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BY JUDY OTTO

Raise the question of how medicine is evolving today and you’ll discover that a love of aviation and a fascination with fl ying fuel Dr. Eric H. Benink’s observations with apt meta-phors and parallels.

The senior vice president and chief medi-

cal offi cer at Regional One Health is a graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago with an MBA from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Benink served in the U.S. Air Force during the Gulf War and was fl ight medical director for the helicopter program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)

HealthcareLeader

Regional One CMO Ties Aviation to Medicine Air Force Vet Brings Flight Plan with Him to Current Role

PAGE 3

PHYSICIANSPOTLIGHT Health Science Schools

Make Strides in DiversityBY PEGGY BURCH

Health educators keep close count of the race and ethnic origins of their stu-dents, as well as their faculty and staff members, and not just because recruiting mi-norities is the right thing to do, they say.

Since the national In-stitute of Medicine (IOM) released its landmark study, “Unequal Treatment: Con-fronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care,” in 2002, health science schools have focused on di-versifying the graduates they send to the workforce. The IOM study found “signifi cant variation in the rates of medical proce-dures by race, even when insurance status, income, age and severity of conditions are comparable,” and determined that “bias, prejudice and stereotyping on the part of healthcare providers” may contribute to the problem. “More minority healthcare providers are needed, es-

pecially since they are more likely to serve in minority and medically underserved communities,” the study found.

Leaders at the Univer-sity of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), the University of Mem-phis Loewenberg School of Nursing and Baptist Col-lege of Health Sciences say they are devoted to attracting minority stu-dents and teachers, and describe a variety of means for drawing candidates.At UTHSC gradu-ations this spring for 698 students, 68 Af-

rican-Americans and 12 Latino-Americans were among the graduates. The number of African-American students en-rolled at UTHSC has hovered at 12 to 13 percent since 2011. The new UTHSC chief academic offi cer, Lori S. Gonzalez, PhD, says


Recruiting Doctors to Mid-South Can Be a ChallengeCandidates Need to Actually See Advantages of Relocating to Area

With physicians in high demand nationally – a trend expected to continue through the next decade – Mid-South hospitals and clinics are facing a number of local and national challenges as they recruit quality physicians to their systems ... 5

Professional Development: Programming Hones Clinical, Business & Leadership SkillsEducation plays a key role in the daily operations of both the Tennessee Medical Asso-ciation (TMA) and Tennes-see Nurses Association (TNA) as the statewide organizations strive to ensure providers deliver effi cient, effective care of the highest quality ... 7

Teresa Wright, MD

FOCUS TOPICS MEDICAL SCHOOLS/CME PHYSICIAN RECRUITMENT

New Look • More Information • Breaking News Alerts • Industry Events

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2 > JULY 2015 m e m p h i s m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m

Telehealth has been exploding in both popularity and use as it has shown to be convenient, affordable and of high quality. On both a federal and Tennessee level, the field of telehealth continues to gain attention and garner changes in the law.

In Tennessee, a telehealth bill (HB0699) was signed into law by the Governor in April. The legislation is in response to the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners’ attempt to issue rules governing telemedicine in 2014. Those proposed rules contained several controversial elements, including a requirement that physi-cians must conduct a face-to-face examination prior to an initial telehealth en-counter. In addition, the proposed rules allowed only real-time patient encoun-ters and mandated follow-up, in-person visits at least every fourth encounter or annually.

The telehealth bill defines “telehealth” or “telemedicine” broadly to mean “the use of real-time audio, video, or other electronic media and telecommunications that enable interaction between the healthcare provider and the patient, or also store-and-forward telemedicine services . . . for the purpose of diagnosis, con-sultation, or treatment of a patient in another location where there may be no in-person exchange.” Moreover, the bill restricts the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners from establishing more restrictive standards of professional practice for telehealth than are permitted by the telehealth bill.

On a federal level, in a move that took more than a decade to accomplish, the U.S. Senate voted to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that adjusts Medicare payments to physicians. The bill was signed into law in April by President Obama. Members from both sides of the aisle praised the pas-sage of the bill, known as the “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015” (MACRA).

The SGR plan addresses telehealth in several ways. First, MACRA addresses re-imbursement for telehealth in alternative payment models. Although Medicare Part B generally reimburses for remote patient visits only when the healthcare facility is located in a health professional shortage area or an area outside of a metropolitan statistical area, MACRA would allow Medicare telehealth reim-bursement in other areas through “alternative payment models” established by CMS, such as so-called “next generation” ACOs. Second, MACRA requires CMS to implement a “merit-based incentive payment system” where physicians could receive a payment adjustment based in part on scores in performance catego-ries that include clinical practice improvement activities. This provision creates the potential for providers to receive incentives for coordinating care through remote monitoring or telehealth despite the fact that Medicare reimbursement may not otherwise be available. Finally, MACRA portends the positive future for federal and state telehealth reimbursement by instructing the GAO to complete studies and issue reports on telehealth services in Medicaid and Medicare and on remote patient monitoring technology within two years of the legislation’s enactment.

The federal and state legislation are just part of the unleashing of the rapid gush of telehealth across the landscape of healthcare in 2015.

Angela’s practice focuses on healthcare regulatory compliance and operations. She has extensive experience in federal and state fraud and abuse matters involving Stark, anti-kickback laws, and the False Claims Act. She represents clients in Medicare, RAC, ZPIC, MAC, MIC, and other third party payor audits and appeals. Clients also rely on Angela for counsel in patient privacy matters related to HIPAA and state regulations. She also advises clients on a wide range of operations issues, including healthcare facility licensing, physician licensing, medical staff issues, coding and billing, and certificate of need matters. In addition, Angela advises healthcare clients in the formation of new medical practices and other healthcare entities, including ACOs, IPAs, and PHOs.

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Telehealth Garners Attention with Legislative Bodies in 2015By Angela Youngberg

www.wallerlaw.com

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m e m p h i s m e d i c a l n e w s . c o m JULY 2015 > 3

UTHSC’s New Arrival Something of a RarityPediatric Dermatologist Discovers You Can Indeed Go Home Again

PhysicianSpotlight

BY RON COBB

The long road home took Teresa Wright, MD, to the Northeast, then the Midwest and then the Southwest, but 31 years after she left Memphis, she made it back.

Wright left Texas Children’s Hospi-tal in Houston this spring and joined the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) as associate professor of dermatology and pediatrics. She also is now division chief of pediatric dermatol-ogy at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

“It just feels good to be home,” she said. “Memphis has always been home wherever I’ve lived. For a long time I didn’t think I would ever be back here because I didn’t think there would ever be the kind of job opportunity for me that I wanted. But now it kind of feels like ev-erything was leading me back here.”

As a pediatric dermatologist, she is something of a rarity. The subspecialty has been certified by the American Board of Dermatology only since 2000, and she said that as of 2010 only 196 pediatric dermatologists had been board-certified.

