January 22, 2010 — Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has appointed David A. Gerber, MD, to the Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation in the Health Resources and Services Administration. According to its charter, the Committee is charged with the task of assisting the HHS in its oversight of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the “equitable and effective organ donation, procurement, allocation, and transplantation system” enacted in the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984.

January 18, 2009 — Thomas M. Egan, M.D., of the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery is featured as the “Tar Heel of the Week” in a News & Observer story about Dr. Egan and his pioneering lung transplant research, which would make more donor lungs usable for transplant by treating the lungs ex-vivo (outside the body) to improve their health before transplant. Read the article here.

January 12, 2010 — Effective Tuesday, Jan. 12, the N.C. Memorial Hospital is relocating the Intermediate Surgical Care Unit (ISCU) to 6PST and expanding from 8 to 18 monitored intermediate surgical beds. ISCU will continue to admit patients from all surgery services in accordance with the current admission guidelines/policies. Please note, the main phone number is 843-0727, the fax line is 966-3410, and the tube station is 601. With this expansion, overall hospital licensed beds increase from 768 to 778.

January 12, 2010 — Effective Tuesday, Jan. 12, at the request of Dr. Anthony Meyer on behalf of Drs. Mark Koruda and Tim Farrell, ISD is modifying inpatient hospital services to differentiate between upper and lower GI surgery.

January 8, 2010 — Please read the following letter from Drs. William Roper and Etta Pisano: