RuSh physician - Rush University Medical Center

From the Research
and Clinical Trials
Administration Office
Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Vaccine
Study
The center for Women’s Research at Rush is
conducting a phase ii study to test the safety
and efficacy of a vaccine for the treatment of
grade 2 or grade 3 cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia. The vaccine is administered
intravenously in three separate doses over a
six-month period.
participants must meet the following criteria:
• Be a woman, 18 to 45 years of age
• have grade 2 or grade 3 cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia for which surgery is indicated, but
which may safely be treated and observed for
six months prior to surgery
• not have taken Gardasil or cevarix
This is a partial list of inclusion and exclusion
criteria. Barbara Soltes, MD, is the principal
investigator at Rush. For more information,
contact Erin McKeever, Rn, at (312) 563-2611.
Vibration Therapy for Parkinson Disease
The section of Movement Disorders is
participating in a study to determine whether
vibration therapy can improve parkinson
disease symptoms. The study will compare the
effectiveness of vibration therapy combined
with music therapy vs. music therapy alone,
as well as measure subject satisfaction and
tolerability. subjects will receive a vibratory
chair to use at home during the study.
participants must meet the following criteria:
• have a diagnosis of idiopathic parkinson
disease
• Be on stable medication for parkinson disease
• Be ambulatory
This is a partial list of inclusion and exclusion
criteria. Christopher Goetz, MD, and Sachin
Kapur, MD, are the study’s co-investigators at
Rush. For more information, contact Dr. Kapur
at (312) 563-2900, ext. 4.
RuSh physician
September 2010
Published for Physicians at Rush
published by the Department of Marketing and communications.
have feedback? E-mail us at rush_physician@rush.edu.
Programs and Services Spotlight
International Health Services
Patients from all over the world come to Rush for specialized medical care.
The International Health Services program addresses the individual needs of
these international patients and helps manage the entire process for physicians
and their staff. In addition, the program works to improve global access to
the highly skilled clinical teams at Rush.
Support Services for International Patients and Their Physicians
In the past several years, International Health Services has helped more than
100 patients come to Rush to receive medical services, including cancer
treatment, joint replacement, spine surgery and cardiac catheterization. These
patients come from as nearby as Mexico and Canada and as far away as
Greece, Kuwait and Australia.
Before medical needs can be addressed, international patients and their families
often require assistance with travel, medical and financial arrangements.
International Health Services works with the family and the physician’s practice
before, during and after the patient’s visit to coordinate the following services:
•
•
Collection of medical records and scheduling of consultations, necessary
diagnostic tests and admission
Payer preauthorization and other financial arrangements required by the
payer and Medical Center
• Travel arrangements to Chicago, including visa requirements and
accommodations for patients and their family members
•
•
Interpreter services, as well as help with ethnic, religious or health-related
dietary needs
Private-duty nursing, rehabilitation and home health services before and
after discharge when needed
The staff at International Health Services work to ensure that the whole process
is smoother for the patient, family, physicians and support staff involved. For
this reason, it is best to contact them even before an international case is
scheduled. If you are interested in learning more about the program and
opportunities to attract patients from abroad, contact the staff (see right-hand
column) to set up an appointment to discuss how you can become active in
this process.
Physician Bloggers Wanted
Patients and consumers are hungry for health-related information, advice and
insights on the Web, which is why blogs are becoming an increasingly popular
and effective way for physicians and other health care professionals to
promote their programs and share their ideas.
Rush University Medical Center is one of only 100 U.S. hospitals with a blog,
and editors are on the lookout for more posts from physicians at Rush.
The Rush InPerson blog (rushinperson.rush.edu) and Rush News Blog
(rushnews.rush.edu) need contributions by and about physicians and their
practices, personal experiences and research, as well as health issues, hot
medical topics and more.
• Rush InPerson posts should be written from a first-person perspective. They
don’t need to be long or in-depth — even a few paragraphs might work —
but they should be accessible and down-to-earth.
