Video now online: 'Not Just a Pap: Cervical Cancer Prevention in 2021'

Jennifer Young Pierce, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.O.G., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the USA College of Medicine and a gynecologic oncologist at the Mitchell Cancer Institute, presented “Not Just a Pap: Cervical Cancer Prevention in 2021" at a recent Med School Café. 

Pierce discussed the latest screening guidelines for cervical cancer and the role that HPV vaccination plays in preventing the disease. She also touched on how to partner the HPV vaccine with COVID-19 vaccines.

Watch the presentation on YouTube or below. 

Meet a Med Student: Annie Xu

This regular feature highlights a student at the USA College of Medicine

 

Annie Xu

Age: 26

Class of: 2021

Hometown: Sugar Land, Texas

Undergrad/graduate institution: Emory University

Degrees earned: Bachelor of Science in biology

Interests and hobbies: I enjoy playing with my dog, Teddy, and my two cats, Hugo and Mochi. I am a big foodie, so I love trying out different restaurants. I also enjoy true crime documentaries and podcasts.

Something unique about me: I participated in color guard in high school, and our team won the state championship in Texas! I also went to high school with Shaq's daughter.

Three of my favorite things: My pets, red velvet ice cream and traveling.

Intended specialty: OB/GYN

Chair's goals for orthopaedic surgery department include adolescent sports medicine focus

James Slauterbeck, M.D., the new professor and chair of orthopaedic surgery at the USA College of Medicine, has several goals he would like to accomplish related to expanding patient care at USA Health. 

His immediate goal, though, is one of the most important. 

“I want to to get to know my staff, faculty, residents and custodians to learn more about their families and what they love about USA Health,” Slauterbeck said. “I’m excited to know the people in the department, and I’m most looking forward to meeting them.”

Slauterbeck, who has an almost 30-year career in orthopaedics, envisions a more diverse department where he plans to promote and recruit staff, residents and medical students. He also plans to build on the foundation already in place for providing exceptional patient care. 

“Our patients are our top priority,” he said. “I want to support our staff as they continue to implement principles such as selflessness, honesty and professionalism. These beliefs will help guide our patient interaction.”  

Throughout Slauterbeck’s career, his main focus has been pediatric and adolescent sports medicine, where he cares for adolescent patients up to the age of 21. He has extensively researched risk of injury for athletes, specifically the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. 

At USA Health, he will work to launch an injury prevention program to benefit middle, high school and college athletes. “I want to minimize injury and keep players performing at their best ability,” he said. “Our health system has done great work with concussion prevention and I’d like to further that mission.”

Slauterbeck also plans to implement new services into the department such as knee and joint preservation, which focuses on arthritis prevention, and meniscal and articular cartilage transplant surgery, which will help relieve knee pain.

His plans call for increasing USA Health’s footprint in orthopaedics to include all of southern Alabama, also providing more care for those in underserved communities. 

“If we strive to follow the department goals, there’s no doubt in my mind that our staff will become more recognized, innovative leaders for the great work they do and outstanding care they provide to patients,” he said. 

Slauterbeck is now accepting adolescent and adult patients at the Strada Patient Care Center. To schedule an appointment, call the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at (251) 665-8200.   

Neurosurgeon gives international talk on minimally invasive neurosurgery techniques

Jai Deep Thakur, M.D, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the USA College of Medicine, recently gave a guest lecture for Tumor Talks, a platform for sharing the most up-to-date research being published in academic literature that allows presenters to discuss their work and experiences with neurosurgeons, residents and medical students around the world.

Thakur, who is a neurosurgeon and director of minimally invasive cranial and skull base neurosurgery at USA Health, discussed the use of minimally invasive approaches in managing complex brain tumors, especially in older patients. His work often utilizes surgical approaches to perform brain surgery through the nostrils, eyebrows and more precise focused openings to minimize unnecessary brain exposure, promote faster healing and expediting recovery process.

“The talk focused on how minimally invasive neurosurgery has improved outcomes in not just the general population but can be extended to an older patient cohort with good outcomes and faster recovery process,” said Thakur. 

His research has been awarded the Gold Medal Award by the American Association of Neurosurgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Tumor Section Society and has been published in the Journal of Neurosurgery – Neurosurgical Focus. 

