HJBR Jan/Feb 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2020 41 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalBR.com program offers nutrition, exercise, and behav- ioral workshops, including cooking demonstra- tions, one-on-one consultations with a dietician and health coach, fitness assessments, exer- cise training, and classes with clinical exercise physiologists. “Intensive cardiac rehab has proven to increase life expectancy by up to five years,” explained Dr. Wade May, CIS cardiologist and medical director of the CIS Intensive Cardiac Rehab. “It gives patients the opportunity to improve their health, lose weight and feel better, boost their energy, increase endurance and strength, and improve physical and emotional wellbeing. It also teaches self-care techniques that will help patients long after rehab is complete.” Patients must have a physician referral to join the program. 121 LAClinicians Register for Training in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment A free, online educational course offered by Louisiana Healthcare Connections throughout 2019 provided 121 clinicians across the state with the opportunity to become buprenorphine- waivered to treat Opioid-Use Disorder (OUD). Conducted by the American Society of Addic- tion Medicine (ASAM), the course provided clini- cal education and CMEs to clinicians in the use of buprenorphine to treat OUD. Buprenorphine is the first at-home therapy to treat OUD and offers great potential for expanding treatment, accord- ing to the New England Journal of Medicine. Only 76,037 – or seven percent – of the nation’s clinicians have waivers to prescribe buprenorphine, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Health & Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administra- tion (SAMHSA). In Louisiana, there are just 1,242 waivered healthcare professionals statewide, the agency reports. Stewart Gordon, MD, Louisiana Health- care Connections chief medical officer, said, “Buprenorphine has proven to be a clinically- effective, in-home therapy for opioid use dis- order, yet few healthcare providers in our state are waivered to provide this therapy. By ensur- ing their access to this clinical training, we are helping to increase the number of clinicians pre- pared to effectively treat opioid addiction. We commend those healthcare professionals who participated in this training and who are taking the appropriate steps to become buprenorphine waivered.” The 121 clinicians who registered for the train- ing spanned the spectrum of healthcare, from substance abuse counselors, social workers, and behavioral health providers, to primary care phy- sicians, clinical psychologists, and OB/GYNs. By completing the training, these healthcare pro- fessionals were able to earn Continuing Medi- cal Education (CME) credits in the treatment of opioid addiction, a copy of the ASAM National Practice Guidelines, and other clinical resources. The course was offered four times in 2019. CIS is First in LA to PerformRobotic-Assisted Peripheral Interventions Cardiologists at Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) in Lafayette are first in the state to perform advanced peripheral interventional procedures with a robotic-assisted peripheral vascular system at Lafayette General Medical Center. The Corindus CorPath® GRX System is the first and only FDA-cleared medical device to bring robotic-assisted precision to coronary and peripheral vascular procedures while protecting medical professionals from radiation exposure occurring in hospital catheterization laborato- ries. Ultimately, Corindus aims to improve clini- cal outcomes while lowering radiation exposure to patients, the care team, and the physicians. “The CorPath GRX System has completely transformed the way we approach treatment for chronic total occlusions,” said Dr. Louis Sal- vaggio, interventional cardiologist at CIS. “Long procedures can now be performed in the robotic suite allowing the physician to deliver safer and more precise care to a patient without additional radiation exposure or operator fatigue.” CIS physicians plan to train upcoming medi- cal professionals on the use of the robot and its capabilities for treatment of patients suffer- ing with peripheral vascular disease. CIS cardi- ologists continue to lead the way in performing advanced peripheral procedures in the region. CIS has developed a protocol for peripheral care, and the treatment for each patient is determined on an individual basis. “Combining the enhanced visualization of the X-ray images with robotic precision trans- forms the way we perform peripheral vascular procedures and will ultimately improve patient care,” said Dr. Ankur Lodha, interventional car- diologist at CIS. “Vascular robotics offers physi- cians and patients a minimally-invasive technol- ogy that advances the precision of procedures to help improve clinical outcomes while providing a safe working environment for the physicians and staff who care for these patients.” “We are proud to be the first in the state to launch a vascular robotic program,” said David Konur, CIS CEO. “As an early adopter of this technology for peripheral vascular interventions, we are offering the highest level of vascular care possible to our patients and our community.” Drs. JohnWilkinson, Ben Robichaux Join Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic announced Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) hosted a Grand Opening event for its new, first-of-its-kind intensive cardiac rehab facility in Lafayette, located at 425 Settlers Trace Boulevard, Suite 200.