IndyStar.com: Shari Rudavsky
Indiana's leading news source for all the top stories, local news, sports and weather.
Signs give parents clues about vision issues
Dr. Mary VanHoy is a developmental optometrist with Eyes for Wellness, a private practice in Carmel specializing in vision rehabilitation. Question: Do many children have undiagnosed eye problems? Answer: As many as one in four school-age children...
Study aims to find best treatment for trauma
Dr. Renn Crichlow is an orthopedic trauma surgeon at OrthoIndy and Methodist Hospital. Question: You’re doing a study on traumatic tibia fractures. What do you hope to learn? Answer: The study is sponsored by the Department of Defense. What...
Atrial fibrillation affects the rhythm of the heart
Dr. John Moore is an electro-physiologist with St. Francis Medical Group and Indiana Heart Physicians Question: What is atrial fibrillation? Answer: It’s the most common heart rhythm problem. It’s an irregular problem in the top chamber...
Aneurysms most common in those 50 and older
Dr. Aaron Cohen-Gadol is a neurosurgeon with Methodist Hospital and the Indianapolis Neurosurgical Group. Question: How common are brain aneurysms? Answer: About 1 to 2 percent of the population suffers from brain aneurysms. There are familial forms...
Local medical society tracks health reform
Dr. John Ellis is president of the Indianapolis Medical Society Question: What does the Indianapolis Medical Society do? Answer: We just hang around (laughs). Actually, we consider issues that affect physicians and their patients and try to effect...
SpyGlass may help detect early pancreatic cancer
Dr. Stuart Sherman is a professor of medicine and radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: You’re using a new device to diagnose and treat problems in the bile and pancreatic ducts. What does the SpyGlass Direct...
Doc's missed flu shot wreaks havoc on health
Dr. Mark Williams is a pulmonologist at the Indiana University Medical Center and a board member of the Indiana American Lung Association. Question: I understand you missed your flu shot last year. Aren’t you a lung specialist? Answer: I always...
Robot gives women options in treatment
Dr. Leo Bonaventura is a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with Bonaventura Reproductive Medicine, Carmel. Question: You have done more than 200 gynecologic procedures using a robot. What can you do with this technology? Answer...
Many patients don't get follow-up care after tests
Dr. Martin Were is a Regenstrief Institute investigator and an assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: You just published a study about problems that can arise when a patient is discharged from the...
Turning patients regularly is key to preventing bedsores
Dr. Jodie Harper is owner of Wound Professionals, a physician practice that takes care of patients with wounds in nursing homes and hospitals across Central Indiana. Question: Bedsores, or pressure ulcers, have been the leading cause of preventable...
Robot gives doctor a hand in cancer surgery
Dr. Dipen Maun is a colorectal surgeon at St. Francis Hospital&Health Centers. Question: What led you to use the da Vinci robotic system for colorectal cancer surgery? Answer: What we do to treat rectal cancer is to use laparoscopic surgery, to...
Increase in kidney stones in kids has several causes
Dr. Martin Kaefer is a pediatric urologist at Riley Hospital for Children and an associate professor of urology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: How common are kidney stones in children? Answer: They’re very common. It used...
Drooping eyelid can obstruct vision
Hi Shari, Interesting article. There are other...
Pregnant women top list for H1N1 shot
Dr. David Haas is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology with the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: The federal government recently made pregnant women one of the priority groups to receive the H1N1 vaccine. Why? Answer:...
Blood center uses e-mail to recruit donors
Dr. Dan Waxman is chief medical officer of the Indiana Blood Center. Question: During this recession, have you seen any decrease in blood donations as people turn to lucrative forms of donation such as plasma? Answer: No. We have a very solid and...
Single-incision procedure is easier on the patient
Dr. Don Selzer is a physician at Clarian Bariatrics and associate professor of surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: You recently performed the first single-incision LAP-BAND surgery in Indiana. What is the advantage of...
Heart-valve leaks can be repaired
Dr. Anjan K. Sinha is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: How common are problems after heart-valve replacement surgery? Answer:A lot of patients get valve-replacement surgery. One of...
Sleep apnea linked to diabetes
Dr. Kuimil Mohan is medical director for the St. Vincent Sleep Center. Question: Is there a connection between sleep apnea and diabetes? Answer:Many of these patients have things in common — hypertension, increased triglycerides, obesity and...
Doctor's healing hands work on body's woes
Dr. Charles Beck is an osteopathic physician with Osteopathic Vision on the Westside. Question: What is osteopathic manipulative medicine? Answer:The osteopathic profession was started by Andrew Taylor Still after the Civil War. He lost two children...
Tending to the wounded with new therapies
Dr. Monica Joyner is a wound-care specialist with St. Francis Hospital&Health Centers. Question: What does the field of wound care do? Answer:We’re seeing an increasing variety of patients. Typically, a wound-care patient is one for whom...
Treatment sheds light on controlling psoriasis
Dr. Scott Guenthner is a dermatologist with the Dermatology Center of Indiana in Plainfield Question: How common is psoriasis, and do most people who have it get treated? Answer:Maybe 3 percent to 4 percent of the United States population has...
'Arthritis' isn't a single condition
Question: What is the most prevalent and damaging preconception or myth about arthritis? Answer:It’s the idea that there’s only one real type of arthritis. This can be damaging because people may not be aware of newer therapies or...
Americans slow to accept cervical cancer vaccine
Dr. Darron Brown is a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine that you helped design, three years ago....
Calypso system pinpoints treatment of prostate
Dr. James Currier is a radiation oncologist at Madison County Cancer Care Center in Anderson. Question: You’re the first site in Indiana to use the Calypso system, which bills itself as GPS for the body, for prostate cancer treatments. How does...
Wrinkle treatments often are confusing
Dr. Barry Eppley is a plastic surgeon at Clarian North and Clarian West Medical Centers. Question: How different are the various injectables used in cosmetic procedures? Answer:You can break injectables into two types — Botox . . . and...
New kidney cancer drugs show promise
Dr. Keith Logie is a medical oncologist with the Central Indiana Cancer Center. Question: You’re involved with a trial of a new drug to treat kidney cancer. What type of treatments did you have available to treat kidney cancer before this?...
Medication might help ease stuttering symptoms
Dr. Aaron Davis is a naturopathic physician with the Davis Clinic in Indianapolis. Question:How common is stuttering? Answer:It affects about 1 in 100 or 2.7 million people. True stuttering is stuttering that leads to challenges or obstacles in...
Research targets common cause of mental disability
Dr. Craig Erickson is medical director of the Fragile X Syndrome Clinic at Riley Hospital for Children. Question: What is Fragile X syndrome? Answer:It’s the most common inherited form of developmental disability and mental retardation. It...
Procedure clears vision without removing cornea
Dr. Francis Price Jr. is the founder and director of Price Vision Group and chairman of the board of the Cornea Research Foundation of America. Question: You have been performing a new cornea procedure. What has been done in the past? Answer:The most...
TB treatment is tailored to child's country of origin
Dr. Maria Finnell is a pediatrician in the International Adoption Clinic at Riley Hospital for Children and a pediatrics fellow with the Children’s Health Services Research Section at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Question: You...
