HJNO Mar/Apr 2021

34 MAR / APR 2021  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   Healthcare Briefs can take action to strengthen the statewide smoke-free law to include bars and casinos in order to support public health. The need for Louisiana to take action to protect youth from all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, is more urgent than ever, with the youth vaping epi- demic continuing. With one in five teens vaping, our children are becoming the next generation addicted to tobacco. Youth vaping and tobacco use overall is largely driven by flavored tobacco products, and our report has added a new state grade calling for policies to end the sale of all fla- vored tobacco products, including menthol ciga- rettes, flavored e-cigarettes and flavored cigars. “In Louisiana, our smoking rate remains at 21.9%, and 22.9% of high schoolers use e-ciga- rettes. The surge in youth vaping combined with the fact that smoking increases the chance of severe COVID-19 symptoms, make it more impor- tant than ever for Louisiana to implement the proven measures outlined in ‘State of Tobacco Control’ to prevent and reduce tobacco use,” said Ashley Lyerly, director of advocacy for the Lung Association. LSUHealth NewOrleans Med Students Use Musical Talents to Help Prevent COVID-19 In what may be the first adaptation of Mark Ronson’s and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” to COVID-19, LSU Health New Orleans medi- cal students have made a video to encourage people to #MaskUp. Mask wearing has been shown to be a powerful tool to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Four second-year students at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine created “Lock- down Funk,” which made its debut this week, https://youtu.be/tLHReF_HssQ. Accepting the suggestion to make a video, Rebecca Nuss, Nancy Ren, George Brand, and Trey Moffatt set to work over the summer. As members of the Student Interest Group for Music & the Arts (SIGMA), they used their musical and performance talents to educate people about this life-saving information in a fun and relatable way. “It took a huge collective effort to make it hap- pen,” said Ren. “We loved having the opportu- nity to use our creative talents in medical school.” Brand was responsible for the music mixing and production. Nuss wrote the lyrics and helped edit the video. Moffatt wrote the script. Ren also edited the video. All four contributed to the vocals. “We’ve been told it’s just the perfect balance of goofy, fun, and informative,” said Ren. “We hope this will really stick in the public’s minds when they think about wearing a mask. We certainly can’t sing ‘Uptown Funk’ normally anymore!” SIGMA is a group of LSU Health New Orleans medical students with a passion for things other than the hard sciences. Members are dancers, musicians, DJs, painters, poets, and everything in between. Events are usually a good balance between an escape from school and a fundraiser for various charities. Beneficiaries have included LSU Health New Orleans’ Camp Tiger, Make Music NOLA, Operation SMILE, and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. BioAesthetics, Tulane University Awarded Grant to Develop AdvancedWound-Care Graft The National Science Foundation has awarded a $250,000 grant to BioAesthetics Corp. to develop a new advanced wound-care product for treating bed sores or pressure ulcers. The prod- uct will be tested at Tulane University. The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I award will fund initial testing and devel- opment of a skin graft that combines the com- pany’s tissue regeneration technology with infec- tion-fighting drugs to better promote healing. BioAesthetics’ founder and CEO Nick Pashos, PhD, and COO Billy Heim, are both Tulane alumni. BioAesthetics was spawned at Tulane in 2015 to commercialize a pioneering tissue graft that Pashos, a Tulane student at the time, devel- oped to regenerate a nipple and areola in breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy. Lisa Morici, PhD, associate professor of micro- biology and immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine, will lead testing for the study at Tulane. Severe bed sores are particularly difficult to heal and primarily affect the elderly or those who are bedridden. These pressure ulcers are open wounds on the skin, commonly in bony areas like the hip, back or ankles, caused by pro- longed pressure on the skin from staying in the same position. The condition affects more than 2.5 million a year. Current treatment options involve surgical reconstruction with skin or skin substitute grafts, which can fail to heal the pressure ulcer because of infection or because the graft was not strong enough. The BioAesthetics graft is stronger, releases medication at the surgical site to fight infection, and is designed to accelerate wound healing. Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group Opens NewMedical Office Building in Slidell Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group has opened a new medical office building to serve residents in and around the Slidell area. The new clinic, located at 1810 Lindberg Drive in Slidell, is approximately 10,000 square feet with 21 exam rooms, expanding from its previous clinic location. “Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group clinics are the only faith-based healthcare provider in the Northshore region,” C. Bryan Miller, MD, physi- cian executive for Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group. “Our team of clinicians provide excep- tional, compassionate care to each patient. This new space allows us to expand our offerings in one centralized location for residents in and around the Slidell area.” In addition to the expanded space, Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group Slidell clinic will also offer basic imaging and routine lab work. The clinic will house primary care providers Jembber L. Robinson, MD, PharmD, MBA, and Marie Delvalle-Mahoney, MD. Robinson and Del- valle-Mahoney specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of minor to complex illness in adults and Robinson also provides medical care for chil- dren. Robinson has a special interest in women’s health services and, in addition to internal medi- cine, Delvalle-Mahoney is focused on end-of-life care, wound care, and helping patients on their COVID recovery journey. The clinic will also host specialty providers including orthopedics and gastroenterology, who will visit throughout the month so that patients visit one location for primary care and specialist appointments. n