoracic Surgery; Dr. Alfred S. Lea, Infectious Disease; Dr. Thomas A. Blackwell, Internal Medicine (1978*); Dr. Philip H. Keiser, Infectious Disease; Dr. Vincent R. Conti, Cardiovascular Surgery; Dr. Sidney A. Worsham, III, Urology; Dr. Patricia S. Beach, Pediatrics; Dr. Emilio B. Gonzalez, Rheumatology; Dr. George R. Saade, Obstetrics & Gynecology; and Dr. Barbara L. Thompson, Family Medicine (1971*).

Not Pictured:
Dr. Sharon S. Raimer, Dermatology (1972*); Dr. J. Andrew Grant, Jr., Allergy & Immunology; Dr. Ronald W. Lindsey, Orthopaedics; Dr. Kelly D. Carmichael, Orthopaedics (1994*); Dr. Patricia A. Rogers, Pediatrics; Dr. Gary D. V. Hankins, Obstetrics & Gynecology; Dr. Jack B. Alperin, Hematology; Dr. Courtney M. Townsend, Jr., Surgery (1969*); Dr. Robert E. Beach, Nephrology; Dr. Leonard E. Swischuk, Radiology

*UTMB School of Medicine Graduate

[See the full ad]

14th Street to Be Closed for Construction – Nov. 14

Wed, 9 Nov 2011 01:00:00 EST

Street closure near the UTMB Galveston campus

Natural killer cells could be key to anthrax defense

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:00:00 EST

UTMB researchers may have found new allies for the fight against anthrax.