tag:www.scripps.org,2005:/news_items 2012-02-06T22:55:38Z tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4155 2012-02-02T16:25:57-08:00 2012-02-06T22:55:38Z Scripps Health <p>Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, <a href="http://www.scripps.org/services/cancer-care?utm_content=PR008">Scripps Health</a>, and collaborating cancer physicians have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of an advanced blood test for detecting and analyzing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) &#8212; breakaway cells from patients’ solid tumors &#8212; from cancer patients. The findings, reported in five new papers, show that the highly sensitive blood analysis provides information that may soon be comparable to that from some types of surgical biopsies.</p> <p>&#8220;It’s a next-generation technology,” said Scripps Research Associate Professor Peter Kuhn, PhD, senior investigator of the new studies and primary inventor of the high-definition blood test. “It significantly boosts our ability to monitor, predict, and understand cancer progression, including metastasis, which is the major cause of death for cancer patients.”</p> <p>The studies were published February 3, 2012, in the journal Physical Biology.</p> <p>The new test, called HD-CTC, labels cells in a patient’s blood sample in a way that distinguishes possible CTCs from ordinary red and white blood cells. It then uses a digital microscope and an image-processing algorithm to isolate the suspect cells with sizes and shapes (“morphologies”) unlike those of healthy cells. Just as in a surgical biopsy, a pathologist can examine the images of the suspected CTCs to eliminate false positives and note their morphologies.</p> <p>Kuhn emphasizes that this basic setup can be easily modified with different cell-labeling and image-processing techniques.</p> <h4>Five new studies, five steps forward</h4> <p>To test the new technology, members of the Kuhn lab at Scripps Research teamed up with <a href="http://www.scripps.org/services/cancer-care?utm_content=PR008">pathologists and oncologists at Scripps Health</a> in La Jolla, California; UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego; the Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana; the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco; the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles; and the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.</p> <p>The five new studies that resulted from the collaboration not only demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the new test for a number of different cancer types, but also begin to explore the utility of the technology for diagnosing and monitoring patients and improving cancer research in the lab. While other tests for CTCs typically use “enrichment” steps in which suspected CTCs are concentrated—and these methods inadvertently exclude some types of CTCs—the new studies show HD-CTC works well as a no-cell-left-behind process and enables a more complete analysis.</p> <p>Also striking is the quality of the images. “The high definition method gives a detailed portrait of these elusive cells that are caught in the act of spreading around the body,” said diagnostic pathologist <a href="/physicians/5877-kelly-bethel" title="Kelly Bethel, MD">Kelly Bethel, MD</a>, of Scripps Health and Scripps Research, who is the senior clinical investigator on Kuhn’s team. “It’s unprecedented—we’ve never been able to see them routinely and in high definition like this before.”</p> <p><div class="img_frame floatleft"><img alt="Kuhn structure 260x180" src="http://assets4.scripps.org/assets/images/kuhn_structure_260x180.jpg?1328229535" /><p class="image-description" style="width: 260px"><cite>A cluster of lung circulating tumor cells (in red-blue) interacts with normal blood cells (green-blue) recovered from a blood sample of patient with lung cancer. (Image courtesy of the Kuhn lab.)</cite></p></div></p> <p>In the first study, the research team examined 83 advanced cancer patients using HD-CTC to document the test’s sensitivity and accuracy for different cancer types. The scientists found that the test detected five or more CTCs per milliliter of blood in 80 percent of patients with metastatic prostate cancer, 70 percent of those with metastatic breast cancer, 50 percent of those with metastatic pancreatic cancer, and no healthy subjects. The current gold-standard CTC test, known as CellSearch, was notably less sensitive in detecting tumor cells in these samples.</p> <p>Most patients whose CTC counts surpassed the detection threshold also showed small aggregates of CTCs, which cancer biologists term “microtumor emboli.” These are widely suspected to be incipient metastatic tumors, as well as triggers for the blood clots that often kill advanced cancer patients. In the second study, the scientists showed that HD-CTC could detect these aggregates in 43 percent of 71 patients with advanced prostate, lung, pancreas, and breast cancers, and in none of a group of 15 healthy subjects. “This tells us that HD-CTC could be helpful in studying the origins of cancer metastases and related blood clots, and for predicting them, too,” Kuhn said.</p> <p>In the third study, the team used HD-CTC to compare circulating tumor cells from prostate cancer patients with cells from prostate cancer cell lines that researchers often use as convenient models for prostate cancer biology in the lab. The team found significant differences between the two classes of cells, in their cell morphology and in the way they were labeled by HD-CTC’s fluorescent tags. “This underscores the need for studying cancer cells from patients, not just model cancer cells that in some ways may be utterly different from the real thing,” Kuhn said.</p> <p>In the fourth study, the researchers performed HD-CTC tests on 28 patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer over periods of up to a year. The team was able to detect CTCs in 68 percent of samples, and found that the numbers of detected CTCs tended to go up as other measures showed cancer progression.</p> <p>In the fifth and final paper of the series, the team used HD-CTC in 78 patients who had just been diagnosed with various stages of non-small-cell lung cancer. “We demonstrated that we could sensitively detect CTCs even in patients with early-stage cancer,” Kuhn said.</p> <p>This result points to the possibility of using the HD-CTC blood test not only to evaluate already-diagnosed cancer, but also to help detect cancer in people who are unaware they have it. “If HD-CTC works on the day after cancer diagnosis, as we’ve shown, then one can easily imagine that it would work the day before diagnosis, too,” Kuhn said.</p> <p>Kuhn and his colleagues now intend to study the use of HD-CTC as a potential screening test and to develop it further for use in clinical monitoring and cancer research. Kuhn has founded a San Diego-based biotechnology company, Epic Sciences, Inc., to develop HD-CTC commercially for companion diagnostic products in personalized cancer care.</p> <p>Dena Marrinucci, PhD, of Scripps Research was first author of the study, “Fluid biopsy in patients with metastatic prostate, pancreatic and breast cancer”; Edward H. Cho, PhD, of Scripps Research was first author of “Characterization of circulating tumor cell aggregates identified in patients with epithelial tumors”; Daniel C. Lazar of Scripps Research was first author of “Cytometric comparisons between circulating tumor cells from prostate cancer patients and the prostate-tumor-derived LNCaP cell Line”; Jorge Nieva, MD, of Scripps Research was first author of “High-definition imaging of circulating tumor cells and associated cellular events in non-small cell lung cancer patients: a longitudinal analysis; and Marco Wendel, PhD, of Scripps Research and Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center were first authors of “Fluid biopsy for circulating tumor cell identification in patients with early and late stage non-small cell lung cancer; a glimpse into lung cancer biology.” For more information on the papers, see <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/">http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/</a>.</p> <p>Kuhn’s laboratory is supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the US National Institutes of Health as the NCI Scripps Physics Oncology Center, which was initially supported through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.</p> <h4>About The Scripps Research Institute</h4> <p>The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world&#8217;s largest independent, non-profit biomedical research organizations. Scripps Research is internationally recognized for its discoveries in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and vaccine development, as well as for its insights into autoimmune, cardiovascular, and infectious disease. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the institute also includes a campus in Jupiter, Florida.</p> <p>For more information, see <a href="http://www.scripps.edu">www.scripps.edu</a>.</p>