“So that represents less than 2 per-cent of more than 11,000 dermatologists in the United States,” she said. “By now, there are probably about 200 to 250 who are board-certified.”

Wright is even more of a rarity in that she is “triple boarded” – certified in pediatrics, dermatology and pediatric dermatology.

The daughter of a bakery worker and a waitress, she was born in Memphis and grew up in Central Gardens. As a young-ster, she liked to read and played flute in the school band. She became interested early on in teaching and would sit her friends down in front of her chalkboard and play teacher.

Wright also had an early interest in medicine, sparked by TV shows such as “Marcus Welby, MD” and “that emer-gency show with the paramedics.”

“I was interested in medicine in high school, but I didn’t have any role mod-els,” she said. “There was nobody in my family who was a doctor. Nobody in my family had even graduated from college, so for me my primary goal was just to graduate from school and go to college.”

She majored in biology with a minor in English literature at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. After grad-uation, she worked for a few years at a biotech company before entering medical school at the University of Massachusetts.

She originally thought she would be a primary care pediatrician, but as an in-tern in pediatrics at UMass she was ex-posed to some dermatology cases that she found very interesting.

“There was a really wonderful pedi-

atric dermatologist at UMass who I was fortunate to work with, and she really in-spired me to pursue a career in pediatric dermatology.”

She did a pediatrics residency, and she and her husband, Patrick J. Zielie, a urologist, moved to Kansas City, where Wright did a dermatology residency at

the University of Kansas Medical Center. Then came a one-year fellowship train-ing in pediatric dermatology, completed in August 2008.

She liked the hospital in Kansas City, but commuting 50 miles from home in Lawrence, Kansas, while her husband commuted to Topeka proved to be too

much, especially given the snowy winters.So it was on to Houston, where Te-

resa joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and worked at Texas Chil-dren’s Hospital. There, she was section chief of pediatric dermatology, as well as director of the Pediatric Dermatology Fel-lowship Program and co-director of the Vascular Anomalies Program.

Through it all, Memphis was always on her mind. A few years earlier, she had called UTHSC to ask about joining the faculty. But the timing wasn’t right.

“So I decided to go to Texas,” she said, “but I kind of kept one eye on what was going on here through friends and other people I knew in Memphis. And a little over a year ago, I heard that some dermatologists who had trained here had come back and they had raised enough money for the university to actually des-ignate the division as a department of der-matology.”

When she heard that the new chair, Dr. Kathryn Schwarzenberger, was re-cruiting, “I thought, well, it’s probably just a matter of time.”

Wright was thinking of contacting her, but Schwarzenberger beat her to it.

“I thought it was kind of like the stars aligned,” Wright said. “The right kind of job came and it was time for me to come

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Explore your cognitive health.Contribute to scientifi c dicovery.

Find out how.

Cognitive \käg-ne-tiv\ adjective:relating to conscious intellectual activity, such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering

Now recruiting healthy senior participants for an important clinical research study

WHAT IS MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT (MCI) DUE TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (AD)?MCI due to AD refers to the early phase of AD in which an otherwise healthy-minded person experiences a gradual, progressive decline in thinking ability. This decline is signifi cant enough tobe noticed, but not severe enough to interfere with daily life or the ability to function independently.

At age 65, you have a 1 in 8 chance of developing AD. After age 85, the risk increases to a 1 in 2 chance. Currently, there is no cure for AD or way to delay the symptoms.

WHAT IS THE TOMMORROW STUDY?The TOMMORROW study seeks to learn more about the genetic risk for developing MCI due to AD and whether an investigational medication might prove effetive in delaying the fi rt symptoms of this condition.With the chance of you or someone you know developing AD, why not participate in clinical research to help our understanding of this disease?

HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?You may be eligible to participate if you are:

• 65 to 83 years of age • In good physical and mental health

Copyright ©2013 Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc. All rights reserved.

USA_ENG_E6005POSTER_10_3_2013

WANT TO learn more?CAll 901-848-7411 OR VISIT WWW.TOMMORROWStudy.COM

Explore your cognitive health.Contribute to scientifi c dicovery.

Find out how.

Cognitive \käg-ne-tiv\ adjective:relating to conscious intellectual activity, such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering

Now recruiting healthy senior participants for an important clinical research study

WHAT IS MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT (MCI) DUE TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (AD)?MCI due to AD refers to the early phase of AD in which an otherwise healthy-minded person experiences a gradual, progressive decline in thinking ability. This decline is signifi cant enough tobe noticed, but not severe enough to interfere with daily life or the ability to function independently.


WHAT IS THE TOMMORROW STUDY?The TOMMORROW study seeks to learn more about the genetic risk for developing MCI due to AD and whether an investigational medication might prove effetive in delaying the fi rt symptoms of this condition.With the chance of you or someone you know developing AD, why not participate in clinical research to help our understanding of this disease?


• 65 to 83 years of age • In good physical and mental health

Copyright ©2013 Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc. All rights reserved.

USA_ENG_E6005POSTER_10_3_2013

WANT TO learn more?CAll 901-848-7411 OR VISIT WWW.TOMMORROWStudy.COM

WHAT IS MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT (MCI)DUE TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE (AD)?MCI due to AD refers to the early phase of AD in which an otherwise healthy-minded person experiences a gradual, progressive decline in thinking ability. This decline is signifi cant enough tobe noticed, but not severe enough to interfere with daily life or the ability to function independently.


WHAT IS THE TOMMORROW STUDY?The TOMMORROW study seeks to learn more about the genetic risk for developing MCI due to AD and whether an investigational medication might prove effetive in delaying the fi rt symptoms of this condition.With the chance of you or someonevyou know developing AD, why not participate in clinical research to help our understanding of this disease?


• 65 to 83 years of age

• In good physical and mental health

Let’s Take a Moment to Look at This

BY BILL APPLING

MedicalEconomics

On Monday, June 16th, the lead story in the Washington Post was, “Study Finds 50 Hospitals Charge Uninsured More Than 10 Times the Actual Costs of Patient Care.” The study cited was published in the June issue of Health Affairs, and co-authored by Gerard Anderson, professor of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “These are the hospitals that have the highest markup of all 5000 hospitals in the United States. This means when it costs the hospital $100, they are going to charge you on average, $1,000.”

By comparison, the researchers said, a typical hospital charges 3-4 times the cost of patient care.

All but one of the facilities are owned by for-profit entities and the largest numbers of hospitals – 20 – are in Florida. Rick Scott (aka Lex Luther) is the current two-term governor of Florida, with a net worth of $220 million.

Governor Scott was former CEO of Columbia/HCA about a decade ago, when the hospital company was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare Fraud including criminal fines, civil damages and penalties. Scott resigned as CEO in July, 1997, less than four months after the inquiry became public. The Justice Department described it as the largest healthcare fraud in U.S. history.

Community Health Systems (CHS) operates 25 of the hospitals on the list and is head-quartered in Brentwood, Tenn. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn.

Topping the list is North Okaloosa Medical Center, a 110 bed hospital in the Florida panhandle, about an hour outside of Pensacola. Uninsured patients were charged 12.6 times the actual cost of patient care.

