WHSC News Releases for January 1999

Jan 27 '99	THE RING OF CHANGE: Emory introduces potentially reversible surgery for nearsightedness A tiny, transparent ring that is changing the face of vision recently received recommendation for FDA approval by the agency's ophthalmic devices panel. Available at the Emory Vision Correction Center in north Atlanta, the ring reshapes the eye's cornea, eliminating nearsightedness. It can be inserted into the cornea during a 15-minute surgical procedure using a topical anesthetic drop. FULL STORY
Jan 27 '99	EMORY UNIVERSITY AND SHEPHERD CENTER TO STUDY BRAIN INJURIES Emory University and Shepherd Center have been awarded a $1.38 million grant from the National Institutes on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to fund the Georgia Model Brain Injury System (GAMBIS). The collaboration provides an important opportunity to initiate and participate in research related to the causes, prevalence and treatment of traumatic brain injury in Georgia. FULL STORY
Jan 15 '99	EMORY HEALTHCARE NAMES JOHN T. FOX PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER John T. Fox, executive vice president of Clarian Health, Indianapolis, has been named president and chief operating officer of Emory Healthcare, effective April 15, 1999. FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	ULTRAFAST CT NONINVASIVELY PROVIDES CLUES TO EARLY HEART DISEASE Emory doctors are increasingly adding a new imaging technology to their set of cardiac diagnostic tools. Electron beam computed tomography (EBCT), also known as ultrafast CT, can detect evidence of early coronary artery disease years before symptoms appear. FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	VACCINE DINNER CLUB UNITES RESEARCHERS FROM EMORY, CDC AND UGA When leaders from Emory's new Emory-Atlanta Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) called a meeting recently to talk about hosting a new group for area investigators interested in all types of vaccine research, they knew the idea would be popular, but they had no idea "how" popular. Maybe it simply required adding the word "dinner" to the name of their club, or perhaps it was the power of the internet, but the new Vaccine Dinner Club quickly attracted a list of 246 registered members from all over Atlanta and as far away as Athens. FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	ANGIOGENESIS UPDATE Tiny blood vessels are making medical headlines. When they nourish damaged heart muscle with oxygenated blood, that's a good thing. But the same types of vessels also nourish deadly tumors and that's not such a good thing. It seems that as cardiology researchers are working hard to grow microvessels (angiogenesis), their cancer colleagues are working just as hard to inhibit vessel growth (anti-angiogenesis). Are these cross purposes? FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	EMORY HELPS DEVELOP BETTER METHOD OF DELIVERING RADIATION TO CANCER PATIENTS Emory University medical physicists have helped develop a high tech, computerized method of delivering radiation therapy to cancer patients that better targets the cancer, without damaging surrounding tissue. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT, uses a computer program to determine where and how radiation should be directed to a tumor. FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	RAPE TREATMENT STUDY: Emory Researchers Compare Psychotherapy Treatments for Rape-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Survivors of sexual assault are often plagued by symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) similar to survivors of combat, childhood abuse, witnessing horrific events and other major disasters. FULL STORY
Jan 14 '99	EMORY RESEARCHERS SEEK FEMALE SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS FOR PTSD TREATMENT STUDY Women over 18 who have experienced a sexual assault (other than ongoing childhood abuse) and continue to experience distress are being recruited for a treatment study at Emory. FULL STORY
Jan 13 '99	MORE THAN 20 INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FETED FOR EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY Emory University's Goizueta Business School and Rollins School of Public Health will come together Jan. 21 to recognize through the 1999 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards -- private and corporate citizens of Atlanta who have "overcome barriers to discrimination and have fostered the uplifting of disenfranchised populations," according to the event committee. FULL STORY
Jan 13 '99	MLK COMPATRIOT TO SPEAK; ARCHBISHOP TUTU TO BE HONORED; COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS WILL BE PRESENTED JAN. 21 1999 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Awards and other MLK observance activities jointly sponsored by the Goizueta Business School and Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. This year's theme is "KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE THROUGH PUBLIC HEALTH & ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: A CHALLENGE FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM." FULL STORY
Jan 8 '99	EMORY UNIVERSITY NIH GRANT PROPELS PHYSICIANS TOWARDS TRANSPLANT BREAKTHROUGHS The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded physician-researchers in Emory University's Center for Transplantation a five-year grant they hope will allow them to establish true immune tolerance in patients receiving organ transplants. That accomplishment not only would free those who receive donor organs from the toxic side effects of daily immunosuppressant medicines, but it also could lead to the "golden ring" of transplantation medicine permanent, long-term acceptance of donor organs. FULL STORY
Jan 8 '99	WEB-BASED MASTER'S OF PUBLIC HEALTH OFFERED AT EMORY The information superhighway will serve as the classroom for much of the coursework being offered in a new master's of public health being offered at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. More than half of the instruction, assignments and exams for the school's Career Master of Public Health will be conducted on-line, says CMPH Coordinator Peggy Hines. FULL STORY
Jan 7 '99	CARDIOLOGIST JOHN STONE PENS FOURTH VOLUME OF POETRY AND PROSE A new collection of poems by Emory University writer/cardiologist John Stone, M.D., has been published by Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rogue, 1998). "WHERE WATER BEGINS: new poems and prose," is Dr. Stone's fourth volume of poetry and his first to appear in 13 years. FULL STORY
Jan 7 '99	'BEYOND "ER"The Critical Role of Emergency Medicine in American Health Care' Supporting motorcycle helmet laws, preventing handgun violence, promoting seatbelt use...These activities may not have the prime-time appeal of an "ER doc's" traditional adrenaline-pumping tasks, but they do have the potential to save many, many more lives, says Arthur Kellermann, M.D., professor and chief of Emergency Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine. FULL STORY
Jan 6 '99	POSITIVE TREND: COST AND DAYS IN HOSPITAL DECLINE DESPITE SICKER PATIENTS UNDERGOING VALVE SURGERY Over the past decade, costs associated with surgery to treat heart valve disease and days spent in the hospital have continued to decline; this in light of significantly sicker patients undergoing valve surgeries, reported Emory researchers at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in November. FULL STORY
Jan 6 '99	THE STATE OF STENTING: Emory Findings Suggest Costs Decline as Stent Use Soars; Also, Women are Greater Risk for Restenosis After Stenting From 1990-97, use of coronary stenting at Emory University Hospitals "increased from a procedure performed rarely to more than 50 percent of cases," reported Emory researchers in November at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. FULL STORY
Jan 6 '99	ANGIOPLASTY VS. SURGERY: EIGHT-YEAR OUTCOME In the Emory Angioplasty vs Surgery Trial (EAST), 392 patients were randomized to angioplasty or coronary surgery between 1987 and 1990, with 100 percent followup at eight years," according to Emory researchers reporting EAST follow-up data at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association held in November. FULL STORY
Jan 6 '99	BETA RADIATION FOR RESTENOSIS: POSITIVE TRENDS CONTINUE, PER FINAL BERT-1 RESULTS Beta radiation administered to coronary arteries after angioplasty was not associated with poorer outcomes in patients with poorer outcome related to vessel size, reported Emory researchers and colleagues at the 71st Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association held in November. FULL STORY

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