Northwest Louisiana Attracts Highly Skilled MDs
Published May 18, 2009
CHRISTUS Schumpert Sutton Children’s Medical Center in Shreveport is drawing pediatric surgeons to the region.
A strong health-care system, anchored in part by Louisiana University Medical Center-Shreveport, draws physicians who are providing leading-edge care and attracting patients and notoriety from beyond Northwest Louisiana.
Dr. Lane Rosen, a Shreveport native, is a radiation oncologist and expert on TomoTherapy, or intensity-modulated radiation therapy.
Willis-Knighton Medical Center, where he practices, was among the first sites in the world to offer it.
Dr. Shane Barton, a former NASA engineer from East Texas, also calls the region home. An orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, he has a Super Bowl ring from his time in Boston as team physician for the NFL’s New England Patriots.
Dr. Ravish Patwardhan is another prominent specialist. He founded Comprehensive NeuroSurgery LLC at Willis-Knighton Pierremont and performs more than 750 surgeries a year.
Patwardhan not only runs a busy neurosurgery practice, but also founded and runs four related research, education and philanthropic entities.
In October 2008, Patwardhan was the first physician in the United States to use a laser probe to eradicate a brain tumor. He was the first U.S. doctor to reroute nerves to restore bladder function in a patient with a spinal injury, in this case a child. The girl had been shot when only a toddler, severing key bladder nerves. In February 2009, the girl, now 7, went to school for the first time without a catheter.
Another first involved the implantation of a device in the brain for treatment of major depression that doesn’t respond to medication.
CHRISTUS Schumpert Sutton Children’s Medical Center opened in 2006 and now boasts a wide range of pediatric specialties that are drawing pediatric surgeons to the region.
“Some of the things that children have are emergencies and have to be done immediately, and trying to travel is counterproductive,” says Dr. Mark Brown, one of three pediatric surgeons at CHRISTUS Schumpert. “It is an extremely stressful experience for families, parents, grandparents and siblings to deal with significant illness in a child. Travel compounds that problem exponentially.”
Brown received his medical training in Shreveport, won a prestigious fellowship in pediatric surgery at The Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and then practiced in Houston before coming to CHRISTUS. He started keeping statistics for the American Council of Surgeons in July 2008, and through February 2009, had performed about 400 surgeries. The practice is likely to add a fourth pediatric surgeon in the next few years.
“Shreveport is a great medical community,” Brown says. “We have unbelievable medical assets here.”
A graduate of UCLA School of Medicine, Patwardhan did his internship and residency at the University of Alabama. He came to Shreveport and then briefly returned to UCLA for key fellowships in epilepsy neurosurgery and neurosurgery for pain.
“I brought the technology back here,” he says. “There were people waiting for years to have some of these procedures. I thought there was a lot of potential here.”
Story by Pamela Coyle
Photo by Courtesy of Charles Davis Smith
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