Improving Patient Care
ALBANY MED ADDING JOBS
Albany Med announced plans to add 288 full-time jobs, including physicians, nurses, technicians, and faculty.
(Times Union, Daily Gazette, Record, Business Review, WNYT, WRGB, WTEN, WXXA, WGY)
AUTOMATIC EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATORS OFFER SAFETY NET TO COMMUNITY
Dr. Michael Dailey spoke about the importance of AED devices, and Albany Med’s efforts to help install them in public areas throughout the community.
(WXXA)
“SAVE A LIFE” CAMPAIGN
CDPHP donated $62,500 to local hospitals—including Albany Med—to train paramedics and purchase wireless technology that allows EMS crews to transmit EKG readings en route to the hospital.
(Times Union, Daily Gazette, Business Review, WRGB, WTEN)
ALBANY MED OPENS FIRST OF ITS KIND CENTER FOR EATING DISORDERS
Drs. Sharon Alger-Mayer and Julie Morison discussed the variety of services available at the new Comprehensive Care Center for Eating Disorders of Northeastern New York, located on Washington Avenue.
(Daily Gazette, Record, Business Review, Capital News 9, WTEN, WAMC)
LARGEST HOSPITAL EXPANSION PROJECT EVER IN NORTHEASTERN NY
Albany Med announced that it has proposed a 6-story, $360 million expansion project that would expand existing adult and neonatal intensive care units as well as new operating and recovery rooms. It would increase the Medical Centers bed capacity.
(Times Union, Daily Gazette, Record, Business Review, WRGB, WTEN, WNYT, Capital News 9, WXXA, WGY, WAMC and WROW)
MAKING PROGRESS TOWARD ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD
Kristopher Kusche, assistant VP-information services, and Dr. Claudie Jimenez, associate medical director of informatics, provided information on the latest “IT” advances, and the progress Albany Med has made toward becoming a fully implemented EHR facility.
(Daily Gazette, Advance for Health Information Executives)
NEW BREAST CANCER THERAPY AVAILABLE
Dr. Susan Gibbons discussed partial breast irradiation—a new treatment option at Albany Med for breast cancer patients.
(WXXA)
YOUR BEST BET: HOME DEFIBRILLATORS OR CPR
Dr. Ferdinand Venditti weighed the benefits of home automatic external defibrillators and why learning CPR may be a better option.
(Times Union)
FEARS NOT LOST IN TRANSLATION
Dr. Vikramjit Kanwar addressed communication challenges with a Sudanese mother and her 6-year-old son who was being treated at the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders. (Times Union)
LIFE AND LONGEVITY
Drs. Ferdinand Venditti and Jeffrey Ross gave reasons why medical advancements and healthier lifestyles are helping people live longer.
(Times Union)
LEGALLY BLIND
Drs. John Simon, Matthew Murnane and Sai Gandham discussed legal blindness, as well as migraines and glaucoma in light of Governor David Paterson’s conditions.
(Times Union, WRGB, WTEN, Capital News 9)
RECURRENT RESPIRATORY PAPILLOMATOSIS MORE COMMON THAN YOU THINK
Dr. Jason Mouzakes shed light on RRP—a little-discussed condition passed to children from mothers during birth that affects the respiratory tract and can require multiple surgeries.
(Daily Gazette)
SAFE BABIES PROGRAM UNDERWAY
Albany Med teamed up with The New York State Consumer Protection Board and the New York State Office of Temporary Disability Assistance to launch the Safe Babies Program, which provides expectant mothers and fathers with helpful resources including a budget planning guide, growth chart, water temperature tester and more.
(WAMC, Capital News 9, WXXA, WRGB and WTEN)
PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGISTS: A SCARCE RESOURCE
Dr. Vincent Gibbons discussed the increasingly rare specialty of pediatric neurology and why he entered the field.
(Daily Gazette)
HOSPITALS RISE TO CANCER CHALLENGES
Dr. Steven Frisch discussed the wide range of cancer services and surgeons available at Albany Med.
(Times Union)
MINUTES MATTER
Dr. Gary Bernardini discussed the latest medical advancements in the treatment of stroke and the critical value of recognizing symptoms.
(Times Union)
BREAST HEALTH EDUCATION
The Susan G. Komen Foundation awarded $25,000 to Albany Med to fund a Breast Health Education and Outreach Project.
(WXXA, WTEN, WNYT)
MAKING ACCOMMODATIONS FOR OBESE PATIENTS
Albany Med’s efforts to accommodate obese patients in the hospital are highlighted.
(WNYT)
RARE PROCEDURE PERFORMED AT ALBANY MED
The EXIT (ex utero intrapartum therapy) procedure, performed while a baby is still in the womb, was performed for the first time in the Capital Region by a team of Albany Med physicians.
(Times Union)
BOTOX FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT
Pain management specialist Dr. Charles Argoff discussed the option of using Botox—commonly known as a cosmetic treatment—to treat pain.
(Daily Gazette)
EVACUSLEDS INSTALLED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
Albany Med announced that it has installed the same lifesaving equipment that allowed smooth and quick evacuation of immobile patients in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. “Evacusleds” are available on units at Albany Med where patients tend to be less mobile, including post-cardiac surgery/heart transplant care and orthopedics.
(Times Union, Record, WXXA, WNYT, WRGB, WTEN, Capital News 9)
ADVANCING TREATMENT FOR CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE
Chief of Cardiology Dr. Edward Philbin and his staff became the first team in the region to offer aquapheresis, a promising new treatment to remove excess fluid in patients with congestive heart failure.
(Daily Gazette, Record)
WIRELESS EPILEPSY MONITORING UNIT GOES LIVE
New wireless capacity of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit helped a local teenager who needed monitoring for her seizure disorder.
(Daily Gazette)
ALBANY MED OFFERS ‘THERAPEUTIC COOLING’
Albany Med became the first hospital in the region to offer therapeutic cooling—a technique that can significantly reduce the amount of neurological damage that can result from traumatic conditions such as stroke, cardiac arrest and brain injury.
(Daily Gazette, Record, WTEN, Capital News 9)
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Dr. Henry Pohl discussed how Albany Medical College students are taught to be open-minded when it comes to patients’ use of alternative medicine and therapies.
(Times Union)
SPORTS MEDICINE AND INJURIES
Dr. Hamish Kerr contributed his expertise to a number of news stories about sports and exercise injuries such as concussions, high school sports-related injuries, and the effects of winter weather on outdoor exercise.
(Times Union, Daily Gazette, WAMC)
FIRST IN REGION TO OFFER LATEST ADVANCEMENT IN MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY
Dr. T. Paul Singh began performing some minimally invasive surgeries by using a single incision. The state-of-the-art surgical technique—called single port surgery—has shown to reduce a patient’s length of stay, recovery time, and leaves little to no scar.
(Business Review)
ALBANY MED AND REGIONAL PARTNERS LAUNCH ORGAN DONATION AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Albany Medical Center, the Center for Donation and Transplant and county health departments in Albany, Schenectady Rensselaer, and Saratoga launched “Donate Life Capital Region.” The campaign is a community-wide effort to encourage organ donation throughout the Capital Region.
(Times Union, Record, WRGB, Capital News 9, WGY, WBZZ)
ALBANY MED’S $360 MILLION EXPANSION PROJECT APPROVED BY STATE
In December, the State Hospital Review and Planning Council approved the institution’s plans to expand the hospital and construct a new $360 million new patient tower complex.
(Times Union, Daily Gazette, Record, Saratogian, Business Review)
