- CommunityGeneral Page Tier 3BlogIn the wake of recent events, Luminis Health CEO Tori Bayless shares how our health system plans to confront racism, together. It is impossible to witness what we all are witnessing this week without sharing these words with you… Racism. It is an ugly reality that pervades our society. It has no place in our country, in our community, or in our health system. We will confront racism head on, and take action against it. Overt. Systemic. And everything in between. The recent, senseless killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are the most recent incidents of a long-standing legacy of inequity that demands justice. They demand that we do better. This problem that lingers in our society is not the burden of people of color alone. The ugliness is impacting our co-workers, patients, friends and family. Therefore, it is our problem to confront together. In the tumultuous days since the murder of George Floyd, emotions are understandably running high. Outrage. Grief. Sadness. Fear. Anger. Together we are planning our response as a health system that will underscore our commitment to justice and to every human life. We will do it together, as a team. As one. We also are caregivers. And we will care for each other, our patients and our community through this unrest and this ugly reality. We need to ask, how can we work together to understand those who need to be heard and protected? How can I be a better ally to my colleagues? It goes even deeper. How can I hear what I am not hearing? As a health system our core values fight against racism – but is it enough? Are we making progress? Today, I encourage you to check on each other. Offer to listen. Think about actions you can take, big and small, to start making a difference. I will be doing the same. And we will share our organizational response with you in the coming days. Together, we can heal and make change happen. Together we will be a part of the solution and support the eradication of inequity.0
- Orthopedics, Senior Care, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogFor more than thirty years, Dick Carey has spent his free time underwater. The 76-year-old from Severna Park conducted oyster surveys in the Chesapeake Bay for decades and has been a volunteer scuba diver for the National Aquarium since 1982. Now he owns a farm in West Virginia and hopes to raise a few cattle. A man like Dick doesn’t have time for the knee problems that had been starting to slow him down. After years of managing his pain Dick decided on a total knee replacement with Paul King, MD, and he’s once again unstoppable. My knee had been going for a long time. I had some arthroscopic surgery in 2004 and then I was getting cortisone shots. It just got to where I couldn’t continue doing that because it just didn’t fit my lifestyle. I scuba dive, I have a farm, and with a bad knee that you can only stand on for less than two hours in a day just wasn’t hacking it. Before the surgery, I was favoring my right leg. When the weather was warmer, I was repairing the fence in some areas and I didn’t finish because within two hours of going out to work on it, I was back sitting down the rest of the day because now my back started to hurt. I was seeing a pain doctor and he wanted to give me a block in my back because he said I had a pinched nerve. I didn’t want anyone messing with my back, so, I talked with my personal doctor. He urged me to wait until after the knee surgery. Nearly seven weeks after the operation I went up to the aquarium and did a special event. You don’t know how good that was. I didn’t want to give up the aquarium. Soon after, I left for the farm out in West Virginia to continue working on the fence. I’m glad I waited because I haven’t had any problems since the knee replacement. You have no idea how much better it is. So with the farm, the diving and my lifestyle, it’s pretty important to have a knee that works.0
- Cancer Care, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogIt had been thirty-six years since Sunny Janin quit smoking, and while asthma had been a problem for her, she had not expected the lung cancer that snuck up on her. At 66, the Stevensville resident had been seeing her doctor for follow-up after knee surgery at AAMC. She had lost weight, and was fatigued and having night sweats. The doctor ran some tests to see what was going on. Because of her history, CT scans revealed a few spots on her lungs that a bronchoscopy and biopsy had missed. She was immediately placed in the lung screening program where she was closely monitored with CT scans every three months. Her original fatigue and night sweats were unrelated to any lung problem, and they quickly passed. She assumed her health was fine. For a year-and-a-half her CT scans remained the same. Then, doctors saw a change in her lungs between one scan and the next. It was stage one lung cancer. “Within three weeks, I was in surgery,” Sunny said. “It was caught so early I didn’t need any other treatment with radiation or chemo.” Her thoracic surgeon Stephen Cattaneo, MD, said regular lung screening with CT for high risk patients like Sunny has been proven to save lives because it can catch the cancer in its early stages when treatment is most effective. “Most lung cancers aren’t found until they’re fairly wide spread within the chest or until they’re metastatic,” he said. “I didn’t have any symptoms. But AAMC is very aggressive about early detection. That was the key for me,” explains Sunny. Now, at age 70, she continues to practice yoga and care for her husband. “I have a full life,” she says, enjoying her grand children, proctoring for the community college, and until recently, serving as a tour guide at the Naval Academy. “It was that early detection that was key for me.”0
- The Region's Leading Peripheral Vascular Disease CareAt Luminis Health, we use advanced treatments and a highly experienced team approach to managing PVD. In fact, PVD is one of the most common vascular conditions we treat.You can trust us for your vascular care because we:Are nationally recognized. The American College of Cardiology recognizes Luminis Health for its commitment to hospital care for heart patients. You'll find us on the 2022 U.S. News & World Report list of “Best Hospitals."Have an experienced surgical team. Our surgeons perform many procedures each year. PVD is one of the most common conditions we treat.Offer the latest PVD treatments. Our vascular specialists are pioneers in the field, and we use the latest technology to detect and treat PVD. Our advanced surgical techniques offer treatments with less pain and faster recovery times.Provide multidisciplinary care teams. Your dedicated team of health care professionals includes cardiologists, physical therapists, wound care specialists and other providers. We'll partner and support you every step of the way.ConditionConditions/Services/Treatments PageIt's easy to mistake leg pain for a sore muscle. But if it occurs on a regular basis, or your legs feel weak or heavy, the problem might be your arteries, not your muscles. Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is a problem that often affects blood vessels leading to poor blood flow in your legs or feet.What is Peripheral Vascular Disease?PVD is also known as peripheral artery disease (PAD). It happens when plaque slowly builds up in arteries in one or both of your legs. Over time, it restricts blood flow, causes pain and can lead to wounds that won't heal.At Luminis Health, our vascular specialists offer state-of-the-art treatments for PVD that will keep you pain-free and moving.0
