News at USA Health

For the first nine months of his life, Laventrice Ridgeway was a happy and laid-back baby. Then one day, he started crying and would not stop. In search for answers, his grandmother took him to the emergency department where he received a diagnosis that would follow him for the rest of his life – sickle cell disease.

USA Health is the first and only healthcare system on the Gulf Coast with the technology to identify organisms that cause diseases – more commonly known as pathogens – in as little as 40 seconds.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital officially opened a small baby unit where infants born at 28 weeks gestation or sooner and who weigh 1000 grams or less (2.2 pounds) receive specialized care.

USA Health and the City of Orange Beach are bringing a new and progressive care concept to the region through a partnership for emergency medicine services.

USA Health University Hospital is expanding its care team with the addition of Dr. Christine Fouty, a board-certified internal medicine physician who will see patients in the region’s only academic healthcare setting.

USA Health College of Medicine residents and fellows competed at the Third Annual Resident and Fellow Exposition on Thursday, May 23, at the Strada Patient Care Center.

Having a strong family support system is vital to the survival of newborns, especially when they are born too soon.

New research studies by physician-scientists at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute have been published online in advance of the 55^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Jennifer Young Pierce, professor of Interdisciplinary Clinical Oncology and leader of Cancer Control and Prevention at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute, is one of 16 oncologists to be chosen for a leadership development program by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

William Terry Jr., M.D., a urologist with USA Health, presented the May Med School Café lecture, "Rocks in Wrong Places: Humanity's Coping With Urinary Stone Disease."

Langford Webb, who had never had any suspicious spots or moles, first noticed a knot under his arm while bathing two years ago.

The study, led by USA Health University Hospital’s Trauma Medical Director Jon D. Simmons M.D., suggests that new manufacturing and quality control processes are needed to eliminate previously unrecognized cellular contamination present in stored plasma products.