Cathy Taylor, DrPH, MSN, RN, has been named as the new dean of the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing at Belmont University. She begins her new position at Belmont on Feb. 1, 2012.

Taylor currently serves as the assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Health's Bureau of Health Services Administration where she oversees delivery of traditional public health and primary care services in 89 rural counties and contracted services with Tennessee's six metropolitan health departments.

As the chief academic and executive officer of Belmont's College of Health Sciences & Nursing, Taylor will be responsible for the programmatic leadership, financial management, personnel administration and planning and development for the College.

Taylor earned a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also holds a Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Tennessee-Memphis, and bachelor's degrees from the University of Alabama _  Huntsville and from Middle Tennessee State University. In addition, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University in 2005.

New Schizophrenia Drug Candidates from Vanderbilt Preparing for First-in-Human Clinical Testing

The Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery announced last month that new drug candidates for schizophrenia generated from its ongoing collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica, NV, are now entering the stage of preparation for first-in-human clinical testing.

This is a major step forward in the evaluation of this approach as a potential treatment for major psychiatric diseases. It could lead to a fundamental advance in the treatment of schizophrenia, said P. Jeffrey Conn, PhD, co-director of the HYPERLINK "http://www.vcndd.com/"Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery.†

More than 2 million Americans have schizophrenia. Current antipsychotic agents can reduce hallucinations and delusions, he said, but they are less effective in relieving cognitive deficits and other disabling symptoms, including social withdrawal.

Conn, center co-director Craig Lindsley, PhD, and colleagues have pioneered the use of allosteric modulators to adjust the activity of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. Rather than activating receptor activity directly, these compounds work like dimmer switches in electrical circuits and induce more subtle changes in receptor function than are seen with traditional receptor agonists.

The target in schizophrenia is a receptor for the neurotransmitter glutamate, mGluR5, which regulates brain circuits that are disrupted in schizophrenia patients. The drug candidates developed by Vanderbilt and Janssen scientists increase receptor activity and are effective in preclinical models that suggest the possibility of achieving efficacy in schizophrenia patients.

Saint Thomas Neurosciences News

Over the past several months, the Saint Thomas Neurosciences Institute has added several new technologies and treatments to the Saint Thomas Hospital campus. Neurosurgeon Scott Standard, MD, recently began treating patients with HYPERLINK "http://r20.rs6.net" patients with severe and/or inoperable brain aneurysms. So far, he has seen unprecedented outcomes with faster recovery and better results than traditional treatment.

Additionally, the Dan Rudy Cancer Center has added the TrueBeam"!†STx system and will become the first in Middle Tennessee to offer this option to patients within the next few weeks. The robotic linear accelerator is designed to deliver fast and precise radiation therapy to patients with certain kinds of cancer including challenging cases in the brain, spine, lung, liver and prostate.

Saint Thomas Hospital, in conjunction with Saint Thomas Research Institute, also recently became the first center in the Southeast region to begin enrolling patients in a groundbreaking clinical trial for the HYPERLINK "http://r20.rs6.net" personalized cancer immune therapy for one of the most lethal brain cancers, the aggressive Glioblatoma multiforme. The FDA-approved, Phase II trial, sponsored by HYPERLINK "http://r20.rs6.net" Northwest Biotherapeutics, utilizes the non-toxic vaccine to teach a patient's own immune system to attack the cancer.

The investigative, personalized vaccine extracts the patient's own immune cells and trains them to target the tumor. They are then re-introduced into the patient, where they can contain the tumor's growth or reduce its infiltration. Unlike chemotherapy, DCVaxÆ-L only attacks the cancerous cells and leaves the healthy cells alone.

In prior clinical trials, it demonstrated response rates much higher than typically seen with cancer drugs (median survival of three years with DCVaxÆ-L as compared to slightly longer than 14 months with current standard of care). Additionally, those treated with the vaccine did not have recurrence of their tumor for approximately two years, on average, as compared with tumor recurrence in just seven months with standard of care today.

Symmetry Announces Regional HQ for Nashville

On Dec. 12, Indiana-based Symmetry Medical announced Nashville would become a regional headquarters for the company on the heels of a $165 million deal in the surgical instrument sector. Symmetry has said it is buying the instruments business of the Codman & Shurtleff division of Johnson & Johnson and will merge it with its own instruments subsidiary. The combined venture, which will have about $100 million in revenue and a sales presence in 60 countries, will then be renamed Symmetry Surgical and relocate its headquarters to Antioch.