Other for-profit-entities such as reference laboratories also over-charged uninsured. I can speak from personal experience about this. I received a bill from American Esoteric Laboratories (AEL) for laboratory tests ordered by my physician. The bill was $1,109.00. When I called the laboratory to inquire about the bill I spoke to a telephone representative. Apparently the physician submitted the wrong name of the insurance company.

She said they would file with the appropriate insurance company and adjust my bill accordingly. Around thirty-days later I received a corrected bill in the amount of $213.39. I was flabbergasted at the difference.

I asked if the same tests were run when the bill was $1,109.00 as it was with the corrected bill of $213.39. I inquired about the difference. If the quality and outcomes were consistent with such a large difference.

I requested itemized statements

to support that the same tests were performed. After my first call and a few weeks later, I received an itemized statement, but it was for the adjusted bill for $213.39 not a copy of the itemized statement for the original bill of $1,109.00. I called and made the request again. The representative told me it would take a while because they would have to go back and research and pull up the statement I was requesting. She asked me if I knew how many pieces of paper that would require.

A few weeks later I received the itemized statement that I had requested previously. After looking over the bill at each item I said that the tests which I was charged for was the same. Within a couple of weeks I received a letter from American Medical Collection Agency, a national collection agency. They informed me that AEL had turned my account over to them. They informed that further collection efforts would be pursued.

Medical bills account for about half, or 52 percent of all overdue debt that shows up on credit reports.

Let’s take a moment to look at this…

Health Insurance Company CEOs’ Compensation in 2013

WELLPOINT, Joseph Swedish • $17.0 million• ($49,853 per day)

UnitedHealth Group, Stephen Hensley• $12.1 million• ($35,484 per day)Stephen Hensley realized a potential gain of more than $45.6 million from exercising stock options (2014) as the share price of the largest health insurer topped $100 on the way to setting all-time highs.

Cigna, David Cordani • $13.0 million• ($39,589 per day)

Centene Corporation, Michael Neidorff• $14.5 million• ($42,560 per day)

Aetna, Mark Bertolini• $30.7 million• ($90,029 per day)

Humana, Bruce Broussard • $8.8 million• ($25,807 per day)

Is any corporate executive really worth $90,000 per day? What contribution could one human being possibly make to a company that could justify this?

Nearly three out of four Americans (CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)


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BY BETH SIMKANIN

With physicians in high demand na-tionally – a trend expected to continue through the next decade – Mid-South hospitals and clinics are facing a number of local and national challenges as they recruit quality physicians to their systems.

For example, Bill Breen, senior vice president of physician alignment at Meth-odist Healthcare, says geography can be a big deterrent when recruit-ing a physician not fa-miliar with the Memphis area.

“Many times when you talk to a potential candidate who has no ties to the area, you have a geographical challenge to overcome,” he said. “For instance, a physician from New England or the Pacific Northwest may have some preconceived notions about Memphis and a lack of knowledge. They have never been here.”

To overcome this challenge, physi-cians groups will bring in the physician to tour Memphis. According to Breen, a can-didate may have to make several site visits during the recruiting process to find out if Memphis is a professional and cultural fit.

“It makes a big difference after a per-son comes here and visits the city,” said Matthew Harris, director of physician recruitment at Methodist Healthcare. “Memphis is a big and vibrant commu-nity, which draws candidates once they have visited here.”

According to Harris, physicians dis-cover that the work commute is easier than in many other cities. Also, the cost of living in Memphis is a big advantage to consider when choosing a location.

Memphis’ cost of living is more than 11 percent lower than the national aver-age, according to the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association.

Maggie Schmitt, manager of physi-cian recruitment and retention at Bap-tist Medical Group, says many physicians are im-pressed with the Mem-phis lifestyle.

“Memphis is a small town with the ameni-ties of a larger city,” she said. “The weather is mild and there are many cultural and social ame-nities such as good food and music. Physi-cians and their families discover that there is something for everyone here.”

In addition to showcasing geographi-cal and cultural advantages, physicians groups want to ensure that the doctor knows the professional advantages as well, especially when the group may not be as well known nationally.

“It can be a unique challenge for us to recruit because Regional One Health is new and isn’t as prestigious as other groups,” said Randy Sites, executive direc-tor of UT Regional One Physicians. “We are unique because we have an academic affiliation and are an emerging health sys-tem, but it can be a challenge to recruit

new doctors to Memphis.”UT Regional One Physicians was

established in October 2014. The group partners with Regional One Health and the University of Tennessee Health Sci-ence Center. There are 180 multi-specialty physicians and advanced practitioners on staff, including trauma surgeons, repro-

ductive endocrinologists, urogynecolo-gists and infectious disease specialists. The group has recruited and is in the process of onboarding 20 physicians to Memphis since the group’s inception nine months ago.

“To overcome some unique chal-

Recruiting Doctors to Mid-South Can Be a ChallengeCandidates Need to Actually See Advantages of Relocating to Area

Bill Breen

Maggie Schmitt



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one of her jobs will be trying to increase that percentage by 5 percent, to reflect the size of Tennessee’s black population. “The Health Center believes it’s impor-tant that we model the demographics of Tennessee, and try to educate healthcare providers that look like the residents of the state,” Gonzalez said. “So when you look at the African-American population of the state right now, in that last Census about 17 percent of the population is African-Ameri-can. Right now at UT Health Science Cen-ter, the population of African-American students is 12 percent, so that means we have a way to go to meet this demographic profile that we’d like see in this state.”

The U.S. Department of Education requires schools to ask about race and eth-nicity on applications, but students do not have to answer the questions. The UTHSC Office of Academic, Faculty and Student Af-fairs said the school gives strong preference to Tennessee applicants who meet admis-sion standards, though acceptance require-ments vary among the 34 programs. At the College of Medicine, for instance, applica-tions for the 165 places in a class are only considered from residents of Tennessee and its eight contiguous states, and children of UT alumni regardless of their residence.

Lin Zhan, dean of the Loewenberg School of Nursing at University of Mem-phis, which enrolls about 1,000, said 26 percent of undergraduate students and 48 percent of graduate students are minorities. Zhan, PhD and RN, said diversity is one of four “core values” at the school.

At Baptist College of Health Sciences, Dr. Arnold Arredondo, dean of enrollment management, said 42 percent of the 1,142 students are African-American, while 2 percent are Hispanic and 2 percent are Asian. Seventy percent of the college’s stu-dents are in the nursing program.

Arredondo, PhD, who calls himself “a minority who benefited from educa-tion opportunities,” said Baptist has got-ten help recruiting minority students from such organizations as the Memphis Talent Dividend, the Emmanuel Center and Met-ropolitan Inter-Faith Association.

