Hopkins e-News

HOPKINS MEDICINE e-NEWS (March 2004)

A round-up of news from Johns Hopkins Medicine that gives busy executives easy-to-read reports and useful information from one of the region's largest private employers.
___________________________________________________________

Innovations remain the hallmark of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Read about our innovative approaches to treating injured workers, reducing emergency room overcrowding and training workers for new careers. Our researchers continue to break new ground on kidney transplants, heart disease and inflammatory bowel ailments. There's also a news item on Ben Carson's new assignment and Bill Brody's column about life-expectancy predictions. 

Please send us your questions or comments. We welcome your suggestions and hope you enjoy reading these reports.

-- Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty, CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine
-- Ronald R. Peterson, President, Johns Hopkins Health System, The Johns Hopkins Hospital  

THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE

HEALTH SYSTEM AWARDED $3 MILLION FOR WORKER TRAINING
U.S. Labor Department gives Hopkins Health System $3 million to expand and enhance  training for current workers seeking careers within the institution.

OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE PARTNERS WITH COMPANIES AND INSURERS
Cost-efficient case management to treat injured workers has proved so successful for Occupational Medicine that 250 companies turn to Hopkins for services that improve care and produce better outcomes.

HOPKINS HOSPITAL NAMED ONE OF TOP PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT LEADERS
Senior Hopkins Hospital managers gain recognition for effective organization-wide performance improvements. Hopkins is one of only 15 major academic medical centers on the list.

FEDERAL EXPRESS EPIPHANY LEADS TO UNIQUE BED-TRACKING SYSTEM
The worst Emergency Department overcrowding in decades prompts a unique solution for locating beds: a web-based assignment system dubbed "MedBed".

BEN CARSON NAMED TO WHITE HOUSE BIOETHICS PANEL
Benjamin Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, joins the President's Council on Bioethics, a panel of doctors, ethicists, lawyers, scientists and theologians addressing a range of bioethical issues.

SCIENCE AND MEDICAL NEWS

DOCTORS IDENTIFY NEW PREDICTOR OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE
By closely scrutinizing levels of creatinine, a breakdown product of
muscle, doctors may be able to prevent future heart attacks in people who come to hospitals with chest pain.

EXERCISE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN WOMEN
Women at risk of developing atherosclerosis, a thickening of the
artery walls, should walk briskly for 30 minutes or more, two to three times a week, a study shows.

MRI HELPS DIAGNOSE INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES IN CHILDREN
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coupled with a contrast dye, helps diagnose children with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Early detection is critical because the two ailments require very different treatment.
 
"TRIPLE SWAP" KIDNEY TRANSPLANT TECHNIQUE REMOVES INCOMPATIBILITIES
Hopkins surgeons again perform a "triple swap" kidney transplant. In their second one, surgeons used plasmapheresis, a technique that removes harmful antibodies responsible for incompatibilities between donors and recipients.

COMMENTARY

FLUNKING DEMOGRAPHICS 102
University President Bill Brody writes that policy makers haven't done a good job anticipating increases in life expectancy, which is a bad sign for forecasting future financial burdens on social services.

__________________________________________________________

For news and information from The Johns Hopkins University:
http://www.alumni.jhu.edu/jhupdate
If you would like to subscribe to the e-mail version of JHUpdate, send an e-mail message to lyris@list.alumni.jhu.edu with the subject line "Subscribe JHUpdate." The e-mail address will be added to the list.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, send an email with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to: jhmedicine@jhmi.edu

Archive of Past Issues