The Rheumatology Research Foundation has named Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist Darise Farris, Ph.D, as a recipient of its Research Foundation Innovative Research Award.
The award will provide Farris with $400,000 in funding over a two-year period to continue promising research in understanding the origins of the autoimmune disease Sjögren’s syndrome.
Sjögren’s syndrome is a painful autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system attacks the body’s own moisture-producing glands, inhibiting the ability to produce tears or saliva. The most common symptoms include severe dry eyes and dry mouth, as well as arthritis, fatigue and others.
The disease is believed to affect as many as 3 million people in the United States and, like many autoimmune diseases, disproportionally affects women by a 9-to-1 ratio. There is no known cure and current treatments only address symptoms, not the root cause.
In her lab at OMRF, Farris is trying to identify the proteins in patients that are causing the abnormal autoimmune response in the glands that produce tears and saliva.
“We know that Sjögren’s selectively attacks these glands, but nobody understands why those glands are targeted,” said Farris. “We believe there are unidentified salivary gland antigens, which are proteins that are the target of an immune response.”
Farris is currently pursuing two related paths of Sjögren’s research.
First, her lab is attempting to identify the proteins that incite the disease. Using special tools, scientists have isolated specific receptors from immune cells called T cells from the salivary tissue of Sjögren’s patients. They have isolated the immune cell receptors that directly touch the unknown proteins, and they hope to use them to explain why salivary tissues are targeted in the disease.
If this work is successful, it could provide the knowledge needed to better identify individuals who either have Sjögren’s syndrome or are susceptible to the disease.
The second aim is to follow up on the discovery of a relationship between the degree of activation of those T cells and reduced saliva production. Farris said. “We think this might lead to an understanding of why saliva production is defective in these patients,” said Farris.
The award was a result of research published with colleagues at OMRF in the journal JCI Insight. Farris earned her Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and has spent 18 years at OMRF researching Sjögren’s and other autoimmune diseases.
“This award is very exciting for us because it’s going to permit us to follow up on what we believe to be a fruitful line of investigation,” said Farris.
“It will allow us a bigger budget to collect needed data in order to answer these pressing questions and work toward solutions for patients suffering from this painful disease.” The Rheumatology Research Foundation was created by the American College of Rheumatology and is based in Atlanta, Ga.
“Dr. Farris’ research uses cutting-edge molecular tools to probe the causes of Sjögren’s disease that could lead to innovative therapies,” said OMRF Vice President of Research Rodger McEver, M.D.

by Bobby Anderson
Staff Writer

Norman Regional Health System Infection Prevention Specialist Julie Smith, RN, MS, CIC has a new ally in the war on germs in her health system.
Actually, she has four new allies and not one of them is over four-foot tall.
Norman Regional Hospital recently invested more than $400,000 in new Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots, which have been credited by other healthcare facilities across the U.S. for helping reduce infection rates.
“We’ve begun to see an impact already,” Smith said. “Your typical day-to-day cleaner doesn’t clean C-diff spores so you have to use special cleaners such as bleach, which is the only thing that works. This will kill the C-diff spores and it cleans the air.
“We have already seen a decrease in hospital-acquired infections.”
Think R2D2 with the ability to emit UV light 10 times brighter than the surface of the sun.
Norman Regional has four new pulsed xenon ultraviolet (UV) disinfection robots that will enhance patient safety by destroying the microorganisms that cause hospital acquired Infections (HAIs).
These robots use UV light technology to quickly disinfect an enclosed space. The Germ-Zapping Robots emit a blast of UV light that kills bacteria and viruses in minutes within an enclosed area.
Depending on the size of the room, the Xenex robots can disinfect in just 5-10 minutes. The germicidal UV light disinfects a variety of areas and surfaces including bedrails, tray tables, machines, monitors, keyboards and computers.
“We’ve taken the approach that patients come first,” Smith said. “That’s our main stance. If it takes a little longer to turn over the room then we’re going to do it. It’s the right thing to do.”
The technology also provides a total kill of the Ebola and Zika viruses.
It has shown impressive declines in a number of organisms at various hospital sites around the country including:
*70% reduction in ICU C. diff infection rates
*53% reduction in C. diff infection rates
*57% reduction in MRSA infection rates
*100% elimination of VRE in isolation rooms
“The Xenex LightStrike, no-touch disinfection system uses pulses of full spectrum UV light to fuse the DNA of organisms. Once the organism’s DNA is fused it can no longer replicate or mutate, and is no longer infectious,” said Clyde Brawner, Director of Environmental Services at Norman Regional.
Two robots will be stationed at Norman Regional Hospital and two will be at the Norman Regional HealthPlex. After a housekeeper has completed the process of cleaning a room which includes removing trash and wiping surfaces with a disinfectant, the robot will be wheeled into the room to begin its work. The robot uses intense bursts of UV light to disinfect high-touch areas in patient rooms and operating room suites.
It can also be used to disinfect other areas such as utility closets, waiting rooms and more.
“The UV robots are another way that Norman Regional is making patient safety a priority,” said Darin Smith, Pharm.D., Vice President of Quality and Performance Improvement. “It’s both important and necessary to have multiple methods of effective disinfection in our arsenal to protect patients, visitors, and healthcare staff.”
Xenex’s patented Full Spectrum pulsed xenon UV room disinfection system is used for the advanced disinfection of healthcare facilities. Due to its speed and ease of use, the Xenex system has proven to integrate smoothly into hospital existing disinfection operations.
Norman Regional Health System is a multi-campus system that serves the healthcare needs of south central Oklahoma.
Norman Regional Hospital is licensed for 324 beds and offers a full range of services including emergency care, oncology, an intensive care unit, surgery and more.
The Norman Regional HealthPlex campus is licensed for 136 beds and features the services of cardiovascular, spine and orthopedics, women’s and children’s and more. The Norman Regional HealthPlex is also the home of the Chest Pain Center and the HealthPlex Heart Hospital.
It has grown to employ more than 2,700 people and have 356 physicians credentialed on the Medical Staff.
The burden of treatment costs has shifted from insurers and CMS to hospitals.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics show that in the United States, one in 25 patients will contract an HAI while in care, with close to 75,000 of these patients dying annually.
CDC figures also show that HAIs cost the United States healthcare industry upwards of $30 billion dollars.

