Health
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Dr. John Hodgkin, medical director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program and Hospitalist Program at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, was honored as a Physician of the Year at the Adventist Health Physician Leadership Symposium in October.
The honorees, selected by each hospital in the system, were chosen as exemplary health care providers because they embody the organization’s mission and focus on whole person care.
The award recognizes the compassionate work of those who distinguish themselves from the ordinary.
Dr. Hodgkin was chief of the Pulmonary/Critical Care Section in Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Medical Director of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Medical Director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation at the Loma Linda Medical Center.
In 1983 he moved to the Napa Valley where he practiced pulmonary and critical care medicine, and served as medical director of Respiratory Care and Pulmonary Rehabilitation at St. Helena Hospital. He spent 23 years as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Davis from 1983 to 2006.
Dr. Hodgkin is known as one of the founders of pulmonary rehabilitation as well as a Founding Fellow and Past-President of the American Association for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, starting the pulmonary rehabilitation program at both St. Helena Clear Lake and Napa Valley.
Dr. Hodgkin has been published in over 200 books and journals on the subject of respiratory care, pulmonary rehabilitation and pulmonary medicine.
He is the lead editor of the foremost clinical textbook on pulmonary rehabilitation, “Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Guidelines to Success,” used by medical schools, physicians, nurses and allied health professionals.
Dr. Hodgkin is also a co-editor of the fourth edition of “Fundamentals of Heart and Lung Sounds,” published in 2012.
In 2007 he was awarded the Outstanding Clinician of the Year Award from the California Thoracic Society.
Dr. Hodgkin is a master diagnostician with the ability to synthesize patient’s information with wisdom and intuition. The combination has resulted in his creative and innovative approach to patient care. Dr. Hodgkin continues to touch many patient lives through his medical practice.
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MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – According to a preliminary economic analysis, the construction of the new Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital (HMH) on East Hill Road will result in an estimated economic impact of $89.7 million for the region by the time the project is completed in 2015.
Seventy new jobs created by the new facility will contribute an additional estimated $10.2 million annually to the community.
By 2020, after five years of operation, the total economic impact to the community will be $142 million.
“We hired MPI Companies, a business services consultant, to do an objective analysis so we could accurately assess the impact of our new hospital,” said HMH CEO Rick Bockmann. “We are delighted that the new hospital will allow us to continue to provide excellent care, plus improve the financial well-being of our community.”
The new hospital and its health care campus will not only increase the number of existing jobs by approximately 70, but will also attract additional businesses needed to support the new facility.
The overall cost of the new facility is estimated at $62 million, almost $3 million of which has been raised by local community members, and just over $4 million of which will come from the city of Willits.
The bulk of the funding comes from hospital funds accumulated during years of strong operational performance and other Adventist Health contributions.
“This fundraising has been a group effort. Without the support of each of the players, this hospital could not be built. I am especially grateful to Adventist Health, which has not only contributed significant dollars to build the hospital, but will lease the space on which the new hospital is built,” Bockmann said. “This will allow us to provide care for our community for future generations.”
Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital is a member of Adventist Health's Northern California Network, which provides innovative community, specialty, and destination health care.
Other members of the network include Ukiah Valley Medical Center and the St. Helena Region of hospitals.
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UKIAH, Calif. – Service comes in different shapes and forms. Just ask Julie Kranich.
In 2001, she and her husband Aaron and their three children moved to Lucerne from Fremont. The Kranich family came to Lake County to serve at Castlepoint Ministries, which has since closed.
Kranich has continued to devote her life to service by helping to provide health care to the Lake and Mendocino communities.
“I started working at the Ukiah Valley Rural Health Center in Lakeport as an office secretary,” she said. “I later was given an opportunity to work in a busier office with a team of surgeons in Ukiah.”
Last month, Kranich was appointed as the practice manager for the general surgery office (of which she was once an office secretary), otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat specialist office) and ophthalmology.
In this role, Kranich will be responsible for coordinating staffing at each office, working with physicians and other health care providers to help accomplish goals of providing excellent services and managing their schedules.
In talking with Kranich about what she hopes to accomplish personally, she said, “I want to let the community know that we’re here to serve and we have the best services available right here close to home. I have been blessed to work at Ukiah Valley Medical Center and I want to share those same blessings through the services I’m helping to manage.”
The general surgery office is located at 246 Hospital Drive, otolaryngology office (ear, nose and throat specialists) is located at 1165 S. Dora St., Suite C-2, and ophthalmology and optometry located at 1165 S. Dora St., Suite B.
To contact these physician offices you can call 707-463-8000.
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The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is low in countries where consumption of black tea is high, suggests a mathematical analysis of data from 50 countries, published in the online journal BMJ Open.
The global prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased six-fold over the past few decades, and the International Diabetes Federation calculates that the number of those with the disease will soar from 285 million in 2010 to 438 million in 2030.
The authors systematically mined information on black (fermented) tea consumption in 50 countries across every continent, based on 2009 sales data collected by an independent specialist market research company.
And they analyzed World Health Organization data for those same countries on the prevalence of respiratory, infectious, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer and diabetes.
Ireland topped the league table for black tea drinkers, at more than 2 kg/year per person, closely followed by the UK and Turkey.
At the bottom of the table were South Korea, Brazil, China, Morocco and Mexico, with very low consumption.
A statistical approach, called principal component analysis (PCA), was used to tease out the key contribution of black tea on each of the health indicators selected at the population level.
This showed an impact for black tea on rates of diabetes, but not on any of the other health indicators studied.
The link was confirmed with further statistical analysis, which pointed to a strong linear association between low rates of diabetes in countries where consumption of black tea is high.
The authors acknowledge several caveats to their findings, however.
They caution that the quality and consistency of data among all 50 countries are likely to vary, as will the criteria used to diagnose diabetes. And what may seem positive at the population level may not work as well as the individual level.
They also point out that various factors are likely to have contributed to the dramatic rise in diabetes prevalence, and that a link between black tea consumption and the prevalence of the disease does not imply that one is caused by the other.
But their findings do back those of previous research, they say.
“These original study results are consistent with previous biological, physiological, and ecological studies conducted on the potential of [black tea] on diabetes and obesity”…and they provide “valuable additional scientific information at the global level,” they write.
In recent years, a great deal of interest has focused on the health benefits of green tea, which contains simple flavonoids called catechins, thought to have anti-inflammatory properties, say the authors.
But the fermentation process, which turns green tea black, induces a range of complex flavonoids, including theaflavins and thearubigins, to which several potential health benefits have been attributed, they add.
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