HEALTH & FITNESS
PROGRESS 2014
Disease From 11CC
13CC
Center From 11CC
The Corus CAD test is a non-invasive “gene expression” test that checks a patient’s blood for both genetic and environmental factors. The results are returned within 72 hours. Gentry said the three-day turnaround is not a concern. “If a patient is too unstable to wait that amount of time, that is probably someone that needs to be in the hospital anyway,” Gentry said. The Corus CAD test is not available for diabetic patients or anyone who is currently taking steroids, immunosuppressive medicine or chemotherapeutic agents. A hidden killer among women The Corus CAD test is a more accurate analysis for women, who Gentry said were in great need for a better diagnostic system. Gentry, who sees a higher percentage of female patients than men, said some physicians are prone
Mayo From 13CC In July 2012, WellStar opened the three-story, 70,000-square-foot Acworth Health Park at 4550 Cobb Parkway just north of Cedarcrest Road, which cost $29 million. WellStar broke ground on the East Cobb Health Park in April, a four-story, 188,000-square-foot building northeast of Marietta off Roswell Road, which is expected to cost $80 million and open next September. The design of the WellStar Vinings Health Park will be similar to the East Cobb Health Park, Brywczynski said. “So we don’t have to start
Staff/Kelly J. Huff
Cardiologist Dr. Mindy Gentry is leading the way in protecting Cobb County residents from heart disease with the early detection using the test for the condition using the Coris CAD test.
The condition compressed Parker’s brain matter, Grelecki said, and doctors at Scottish Rite had to rebuild his skull. “He was, medically speaking, born without a brain,” Grelecki said. For five years, Parker’s whole family was told to wait and see. But, Grelecki said, “He is doing far better than we ever could have imagined.” Grelecki said Parker,
“to write someone off as having anxiety.” Gentry, who has three young daughters, said she has a special interest in women with heart disease, especially during pregnancy. “There still tends to be the bias in medicine that you think of men as heart patients,” Gentry said. But, more women than men in the United States die from heart disease. Gentry said this fact, backed by research, is gaining in the public’s knowledge. Gentry said 10 years ago,
there was also increasing evidence that women present with heart disease in a different way than men. With men, the most common symptom is crushing chest pressure, but women are more likely to have fatigue, nausea and shortness of breath. “The symptoms tend to be more vague,” Gentry said, which makes for a harder diagnosis because those symptoms could be related to other health concerns. “It is not a classic story.”
from scratch ... The design teams were happy with the footprint,” he said. Both the East Cobb and Vinings health parks will be staffed with 125 people, including primary-care physicians, pediatric and OB/GYN doctors, cardiologists, gastroenterologists and allergists, as well as equipment for digital x-rays, MRIs and CT scans. “It truly is a one-stop shop for our patients,” Brywczynski said. With overbooked rooms in the Acworth Health Park, the two new parks will double the space, four rooms each, for studies where patients spend the night to be monitored for sleep apnea.
WellStar staff reaction Board members, hospital administrators, medical staff and community leaders gathered at the WellStar Development Center in Smyrna for the announcement in Febru-
“We remain independent, but this is a collaboration,” Jansen said. With more than 13,000 employees, WellStar is one of the largest health systems in the Southeast, serving a
ary. Robert Jansen, executive vice president and chief administrative medical officer of WellStar, began the event by making sure the crowd knew it was not a merger announcement.
population of more than 1.4 million residents in five counties. The collaboration will rely on WellStar doctors acknowledging they need help to solve a problem. “No matter how great physicians are, humility is a great quality,” said Avril Beckford, WellStar’s chief pediatrics officer.
Staff/Kelly J. Huff
Above: Elaine Miller, applications specialist with CMI Imaging checks one of the new digital Radiographic machine in the new wing of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Children’s at Town Center facility located on Big Shanty Road in Kennesaw. Left: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta CEO Donna Hyland, gives the keynote address to those gathered for the official ribbon-cutting, opening the expansion of the radiology department. who has curly blonde hair and wears glasses, is a charismatic little guy who has far exceeded hopes for his cognitive ability, but does have delayed motor skills. Grelecki and his wife, Crysie, who has lived in
Marietta her entire life, will now have a medical staff filled with familiar faces close to home. Should anything happen, including the unavoidable bumps and sprains of their other two young children, it is comforting to have Children’s at Town Center in their backyard, Grelecki said.
Beckford, who has been with WellStar since it was Northwest Georgia Health System in the early 1990s, said she has seen the network grow through many changes. “This is one of the best decisions ever,” Beckford said. Janie Maddox, chairwoman of the WellStar Board of Trustees, said the Cobb community expects excellence in treating personal health. “We kind of know how good we are,” Maddox told the crowd. “But to be able to collaborate with Mayo is just over the top.” Stephen Lange, Southeast medical director of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, attended the event with several
administrators and chief officers from their clinics around the country. The Mayo Clinic Care Network began in 2011, and has 25 members in 14 states, Puerto Rico and Mexico. “Working together, we can increasingly assure patients that they have access to the latest medical knowledge here, in their community,” Lange said. “Medical care is improved by collaboration. We do it because it is the right thing to do for the patients.” The partnership with WellStar will stretch Mayo’s influence in the medical field and accelerate innovation in treating cancer, he said. Maddox told the Mayo representatives, “You may learn as much from us as we learn from all of you all.”