The West Clinic Helps Launch National Trial of Non-Surgical Breast Cancer Treatment
With its first recent successful procedure, The West Clinic is helping to launch a groundbreaking multi-center clinical trial of cryoablation to treat breast cancer without the trauma of surgery. Utilizing the innovative IceSense3 System to treat certain early stage tumors without scalpels, tissue removal or scarring, the ICE3 trial will significantly expand data on the technique. Potentially, it will usher in a new paradigm in the treatment of the disease.
According to Richard Fine, MD, who performed the procedure, it involves placing a small IceSense3 nitrogen-cooled probe into the center of a tumor to freeze it from the inside out. The rapid temperature drop freezes diseased cells, causing them to crack open and die. The dead cells are then absorbed by the immune system over time.
The benefits of cryoablation over traditional surgical tumor removal are significant, including fast recovery, improved cosmetic results, greater patient comfort, no need for general anesthesia or hospital operating room and lower cost. Cryoablation essentially involves a nick in the skin and the destruction of a tumor in place with minimal discomfort. The procedure is typically performed in a physician’s office under ultrasound guidance in less than 20 minutes.
Cryoablation is well-established for the treatment of liver, lung, prostate and other cancers. Numerous, more limited studies have validated its success in the treatment of breast malignancies, including a recent ACOSOG trial and extensive long-term studies in Japan.
Vanessa Givens Joins Women’s Health Specialists
Vanessa M. Givens, MD, has joined Women’s Health Specialists as a partner. A graduate of Vanderbilt, she earned her MD at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). Givens completed her internships and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UTHSC in the College of Medicine.
Givens continued there and received fellowship training in advanced abdominal and pelvic surgery. She has been named one of “America’s Top Obstetricians and Gynecologists” by Consumers’ Research Council of America.
Memphis Cardiology Practice Chooses Saint Francis
Cardiovascular Physicians of Memphis, where Drs. Joseph S. Weinstein, MD, FACC and Raj C. Dave’, MD, FACC have been providing cardiovascular care in the Memphis area for more than 20 years, has joined Saint Francis Medical Partners.
The practice will retain its current location at 4901 Raleigh Common Drive, Suite 100 and will serve patients where they currently have hospital privileges as well as Saint Francis.
Weinstein graduated from Cornell University, then the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Medicine. He did his internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed a fellowship in both cardiology and interventional cardiology at Harvard Medical School. He formed Cardiovascular Physicians of Memphis in 1994 and has served as Chairman of Cardiology at both St. Joseph Hospital and Methodist North Hospital.
Dave’ graduated from University of Bombay in Bombay, India, and completed his training at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago. He was clinical coordinator and chief resident of internal medicine at Ravenswood. He began his cardiology practice in Memphis in 1993.
Baptist’s Stephen Edge Elected to ASCO’s Board of Directors
Dr. Stephen Edge, director of Baptist Memorial Health Care’s Cancer Center, has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Oncology Board of Directors (ASCO).
Edge is one of four new board members elected by worldwide members of ASCO. The organization’s Board of Directors is comprised of oncology leaders who are elected to positions reflecting various specialties within the oncology field.
Edge, a breast oncologic surgeon who came to Baptist in the summer of 2013 to head its Cancer Center, has been active in cancer care quality measurement and health services research and national policy development. He is the immediate past-chair of the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and past-chair of the American Joint Committee on Cancer.
Memphis Mental Health Institute Selects Williams
Dr. S. Taylor Williams recently was appointed Clinical Director at Memphis Mental Health Institute.
Williams has worked at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Memphis and served as assistant professor of psychiatry for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Chief of Psychiatry at The Regional Medical Center and as a contract Staff Psychiatrist at Memphis Mental Health Institute.
Board certified in psychiatry, Williams is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alabama. She received her MD from the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed her Psychiatric Residency at UTHSC.
Le Bonheur, St. Jude Select Co- Chief of Pediatric Cardiology
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, has been named co-director of the Heart Institute at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, chief of cardiology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and chief of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). He will also be the vice chair for Strategic Advancement and will hold the St. Jude Chair of Pediatric Cardiology at Le Bonheur.
Dr. Towbin comes to Memphis from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where he is the executive co-director of the Heart Institute, chief of pediatric cardiology and the Kindervelt-Samuel Kaplan Professor and Chair of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Research. Clinically, Dr. Towbin specializes in diagnostic and therapeutic advances for cardiomyopathies, heart failure, heart transplantation and cardiovascular genetics.
At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Towbin successfully built one of the largest pediatric heart failure and cardiovascular genetics programs in the country. His research work and clinical expertise in pediatric heart failure is internationally known, and he is widely thought of as a leader in pediatric cardiology.
Towbin’s plans include the recruitment of additional faculty, enhanced training of pediatric and congenital cardiologists, development of several novel clinical and research programs and facilitation of a new pediatric cardio-oncology specialty, in partnership with St. Jude.
Assisi Foundation Awards Grant to MERI
The Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Inc. has provided a $40,000 grant to be used for community-wide disaster training to the Medical Education and Research Institute (MERI).
The goal of the training is to increase community resilience during a disaster with support from the Shelby County Health Department. The disaster preparedness training courses will provide education for medical personnel, caregivers and first responders.
Physician Joins Wesley Neurology Clinic
Nada El Andary, MD, a board-certified neurologist, has joined Wesley Neurology Clinic.
El Andary earned her medical degree and completed her internal medicine residency training at Beirut Arab University in Beirut, Lebanon. She completed her neurology residency and vascular neurology fellowship at the University of Connecticut, Hartford, Hospital. She is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Neurology and Vascular Neurology.
UTHSC Graduates 105 Healthcare Professionals
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) last month graduated 105 healthcare professionals.
UTHSC Chancellor Steve J. Schwab, MD, presided over the ceremony.
The 105 graduates represented five of the six UT Health Science Center colleges and comprised 86 women and 19 men.
UT Medical Group Expands Plastic Surgery Team
Dr. Petros Konofaos, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has joined the department of plastic surgery at UT Medical Group Inc.
A native of Greece, Konofaos earned his medical degree at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Health Sciences. He completed residency in general surgery at Laiko General Hospital in Athens and Prefectural Hospital of Nafplio in Argolida, followed by residency in plastic surgery at KAT Hospital in Athens.
Konofaos furthered his training with a residency in reconstructive microsurgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and a fellowship in microsurgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
He cares for patients at 1068 Cresthaven Road, Suite 500.