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Health, and collaborating cancer physicians have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of an advanced blood test for detecting and analyzing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) — breakaway cells from patients’ solid tumors — from cancer patients. The findings, reported in five new papers, show that the highly sensitive blood analysis provides information that may soon be comparable to that from some types of surgical biopsies. “It’s a next-generation technology,” said Scripps Research Associate Professor Peter Kuhn, PhD, senior investigator of the new studies and primary inventor of the high-definition blood test. “It significantly boosts our ability to monitor, predict, and understand cancer progression, including metastasis, which is the major cause of death for cancer patients.” The studies were published February 3, 2012, in the journal Physical Biology. The new test, called HD-CTC, labels cells in a patient’s blood sample in a way that distinguishes possible CTCs from ordinary red and white blood cells. It then uses a digital microscope and an image-processing algorithm to isolate the suspect cells with sizes and shapes (“morphologies”) unlike those of healthy cells. Just as in a surgical biopsy, a pathologist can examine the images of the suspected CTCs to eliminate false positives and note their morphologies. Kuhn emphasizes that this basic setup can be easily modified with different cell-labeling and image-processing techniques. Five new studies, five steps forward To test the new technology, members of the Kuhn lab at Scripps Research teamed up with pathologists and oncologists at Scripps Health in La Jolla, California; UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego; the Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana; the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco; the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles; and the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The five new studies that resulted from the collaboration not only demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the new test for a number of different cancer types, but also begin to explore the utility of the technology for diagnosing and monitoring patients and improving cancer research in the lab. While other tests for CTCs typically use “enrichment” steps in which suspected CTCs are concentrated—and these methods inadvertently exclude some types of CTCs—the new studies show HD-CTC works well as a no-cell-left-behind process and enables a more complete analysis. Also striking is the quality of the images. “The high definition method gives a detailed portrait of these elusive cells that are caught in the act of spreading around the body,” said diagnostic pathologist Kelly Bethel, MD, of Scripps Health and Scripps Research, who is the senior clinical investigator on Kuhn’s team. “It’s unprecedented—we’ve never been able to see them routinely and in high definition like this before.” In the first study, the research team examined 83 advanced cancer patients using HD-CTC to document the test’s sensitivity and accuracy for different cancer types. The scientists found that the test detected five or more CTCs per milliliter of blood in 80 percent of patients with metastatic prostate cancer, 70 percent of those with metastatic breast cancer, 50 percent of those with metastatic pancreatic cancer, and no healthy subjects. The current gold-standard CTC test, known as CellSearch, was notably less sensitive in detecting tumor cells in these samples. Most patients whose CTC counts surpassed the detection threshold also showed small aggregates of CTCs, which cancer biologists term “microtumor emboli.” These are widely suspected to be incipient metastatic tumors, as well as triggers for the blood clots that often kill advanced cancer patients. In the second study, the scientists showed that HD-CTC could detect these aggregates in 43 percent of 71 patients with advanced prostate, lung, pancreas, and breast cancers, and in none of a group of 15 healthy subjects. “This tells us that HD-CTC could be helpful in studying the origins of cancer metastases and related blood clots, and for predicting them, too,” Kuhn said. In the third study, the team used HD-CTC to compare circulating tumor cells from prostate cancer patients with cells from prostate cancer cell lines that researchers often use as convenient models for prostate cancer biology in the lab. The team found significant differences between the two classes of cells, in their cell morphology and in the way they were labeled by HD-CTC’s fluorescent tags. “This underscores the need for studying cancer cells from patients, not just model cancer cells that in some ways may be utterly different from the real thing,” Kuhn said. In the fourth study, the researchers performed HD-CTC tests on 28 patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer over periods of up to a year. The team was able to detect CTCs in 68 percent of samples, and found that the numbers of detected CTCs tended to go up as other measures showed cancer progression. In the fifth and final paper of the series, the team used HD-CTC in 78 patients who had just been diagnosed with various stages of non-small-cell lung cancer. “We demonstrated that we could sensitively detect CTCs even in patients with early-stage cancer,” Kuhn said. This result points to the possibility of using the HD-CTC blood test not only to evaluate already-diagnosed cancer, but also to help detect cancer in people who are unaware they have it. “If HD-CTC works on the day after cancer diagnosis, as we’ve shown, then one can easily imagine that it would work the day before diagnosis, too,” Kuhn said. Kuhn and his colleagues now intend to study the use of HD-CTC as a potential screening test and to develop it further for use in clinical monitoring and cancer research. Kuhn has founded a San Diego-based biotechnology company, Epic Sciences, Inc., to develop HD-CTC commercially for companion diagnostic products in personalized cancer care. Dena Marrinucci, PhD, of Scripps Research was first author of the study, “Fluid biopsy in patients with metastatic prostate, pancreatic and breast cancer”; Edward H. Cho, PhD, of Scripps Research was first author of “Characterization of circulating tumor cell aggregates identified in patients with epithelial tumors”; Daniel C. Lazar of Scripps Research was first author of “Cytometric comparisons between circulating tumor cells from prostate cancer patients and the prostate-tumor-derived LNCaP cell Line”; Jorge Nieva, MD, of Scripps Research was first author of “High-definition imaging of circulating tumor cells and associated cellular events in non-small cell lung cancer patients: a longitudinal analysis; and Marco Wendel, PhD, of Scripps Research and Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD, of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center were first authors of “Fluid biopsy for circulating tumor cell identification in patients with early and late stage non-small cell lung cancer; a glimpse into lung cancer biology.” For more information on the papers, see http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/. Kuhn’s laboratory is supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the US National Institutes of Health as the NCI Scripps Physics Oncology Center, which was initially supported through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. About The Scripps Research Institute The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world’s largest independent, non-profit biomedical research organizations. Scripps Research is internationally recognized for its discoveries in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and vaccine development, as well as for its insights into autoimmune, cardiovascular, and infectious disease. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the institute also includes a campus in Jupiter, Florida. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4156 2012-02-02T16:59:25-08:00 2012-02-02T17:03:49-08:00 Scripps Health <p>&#8220;The Creative Destruction of Medicine,&#8221; the new book by Scripps Health Chief Academic Officer <a href="/physicians/5497-eric-topol" title="Eric Topol, MD">Eric Topol, MD</a>, reveals &#8220;how medical innovation will coalesce to change clinical practice and what the coming changes mean for today&#8217;s policy debates,&#8221; according to a newly published review by The Wall Street Journal.</p> <p>The hardback version of the book hit store shelves across the country earlier this week.</p> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577193191077117530.html">Read the Journal&#8217;s full review</a>.</p>