LifePoint Announces Plans to Move HQ to Davidson County

In late November, Mayor Karl Dean, Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty announced plans to build a new facility to unite LifePoint Hospital's corporate offices in a new headquarters location at Seven Springs Office Park in Davidson County.

Construction of the seven-story, 203,000-square-foot LifePoint Hospital Support Center will begin this year and is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2013. The building, which will be owned and managed by Highwoods, will allow LifePoint to consolidate its 400-member corporate team from three separate locations in Brentwood into one location. The new LifePoint Hospital Support Center will provide opportunity for the company to further expand its operations and enhance its support of its growing network of community hospitals throughout the nation.†

Let's Give Them Something to Talk About!

Awards, Honors, Recognitions

Vanderbilt University Hospital, the only one in Tennessee, was named among the nation's 65 Leapfrog Top Hospitals for 2011. The Leapfrog Group is a coalition of public and private purchasers of employee health coverage providing benefits to more than 37 million Americans across all 50 states that works to encourage safety, quality and affordability.

During TAMHO's annual awards ceremony last month, Centerstone's Co-Occurring Disorders Treatment Program was recognized as a 2011 Program of Excellence. The honor spotlights TAMHO member organizations that find creative and groundbreaking ways to provide effective community-based services and programs. Centerstone's Co-Occurring Disorders Treatment program treats adults who have both a substance use disorder and a mental illness.

Summit Medical Center, StoneCrest Medical Center and NorthCrest Medical Center were the three Middle Tennessee hospitals that recently earned a spot on The Joint Commission's list of national Top Performers on Key Quality Measures, which included just 14 percent of the country's reporting hospitals. To be named to the list, an organization had to meet very high performance thresholds scored from 2010 data on all accountability measures.

Three Nashville researchers Jerome Jourquin, PhD, Bing Zhang, PhD, and Dexter Duncan with the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center won the NIH's National Library of Medicine national software application contest, _ Show off Your Apps: Innovative Uses of NLM Information. The trio developed GLAD4U (Gene List Automatically Derived for You), a free web-based tool to assist researchers by automating the process of creating gene lists.

MGMA and ACMPE named Gabi Brockelsby, administrator of Murfreesboro Dermatology Clinic, as the recipient of the 2011 Legislative Liaison of the Year, which recognizes a medical practice professional who has provided outstanding leadership in the education and motivation of MGMA members through grassroots involvement on legislative and regulatory issues of importance to medical group practices.

In November, Qualifacts, the largest provider of Software-as-a-Service and web-based EHRs for the behavioral health market, was named the 2011 Company of the Year by the Nashville Technology Council.

The Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians honored Dianne Hall, nurse at the Tennessee Legislature in Nashville, with the 2011 John S. Derryberry Distinguished Service Award.

Jennifer Elliott, director of nursing for emergency, critical care and patient access at Baptist Hospital, recently received the 2011 Executive Nurse of Distinction Award as part of the Tennessee Hospital Association's Awards of Excellence presented at the 73rd annual meeting.

Hendersonville student Danielle Long, 13, was honored by the American Kidney Fund at its third annual national gala, The Hope Affair in Washington, DC this past fall. The young Middle Tennessean living with kidney disease was named Calendar Kids Cover Artist and her artwork is featured on the cover of the American Kidney Fund's 2012 wall calendar.

Recent Certifications, Accreditations & Commendations

Tennessee Oncology has been recognized by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPIÆ) Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), for achieving the highest standards of quality and safety in cancer treatment. The QOPIÆ Certification Program provides a three-year certification for outpatient hematology-oncology practices that meet the highest standards for quality cancer care.

Alive Hospice has again earned The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval"! for accreditation of hospice care and grief support services, recognizing demonstrated compliance with national standards for healthcare quality and safety. Alive Hospice was first accredited in 1999.

Vanderbilt Study Leads to Simpler Therapy for Treating Latent Tuberculosis

Research, led by Timothy Sterling, MD, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has led to an important change in CDC recommendations in the regimen for prevention of tuberculosis (TB).

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that the new regimen, which takes one-third the time of current therapy, offers an effective treatment option for many patients at high risk for developing TB. The CDC said while cases of active TB are at an all-time low, approximately 4 percent of the U.S. population, or 11 million people, have latent TB.

Up to now, the regimen for latent TB infection was daily doses of isoniazid (INH). A total of 270 daily doses were taken over the course of nine months to eradicate the bacteria, which can lie dormant in the body for years. The study of 8,000 patients in four countries over 10 years showed that just 12 doses, given once-weekly, of INH combined with rifapentine was as effective. The shorter, weekly combination therapy was safe and effective, but perhaps the most important finding was the new therapy improved compliance by at least 10 percent.

