Clinical Care

RAISING THE CLINICAL PROFILE

Known for delivering top-quality health care, UTHSC is expanding its clinical reach, attracting renowned faculty, building and solidifying relationships with partner teaching hospitals, and stepping up as the state’s leader in health care knowledge and delivery in a time of public health crisis. “Our work, every day, beyond education, is the overall health of the people in the community,” said UTHSC’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operations Officer Ken Brown.

PARTNER HOSPITAL RANKINGS Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis recognized as a “Best Children’s Hospital,” U.S. News & World Report 8 Pediatric specialties at Le Bonheur ranked nationally, U.S. News & World Report

RANKED AS REGIONAL LEADERS • The University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville • Methodist University Hospital, Memphis

UTHSC PRIMARY PARTNER TEACHING HOSPITALS • Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital • Methodist University Hospital • Regional One Health • Memphis Veteran’s Medical Center • UT Medical Center in Knoxville • Erlanger Health System, Chattanooga • Saint Thomas Health, Nashville • West Tennessee Healthcare (In negotiations)

UTHSC AFFILIATED PHYSICIAN PRACTICES (YEAR FOUNDED) • UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists (2011) • UT Methodist Physicians (2013) • UT Regional One Physicians (2014) • University Clinical Health (2016) • UT Memphis Pathology Group (2018) • Erlanger Medical Group (2019) • University Surgical Associates (2019) • West Tennessee UT Medicine (2019)

$362 MILLION REVENUE FROM CORE AFFILIATED PRACTICE PLANS

HIGHLIGHTS

• The FDA approved use of the drug crizanlizumab based on the results of a clinical trial led by Kenneth Ataga, MD, Plough Foundation Endowed Chair in Sickle Cell Disease and director of the Center for Sickle Cell Disease at UTHSC. Dr. Ataga was the lead principal investigator of the multicenter Phase II trial designed to test the safety and efficacy of crizanlizumab in reducing the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs), or pain crises, in adult and pediatric patients ages 16 years and older with sickle cell disease. • In the world’s first successful surgery of its kind, a team of pediatric experts led by Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and UTHSC otolaryngologist Jerome Thompson, MD, used a rib graft to create a voice box and establish a viable airway for a 2-year-old boy. The child had no airway, no larynx, and therefore, no voice or way to breathe outside the womb. • UTHSC College of Dentistry opened a new dental clinic located in Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. The clinic will be staffed by UTHSC pediatric dental faculty and senior residents and serves patients in the hospital, as well as the patients cared for by Le Bonheur-based pediatric practices, and children from Memphis and surrounding areas. • The UTHSC College of Nursing received approximately $3 million in grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration to improve health care with an emphasis on maternal and obstetrical services for underserved and rural populations in the Delta region. The Advanced Nursing Education Workforce for Healthy Delta Moms and Babies program will educate the advanced nurse practitioner workforce to better meet the needs of mothers and babies in West Tennessee and northern Mississippi. • John L. Jefferies, MD, MPH, Jay M. Sullivan Endowed

Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and chief of Cardiology in the College of Medicine and the director of the UTHSC-Methodist Institute for Cardiovascular Science, is the new governor-elect of the Tennessee Chapter of the American College of Cardiology and will become governor of the organization in 2021. He believes these new leadership positions will allow him to help Memphis and UTHSC play leading roles in improving cardiac care across the state. • Fredrick Boop, MD, co-director of the Neuroscience

Institute at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, is the president-elect of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Dr. Boop is the chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at UTHSC, co-director of the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, and chief of the Division of Pediatric

Neurosurgery at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. • A distinguished educator, clinician, and researcher,

G. Nicholas Verne, MD, is the new chair of the Department of Medicine in the College of Medicine. Dr. Verne, who was selected after an extensive national search, also holds the Lemuel W. Diggs Alumni Professorship in Medicine.

UTHSC OUT FRONT IN FIGHT AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

In late February, as the COVID-19 outbreak begin to unfold nationally and internationally, and even before it began to seriously touch Tennessee, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center stepped forward as the state’s public academic health care institution to lead efforts to meet the virus. Leaders from the College of Medicine and its clinical and community partners convened a press conference in Memphis to reassure the public that steps were being taken to prepare for the spread of the virus. They continue to provide information, guidance, and clinical care to the community. UTHSC launched a website with information and resources about the virus, uthsc.edu/coronavirus, including up-to-date statistics, as well as frequently asked questions, and links to national, state, and local organizations monitoring the virus. The site was translated to Spanish at uthsc.edu/ coronavirus-es/. In mid-March, UTHSC set up a drive-thru testing site at Tiger Lane at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. Staffed primarily by student volunteers from the College of Medicine, along with the College of Nursing and the College of Dentistry, and supervised by faculty, the site soon could test up to 150-200 people a day. The College of Medicine also established a laboratory on campus to analyze samples to expand capacity in the community and provide rapid analysis for COVID-19 testing. More than 1,500 people registered for an online coronavirus symposium put on by UTHSC in early April. The university began manufacturing hand sanitizer in its Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Solutions, 3D printing masks in the College of Dentistry, and students and faculty contributed their expertise as clinicians and volunteers across the state. Research at UTHSC’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) represents a major contribution by the university to the global effort. The RBL is one of roughly a dozen federally funded labs in the country designed to safely study dangerous pathogens. The research team, led by Colleen Jonsson, PhD, Endowed Van Vleet Chair of Excellence in Virology, was tasked with finding drugs to treat COVID-19. UTHSC is also dedicated to improving protocols for pandemic preparedness and response in the future. “This is what academic medicine is,” said College of Medicine Executive Dean Scott Strome, MD. “We’re here to treat the sickest patients, to collaborate with health care providers, and to really step up in time of need.”