“The Creative Destruction of Medicine,” the new book by Scripps Health Chief Academic Officer Eric Topol, MD, reveals “how medical innovation will coalesce to change clinical practice and what the coming changes mean for today’s policy debates,” according to a newly published review by The Wall Street Journal. The hardback version of the book hit store shelves across the country earlier this week. Read the Journal’s full review.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4152 2012-01-27T14:44:44-08:00 2012-01-27T14:47:39-08:00 Scripps Health <p>Scripps Health has opened a clinic in Rancho Mirage to care for kidney, pancreas and liver transplant patients through the <a href="/services/organ-and-cell-transplantation" title="Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation">Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation</a> in San Diego.</p> <p>“We opened the clinic in response to requests from patients and referring doctors in the Palm Springs area,” said <a href="/physicians/4703-christopher-marsh" title="Dr. Christopher Marsh">Dr. Christopher Marsh</a>, chief of transplant surgery at the Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation. “Word is spreading about our program and how well we care for our patients.”</p> <p>Some clinic visits that previously required trips to San Diego now can be done closer to home, saving patients time and money. Doctors at the Rancho Mirage location will perform initial patient screenings, re-evaluations of patients on organ waiting lists and follow-up exams after transplant surgery.</p> <p>The clinic is located at 69-730 Highway 111, Suite 117, and is staffed by a transplant physician, a transplant nurse coordinator and a physician assistant. Appointments are available on the last Friday of every month.</p> <p>Dr. Marsh, along with fellow Scripps Clinic surgeon <a href="/physicians/4066-jonathan-fisher" title="Dr. Jonathan Fisher">Dr. Jonathan Fisher</a> and <a href="/physicians/4320-donald-hillebrand" title="Dr. Donald Hillebrand">Dr. Donald Hillebrand</a>, a hepatologist and director of liver transplants at the Scripps center, will see patients at the new site.</p> <p>Patients will continue to visit San Diego for final presurgery educational classes and for their organ transplant surgery. They also can participate in support group meetings organized through the San Diego center.</p> <p>Transplant patients must undergo extensive evaluations and instruction before surgery, and some candidates wait months or years for organs to become available. After surgery, they must undergo follow-up exams and take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives.</p> <p>A trademark of the Scripps program is the use of a steroid-free medications approach in postsurgical patients for suppressing the immune system and preventing rejection of the new organ. Those therapies are an alternative to steroidal drugs that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and other serious side effects when taken long-term at high doses.</p> <p>For more information about the Rancho Mirage clinic call (858) 554-4310.</p> <p><strong>About Scripps Health</strong><br />Learn more about <a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

Scripps Health has opened a clinic in Rancho Mirage to care for kidney, pancreas and liver transplant patients through the Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation in San Diego. “We opened the clinic in response to requests from patients and referring doctors in the Palm Springs area,” said Dr. Christopher Marsh, chief of transplant surgery at the Scripps Center for Organ and Cell Transplantation. “Word is spreading about our program and how well we care for our patients.” Some clinic visits that previously required trips to San Diego now can be done closer to home, saving patients time and money. Doctors at the Rancho Mirage location will perform initial patient screenings, re-evaluations of patients on organ waiting lists and follow-up exams after transplant surgery. The clinic is located at 69-730 Highway 111, Suite 117, and is staffed by a transplant physician, a transplant nurse coordinator and a physician assistant. Appointments are available on the last Friday of every month. Dr. Marsh, along with fellow Scripps Clinic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Fisher and Dr. Donald Hillebrand, a hepatologist and director of liver transplants at the Scripps center, will see patients at the new site. Patients will continue to visit San Diego for final presurgery educational classes and for their organ transplant surgery. They also can participate in support group meetings organized through the San Diego center. Transplant patients must undergo extensive evaluations and instruction before surgery, and some candidates wait months or years for organs to become available. After surgery, they must undergo follow-up exams and take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives. A trademark of the Scripps program is the use of a steroid-free medications approach in postsurgical patients for suppressing the immune system and preventing rejection of the new organ. Those therapies are an alternative to steroidal drugs that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and other serious side effects when taken long-term at high doses. For more information about the Rancho Mirage clinic call (858) 554-4310. About Scripps HealthLearn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4153 2012-01-27T14:56:02-08:00 2012-01-27T14:56:02-08:00 Scripps Health <p>Scripps Health has purchased a new medical office building for <a href="/locations/scripps-coastal-medical-center" title="Scripps Coastal Medical Center">Scripps Coastal Medical Center</a> in Oceanside. The updated, convenient and patient-friendly facility is located adjacent to California State Route 76 at 4318 Mission Ave, and will replace the original Scripps Coastal Medical Center facility on Mission Avenue.</p> <p>The new 33,500-square-foot medical office building is almost twice the size of the original medical center, provides more parking, easier accessibility and the latest wireless technology.</p> <p>&#8220;Scripps Coastal is proud to open a new state of the art facility in the same community where we have had the pleasure of delivering care and practicing medicine for 50 years,” said <a href="/physicians/4325-kevin-hirsch" title="Kevin Hirsch, MD">Kevin Hirsch, MD</a>, president of Scripps Coastal Medical Group.</p> <p>Initially, the new building will house the 10 Scripps doctors and 40 staff from the existing medical center, expanding to a total of 20 physicians in the future.</p> <p>Scripps plan called for a new facility that could meet the needs of existing Scripps Coastal patients and accommodate future growth in the area. When searching for a new building, the priority was to find a location that was central to patients. The new medical office building is within three miles of the majority of current patients’ homes.</p> <p>“Our patients voiced the need for a new facility – we listened,” said <a href="/about-us__executive-team__larry-harrison" title="Larry Harrison">Larry Harrison</a>, chief executive for Scripps Coastal. “The new medical office building is more modern and will offer patients more amenities. Scripps Health is excited about this facility upgrade and looks forward to meeting the growing health care needs of the Oceanside community.”</p> <p>The transition process from the existing site will take place over the next several months, with plans to fully open in July 2012. Current patients will be notified of the change and invited to attend the grand opening scheduled for later this year.</p> <p><strong>About Scripps Health</strong><br />Learn more about <a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