Gonzalez and Zhan said increasing minority representation among faculty and staff is one way to draw students. Gonza-lez, who became UTHSC vice chancellor of Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs in June, said Chancellor Steve J. Schwab, MD, and other administra-tors see faculty and staff diversity as an “insti-tutional imperative.” “One of the kinds of re-cruitment in higher ed that’s the most success-ful for yielding a diverse pool of applicants for a job is called tar-geted recruitment,” she said. “Just reach out and say, ‘We’d really love it if you’d apply for this job.’”

And current faculty can be emissar-ies, she said. “Faculty members can go to their professional meetings and try to meet people. They get those connections where

they know the strong programs, where they know the best PhD and the best MD who might be interested in a faculty career and encourage them to apply.”

Gonzalez previously was provost and executive vice chancellor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina and spent 20 years at the University of Ken-tucky, ending her time there as dean and professor for the College of Health Sci-ences. She was drawn to Tennessee be-cause it’s a freestanding academic health center, she said. And, “I really have to tell you I was excited about the diversity here. We talk about it, we write plans about it, but this campus already had a considerable amount of diversity.”

Of 1,339 regular faculty members employed at UTHSC last fall, 1,000 were white, 210 were Asian, 75 were black and 50 were Hispanic/Latino. Enrollment for fall 2014 included 2,109 white students, 362 black students, 245 Asian students and 57 Hispanic/Latino students.

Gonzalez said one longstanding diver-sity effort called TIP, or Tennessee Insti-tutes for Pre-Professionals, brings college undergraduates to the Memphis campus in the summer. More than 1,600 students from under-represented groups have grad-uated through the program, she said.

“They may be first generation (at-tending college), they may be low-income students, they may have a military status, they may be under-represented,” Gonza-lez said of the TIP participants. The poten-tial health-science students learn interview skills and receive coaching on standardized exams. The Office of Student Academic Support Services and Inclusion connects with them when they arrive on campus. “They make a point to email, to call, to keep in touch,” Gonzalez said.

“We’re also trying to develop closer partnerships with historically black col-leges and universities so those programs can be pipelines,” she said, noting that it’s competitive work. “One of the is-sues all health sciences deal with is, when you have these wonderful students they can go anywhere they want. The chal-lenge is talking them into coming to UT.” Among UTHSC graduates in May, 410 were women and 288 were men.

“Nationally, you’re seeing a shift, and it started in the ‘80s, and it’s actually re-

ally pretty prevalent, that fewer males are seeking or obtaining bachelor’s degrees,” Gonzalez said. “Then there are just some disciplines that are either male- or female-dominated. One that’s female-dominated is nursing, as you might expect,” she said.

“But the nursing college has been very purposeful to try to increase the num-ber of males they have in their programs. Nationally when you look at the nursing workforce, 5.5 percent are male. At the UT College of Nursing, 9 percent of the students are male.”

Like Gonzalez, the dean of the U of M’s nursing school, Lin Zhan, stressed that admissions decisions are based on aca-demic ability: “We admit students based on their academic performance, not based on their race, their gender or their age or their social class,” criteria published in the university catalog.

Zhan, a Fellow of the American Acad-emy of Nursing, talked about the minor-ity presence among faculty as a selling point. “We publicize our faculty on our website, and I believe that the minority faculty who have achieved academically attract and serve as a role model for minor-ity students,” she said.

“We have 46 percent of the faculty, including me, are from ethnically diverse backgrounds. If you look at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing national data, their average in terms of faculty diver-sity is around 20 percent.”

In 2014, the undergraduate classes at the Loewenberg School included 113 African-American students, 21 Asian Pa-cific Islanders, and six Hispanic non-white students. At the graduate level, there were 80 African-Americans, 10 Asian Americans and one Hispanic non-white. Of about 1,000 students, 94 were male, including 12.4 percent of undergraduates and 9.5 percent in the graduate program.

Like UTHSC, the Loewenberg school provides after-class support services for mi-nority students, Zhan said, and the student association has a branch for minority nurs-ing students.

“For the graduate school, we have an executive leadership program, a federal grant to recruit minority nurses, to develop them as leaders and nurse managers.”

She said about 40 percent of those stu-dents are from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Health Science Schools Make Strides in Diversity, continued from page 1

Dr. Lori S. Gonzalez


The University of Tennessee is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services.

BY CINDY SANDERS

Education plays a key role in the daily operations of both the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) and Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA) as the statewide organi-zations strive to ensure providers deliver ef-ficient, effective care of the highest quality.

TMA & CME“We’ve got a lot going on with CME

and have really ramped up over the last year,” said Dave Chaney, director of Com-munications for TMA. In fact, he noted, the organization recently completed a 20-month process through the Accreditation Coun-cil for Continuing Medi-cal Education (ACCME) to create original CME content.

TMA received pro-visional accreditation last November. At the end of two years, they will un-dergo another ACCME review to receive a four-year standard accreditation or six-year accreditation with commendation. This ex-panded capability is in addition to the or-ganization’s longstanding accreditation to approve other’s CME programming.

Angie Madden, direc-tor of Practice Solutions for TMA, explained, “We felt as a medical society that we needed to be more nimble and be able to provide education to physicians in Tennessee and particularly our members.” She added much of TMA’s content focuses on broad issues impacting all physicians but noted specialty-specific breakouts are featured at the annual meeting or in collaboration with other organizations as needed to meet physician needs.

Chaney said, “Physi-cians have a lot of sources out there where they can get CME. We want all phy-sicians in Tennessee to look to TMA as the authorita-tive source for education on the most important and timely topics affect-ing their profession.” He added, “TMA is plugged in on every legislative and regula-tory issue. When we combine what’s hap-pening on a macro level and state level with on-the-ground clinical healthcare delivery,

we’re in a unique position to deliver CME.”Chaney noted the organization uses a

mix of online and in-person formats to de-liver programming and featured more than 21 hours of onsite education at the April annual meeting. He added some programs,

such as this summer’s ICD-10 Coding Camps, are presented in a roadshow format with a series of workshops being held at key points across the state.

Madden said the as-sociation is continually adding new offerings and is rolling out two new options this month. The first, Ten-nessee Health Care Inno-vations Initiative 101 is an overview of new payment models by the state. The second one-hour course, Tennessee Physician Em-ployment Contracting, helps physicians know what to look for when crafting or signing contracts and is presented by TMA’s legal counsel.

For a complete list of options, go online to

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sociation is also passionate about ensuring providers are equipped to face the chal-lenges of delivering quality care in an era of reform.

“We are accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Cen-ter as an approver and provider of continuing nursing education,” ex-plained TNA Executive Director Sharon Adkins, MSN RN, who added her organization is the only one in Tennes-see that can approve CNE courses.

She continued, “We’ve got a whole committee of reviewers, and they make sure the program meets the ANCC stan-dards for quality of education and objec-tives and provides the learner with expected outcomes.”

Adkins said the association also collab-orates with others to meet needs. Working with the TMA, she noted, “We partnered with them last fall on a diabetes workshop and are currently partnering on the ICD-10 workshops being held across the state.”

