Hypertension center earns ‘comprehensive’ designation
Collaborative care for complex aortic disease
The American Society of Hypertension (ASH), the nation’s largest organization of hypertension specialists, has designated the University of Chicago Medicine as a Comprehensive Hypertension Center, the first in the country. This George Bakris, MD designation is the highest level of formal recognition for academic medical centers that demonstrate expertise in treating patients with complex hypertension and its comorbidities. The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Hypertension Center is directed by George Bakris, MD, a nephrologist and board-certified ASH hypertension specialist. “The Comprehensive Hypertension Center designation distinguishes the University as a center of excellence for hypertensive diseases,” said Bakris, who also is the immediate past president of ASH. The center offers individualized care through inpatient and outpatient consultation to patients who have hypertension in addition to other health conditions, including early kidney disease, diabetes and high risk for heart attack or stroke. The center also is a national leader in hypertension research. Bakris is the national co-principal investigator of the Symplicity HTN-3 trial on refractory hypertension and principal investigator of the AMETHYST trial dealing with potassium management in people with kidney disease and hypertension. He is also on the steering committee of two other international kidney outcome trials.
T he University of Chicago Medicine aortic diseases program provides
multispecialty, state-of-the-art care for patients with complex aortic problems. “We feel we offer something very unique in the whole Midwest,” said vascular surgeon Ross Milner, MD, who co-directs the program with cardiac surgeon Mark Russo, MD, MSc. The team includes experts from several specialties — vascular and cardiac surgery, general and interventional radiology, anesthesia, imaging and nursing — working collaboratively to treat patients with aortic disease. The team offers leading-edge care, including minimally invasive and hybrid surgery, for aneurysms, dissections, congenital aortic diseases such as Marfan syndrome and other conditions. In February, the University of Chicago Medicine was the first hospital in Chicago to perform a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) outside of a clinical trial setting. “This nonsurgical treatment clearly has been shown to provide improved survival and better quality of life for patients who are poor candidates for surgery and for whom no options previously existed,” Russo said. uchospitals.edu/specialties/ aortic
uchospitals.edu/specialties/endocrinology/ hypertension.html
By the Numbers
100th
pediatric cochlear implant surgery performed in spring 2012
Cordero Rice, 1, hears for the first time. The toddler, deaf since birth, was the recipient of the University of Chicago Medicine’s 100th pediatric cochlear implant surgery, performed by surgeon Dana L. Suskind, MD, left, and her team.
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young physicians chosen for prestigious Bucksbaum Institute fellowships on enhancing the doctor-patient relationship
1,100
Monica Peek, MD, MPH, internal medicine specialist and a fellow of the new Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence, is studying whether removing racial and cultural obstacles in doctor-patient interactions will reduce health disparities among African Americans with diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Average number of clinical trials conducted at the University of Chicago Medicine each year
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uchicagokidshospital.org
INSPIRED
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