HJBR Nov/Dec 2025

34 NOV / DEC 2025  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs technology are already underway. The team has used a related method, quasi-static acous- tic thromboelastometry, to monitor blood coag- ulation in liver transplant patients and children on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The results of those studies have been submitted for publication. Rebecca Davis, MD, Joins Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center Rebecca Davis, MD, has joined Mary Bird Per- kins Cancer Center as its newest medical oncol- ogist, working at the center’s Baton Rouge Gen- eral and Gonzales locations. Davis, who has worked at various healthcare locations throughout the state, is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. She obtained a bachelor’s degree at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a medical degree from Louisiana State University in New Orleans. She completed a residency and internship in internal medicine at LSU’s Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, and a fellowship in hematology-oncology at LSUHSC–Shreveport. LDHAcquires SNAP fromDCFS The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) now officially administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This transition, made possible under the state’s Project One Door legis- lation, is the first step made in consolidating mul- tiple benefit applications under a single agency. Over time, this move will reduce paperwork and wait times for residents, increase efficiency for staff, and create a more streamlined experience for Louisiana families. SNAP will continue to provide benefits to par- ticipants without interruption in service. There are no changes to eligibility as part of this move. The shift simply brings SNAP under LDH so that nutri- tion assistance can be better aligned with other services under the department, such as Medicaid. LHANames Beverly Gladney VP of Clinical Affairs Beverly Gladney, MD, has joined the Louisi- ana Hospital Association (LHA) as vice presi- dent of clinical affairs. In this role, she will lead clinical and professional initiatives for the LHA and its member hospitals, with a focus on Louisiana Funds New Cardiac Safety Initiative in Schools Statewide The American Heart Association announced that its multiyear effort to implement and fund cardiac emergency response plans (CERPs) in Louisiana schools and at school athletic events has been a success. This effort is part of the asso- ciation’s Nation of Lifesavers movement to dou- ble survival rates from cardiac arrest by 2030. Since 2023, the association and its volunteers have advocated for the following legislative milestones: SB12 (2023), authored by Senator Cleo Fields, marked a first step forward by requiring schools to develop and implement CERPs, ensure school personnel are trained in CPR and AED use, and have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on-site. It also secured $1.5 million for AED pro- curement and implementation. SB12 was signed into law as Act 234 of 2023. SB54 (2024), sponsored by Senator Bill Wheat, made it a requirement for high school coaches to be trained in CPR, AED use, and first aid. The legislation went through the entire legislative pro- cess without a single vote of opposition, making it Act 95 of 2024. HB 1, State Budget (2025), provided funding for CPR and AED training for high school coaches, ensuring they receive two-year certifications in life-saving skills. An estimated 23,000 children under the age of 18 experience cardiac arrest outside of the hospital each year in the U.S. In schools where AEDs are available, 70% of children survive car- diac arrest — more than seven times the overall survival rate for children. CPR, when performed immediately, can double or triple a person’s chances of survival in a cardiac emergency. Tulane Testing New ‘Drop- of-Blood’ Diagnostic Device for Trauma Patients Tulane University biomedical engineers are developing a new device to rapidly detect life- threatening blood clotting problems in trauma patients using just a single drop of blood. Last year, Levisonics Inc., a medical device com- pany cofounded in 2016 by Damir Khismatullin, associate professor of biomedical engineering in Tulane’s School of Science and Engineering, received a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Depart- ment of Defense (DoD) to test the device to make sure it works in real-world settings. The testing phase began in July and is expected to take about a year and a half and includes help- ing to develop clinical protocols for managing trauma-induced coagulopathy using the new instrument — a battery-powered “acoustic tweez- ing device” designed for emergency use in com- bat zones, field hospitals, and emergency rooms. Roughly the size of a small microwave oven, the device is portable and will be able to operate without access to the electrical grid. Research- ers anticipate it could be carried in a backpack and used on a stable surface, such as a field hos- pital table. At Tulane, researchers are using finger-prick and venipuncture blood samples from healthy volunteers and modifying the samples to mimic the coagulopathy that occurs immediately after trauma and during transfusion therapy. Currently, standard diagnostics for coagulation in trauma patients can take hours in major hospi- tals equipped with the necessary tools. In smaller or rural hospitals, blood coagulation analysis can take days — or even more than a week — when samples are sent to off-site labs. The new device aims to reduce that wait time to less than 20 min- utes using a drop of blood from a finger prick or venipuncture. In lay terms, the device levitates a drop of blood in the air using sound waves. The drop is gently squeezed by modulating those waves, allowing researchers to measure how the blood’s physi- cal properties change over time. This method is known as acoustic tweezing spectroscopy. The technology builds on earlier versions devel- oped in Khismatullin’s lab. One of the goals of the current project is to compare performance between that prototype and the commercial- ready version from Levisonics. The team at Tulane is working in close collab- oration with researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine, where the device is being tested on blood samples from actual trauma patients. That data will help validate the device’s use for real-world trauma care. Although clinical trials have not yet begun, real-world applications of the acoustic tweezing