[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 7/24/2003
]
Innovation sparks growth in medical fields
By SONJA LEWIS
For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Metro Atlanta boasts several powerhouse health care players with deep roots and a distinguished history, but they never stop growing or pushing innovation.
Among the most impressive new developments is the $31.3 million Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence that opened in March.
The center at Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta is the first of four regional facilities planned by the Georgia Cancer Coalition (www.georgiacancer.org).
The new center will focus on breast, cervical, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer -- the most common types in Georgia. The center also hopes to attract the nation's top researchers.
Grady Memorial Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of the Emory University School of Medicine. The hospital's emergency care center is one of the largest in the Southeast, serving about 300 patients each day.
Other significant ribbon-cuttings this year:
St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta, which has its beginnings in the late 19th century, opened a new emergency department, doubling its original space. Eight more beds were dedicated, new equipment for hospital staff and four laptop computer connections for waiting family and friends were installed. St. Joseph's also opened six new cardiac operating room suites. St. Joseph's is known for its specialty centers of care: heart, vascular, cancer, orthopedic, neurology, stroke, gastrointestinal, diabetes, and surgery.
www.stjosephsatlanta.org
Emory Crawford Long Hospital also improved its emergency department; it was expanded to four times its previous size. The redesign improves flow, shortening the wait from waiting room to examining room.
Crawford Long is part of the Emory Healthcare System, which includes Emory Clinic, Emory Children's Center, Emory University Hospital, Wesley Woods Hospital and Center, the jointly owned Emory-Adventist Hospital and EHCA, LLC. Emory University Hospital is known for its cardiology, cardiac surgery, oncology and neuroscience and has become one of the region's largest multiple organ and tissue transplant centers.
www.emoryhealthcare.org
Northside Hospital has been a fixture in Georgia since 1970. It recently launched a new program called MothersFirst. The program guides women through pregnancy, birth and parenting. Mothers receive information on maternity services at Northside, a preconception/planning guide, three pregnancy guides, four childcare newsletters and a wealth of educational classes and support groups. Enrollment is free. Northside also just began a boot camp for new fathers. Northside specializes in lifetime health care for women and delivers more babies than any other community hospital in Georgia.
www.northside.com
The Shepherd Center in Atlanta is the country's largest catastrophic care hospital and since 1975 has been treating patients with spinal cord injury and disease, brain injury and degenerative, neuromuscular and neurological disorders. The center recently added a custom-built van to evaluate and train patients. The van took nine months to build and is equipped with an adapted steering wheel, a gas and brake lever and a touch pad with multifunction keys that operate secondary controls like the headlights, windshield wipers and turn signals. Shepherd also introduced a peer support program for people with multiple sclerosis. Named SHEPS (Self Help and Education among Peers), the group provides a forum for people who have been touched by MS.
www.shepherd.org
Atlanta's historically black Morehouse School of Medicine trains students for careers as primary health care physicians, biomedical scientists and public health care professionals.
Over the past year, Morehouse opened the National Center for Primary Care, which is aimed at reducing health care disparities that shortchange minorities, the poor and the uninsured. The center was built with $15.9 million in federal funds and $5 million in private donations. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher has been tapped to run the center.
www.msm.edu
Atlanta also is a hub for several health care heavyweights that serve the global community.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based in Atlanta and is recognized as the leading agency for protecting health and safety. Founded in 1946, the CDC has more than 8,500 employees and a new director, Dr. Julie Gerberding. Gerberding has restructured the upper echelon of the CDC so the sprawling agency can move quickly in a crisis. The CDC received $268 million -- more than $100 million more than expected -- to make badly needed repairs and build facilities. The money is included in the final fiscal 2003 budget.
www.cdc.gov
The American Cancer Society is based in Atlanta and has more than 3,400 offices across the country. For more than 80 years, the ACS has been battling cancer through research programs, patient and education services, advocacy and rehabilitation.
www.cancer.org
The Arthritis Foundation is also located here and combats more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions through research programs and advocacy.
www.arthritis.org
