Jefferson's Esther K. Chung, MD, MPH, FAAP, was recently named Physician of the Year by the Pennsylvania Resource Organization for Lactation Consultants (PRO-LC). Her selection was based on Dr. Chung's promotion and support of breastfeeding.

Dr. Chung is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Advocacy and Community Partnerships, Jefferson/duPont Pediatric Residency Program. She was one of four physicians selected for the Physician Advocacy Fellowship from Columbia University's Institute on Medicine as a Profession, which paid for 50 percent of her time over two years. Dr. Chung partnered with the Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) to address workplace and hospital policies related to breastfeeding, and policies impacting low-income women. She also worked with MCC to organize their employer recognition award in the fall of 2008 and led a subcontract with the Office on Women's Health of the Department of Health and Human Services to recognize Pennsylvania employers with lactation support programs.

Philadelphia magazine recently released its "Top Dentists" issue (February 2010), a list of the 200 best dentists in the Philadelphia region.

Five members of Jefferson's Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery are among the winners: 

Robert Diecidue, MD, DMD
Anna Kornbrot, DMD
Michael Mundenar, DMD
Allan Shaw, DDS
Daniel Taub, MD, DDS 

View the full list of Top Dentist winners on phillymag.com.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience were among five area hospitals honored last month for “achieving a perfect record for working with Gift of Life to identify potential organ donors.”

Delaware Valley Healthcare Council (DVHC) of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania announced the recognition at an annual breakfast event this fall, where two other area hospitals received the Gift of Life Award.

According to a news release from the DVHC, the need for more donors continues to be an urgent one. Today, there are nearly 6,000 patients in this region awaiting the gift of a life-saving organ transplant, joining the 103,000 people nationwide. Learn more at the Gift of Life website.

Learn more about the Jefferson Division of Transplantation.
 

We are pleased to announce that Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals have been designated a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery and a Blue Distinction Center for Hip and Knee Replacement.

The Department of Family and Community Medicine recently received word that its practice, Jefferson Family Medicine Associates, has achieved the highest recognition (Level 3) for Physician Practice Connections – Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) from the National Center for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The NCQA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare nationwide.

This NCQA recognition is widely accepted as an indicator that an organization is well-managed and delivers high quality patient care and service. Less than 50 practices nationwide have received this NCQA designation, with roughly only half of those achieving a rating equivalent to Jefferson ’s.

“This is a very significant accomplishment for our group that has required a lot of effort and dedication from staff,” says Richard Wender, MD, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. “We believe that Jefferson is one of the first practices to receive a Level 3 rating that has a residency and student program embedded within it. We’re also the largest single site practice in the nation to achieve this status for its Pa tient-Centered Medical Home model.”

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the first hospital in Pennsylvania to offer an FDA-approved device that helps individuals with certain types of spinal cord injuries breathe on their own again.  Michael Weinstein, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Jefferson, is among the first surgeons in the United States to implant the NeuRx DPS™ in patients with spinal cord injuries who lack voluntary control of their diaphragms.

The device provides electrical stimulation to muscle and nerves in the diaphragm. When the muscle is stimulated, the diaphragm contracts and creates a vacuum-like effect in the chest cavity that allows air to fill the upper and lower parts of the lungs. When this contraction eases, the air is expelled from the lungs – essentially the same as regular breathing.

"In the past, spinal cord injury patients were tethered to a respirator and did not have the freedom to taste foods, smell or breathe on their own," said Dr. Weinstein. "We are excited about being able to offer the benefits of this device at Jefferson and to offer new hope to patients living with spinal cord injury."

The Chest Pain Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital recently received full Cycle II accreditation with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) from the Accreditation Review Committee of the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC).  With the rise of chest pain centers came the need to establish standards designed to improve the consistency and quality of care provided to patients. SCPC’s accreditation process insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

The Chest Pain Center’s protocol-driven and systematic approach to patient management allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective, and to better monitor patients when it is not clear whether they are having a coronary event. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted.

Read the full news article.

The Jefferson Balance and Hearing Center of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the first hospital in Philadelphia to offer the FDA-cleared Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment.  This therapy is proven to interact, interrupt and desensitize tinnitus by delivering a customized neural stimulus, embedded in clinically modified music.

Edith Mitchell, M.D., clinical professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, was honored with the 2009 National Medical Association Council on Concerns of Women Physicians Pfizer Research Award.

The award is given to a woman who has made outstanding contributions to clinical or academic medicine. It was presented at the Muriel Petioni, M.D. Awards Luncheon, which took place at the National Medical Association Convention in Las Vegas in July. Female physicians who strive to eliminate health care disparities and provide quality health care to minorities are honored.

“This is a great honor as there are so many women physicians who are also deserving of this award,” said Dr. Mitchell, who is also Associate Director for Diversity Programs at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

Read the full news release

We are pleased to announce that Jefferson has recently received Advanced Certification from The Joint Commission in:

• Stroke (Primary Stroke Center)
• Ventricular Assist Device

And Certification in:

• Joint Replacement - Hip
• Joint Replacement - Knee

Jefferson has also received a renewal of its designation as a Chest Pain Center from The Society of Chest Pain Centers. To earn this designation, the Chest Pain Center demonstrated expertise in eight key areas:

• Emergency Department integration with the Emergency Medical System
• Emergency assessment of patients with symptoms of possible Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) (timely diagnosis and treatment of ACS)
• Assessment of patients with low risk for ACS and no assignable cause for their symptoms
• Process improvement
• Personnel, competencies, and training
• Organizational structure and commitment
• Functional facility design 
• Community outreach