A focus on the professions
Noteworthy spotlights brief items of interest to allied healthcare professionals, especially those in Massachusetts. Send notices of upcoming events, personnel appointments, publications, calls for proposals, awards and recognitions, and other noteworthy items to joesaling@bellsouth.net.
Staff Appointments
Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) has named Renée Cammarata as the Malden Health Improvement Manager. In that position, she will work with organizations throughout Malden, Massachusetts, as well as with CHA staff in Malden and at CHA's Whidden hospital campus in Everett to help CHA address the health needs of the Malden community. CHA has also announced the appointment of Lisa Brukilacchio, an occupational therapist, as the new director of the Somerville Community Health Agenda. The Somerville Community Health Agenda is a partnership between CHA, the Somerville Health Department, and the community. It facilitates collaborative health processes to improve the health of residents of Somerville, Massachusetts.
International Outreach
Two nurses from Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass. - Peggy Flood and Marilyn Converse - recently visited adult and pediatric hospitals, clinics, and orphanages in South Africa. They went with representatives from the Oncology Nursing Society as part of the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program. While there, they spoke with South African nurses about the care of individuals with cancer. Their discussions focused on pain management, cancer treatments, and end-of-life care.
Art and Healing
While MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) undergoes major renovations, chief of pediatric cardiology Michael de Moor, MD, and his wife, Tica de Moor, a speech therapist and a graduate student in interior design, arranged to move select pieces of the MGHfC pediatric cardiology art collection to Emerson Hospital's new Center for Specialty Care in Concord, Massachusetts. The collection was originally assembled by Tica de Moor and Sally Zetter, MD, a pediatric psychiatrist, with funding from the MGH Ladies Visiting Committee. Attuned to the psychological effects of art and the measurable effects of art on illness, de Moor and Zetter approached the selection of artwork with the goals of helping patients relax and stimulating communication between parent and child as well as between physician and child. Much of the artwork was created by children in workshops run by de More and Zetter. One piece now on display at Emerson's Center for Specialty Care is a quilt conceived by children who made up their own fairytales using elements from well-known tales. They then cut out fabric to create their stories, and the pieces were appliquéd onto quilt squares. Volunteers assembled and finished the quilt. The quilt at the center is one of 20 quilts from the project. The rest were donated to an orphanage in Haiti.
Resources
Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is now offering same-day mammography appointments at each of its three hospital campuses - Cambridge, Somerville, and Whidden in Everett. Each site offers digital mammography, which is faster and more accurate than traditional mammograms. The new policy is part of an effort to improve access to essential breast care services. More than 185,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and screening mammograms are recommended annually for women over 40. Many women, however, delay a mammogram because of the long appointment waits. The CHA digital mammography service is supported by the Cambridge Breast Center. The Cambridge Breast Center team includes breast surgeons, oncologists, nurses, and social workers and is available at both the Cambridge and Whidden hospital campuses. Appointments can be made by calling (617) 665-1298.
Research Notes
Adults who lost weight in a six-month program were able to keep at least some of the weight off for 2.5 years with the help of brief monthly personal counseling, according to a new study from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). A Web-based intervention also helped participants keep the weight off for two years, but the benefit waned during the last six months of the trial. The results of the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial, the largest and longest duration trial to test different weight-loss maintenance strategies, are published in the March 12, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