Scripps Health has purchased a new medical office building for Scripps Coastal Medical Center in Oceanside. The updated, convenient and patient-friendly facility is located adjacent to California State Route 76 at 4318 Mission Ave, and will replace the original Scripps Coastal Medical Center facility on Mission Avenue. The new 33,500-square-foot medical office building is almost twice the size of the original medical center, provides more parking, easier accessibility and the latest wireless technology. “Scripps Coastal is proud to open a new state of the art facility in the same community where we have had the pleasure of delivering care and practicing medicine for 50 years,” said Kevin Hirsch, MD, president of Scripps Coastal Medical Group. Initially, the new building will house the 10 Scripps doctors and 40 staff from the existing medical center, expanding to a total of 20 physicians in the future. Scripps plan called for a new facility that could meet the needs of existing Scripps Coastal patients and accommodate future growth in the area. When searching for a new building, the priority was to find a location that was central to patients. The new medical office building is within three miles of the majority of current patients’ homes. “Our patients voiced the need for a new facility – we listened,” said Larry Harrison, chief executive for Scripps Coastal. “The new medical office building is more modern and will offer patients more amenities. Scripps Health is excited about this facility upgrade and looks forward to meeting the growing health care needs of the Oceanside community.” The transition process from the existing site will take place over the next several months, with plans to fully open in July 2012. Current patients will be notified of the change and invited to attend the grand opening scheduled for later this year. About Scripps HealthLearn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4154 2012-01-27T15:27:24-08:00 2012-01-27T15:29:54-08:00 Scripps Health <p>Jan Caldwell and Jeff Bowman have been elected to the Scripps Health Board of Trustees, and Maureen Stapleton has been named chairman. Their terms began this month.</p> <p>Caldwell and Bowman fill vacancies created by the completion of Board service by Martin Dickinson and the death of Richard Hall, MD, who passed away in February of last year.</p> <p>Jan Caldwell is the public affairs officer for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. As a member of the sheriff’s executive management team and office of public affairs, she is responsible for internal and external communications, media relations, collateral development and special events. Previously, Caldwell served as a special agent for the FBI for 32 years. Caldwell is a member of the San Diego County Crime Stoppers board of directors and serves as chairman of the Campus Crime Stoppers Committee.</p> <p>Jeff Bowman retired as chief of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 2006 after five years of service. Previously, he was fire chief of the Anaheim Fire Department for 16 of his 29 years of duty. Bowman served as president of the California Fire Chiefs Association and the Orange County Fire Chief’s Association and was appointed to the California State Board of Fire Services by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997. Bowman was tasked with managing San Diego Fire-Rescue resources during the October 2003 fire storms and was recognized for his efforts by being named “Fire Chief of the Year for 2004” by the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. Bowman served on the Scripps Health Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2010, including two years as chairman in 2006 and 2007.</p> <p>Maureen Stapleton is the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, responsible for serving the San Diego region as a wholesale supplier of water from the Colorado River and northern California. Stapleton serves on numerous civic and professional boards including the Western Urban Water Coalition, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, CEO Business Roundtable, Downtown San Diego Rotary and United Way. Prior to joining the Water Authority, Stapleton served as the assistant city manager for the city of San Diego. Stapleton served as vice chairman of the Scripps Health Board of Trustees in 2011.</p> <p>“The Scripps Health Board of Trustees plays a vital role in ensuring that this organization continues to provide quality health care to the communities we serve,” said <a href="/about-us__executive-team__chris-van-gorder" title="Chris Van Gorder">Chris Van Gorder</a>, president and chief executive officer of Scripps Health. “In an age of health care reform and a challenging economy, the dedication and expertise of each trustee allows Scripps to move confidently into a new era of patient care.”</p> <p><strong>About Scripps Health</strong><br />Learn more about <a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

Jan Caldwell and Jeff Bowman have been elected to the Scripps Health Board of Trustees, and Maureen Stapleton has been named chairman. Their terms began this month. Caldwell and Bowman fill vacancies created by the completion of Board service by Martin Dickinson and the death of Richard Hall, MD, who passed away in February of last year. Jan Caldwell is the public affairs officer for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. As a member of the sheriff’s executive management team and office of public affairs, she is responsible for internal and external communications, media relations, collateral development and special events. Previously, Caldwell served as a special agent for the FBI for 32 years. Caldwell is a member of the San Diego County Crime Stoppers board of directors and serves as chairman of the Campus Crime Stoppers Committee. Jeff Bowman retired as chief of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 2006 after five years of service. Previously, he was fire chief of the Anaheim Fire Department for 16 of his 29 years of duty. Bowman served as president of the California Fire Chiefs Association and the Orange County Fire Chief’s Association and was appointed to the California State Board of Fire Services by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997. Bowman was tasked with managing San Diego Fire-Rescue resources during the October 2003 fire storms and was recognized for his efforts by being named “Fire Chief of the Year for 2004” by the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. Bowman served on the Scripps Health Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2010, including two years as chairman in 2006 and 2007. Maureen Stapleton is the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, responsible for serving the San Diego region as a wholesale supplier of water from the Colorado River and northern California. Stapleton serves on numerous civic and professional boards including the Western Urban Water Coalition, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, CEO Business Roundtable, Downtown San Diego Rotary and United Way. Prior to joining the Water Authority, Stapleton served as the assistant city manager for the city of San Diego. Stapleton served as vice chairman of the Scripps Health Board of Trustees in 2011. “The Scripps Health Board of Trustees plays a vital role in ensuring that this organization continues to provide quality health care to the communities we serve,” said Chris Van Gorder, president and chief executive officer of Scripps Health. “In an age of health care reform and a challenging economy, the dedication and expertise of each trustee allows Scripps to move confidently into a new era of patient care.” About Scripps HealthLearn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4150 2012-01-24T12:28:21-08:00 2012-01-24T12:45:50-08:00 Scripps Health <p>Becker&#8217;s Hospital Review has named Scripps Health’s President and CEO <a href="/about-us__executive-team__chris-van-gorder" title="Chris Van Gorder">Chris Van Gorder</a> one of the 40 of the most powerful people in health care in its January-February edition. This list recognizes leaders who have shaped the health care industry with their policy work, clinical research, company leadership and commentary, among other contributions.</p> <p>This recognition follows Van Gorder’s listing as No. 18 on Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of the nation’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, published last year.</p> <p>&#8220;As president and CEO of San Diego-based Scripps Health since 2000, Chris Van Gorder has led the non-profit health system through a series of financial and culture changes, positioning the system as one of the nation&#8217;s leading health providers,&#8221; the Becker’s Hospital Review listing states. &#8220;When Mr. Van Gorder was appointed CEO in 1999, Scripps Health was losing $15 million a year, and the management had recently received a &#8216;no-confidence&#8217; vote from its medical staff. Mr. Van Gorder responded to the crisis by implementing a physician leadership cabinet, building strategic alliances and pushing a more transparent management style. Through a joint venture with North American Medical Management California, Scripps Health recently formed an integrated delivery network with seven physician groups in San Diego County that is organized to respond to alternative care management agreements.&#8221;</p> <p>In addition to his duties with Scripps Health, Van Gorder is the immediate past chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an international professional society of more than 30,000 health care executives.