Tumor Talks is a collaboration of The Journal of Neuro-Oncology, the American Association of Neurosurgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Tumor Section and the Lenox Hill Neurosurgery team.

Read more about Dr. Thakur’s research at PubMed. His Tumor Talks presentation can be found on YouTube.

Black History Month talk set for Feb. 2

Featured speakers at the event are Errol Crook, M.D., professor and chair of internal medicine at the USA College of Medicine, and Brandon Fleming, award-winning educator and founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project.

USA Health will host Brandon Fleming for its inaugural event to celebrate the significant societal contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to commemorate Black History Month. The event is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, via Zoom. 

Fleming’s story of struggle, success and service has inspired millions around the world. An at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Fleming is assistant debate coach at Harvard University and Founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project.

Fleming was recruited to join the Harvard debate faculty at the age of 26. Harvard later approved Fleming’s proposal to establish a new department within the university system called the Harvard Diversity Project. Fleming now leads an executive staff and board that has raised $1 million to enroll more than 100 students of color into Harvard’s international summer debate residency on full scholarship.

In addition to Fleming, Errol Crook, M.D., professor and chair of internal medicine at the USA College of Medicine and a member of the 100 Black Men of Mobile, will speak at the event. Crook will talk about efforts in Mobile to make a difference in our community and the lives of people who are underserved.

Watch the event on Zoom: https://www.usahealthsystem.com/mlk-black-history-month 

Revived USA Health Biobank offers comprehensive services for researchers

Veronica Ramirez Alcantara, Ph.D., manager of the USA Health Biobank, and Amit Reddy, MBBS, a research associate in the biobank, look at biospecimens stored in one of the freezers.

The USA Health Biobank is now open to support the biomedical research efforts of the health system and the university. Located at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute, the biobank provides complete histology services; collection, processing and storing of biospecimens; and DNA and RNA extraction for biospecimen quality control. 

The USA Health Biobank staff, from left, are Terry Pierce, 

histotechnologist; Veronica Ramirez Alcantara, Ph.D.,
manager; Elba A. Turbat-Herrera, M.D., director; and
Amit Reddy, MBBS, research associate.

Previously, the biobank’s purpose was to support cancer research by biobanking biospecimens from cancer patients mainly from the Mitchell Cancer Institute. After being closed from 2018 to 2020, USA College of Medicine leaders and the biobank team have worked to revive the biobank – starting with the name change to encompass the entire health system – and offer comprehensive services for investigators. The process included securing all necessary Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals and equipment for histology services and biospecimen quality control. 

One of the new services for researchers being offered by the USA Health Biobank is histology services for human and animal tissues, which covers tissue embedding, cutting and staining. 

“The purpose of the histology services is to focus on research, and the biobank is equipped with all the necessary tools to perform high-quality histology services in an adequate period of time at very competitive prices,” said Elba A. Turbat-Herrera, M.D., director of the biobank.

Turbat-Herrera, professor of pathology and interdisciplinary clinical oncology, came to the USA College of Medicine from Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Shreveport, where she was the director of the LSU Biobank from 2012 to 2018.

Until now, USA investigators had to request histology services from University Hospital or the USA College of Medicine’s Department of Comparative Medicine. “In the hospital, the priority of the histology services is to patients’ biopsies; and in the vivarium, the load of tissues to process sometimes exceeded the capacity of the facility,” Turbat-Herrera said.

Elba A. Turbat-Herrera, M.D., director of the biobank, 

examines a tissue sample while histotechnologist Terry
Pierce looks on. 

The histology services laboratory is equipped with a tissue processor, an embedding station, a cryostat, a microtome, a staining station and an immunohistochemistry autostainer. The space allocated for biospecimen processing and DNA and RNA extraction for biospecimen quality control analysis is equipped with systems and instruments from QIAGEN. 

To provide biobanking services, the storage laboratory has four -80ºC freezers and two cryogenic liquid nitrogen freezers for storage of the de-identified biospecimens, and cabinets for storage of tissue paraffin blocks. 

The USA Health Biobank is able to collect and store biospecimens donated by patient volunteers, non-patient volunteers and the USA Department of Pathology. The biobank can assist investigators who request collection of biospecimens in establishing effective protocols for collecting and processing the requested biospecimens. 

The USA Health Biobank plans to have a website soon. For more information and applicable fees, email usahealthbiobank@health.southalabama.edu.