A Hale and Hearty Hot Spot

Recently Organic Style gave Southwest Floridians another reason to love the area: The magazine ranked Fort Myers as the healthiest city in the Southeast, and fifth nationwide.

But it's not just the beaches, nature preserves, bike paths and high numbers of health-care professionals that make our area so salubrious. Local medical organizations offer state-of-the-art health care, expanding services, cutting-edge technology and ongoing research.

As fast as our area grows, the health-care system keeps pace. Expansions are taking place all over. In Fort Myers, Lee Memorial Health System's Health Park Medical Center is undergoing an $80 million expansion that includes 122 more acute-care hospital beds. In August, the hospital opened a new outpatient facility nearby, on Bass Road, for patients' convenience. Health Park also plans to expand its Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida. "The hope is that down the line we'll be able to keep the kids close to home," says Sharon MacDonald, executive director of oncology services for the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation.

In October, Lee Cancer Care opened a satellite facility at the Bonita Community Health Center to provide better access to chemotherapy, blood transfusions, lab draws and other procedures. Future plans for expansion within the Lee Memorial system may include the Cape Coral and downtown campuses, and possibly more east or south, according to MacDonald. "I'll be amazed if sometime in the next 20 years there's not a hospital in Bonita Springs," she offers.

Meanwhile, HCA, the giant hospital chain, has announced plans to merge its Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and its Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers.

NCH Healthcare System's new Regional Cancer Institute across from its Naples campus on Fourth Avenue North is slated to open by November. Affiliated with the Duke University Health System, the institute will be "the most comprehensive center for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer south of Tampa," according to Debbie Curry, NCH's director of marketing and public relations.

NCH is also opening a second Wellness Center in north Naples to augment the Whitaker Wellness Center downtown. The Rehabilitation Center, at its downtown campus, completed renovations in August for patients who need rehabilitative services after surgery, stroke, and spinal cord or brain injury.

Health Management Associates, the Naples-based chain, meanwhile has proposed building a $75 million, 100-bed hospital called the Collier Regional Medical Center in east Naples. (NCH has strongly opposed the proposal.) Cleveland Clinic Florida, Naples, meanwhile is adding 18 beds and two new operating rooms that include digital conferencing capabilities to allow anyone around the world to watch surgeries via video camera for education, training and diagnostic purposes. In October, the hospital unveiled its cutting-edge full-body scanner that operates much more quickly than traditional CT scans. The machine can also perform "cardiac scoring," currently the only screening test for coronary artery disease.

Lee Memorial's Breast Health Center in Fort Myers is now the only facility in Lee County to boast a CAD unit, or computer-aided detection, to allow doctors to detect irregularities that might not be visible to the naked eye and "indicate where the radiologist should take a second look," says MacDonald. The CAD has been shown to improve early detection of breast cancer by up to 23 percent. At NCH, new equipment allows doctors to be more precise in their treatment of tumors with IMRT, or intensity-modulating radiation therapy.

In Naples, an organization offers genetic profiling to help physicians customize drug prescriptions based on a patient's genetic makeup. Naples Health Care Associates formed an agreement in July with Seryx, a company that correlates genetic test results with research on certain genes and their variations, as well as which genes control the metabolism of certain drugs. Seryx's Signature Genetics program can help avert adverse drug reactions by informing physicians how the patient will metabolize different kinds of commonly prescribed drugs, as well as helping to identify potential drug interactions. "Sometime in the future, this will essentially be common practice for everyone," says Seryx CEO Fred Mannausau.

Southwest Florida also offers demographics that let local doctors study devices, drugs and technologies in certain fields. "Florida is really the laboratory of the world to do all of these studies," says Sue Maxwell, gerontology business leader for Lee Memory Care, of the various studies on Alzheimer's and other memory diseases that her organization conducts. Lee Memory Care is investigating whether estrogen may decrease the effects of Alzheimer's in women, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health. The company also is working with another group to determine whether a shunt in the brain to drain off fluids may help slow the progression of Alzheimer's.

The Lee branch of Florida Memory Care has also pioneered a number of programs geared toward our aging population, including a sensitivity-training program and a "brain bank" in which Alzheimer's patients have the option of donating their brains postmortem to allow for study of the disease's effects and diagnosis. The center also offers free memory screenings to the public. Florida Gulf Coast University meanwhile has moved its Center for Positive Aging to its Charlotte County campus to offer programs to older adults.

In Fort Myers, the Clinical Study Center's sole purpose is to conduct studies for new drugs pending FDA approval. The center was among the first to conduct trials on Viagra."[The region] lends itself very well for studies [on conditions] like osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, prostate cancer, diabetic neuropathy [and others]," according to founder Dr. David Michie.

The Southwest Florida Heart Group, with four offices along the Gulfshore, is conducting roughly 25 studies, including one on the effect of antibiotics in patients who have had heart attacks, based on evidence that suggests certain bacteria may play a part in the formation of plaque that contributes to hardening of the arteries. Another study involves chelation therapy, a chemical treatment that binds to heavy metals in the body and may help "clean the arteries out," according to Dr. Joseph O'Bryan, medical director of clinical research.

Eye health is advancing at Retina Consultants in Naples, where founder Dr. Joseph Walker is the area's principal investigator in trials of a new drug called Lucentis, a genetically engineered antibody that can attack abnormal blood vessels that cause macular degeneration. The drug may slow or stop the process. Walker says that preliminary studies have shown "excellent results."

In national comparisons, Southwest Florida fares well. The Lee Memorial Health System has been named by the HCIA-Sachs Institute as among the top 100 hospitals in areas such as cardiology, stroke, intensive care and orthopedics. Lee has shown excellent patient outcomes, and has garnered five stars on the Web site healthgrades.com. Lee Memory Care's SHARE program received a "Best Practice" award from the Catalyst Foundation. At NCH, the Code Save-A-Heart program boasts a mortality rate for heart-attack patients of 2.5 percent, compared with a national average of six to seven percent.