Campus & Community

LSU Health Shreveport Hosts

First The Perry Initiative POP Event in North Louisiana

LSU Health Shreveport was the inaugural host and sponsor of the first The Perry Initiative POP Event in North Louisiana on Saturday, December 10, 2022. Perry Outreach Programs (POPs) are free, day-long events that allow high school girls to perform mock orthopaedic surgeries and conduct biomechanical engineering experiments, while also hearing from prominent women engineers and surgeons in the field. The goal is to promote early exposure to these exciting, hand-on careers as a key to boosting diversity and inspiring young women to become leaders in the fields of orthopaedic surgery and engineering. Forty students from thirteen local high schools attended the event. Participants performed surgical simulations to fix a broken femur, repaired knee ligaments and learned to suture.

The Legacy of Boomer the Therapy Dog

Boomer the dachshund joined the School of Allied Health Professions in April of 2010. After being abandoned near the Mollie E. Webb Speech and Hearing Center (Mollie Webb), he wandered into the arms of Dr. Sandra Hayes, Program Director and Associate Professor of Communication Disorders, and she invited him inside the clinic. While she made arrangements to get him to a vet, a student watched over him and named him Boomer. Boomer had walked into the right place at the right time, as Dr. Hayes brought him home as hers. The rest was history.

Soon after, he was trained and earned his pet therapy certification allowing him to provide Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) for clients of all ages at Mollie Webb. He also participated in a research study for the use of AAT during speech therapy, which found that children were more likely to vocalize and attempt to say words when he was in the room with them. For 13 years, he touched the lives of many as an honorary faculty member of Mollie E. Webb Speech and Hearing Center. Together, with his dog-mom Dr. Hayes, Boomer supported children and adults to improve their communication skills and was a true source of comfort and joy to patients, students and faculty members.

In addition to his service at the center, Boomer also volunteered at Burn Camp and Camp for the Blind, summer camps for children. In 2015, Boomer received the

School of Medicine Students Offer Boys Puberty Workshop for Local Children

Young men in the Shreveport-Bossier community were invited to the LSU Health Shreveport campus for a Boys Only Puberty Workshop on Saturday, April 15, put on by the School of Medicine American Medical Women’s Association student chapter. Participants attended sessions that focused on mental and physical health as bodies change and grow through puberty. In addition, fun was had by all with a dodgeball competition between attendees and medical students!

Though Boomer passed away in February 2023, his legacy lives on in the memories of those who knew him and through a scholarship fund established in his name in 2013. The Boomer Award is given annually to a graduate student who shows particular clinical promise and has a heart for serving others through the practice of Speech-Language Pathology. Additionally, because of his incredible impact on the Mollie E. Webb Speech and Hearing Center community, the center and faculty member, Megan Lerchie, are in the process of certifying another puppy, Flower. Flower is already a frequent clinic visitor and is expected to be certified soon, all thanks to a lost dog being at the right place at the right time who left big pawprints to fill.

2023 White Coat Ceremony

On Saturday, March 4, 145 LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine students participated in a traditional rite of passage known as the “White Coat Ceremony” which signifies their entrance into the medical profession. During the ceremony, students received a short white coat symbolizing their journey to the long white coat they will wear once they are a physician. In the coat pocket, was a note from an alumnus offering words of advice and encouragement as they enter the next chapter of their medical school journey. The 2023 LSU Health Shreveport White Coat Ceremony was held at a packed Strand Theatre with Dr. Christina Notarianni, Professor of Neurosurgery, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery Residency Program Director, serving as the keynote speaker.

Schools of Graduate Studies and Medicine Launch NEW Pathology and Translational Pathobiology PhD Program

LSU Health Shreveport has launched a Pathology and Translational Pathobiology PhD program, a joint program of the Schools of Graduate Studies and Medicine. The first students will begin the fall of 2023. Research in medical school pathology departments provides a unique opportunity for translating research findings from animal models to human patients due to the proximity of clinical collaborators and the availability of biological specimens for research.

Although pathology is generally viewed as a medical discipline, individuals with PhDs in pathology utilize a background in cell and molecular biology coupled with advanced training in disease processes to make critical advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. Therefore, the increasing focus of biomedical research on translational research programs with implications in the treatment of human disease makes PhD training in pathology highly valuable to the research community.

The LSU Health Shreveport curriculum couples training in cell and molecular biology, animal models, histology, advanced pathology and student-specific electives to create a unique training environment centered upon the in-depth understanding of human disease. Enhanced interactions with clinicians (clinical lab rotation, seminars, grand rounds and journal clubs) will better prepare these students for the current research focus on translational research at the national level and within the biotech sector.

School of Allied Health Professions Patient Rehabilitation Center Receives Full 5-Year Center of Excellence Designation

“We are so pleased with the successes of our Center of Academic Excellence in Patient Centered Rehabilitation to earn the full 5-year status with the Louisiana Board of Regents. Dr. Sarah Murnane as Director and our board have demonstrated the profound impact of community and multi-disciplinary collaboration in pursing our goals for excellence in teaching, translational research, service, and improved diversity for these health professions. A few of the accomplishments include: the implementation of a wildly successful immersion experience (Allied Health Education and Discovery “AHEAD” program) for under-represented minority high school students to explore our health professions; our Children’s Center has added interventions for children with Autism and other spectrum-related disorders; and we are looking forward to our first Psychology PhD post-doctoral interns to begin with us this summer,” stated Sharon Dunn, PT, PhD, Dean of the School of Allied Health Professions.