In addition, the organization teams up with the Tennessee Association of Student Nurses to provide continuing education at

the annual conference each fall. This year’s meeting – Nursing Ethics: Commitment, Compassion, Quality Care – will be held Oct. 23-25 at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs. To register, go to tnaonline.org.

John Ingram Institute for

Physician LeadershipIn addition to their new course of-

ferings, the TMA recently rebranded the Physician Leadership College as the John Ingram Institute for Physician Leadership, honoring the East Tennessee internist and former president who helped create and launch the program. In its new incarnation,

physicians will now have two track options – the Leadership Immersion Weekend Re-treat and the nine-month Physician Lead-ership Lab.

Madden noted the first class graduated from the Physician Leadership College in 2008 with the eighth class graduating this past May at the 2015 an-nual meeting. While the core leadership topics of negotiation, decision-making, conflict resolu-tion, collaboration and influence, medical advo-cacy, media and com-munications, resonated strongly with those who participated, Madden said the nine-month commitment made it difficult or impossible for some physicians to tap into the impact-ful curriculum.

“What we decided to do was create a weekend emersion where they would get all the training but in an accelerated, more convenient platform,” Madden explained.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a member of the TMA. Madden and Chaney noted the cost is kept low to make the program accessible. “We underwrite 90 percent of the costs through grants,” Mad-den added.

The next offering of the Leadership Immersion Weekend runs July 23-26 at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville. Those inter-ested in attending or nominating someone to attend should go online to tnmed.org/leadership for details and an application.

The new Physician Leadership Lab, which does span nine months, focuses on team-based care, safety and quality initia-tives and includes LifeWings’ Lean plus TeamSTEPPS process improvement tools and programming. Madden pointed to changes tied to value-based reimbursement as an impetus to launch this new leadership offering.

“We wanted to create this new track to address the changing healthcare land-scape,” said Madden, adding the goal is “to really help equip and train physicians with the skill set to practice medicine with all these new initiatives.”

Additionally, she noted the Physician Leadership Lab includes a hands-on project for participants. “They will pick a project in their community that they are passionate about and will work to impact outcomes, processes, and safety. They will take skills they have learned in TeamSTEPPS-Lean Healthcare and put them into practice.”

While details were still being fleshed out at press time, the plan is to launch in the fall and run through April with gradu-ation at the 2016 annual meeting. Madden said the program would be a mix of live ses-sions, webinars and conference calls.

“With team models emerging, physi-cians need a different type of leadership skills they might not have needed in the past,” said Chaney. “Taking care of pa-tients is number one, but any time you have physicians building skill sets, that’s going to benefit patients.”

Professional Development, continued from page 7

Sharon Adkins

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BY MELANIE KILGORE-HILL

This time last year, the healthcare industry was gearing up for ICD-10 implementation in October. Fast-forward twelve months … and the healthcare industry is gearing up for ICD-10 imple-mentation in October. As the baseball great Yogi Berra once remarked, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

At press time, all systems seem a go for an October imple-mentation, with a few expected hang-ups along the way. A March 4 statement from the American Medical Association (and 99 state and specialty societies) expressed concern that “there are not suf-ficient contingency plans in place to avoid anticipated failures that could result in a significant, multi-billion-dollar disruption for physi-cians and serious access to care issues for Medicare patients.”

However, Scott Mertie, CHFP, CMPE, president of Kraft Healthcare Consulting, noted that during a March 9-10 Leadership Healthcare Delegation to D.C., the possibility of another delay was dismissed by the Washington thought leaders and policymakers. Presenters ex-pressed confidence that hospitals and CMS were prepared for the transition but

did discuss the possibility of a brief phase-in period under which both ICD-9 and ICD-10 would be ac-cepted.

Experts like Lori Nobles, RHIA, CHTS-IM, CPHIMS, principal at Cumberland Consult-ing Group, said a slight chance of deadline ex-tension still looms, reviv-

ing the prudent yet lesser known saying, “Fourth time’s a charm.” In the 2009 final rule, implementation was delayed from the proposed date of October 2011 until October 2013. In September 2012, HHS

issued a one-year delay, chang-ing the final compliance date to October 2014. In March 2014, Congress voted to delay ICD-10 again. Oct. 1, 2015 was then set as the new implementation date.

Nobles, who specializes in health information management, said some concern still evolves around the financial impact on smaller practices. “They’re al-ready being asked to do so much to meet the government’s Mean-ingful Use requirements and can’t absorb any more costs,” she said. “They’re not totally opposed to ICD-10, but they want it spaced out.”

Ghosts of Deadlines PastWhile national efforts like “Coali-

tion for ICD-10” have supported a 2015 implementation, some critics have been circling the “Let’s skip ICD-10 and go straight to 11” camp. While version 11 is currently in beta draft and scheduled to go to the World Health Assembly for approval in 2017, there’s no migration plan from 9 to 11, making 10’s structure necessary for future versions. “Once 11 is

available, the U.S. has to put in clinical modifications, which takes several years,” Nobles explained. “We’re the only coun-try using it for financial reimbursement, so we have to modify everything.” Still, she anticipates the transition to 11 will be sim-pler as the most painful part is happening in the transition to 10.

For many hospitals ready to pull the trigger in 2013, the delay meant a tempo-rary halt on a $1 to $3-million technology investment. “They’ve already upgraded systems through vendors, invested time in testing with vendors and trained staff,” Nobles said. “They were ready last year when it stopped, so for a year many haven’t pushed providers to continue training or using terminology and a lot of hospitals have moved financial resources to other projects. It’s a challenge at this point because people don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Another delay-related challenge is coder training and turnover. Many ac-credited programs had begun teaching coders ICD-10, and now those coders don’t know how to code in ICD-9, Nobles said.

For some hospitals, the delay pro-vided one more year of dual-coding prac-tice under both ICD-9 and 10, although the number of facilities actually doing this is unclear. Software vendors also had extra time to work out quirks – assuming hospi-

ICD-10: Take 3

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 11)Lori Nobles


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(UICM), where he served on the faculty for 6½ years.

A specialist in emergency medicine, Benink joined Regional One Health last October after serving as chief medical of-ficer at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., and 20 years with the OSF (Order of Saint Francis) Saint Anthony Medical Center, where he filled both academic and administrative roles.

During his four-year tour of duty at Keesler Air Force Base, Benink prac-ticed emergency medicine at Keesler Medical Center, a 500-bed teaching hospital, while on a deployment team that was on 24-hour notice to be sent anywhere in the world to handle poten-tial mass casualties.

Although emergency medicine is more stressful than other specialties, Be-nink enjoys the challenges and rewards of putting together the pieces of the fresh puzzle that each patient represents and hearing their story firsthand, rather than following up a case where someone has already done the groundwork.

Thus, while his CMO role is purely administrative, Benink nonetheless has acquired his Tennessee medical li-cense along with physician privileges at Regional One. “It’s still a passion of mine,” he said, “and I think people like to see the chief medical officer still in the trenches.”

