News BRIEFs
- The Wound Care Center at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital has completed the requirements to become a credentialed Center of Excellence in providing negative pressure wound therapy.
- On May 18, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Sentara Hospice House. Located in Virginia Beach, the 8,311-square-foot planned facility is slated to open by January 2013.
- Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, located in Portsmouth, and Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, located in Suffolk, have received the designation of Accredited Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers.
- Virginia Commonwealth University researchers will examine how a teenager’s network of friends, favorite hangouts and feelings and moods all interact to influence substance use. “By studying adolescents’ social networks within the context of their routine locations or activity space for two years, we will be able to model the evolution of risk and protective mechanisms for substance use and mental disorders in great detail,” said principal investigator Michael Mason, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and director of the VCU Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies.
- Bon Secours Richmond Health System was awarded the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s 2012 Health and Wellbeing Award for its employee wellness program. The program began in 1993 with just 100 employees. Today the Good Life Wellness Program helps over 7,100 employees engage in healthy lifestyles.
- Egidio Del Fabbro, M.D., has been named program director of palliative care at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center.
- Virginia Cancer Institute has been recognized as meeting the highest standards for cancer care under the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative Certification Program. The Richmond-based practice, which turns 30 this year, is the first in Central Virginia to earn this designation. Only 108 practices nationwide hold this certification.
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Deep-Sea Fishin’
Reserve your spot now to help reel in money for Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD) during ABNB Federal Credit Union’s 9th annual deep-sea fishing fest on Friday, June 22, a half-day charter-boat trip that leaves from Virginia Beach.
With two charter boats and close to 200 anglers, ABNB has netted large sums for CHKD, a total of $211,000 over the last eight years.
All tackle, bait, fish bags and fishing licenses are provided, but feel free to bring your own. Anglers will be served continental breakfast aboard the vessel and will return to the pier for a shore-side catered lunch donated by Mobile Pig-Nic Catering.
Check-in starts at 7 a.m. at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center, located at the corner of 5th and Pacific, and the boats leave the dock at 8 a.m.
If you register on or before June 21, the price is $65 per adult/$120 per couple. Additional tickets are $50 each and children’s tickets are $50 each. If space is available, registration will be $70/person on the day of the event.
To reserve your space, call (757) 523-5389 or visit abnbfcu.org/fishingfest.
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STARLETS ON STAGE
On Saturday, May 12, The Hague Center for Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery presented the Starlets on Stage fundraiser and fashion show, benefitting the breast cancer support network Beyond Boobs! The event took place at the Norfolk Plaza Hotel and included dinner, dancing, a fashion show featuring breast cancer survivors, a silent auction and a raffle drawing for a 2012 Ford Mustang V6 Coupe (the winning ticket was drawn by WTKR’s Barbara Ciara). Beyond Boobs! holds regular meetings via chapters in Hampton Roads, Richmond and North Carolina (learn more at beyondboobsinc.org).
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VCU Study Sheds Light on Traumatic Brain Injury
Even mild head injuries can cause significant abnormalities in brain function that last for several days, which may explain the neurological symptoms experienced by some individuals who have suffered a head injury associated with sports, accidents or combat, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers.
These findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, advance research in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI), enabling researchers to better understand what brain structural or functional changes underlie posttraumatic disorders—a question that until now has remained unclear.
Previous research has shown that even a mild case of TBI can result in long-lasting neurological issues that include slowing of cognitive processes, confusion, chronic headache, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression.
The VCU team, led by Kimberle M. Jacobs, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, demonstrated for the first time, using sophisticated bioimaging and electrophysiological approaches, that mild injury can cause structural disruption of axons in the brain while also changing the way the neurons fire in areas where they have not been structurally altered. Axons are nerve fibers in the brain responsible for conducting electrical impulses. The team used models of mild traumatic brain injury and followed morphologically identified neurons in live cortical slices.
“These findings should help move the field forward by providing a unique bioimaging and electrophysiological approach to assess the evolving changes evoked by mild TBI and their potential therapeutic modulation,” said co-investigator, John T. Povlishock, Ph.D. , professor and chair of the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and director of the Commonwealth Center for the Study of Brain Injury.
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Congratulations!
…to Sue Binder of Yorktown, the lucky winner of our readership survey contest. She received a winning prize, an iPod Nano, in her favorite color of her choosing—green!
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