The LSU Health Shreveport (LSUHS) School of Allied Health Professions’ Center of Academic Excellence for Patient Centered Rehabilitation (CAE-PaCeR) received the outstanding news of a full five-year designation from the Louisiana Board of Regents in March. The Center is establishing an infrastructure to align relevant academic, research and clinical programs of the School of Allied Health Professions with the purpose of the center: patient-centered rehabilitation in an academic culture of excellence for clinical learning, innovation and collaboration.

The following goals of the Center of Excellence for Patient Centered Rehabilitation align with the mission of LSUHS to teach, heal and discover through 1) collaborating with the School of Medicine to increase inter-professional educational opportunities for students 2) creating new clinical opportunities through the establishment of residencies and internships, and 3) increasing the number of research projects.

Pediatric Resident Sisters Publish Children’s Book

Second-year resident Dr. Briana Hernandez and her sister, first-year resident Dr. Sophia Hernandez, have recently published a book together. The children’s book, Samson and Ivy, is based on and named for their two dogs.

LSU Health Shreveport Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Receives Inaugural Visiting Scholars Award

The LSU Health Shreveport Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine has received one of two of the inaugural Visiting Scholars Award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. This award was developed to promote and improve educational programming in addiction psychiatry with assistance from prestigious scholars in the field. The outcomes of the program will be to develop teaching materials, forge relationships with addiction specialty providers in the community and develop local community partnerships for resident education.

Dr. Amy Yule, Vice Chair of Addiction Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center, Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and Co-Chair of the Substance Abuse Committee for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, known for her work with youth substance disorders and co-occurring psychiatric disorders, will be the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowship Program’s visiting scholar.

Dr. Yule will work with the CAP fellows, residents and faculty to create a training curriculum for juvenile court and the Department of Children and Family Services staff on “The Impact of Substance Use on Child and Adolescent Development.”

Department of Medicine Faculty Members Complete Stanford Educators Course

Thirteen LSU Health Shreveport Department of Medicine faculty members have completed the Stanford Educators Course in Clinical Teaching. They completed five months of training via Zoom as well as three days of in-person training including seven modules. The thirteen faculty participants were selected as champions of their division and will now share their newly learned teaching skills and techniques with others in their divisions in an effort to enhance clinical teaching for our students and residents.

Sara Adams, MD

Kamal Bhusal, MD

John Jacob, MD

Phani Morisetti, MD

Nasim Motayar, MD

Kinza Muzaffar, MD

Bilal Nasir, MD

Sudha Pandit, MD

Ashritha Penagaluri, MD

Paulette Pinargote, MD

Evelyn Pryor, MD

Sarwan Shaikh, MD

Tamna Wangjam, MD

Michael Sewell, MD

Terry Davis, PhD

Dr. Kevin Perry Performs First Motorized Maxframe Procedure in North Louisiana

Kevin Perry, MD, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, performed the first procedure in Louisiana using the MAXFRAME AUTOSTRUT™ MultiAxial Correction System at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport Academic Medical Center. Made for fracture management and deformity correction, the MAXFRAME AUTOSTRUT™ Multi- Axial Correction System is an improved, automated hexapod circular external fixator system that will benefit patients in a multitude of ways.

The fully automated struts of this device eliminate the need for manual adjustment by patients and enable smaller, more frequent adjustments throughout the day. This helps to reduce pain and improve the quality of bone regeneration. The device also includes software that allows the system to operate only during selected hours, which enhances patient experience and allows the adjustments to remain in the surgeon’s control, increasing adherence to the treatment plan. Segmenting adjustments up to 16 times per day allows for less pain and more consistent rhythm producing better bone formation.

Dr. Perry uses this technology for management of acute fractures, segmental bone defects, malunions, nonunions, post traumatic deformity correction and limb lengthening. His training to use this equipment included a fellowship and surgeon training course where he learned differences in technique to use the auto strut device. Dr. Perry is now able to introduce medical students, residents and fellows to the latest surgical technologies, a critical component of medical education offered at LSU Health Shreveport.

Department of Radiology Now Offers MR-Guided Breast Biopsies

Magnetic resonance- or MR-guided breast biopsy uses a powerful magnetic field, radio waves and a computer to help locate a breast lump or abnormality and guide a needle to remove a tissue sample for examination under a microscope. This eliminates the need for a surgical biopsy in many cases, meaning less scarring, a shorter procedure time, and no exposure to radiation. The MR-Guided biopsy procedure can be done in as little as 45 minutes.

Nayanatara Swamy, MD, an Assistant Professor of Radiology at LSU Health Shreveport, performs the procedure. She is exposing students, residents and fellows to the latest technology in breast cancer imaging.