</p> <p>Van Gorder also serves as a commissioner on the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services. Under his leadership, Scripps Health worked with the state of California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority to develop the internal operations structure for the state’s recently purchased mobile field hospitals, to be used in the event of mass casualties from natural disasters or terrorist events. Van Gorder is also serving his third term as a commissioner to the United States Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).</p> <p>Many onlookers have called the current state of the health care industry a &#8220;perfect storm,&#8221; where governmental mandates, financial pressures, technological developments and changing patient demographics combine to create confusion and uncertainty. The list’s 40 most powerful people have influenced the changing world of healthcare over the past year by developing and pioneering new models of care, creating ties between competing providers, hospitals and health systems and emphasizing the importance of patient-centered research and care, among other accomplishments. The individuals included range from health system CEOs to presidential candidates to insurance company moguls.</p> <p>In order to compile this list, the Becker&#8217;s Hospital Review editorial team analyzed the most important healthcare events, issues and discussions of the past year and thereby determined which individuals had the most impact on the industry. The final list of &#8220;powerful people&#8221; was analyzed by a panel of healthcare experts.</p> <p>The full list, in alphabetical order, can be read here: <a href="http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/lists-and-statistics/40-of-the-most-powerful-people-in-healthcare.html">40 of the Most Powerful People in Healthcare</a></p> <p><strong>About Scripps Health</strong></p> <p>Learn more about <a href="/about-us" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

Becker’s Hospital Review has named Scripps Health’s President and CEO Chris Van Gorder one of the 40 of the most powerful people in health care in its January-February edition. This list recognizes leaders who have shaped the health care industry with their policy work, clinical research, company leadership and commentary, among other contributions. This recognition follows Van Gorder’s listing as No. 18 on Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of the nation’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, published last year. “As president and CEO of San Diego-based Scripps Health since 2000, Chris Van Gorder has led the non-profit health system through a series of financial and culture changes, positioning the system as one of the nation’s leading health providers,” the Becker’s Hospital Review listing states. “When Mr. Van Gorder was appointed CEO in 1999, Scripps Health was losing $15 million a year, and the management had recently received a ‘no-confidence’ vote from its medical staff. Mr. Van Gorder responded to the crisis by implementing a physician leadership cabinet, building strategic alliances and pushing a more transparent management style. Through a joint venture with North American Medical Management California, Scripps Health recently formed an integrated delivery network with seven physician groups in San Diego County that is organized to respond to alternative care management agreements.” In addition to his duties with Scripps Health, Van Gorder is the immediate past chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an international professional society of more than 30,000 health care executives. Van Gorder also serves as a commissioner on the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services. Under his leadership, Scripps Health worked with the state of California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority to develop the internal operations structure for the state’s recently purchased mobile field hospitals, to be used in the event of mass casualties from natural disasters or terrorist events. Van Gorder is also serving his third term as a commissioner to the United States Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Many onlookers have called the current state of the health care industry a “perfect storm,” where governmental mandates, financial pressures, technological developments and changing patient demographics combine to create confusion and uncertainty. The list’s 40 most powerful people have influenced the changing world of healthcare over the past year by developing and pioneering new models of care, creating ties between competing providers, hospitals and health systems and emphasizing the importance of patient-centered research and care, among other accomplishments. The individuals included range from health system CEOs to presidential candidates to insurance company moguls. In order to compile this list, the Becker’s Hospital Review editorial team analyzed the most important healthcare events, issues and discussions of the past year and thereby determined which individuals had the most impact on the industry. The final list of “powerful people” was analyzed by a panel of healthcare experts. The full list, in alphabetical order, can be read here: 40 of the Most Powerful People in Healthcare About Scripps Health Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4151 2012-01-25T16:15:22-08:00 2012-02-02T15:05:19-08:00 Scripps Health <p>Scripps Health has opened the new Conrad Prebys Emergency &#38; Trauma Center to treat patients at <a href="/locations/hospitals__scripps-mercy-hospital" title="Scripps Mercy Hospital">Scripps Mercy Hospital</a>.</p> <p>The new facility is named in honor of Conrad Prebys, the prominent San Diego developer and philanthropist who donated $10 million to support Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego’s emergency department and trauma services in 2006. The gift remains the largest donation to the not-for-profit hospital in its 121-year history. It marked Mr. Prebys’ first donation to Scripps, which was followed in 2011 with a $45 million donation to build the Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute on the campus of <a href="/locations/hospitals__scripps-memorial-hospital-la-jolla" title="Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla">Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla</a>.<br /><div class="img_frame floatleft"><img alt="Mercy ED Opening" src="http://assets2.scripps.org/assets/images/mercy_ed_168_x_252.jpg?1328223670" /><p class="image-description" style="width: 168px"><cite>Scripps President and CEO, Chris Van Gorder celebrates the new Emergency & Trauma Center with philanthropist Conrad Prebys. </cite></p></div> <br />“Thanks to the generosity of Conrad Prebys, Scripps can strengthen its mission through expanding facilities and servicing the growing health care needs of our communities,” said Scripps President and CEO <a href="/about-us__executive-team__chris-van-gorder" title="Chris Van Gorder">Chris Van Gorder</a>. “Because of his $10 million gift, Scripps Mercy San Diego has been able to expand emergency and trauma services and update our facility to meet the growing health care needs of the community we serve.”</p> <p>The new facility, which opened Jan. 19, features private patient rooms, a department-dedicated CT scanner adjacent to the trauma room, a telemetry system to provide continuous wireless monitoring capabilities within the <a href="/services/emergency-and-trauma" title="Emergency Department">Emergency Department</a> and a dedicated laboratory to quickly provide test results. Each addition increases the efficiency of care and reduces the volume of patient transportation to different departments.</p> <p>As a Level I Trauma Center, the highest designation for trauma care assigned by the American College of Surgeons, Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego is nationally recognized for its trauma and injury prevention work. The expansion of the emergency and trauma center further enhances the hospital’s reputation as an industry leader in health care.</p> <p>The next phase of the project will be the renovation and reopening of the existing emergency department. Upon completion in 2013, Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego will boast a 27,000-square-foot, 49 bed emergency and trauma center dedicated to serving the health care needs of the San Diego community.</p> <p>Because of its central location and high quality, comprehensive health care services, Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego plays a pivotal role in the health and well-being of residents in San Diego County. Scripps Mercy operates one of the busiest emergency departments and trauma centers in the county with 60,000 patients seen in the emergency department and 2,400 trauma patients treated in 2010.</p> <p>“The opening of this new center is significant milestone for our patients and our staff,” said Tom Gammiere, vice president and chief executive of Scripps Mercy Hospital. “We are grateful to have a state-of-the-art facility where we can provide the best possible care for our emergency and trauma patients.”</p>

