Missouri Baptist lures Singer to open MS center
St. Louis Business Journal - by Matt Allen
Missouri Baptist Medical Center is opening a multiple sclerosis center at its Town & Country campus, and Dr. Barry Singer is leaving Barnes-Jewish Hospital to head the unit.
Singer is bringing to Missouri Baptist his approximately 600 patients and his staff of four, including Heather Popham, his only MS certified nurse. He will remain an adjunct professor of clinical neurology at Washington University School of Medicine.
Singer said the main reason for leaving Barnes-Jewish after nine years in its clinical practice is to open the MS Center for Innovations in Care, which will specifically focus on the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). Doug Black, vice president of program and campus development at Missouri Baptist, said the hospital spent $100,000 to gut and renovate the 1,300-square-foot office suite that will house the center. Next door to the center is a 5,000-square-foot therapy center where six therapists will be trained in treating Singer's patients.
Singer said the MS Center, scheduled to open Aug. 18, will expand the services he is able to offer his patients through occupational therapy, social work services and expanded clinical offerings.
In the U.S., there are about 400,000 people with MS, and 200 more people are diagnosed each week, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. There are about 6,000 people in the St. Louis area with MS, which is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.
Singer has research funding for seven clinical trials to study new potential MS treatments, including two oral medications -- FTY720 and cladribine -- and a monoclonal antibody -- alemtuzumab. Funding for those trials is through the sponsoring pharmaceutical companies Novartis (FTY720), EMD Serono (cladribine) and Genzyme (alemtuzumab). He also has completed a neuroimmunology fellowship focusing on clinical and laboratory research in MS at the National Institutes of Health.
The Missouri Baptist MS Center is the fifth one in the St. Louis area, joining the John L. Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the West County Multiple Sclerosis Center at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, the Saint Louis University Multiple Sclerosis Center and the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
"We feel a hospital our size should have a neuroscience department and neuroscience offerings for the communities we serve," Black said. "The MS Center is yet one more piece of the puzzle for us."
The opening of the Missouri Baptist MS Center comes as the hospital is in the early stages of its plans to build a new facility, an upgraded operating suite and make improvements to the hospital's main tower.
Missouri Baptist, a 489-bed acute-care hospital, has 2,854 employees and had 2007 revenue of $370 million, an increase of 8.2 percent from $342 million in 2006.
matthewallen@bizjournals.com
Related Industry News |
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