One of Benink’s first priorities as CMO was a four-fold process that ad-

dresses structure, processes, people/cul-ture and outcomes.

“My job was to make sure we had the right structure for quality and patient safety, and I think we do,” he said. “One of the first things that I wanted to do to address the ‘processes’ piece was to rewrite our quality and patient safety plan — the constitution of how we will approach qual-ity patient safety and the performance to get our outcomes to where we want them to be.

“Medicine throughout the country is undergoing a change of culture similar to what aviation went through in the 1980s — a change that is based on flattening of the hierarchy. Physicians, like pilots, need to be open to everybody’s opinions. Open opinions can prevent airplanes from going down, and open opinions in medicine can prevent harm to our patients.”

That cultural change isn’t likely to happen overnight, he warned.

“We can learn a lot from aviation,” Benink said. “It took a generation to get the safety of aviation to the point where, despite the fact that it makes the news when a plane goes down, it’s a pretty rare event.”

He believes the healthcare communi-ty’s priorities are changing, however, dra-matically impacted by the 1999 Institute of Medicine report “To Err Is Human.” The report concluded that 44,000 to 98,000 people die each year as a result of preventable medical errors such as unnec-

essary or incorrect surgeries, medications or treatment.

“If you compare that to the airline industry, it would be equivalent to a 727 going down every day,” Benink said. “Avi-ation crashes make the headlines; medi-cine hasn’t made the headlines yet. The challenge that I face is making healthcare in our hospital as safe as possible.”

Benink’s youthful ambition to become a paramedic was inspired by the ’70s TV show “Emergency,” in which goals were strikingly similar to one he’s now pursu-ing: to change Regional One’s culture to one “where the patient we take care of, at the moment we are taking care of them, is the most important person in our lives, because if they are, we will provide them with the safest, highest-quality care we can – or find somebody else who will.”

But medicine has changed drastically over the last 25 years, he acknowledges. “The days of Marcus Welby, MD, are long gone; very few doctors make house calls, know everything about their patient, and are on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” he said. “Medicine today is so vastly complex you can’t know it all, so subspecialties prevail, and it’s hard to be a generalist.”

Benink’s concerns: Polypharmacy: “It’s not unusual for a

patient to come into the emergency room on 10 medications. We expect our elderly population to be on multiple prescriptions,

taken at multiple and different intervals. It’s difficult for patients to keep up, and it’s no surprise that studies show patients are not filling the prescriptions they need.”

Overuse of antibiotics: “Patients come into the emergency department with common cold symptoms and insist on an antibiotic they don’t need.

“There will come a time when phy-sicians can’t take Medicare or Medicaid patients because they can’t afford to, Doc-tors’ reimbursements have deteriorated significantly over 25 years and they’re not going up anytime soon, if ever.”

Benink’s advice: “Sometimes you have to remember

what God gave you: It’s truly a privilege to be a healthcare professional. The job is tough and sometimes not very reward-ing, but we have to remember that there are very few people in whom God has in-stilled the skills and knowledge to do what we do. If you can focus on that, you can get through some of the frustrations that this job holds for you.”

Married, with six children ages 2 to 21, Benink and his wife love to travel the world, especially via cruise ships.

Long term, his goal is to become a Malcolm Baldrige recipient for quality.

“The journey is worth it, aside from the award,” he said. “It’s like preparing for a marathon: Even if you don’t win the marathon, you’re in better shape than you were before you started.”

Regional One CMO Ties Aviation to Medicine, continued from page 1


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tals kept testing.

What Now?Three-plus years of “I’ll believe it

when it happens” mentality begs the ques-tion, what should practices be doing now?

Assuming ICD-10 goes live Oct. 1, staff should already be trained and sub-mitting test claims to Medicare, CMS and other payers to work out kinks. Dual coding also helps hospitals and prac-tices see where financial hits might come from: is it because provider documen-tation isn’t adequate, or because more education is needed? Identifying those areas now will help lessen the blow once systems go live.

Nobles said the biggest challenge or-ganizations are facing is lost momentum and trying to get it back. Organizations that haven’t lost momentum have contin-ued to move forward with testing, training and dual coding. “Many practices con-ducted training; but ‘til you start coding and sending out claims, you don’t know how successful that’s been,” Nobles said. “You can turn right around and incor-porate that into clinical documentation

improvement programs and tools on the front end so that by the time the patient is discharged on the back end everything is ready to go.”

Monica Smith, RHIT, CPC, cod-ing and compliance consultant with Kraft Healthcare Consulting, LLC, said it’s especially imperative for specialty groups like orthopaedics to familiarize themselves with the diagnosis por-tion of ICD-10. That’s because coding will be-come much more specific, i.e. where an injury is located, which bones are involved and what specific treatment is needed.

For inpatient facilities, Smith said the procedure portion of coding will be com-pletely different and will require extensive training. While she’s seen more inpatient

systems prepared than outpatient, Smith said many remain fearful of the change until they undergo training.

“I encourage clients to take advantage of training opportunities like workshops and boot camps, which can be tailored to specific specialties,” said Smith, a certified AHIMA-approved ICD-10 trainer who provides training nationwide. Like No-bles, Smith also associates best practices with those practicing dual coding. She also assures clients that, despite its learn-ing curve, ICD-10 isn’t the monster many make it out to be. Others have compared the switch to putting off a root canal. While the process is painful, it’s unavoid-able in the end.

“Don’t be afraid of ICD-10,” Smith advised. “It’s definitely needed, as we’re the last industrialized country to update our system to allow for new conditions and diseases.”

ICD-10: Take 3, continued from page 9

Monica Smith

TMA Offering ICD-10 WorkshopsThe Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) will offer workshops at different locations in the state to help providers transition to ICD-10 before the October 1 deadline. The hands-on billing and coding immersion will allow participants to practice the actual ICD-10 exercises that will be required for their specialties.

The workshop in Memphis will be held August 11 at the Fogelman Center on the campus of the University of Memphis. To register, visit http://www.tnmed.org/TMA/Professional_Development/ICD_10.aspx .

home.”While other dermatologists in Mem-

phis see children, to the best of her knowl-edge she is the only certified pediatric dermatologist.

“When you train in dermatology,” she said, “you train to see patients of all ages. But different training programs pro-vide different levels of exposure to pedi-atric dermatology. Some dermatologists aren’t that comfortable with kids, and you may have more complex conditions, and that’s kind of where pediatric dermatolo-gists come in.”

Wright is still just getting started in Memphis, “but I expect to be really busy very fast.”

“The demand for pediatric derma-tologists is very high,” she said. “There’s a workforce shortage. Studies have shown that somewhere in the range of 10 to 30 percent of all pediatric clinic visits include dermatological concerns.”

Wright and her husband, who works in Cordova, live in East Memphis with their three pugs and a terrier mix, provid-ing both doctors with much shorter com-mutes than they’ve had in the past.

“I feel like I’m really fortunate to do what I do,” Wright said. “I’m happy to be back here in the community and look for-ward to getting involved here at Le Bon-heur and with UT to help train a future generation of pediatricians and pediatric dermatologists.”

