Tufts Medical Center News Headlines
Week of June 4 - 11, 2007
The following headline stories are re-printed from the Tufts Medical Center News, Tufts Medical Center's weekly publication.
New England Quality Care Alliance Expands Network
New England Quality Care Alliance (NEQCA) has expanded their organization to include Merrimack Valley Independent Physicians Association (MVIPA). This affiliation expands NEQCA to the north to total more than 800 physicians.
NEQCA was formed in 2005 through a partnership between Tufts Medical Center in Boston and Primary Care, LLC in Braintree.
“We are thrilled to have the physicians of Merrimack Valley IPA join our team,” said Jeffrey Lasker, MD, CEO/CMO of NEQCA.
With the addition of Merrimack Valley IPA, the physician network will expand services to patients, while maintaining their independent practices with preferred access to Tufts Medical Center for complex, tertiary care, such as advanced cardiac treatment, neurosurgery and other conditions requiring highly specialized treatments and technologies.
“This expansion will allow for further network development along with quality improvements, health plan contracting and enhancement of patient care while maintaining MVIPA’s current relationships with their community-based specialists and their community hospital, Saints Medical Center,” added Lasker. “We are doing everything we can to welcome these physicians and their patients into the Tufts Medical Center organization. We have assured MVIPA that the patients they transfer will be handled expeditiously and communication back to primary care providers will be excellent and the process for making the transfer will be efficient.”
Currently Merrimack Valley IPA, based in Lowell, Massachusetts includes more than 180 primary care and specialty physicians. It is a group of doctors dedicated to the patients they serve in the Massachusetts communities of Lowell, Chelmsford, Billerica, Dracut, Tewksbury, Westford, Andover, North Andover, Lawrence, Methuen, Tyngsboro as well as the Southern New Hampshire community of Pelham.
“We at MVIPA feel this a win-win situation for both organizations,” said Peter Gorlin, MD, PhD, CEO of Merrimack Valley IPA. “We are delighted to join this outstanding group. This relationship is a positive one for both our patients and our physicians."
Neurosurgery Webcast Set for June 20
The Medical Center’s next OR Live Webcast is set for Wednesday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m. and will feature Tufts Medical Center’s neurosurgeons performing a craniotomy to treat a meningioma tumor.
The surgical procedure will be performed by Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, Carl Heilman, MD, and
moderated by fellow neurosurgeon Simcha Weller, MD. The Webcast will feature live Internet transmission of the procedure, as well as interviews with other members of the Medical Center’s comprehensive and multidisciplinary neurosurgery team.
Tufts Medical Center staff members and employees can attend a special viewing of the Webcast in Stearns Auditorium, or view it from their homes at www.or-live.com/Tufts Medical Center/1733. To protect Tufts Medical Center’s servers, the Webcast will not be accessible from Medical Center computers.
Meningiomas are tumors that arise from the covering of the brain within the skull. The majority of meningiomas are benign and grow slowly; however, approximately five percent of meningiomas grow much faster and behave more aggressively. These are known as anaplastic or malignant meningiomas. Many meningiomas can be cured with surgery, but others, due to their location in critical areas or their invasive nature cannot be cured by surgery alone.
“It is critical to have a multidisciplinary team that has the full range of expertise from surgery to endovascular embolization capabilities to Gamma Knife radiosurgery, as well as access to new experimental therapies,” according to Heilman. “We are equipped to treat the full range of meningiomas with state-of-the-art technology, including computer assisted minimally invasive surgical tools, which reduces the blood flow to these tumors by blocking their blood supply with endovascular embolization before surgery.”
Tumors that cannot be totally removed surgically can often be treated with the use of the Gamma Knife, a non-invasive, single dose of focused radiation delivered to the meningioma, sparing healthy surrounding tissue. In nine out of 10 cases, Gamma Knife treatments will stop the tumor from growing.
“It is through this close teamwork we at Tufts Medical Center deliver the best care to patients with meningiomas, from the straightforward to the most challenging,” said Heilman.
Tufts Medical Center Study Confirms Weather Influences Arthritis Pain
Individuals with osteoarthritis often state that changes in the weather influence their pain, and a new study by Tufts Medical Center researchers indicates this is true. The findings, published in the May issue of the American Journal of Medicine, received national media attention, including an article by Reuters News Service.
Because a majority of the evidence surrounding increased pain in arthritic joints is anecdotal, the Tufts Medical Center researchers, led by Timothy McAlindon, MD, MPH, Chief of the Medical Center’s Rheumatology Division, reviewed data from an earlier Internet-based study that examined the supplement glucosamine for knee osteoarthritis. Some 200 participants with knee arthritis systematically reported on their pain levels every two weeks during the course of the three-month study period. Participants were located throughout the United States and completed the study at different times of year. In addition, the researchers obtained their meteorologic data through an entirely separate mechanism.