Scripps Health has opened the new Conrad Prebys Emergency & Trauma Center to treat patients at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4149 2012-01-19T10:43:25-08:00 2012-01-24T10:21:29-08:00 Scripps Health <p><a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a> has been named to Fortune magazine’s 15th annual list of America’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/56.html">Scripps ranked No. 56</a> on this year’s list and is the second San Diego-based company to make the list since the list’s inception in 1998, joining Qualcomm.</p> <p>“Scripps is honored to be acknowledged for the fifth time by Fortune as one of America’s top employers,” said <a href="/about-us__executive-team__chris-van-gorder" title="Chris Van Gorder">Chris Van Gorder</a>, president and CEO of Scripps. “This accomplishment reflects the importance we place on our employees and how we strive to create a culture of excellence that makes them feel secure, appreciated and empowered.”</p> <p>Fortune recognized Scripps for its practice of avoiding layoffs. In the rare occurrence that a position is eliminated at Scripps due to changing business needs, staff members can continue earning their base pay and benefits while the Scripps Career Resource Center (CRC) assists them in searching for a position within Scripps or outside of the organization.</p> <p>“While other hospitals and health systems across the country have resorted to job cuts and the elimination of services during these challenging times, Scripps has made a commitment to preserving jobs and avoiding layoffs,” said <a href="/about-us__executive-team__victor-buzachero" title="Victor Buzachero">Victor Buzachero</a>, corporate senior vice president of innovation, human resources and performance management for Scripps. “The CRC has helped us retain highly skilled employees and avoid the high costs of severance pay and turnover.”</p> <p>Scripps designed and implemented the CRC well before the downturn in the economy and has actively kept it in place during the recession. Since its inception, more than 700 employees have participated in the CRC with job placements in or outside of the organization.</p> <p>Richelle Ward, who has worked for Scripps for 10 years, learned her department was closing in August 2010.</p> <p>&#8220;The CRC helped me look for another position and provided tools and information for my job search,&#8221; said Ward. &#8220;My department was like a second family and the transition was a difficult time. However, the CRC helped me through it and I benefited from their support, knowledge and individualized assistance. In the end, I had three possible job opportunities to choose from and I love the one that I chose.&#8221;</p> <p>The list will appear in the Feb. 6 issue of Fortune, and <a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/full_list/">the full list</a> is now available online. To pick the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Fortune partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America; 280 firms participated in this year’s survey. More than 246,000 employees at those companies responded to a survey created by the institute, a global research and consulting firm operating in 45 countries around the world.</p> <p>The Fortune magazine ranking comes on the heels of four other national accolades Scripps Health has received for workplace excellence. In its 2011 listing, AARP ranked Scripps at the top employer in the country for its 50 Best Employers for Workers Over 50. This was the seventh consecutive year Scripps was named to this list. Working Mother magazine named Scripps number 11 on its 2011 list of America’s 100 Best Companies for its family-friendly policies, making it the seventh consecutive year Scripps has made the list. Also in 2011, the E-Learning organization named Scripps fifth in the nation for enterprise learning and Becker’s Hospital Review named Scripps among the 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.</p> <h4>About Scripps Health</h4> <p>Learn more <a href="/about-us" title="about Scripps Health">about Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

Scripps Health has been named to Fortune magazine’s 15th annual list of America’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Scripps ranked No. 56 on this year’s list and is the second San Diego-based company to make the list since the list’s inception in 1998, joining Qualcomm. “Scripps is honored to be acknowledged for the fifth time by Fortune as one of America’s top employers,” said Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps. “This accomplishment reflects the importance we place on our employees and how we strive to create a culture of excellence that makes them feel secure, appreciated and empowered.” Fortune recognized Scripps for its practice of avoiding layoffs. In the rare occurrence that a position is eliminated at Scripps due to changing business needs, staff members can continue earning their base pay and benefits while the Scripps Career Resource Center (CRC) assists them in searching for a position within Scripps or outside of the organization. “While other hospitals and health systems across the country have resorted to job cuts and the elimination of services during these challenging times, Scripps has made a commitment to preserving jobs and avoiding layoffs,” said Victor Buzachero, corporate senior vice president of innovation, human resources and performance management for Scripps. “The CRC has helped us retain highly skilled employees and avoid the high costs of severance pay and turnover.” Scripps designed and implemented the CRC well before the downturn in the economy and has actively kept it in place during the recession. Since its inception, more than 700 employees have participated in the CRC with job placements in or outside of the organization. Richelle Ward, who has worked for Scripps for 10 years, learned her department was closing in August 2010. “The CRC helped me look for another position and provided tools and information for my job search,” said Ward. “My department was like a second family and the transition was a difficult time. However, the CRC helped me through it and I benefited from their support, knowledge and individualized assistance. In the end, I had three possible job opportunities to choose from and I love the one that I chose.” The list will appear in the Feb. 6 issue of Fortune, and the full list is now available online. To pick the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Fortune partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America; 280 firms participated in this year’s survey. More than 246,000 employees at those companies responded to a survey created by the institute, a global research and consulting firm operating in 45 countries around the world. The Fortune magazine ranking comes on the heels of four other national accolades Scripps Health has received for workplace excellence. In its 2011 listing, AARP ranked Scripps at the top employer in the country for its 50 Best Employers for Workers Over 50. This was the seventh consecutive year Scripps was named to this list. Working Mother magazine named Scripps number 11 on its 2011 list of America’s 100 Best Companies for its family-friendly policies, making it the seventh consecutive year Scripps has made the list. Also in 2011, the E-Learning organization named Scripps fifth in the nation for enterprise learning and Becker’s Hospital Review named Scripps among the 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare. About Scripps Health Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4147 2012-01-18T11:45:37-08:00 2012-01-18T11:57:08-08:00 Scripps Health <p><strong>San Diego</strong> – The inventions of cell phones, personal computers, and the Internet ushered in the digital revolution and altered our existence in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. But the most precious part of our existence &#151; our health &#151; has so far been largely unaffected and insulated from these innovations.</p> <p>Now, we are on the verge of a medical revolution. In “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care” (Basic Books, available in hardcover Feb. 1, 2012), <a href="/physicians/5497-eric-topol" title="Eric Topol, MD">Eric Topol, MD</a> introduces the digital future of medicine and explores how digitization will fundamentally change the medical field for both professionals and patients.