UC Irvine Health, the University of California-Irvine’s health enterprise, set out to find a chief executive to succeed the now-retired Terry Belmont last year, an effort that took some twists and turns prior to the naming of Dr. Howard Federoff as the permanent chief last month.
Federoff had been serving as Belmont’s interim replacement, along with his regular duties as vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of UCI’s medical school.
The change came after a new organizational plan, said Leslie Thompson, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior in the School of Medicine. She headed the original search committee formed by UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman to look for Belmont’s successor.
Federoff “was part of the search by the time we began going through the files and interviewing candidates,” Thompson said.
“During this process, it became apparent that the type of organization structure we were trying to recruit for might not be optimal, and the leadership at UCI gradually formulated a new vision for UCI Health,” she said, adding that the other candidates weren’t selected, “as they were not deemed to have the type of broad leadership and vision needed for this new idea.”
Thompson said the plan included what she described as a “visionary leader” who would be over the medical school, the clinical enterprise, new schools that would ultimately be part of UCI Health, “and that this person would also serve in the CEO position in order to more fully integrate the clinical and research enterprises.”
Federoff’s “a natural fit for the position,” she said, mentioning several characteristics, including his knowledge of UC Irvine Health’s overall goals, his leadership and national prominence.
Sabra Sells Dallas-Area Hospital
Irvine-based Sabra Health Care REIT Inc. is selling its Forest Park Medical Center-Frisco hospital in Texas for $96.3 million to a subsidiary of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Holdings Inc.
Sabra said in a news release that the sale is expected to close by March 31 and that it will receive net proceeds of $89.1 million to $94.1 million.
The owner of healthcare real estate said it expects to post a loss of $30 to $35 million in the current quarter on its investments in the hospital and a related debtor-in-possession loan.
Forest Park, which has locations in Dallas proper and Fort Worth, in addition to Frisco, defaulted after it failed to meet performance expectations and its operators lost financing. Sabra is the lender to the owner of the other two locations.
Sabra is “pleased to be able to move forward and focus on building the company as we have these last five years, Forest Park notwithstanding,” said Chief Executive Richard Matros.
Separately, Matros and two other Sabra executives are scheduled to present at the Wells Fargo Securities’ annual real estate conference this week in New York.
Hoag Uses Simulation in Neurosurgery
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian recently introduced software that blends medical imaging, gaming technology and 3-D virtual reality systems.
The Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform is being used by neurosurgeons with Hoag Neurosciences Institute and Hoag Family Cancer Institute at its main campus in Newport Beach. It provides advanced imaging used in what the hospital calls “delicate cranial procedures,” including those involving tumors and aneurysms.
The software is a product of Mayfield Village, Ohio-based Surgical Theater LLC. It features a 3-D virtual reality system produced by Oculus VR Inc., which was based in Irvine before being acquired in 2014 by Menlo Park-based Facebook Inc.
Surgical Navigation software “lets us perform an actual virtual reality ‘fly-through’ before we ever lay hands on our patients. This dramatically increases the margin of safety for our patients,” said Dr. Robert Louis, a Hoag neurosurgeon who directs the hospital’s skull base and pituitary tumor program.
OrthAlign Gets Overseas Distributor
Aliso Viejo-based OrthAlign Inc. has signed a multicountry distribution deal with London-based Smith & Nephew PLC.
Smith & Nephew gains the rights to distribute OrthAlign’s KneeAlign device in 21 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. KneeAlign is used in total knee arthroplastic surgeries.
OrthAlign is tapping into a growing market for total knee arthroplasties, according to the company.
“There were approximately 380,000 [total knee arthroplasties] in these regions during 2015 and this number will continue increasing at a rapid rate as [total knee arthroplasty] surgery becomes more of an option for patients in these markets,” said James Kim, the company’s global vice president of sales and marketing.
