Letter from the Program Director
September 2007

Greetings!

As the proud Program Director of the LSU Medicine/Pediatrics program (which has been in existence since 1984), I am excited about our future in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics as we dutifully serve to improve the health care of adults and children in Louisiana.

As the city of New Orleans continues to grow and meet the evolving needs of the wonderful people of our metro area, the LSU Health Sciences Center continues to strive to provide the most comprehensive, cost-effective preventive care and treatment to patients regardless of their socioeconomic barriers to health care.  Our vision remains clear and focused, and our commitment to the citizens of Louisiana, unwavering.

We are thrilled that all of our full-service hospitals, including our flagship University Hospital, are thriving with abundant “bread-and-butter” pathology as well as quality education for our medical students and residents.  Our LSU faculty are more dedicated and committed to the educational goals of our Medicine/Pediatrics program than ever.  With the addition of our state-of-the-art Medicine/Pediatrics private continuity clinic only 10 minutes from downtown New Orleans (that utilizes an electronic health record system) and the hiring of two new Medicine/Pediatrics faculty, our Medicine/Pediatrics program continues to make progressive strides to ensure that our residents gain experience with cutting-edge technology that will prepare them for future career endeavors.

I am also proud to announce that our 5th biannual Internal Medicine Procedure Skills fair for LSU Medicine/Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Medicine/ER residents will be held on September 12 and 13, 2007 and will also be repeated in the spring.  LSU is one of the few medical centers in the country that incorporates simulated patients to train both medical students and residents to perform invasive procedures before they actually perform them in the hospital.  Residents rotate through five 30-minute stations that include:

1. Basic and difficult airways
2. Ultrasound-guided central line placement
3. Shock management (using Simulator)
4. Lumbar Puncture 
5. Dysrhythmias

Staffed by only the BEST teaching faculty, fellows, and chief residents, this fair is one of the most popular events offered – and even better, TWICE a year.  This unique experience has been specifically organized to help residents and faculty get to know each other better and to help minimize unnecessary morbidity and mortality.

With the recent renovations of our 35-bed Level III Nursery at Children’s Hospital,  the 24-bed Level I emergency room at University Hospital, and the modernization of  Touro Infirmary’s physician lounge with massage chairs and plasma TV,  we are now looking forward to the complete renovation of our PICU at Children’s Hospital in the near future.  Additionally, our Internal Medicine lecture schedule has been augmented to strategically include coverage of evidence-based Internal Medicine guidelines and ambulatory topics such as stable and unstable angina, stroke, coronary disease, diabetes, COPD, JNC VII and NCEP guidelines.

Again, I am thrilled about the many innovative changes that have been made and will be made in the near future to strengthen the morale and educational goals of our Medicine/Pediatrics and parent programs.  Finally, I cannot say enough about how proud I am of my Medicine/Pediatrics residents who truly are my family.  They inspire me daily to work harder to make our residency program even stronger and better than it is today.  We truly have the BEST Medicine/Pediatrics residents in the country!!!

Should you have any questions regarding our program or if you would like to be a part of our Medicine/Pediatrics family, please feel free to call me at (504) 415-8498.  I look forward to hearing from you in the near future!

Sincerely,
Betty Lo-Blais, MD