A lasting legacy: Body-donor program helps MERI train doctors in new techniques

Feature story in The Commercial Appeal

July 11, 2010

The next time you or a loved one is to undergo surgery, consider that the performing physician may have been trained on that procedure or the procedure itself may have been developed right in the heart of Midtown Memphis.

Located near Union Avenue and Cleveland, the Medical Education & Research Institute — MERI — is conducting hands-on teaching and training for physicians who travel to Memphis from across the country and around the world. At the forefront of this education is the use of cadavers donated through the Genesis Donor Program for the express purpose of furthering medical know-how.

"Our mission is to impact patient safety and ensure that physicians have a way to learn the new procedures," said Diana Kelly, manager of institutional development at MERI. "They are able to come here and practice on an uninvolved cadaver before they work on us. That's a much-preferred method."

The old adage "practice makes perfect" applies to sports and the arts, but possibly no place is it more apropos than in the medical field with those who take our lives in their hands on a daily basis.

"These techniques and improvements are coming at us very quickly, and there's constantly a new and better way to do a surgical practice, so that's where we come into play," Kelly said.

MERI is a nonprofit, state-of-the-art facility begun 15 years ago through the inspiration of Dr. Kevin Foley and as a joint venture of Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp., Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Corp. and Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute ... (read more)

Autism center provides intense therapy to transform childrens' behavior

Business news story for The Commercial Appeal

April 9, 2010

Tracy Palm, executive director of Transformations Autism Treatment Center, simply wants the parents of children with autism spectrum disorders to have hope.

"I get so many families that come into my office who have completely lost their hope that their child will ever be able to do anything, even speak," she said.

"What I want them to know and understand is that these kids make progress ... they just need the right therapy to be happening in their life at that time."

Palm, a board-certified behavior analyst, began Transformations in 2007 and moved into a new facility on the edge of Bartlett in Memphis last January. The center, at 2535 Whitten Road, is just off Interstate 40 and is accessible to clients who come from as far away as Forrest City, Ark. The one-story, brick building is 2,500 square feet sectioned into rooms for group activities such as music and art, as well as private rooms where counselors can work with clients one on one ... (read more)

Heart to Heart

International Children's Heart Foundation

Feature story for the lifestyle section of The Commercial Appeal

September 13, 2009

In December 2006, Dr. William Novick was in Pakistan for the first time, as part of a medical mission team with the International Children's Heart Foundation, the charity he founded in 1994 to take cardiac care to children in need around the world.

A young boy, less than 3 months old, was presented to him suffering from a condition in which the vessels carrying blood from his heart to his lungs, and vice versa, were in abnormal positions. He also had a hole between the two pumping chambers of his heart.

"He was totally emaciated. You could see every rib on this baby," Novick recalls now, as his organization celebrates its 15th anniversary.

Though Novick is generally wary of doing a procedure of this magnitude on a first visit, he knew the child wouldn't last until his team's next visit, so he operated.

The surgery went as well as could be expected and the boy, Abu Bakr, was expected to live. Later, Novick learned that Abu was the only living grandson of a former Taliban fighter ... (read more)

How big should our family be?

Feature story for Memphis Parent magazine

June 2009

In the June issue of Memphis Parent, focusing on fathers, Father's Day and men's issues, I wrote a feature story on vasectomies as a birth control option. The piece answers questions men have about the procedure, the permanence, this option versus others, fears and includes personal stories.

The decision to have children is one of the most sacred and important decisions two people can make. The thinking process should include the consideration of your lives as adults and whether a child or children will fit into that life. You have to question your flexibility and willingness to turn that currently childless life of yours upside down. Finances, education, coming decades of hands-on care, indeed the whole future should be re-imagined with children in it. The responsibility of another life is an awesome one.

The decision to not have children, or any more children, is equally important. Are two children enough? Three? Is one all we have the time and love for? Determining the number of people you envision in your family is Step One in deciding to become voluntarily sterile. How to get that way is a whole other discussion ... (read more)