WFUBMC Expansion

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Fran Daniel/Winston-Salem Journal & TBJ reports:

Dr. Donald McClain has been named founding director of the new Center on Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. McClain is a nationally recognized leader in diabetes and obesity research and a native of Fayetteville. He will join Wake Forest Baptist April 1 from the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. He will oversee research and training activities, coordinate research with others within the medical center and recruit additional investigators.

"The new center will give us the opportunity to greatly enhance our research in diabetes, obesity and related conditions and foster quicker translation from basic to clinical to population studies," said Dr. Edward Abraham, dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine. McClain will oversee the new center’s research and training activities. He also will work closely with the Joslin Diabetes Center which also has a Winston-Salem location and the Department of Internal Medicine’s Section on Endocrinology and Metabolism, where he will have a faculty appointment, and see patients at the Salisbury Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Good to see the Medical Center add/enhance its areas of expertise. Hopefully this new center could add to the employee headcount. Based on the last point of his responsibilities, it certainly seems the VA Outpatient Clinic under construction in K-ville would have been better served by having it put downtown, as we all previously assumed it would. The synergy between the VA & WFUBMC would/should be a major emphasis between the two health care providers.

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A $14 million federal grant provided through the Affordable Care Act will fund a statewide study of stroke care that's being led by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The five-year grant comes from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit, nongovernmental research funding group created by the Affordable Care Act. It will focus on determining whether longer-term care after a stroke improves the daily functioning of patients.

The study involves the N.C. Stroke Care Collaborative, a collection of 51 hospitals around the state, and is being headed by principal investigator Pamela Duncan, a neurology professor and adviser for innovations and transitional outcomes at Wake Forest Baptist. Dr. Cheryl Bushnell, director of the Wake Forest Baptist Stroke Center, and Wayne Rosamond, an epidemiology professor with the Gillings School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, are co-investigators.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2015/02/25/wake-forest-baptist-researchers-to-lead-14m.html?page=all

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Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem has been included among the 83 best pediatric hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Brenner was recognized for excellence in pediatric orthopedics, a specialty where it ranked 48th nationally. It's the third consecutive year that Brenner has made the list, which was launched nine years ago.

The organization surveyed 109 pediatric centers in the country and ranked them in 10 different specialties, including cancer care, orthopedics, neonatology and cardiology. The top 50 in each specialty were recognized. The rankings look at clinical outcomes, efficiency and coordination of care delivery and care-related resources, such as the size of the nursing staff and availability of programs tailored to certain illnesses and conditions. Among the resources Brenner has for pediatric orthopedics is a dedicated pediatric imaging center, a multidisciplinary musculoskeletal oncology program, a motion laboratory for analyzing a patient's gait and seating services or wheelchair coordination clinics for patients with neuromuscular disorders.

Per TBJ

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Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on Monday announced a $20 million gift to study the effect of muscadine grape extract on prostate and breast cancers.
The gift, from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, is the largest the medical center has ever received. “We are extremely grateful for this generous philanthropic support of our researchers, our Medical Center and our mission, to improve health,” Dr. John McConnell, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist, said in a press release. “This demonstrates the role that philanthropy plays for us. This gift was made by an individual who believes in our institution and has a passion for making a profound difference in the lives and health of others.
 
The five-year gift will fund three clinical trials that look at the ability of the extract to reduce the growth of cancer and improve the quality of life for patients. The principal investigators are Patricia Gallagher and Ann Tallant, professors in the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center and the Department of Cancer Biology at Wake Forest Baptist.  Additionally, the gift will support preclinical studies on the use of the extract to treat breast cancer and to better understand how it reduces tumor growth, as well as the effect of the extract when it's used at the same time as traditional therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy. Muscadine grapes, native to the Southeast, are a rich source of the antioxidant polyphenol.

Wake Forest Baptist is using a type of the extract that is a new formulation developed by Nature's Pearl Corp. of Advance in Davie County. ( Nice innovation coming from a Winston suburb. )

 

Previous studies by Gallagher and Tallant found that the extract inhibited the growth of cancer cells by 40 to 50 percent. “We are more likely to see clinical trials in place much sooner because of this investment, and any potential benefits that may be identified would be passed along to patients sooner than would otherwise be possible," said Dr. Edward Abraham, dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

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The TBJ reports that Wake Forest Baptist is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar overhaul of its food service venues, including its main cafeteria and other branded eatery spots on its main campus. The $2.5 million project began about three months ago with an extensive renovation of its 26,000-square-foot main cafeteria in Ardmore Tower, which was last redone in 1987, said Bill Martin, construction manager with Fixtur-World Construction, which is handling the project.

"It was a total renovation of all the cabinetry, all the finishes were redone, and new furniture was installed," Martin said. With the recent completion of that three-month project, work has shifted to Reynolds Tower, where a Taco Del Mar is being converted into a Chik-Fil-A Express, Martin said. The next phases include the addition of a Starbucks in the main lobby within Ardmore Tower, as well as the conversion of an Einstein Bros. Bagels by the cafeteria into an Au Bon Pain bakery. The Starbucks project should be completed by the end of the year, and the Au Bon Pain by the end of January, Martin said.

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The ongoing study at Wake Forest Baptist of how playing football affects the bodies and brains of young players has received a funding boost.  The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, has contributed $3.3 million to a five-year study of football players 9 and 10 years old in the Triad using sensors installed in their helmets and, for a first time, their mouth guards. The study will focus on registering the force from impacts in practices and games for players in six youth league teams by researchers with Wake Forest Baptist, Virginia Tech and Brown University.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2015/10/28/new-3-3m-grant-boosts-study-of-youth-football-head.html

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This has the potential of bringing in patients from across the country, thereby furthering the national reputation of WFUBMC.

Doctors perform Wake Forest Baptist's first heart-kidney transplant.

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/do ... 1b3e2.html
 

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Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has unveiled its $16.5 million neurosciences intensive care unit that was designed based in large part on input from patients and their families.  The 32,600-square-foot unit takes up half of the fifth floor of Ardmore Tower at the medical center's main campus in Winston-Salem and provides a 24-bed unit to care for neurology and neurosurgery patients.  Wake Forest Baptist said it took a new approach to patient care for the ICU by providing the ability for families to spend time with patients as they rest and recover, as opposed to the previous approach that restricted family access.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2016/02/17/wake-forest-baptist-opens-16-5-million.html

 

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The upscale bakery Au Bon Pain has opened up as another food option within the medical center complex as a first for the Triad. Once word gets out, I can see people coming to the medical center just for the bakery.