Chad Borin, D.O., has been appointed Chief of Staff for St. Anthony Hospital.
Dr. Borin is board certified in emergency medicine. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in medical biology. He then went on to complete his medical degree from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Following his medical degree, Dr. Borin completed an emergency medicine internship at Tulsa Regional Medical Center, and an emergency medicine residency at Integris Southwest Medical Center.
Dr. Borin is the Medical Director of St. Anthony Hospital Emergency Services, as well as an active member of the Medical Executive Committee. He is the first osteopathic physician and first emergency physician to become Chief of Staff. He will serve a two-year term and will be succeeded by Chief of Staff Elect Gregory McKinnis, M.D. in 2019.

Sawyer Hamel discovered his green thumb by growing a cabbage from a small seedling to a head large enough to feed a family. All the third graders in his class received cabbage seedlings from Bonnie Plants, an Alabama based company, to develop a love of gardening. His teacher, Shawna Hughes, has had her classes participate in the cabbage growing program for five years.
“Kids look forward to it. The program really extends learning beyond the classroom,” Hughes said and added, “It’s so important for kids to know where food comes from.”
Hamel’s faithful care for his cabbage seedling resulted in a prize winning vegetable. His name was submitted to Bonnie Plants, along with a photo of him with his 15 pound cabbage, and he was selected as the Oklahoma state winner. His school, Wayland Bonds Elementary in Moore, arranged an assembly for third and fourth graders in his honor where he received a $1,000 scholarship from Bonnie Plants. He also received a plaque signed by Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese.
Ag in the Classroom (AITC) coordinators Cheri Long and Melody Aufill attended the assembly representing the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF). They presented the book “Katie’s Cabbage” to Hughes and provided Specialty Crop Activity Books for all of her students. The AITC program is coordinated jointly by ODAFF, the State Department of Education and Oklahoma State University to promote agricultural literacy in grades pre-K through 12. More information can be found about Ag in the Classroom at www.agclassroom.org/ok .
“Ag in the Classroom lessons and activities help students and teachers participate in experiential hands-on learning about the food and fiber industry in Oklahoma,” said Aufill. “Oklahoma has a diverse agriculture industry that includes commodities and specialty crop production. Bonnie Plants third grade cabbage program provides an excellent experience for students to grow their own cabbage which is a specialty crop grown in Oklahoma.”
Shawn Beam represented Bonnie Plants at the assembly and noted that more than 200 schools participate in the program designed to grow the next generation of gardeners. Beam is the station manager for the Bonnie Plants greenhouse operation in Whitesboro, Texas. His company has delivered more than 14 million cabbage plants nationwide and he encourages all Oklahoma third grade teachers to sign up for free cabbage plants at www.bonnieplants.com.