This is a game changer. Currently less than half of the people who start the current therapy complete it. The new combination would require direct observation, but more people would complete treatment, Sterling said.

King Named Saint Thomas Hospital COO

Last month, Saint Thomas Hospital announced the addition of Don King as chief operating officer of the hospital.

King, a licensed physical therapist, previously served as COO of HCA's Lee's Summit Medical Center in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Prior to that, he held executive positions with HCA, Adventist Health and Health Midwest. He received his undergraduate degree and Master of Physical Therapy from Loma Linda University in California.

TriStar Names Ardoin CMO for Health System

In late 2011, HCA's TriStar Health System named Doug Ardoin, Jr., MD, as the division_ s chief medical officer. Previously, he served as the chief medical officer for HCA's Delta Division in New Orleans.

In his new role, Ardoin will be responsible for working to continually improve clinical and patient safety outcomes, as well as greater physician engagement and alignment in the areas of physician leadership and clinical variation reduction across the division.†

After full-time private practice for more than a decade, Ardoin held several leadership positions with health systems in Houston. He is an ABMS-certified family medicine physician and a Fellow of the AAFP. He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, an MBA from Rice University, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Raynes Installed As THA Chairman

Scott Raynes, president and CEO, NorthCrest Medical Center, Springfield, was installed as chairman of the Tennessee Hospital Association's board of directors during the association's annual meeting in Nashville in November. Joe Landsman, president and CEO, University Health System, Knoxville, was elected chairman-elect of the board, and HCA's recently-retired Larry Kloess, became immediate past chairman and also will serve as speaker of the House of Delegates in 2012.

Martin & Wilford Shaba Join Southern Hills Staff

Casey Wilford Shaba, MD, and Jennifer Dempsey Martin, MD, have joined the medical staff at Southern Hills Medical Center. Both physicians are members of the Nashville Skin and Cancer office at as general dermatologists.

Shaba received her medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in dermatopathology at Baylor College of Medicine. She was awarded the 2010 Resident Research Award and the Resident Teaching Award by Vanderbilt Dermatology.

Martin earned her medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine where she graduated cum laude.†She served as a dermatology research fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Passport Partners with MagTek_ s MagneSafe"! to Strengthen Safety of eCashiering

Franklin-based HYPERLINK "http://www.passporthealth.com/"Passport Health Communications Inc. recently announced it has chosen to implement MagTek_ s MagneSafe"! Security Architecture (MSA) _  a dynamic digital identification and MagnePrintÆ authentication technology that protects consumers and their personal data to further strengthen and improve what was already one of the healthcare industry's most advanced solution for processing patient payments: HYPERLINK "http://www.passporthealth.com/Solutions/eCare_Rev_Cycle_Solutions/eCashiering.aspx"eCashiering.

eCashiering is an efficient, seamless patient payment process that can be used throughout the healthcare organization to collect patient payments from the registration desk to the back office and all points in between. By leveraging the MagneSafe"! Security Architecture Cashiering is now the healthcare industry's first point-to-point encrypted (P2PE) solution. From the first swipe of a credit/debit card or manual input of their credit card number to its submission and settlement, the sensitive cardholder data is protected and never in the clear.

Wiggs Opens Dental Practice

Joseph P. Wiggs, DDS, a family and cosmetic dentist with more than 20 years of experience, recently opened a practice offering general, aesthetic and restorative dentistry in the Doctor's Pavilion building at 1916 Patterson Street near the Baptist Hospital and Centennial Medical Center campuses.

Originally from Memphis, Wiggs and his family relocated to Nashville last year. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in Memphis.

UL Acquires PureSafety

Illinois-based UL, an industry leader in advancing safety, announced last month that it has acquired Franklin-based PureSafety, the nation's leading provider of Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) software solutions. Founded in 1999, PureSafety enables employers to manage health safety and risks more efficiently and effectively. More than 1,500 organizations use PureSafety's suite of software applications including workplace safety training courseware, safety management, employee health and clinic management solutions.

Gold Skin Care Among First to Offer New Toxin

Nashville-based Gold Skin Care Center was selected as one of only several exclusive centers across the country to make newly-approved Xeomin (incobotulinumtoxinA), available for cosmetic use prior to the nationwide release in spring 2012.

Xeomin, which is often referred to as the naked injectable due to its lack of additives, became available at Gold Skin Care last month. Produced by Merz Aesthetics, the toxin has FDA approval for the improvement of glabellar lines in adult patients. Gold's research facility, Tennessee Clinical Research Center, was one of only 16 investigative sites selected from across the country to participate in the clinical trials leading to the toxin's FDA approval.