• Rush News Blog posts are written by the media relations staff with input
from experts at Rush.
If you’d like to submit a post or find out more about the blogs, please contact
Rush InPerson editor Thurston Hatcher at thurston_hatcher@rush.edu or Rush
News Blog editor Kimberly Waterman at kimberly_waterman@rush.edu.
Participating Staff
Paola Cieslak
Senior director
Nancy Konstant-Momcilovic
Director
Nazmy Hamad
Manager
Denise DeLaurentis
Senior patient coordinator
International Health Services is located
in the Professional Building, suite 439.
To contact the program, call (312)
563-2488.
Is Your Practice or
Office Moving?
With the construction around
campus, it’s important to keep
your contact information in your
physician profile up to date. your
physician profile is used for Find a
Doctor on the Rush Web site and
by the Rush call center to guide
referrals. Make sure to update your
profile any time your information
changes, which you can do quickly
and easily using a convenient
Web link. To request the link,
contact Barb Krah, director of
call center services and customer
relationship management, at
(312) 563-4723 or barbara_j_
krah@rush.edu. she will send the
link to you via e-mail, along with
instructions on how to access the
online profile form.
Publishing Research
Results? Share With
Media Relations
If you are going to publish or
present study results, please let a
media relations specialist know as
soon as your research has been
accepted for future publication
by calling (312) 942-5579.
Unfortunately, by the time you
publish or present your study, it is
frequently too late to attract
news reporters’ interest.
Follow Rush University Medical center on Facebook, Twitter and youTube.

M-2057 9/10
Clinical Corner
New Criteria to Diagnose Fibromyalgia
The american college of Rheumatology has
proposed a new set of diagnostic criteria for
fibromyalgia.
Routine lab tests cannot detect fibromyalgia.
previously, diagnosis was made using a tender
point test — a physical exam that tested
tenderness or pain when light pressure is
applied to 18 points throughout the body.
But according to rheumatologist robert Katz,
MD, who coauthored the new criteria, this
method of diagnosis is flawed. “it doesn’t take
into account many common fibromyalgia
symptoms, including significant fatigue, a lack
of mental clarity and forgetfulness, sleep
problems, and an impaired ability to function
doing normal activities,” he says.
Under the new criteria, published in the
journal Arthritis Care & Research, the tender
point test is replaced with a widespread pain
index and a symptom severity scale. The
widespread pain index score is determined by
the number of areas on the body where the
patient has felt pain in the last week. The
symptom severity score is determined by rating
the severity of three common hallmarks of
fibromyalgia: fatigue, waking unrefreshed and
cognitive symptoms.
To meet the criteria for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia,
a patient would have seven or more pain areas
and a symptom severity score of five or higher;
or three to six pain areas and a symptom
severity score of nine or higher.
Predicting Mild Cognitive Impairment
Mild cognitive impairment is often seen as a
transition stage between the cognitive decline
of normal aging and the more serious cognitive
problems of alzheimer’s disease. But what leads
to mild cognitive impairment?
a new study by researchers at Rush, published
in the July Journal of the International Neuro‑
psychological Society, shows that a combination
of factors can predict future cognitive decline
in a normal population: poor learning (defined
as lower performance on tests measuring
learning), plus either slower visuomotor
processing speed or symptoms of depression.
study participants underwent a battery of
standard cognitive and psychosocial tests to
assess mood, attention, visuospatial abilities,
language facility, memory and intelligence.
These included the trail-making test, which
measures motor speed, visual attention and
cognitive flexibility. poor learning, when paired
with either slower speed on the trail-making
test or a lower score on the depression scale,
predicted the development of mild cognitive
impairment a year later with an accuracy of 80
to 100 percent in the test sample.
