Dr. Howard Krein, an ENT physician at Jefferson, was in Belize on a medical mission when he met a teen with juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma who needed surgery to remove a large tumor from his nasal cavity.

Dr. Krein specializes in general head and neck surgery as well as facial plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Dr. Krein along with Dr. Marc Rosen and Dr. Jim Evans performed the surgery on 16-year-old Luigi Troches, who was brought to Philadelphia from Belize. The teen is breathing easier now and would have died without having the surgery.

Watch the 6 ABC video of this touching story.

Today, one in 25 Americans is morbidly obese. For the vast majority of the morbidly obese, diet and exercise simply don't lead to significant, or sustained, weight loss. Fortunately, for many people, bariatric (weight-loss) surgery provides a better alternative – helping to break the cycle of obesity.

According to a SmartMoney.com article, gastric bypass surgery can help some teens avoid problems associated with obesity, but performing this surgery on teens raises questions because their bones are still forming.

David S. Tichansky, director of Jefferson's Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Program, tells SmartMoney.com that "you are altering something that theoretically could have a long-term effect."

Read more of "10 Things the Weight-Loss Industry Won't Say" on smartmoney.com to learn more about bariatric surgery.

Part of Jefferson's 2010 initiative, the new 4 West Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will provide 17 new beds and two isolation rooms. Features include expanded work areas with computers for all staff, a large family waiting area with a separate room for family meetings and a dedicated pharmacy.

Jefferson's new Unit is scheduled to open for patients today and will feature:

• Nurse charting areas adjacent to each patient room with visibility into the room
• Rooms equipped with eglass, latitude arms, patient lifts and dialysis hookups
• Expanded work areas with computers for all staff
• A large family waiting area with a separate room for family meetings
• A dedicated pharmacy with glove box area for medication preparation (Hours are Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Note: 5 Gibbon will remain a 24-hour pharmacy.)

The phone number for the Unit is 215-955-4991.

The new ICU is part of Jefferson's 2010 project, a three-year, $137-million initiative designed to:

Dr. Daniel Monti of the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine is featured on ABCNews.com's new Complementary and Alternative Medicine site.

In the OnCall section of the site, top experts provide information on alternative medicine in online videos.

In one such video, Dr. Monti explains what tai chi is, how it might improve your health and particular conditions that tai chi might be good for.

In another video segment, Dr. Monti talks about the benefits of doing yoga.

Learn more about the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine by visiting jeffersonhospital.org.

In the mid-90s, Drs. James Plumb and Lara Weinstein founded a small clinic in North Philadelphia that is run by Project H.O.M.E., an anti-poverty and homelessness advocacy group based in Philadelphia, with help from Thomas Jefferson University.

The clinic provides primary care for area residents who may or may not have health insurance.

The Philadelphia Daily News featured the clinic in a Dec. 31 article.

Drs. Plumb and Weinstein are family and community medicine physicians at Jefferson.

Jefferson’s strides in reducing emergency department (ED) overcrowding were cited in a Dec. 24 Philadelphia Inquirer article. In 2009, we were able to reduce diversions - when a hospital is not accepting ambulance traffic because the emergency room is so full - by 28 percent. The improvements are the result of our participation in the Urgent Matters network.

The Urgent Matters team at Jefferson strives to find, develop and deliver strategies that improve ED overcrowding and patient flow.

Launched approximately 12 months ago, Urgent Matters is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded learning network of just six hospitals across the country working collaboratively to implement rigorous performance measures, assess existing operations and develop strategies to improve ED throughput and output.

The results of the groundbreaking work being undertaken by our Urgent Matters team will help hospitals across the country tackle the difficult issue of ED overcrowding, as well as significantly advance the field of quality improvement performance measurement for emergency departments.

Read "Phila. ERs seek solutions to crowding" to learn more about Jefferson's strategies to reduce ER overcrowding.

Reduce stress, relieve pain and enhance wellness in 2010. The Winter 2010 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs will begin at the end of January.   

Four programs will be offered this cycle: 
Monday mornings and Wednesday evenings at Jefferson’s Center City campus
Tuesday evenings at Lankenau Hospital
Wednesday afternoons in Paoli

For more information and cost, call 215-955-1376 or e-mail MBSR@jefferson.edu. You may also visit the website and select ‘Public Programs’.

The Welcare Center in Springhouse, Pa., is a concierge medical practice that offers its patients more one-on-one time with their doctor for a fee. But is it something that people should explore?

In an ABC 6 segment, Richard Wender, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University debates the issue.

"People have the right to make a choice in the market. I think people have to be very careful on what the impact would be on their regular insurance if they were to get sick."

Wender goes on to say that even if a person can afford the couple thousand dollars a year to pay for these concierge services, insurance companies may not recognize these services. For the ones that do, the service may be considered out of network."

Watch the ABC 6 video clip on "Healthcare via concierge medical practices" to learn more.

Earlier this week, USA Today announced a new feature to professional racing cyclist Lance Armstrong's popular web site, Livestrong.com, for people who are trying to manage their diabetes.

Dubbed MyPlate D, it lets you track your personal glucose levels and insulin usage; provides nutritionist-approved diabetes recipes and personalized charts; and lets you talk to others who are coping with diabetes.

In the USA Today article, Serge Jabbour, MD, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Jefferson, says that this kind of tool may be useful for diabetes dietitians to review their patient's daily intake, and who have more time during one-on-one appointments to discuss the data.

Another Jefferson endocrinologist, Martha Zeger, MD, adds her thoughts by saying that she'd value the spreadsheet information aspect of the tool. "But most people won't make the effort to put all that info in on a daily basis," Zeger says.

Read the full "Cyclist Lance Armstrong has a new passion: Diabetes" article on USAToday.com.

Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University are one step closer to developing a vaccine against the AIDS disease.

Led by Matthias J. Schnell, PhD, director of the Jefferson Vaccine Center, the researchers found that a rabies virus–based vaccine administered to monkeys protected against the simian equivalent of the HIV virus (SIV). The data was published in the journal Vaccine.

“Although we can’t yet block the infection, we showed that we can protect against disease,” said Dr. Schnell. “We also saw significant antibody activity against the virus, which is promising. In addition, this is a very simple approach that only took two immunizations.”

To find out more about the AIDS research results, read the full news release.