story and photos provided

The National Institute on Aging has awarded a $9 million grant to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and three other institutions to study age-related muscle loss.
This collaborative effort is headquartered at the University of Michigan and includes OMRF, the University of Liverpool (U.K.), and core facilities at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Over the five-year grant, OMRF scientist Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., will receive $2.1 million to research mechanisms of sarcopenia, a disease in which the body loses skeletal muscle mass.
“Every institution involved is using the same model system and has the same basic questions about sarcopenia, but each of us has our own expertise and our own toolbox, so to speak,” said Van Remmen. “By combining different approaches, we can hit a problem from several directions.”
In her laboratory at OMRF, Van Remmen will study mice that exhibit muscle wasting and weakness. ”We believe that neurons and muscles play a coordinated role in age-related muscle loss, and that this process may be initiated by certain highly reactive oxygen radicals,” she said.
Van Remmen’s hope is that by pinpointing the triggers for sarcopenia, researchers may ultimately devise ways to disrupt the process.
The new grant is the third five-year grant for the four institutions, who have been working together for a decade to understand why the muscles atrophy as they age.
“We’ve had a good run of publications come out of this partnership, and it’s exciting to have earned a third round of funding. It certainly speaks to the progress we’re making,” said Van Remmen, who holds the G.T. Blankenship Chair in Aging Research at OMRF. “By better understanding these basic mechanisms, we can know where to target interventions. You have to know what is going wrong before you can treat a condition, and we are looking for the answers.”
The grant, 5P01 AG051442-01A1, is funded by the NIA, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

story and photos by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

The state of Guerrero, Mexico is a juxtaposition of two worlds.
The resort city of Acapulco, backed by the Sierra Madre Del Sur mountains spills into the Pacific Ocean.
Cliff divers entertain throngs of sunbathing tourists daily plunging some 136 feet into the crashing waves below.
But travel a few miles in any direction and you run the risk of becoming entangled in the violence and death associated with what you might expect from Mexico’s heroin capital.
Oklahoma Heart Hospital RN Shawn Watts walked that fine line a few weeks ago, going on a medical mission trip that provided help and hope for hundreds of families.
Watts realized the world is a very different place outside the walls of Oklahoma Heart Hospital South.
An outdoor covered basketball court served as the mission trip’s staging ground surrounded by a dense urban population eager to seek medical care.
Watts served as triage nurse sending patients to either a dentist, optometrist, pharmacist, family practice doctor or pediatrician based on their needs.
“They’re so worry about their kids staying healthy they wanted their kids to get vitamin shots and even antibiotics when it wasn’t appropriate,” Watts said.
At OHH all Watts has to do is walk into a supply room to get whatever he needs to take care of patients.
“They gave me a box of IV catheters, tubing and medication,” Watts said. “It’s field medicine. That’s exactly what it is.”
Fifteen minutes away was storied Acapulco.
“You hear that and think ‘Oh, how nice.’ It’s not,” Watts said. “In Mexico they develop a resort community and you go two miles beyond and it’s gone. That whole culture is gone. You have true Mexico. They have chickens hanging for sale gutted in the streets. They burn their trash in the streets at night.
“Fish are laying out all day long for sale not even iced in the market. You drive whatever direction you want to. It’s just the culture.”
So Watts assumed when he arrived he’d bunk up in a corner in someone’s house on the floor.
Little did he know he would find a resort hotel room for $43 a night.
People from all over would line up early in the morning to catch the clinic as it opened. Some rushed out the door without even taking their morning medication.
“I would check their blood pressure and it would be 180/110,” said Watts, who traveled with the medical-based Fishers of Men. “We couldn’t tell if their medicine was working for them.”
Multivitamin IV solutions, or banana bags, flowed freely for most of the day as the group did what it could for whomever showed up.
Despite residents not always having access to medical care or the medicines they needed, Watts said the culture had a few things working for it.
“You have no choice but cardiac health there because everything was uphill and you walk to everything,” Watts said. “These little old ladies their blood pressure was well controlled just on basic medicines. They didn’t use medications like we do. They used medicines that were more basic, been around for years and didn’t require monitoring afterwards. Long-term they weren’t the best but they were the most practical for that area.”
Diabetes, malnourishment and dehydration were all issues.
In the hot Mexico sunshine, Watts would go through 6-7 bottles of water daily with no access to a restroom.
“We left there at 6 p.m. and we all went to the restroom after that,” Watts said.
The days flowed for Watts.
“I triaged them so fast that I made the doctors and the dentists mad because I set up extra lines,” Watts laughed. “I had a couple CNAs with me and we did blood pressure, scales, temperatures, measurement. I started slotting them so fast the director of the mission board said ‘You come back. You organize. You’re good. You get everything done. You come back.’”
That’s no surprise. ER, ICU and now CCU at Oklahoma Heart Hospital have been Watts’ sandbox for the past 17 years.
His first calling was in applied ministry as a youth minister in an inner city.
He started doing home health on the side.
“It flowed,” Watts said. “I became an aide and did home health for four years and went to nursing school and worked three jobs during that.”
He would go to class for three hours and see patients on his lunch break before repeating the cycle in the afternoon.
“I love it. It just fits,” Watts said. “I’ve tried to slow down and thought about an office job since I’m 50. I just don’t have the gears for it.”
That’s a good thing not only for the people of Oklahoma City but the residents of Guerrero as well.

