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Nominate a deserving emergency worker for the
RespondER Award from Louisiana Heart Hospital.
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Recognizing Heroism
Northshore residents can nominate emergency workers who have helped them or their
families for recognition during the 2004 RespondER Awards sponsored by
Louisiana Heart Hospital (64030 La. Hwy. 434, Lacombe, 985-690-7500). Nominations
must be received by Feb. 18, and a ceremony in which winners will be announced
is scheduled at 6 p.m. Feb. 25 in the lobby of the hospital. It is open to the
public.
The awards will recognize outstanding professionals in five
categories: paramedic, EMT, firefighters, police and dispatchers. Nomination
forms are available at the hospital or by logging onto its Web site at www.louisianahearthospital.com.
Strong Winner
LSU Pathologist Dr. Jack P. Strong was given the prestigious 2004 John
P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award late last month by the Houston Academy
of Medicine. The award, inaugurated 11 years ago, is bestowed annually in recognition
of a physician's medical excellence, humane care and commitment to the profession,
ethics, writing and research.
Strong, Boyd Professor and chairman of pathology
at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, also earned the American
Medical Association's top honor -- the Distinguished Service Award -- in 1998
and the International Academy of Pathology's Gold Medal in 1997. He is principal
investigator of the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis (hardening
of the arteries) in Youth study, the longest-running U.S. investigation of how
early heart disease begins in young people and progresses. He is credited with
being the first person to conclusively document a relationship between smoking
and atherosclerosis. He also has written and contributed to hundreds of books,
articles and chapters about medical topics.
Fitness and Health Combined
Downtown Fitness Club (301 N. Hwy. 190, Covington,
985-893-2223) and Global Medical Center have pooled their resources on
the Northshore to give customers of both added services.
Global, which takes a holistic approach to
health care, focusing on wellness, education and non-drug and non-surgical treatments
when possible, opened a second location at Downtown Fitness a couple of months
ago. Its original medical center is at 436 Old Spanish Trail in Slidell (985-641-4898).
The Covington location offers orthopedic, X-ray and rehabilitative services,
massage and more. Global also stages free workshops and health lectures both
at Downtown Fitness or other locations as requested. In addition to the lectures,
Global offers free health screenings, including cholesterol, blood pressure,
bone density, orthotic scans and pressure-point screenings.
Cliff Bergeron, a partner at Downtown Fitness,
says the arrangement has worked well for both businesses, providing convenient
space and workout equipment for Global's rehabilitation patients as well as
information sessions and health care expertise for club members. In fact, he
plans to expand Downtown Fitness Center at New Orleans Center (1400 Poydras
St., 569-9985) this year and incorporate facilities for Global Medical Center
there as well. Downtown Fitness also has a location at The Shops at Canal Place.
Heartening Talk
Dr. Karen DeSalvo, chief of general internal medicine and geriatrics
at Tulane University School of Medicine's Department of Medicine, will discuss
women's heart health during an address from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 10.
Her lecture "Have You Cared for Your Heart
Today?" is part of the Tulane Xavier National Women's Center's Jane Wilson Smith
Lecture Series. It will be held at Caroline Richard Hall at the Newcomb College
Center for Research on Women, which is on Tulane's Uptown campus.
DeSalvo will address women's cardiac health,
risk factors for heart disease and how to reduce those risks. The talk is free
and open to the public. For more information, call 588-5100.
Process of Aging
Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. George Vaillant will discuss results
of a 60-year study about aging at a free seminar at 10 a.m. Feb. 7 in Monroe
Hall at Ochsner Clinic Foundation (1514 Jefferson Hwy., 842-1234).
Vaillant, professor of psychiatry at Harvard
Medical School and director of research for the Department of Psychiatry at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, will deliver the address "Research of
Adult Development: Prospective Study of Health and Disease" as part of the ninth
annual Gene Usdin MD Lectureship. The Harvard study tracks adult development
and disease in some 824 men and women who were followed by researchers over
six decades.
To reserve space at the seminar, call 842-1234.
A STAR of Hope
Women at increased risk for developing breast cancer may be eligible to enroll
in a five-year study at Tulane Cancer Center aimed at determining which
of two medications, Tamoxifene or Raloxifene, are more effective in preventing
the disease and which has fewer side effects.
Participants in the Study of Tamoxifene and
Raloxifene (STAR) will take one of the two medications, assigned at random and
given for free, for five years and will have regular follow-up medical exams.
To qualify, women must have completed menopause and have other risk factors
for breast cancer such as family history, personal medical history and more.
Tulane researchers hope to complete enrollment
for STAR, conducted by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project,
by next summer, with results expected to be available by 2006.
To volunteer or obtain more information, call
the cancer center's Office of Clinical Research at 585-6121.
Expanding Operations
Ochsner Clinic Foundation (1514 Jefferson Hwy., 842-4000) has opened a new
26,000-square-foot surgery center that will add six operating rooms and a two-room
cysto-urology area to the hospital's facilities.
The Hines Surgery Center -- named for the
late Dr. Merrill Hines, former Ochsner Clinic Medical Director -- can handle
more than a dozen types of procedures, including reconstructive surgery, laparoscopic
cholecystectomy, gynecological procedures, eye surgeries, hernia repairs and
many others. In addition to the new Hines center, Ochsner has 22 operating rooms
in the hospital's Day of Surgery Center as well as surgical areas in obstetrics
and cosmetic surgery.
