HJBR Nov/Dec 2022

34 NOV / DEC 2022  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs five years. Mahmood has a special interest in aortic recon- struction, peripheral vascular disease, venous and carotid disease. Mahmood attended an under- graduate program at University of Michigan and an MD program at Wayne State University in Detroit. After completing a five-year general surgery residency at Western Michigan Univer- sity School of Medicine, Mahmood completed a vascular surgery fellowship at Vanderbilt Univer- sity Medical Center. Mahmood has specialized training in transcarotid arterial revascularization (TCAR), and fenestrated and conventional endo- vascular stent grafts for aortic disease. He is cer- tified as a registered physician in vascular inter- pretation (RPVI) and has been involved in multiple clinical trials involving cutting-edge therapy for limb salvage and arterial and venous reconstruc- tion. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed arti- cles and book chapters in the field of vascular sur- gery and is an active member of the Society of Vascular Surgery. Louisiana Healthcare Connections Supports Back-to-School Events Louisiana Healthcare Connections assisted with 19 back-to-school events across the state, help- ing to ensure that nearly 5,000 children were ade- quately prepared for the 2022-2023 school year. Louisiana Healthcare Connections provided school supplies for students, office supplies for teachers, gift cards for school shoes to attend- ees, as well as age-appropriate information about physical health, oral and vision care, and nutri- tional education. Acadian Ambulance also admin- istered free vaccinations, and vendors brought 2022 Class of Medical Physics ProgramResidency Graduates Announced A regional consortium of cancer care organiza- tions has announced its 2022 medical physics resi- dency training program graduates, which include Troy Jacobs, MS, Tiffany Lee, MS, Jose Martinez, MS, and Nelson Salas, PhD. In order to address a nationwide shortage of medical physicists, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Cen- ter (MBPCC) in Baton Rouge established a medi- cal physics residency training consortium in 2009. The group received accreditation from the Com- mission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Edu- cational Programs in 2012 and currently includes training sites at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Cen- ter, Willis-Knighton Cancer Center in Shreveport, and the University of Mississippi Medical Cen- ter in Jackson. “Since its inception, this consortium has pro- duced extremely talented and highly-trained medical physicists, and this year is no different,” said Jonas Fontenot, PhD, MBA, chief operating officer and Dr. Charles M. Smith chief of physics, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. “With the skills and training acquired through this residency pro- gram, these four graduates are ready to make an immediate impact in the medical physics field, both across the country and abroad.” Jacobs joined the residency program at Willis- Knighton Cancer Center after receiving a Bach- elor of Science in Physics from Utah Valley Uni- versity in Orem, Utah, and a Master of Science in Medical Physics from LSU, whose graduate pro- gram is also supported by MBPCC. Jacobs will remain on the staff at Willis-Knighton as a medi- cal physicist. Lee joined the residency program at the Can- cer Center after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M Univer- sity and a Master of Science in Medical Physics from Indiana University. Lee has accepted a posi- tion with Northwest Medical Physics in Anchor- age, Alaska. Before joining the residency program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jose Martinez received a Bachelor of Science in phys- ics from the University of Puerto Rico and a Mas- ter of Science in medical physics from Hofstra Uni- versity in Hempstead, New York. Martinez will be returning to Puerto Rico where he will practice as a clinical medical physicist. Nelson Salas, PhD, received a doctorate in physics from the University of Miami and a cer- tificate in medical physics from the University of Florida prior to joining the residency program at Mary Bird Perkins. Salas will be working as a medi- cal physicist at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Cen- ter in Jacksonville, Florida. Mary Bird Perkins was the first cancer center in Louisiana to establish a medical physics resi- dency training program, which is required for eli- gibility for board certification from the American Board of Radiology. Together, with its partners at Willis Knigh- ton Cancer Center and the University of Missis- sippi Medical Center, 37 medical physics resi- dents have completed their training with the consortium. Those graduates have experienced a 100% job placement rate and enjoyed great success in completing their board certification examinations. CVT Surgical &Vein TherapyWelcomes Two NewVascular Surgeons CVT Surgical & Vein Therapy welcomes two new vascular surgeons; Matthew Abate, MD, and Gul- rez T. Mahmood, MD, RPVI. Abate, a board-certified vascular surgeon is originally from Lake Charles. Abate received an undergraduate degree from LSU and an MD from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He com- pleted vascular surgery residency in 2017 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Lit- tle Rock and was on the medical staff of Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis, Missouri, for the past Gulrez T. Mahmood, MD, RPVI MatthewAbate, MD