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r On Tract For IBD

tact' knows what it is
like to have to knock
On several doors in
search of answers to
- the questions she had
about her affliction,
Crohn's disease.
Since she was first
diagnosed seven years
ago, she has traveled
to doctors offices in Southfield,
Troy and Bingham Farms. For
information, she trekked to
Wayne State University School
of Medicine's library and the
Crohn's and Colitis Foundation
ofAmericachapter in Southfield.
Stacy'stravels, not to mention
the ini1fage she put on her car,
would have been greatly reduced
had the Sinai Hospital-sponsored
Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD)
Center existed when she was di-
agnosed.
The first of its kind in the coun-
try, perhaps the world, the cen-
ter will focus solely on the
treatment and research of IBD,
actually two diseases — Crohn's
and ulcerative colitis — that
strike a total of 2,000,000 Amer-
icans. Located in the Hechtman
Health Center in Bingham
Farms, the new IBD facility is
scheduled to open next month.
Medical facilities known for
their work in IBD include Mt.
Sinai Hospital in New York City,
the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, the
Meyerhoff Digestive Disease

S

Sinai's new
Irritable Bowel.
Disease Centor
combines local
specialists for a
national first.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

STAFF WRITER

Top: IBD Center director Jason
Bodzin, M.D., and
administrative director Kathryn
McCaret.

Far left: IBD Center associate
directors Jay R. Levinson, M.D.,
and Manuel Sklar, M.D.

Left: Psychotherapist Audry
Kron, M.A., CGP.

Center at Johns Hopkins
University in Maryland,
Cedars-Sinai Hospital in
California and the Uni-
versity of Chicago in Illi-
nois. While all of these
places have expansive gas-
trointestinal units, none
operates a center separate
from the hospital that fo-
cuses exclusively on the
comprehensive treatment

and research of Crohn's and col-
itis.
The local facility will house the
offices of gastroenterologists, sur-
geons, radiologists, urologists,
rheumatologists, nephrologists,
dermatologists, ophthalmologists,
pathologists, enterostomal ther-
apists, dietitians and a psychol-
ogist — all specializing in IBD.
In addition, an information area
for patients and their families, as
well as a library of medical jour-
nals for the specialists, will be
available on site.
The creation of the center is
the fulfillment of a dream of both
Dr. Jason Bodzin, a Sinai-affili-
ated surgeon who specializes in
IBD surgery, and Dr. Manuel
Sklar, Sinai's former chief of gas-
troenterology.
Because IBD patients often see

IBD page 88

ti

.„,

87

