Morning Rounds – Recap of Top News

Dr. Raghu Adiga, president and CEO, Liberty Hospital

• Yesterday, it was announced that Liberty Hospital and The University of Kansas Health System are pursuing a long-term partnership.
• We found the right partner with The University of Kansas Health System, a world-class health care system that can bring advantages to Liberty Hospital.
• We have common goals in putting patients first and bringing high-quality care to those patients.
• Our patients can look forward to enhanced care by bringing in world-class specialists into their community.

Tammy Peterman, president, Kansas City Division, The University of Kansas Health System

• In the health care industry, there are changes with consolidation -- particularly midsize and smaller organizations looking at opportunities to work with larger health systems for a number of reasons such as patient safety and quality, adding additional resources and support, and scaling.
• There is no change to what we're doing with our patients on this campus and in any of our campuses and throughout our entire system.
• We're going to continue to do what we've always done, which is provide great care and support to patients and their families.
• I think this is great for Liberty. I think it's great for our Health System. I absolutely believe this is great for our community as well.

Bob Page, president and CEO, The University of Kansas Health System

• This is an unbelievable opportunity for the Health System, for Liberty, and for the community.
• It’s important to understand that 35 percent of our patient population comes from Missouri, so we’ve always taken care of Missourians as well as Kansans.
• We're also very selective in our growth, so we the first thing we look at is cultural compatibility with potential partners like Liberty.
• It's not growth for growth's sake, but rather its growth with the appropriate partners, always putting the patient at the center of those decisions. That's what we did here with Liberty.

Focus Topic

Libby Sinovic, breast cancer survivor, underwent fertility preservation

• Libby's mother Kathy knew she had a mutation of the ATM gene that increases the chance of getting breast cancer. Libby hadn't been tested yet, but it was already part of a proactive program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center that included five yearly screenings.
• At 32, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She and her husband wanted to start a family quickly, but the cancer caused them to re-evaluate their plans.
• Because of the family history, Libby and her team of doctors wanted to be aggressive with her treatment, so a plan to expand their family was developed.
• Her doctors decided IVF treatment to harvest Libby's eggs was the best option. She had time for one round before she underwent a successful double mastectomy, after which time she underwent 18 months of anti-hormone therapy.
• Last summer, Libby was taken off the drugs to see if her body would accept an embryo transfer. The embryo transfer was done on August 18, 2022 and she found out she was pregnant on August 30. A health baby Josephine was born on May 4.
• She suggests people know the options up front and don't be afraid to take that hard step to go down this journey and preserve your fertility so that you can have a family when it's safe.

Dr. Courtney Marsh, reproductive endocrinologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• This process can be so overwhelming for patients because you're seeing so many doctors at once and getting so much information. We really try to just focus on getting through the process and helping the patient get through it because it's a lot to digest.
• Egg retrievals involve 10 days of shots and then usually about two days later, we’ll perform an egg retrieval process.
• It’s an outpatient procedure and it’s under anesthesia, but it is pretty minimally invasive and a safe procedure.
• In Libby’s case, we made embryos, so we retrieved the eggs and fertilized them with the sperm and grow them for about a week.
• And then they were frozen and underwent genetic testing. They can be used whenever the parents are ready.
• If you have a cancer diagnosis, please see a fertility specialist. We can help build families.

COVID Updates

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director, infection prevention & control, The University of Kansas Health System

• COVID hospitalizations this week have increased from 14 patients last week to 20 patients this week.
• A new paper was published regarding COVID tests, finding that a home COVID test after the first sign of symptoms could lead to a false negative.
• This supports what we have been saying about if you have symptoms, take a test. If it's negative, take one the next day or 48 hours later.
• The reason for this is as people start to get symptoms, it is because they've had exposure to the virus or the vaccine before so it's really the body’s immune response.
• When you see that virus, your body kicks in much quicker because it's had exposure before -- either with vaccine or previous infection

Morning Medical Update is on TV in October! The four-part series Cancer: Choices, Hope and Science will air on Tuesdays in October. In the Kansas City area, it’s on KCTV5 at 9:30 a.m. and in Topeka, it’s on WIBW at 9 a.m.

Monday, Oct. 23 at 8 a.m. CT is the next Morning Medical Update. Mammograms alone aren't good enough for women with dense breasts. It takes more to spot cancer. Learn more about ways to inform and empower women about the extra care needed for those with dense breasts.

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