News

Cavender joins gastroenterology team

Cary Cavender, MD, is the newest member of Le Bonheur’s gastroenterology team. He comes to Memphis from Birmingham, Ala., where he served at Children’s Hospital of Alabama and in private practice. He attended East Carolina University School of Medicine and completed his fellowship at the University Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee Healthcare Center. His research interests include pediatric inflammatory bowel disease, cyclic vomiting syndrome, functional abdominal pain and eosinophilic disorders. Cavender and Jay Lieberman, MD, will run a monthly eosinophilic disorders clinic.

Whole body cooling now offered during neonate transport

Le Bonheur’s specialty transport service, PediFlite, now offers therapeutic hypothermia (TH) as part of the Division of Neonatology’s comprehensive Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) program for newborn infants with severe birth asphyxia. Hypothermia initiated within six hours of birth has been shown to significantly decrease mortality and long-term neurologic disability. PediFlite will utilize the CritiCool device, which provides whole body cooling and controlled thermoregulation in the transport environment.

PediFlite will travel to referring hospitals in the region and will assess the need for TH after consultation with a Le Bonheur neonatologist. If recommended by the neonatologist, the team will initiate TH and transport the patient to Le Bonheur’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to continue further therapy.

For more information or to refer a patient, please contact the transfer center at 888-899-9355.

Memphis joins Type 1 diabetes nationwide testing network

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) have joined a national network aimed at delaying and preventing Type 1 diabetes. People with a family history of Type 1 diabetes can participate in free screening at www.diabetestrialnet.org. Eligible volunteers will receive a kit and be directed to a local lab for screening at no cost to the volunteers.

The screening is for Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, a long-term collaboration funded by the National Institutes of Health. This international collaboration aims to discover ways to delay or prevent Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in people at increased risk. Each year, TrialNet must screen more than 20,000 relatives of those with T1D to reach its research goals.

“TrialNet represents the largest screening program for Type 1 diabetes. Participants who display the highest risk of developing T1D may be eligible to enter clinical trials designed to assess prevention strategies for this serious disease. Screening can be performed conveniently at your local hospital or health care provider’s office. Take control of Type 1 diabetes in your family by becoming a part of this historic campaign against diabetes,” said Robert Ferry, MD, chief of Pediatric Endocrinology for UTHSC and Le Bonheur.