UTHSC’s New Arrival, continued from page 3

REPRINTS: If you would like to order a reprint of a Medical News article in a PDF format or request an additional copy of an issue, please email: [email protected] for information.


report that they do not always take their medications as directed. And, obviously, for the medicines to work, a person’s got to take them.

One of the biggest issues is cost. People are often prescribed a brand-name that they can’t afford. A generic alternative may be just as effective.

The cost of one Advair (asthma inhaler) in the United States will buy you seven inhalers in France. There are no generic asthma inhalers available in the United States. But they are available in Europe, where health regulators have been more flexible about mixing drugs and devices and where courts have been quicker to overturn drug patent

protection.

“Merger Would Make Generic Drug Giant”

In a deal that would combine two generic drug makers who recently left the US for Europe, Mylan says it wants to buy Perrigo for $205 per share or $28.86 billion.

A combined Mylan and Perrigo would be one of the world’s largest makers of generic and over-the-counter medicines.

Mylan says the combined company would have had $15.3 billion in revenue in 2014 and would be a leader in specialty drugs and nutritional products. It said

the combined company would be able to grow even further with additional acquisitions. (AP, May, 2015)

As stated earlier, the Justice Department described the Columbia /HCA case as the largest healthcare fraud in US history. That was in 1997. While that was a record at the time for healthcare fraud, it has been surpassed. In cases related to improper promotion of certain drugs, Johnson & Johnson agreed to a $2.2 billion settlement in 2013, Pfizer settled for $2.3 billion in 2009 and GlaxoSmithKline settled for $3 billion in 2012.

Christopher Flavelle of Bloomberg News said, “The problem isn’t an absence

of options but an absence of time. By wasting the past five years on a fake debate over Obamacare — premised on a theoretical Republican alternative that the party still can’t agree on, culminating in a disingenuous argument over the precise meaning of ‘established by the state’ – Congress and the states have squandered time that could have been spent fixing some of the actual problems that still plague U.S. health care.”

Let’s Take a Moment to Look at This, continued from page 4

Bill Appling, FACMPE, ACHE, is founder and president of J William Appling, LLC. He is a national speaker, presenter and a published author. He serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis and is on the boards of Hope House and Life Blood. For more information contact Bill at [email protected].

lenges, we engage national recruitment firms to source candidates,” Sites said. “Representatives from these firms visit Memphis, UT and Regional One Health. They see first-hand how enthusiastic and dedicated our physicians are. By visiting our system and the city, the recruiters know how to find both the cultural and clinical fit we are looking for.”

Additionally, there can be challenges in recruiting professional spouses to the area, according to Harris.

“A challenge you may not usually consider is dealing with spouses who are in the medical field and both must find work here,” he said. “One spouse’s spe-cialty field may not be as in demand as the other’s, and securing them a position can take additional time.”

Even though there are some geo-

graphic and professional challenges to overcome, Harris and Schmitt agree that it is easier to recruit a physician who is fa-miliar with the area.

“Many times when I talk to a physi-cian interested in a position, he or she has ties to Memphis,” Schmitt said. “They were born, licensed or trained here or their spouse is from Memphis.”

In addition to local challenges, there is a national shortage of doctors in some specialties, which can hamper recruiting efforts in the Mid-South. A study pub-lished three years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that out of 17,000 third-year residents, only 21 percent were planning a career in internal medicine.

Also, succession planning is an impor-tant part of the recruitment process for all

physicians groups. Groups and clinics rely heavily on recommendations and referrals from their internal physicians.

“Ideally, we want to know ahead of time when a doctor is retiring,” Breen said. “It’s a big deal when a doctor retires, so we want to allow enough time for the new doc-tor to come in and become familiar with the practice and get to know the patient base. Good dialogue with our doctors is important, so they can be involved in the process of choosing the new physician.”

This is especially the case with spe-cialists such as cardiologists.

“What we have found is most success-ful in recruiting is when other Stern physi-cians refer doctors who they have worked with, trained with or went to school with,” said Sharon Goldstein, director of com-munications and public relations at Stern

Cardiovascular Foundation. “Many times it is doctors who have mentored other doc-tors as interns and remembered them.”

This can bring a good, diverse mix to a physicians group, according to Schmitt.

“Doctors just out of fellowship can bring a different perspective to a group because they are familiar with new tech-nology,” Schmitt said. “We want a well-rounded group to take care of patients because at the end of the day, we want the best care for our patients. Our goal is to have the right care, at the right time, at the right place and at the right cost.”

Recruiting Doctors to Mid-South Can Be a Challenge, continued from page 5


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After jockeying for position in the top five most challenging cities to live in the United States with asthma, Memphis holds the leading spot for 2015, accord-ing to the newly released annual Asthma Capitals report by the Asthma and Al-lergy Foundation of America (AAFA).

Poor air quality, inadequate public smoking bans, high reliance on asthma medications and voluminous emergency room visits for asthma were among the significant factors why the Bluff City – alternately known as Home of the Blues and Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and per-haps more tellingly of health issues, the Barbecued Pork Capital of the World – climbed to the uncoveted spot atop the annual list, after moving from No. 3 in 2013 and No. 2 in 2014.

Rounding out the top five Asthma Capitals for 2015: Richmond, Va., which held the top perch last year; Philadelphia, Pa.; Detroit, Mich.; and Oklahoma City, Okla.

“Each year for our report, we look at the largest cities across the country and measure the things that people with asthma care about the most,” said Mike Tringale, senior vice president of external affairs and principal in-vestigator for the report. “Obviously, we look at pollen, pollution, and ozone because nature af-fects adults and kids with asthma. But we also look at poverty, uninsured rates and city smoking bans because public policies matter, too.”

Community BlueprintThe annual report, Tringale pointed

out, provides communities with a blue-print for change, along with data on 13 critical factors relating to asthma prevalence, environmental conditions and healthcare usage. Teva Respiratory (TEVA) and QVAR Inhalation Aerosol sponsored the report, an independent AAFA research project. “Communities can work to make progress of many of these factors,” said Tringale.

The most noticeable ranking change for Medical News markets: Knoxville, Tenn., which tumbled from No. 41 to No. 7, after making progress from the 2013 list (No. 10).

“The Allergy Capitals can help to in-form a pollen sufferer about geographical areas that may provide and worsen their seasonal symptoms, which impacts their quality of life,” said allergist Cliff Bassett, MD, AAFA ambassador and medical di-rector of Allergy & Asthma Care of NY.

Similarly, the information holds true

for families traveling to Asthma Capitals, perhaps altering the time of year to visit for the least impact on asthma sufferers.

Spring Allergy Capitals’ Impact

Bassett also pointed to AAFA’s spring allergy capitals. The worst metro area: Jackson, Miss., based on higher-than-av-erage pollen and medication use.