In other news, the aesthetic practice has also partnered with Centerstone to offer a unique, complimentary service of tattoo removal to Centerstone clients who find the ink to be a painful reminder of the past, a barrier to employment, and a hindrance in their overall recovery.

Family Tree Shows Growth in Nashville's Healthcare Industry

Despite a weak economy, Nashville's healthcare industry experience another year of growth as evidenced by the Nashville Health Care Council's Family Tree, which offers a unique illustration of Nashville's evolution as the nation's healthcare capital.

The HYPERLINK "http://www.healthcarecouncil.com/home/news_publications/family-tree.aspx"2010-2011 Nashville Health Care Industry Family Tree is a depiction of the history of Nashville's healthcare industry and a symbol of the industry's interconnectivity and innovation. Nashville's healthcare industry now has a global footprint of more than 400,000 jobs and $70 billion in annual revenue.

Over the past year, relocations and expansions added nearly 1,300 jobs to Nashville_ s healthcare sector. Among those were relocations and growth of TNInvestco-funded startup HYPERLINK "http://www.shareableink.com/"Shareable Ink and behavioral health facilities specialist HYPERLINK "http://www.acadiahealthcare.com/"Acadia Healthcare. Expansions were led by headquarters located in the area, including Medicare Advantage plan leader HYPERLINK "http://healthspring.com/"HealthSpring, respiratory home health provider HYPERLINK "http://www.ahom.com/"American Homepatient, medical cost management company HYPERLINK "http://www.medsolutions.com/"MedSolutions, life sciences developer HYPERLINK "http://biomimetics.com/"BioMimetic Therapeutics, forensic and drug-testing laboratory HYPERLINK "http://www.aegislabs.com/"Aegis Sciences Corporation and health IT services providers HYPERLINK "http://www.hmstn.com/Pages/Default.aspx"Healthcare Management Systems and HYPERLINK "http://www.emdeon.com/"Emdeon.

For more information on the Health Care Council's growth and to download or order a poster of the family tree, go online to HYPERLINK "http://www.healthcarecouncil.com" www.healthcarecouncil.com.

ACA Grant Supports Lebanon School-Based Health Center

In December, more than $14 million in grant money made available through the Affordable Care Act was awarded to 45 school-based health centers across the country. In Tennessee, Community Progress Committee Inc. Crestview Manor in Lebanon was awarded $500,000 as part of that grant package.

Clinics receiving the awards, made possible by the health reform law, are already providing much-needed health care services to 112,000 children. The December infusion of new money will enable them to expand capacity and modernize facilities, which will allow them to treat an estimated additional 53,000 children in 29 states.

New Stem Cell Journal Launched

AlphaMed Press, publisher of STEM CELLS, the oldest peer-reviewed journal solely dedicated to the field, recently announced the launch of its newest internationally peer-reviewed journal, STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE.

The new journal answers an acknowledged need within the research and clinical communities for comprehensive coverage of stem cell science, stem cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, stem cell-based predictive toxicology, and cancer stem cell investigation. The inaugural issue's articles are now available at HYPERLINK "http://stemcellstm.alphamedpress.org/"http://stemcellstm.alphamedpress.org.

Published monthly, this new publication bridges stem cell research with clinical trials and applications, publishing high-impact, peer-reviewed articles, case studies, commentaries, and†positive as well as negative clinical trials. The scope of content in STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE will encompass Embryonic Stem Cells/Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells; Fetal and Neonatal Stem Cells; Tissue-Specific Progenitor and Stem Cells; Cell-Based Drug Development, Screening and Toxicology; Enabling Technologies for Cell-Based Clinical Translation; Cancer Stem Cells; Standards, Policies and Regulations for Cell-Based Therapies; Protocols and Manufacturing for Cell-Based Therapies; and Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

MGMA, ACMPE Merger Launches This Month

Originally announced in late October, the merger of the Medical Group Management Association and American College of Medical Practice Executives into a new association becomes effective Jan. 1, 2012. The hope is the combined organization will be better positioned to serve members and the industry in a rapidly changing healthcare marketplace. The new association will continue to use its established MGMA and ACMPE brands but will investigate ways to align these brands for the future.†

With 22,500 members, MGMA is the largest professional membership association for medical practice management leaders. ACMPE is the most respected certification and standard-setting organization for medical practice leaders, and has 6,750 members. Current members of MGMA and ACMPE will automatically be transitioned to become members of the new association and will pay a single dues payment equal to current MGMA dues.†Members of the new association who wish to pursue Board certification through ACMPE will no longer need to join a separate organization and pay separate dues each year.

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