LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor
Since 2004

Tag: Ph.D.

  • Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Week in Review

    Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Week in Review

    The weekly press release from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine

    For the week ending April 24, 2020

    On Thursday, Governor DeWine and Lt. Governor Husted invited Mark Weir, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Environmental Health at The Ohio State University, to discuss how health risks change as changes are made to the environment.

    Dr. Weir explained that cough or sneeze droplets containing the virus spread through contact with others or contact with contaminated surfaces. He explained that minimizing the spread of the disease as Ohio begins the long process of reopening depends on personal and environmental controls. Personal precautions include interrupting the infection process by practicing good hand hygiene and wearing masks.

    Employers must take precautions by disinfecting surfaces often and maintaining distance between individuals. Finally, facility and building management can help interrupt the infection process by managing airflow and air filters.

    “Since COVID-19 can live up to 72 hours on plastics and stainless steel, it will take a combination of efforts from all of us to interrupt the disease process,” said Dr. Weir.

    On Friday, Governor DeWine announced that members of the newly formed Testing Strike Team, led by former Governors Celeste and Taft, have reached an agreement with Thermo Fisher, a company that makes reagent, that will substantially expand COVID-19 testing capacity in Ohio.

    As a result of collaborative efforts through the Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19, Governor DeWine announced that ROE Dental Laboratory in Cleveland will manufacture up to 1 million testing swabs to support Ohio’s testing efforts.

    This testing will dramatically increase Ohio’s ability to test in our priority areas, including nursing homes, hot spots, congregate living settings, food and grocery stores, and essential manufacturing facilities.

    As part of Ohio’s offense strategy, Governor DeWine announced that Ohio has started working with Massachusetts-based Partners in Health. Partners in Health will bring needed resources to Ohio to help increase the ability to trace contact exposure to the virus.

    Additionally, Governor DeWine announced that the state will cover the costs to keep more than 200 youth who are aging out of foster care in the foster care system until the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

    As of Friday afternoon, there were 15,169 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Ohio and 690 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths. A total of 3,053 people have been hospitalized, including 920 admissions to intensive care units. In-depth data can be accessed by visiting coronavirus.ohio.gov.

    For more information on Ohio’s response to COVID-19, visit coronavirus.ohio.gov or call 1-833-4-ASK-ODH.

    • EDITOR’S NOTE: Loveland school buildings are closed to the public, however remote learning is being conducted at the Loveland City School District.
  • Mayo Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s announce rare congenital heart defect collaboration

    Mayo Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s announce rare congenital heart defect collaboration

    Cincinnati, Ohio –  Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have announced their collaboration within the nationwide HLHS Consortium to provide solutions for patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

    Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a rare and complex form of congenital heart disease in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. Infants born with HLHS undergo a series of three surgeries to support the right side of the heart, which must work doubly hard to pump blood to the lungs and the rest of the body. The consortium’s regenerative research continues to look for safe and effective new therapies to further strengthen these young patients’ hearts, with the hope of delaying or eliminating the need for a heart transplant later in life.

    The consortium aligns regional “medical centers of excellence” and advocacy groups with the shared goal of finding solutions for people affected by congenital heart disease, including HLHS. The consortium, which was developed by Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, works to sustain a continuous pace of research and innovation by bringing clinical trials and expertise to patients across the country.

    With a 135-year history serving pediatric patients, Cincinnati Children’s will participate in future HLHS Consortium clinical trials under the guidance of James Tweddell, M.D., executive co-director of the Heart Institute and director of cardiothoracic surgery at Cincinnati Children’s.

    “We’re excited to collaborate with Dr. Tweddell and the team at Cincinnati Children’s,” says Tim Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. “They are not only a center of excellence for the early-stage HLHS surgeries, but they also provide high-quality, comprehensive care for teens and adults with congenital heart disease. We’re proud to work together with them to find new ways to strengthen the hearts of people with HLHS.”

    “A large portion of the patients that we care for have a single pumping chamber, and decreased function continues to plague a subset of our patients with single ventricle anatomy,” says Dr. Tweddell. “Dr. Nelson and the Wanek family have developed a cutting-edge research program into the use of autologous stem cells for maintenance and improvement of single ventricle function.”

    Dr. Nelson and his colleagues have developed techniques to isolate and amplify stem cells from umbilical cord blood, Dr. Tweddell explains. Then the cells are injected into the myocardium of single ventricle patients at the time of the second staged surgery.

    “Preliminary studies have shown the stem cell injections to be safe, and future studies will build on this experience while looking at the benefits of stem cell therapy. We are excited to collaborate with Mayo Clinic and the Wanek family on this important new strategy to improve the lives of some of our most challenging patients,” says Dr. Tweddell.

    Cincinnati Children’s is the ninth member of the HLHS Consortium, joining Mayo Clinic, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Children’s Minnesota, Children’s Hospital Colorado, The Children’s Hospital at OU Medicine, and Ochsner Hospital for Children, as well as the advocacy group Sisters by Heart.