HJAR Sep/Oct 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2020 65 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalAR.com for their partnership,” said Hendrix President Ellis Arnold. “The new clinic will offer a higher level of care and service for our students and employees and will serve the health and wellness needs of our campus and community for years to come.” Allison Wilson, APRN, and Necie Reed, APRN, are currently accepting telemedicine as well as in- person appointments. Katie Deacon, APRN, and Samantha Primm, PA-C, will be joining the medi- cal staff in September. Located at 1700 Altus St. Suite 100, the site of the former Hendrix College Bookstore, the office building has four exam rooms, x-ray and labora- tory services, and a procedure room, as well as offices and work areas for the staff. Baptist Health Center for Clinical Research Announces Late-Stage, Phase 3 COVID-19 Vaccine Study Baptist Health Center for Clinical Research is conducting a late-stage, Phase 3 study on a potential COVID-19 vaccine, and is recruiting vol- unteers to participate. Baptist Health Center for Clinical Research’s involvement is part of its Arkansas COVID Vaccine Initiative. Baptist Health is the only site in the state offering this study, which seeks to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this vaccine candidate. Baptist Health Center for Clinical Research’s study coincides with a broader nationwide effort, Operation Warp Speed, which was announced in May as a public-private partnership to facilitate, at an unprecedented pace, the development, manu- facturing, and distribution of COVID-19 measures including vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments. The goal is to develop a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January of 2021. “Everyone is at risk of infection, but at particu- lar risk are people working outside of the home in healthcare, emergency response, factory settings with close quarters, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, and retail as well as city employees and any other occupation that involves contact with the public. In addition, all people over 65 are sus- ceptible to developing severe complications from the disease,” says Richard G. Pellegrino, MD, PhD, CEO and president of the Baptist Health Center for Clinical Research. “No vaccine or specific antiviral treatment is cur- rently available to fight COVID-19, and the best prevention method currently is to avoid exposure. There is an urgent public health need for rapid development of a vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease.” If you are interested and would like more infor- mation, visit arkansascovidvaccine.com and fill out the contact form. Filling out the form does not commit you to the study, but you will be contacted to provide more information and to answer addi- tional questions. Study-related care is available to participants at no cost and health insurance is not required nor needed. Participants will be compensated for time and travel if they qualify and enroll in the COVID- 19 vaccine study. Northwest Medical Center- Bentonville Providing AFib Procedure A one-time procedure that may reduce stroke risk for a lifetime in people with a specific type of atrial fibrillation (AFib) is now available at North- west Medical Center-Bentonville. AFib is the most common heart rhythm abnormality in the U.S.; and although AFib is usually not life-threatening, it can lead to other serious problems, such as stroke and congestive heart failure.  When a patient has AFib, the electrical impulses that control the heartbeat do not travel in an orderly fashion through the heart. Instead, many impulses begin at the same time and spread through the atria. The fast and chaotic impulses do not give the atria time to contract and/or effec- tively squeeze blood into the ventricles. Because the left atrial appendage (LAA) is a little pouch, blood collects there and can form clots. In fact, ninety percent of stroke-causing blood clots that come from the heart are formed in the LAA. When those blood clots are pumped out of the heart, they can cause a stroke. People with AFib have a five times greater risk of stroke1 than those with normal heart rhythms. The left atrial appendage (LAA) closure proce- dure is now available to treat patients with non- valvular atrial fibrillation. It works differently from blood thinner medication in that it is a perma- nent implant that closes off a part of the heart where blood clots commonly form. The implanted device permanently closes off this part of the heart to keep any blood clots that do form from escaping.  Dr. Maria Baldasare, an interventional cardiolo- gist who moved her practice to Bentonville from Kansas in January, said the goal of AFib treatment is to reduce the risk of stroke by controlling the heart’s rate and rhythm. “Stroke is more severe for patients with AFib, as they have a 70% chance of death or permanent disability. To reduce the risk of stroke, physicians usually prescribe medication that thins the blood to prevent blood clots from forming. The most common treatment for stroke risk reduction in patients with AFib is warfarin ther- apy. Despite its proven efficacy, long-term warfa- rin therapy is not well-tolerated by some patients and carries a significant risk for bleeding compli- cations. In select patients, physicians may deter- mine that an alternative to blood thinners, most often an LAA closure implant, is needed to reduce AF stroke risk.”  This first-of-its-kind implant, about the size of a quarter and shaped like a jellyfish, is inserted into the heart using a minimally invasive procedure. A flexible tube, or catheter, is inserted through a small incision in a vein in the groin and travels to the left atrial appendage of the heart where the implant is placed. This is a one-time procedure that usually lasts about an hour. Typically, patients are released from the hospital the next day. In a clinical trial, nine out of 10 people were able to stop taking warfarin just 45 days after getting the implant. In addition to minimizing the risk for stroke, the procedure can lower the risk of bleed- ing associated with the long-term use of blood thinners. The procedure and implant have been clinically studied for more than 10 years in the U.S., with more than 100,000 people having received the implant to date. Baldasare has earned three board certifications, including internal medicine, cardiovascular dis- ease, and interventional cardiology. She received a medical education at Ross University School of Medicine in Portsmouth, Dominica. She com- pleted her internal medicine residency and car- diovascular disease fellowship at Drexel Univer- sity College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Penn. She then completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at Cooper Medical School of Rowan in Camden, N.J., where she was the first female selected for this fellowship program. n