- Infectious DiseaseGeneral Page Tier 3BlogYou can’t turn on the news or scroll through social media today without hearing about the COVID-19 vaccine. And while we know you’re anxious to put the pandemic behind you, we also know you may have lingering questions about the vaccine. You aren’t alone. Many of your coworkers, family members and neighbors are wrestling with the same questions. We’ve never experienced a pandemic of this magnitude in our lifetimes, and we’ve never seen a vaccine developed this quickly. But investigating the details and unpacking what we know about the vaccine can go a long way in helping you feel more at ease. It’s important to know that multiple COVID-19 vaccines are under development. At this time, Pfizer and Moderna are the only vaccines available in the United States. They are the only COVID-19 vaccines that have received an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Fast doesn’t mean careless. It’s true; this vaccine is one of the fastest developed in modern history. But researchers were not starting from scratch when they learned about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Technology associated with the mRNA vaccine dates back to the 1990s. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), researchers performed early stage clinical trials using mRNA vaccines for HIV, influenza, Zika, rabies, and others. Unfortunately, it has taken a pandemic to get the needed funding to push this technology forward to develop this type of vaccine. It’s also important to note the process has been able to move so quickly because: The clinical trials were centrally coordinated by the government rather than various pharmaceutical agencies. The clinical trials combined the first two phases to assess safety, dosing, and the immune responses. The FDA granted the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines an EUA to allow for quick approval and distribution. Under an EUA, approval is pushed ahead of less critical projects. In order to issue an EUA, FDA must determine the known and potential benefits of the vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks. CDC continues assessing the effectiveness of vaccines approved for an EUA. None of the factors that allowed the accelerated development of a COVID-19 vaccine have compromised safety, scientific or ethical integrity. No short-cuts have been made. The FDA recommends a vaccine have an effectiveness rate of at least 50 percent. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines far exceed this standard. Both report about 95 percent effectiveness at preventing symptoms of COVID-19, including severe disease. This efficacy rate is extraordinary. You won’t get COVID from the vaccine, but you may experience mild flu-like symptoms. It’s not possible to get COVID-19 from the vaccine. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines only produce the spike protein from the virus, not the whole virus. However, when you get the vaccine you may experience some side effects, including chills, fatigue, headache, joint and muscle pain and injection site pain. But these side effects are typically mild and will go away on their own within one or two days. They represent immune activation and are seen with other vaccinations. It takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity after vaccination. That means it’s possible you could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and get sick. It takes about two weeks after your second dose for full immunity. Two doses of the vaccine are necessary. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses to be effective. Pfizer’s second shot occurs three weeks after the first dose, and Moderna’s is four weeks. Health experts recommend you resist the urge to skip the second dose and make time for the second shot. Vaccines for all will take several months. Vaccine distribution will take a while to make it into your neighborhood. That’s because the Maryland Department of Health created a phased approach to vaccine distribution based on initial limited supplies. First available doses will go to those at highest risk of exposure to or developing complications from COVID-19, including hospital health care workers and nursing home residents and staff. Next up will be first responders and those at significant risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms. Phase 2 targets essential non-health care and transportation workers, and people at moderately higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness. Phase 3 focuses on vaccinations for the general public. According to the CDC, vaccines should be available to the general public by the spring of 2021 and distributed throughout the year. Now is not the time to let your guard down. Just because a vaccine is making its way into your area, it still isn’t time to let your guard down. It will take a while for everyone to get both doses of the vaccine. For a highly contagious disease like COVID-19, much of the population must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when enough people become immune to COVID-19 to make its spread unlikely. And, while Pfizer and Moderna vaccines show they’re about 95 percent effective at protecting you from the disease, they aren’t 100 percent effective. That means there’s a small chance you can still get COVID-19 after being vaccinated if you’re exposed. Experts recommend continuing all of the safety measures we know are working to keep the virus at bay, including the 3Ws: Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Watch your distance. For your health and safety, stay up to date. Information about the pandemic and the vaccine changes daily. For the latest recommendations for you and your family, listen to your local public health officials and bookmark the CDC’s vaccination page for the most up to date information.0
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