HJBR Mar/Apr 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  MAR / APR 2020 23 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalBR.com children/adolescents, expanded school-based mental health services to 44 schools, attained and maintained CARF accreditation, and estab- lished the regions first stabilization unit post- Katrina. When the unit closed she moved social workers to provide mental health services in the East Baton Rouge Parish Jail to ensure needs were met. The CAHS board of directors accepted Kasof- sky’s resignation in its monthly board meeting, and Board Chair Tom Sawyer extended his deep appreciation for “her tireless efforts, particularly during and after numerous hurricane and com- munity crises in the Greater Baton Rouge area. He noted her innovative services for justice- involved individuals returning from incarcera- tion, the 40 hour crisis intervention training of law enforcement in the EBRPD Academy and in two institutes, annually. The agency, under her direction, also provides placement for LSU School of Social Work interns and serves as a training site for LSU Psychiatry Residents.  Sawyer, who is serving his second term as chair of the agency’s board, also said, “It is through her compassion and dedication that we have the comprehensive services we have today in this region.” He added, “Under her leadership a regional Opioid Response Plan was completed and is progressively being implemented to offer new treatment options and non-conventional outreach for treatment and harm reduction. Kasofsky holds a doctorate in biochemistry from Rutgers University and completed post- doctoral research in Experimental Therapeu- tics at the National Cancer Institute. Her Mas- ter’s degree is from Columbia University. She recently served as the president of the National Dialogues on Behavioral Health Organization for two terms and is a board member of the Bridge Center for Hope.  Kasofsky has accepted a position in private health care in New Orleans. In departing, she noted that she strives to approach every prob- lem with an emphasis on dignity and respect.  In other action, the board of directors voted to appoint Jan Laughinghouse, PhD, the agency’s Addiction Recovery Services Program director, as an interim executive director, effective March 1, 2020. She has served at the agency for eight years.  CISWelcomes Dr. Niksad Abraham to Baton Rouge Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) wel- comed Dr. Niksad Abraham, interventional car- diologist, to their team of cardiologists at the CIS Baton Rouge clinic, located at 8401 Picardy Avenue. Abraham joins Drs. Satish Gadi, Garland Green, Amit Patel, Robby Drennan, and Charisse Ward. Abraham attended medical school at Govern- ment Medical College in Calicut, Kerala, India. He worked as a primary care physician and hos- pitalist in India before moving to Newark, Del., where he completed an internal medicine resi- dency at Christiana Care Health System. This is also where he completed fellowships in cardio- vascular disease and interventional cardiology, being named chief fellow of interventional cardi- ology. In 2013, he began practicing as a cardiolo- gist at North Oaks Medical Center in Hammond, La. In this time, he served as medical director of the cardiac catheterization lab and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine. Abraham is board-certified in internal medi- cine, cardiovascular disease, echocardiology, and interventional cardiology. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Soci- ety for Cardiovascular Angiography and Inter- ventions. He has also completed training in car- diac computed tomography angiogram, nuclear cardiology, and vascular ultrasound. American Heart All of Us JourneyMobile Exhibit Comes to Baton Rouge The public was invited to visit the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Journey mobile exhibit, which came to different places through- out Baton Rouge during the month of January. The Journey is a mobile unit traveling across the country to promote the All of Us Research Program, a historic medical research program that seeks to advance precision medicine by building a research cohort of 1 million or more U.S. participants. So far, it has visited more than 100 cities in more than 40 states. Currently, 2,660 people from Louisiana are among the more than 312,000 people who have already enrolled in the program. Additionally, more than 80 percent of participants belong to communities that have been historically under- represented in biomedical research. With more enrollment and representation from our area, participants can help address health issues that are prevalent in the community, such as heart disease. ALA State of Tobacco Control Report: State Earns ‘C’ in Smokefree Air Tobacco use remains the nation’s leading cause of preventable death and disease, taking an esti- mated 480,000 lives every year. This year’s State of Tobacco Control report from the American Lung Association calls for proven tobacco con- trol policies in light of the fact that the coun- try’s youth vaping epidemic worsened in 2019. According to the report, this dire situation is a result of states and the federal government’s failure to enact policies called for in the report such as increased tobacco taxes and stronger federal oversight of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. This year’s 18th annual report finds that in 2019 Louisiana earned failing grades on its efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco use, including e-cigarettes. The need for Louisiana to act to protect youth from all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, is more urgent than ever, with the youth vap- ing epidemic continuing its alarming rise to 27.5 percent or more than one in four high school students. This is a 135 percent increase in high school e-cigarette use in just the past two years, and close to three million more kids started vap- ing in that time period. “In Louisiana, our tobacco use rate remains at 28.7 percent. Sadly, with the youth vaping Niksad Abraham, MD