“Our study is one of the first to suggest the
importance of factors other than memory in
predicting this possible pre-alzheimer’s
condition,” says neuropsychologist S. Duke
Han, PhD, the study’s lead author.
pLEasE nOTE: all physicians featured in this publication are on the medical faculty of
Rush University Medical center. some of the physicians featured are in private practice and,
as independent practitioners, are not agents or employees of Rush University Medical center.
The following is a list of physicians who have recently joined the Medical Staff
INTRODuCTIONS of Rush University Medical Center. The Medical Staff Office and the Department
of Marketing and Communications have made every effort to publish accurate information that is as complete as possible;
if, however, the information below is incorrect or we have omitted information, we apologize and ask that you contact
Muriel Coleman at (312) 942-5496.
Thanh Thai, MD
psychiatry
(312) 942-0118
thanh_thai@rush.edu
Transformation update
Elevated Walkways to Connect Atrium and East Tower
As you already may have seen, construction has begun on a set of elevated walkways that will connect the
Atrium Building with the new East Tower. Work on these walkways is expected to be completed in late spring
or early summer of next year.
One walkway will extend across the fourth floor level on the south side of the two buildings. When it is
opened, this walkway will be accessible to patients and visitors, as well as Rush personnel.
A tiered set of walkways on the north side of the buildings will connect corresponding floors on the third,
fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth floors. These walkways will be for patient and staff use only.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding walkways or other construction currently going on at Rush,
please e-mail facilities_questions@rush.edu.
Kudos
For the fourth consecutive year, Rush earned a place on the Companies That Care honor roll. Each organization
named to the 2009 honor roll sustains a work environment founded on dignity and respect for all employees,
develops great leaders, communicates standards of ethics and integrity, and actively supports the community.
In July, Rush was officially elevated to associate hospital in the Region XI (Chicago) Central Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) system. This status means that our emergency department will provide in-field medical direction
via radio to onsite paramedics. In addition, the Medical Center now will be involved in developing Chicago EMS
policies and procedures and in educating Chicago Fire Department paramedics.
Rush University Medical Group has received the Star Performer Award in recognition of its exceptional
participation with the Faculty Practice Solutions Center (FPSC). Engaging with the FPSC, a joint effort by the
University HealthSystem Consortium and the Association of American Medical Colleges, helps physician
practices improve how they provide care.
The neurosciences intensive care unit and the surgical intensive care unit both received the Beacon
Award in recognition of their commitment to high quality, critical care standards and dedication to the
exceptional care of patients and their families. These intensive care units join an elite group of 242 intensive
care units to have received this award out of an estimated 6,000 such units in the United States.
As part of its 2010 Health Leadership Awards, the March of Dimes is honoring Werner Meier, MD,
co-director of the perinatal center, with a lifetime achievement award. Howard Strassner Jr., MD,
chairperson of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is the physician honoree.
Progress Notes
The College of Health Sciences of Rush University now offers a Master of Science in physician assistant studies
to prepare students as primary care physician assistants, as well as to provide additional training in specialty
areas of clinical practice. The program received its initial accreditation in March, and the first class of students
began in June.
Rush University’s Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences now offers a combined program for a
specialist in blood bank certificate and Master of Science in clinical laboratory management. The combined
program provides comprehensive instruction in blood group serology, transfusion medicine and laboratory
management.
Lynne Thomas Gordon joined Rush in July as associate vice president of hospital operations and director of
Rush Children’s Hospital. She is responsible for the executive administration and operational oversight of the
children’s hospital, including high-risk obstetrics and infant care. Gordon is also responsible for the administration
of the Department of Pediatrics and multiple hospital services, including the Fetal and Neonatal Medicine
Center, the Program for Abdominal and Pelvic Health, the Adolescent Family Center, the Center for Advanced
Reproductive Care, the perinatal network, and pediatric subspecialty and ambulatory medical service plan clinics.
Rush is a not-for-profit health care, education and research enterprise comprising
Rush University Medical Center, Rush University, Rush Oak Park Hospital and Rush Health.