</p> <p>According to Dr. Topol, the chief academic officer of <a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, we’re at perhaps the greatest convergence in our history: the rapidly maturing digital, nonmedical world of mobile devices, cloud computing, and social networking is finally coalescing with the emerging digital medical world of genomics, biosensors and advancing imaging.</p> <p>Furthermore, the digital medical fields are already supplying a wealth of innovation. Pocket-sized ultrasound devices, at-home sleep monitors, and air strip technology that can measure everything from calorie intake to oxygen level are currently available. Nanosensors that can anticipate heart attacks and detect the first instance of cancer and breath sensors that can track lung cancer and asthma are in development. Similarly, the sequencing of the human genome has opened a new door in medical discovery; as sequencing becomes both faster and more affordable, Dr. Topol notes, it will become a routine procedure for every individual and the backbone of a patient’s medical history, determining both testing and treatment procedures.</p> <p><div class="img_frame floatleft"><img alt="Eric Topol 260x180 - 2011" src="http://assets2.scripps.org/assets/images/eric-topol-260x180.jpg?1319648204" /><p class="image-description" style="width: 260px"><cite>Eric Topol, MD, cardiologist and chief academic officer at Scripps Health. </cite></p></div></p> <p>Drawing on his own experience as a practicing cardiologist, as well as other case studies, Dr. Topol opens “The Creative Destruction of Medicine” by explaining how medicine works today: Treatments are based on the population, not the individual. Digital medicine &#151; including wireless sensors, genomics, imaging, and electronic health records and health information technology systems &#151; has the power to radically change that. “This is a new era of medicine, in which each individual can be near fully defined at the individual level, instead of how we practice medicine at a population level, with mass screening policies for such conditions as breast or prostate cancer and use of the same medication and dosage for a diagnosis rather than for a patient,” he writes.</p> <p>Yet Dr. Topol acknowledges that there will be challenges along the way: physicians may be tempted to treat the scan or the DNA data, not the patient; the privacy and security of our data may be compromised; and ethical dilemmas and controversies may arise when, for example, a couple can screen for thousands of rare mutations they may carry before conceiving a baby. Yet Dr. Topol believes that the advantages of individualized medicine far outweigh any challenges we’ll face. By leveraging the science of individuality, doctors will be able to get the relevant digital readout from a person to fashion a therapy, instead of using a mass-population-directed strategy. “We now have the tools to do this on a broad basis throughout medicine and for the first time promote a level of prescription precision we have never seen before,” he writes.</p> <p>“Our system has to change,” Dr. Topol concludes. “It has to reboot. We need creative destruction of the old rules.” In “The Creative Destruction of Medicine,” he shows the way to do just that.</p> <h4>About the author</h4> <p><a href="/physicians/5497-eric-topol" title="Eric Topol, MD">Eric Topol, MD</a>, is the chief academic officer of Scripps Health, director of the <a href="/services__genomics__scripps-translational-science-institute" title="Scripps Translational Science Institute">Scripps Translational Science Institute</a> and co-founder and vice-chairman of the <a href="http://www.westwirelesshealth.org/">West Wireless Health Institute</a> in La Jolla, California. He is a practicing cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic and a professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute.</p> <p>One of the top ten most cited researchers in medicine, elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of sciences, named as one of the twelve Rock Stars of Science in GQ, Dr. Topol led many of the trials that have shaped contemporary treatment for heart disease.</p> <h4>About the book</h4> <p>&#8220;The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care&#8221; is available in hardcover on Feb. 1, 2012. For more information, see: <a href="http://creativedestructionofmedicine.com/">http://creativedestructionofmedicine.com/</a></p> <h4>About Scripps Health</h4> <p>Learn more about <a href="/about-us" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p>

San Diego – The inventions of cell phones, personal computers, and the Internet ushered in the digital revolution and altered our existence in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. But the most precious part of our existence — our health — has so far been largely unaffected and insulated from these innovations. Now, we are on the verge of a medical revolution. In “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care” (Basic Books, available in hardcover Feb. 1, 2012), Eric Topol, MD introduces the digital future of medicine and explores how digitization will fundamentally change the medical field for both professionals and patients. According to Dr. Topol, the chief academic officer of Scripps Health, we’re at perhaps the greatest convergence in our history: the rapidly maturing digital, nonmedical world of mobile devices, cloud computing, and social networking is finally coalescing with the emerging digital medical world of genomics, biosensors and advancing imaging. Furthermore, the digital medical fields are already supplying a wealth of innovation. Pocket-sized ultrasound devices, at-home sleep monitors, and air strip technology that can measure everything from calorie intake to oxygen level are currently available. Nanosensors that can anticipate heart attacks and detect the first instance of cancer and breath sensors that can track lung cancer and asthma are in development. Similarly, the sequencing of the human genome has opened a new door in medical discovery; as sequencing becomes both faster and more affordable, Dr. Topol notes, it will become a routine procedure for every individual and the backbone of a patient’s medical history, determining both testing and treatment procedures. Drawing on his own experience as a practicing cardiologist, as well as other case studies, Dr. Topol opens “The Creative Destruction of Medicine” by explaining how medicine works today: Treatments are based on the population, not the individual. Digital medicine — including wireless sensors, genomics, imaging, and electronic health records and health information technology systems — has the power to radically change that. “This is a new era of medicine, in which each individual can be near fully defined at the individual level, instead of how we practice medicine at a population level, with mass screening policies for such conditions as breast or prostate cancer and use of the same medication and dosage for a diagnosis rather than for a patient,” he writes. Yet Dr. Topol acknowledges that there will be challenges along the way: physicians may be tempted to treat the scan or the DNA data, not the patient; the privacy and security of our data may be compromised; and ethical dilemmas and controversies may arise when, for example, a couple can screen for thousands of rare mutations they may carry before conceiving a baby. Yet Dr. Topol believes that the advantages of individualized medicine far outweigh any challenges we’ll face. By leveraging the science of individuality, doctors will be able to get the relevant digital readout from a person to fashion a therapy, instead of using a mass-population-directed strategy. “We now have the tools to do this on a broad basis throughout medicine and for the first time promote a level of prescription precision we have never seen before,” he writes. “Our system has to change,” Dr. Topol concludes. “It has to reboot. We need creative destruction of the old rules.” In “The Creative Destruction of Medicine,” he shows the way to do just that. About the author Eric Topol, MD, is the chief academic officer of Scripps Health, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute and co-founder and vice-chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute in La Jolla, California. He is a practicing cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic and a professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute. One of the top ten most cited researchers in medicine, elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of sciences, named as one of the twelve Rock Stars of Science in GQ, Dr. Topol led many of the trials that have shaped contemporary treatment for heart disease. About the book “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care” is available in hardcover on Feb. 1, 2012. For more information, see: http://creativedestructionofmedicine.com/ About Scripps Health Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.

