JFK Medical Center main and north campuses and Palms West Hospital collaborated with the technology company EverFi to launch a mental health and wellness digital education course for middle and high school students in Palm Beach County.
Called Mental Wellness Basics, the course provides learners with accurate information about mental health disorders, the sharing of peer experiences with mental illness and messaging that treatment is effective and available. For information, email Community.Engagement@HCAhealthcare.com.
JFK Medical Center announced in October that the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation certified its cardiovascular rehabilitation program. The program includes exercise, education, counseling and support for patients and their families.
Delray Medical Center was certified by DNV GL Healthcare in August for its stroke care based on standards set by the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association.
Comprehensive stroke centers treat any kind of stroke or stroke complication, and a stroke center certification determines which facility a patient is taken to for the most appropriate care when a stroke occurs.
As of August, Delray Medical Center offers GE Discovery IQ PET/CT. Physicians use this tool to determine whether a patient has cancer even before it shows up on other imaging exams. Scans are available on Tuesdays. For information, or to schedule an appointment, call 561-637-5303.
In September, Delray Medical Center’s surgical weight loss program received national accreditation as a Center of Excellence in Bariatrics from Optum Health. For information, visit www.delraymedicalctr.com. Also of note, Tenet Healthcare’s Palm Beach Health Network hospitals, which include Delray Medical Center, are allowing most patients admitted through the Emergency Department to have a visitor.
Khalid A. Hanafy, MD, Ph.D., has joined Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital as medical director of neurocritical care and director of research. He specializes in the care of subarachnoid hemorrhage patients and the study of neuroinflammation.
He is associate professor of neurology at Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine in Boca Raton. Previously, he was the director of the neurological intensive care unit and an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
In September, board-certified urologist Blake Evans, MD, FACS, joined BocaCare Physician Network, a part of Baptist Health South Florida. Evans has experience in robotic and laparoscopic surgery. Previously, he served as the interim chair of the Department of Surgery at Cape Coral Hospital in southwest Florida.
He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Evans earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his urologic training at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He sees patients at 10 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton.
An article that appeared in the ACS Central Science journal in September reported the findings of Scripps Research chemist Matthew Disney, Ph.D., and colleagues, who have created druglike compounds that, in human cell studies, bind and destroy a COVID element to stop the coronavirus from replicating.
“This is a proof-of-concept study,” Disney says. “We put the frame-shifting element into cells and showed that our compound binds the element and degrades it. The next step will be to do this with the whole COVID virus, and then optimize the compound. We wanted to publish (the report) as soon as possible to show the scientific community that the COVID RNA genome is a drug-able target.”
In our last issue, we reported about Palm Beach Research Center’s Moderna COVID vaccine phase three clinical trial, which began July 31. As of mid-October, the study is nearly over, having almost met the enrollment goal nationwide, said David Scott, president and CEO of the research center.
“Moderna has been very pleased with the study’s progress. We all look forward to the study gathering meaningful data for Moderna to analyze and share with the FDA.”
Clinical studies for Regeneron, the COVID antibody cocktail that President Donald Trump received under a compassionate-use request, are underway in Boca Raton.
For information on Regeneron studies as well as others, visit https://clinicaltrials.gov.
Physicians at the Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital have begun and are part of a multi-institutional randomized study on the use of umbilical cord stem cells to treat patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19 infection. The treatment involves an infusion of mesenchymal stem cells, known for their ability to reduce inflammation and regenerate damaged lung tissue.
Send health news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.
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