Ruiz named interim chair of psychiatry, behavioral sciences

Interim Dean Jerry Wolinsky has announced Dr. Pedro Ruiz as the interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and executive director of the Harris County Psychiatric Center, effective Aug. 1. Ruiz also will be named interim chief of psychiatry at LBJ Hospital and Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center.

Ruiz, professor and vice chair of clinical affairs of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been on faculty for 14 years and is internationally recognized for his work with the mentally ill.

“I am certain that Dr. Ruiz is up to the exciting challenges that are in store for this department,” Wolinsky said.

“I look forward to helping move the department into its new phase, focusing on neurosciences, state-of-the art clinical care, and excellence in training and education,” Ruiz said.

His appointment follows the resignation of Dr. Robert Guynn, who served as chair of the department and executive director of the Harris County Psychiatric Center for 18 years.

“On behalf of the institution, I want to thank Dr. Guynn for his many years of loyal and dedicated service in these positions, often under quite trying circumstances. He has helped to provide a base for the department for continued growth and prominence in future years. I look forward to his continued help in nurturing students, residents, and faculty. I understand and reluctantly accepted his need for more time to concentrate on his new position on the board of directors of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology,” Wolinsky said.

Guynn will remain on department faculty, where he has served for 34 years.


-D. Brown

For more Headlines, see Page 2 Stories

Electronic medical record rollout nearly complete

UT Physicians is in its last stage of phasing in its electronic medical record (EMR) to all clinical physicians.

“We just unveiled a new Web site with the latest timeline and training schedule, and we plan to have everyone trained by the end of the calendar year for the majority of the clinics,” said Dr. James Griffiths, UT Physicians executive director of clinical technology.

The site may be accessed at www.utphysicians.org/emr.

With the EMR, all patient information, including labs and structured physician notes, are at the doctor’s fingertips. With the prescription module, UT clinicians can communicate electronically to the majority of pharmacies in the Houston area, with refill requests coming in electronically.

“The prescription module helps physicians improve patient safety and streamlines the operational side – curbing patient requests for refills by automating the process,” Griffiths explained.

Patient billing is more accurate and compliant through the EMR, Griffiths added, since the notes, orders and charges are tied together. All clinics are presently using the EMR, Touchworks software from Allscripts that debuted in 2004, to a varying degree.

“We are committed to completing the project on schedule with the possible exception of Ob/Gyn,” said Dr. Brent King, executive sponsor of the Allscripts rollout. “Allscripts, in its current form does not work well for their clinic, but a new release is on the way and is supposed to address this issue.”

The EMR will tie in with UT Physician’s patient portal, which will allow patients to schedule appointments online as well as request prescription renewals through the Web.

-D. Brown


For more Headlines, see Page 2 Stories

Gould finds false-positives in PET-CT imaging

Current PET-CT scanners with standard commercial software designed to provide images of the heart are falsely indicating coronary artery disease in as many as 40 percent of patients, according to a study published July 3 on the cover page of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Lead author Dr. K. Lance Gould, professor in the Division of Cardiology, said he discovered the abnormalities upon his initial use of cardiac PET-CT scanners in the Weatherhead P.E.T. Center For Preventing and Reversing Atherosclerosis at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.

Positron emission tomography, or PET, is nuclear cardiac imaging for optimally assessing blood flow in the heart. When paired with CT, or computed tomography, the PET-CT scanners should be an accurate, noninvasive tool for detecting or assessing severity of heart disease, said Gould, executive director of the Weatherhead P.E.T. Center. However, he said, an erroneous basic concept in the software functions make the PET-CT scanners prone to generating false-positive results.

The technology showed false-positive results in 40 percent of the 259 patients who participated in Gould’s study. In 23 percent of those patients, it showed severe false abnormalities suggesting heart disease, which Gould said could have resulted in unwarranted, emergency heart procedures if he had not run additional tests to confirm his suspicions of the inaccurate results.

“We found errors that are inherent in the technology as now used. Failure of physicians to recognize and correct those errors can have a profound impact on patients’ lives,” said Gould, the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished University Chair. “These falsely positive results could lead to unnecessary procedures for nonexistent heart problems or for problems that could be treated without surgery.”

The commercial software does not account for movement in the lungs and heart while the patient is breathing during the test, Gould said, and as a result, the PET and CT images don’t always match or co-register. “Consequently, the images have big holes or gaps where the processing is incorrect in areas where the PET and CT data fail to match,” Gould said. “It looks like someone has severe disease.”

On discovering the problems, Gould developed a solution with Dr. Tinsu Pan, associate professor in the Department of Imaging Physics at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, by rewriting the software to account for breathing motions and correctly aligning PET and CT images.

“When done properly, PET-CT produces absolutely perfect images of blood flow in the heart muscle,” he said. “It’s the best way to assess and direct management of heart disease.”

Unfortunately, according to Gould, the redesigned software is not generally commercially available at this time. Gould also says, “This medical product is out there on the market, and physicians and their patients trust it, yet there is a big problem with it. Since PET-CT proved ideal for cancer, body and brain imaging, everyone assumed its application to the heart would work with the same protocols and software – a big mistake.”

For more information on the study, visit http://jnm.snmjournals.org/.

- M. Raine

For more Headlines, see Page 2 Stories