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At the Hospitals

n Davidson College and CHS Launch                 edX was launched by Harvard University             n Levine Children’s Hospital Reflects
  First-Ever CME Course                           and MIT in 2012. Davidson joined the edX             on Pediatric Surgery Group’s
  Davidson College, Carolinas HealthCare          consortium in 2013 as a charter member and           Achievements, Future
                                                  has developed a variety of courses for high          With more than seven decades of collective
System and the Charlotte Area Health              school, undergraduate and now professional
Education Center (AHEC) launched                  development students.                              experience, the pediatric surgery team at
“Medical Genomics 101,” a self-paced,                                                                               Levine Children’s Hospital will
online continuing medical education (CME)         n Patients Sought for Heart                                       celebrate three years of success
course designed for physicians, physician           Failure Study                                                   this year. But this is just the
assistants and nurse practitioners. The course      The DREAM-HF study currently is                                 beginning for this group of
is the first CME course on edX.org — one                                                                            nationally and internationally
of the world’s leading massive open online        enrolling chronic heart failure patients                          recognized specialists, whose
course (MOOC) platforms.                          who have exhausted all forms of medical
                                                  treatment. Currently, there are no available       Anthony Stallion, MD breadth of experience is as
  Malcolm Campbell, PhD, biology professor        therapies to restore the function of the           diverse as the conditions they treat.
and director of the James G. Martin Genomics      damaged heart muscle. Joseph Mishkin,
Program at Davidson College, leads the course,    MD, the principal investigator for Carolinas         Led by Anthony Stallion, MD, the team is
which is a thorough, focused overview of the      HealthCare System, will study if injecting         working to streamline Carolinas HealthCare
rapidly evolving field of genomics. Michael       rexlemestrocel-L, which consists of                System’s pediatric surgery services in
Ruhlen, MD, vice president, medical education     mesenchymal precursor cells, or MPCs, with         order to establish improved care protocols
and director of Charlotte AHEC, developed         a special type of needle will help restore         — especially for more complex cases. In
the curriculum with Campbell to ensure all        heart muscle function.                             2013, Stallion was named one of the “Best
clinicians, regardless of area of practice,                                                          Doctors in America.” That same year, he
will benefit from the genomics primer. Six          Recently, the RENEW clinical trial used          joined Carolinas Healthcare System as the
clinicians from CHS are featured in the course,   stem cell therapy in select study participants,    chief of pediatric surgery.
speaking about the application of genomics        with the goal of reducing the frequency of chest
principles in their practices.                    pain through stem cell therapy. Patients who         Considered a pediatric trauma expert, the
                                                  were not candidates for revascularization with     former staff surgeon at Cleveland Clinic
  “This partnership marks a significant           at least seven episodes of chest pains per week    Children’s Hospital now oversees the region’s
evolution in continuing education at Carolinas    were eligible to participate. Glen Kowalchuk,      only Level II pediatric trauma center, as well
HealthCare and the Charlotte Area Health          MD, FACC, implanted CD34+ stem cells into          as pediatric surgery throughout Carolinas
Education Center,” says Dr. Ruhlen. “Our          randomly selected study patients.                  HealthCare System, Levine Children’s
doctors can now learn about genomics from                                                            Hospital and Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital.
Campbell, one of the finest professors in this      Cardiologists at Sanger Heart & Vascular
particular academic field, while hearing from     Institute are continuing to research stem cell       Dr. Stallion’s position was created, in
their clinician peers. And we expect this course  therapy opportunities through two on-going         part, to help develop a pediatric surgery
to benefit patients, as well. The flexibility an  clinical trials. In addition to the DREAM-         department that spans throughout all of
online class offers will give doctors more time   HF study, the ALLSTAR trial, in which Dr.          Carolinas HealthCare System’s hospitals.
to devote to patients.”                           Kowalchuk is the principal investigator for        The efforts he leads will help ensure children
                                                  Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, has 10          get the same level of care at facilities
  “Medical Genomics 101” is available             people enrolled and will study the impact of       throughout the region and the system.
worldwide at no cost to anyone with an Internet   using cardiac stem cells to regenerate heart
connection. However, doctors, physician           muscle tissue.                                       Joining him in the pediatric surgery
assistants and nurse practitioners seeking                                                           department at Levine Children’s Hospital
CME credit can complete the accompanying            Patients who had a heart attack with             are Jeffrey Dehmer, MD, David Fisher, MD,
assessments and receive up to two hours of        difficulty to the left bottom chamber of the       Michael Goretsky, MD, Eric Grossman, MD,
CME credit for $199. The course is composed       heart were eligible to participate. The study      and Steven Teich, MD.
of six modules that highlight new insights in     will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of
the field of genomics and explores the ethical,   CAP-1002 allogeneic cardiosphere-derived             Among the team’s accomplishments are:
legal and social implications that they raise.    cells, a biologic product consisting largely       outcomes that exceed national benchmarks,
                                                  of cells grown from donated human heart            treatment of chest wall deformity in
  The two-hour course is the first CME            muscle tissue. Researchers across multiple sites   children and adults, treatment of bowel
course offered on edX.org. The nonprofit          will examine if the use of CAP-1002 will           motility or unusual intestinal contractions
                                                  minimize heart muscle damage and improve           or paralysis, performing minimally invasive
                                                  heart function after a heart attack.               lung surgeries, use of hyperthermic
                                                                                                     intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC, a
                                                    For more information about ongoing clinical      highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy
                                                  trials at Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, call  treatment delivered directly to the abdomen
                                                  the clinical research office at 704-355-4794.      during surgery), and participation in a
                                                                                                     national clinical trial for use of gastric
                                                                                                     stimulation for gastric dysmotility.

12 | February 2017 • Mecklenburg Medicine
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