“The topic of weather having a potential influence on pain levels was not a question, either for participants or investigators, in the glucosamine trial,” said McAlindon. “It arose only after the trial was completed. We were then able to go back and collect daily values for temperature, barometric pressure, dew point, precipitation, and relative humidity from the weather station closest to each participant. Overall, we found, patients’ pain tended to worsen when the temperature was lower or when the barometric pressure increased.”
Other Tufts Medical Center clinician-researchers who participated in the trial include Margaret Formica, MSPH; Christopher H. Schmid, PhD; Jeremiah Fletcher; and all of the Medical Center’s Rheumatology Division and Institute of Clinical Research Policy Studies.
June’s Saltonstall Winner is Hoa Ngo
Hoa Ngo, Tufts Medical Center Language Coordinator and Medical Interpreter, is this month’s recipient of the William Saltonstall Employee Excellence Award. Ngo has worked at Tufts Medical Center’s Interpreter Services Department for more than 14 years.
“Hao has been a medical interpreter since interpreter services was still in its
infancy under social services,” said Yoshie Ng, Interpreter at the Medical Center, who nominated Ngo for the award. “Hoa always puts the patient and their needs before his own.”
In his role, Ngo is responsible for facilitating access to health care for non-
English speaking patients and ensuring that cross-cultural communication and health care delivery is as seamless as possible. Ngo is fluent in many Asian languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Chowchou.
“Without his skills, our ability to diagnose and treat many of our non-English
speaking Asian patients would be severely hindered,” said Nelson Wong, LICSW, MPH, Director of Outpatient Psychiatry and Program Director of the Asian Adult Mental Health Program.
According to Wong, Ngo is so beloved throughout the Medical Center that once when he was hospitalized at Tufts Medical Center, it was standing room only due to the number of visitors. “I had to take a ticket to get in,” said Wong.
True to his generous spirit, Ngo is donating his Saltonstall award money to Floating Hospital’s Children Cancer Center.
“Hao is always smiling,” said Wong. “When I asked him what the secret to his happiness was he said that when you love what you do, smiling comes naturally.”
The Saltonstall award honors employees who exhibit the highest standards of service and performance in their work and their interactions with staff members, patients and visitors. To nominate an employee for this award, contact Yolanda Rosero at ext. 5669 for more information.
Kenneth L. Noller, MD, Elected President of ACOG
Kenneth L. Noller, MD, Tufts Medical Center’s Gynecologist-in-Chief and Chairman of Tufts Medical Center’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, became the 58th president of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the national medical organization representing more than 51,000 members who provide health care for women. His inauguration took place during ACOG’s Annual Clinical Meeting at the San Diego Convention Center in May.
During his presidential address, Noller expressed concern over the state of American medicine and cited the need for ob-gyns to become more active at every level of government and to participate on every insurance board, state board, and hospital board and in the initiatives of local medical associations. “Individually, and as ACOG, we are the voice of women’s health, and we must make our voices heard. With our knowledge of the local issues and our understanding of women’s health care needs, we can and must affect change,” he said.
While reform of the medical liability system will remain a top legislative priority for ACOG, Noller also cited the need to continue to attract the best and the brightest medical students to the specialty. As president of ACOG, he will create a new task force with the charge to examine current practice models and recommend more efficient and innovative ways to practice ob-gyn.
Active in ACOG since 1979, Noller has served on numerous ACOG committees and review boards. He chaired the Precis Advisory Committee, the committees on Gynecologic Practice and the Scientific Program, and the Clinical Document Review Panel-Gynecology. Noller has served on the editorial board of Obstetrics & Gynecology and as editor of Precis: Gynecology. He has held leadership positions in a number of professional societies and has served as president of the Boston OB-Gyn Society and the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.
He completed his medical degree at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., followed by his residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.
Employees Now Have Improved Remote E-mail Access
Tufts Medical Center’s Information Services Department has upgraded Outlook Web e-mail access for employees. Outlook Web Access allows employees to access their e-mail, calendar and contacts from most web browsers on computers connected to the Internet, including from home computers, work computers and airport kiosks. All Tufts Medical Center employees with a mailbox on the Medical Center’s Exchange 2003 system can now access their Outlook accounts without a dial-up RAS or VPN connection. In addition, users no longer need the daily “Rev Code” for remote access to their Tufts Medical Center e-mail accounts.
The new version of Outlook Web Access contains several improvements, including faster response time, new features and an improved user interface. To access their Tufts Medical Center Outlook account via the Internet, users should open the web browser on their computer and type https://webmail.tufts-nemc.org/exchange into the address bar. Please make sure to enter “https” and not “http” because Outlook Web Access requires a secure connection to the web site.
When the Outlook Web Access screen opens in the browser, employees should enter their Tufts Medical Center domain and user name, separated by a back slash (\), and their network password. A comprehensive user guide is available on the Tufts Medical Center intranet at http://intranet.nemc.org/is/owa2003-05112007.pdf.