HJBR Sep/Oct 2019

36 SEP / OCT 2019  I  Healthcare Journal of baton rouge   Healthcare Briefs Science Center, funded by the National Insti- tute of General Medical Sciences through grant U54GM104940. The content is solely the respon- sibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Insti- tutes of Health. Radiology Associates’ Tim Barrett Selected for the RBMA Global Achievement Award At the 2019 PaRADigm annual conference, Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) presented Tim Barrett, CPA, CEO of Radi- ology Associates, with the Global Achievement Award. The Global Achievement Award recog- nizes outstanding time and talent contributions to RBMA. For the past three years, Tim has served as chair of the RBMA Chapter Committee, and through that position, generated additional programs and visibility for RBMA’s 18 Chapters. Tim created the popular Chapter Webinar Consortium, which brings free bi-monthly education to members of participating chapters. He was instrumental in adding a chapter update section to the asso- ciation’s bi-monthly journal, the RBMA Bulletin. Finally, Tim championed an annual chapter lead- ers retreat to provide association leadership edu- cation to chapter volunteers. “Tim is a volunteer juggernaut. Despite his busy schedule and personal obligations, he is always more than willing to give his time and talents towards bettering the association and its chap- ters,” said Jessica S. Struve, CAE, the director of membership and innovation at RBMA, who serves as the primary staff liaison to RBMA’s 18 Chapters. Bob Still, FRBMA, RBMA’s executive CIS is First in Baton Rouge Region to Use Rotapro Technology Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) is the first in the Baton Rouge region to use the ROTAPRO™ Rotational Atherectomy System to treat coronary artery disease. CIS interventional cardiologist Dr. Garland Green was the first to perform the procedure on July 30 at Baton Rouge General. ROTAPRO™ is a rotational atherectomy system that provides physicians with an effective mech- anism of action for treating calcified lesions on an easy-to-use platform. In this catheter-based interventional procedure, a high-speed rotational device is used to ablate or erode the plaque and calcium, restoring the open vessel and prepar- ing it for stenting. The ROTAPRO™ Rotational Atherectomy Sys- tem is the only device to combine the gold stan- dard rotational atherectomy with an easy-to-use platform, designed to reduce both setup and pro- cedural time. “This procedure is ideal for patients who have heavily calcified lesions, specifically for those lesions that don’t respond to traditional balloons and stents,” explained Green. In-HomeWeight-Management Coaching Benefits Children and Parents An in-home weight-management program that included coaching improved the health of chil- dren and their parents, while children whose fam- ilies received only educational materials gained significant amounts of weight. The results of the new study are published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. “Parents typically are the most important and influential people in a child’s environment,” said authors Keely Hawkins, PhD, and Corby K. Martin, PhD, of LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Adding this weight-management strat- egy to existing state and federal home visitation programs could help address the current child- hood obesity crisis.” Obese children are four times more likely to become obese adults, making childhood obe- sity a significant health threat. Sixteen families participated in the study and were recruited from the community based on the child’s obesity risk. Children two to six years of age with a body mass index greater than the 75th percentile enrolled. Families were randomly assigned to receive health information only or the DRIVE intervention. The DRIVE curriculum was provided during 15 in-person sessions in the family’s home. Ses- sions were 30 minutes long, during which par- ents and children practiced healthy daily routines, including establishing regular snack and meal- times, reducing screen time, and encouraging physically active play. Each session focused on a single health topic such as portion size, food preparation, how to discuss weight and growth concerns with the pediatrician, and effective par- enting strategies. The group that did not receive in-home visits was mailed information on nutri- tion, physical activity, and parent-child interac- tion at the beginning of the study. Children in the DRIVE intervention maintained their body weight with a modest reduction in body mass index over the 19 weeks of the study, while the children who received health educa- tion significantly increased their body weight and body mass index. Additionally, parents who par- ticipated in the DRIVE sessions also decreased their body weight. The study also reported that all 16 families com- pleted the program. This level of participation is much higher than programs delivered through clinics or community programs, which can see as many as 75 percent of attendees leave the classes. There are many federal and state ser- vices already provided through home-based vis- itation programs and this curriculum could be a valuable addition to those efforts. Hawkins and Martin shared, “Our results showed that at the half-way point of the study, children were becoming healthier. Changes in the health of the parents, though, did not happen until the end of the study. This points to the need for long-term, family-based programs to support behavior change.” DRIVE was supported by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. This work was performed at the Pennington Biomedi- cal Nutrition Obesity Research Center and par- tially funded by the National Institute of Diabe- tes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) through grants P30DK072476 and T32DK064584 and the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Tim Barrett, CPA, CEO