Some specialty programs of Central Florida hospitals were recognized in the latest U.S. News Best Hospital Rankings.
AdventHealth Orlando was ranked No. 1 in the Orlando metro area and No. 3 in Florida. It was also recognized as having four nationally ranked specialty programs in diabetes and endocrinology, gynecology, nephrology, and neurology and neurosurgery.
The health system dropped two spots from last year, when it ranked first in the state, ahead of UF Health Shands Hospital and Mayo Clinic. This year, UF Health Shands Hospital, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville took the top two spots in the state.
AdventHealth also ranked nationally in fewer specialty programs than it did last year, when it was recognized for seven programs.
Orlando Health ORMC ranked ninth in the state but it did not gain any national rankings for its specialty programs. However, it improved its overall ranking in the state from last year, moving up two notches from the 11th spot.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore were ranked as the top three best hospitals in the nation this year.
In brief…
A cancer fighting technology developed at UCF was licensed to the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi late last month as part of a $1 billion deal that included a bundle of other technologies. In 2016, Dr. Alicja Copik, an associate professor at UCF College of Medicine, developed a technique using nanoparticles to boost the body’s immune response to fight cancer cells. She co-founded the company CytoSen, which was acquired by biopharmaceutical firm Kiadis Pharma last year. The company then licensed the technology Sanofi.
“The licensing of Kiadis’ CD38KO K-NK cells is particularly exciting for Sanofi since we will be studying this cell-based therapeutic with our recently FDA-approved treatment for patients with difficult-to-treat multiple myeloma, in hopes of bringing even more options to these patients with this hematologic cancer,” said John Reed, the global head of research for Sanofi, in a press release.
Limbitless Solutions, a nonprofit and UCF direct support organization that creates personalized 3D-printed bionic arms for children, announced a new collaboration with software company Adobe. As part of the collaboration, Adobe is offering free Creative Cloud product licenses and training to Limbitless team members. The company is also committing a $100,000 grant to support plans for expanding the Limbitless Lab at UCF.
“We are so proud to work with Limbitless to help children with limb differences feel empowered to create their future and tell their stories because those stories deserve to be heard. We hope that through our collaboration, Limbitless can continue to use creativity in exciting new ways to champion accessibility and transform lives,” said John Travis, vice president of Adobe Brand Marketing, in a news release.
Orlando Health has made final its joint venture agreement with home-health company LHC group. The two organizations announced their agreement at the end of June. The new joint venture will have six locations in Central Florida and will operate under the name Mederi Caretenders and Mederi Private Care.
Orlando Health has opened a new 7.500-square-foot imaging center on South Orange Avenue. The new center provides high-quality services such as 3D mammography/tomosynthesis, bone densitometry, digital x-ray, wide-bore 3T MRI, high-field 1.2T Open MRI, 128-slice CT and ultrasound, according to the health system. It is also integrated with Orlando Health hospitals. Orlando Health has imaging centers in Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Spring Lake, Summerport and Winter Park. It is opening a new expanded location in Ocoee this Fall.
nmiller@orlandosentinel.com.
