Media Coverage

Twenty-five health care professionals were chosen for the inaugural Excellence in Health Care Awards. Faculty members in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences include Timothy M. Adams, MD, clinical assistant professor of surgery; John L. Butsch, MD, clinical assistant professor of surgery; Elad I. Levy, MD, professor and chair of neurosurgery; Steven D. Schwaitzberg, MD, professor and chair of surgery; Fuad H. Sheriff, clinical assistant professor of medicine.

A video featuring Ciprian N. Ionita, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, a joint department in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery in the Jacobs School, shows how 3D printing technologies are helping surgeons better prepare for complex procedures. They explains that imaging and printing techniques can create enlarged models of an individual patient’s blood vessels of the heart or brain that, once printed, can provide a patient-specific simulated setting in which to plan and practice high-risk procedures.

L. Nelson Hopkins, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of neurosurgery, was interviewed about his career, research and techniques he has innovated. “This is the most exciting place I’ve ever been in my life,” he said. “Every day there is something new going on, whether it’s a heart procedure or a brain procedure. People are coming from all over the world to train here. How do you beat that?” he said.

Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor and vice chair of neurosurgery, served as moderator for a challenging case presentation in Endovascular Today that dealt with a 54-year-old woman with a history of hypertension presented with left upper extremity weakness and facial droop with a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 12. She had been found by her daughter on the floor and was unable to communicate due to dysarthria and confusion. Experts then weighed in with their opinions.

UB researchers Jun Qu, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and David Poulsen, PhD, professor of translational neuroscience in the Department of Neurosurgery, have created a much more accurate and consistent protein analysis tool called IonStar that compares the abundance of proteins in people who are healthy and ill.

A new way to treat stroke is using a 4-Dimensional Computed Tomography system that neurosurgery specialists say could change standards of care worldwide. Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery, said what’s different about the 4DCT is that all the triage and intervention can be performed in one setting without having to move the patient. “This is going to revolutionize stroke care all over the world,” he said. “The key is having it all in one room, so we are putting our angio suite and CT scanner right next to the ambulance bay. The patient goes straight from the ambulance into the scanner, and if there’s something to do, we do it right there and then.”

The Jacobs Institute’s new Idea to Reality (I2R) Center, aims to foster collaboration between entrepreneurs, physicians, engineers and researchers with a focus on new therapies for strokes and heart attacks. The institute grew out of the work of L. Nelson Hopkins, MD, UB Distinguished Professor of neurosurgery, and is located in the building that houses the UB Center for Translational Research. 

New research by Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, vice chair and professor of neurosurgery, and Elad I. Levy, MD, the L. Nelson Hopkins III, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, shows that in stroke patients with large vessel occlusion, the removal of the clot occurs as efficiently after aspiration-based clot removal alone as it does after aspiration-based clot removal performed with a stent retriever. “Our findings were certainly not surprising for us, but they may surprise some in the larger community where not using a stent retriever has been considered heresy,” says Siddiqui, senior author of the study. “We now have level-one evidence showing that both of these strategies are equally effective.” Levy is a co-author.

“A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Acute Care Patient,” is a symposium to be held in March at the Erie County Medical Center. The event will begin with an update on treatment for stroke patients by Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery.

The founder of a local startup that is working on a blood test to detect brain aneurysms is working with UB researchers, led by Hui Meng, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering, research professor of neurosurgery and co-director of the Toshiba Stroke and Vascular Research Center, to set up Neurovascular Diagnostics.

An article on new 3D printing technology that allows surgeons to print highly realistic, functionally accurate replicas of complex anatomical structures quotes Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor and vice chair of neurosurgery. “We designed a series of models with varying levels of tortuosity from the chest to the brain,” he said. “It’s impossible to do in animals or in patients. 3D printing makes it so easy to do that in a smooth, streamlined fashion.”

Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery, and Michael R. Ferrick, MD, clinical associate professor of orthopaedics, were among UB faculty interviewed about young athletes and weight training. “As long as it is done with appropriate technique, supervision, appropriate rest days and appropriate weight amounts and reps,” weight training can be “good for general overall health,” Ferrick said.

An article about where Buffalo fits into the future of medicine reports L. Nelson Hopkins, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and former chair of of neurosurgery, and Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, professor of neurosurgery, have co-authored “The Future of Medicine,” a new book that functions as a global overview of how the forces of change will affect the health care industry moving forward. “The health of our population shows the wear and tear of long winters, lives spent working on our feet and a steady diet of hearty, but not heart-healthy comfort food,” they wrote. “We’re aging, and presenting the typical signs that go hand in hand with aging — higher rates of stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.”

An article about the national debate among surgeons over whether they should wear a skullcap or bouffant reports a study by the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences compared infection rates in nearly 16,000 procedures and found no significant difference. The article quotes Kevin J. Gibbons, MD, associate professor of neurosurgery and senior associate dean for clinical affairs, who said, “The rationale, not the evidence, suggested that banning the cap would reduce infections; the evidence is that it did not.”

Health News Digest reports that surgeons from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Kaleida Health have entered the national discussion about what kind of headgear surgeons should wear. A study conducted by these researchers demonstrated no change in infection rates in almost 16,000 surgical cases before and after a ban on surgical caps, which do not cover all of a surgeon’s hair and ears. Kevin J. Gibbons, MD, associate professor and vice chair of neurosurgery and senior associate dean for clinical affairs, was lead author for the study.