Medical Group News and Announcements | |
Marc J. Levine, MD, Serves as Spine Co-Chair at the Orthopaedic Summit Evolving Techniques
We are proud to announce Marc. J. Levine, MD, Director, Orthopedic Spine Surgery, RWJUH Hamilton, and Orthopedic & Spine Institute, a practice of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, is serving as the Spine Co-Chair at the Orthopaedic Summit Evolving Techniques (OSET) 2022 in September. Hosted this year in Boston, OSET is the premier gathering of total joint, foot and ankle, arthroscopic, spine and trauma surgeons, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, athletic trainers, physical therapists and occupational therapists from around the world. This is Dr. Levine’s sixth year serving as the Spine Chair.
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We are also pleased to share that Frank A. Liporace, MD, Chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center and member of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, is a member of the OSET 2022 planning committee. He will be participating in multiple debates and panel discussions and will be presenting on evolving techniques in knee and hip arthroplasty. To learn more about the summit, visit orthosummit.com.
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New Chief of Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Named to New Jersey’s Only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and RWJBarnabas Health have appointed Ira Braunschweig, MD, as chief, Section of Transplant and Cell Therapy at Rutgers Cancer Institute, Chief of the Transplant and Cell Therapy Service of the RWJBarnabas Health Oncology Service Line, and director for Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas facility. He will also serve as professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The selection comes following an extensive national search.
Dr. Braunschweig was most recently director of the Stem Cell Transplant Program and the clinical program director of Hematologic Malignancies at the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center, where he built the stem cell transplant program into a high volume, high quality program recognized by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), the highest cellular therapy governing organization. For more information and to read the full release, please click here.
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Newark Beth Israel Medical Center Helps New Jersey Woman Celebrate Milestone on Becoming Longest-Living NJ Resident on Lifesaving Heart Pump | |
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(From L to R): Jesus A. Gomez-Abraham, MD, Associate Surgical Director, Lung Transplantation, Cardiothoracic Surgery; Darrell K. Terry, Sr., MHA, MPH, FACHE, FHELA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of New Jersey; Mayra’s husband, son and Mayra Rodriguez; Margarita Camacho, MD, MBA, MS, Surgical Director, Cardiac Transplantation; Rebeca Kane, DNP, APN-BC, CCRN, AVP, Heart & Lung Transplant, Pulmonary Medicine, Advanced Heart Failure and Ambulatory Cardiology; David Seth Feldman, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, Section Chief of Advanced Heart Failure & Transplantation
Mayra Rodriguez, 42, from Union County, NJ, and the Advanced Heart Failure Treatment and Transplant team at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC), celebrated 14 years since Mayra received her lifesaving left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The milestone anniversary makes Mayra the longest-living person in New Jersey with an LVAD and one of the longest-living LVAD patients in the country. Only 40 patients in the United States have lived more than 40 years with an LVAD.
Mayra was joined by Margarita Camacho, MD FACS, Surgical Director, Cardiac Transplantation, NBIMC, RWJBH Medical Group, who implanted her LVAD 14 years ago. Also, in attendance were David Feldman, MD, PhD, FACC, Section Chief of Advanced Heart Failure Treatment and Transplantation; Natalia Hochbaum, MD, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant; and Jesus Gomez Abraham, MD, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, NBIMC, RWJBH Medical Group, as well as members of Mayra’s medical team including three of her nurses, three LVAD coordinators and her social worker.
In 2005, Mayra was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy that treated her cancer but severely damaged her heart. Then in 2007, after giving birth to her son, she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. A year later, the Advanced Heart Failure Treatment and Transplant team at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center implanted an Abbott HeartMate II™ Left Ventricular Assist Device, which was only expected to last a few years.
Today, Mayra is living an active life with the same device that was implanted 14 years ago. She enjoys watching her son grow up, bike riding, hiking, jogging and running with her family.
LVADs were originally designed to be a bridge to transplant. Today, close to 14,000 patients are living with an LVAD and it is now considered Destination Therapy for patients like Mayra, who are medically ineligible for heart transplant.
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RWJBH Employee Health Plan is now BHealthy Care | |
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RWJBarnabas Health is committed to serving its employees, who have worked tirelessly over these past two challenging years, with exciting new health and wellness initiatives. The RWJBH Employee Health Plan (your Horizon BCBS medical and prescription drug plan) and its associated resources have been rebranded to BHealthy Care to make it easier for you to understand your complete health benefits package and access programs and services for enhanced wellbeing. As part of BHealthy Care, the BHealthy Wellness program now provides more opportunities for you to improve your overall quality of life.
Check out our new BHealthy Care resource page to see all of the programs you and your family have access to if you are enrolled in a RWJBH medical plan! Some of the programs are available to all employees, even if you are not enrolled in our medical plan.
BHealthy Care includes:
· RWJBH’s medical and prescription drug plans for its employees and their families
· Navigation services from Health Advocate
· Virtual mental health services through AbleTo
· BHealthy Care Management
· BHealthy Wellness
· ….and much more!
These programs and vendors, which have been available for some time, are now unified under one umbrella as a comprehensive suite of programs.
The new BHealthy Wellness platform, hosted by Virgin Pulse, enables employees (and their enrolled spouses) to earn points now to save up to $600 on their medical plan premiums in 2023. BHealthy Wellness provides more ways than in past years to earn points and build healthy habits, and offers personalized coaching to support employees on their wellness journey.
TRMC health plan members can access BHealthy Wellness right away to earn savings on their 2023 premiums and will be integrated into all other BHealthy Care resources effective 1/1/23.
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Creativity is a vital part of your overall health and wellbeing. The benefits of participating in creative activities range from emotional to psychological to physical, and the more often you engage your creativity, the better. From singing, dancing and painting to doodling, scrapbooking and gardening, the June issue of the Once Source EAP June Connections Newsletter will help you better understand the broad nature of creativity and the benefits to your total health.
Click here to read the newsletter and learn how One Source EAP can help you and your team learn how to engage your creativity and nurture creativity in the workplace and at home.
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Mark Gilder, MD, Colorectal and Rectal Surgery, was featured on WMBC TV 63 - New York, discussing colon cancer treatments and prevention tips. | |
Diane Calello MD, FAAP, FACMT, FAACT, Executive and Medical Director, New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, featured on PBS NJ Spotlight regarding children being exposed to cannabis edibles. | |
Timothy Wilson, APN, RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group Behavioral Health specialist, discusses the difference between burnout and depression on Insider.com. | |
Thomas McPartland, MD, Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, featured on TapInto with his patient who received hip surgery. | |
Keith R. Stowell, MD, MSPH, MBA, Chief Medical Officer for Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC), was featured on Prevention.com regarding the benefits of exercise for depression. | |
Sunanda Gaur, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, was quoted in The Washington Post on Moderna's request for authorization for COVID-19 vaccination in young children. | |
Welcome to the Medical Group | |
Newsletter Content: Call for Submissions | |
To submit newsletter content for consideration in future issues, including patient testimonials, please contact lina.allocca@rwjbh.org. | | | | | |
