Healthcare Heroes: the quiet champions of healing and hope.

AuthorCutler, Sarah

This year's Healthcare Heroes have touched the lives of many in Utah and beyond the state's borders. From brilliant doctors to comforting volunteers, each Healthcare Hero exemplifies a devotion to bringing health and hope to our lives. Join us as we pay homage to the brilliant researchers, the knowledgeable medical staff, the healthcare advocates and the administrators who value touch and compassion more than the balance sheet--the quiet champions of healing and hope.

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Lifetime Achievement

Dr. L. Frank Bentley

Pediatrician, Memorial Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare

Dr. L. Frank Bentley has established a reputation for working fast during the "golden minute" (the first minute of life) to save the lives of newborn babies who struggle to take their first breath.

He has traveled the globe for nearly a decade volunteering his time to teach healthcare providers life-saving techniques for newborns. Bentley teaches methods that are simple and low-tech: cleaning and stimulating the baby, watching for important vital signs and using a small, handheld ventilator bag and mask to encouraging breathing. He has trained nearly 700 nurses, midwives and physicians who in turn are able to teach the techniques to others.

"Dr. Bentley is devoted to his patients here in Salt Lake and is a committed advocate for newborns in the developing world," says LDS Hospital Administrator Jim Sheets. "We are very fortunate to have him as part of our team.

Bentley began practicing in 1977 and has since helped establish the newborn intensive care unit at LDS Hospital. He has saved the lives of babies across the globe, as well as in Utah. His efforts ensure that many more babies will have a healthy start in life--both those born today and those who will be born far into the future.

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"The medical knowledge he has helped spread to other lands and providers is invaluable," says Utah Medical Association President Dr. Brian Shiozawa. "How many newborns have survived those first critical hours of life because someone taught by Dr. Bentley knew how to get the child to breathe?"

Dr. DeVon C. Hale

Professor of Medicine and Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine

Dr. DeVon C. Hale has devoted his life to studying and improving health across the world. After receiving specialized training in internal medicine and infectious disease, Hale traveled to more than 25 countries where he evaluated the health of missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During that time, he became passionate about travel medicine and tropical diseases, His work led to the development of a Global Health Exchange program, in which Hale and his team have worked with health educators and providers in countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Peru, China and India.

Throughout his experiences, Hale has witnessed firsthand the impacts of educating individuals and healthcare providers versus solely treating illnesses. He recalls an experience in Mosoriot, Kenya, when he cared for individuals with HIV. Though the medicine those individuals needed was just $25 a month, most could not afford it. "I had never felt as helpless and distraught as that day in the village of Mosoriot," he says. "The greatest learning experience for me was recognizing the principle that help in providing education and developing their own resources was more beneficial than trying to provide them with temporary money, supplies or equipment that was not sustainable."

Today, Hale views his humanitarian missions as an opportunity to teach medical students. "The most enjoyable experience is the opportunity to observe the progress of others as they learn and grow from the educational process--to see students learn and experience life in another culture; to recognize that we are all a part of this world and some of us have more resources than others; and to see countries with limited resources make progress in medical care."

  1. Gene Moffitt

    Founder and Chairman of the Board, Gold Cross Ambulance

    Gene Moffitt has long had a passion for helping the community around him. With a background in electrical technology, Moffitt worked for Sperry Univac where he managed Intermountain Ambulance. "It was this experience in the ambulance industry that gave me the desire to establish my own company in 1968."

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    Moffitt founded Gold Cross Ambulance with the vision of providing quality medical care and customer service to anyone regardless of race, creed, color, religion or ability to pay. According to Moffitt, Gold Cross strives to offer a medical transportation system that is reliable, efficient and is a benefit to the community.

    Key to the company's success is that it is able to provide medical responses to emergency situations while being integrated with other local, county, state and national emergency response agencies. The company is certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) and is the first ambulance provider in the state to achieve the national distinction.

    Gold Cross often donates its services and time to the community. In 1990, the company provided free-of-charge services to Intermountain Healthcare by transferring infants and children from the former Primary Children's Hospital to the new facility on the University of Utah medical campus. Moffitt says donating time and the use of ambulances is one of the most rewarding aspects of his career.

    Moffitt has served as president of the American Ambulance Association, chair of Utah Emergency Medical Services Committee and president of the Utah State Ambulance Association.

    Innovation

    Dr. T. Jared Bunch

    Physician, Intermountain Electrophysiology Program Medical Direction: Director of Electrophysiology Research, Intermountain Medical Center, Intermountain Heart Institute

    Dr. T. Jared Bunch and his team have found that atrial fibrillation adversely affects the body, resulting in many disease patterns such as dementia (including Alzheimer's disease), renal dysfunction, diabetes, heart failure, body inflammation and both cardiac and all-cause mortality.

    Bunch's goal is to reduce the adverse effects of atrial fibrillation by examining and enhancing the various methods used to minimize the associated risks, with his end goal being to minimize or eliminate the morbidity and mortality associated with atrial fibrillation.

    "I hope that we can reduce stroke, heart failure, dementia and all other problems that are associated with atrial fibrillation so patients not only live longer, they feel better and can live good lives" Bunch says.

    His process led to three provisional patents that center around ablation tools or ablation monitoring tools. Bunch and his team developed a mapping approach for patients with more advanced atrial fibrillation that could help minimize excessive ablation and heart injury. Another tool is a unique temperature monitoring system that can measure heating of the esophagus over a broad region.

    "When I take the time to ask research questions and truly examine what I am doing and how it impacts the lives of my patients, I am a much better physician. I am idealistic--I think we can one day have highly effective treatments for atrial fibrillation and can tell patients that we can treat this abnormal heart rhythm [more than] 99 percent of the time," says Bunch.

    Roy D. Bloebaum, PhD

    Director, Bone and Joint Research Lab, VA Medical Center: Professor of Orthopaedics, Biology, Bioengineering, University of Utah Department of Orthopaedics

    Roy D. Bloebaum, has greatly enhanced the lives of thousands of people who have lost limbs. His work focuses on attaching prosthesis directly to bones. "The innovation we are working on today is to help develop implants that can go inside the bone, protrude from the skin and allow the prosthesis to attach directly to the implant so the bone can be loaded, not the exterior skin and muscle." This remarkable innovation has helped numerous individuals, who once thought that they would spend their lives in a wheelchair, be able to stand and walk again.

    More recently, Bloebaum's work has evolved to help...

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