tag:www.scripps.org,2005:NewsItem/4148 2012-01-18T12:42:51-08:00 2012-01-23T15:36:20-08:00 Scripps Health <p>New findings from a research study led by physicians at <a href="/" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a> reveal that the drug cangrelor has the unique properties of achieving very fast blood thinning effects when needed to protect from <a href="/articles/1659-heart-attack" title="heart attacks">heart attacks</a>, but also dissipates rapidly so patients can undergo surgery without the excessive bleeding often associated with blood thinning medications.</p> <p>Initial results from the BRIDGE trial will be published Jan. 18, 2012, in an article in the <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/">Journal of the American Medical Association</a> (JAMA) and posted on its website. Launched in January 2009, the BRIDGE trial tests the efficacy of cangrelor, an investigational intravenous antiplatelet that allows patients to be “bridged” from the time that their physicians stop their oral antiplatelet drugs until they undergo cardiac surgery. Study results demonstrated cangrelor maintained target levels of platelet inhibition known to be associated with a low risk of blood clotting events, such as stent thrombosis.</p> <p>The BRIDGE trial was led by primary investigator <a href="/physicians/5497-eric-topol" title="Eric Topol, MD">Eric Topol, MD</a>, chief academic officer at Scripps Health and director of the <a href="http://www.stsiweb.org/">Scripps Translational Science Institute</a> (STSI). STSI is an initiative of Scripps Health in collaboration with <a href="http://www.scripps.edu/">The Scripps Research Institute</a>.</p> <p>“This represents an important practical step forward in cardiovascular care,” said Topol. “For the first time we have validated a way to prevent clotting in patients who have had a recent stent but still require medication as they bridge to another surgery. This represents a fairly common clinical situation – the unplanned operation in a patient with a recent stent.”</p> <p>The BRIDGE trial was a double-blind, randomized study conducted in 210 patients in the United States and Europe. The trial took place between January 2009 and April 2011. Results showed 99 percent of cangrelor-treated patients maintained target levels of platelet inhibition for all time points measured over the bridging period compared to 19 percent of placebo patients with no significant excess in surgical bleeding complications.</p> <p>Patients who have had heart attacks or who have been treated with <a href="/articles/1266-coronary-artery-stent" title="stents">stents</a> are commonly treated with blood thinning medications to help prevent future cardiovascular events. The most commonly used blood thinning medications for these patients are aspirin and clopidogrel (also known as Plavix).</p> <p>“Many of these patients may require surgery at some point in time making how best to manage their blood thinning medications challenging,” said <a href="/physicians/5038-matthew-price" title="Matthew Price, MD">Matthew Price, MD</a>, Scripps interventional cardiologist and co-author. “In fact, if they don’t stop their blood thinning medication prior to surgery they have a high risk of bleeding, but if they do stop their blood thinning medications they have a high risk of developing a heart attack, which is often fatal.”</p> <p>Attention was brought to this issue in 2004 when former President Clinton presented with a mild (very small) heart attack that required urgent bypass surgery. He had received aspirin and Plavix, and as a result, had to wait six days before the surgery was performed. According to Topol, these considerations underscore the importance of identifying strategies patients to be safely bridged to their surgical procedure with minimal risk of developing heart attacks or bleeding complications.</p> <p>According to 2009 data from the <a href="http://www.oecd.org">Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</a> (OECD), more than 2.5 million stent procedures are performed globally per year. Treatment guidelines in the United States and Europe recommend stent patients receive blood thinning medications for up to 12 months following their stent procedure. It is estimated that up to 25 percent of these patients with stents in place will require a surgical procedure during the first five years after.</p> <p><strong>About Scripps Health</strong></p> <p>Learn more about <a href="/about-us" title="Scripps Health">Scripps Health</a>, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif.</p> <p>See the video news release. <br /> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yRD83omgYXs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yRD83omgYXs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> </p>

New findings from a research study led by physicians at Scripps Health reveal that the drug cangrelor has the unique properties of achieving very fast blood thinning effects when needed to protect from heart attacks, but also dissipates rapidly so patients can undergo surgery without the excessive bleeding often associated with blood thinning medications. Initial results from the BRIDGE trial will be published Jan. 18, 2012, in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and posted on its website. Launched in January 2009, the BRIDGE trial tests the efficacy of cangrelor, an investigational intravenous antiplatelet that allows patients to be “bridged” from the time that their physicians stop their oral antiplatelet drugs until they undergo cardiac surgery. Study results demonstrated cangrelor maintained target levels of platelet inhibition known to be associated with a low risk of blood clotting events, such as stent thrombosis. The BRIDGE trial was led by primary investigator Eric Topol, MD, chief academic officer at Scripps Health and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI). STSI is an initiative of Scripps Health in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute. “This represents an important practical step forward in cardiovascular care,” said Topol. “For the first time we have validated a way to prevent clotting in patients who have had a recent stent but still require medication as they bridge to another surgery. This represents a fairly common clinical situation – the unplanned operation in a patient with a recent stent.” The BRIDGE trial was a double-blind, randomized study conducted in 210 patients in the United States and Europe. The trial took place between January 2009 and April 2011. Results showed 99 percent of cangrelor-treated patients maintained target levels of platelet inhibition for all time points measured over the bridging period compared to 19 percent of placebo patients with no significant excess in surgical bleeding complications. Patients who have had heart attacks or who have been treated with stents are commonly treated with blood thinning medications to help prevent future cardiovascular events. The most commonly used blood thinning medications for these patients are aspirin and clopidogrel (also known as Plavix). “Many of these patients may require surgery at some point in time making how best to manage their blood thinning medications challenging,” said Matthew Price, MD, Scripps interventional cardiologist and co-author. “In fact, if they don’t stop their blood thinning medication prior to surgery they have a high risk of bleeding, but if they do stop their blood thinning medications they have a high risk of developing a heart attack, which is often fatal.” Attention was brought to this issue in 2004 when former President Clinton presented with a mild (very small) heart attack that required urgent bypass surgery. He had received aspirin and Plavix, and as a result, had to wait six days before the surgery was performed. According to Topol, these considerations underscore the importance of identifying strategies patients to be safely bridged to their surgical procedure with minimal risk of developing heart attacks or bleeding complications. According to 2009 data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), more than 2.5 million stent procedures are performed globally per year. Treatment guidelines in the United States and Europe recommend stent patients receive blood thinning medications for up to 12 months following their stent procedure. It is estimated that up to 25 percent of these patients with stents in place will require a surgical procedure during the first five years after. About Scripps Health Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, Calif. See the video news release.