Serving Harris, Galveston, Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties
HOUSTON
August Issue 2016
Inside This Issue
40 Years of Life Flight, 40 Days of Thanks
Memorial Hermann Life Flight Celebrates 40th Anniversary by Extending its Appreciation to the Community It Serves By Collette Rhiannon
MS patients in Houston have access To wellness program See pg. 18
INDEX Mental Health...............pg.3 Oncology Research......pg.7 The Framework..............pg.8 Age Well Live Well........pg.12
Four decades after launching the innovative air ambulance service known today as Memorial Hermann Life Flight®, Memorial Hermann Health System will commemorate the program’s momentous 40th anniversary by expressing its gratitude to the community that has helped make the lifesaving service possible. The campaign, called “40 Years of Life Flight, 40 Days of Thanks,” kicked off with an official proclamation from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office, presented by Houston City Council Member Jack Christie on the helipad of Life Flight’s home base at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center (TMC), declaring Aug. 1, 2016 as
“Memorial Hermann Life Flight Day.” “Today is a special day, not just for Life Flight, but for the entire city of Houston, as we reflect back on the pioneering leadership that helped make this program possible and celebrate the many accomplishments that have defined Life Flight’s reputation as a trailblazer among air ambulance
services,” said Brian Dean, Senior Vice President and CEO of Memorial Hermann-TMC. Throughout the next 40 days, the Life Flight team will be showing their gratitude in various ways, including extending their thanks to EMS partners and first responders throughout see Life Flight page 19
Rice lab discovers titanium-gold alloy that is four times harder than most steels By Jade Boyd Rice University
Pearland Medical Center hosts fallen officers See pg .20
Titanium is the leading material for artificial knee and hip joints because it’s strong, wear-resistant and nontoxic, but an unexpected discovery by Rice University physicists shows that the gold standard for artificial joints can be improved with the addition of some actual gold.
“It is about 3-4 times harder than most steels,” said Emilia Morosan, the lead scientist on a new study in Science Advances that describes the properties of a 3-to-1 mixture of titanium and gold with a specific atomic structure that imparts hardness. “It’s four times harder than pure titanium, which is what’s currently being used in most dental implants and replacement that Morosan and former graduate student Eteri Svanidze, the study’s lead joints.” co-author, were the first to make a pure Morosan, a physicist who sample of the ultrahard “beta” form of specializes in the design and synthesis the compound. But due to a couple of of compounds with exotic electronic lucky breaks, they and their co-authors and magnetic properties, said the new are the first to document the material’s study is “a first for me in a number of remarkable properties. ways. This compound is not difficult “This began from my core to make, and it’s not a new material.” research,” said Morosan, professor In fact, the atomic structure of the of physics and astronomy, of material — its atoms are tightly packed chemistry and of materials science in a “cubic” crystalline structure that’s and nanoengineering at Rice. “We often associated with hardness — was previously known. It’s not even clear see Rice page 19
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