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page 28
Volume 13 • Issue 4 • $5.00 October 2016
THE REGION’S MONTHLY NEWSPAPER FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS & PHYSICIANS
Northwest Medical Center BREAST
Invests $3 Million in Progressive CANCER
Patient Care Innovations
BY LISA BIANCO
A $3 million investment has made
Northwest Medical Center (NWMC), a
facility of HCA East Florida, the first hos-
pital in South Florida to have a multitude
of high-tech healthcare innovations under
Dr. Ritesh Kaushal one roof, many of which are first in the
Multi-tiered area. By utilizing the latest technologies in
Approach Earns patient care, nurses and physicians at
Palmetto NWMC are delivering more modern
General patient care than anyone else in the area.
Advanced NWMC has been implementing these new Dr. Jeff Boyd
Certification for technologies over the past year. Beyond BRCA:
Comprehensive “Patients deserve a hospital with top Breast Cancer
Stroke Care doctors using the latest tools, treatments Genetic Testing
BY VANESSA ORR and technology to deliver the best possible Involves
Palmetto General Hospital recently care. By investing $3 million in essential, Visi-Mobile Multiple Genes
received Comprehensive Stroke Center cutting edge technologies, we are cutting
certification from The Joint Com- BY PATTY SHILLINGTON
mission and the American Heart down on miscommunications, delays and
Association/American Stroke Associa- In 2013, Angelina Jolie brought the
tion. This designation makes it part of creating a safer patient environment,†said Erica Gulrich, CEO of NWMC. “We are impact of genetic testing for breast cancer
an elite group of providers focused on to the forefront by sharing her story, “My
stroke care, and one of only two hospi- excited to be the first to offer many of these technologies to our patients and care- Medical Choice,†in The New York Times.
tals in South Florida, and one of only Her mother died of breast cancer at age
four in the state, to receive this honor. givers. 56. After testing positive for a BRCA1
mutation, putting her at high risk of
“This certification by The Joint Continued on page 23 developing breast and ovarian cancer, Ms.
Commission is the most difficult to Jolie opted to have a double mastectomy
get,†explained Ritesh Kaushal, M.D., University of Miami Launches Zika and, two years later, an operation to
medical director of the Comprehensive Global Network to Combat Virus remove her ovaries.
Stroke Center, Palmetto General
Hospital. “It means that we are proven (l-r) John C. Beier, Sc.D., David Watkins, Ph.D., Mario Stevenson, Ph.D., President Julio This preventive care substantially
to provide the highest level of stroke Frenk, Dr. Christine L. Curry, Dr. Ivan A. Gonzalez, and Dr. Paola N. Lichtenberger. reduced her risk for breast and ovarian
care, based on our metrics, quality cancer. “I choose not to keep my story pri-
improvements, timing, interventions BY BOB BENCHLEY AND RICHARD WESTLUND vate because there are many women who
and outcomes - we have to meet very do not know that they might be living
strict criteria.†When the first cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus popped up in the Wynwood under the shadow of cancer,†she wrote.
district north of Miami’s downtown in July, University of Miami scientists were “It is my hope that they, too, will be able
The Comprehensive Stroke Center already immersed in studying the virus on numerous fronts. to get gene tested, and that if they have a
certification recognizes hospitals that high risk they, too, will know that they
have state-of-the-art infrastructure, staff Research was ongoing for finding a vaccine to the virus. Other teams were working have strong options.â€
and training. The Joint Commission on quicker and less expensive testing to determine if someone has been infected.
Just a few years later, Ms. Jolie’s words
Continued on page 11 At a recent forum on Zika held at the University of Miami Miller School of are truer then ever. Significant and ongo-
Medicine, UM President Julio Frenk announced the creation of the University of ing advances in the field of genetics and
genetic testing have given women more
Continued on page 28 options to be tested for hereditary breast
cancer.
www.southfloridahospitalnews.com
Continued on page 17
