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In This Issue:
• The Brigham and Women's/Mass General Health Care Center at Patriot Place opened in Foxborough, bringing world class care closer to patients' homes.
• Researchers developed a simple surgical checklist that proved to lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one third in hospitals around the world that participated in a pilot of the checklist.
• The BW/F Healthcare Information Technology Innovation Program (HIP) funded its first three projects submitted by staff to improve care through technology.
• BWH opened the Hybrid OR, among the first ORs of its kind in the country to enable staff to perform 3D angiography, CT-like imaging and intravascular ultrasound in an operating room.
• In April, the hospital made headlines around the world when a 35-member team performed the nation's second face transplant, giving James Maki a new nose, upper lip, hard palate and cheeks—and a hopeful outlook for the future. This life-giving operation was of special historical significance for BWH, where the world's first organ transplant—a kidney from one twin to another—was performed in 1954.
• Over the summer, BWH earned its highest-ever scores on all 10 sections of the quarterly Press Ganey Inpatient Satisfaction Survey, covering admission to discharge and everything in between.
• The six students enrolled in BWH's first School at Work class celebrated their graduation.
• BWHPikeNotes.org—your source for news about the BWH community and information on how to get things done throughout the hospital—was redesigned with a new look and feel and improved navigation and search functionality.
• BWH opened the city's first public cord blood donation program, enabling parents to donate their newborn's umbilical cord—an important source of stem cells needed for transplantation—to patients with critical blood diseases in need of a donor match.
• In collaboration with Boston's disability community and the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL), BWH, MGH and Partners began a comprehensive and landmark effort to improve access and care for people with disabilities.
• BWH researchers received 173 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 grants totaling more than $98 million to cover a wide variety of research, including projects in sleep medicine, neurology, cardiology, genetics, women's health and pharmacoepidemiology, among others.
• Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant rolled out the electronic medication administration record, or eMAR, as a means of enhancing patient safety.
• BWH wrapped up its annual United Way Campaign in October marking record highs in the number of donors and the amount raised: $193,000.
• The Department of Nursing received its largest gift ever—$1 million from Steven and Kathleen Haley—to fund the Haley Nurse-Scientist Program at BWH.
• BWH researchers discovered that the drug darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp) used to treat anemia in patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease was ineffective at boosting hemoglobin levels and preventing cardiovascular problems. The drug also increased patients' risk of stroke.
• The Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center in clinical affiliation with South Shore Hospital opened in Weymouth, offering excellent cancer care to patients in the South Shore area.
• BWH was named to the prestigious Leapfrog Group Top Hospitals List of 45 hospitals that deliver the highest quality of care in the nation while attaining the highest levels of efficiency.
• And to begin the new year, Elizabeth Nabel, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, will begin as the new BW/F president. Don't miss a BWH Bulletin Q and A with Nabel in the first issue of 2010 on Jan. 8.