Welcome Jamie Kahn and Jamella Broome!  

Jamie has taken over the reigns as NSI’s Marketing Liaison.
Jamella is our new Interim Manager for Outpt. Psych and Headache Clinic.

Nanveet Gill – will be the new manager for Memory & Brain Center, taking over from Carrie Barbee who has served as interim manager. Carrie will continue to manage Epilepsy Clinic.

 NSI Strategic Plan / Mission Forward work:
The NSI Strategic Plan has been completed. The result from numerous committee data- gathering and forecasting meetings held over the past 6 months, the plan will inform NSI on expansion and marketing campaigns over the next 5 years.

Mission Forward work continues – much of the focus on Access improvements and scheduling utilization.

New Service Line Manager at Fred Hutch
 Laura Sconyers will be managing Neuro, Onc, Thoracic Head and Neck at Fred Hutch. FH has it’s own strategic plan, so we are working together to integrate theirs with ours since we are essentially one neuro-onc program.
Marketing is looking at co-branding both entities.

2 New Nurse Navigators for ABTC!
We have hired two Nurse Navigators (1 FTE) starting at ABTC. This is great for our HMC colleagues who originally treat an urgent pt. during a critical visit but may later become lost in follow-up. One of their main goals is to get these patients on the road with our Neuro-oncology team. The new nurse navigators are already in full swing and have navigated around 20 patients last month.

Exploring LITT device for MTLK
We are looking into acquiring a LITT ‘device’ for Mtlk. We currently treat some epilepsy patients at HMC with LITT and are looking at how this might work at Mtlk for brain tumor patients. We are working with Dr. Ferreira, and Dr. Ko and the finance team on a pro forma now. More to come.

Clearly there has been a lot of activity and planning. A shout-out to all of you for helping to drive much of this change and progress!

Animated Video for BAC
We invested in an animated video short on Brain Aneurysm Care and how it’s treated. The target audience is pts w/ brain aneurysm patients that are not emergent. It was loaded on to our webpage in March of 2022 with a form for patients to request an appt. – Shelby at HMC Neurosurgery has been fielding patient inquiries and following up w/pts within 24 hours to get them scheduled. This is a great example of a project/proforma based on collaborative input from staff and team members which has resulted in 63 outpt and 7 inpt encounters. Minus the cost of building the campaign, we have garnered $310K in revenue from this endeavor! We’d like to do more of these, but like Open Scheduling, we will be cognizant of any strain it may add to the team.
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UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center has been designated as the first and only Clinical Center in the Pacific Northwest by the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformations.

This recognition highlights Harborview’s multidisciplinary approach to treating patients with cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs). The Alliance, a patient- and family-advocacy organization dedicated to raising awareness of and supporting research for a cavernous malformation cure, has named only four Clinical Centers nationwide.

Also known as a cerebral cavernous angioma or cavernoma, these malformations are raspberry-shaped collections of abnormal blood vessels. The vessels have thin, leaky walls and typically form in the brain and spinal cord. These malformations can grow and hemorrhage at any age, including during childhood. Symptoms typically appear between ages 20 and 40.

Harborview’s coordinated approach to healthcare includes experts from its Comprehensive Stroke Center, Neurosciences Institute and Regional Vascular Center. Alongside the UW Medicine Center for Stroke and Applied Neuroscience (SANS), the team, led by Chief of Neurological Surgery Louis Kim, MD, MBA is committed to exemplary patient care and conducting research that moves us closer to a universal cure.

“We are sincerely honored by this recognition and are more determined than ever to deliver the absolute highest level of neurosurgical and clinical care to our patients with cavernous malformations,” says Dr. Kim. “Our secret to success has been the multidisciplinary team-based approach to treatment that maximizes the best outcomes.”

To earn the Clinical Center designation, Harborview had to meet several criteria, including streamlining its appointment process for patients. The new system schedules all visits during one call and spreads them out over no more than two days to reduce potential travel time for out-of-town patients. In addition, the facility brought on several clinical leaders, including:

• Louis Kim, MD, MBA, SANS Executive Director and Neurosurgeon
• Laligam Sekhar, MD, Cerebrovascular Neurosurgeon
• Michael Levitt, MD, Cerebrovascular Neurosurgeon
• David Tirschwell, MD, Cerebrovascular Neurologist
• Nicholas Poolos, MD, PhD, Epileptologist
• Fuki Hisama, MD, Geneticist
• Jonathan Medverd, MD, Radiologist
• Samantha Hershey, RN, Nurse Manager

Adding Harborview as a CCM Clinical Center will greatly enhance care for patients in the Pacific Northwest, says Connie Lee, PsyD, chief executive officer of the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation.

“We are pleased to welcome UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center into our network of recognized CCM Clinical Centers,” she says. “Dr. Kim and his team’s integrated, expert care addresses a critical need for patients with cerebral cavernous malformations far beyond the greater Seattle area.”

Link to original article | UWM Neurosurgery website:  Harborview Medical Center Named Cerebral Cavernous Malformations Clinical Center | UW Department of Neurological Surgery

The work that Kelly’s doing and how that may impact your clinic.

Kelly Bender, our NSI Outreach Liaison has been busy both in the field and at the organizing table. In addition to numerous events (see highlights below) Kelly has been coordinating a variety of patient-facing webinars featuring a different providers who are invested in using this method to share important info. Topics that her recent webinars have covered include Movement Disorders, Essential Tremors, and MS.  Response has been nothing short of impressive.  A Movement Disorder webinar in January garnered 203 registrations and over 18 attendees!

To see how these might impact your clinic, see the statistics below:

Movement Disorders
Jan 2023 –Deep Brain Stimulation
203 Registrations
182 Attendees
26 Clinic Appointments in NSI & 2 Surgeries

April 2023 –Essential Tremor
172 Registered
96 Attendees
14 Clinic Appointments with Neuro, 2 with Neurosurgery

MS – Jan 2023
16 Attendees

MS – February 2023
204 Registrants
63 Attendees

MS – March 2023
266 Registrants
72 Attendees

The webinars are not only a venue which patients seem to enjoy, they have proven to be valuable educational opportunities and a great way to target specific topics.  As Steven Lashley can attest, we have clearly seen an uptick in appointments immediately following the seminars.

YOU CAN HELP!  If you think of a specific kind of patient or specialty topic that would be good for this venue, please reach out to Kelly.

Other Goings on:

Strike out Stroke: “I also love how many of the volunteers from other area hospitals were handing out our UW Medicine NSI BEFAST magnets!”

 Epilepsy Walk 2023

MS Walk 2023

On July 6, 2023, the FDA approved Lecanemab (marketed as Leqembi).  The drug works by reducing amyloid plaques that form in the brain, a defining pathophysiological feature of the disease and should be initiated in patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

Patient advocacy organizations hailed it as the first-of-its-kind traditional treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s.
The historic development brings a treatment option and renewed hope for continued innovation to the millions of patients affected by this devastating condition, particularly women and communities of color who face disproportionate rates of the disease.

As a center of excellence UW Medicine is currently reviewing processes in preparation to offer this treatment. The effort is complicated because it entails so many areas, including pharmacies, fusion centers, Memory Brain & Wellness, research coordinators, etc.  In addition to logistics, NSI Marketing and Communications are also in discussion on managing announcements and information for an eager population.

We will be sure to keep you informed of our launch and provide information and contacts you can share with patients who have questions.

Links:
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Applauds FDA Approval of Leqembi for Treatment of Early-Stage Alzheimer’s | UsAgainstAlzheimer’s (usagainstalzheimers.org)

FDA Converts Novel Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment to Traditional Approval | FDA