“It’s important that allergy suffer-ers take heed,” he said. “A new study by AAFA revealed that spring is when most allergy patients experience their worst seasonal allergy symptoms, and patients report that they’re not fully satisfied with over-the-counter (OTC) options they find on drug store shelves.”

Rounding out the top five spring allergy capitals for 2015, respectively: Louisville, Ky.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Knoxville, Tenn.

Congressional ResponseWith an estimated $50 billion na-

tional price tag for treating asthma an-nually, Congress is considering important legislation to reduce America’s asthma burden. The Family Asthma Act of 2015 (S 1064), introduced again this year by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), would strengthen research, promote public education and develop improved recom-mendations for asthma treatment and management. If enacted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would expand asthma tracking to pro-vide researchers with much-needed data on disease prevalence, severity and treat-ment in the United States. The CDC could also develop recommendations regarding the federal government’s role in response to asthma by providing steps for reducing asthma’s prevalence, cost and mortality rates; and ideas for further research, treatments and intervention.

Gillibrand also introduced legisla-tion to enable schools to enact better asthma management plans. The School Asthma Management Plans Act (S 1065) could greatly improve the way schools provide care and treatment for students with asthma. In the U.S., an estimated 7 million children under the age of 18 have asthma, a leading cause for school absen-teeism. The act directs grant-receiving schools to develop asthma management plans that identify all students with an asthma diagnosis, provide asthma edu-cation for all school staff, and develop protocols and training to support symp-tom management. Schools could also use grant funds to acquire asthma inhalers, spacers, air purifiers, and related sup-plies.

Sniffling & Wheezing Across the U.S.Memphis Tops List of 2015 Asthma Capitals; Southern Cities Swap Rankings

Mike Tringale


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by the end of summer.The estimated $10-million project

will accommodate 90 patients in the 51,000-squarefoot building.

UTHSC Virologist Co-Authors New Book about Ebola and Other Deadly Viruses

On the heels of the 2014 Ebola out-break, virologist Michael Whitt, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Sci-ence Center (UTHSC), has co-authored a book concerning that virus and other virulent pathogens, focusing attention on the toll certain emerging viruses can

take on the human race.The book points out

how ill prepared officials and agencies are to quick-ly react to these poten-tially deadly pathogens that appear to kill ran-domly and elude cures. Whitt maintains that with increased surveillance and better healthcare re-sources to recognize and treat patients displaying signs of Ebola infection, the likelihood of a similar major outbreak in the future is greatly reduced, but not eliminated.

Whitt, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immu-nology and Biochemistry in the Col-lege of Medicine at UTHSC, and Asit K. Pattnaik, PhD, professor in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are co-authors of, Biology and Patho-genesis of Rhabdo- and Filoviruses, published by World Scientific. The book reviews the most recent findings on the replication of this group of hu-man pathogens, including the biology of the rabies virus, as well as Marburg and Ebola viruses, and the response of host cells to infection.

Steven Goodman Appointed Vice Chancellor for Research at UTHSC

Steven R. Goodman, PhD, has been named vice chancellor for Research at the University of Tennes-see Health Science Center (UTHSC).

Goodman arrives at UTHSC after serving as vice president for Re-search, dean of the Col-lege of Graduate Studies, and professor in both the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Department of Pediatrics at SUNY (State University of New York) Upstate Medical University. Goodman joined the SUNY system in 2008’

Lawrence M. Pfeffer, PhD, Muirhead Professor of Pathology and director of the UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, served as interim vice chancellor for Re-search since his appointment in April 2013.

Goodman also spent seven years with the University of Texas at Dallas where he served as the C. L. and Ame-lia A. Lundell Professor of Life Sciences; professor and head of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology; director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Technology, and director of the Sick-le Cell Disease Research Center. He was also an adjunct professor in the Depart-ment of Cell Biology at UT Southwest-ern Medical Center. Together with Dr. George Buchanan and colleagues at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Goodman helped bring the first NIH-funded Sickle Cell Center to Texas.

Dr. Steven R. Goodman

Dr. Michael Whitt


Memphis Vascular Center Receives Vein Center Accreditation

Memphis Vascular Center in Ger-mantown has been granted accredita-tion in Superficial Venous Treatment and Management by the Intersocietal Ac-creditation Commission (IAC).

Accreditation by the IAC means Memphis Vascular Center has voluntarily undergone a thorough review of its op-erational and technical components by a panel of experts. The IAC grants ac-creditation only to those facilities that are found to be providing quality patient care, in compliance with national stan-dards through a comprehensive applica-tion process including a detailed review of selected patient procedures.

Wendy Likes Appointed Dean for UTHSC College of Nursing

Wendy M. Likes, PhD, DNSc, APRN-BC, has been appointed permanent dean for the college of nursing at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) following about 10 months as inter-im dean.

Likes will serve as the lead administrator for the college with responsibility for managing a team of more than 105 faculty and staff members.

A three-time alumna, Likes earned her MSN, DNSc and PhD from the UTHSC College of Nursing and has been a nurse since 1994. Prior to her appointment as interim dean, she served for more than two years as associate dean and chair for Advanced Practice and Doctoral Studies.

As dean, she will hold the Ruth Neil Murry Endowed Chair in Nursing. Dr. Likes is also executive director for UT Medical Group’s Center for HPV and Dys-plasia, which focuses on the detection and treatment of HPV-related conditions. She has been evaluating and treating dis-eases of the lower genital tract for more than 15 years and was instrumental in making the center one of a few practices in the South offering a procedure to de-tect pre-cancerous anal cancer, providing an essential service for the community.

Methodist University Hospital Opens Advanced Interventional Cardiovascular Suite

Methodist University Hospital (MUH) has opened its new cardiac catheteriza-tion suite which features the Allura FD20 X-ray system from Philips.

Officials at MUH said the system will give its physicians the ability to conduct minimally invasive procedures to treat a wide range of clinical problems including coronary artery disease. These catheter-based procedures offer many benefits to patients including shorter hospital stays, reduced recovery time without the pain of a large incision, and less visible surgi-cal scarring. These procedures can be

performed on both the heart and periph-eral blood vessels.

The fully digital system enables phy-sicians to capture and view detailed 3D images of a patient’s cardiac vasculature.

Methodist Healthcare Introduces ZocDoc Networking System

Methodist Healthcare has intro-duced a free service that gives patients seamless access to its physicians via on-line scheduling. The service facilitates

online appointment-making with par-ticipating providers across Methodist Primary Care Group and Methodist OB/GYN practices.

A hospital spokesperson said ad-ditional physicians, specialties, and ap-pointment availability will be added dur-ing the coming months.

The service is powered by ZocDoc, a tech company established in 2007 to help people find in-network neighborhood doctors, instantly book appointments online, see what other real patients have

to say, get reminders for upcoming ap-pointments and preventive checkups and fill out their paperwork.

This service removes friction from the traditional patient experience by eliminating time-consuming phone calls, helping patients book with Methodist Healthcare doctors 24/7 (even when the office is closed), and even sending email and text reminders about upcoming ap-pointments.

Wendy M. Likes

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