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Ask Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby what he’s most proud of during a term of office that dates all the way back to 1987 and you’d better pull up a chair.
The bright-eyed, beloved 30th governor of the 12th-largest tribe in the U.S. oversees nearly 14,000 employees, more than 300 tribal programs and services and more than 100 tribal businesses.
The latest in that line is a joint venture that should breathe new life into the surrounding Lake Texoma area and Southeastern Oklahoma in the heart of Chickasaw Country.
Late last year the state of Oklahoma and the Chickasaw Nation announced plans to develop a resort hotel and other amenities at Lake Texoma.
It’s an effort to resurrect a failed project that aimed at privatizing the state resort 10 years ago when it was sold to out-of-state investors.
The project excites Gov. Anoatubby on multiple levels.
“This development is another component of our economic development initiatives designed to have a positive impact on the state and local economy,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “It will directly employ dozens of local residents in a number of occupations. We believe it will also have a kind of ripple effect which will strengthen existing businesses in the area as well as bringing other new businesses to the area as a result of increasing the number of visitors to the area.”
“Tourism affects businesses from gas stations and convenience stores to restaurants, sporting goods stores, fishing guides, antique shops and farmers’ markets – and the list goes on.”
The initial plans call for the Chickasaw Nation to construct a three-story hotel, a restaurant and gift shop, a casino featuring up to 300 electronic games and as many as 10 lakefront fishing/boating cottages.
The project covers 50 acres of lakefront property, overlooking Lake Texoma and the historic Roosevelt Bridge. It also involves about 11.5 acres of land acquired by the Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO) from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.
“We believe this new development will help launch a transformation of this area into a major tourism and recreation attraction,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “This is an incredibly beautiful area with so much to offer, it is really exciting to think of the long-term impact this project could have on the area.”
Gov. Anoatubby envisions the project as the kind of place seniors can take their families. There’s something for everyone.
The hotel will include a lounge and meeting rooms, an outdoor pool and recreation area, a fitness center, gift shop, restaurant and a business center, he said.
The development will be off U.S. 70, across from the Chickasaw Pointe Golf Course near the site of the old Lake Texoma State Lodge. Preliminary plans allow for future expansion of the hotel and the construction of additional waterfront cottages.
Gov. Anoatubby said the state has so much to offer with its natural beauty. It’s one of the reasons the tribe has invested in the state through its Adventure Road program, which highlights different areas up and down I-35.
Designed to bring more tourism to Oklahoma, the Adventure Road initiative generated more than 385,000 new trips to the area last year alone, bringing in approximately $647 million in spending from March to September, according to Gov. Anoatubby.
The tribe is also investing in a new information center in Tishomingo, closely located to Lake Texoma which will complement the project.
It’s another feather in the cap of an already stellar career.
“Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of the Chickasaw people so it is gratifying to see the results of our efforts,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “Many of our services are designed to offer opportunities to pursue a higher education, advance in one’s career, or start a business.”
There are countless examples of Chickasaws who have seized those opportunities and achieved success.
“It is gratifying to see Chickasaws who have utilized tribal services, make it a point to come back home to work for the tribe.”
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said she has been a long-time believer in the potential of the Lake Texoma area to be an economic driver in Oklahoma.
“This project will create jobs and revenue for southern Oklahoma while at the same time maintaining the beauty of the site,” said Fallin. “The Lake Texoma lodge and golf course for many years were a top tourist attraction in the region. This hotel and commercial development will be the catalyst to stimulate significantly greater economic development in the future. I appreciate Governor Anoatubby’s vision and willingness to partner with the state of Oklahoma to continue our joint efforts focusing on tourism in this beautiful and strategically located part of our state.”

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