Jacksonville

Alvaro Gomez knows people in several continents and has access to health care in the U.S., Chile and Europe. When the Central Florida resident faced a prostate cancer diagnosis, he polled his acquaintances and doctors near and far and came up with one answer: Mayo Clinic. “I was fortunate that after taking into account the advice from friends and doctors, I came to the conclusion that the best place to go was Mayo Clinic, only an hour-and-a-half from my house,” Gomez says. Gomez leads a busy life as a violinist, music instructor and orchestra conductor in Florida, Chile, Brazil and Italy. Now, just outside busy Orlando, Fla., he directs his own music academy, conducts the Florida Young Artists Orchestra, and teaches music at Trinity Prep in Winter Park. Internationally, he leads the annual Luis Sigall Music Competition in Viña del Mar, in his native Chile. He also conducts a chamber orchestra at Festival Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and each summer conducts at L’Orfeo Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy. In part due to his busy schedule, Gomez took time for a routine health checkup. Although he felt fine at the time, a routine blood test at age 56 turned up high PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels. His family doctor recommended a biopsy, which revealed cancer cells, and put him on a quest to find the best place to receive treatment.

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am 43 and have had trouble with urinary incontinence since having my fourth child at 41. It seemed manageable until about 6 months ago when I started to notice it happening more frequently. At what point should I consider surgery? ANSWER: Urinary incontinence is a common problem for women, especially after pregnancy and childbirth. Surgery usually can effectively eliminate urinary incontinence. But less invasive treatment options are available that you can try before turning to surgery. Urinary incontinence, or loss of bladder control, affects about half of all women at some point during their lifetimes. Factors that increase the risk of urinary incontinence include age, childbirth and pelvic floor muscle weakness.

Barbara Nehr and her husband Adam had recently retired. Their shared passion for designing and flying experimental airplanes had taken them on many [...]

The Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program of Mayo Clinic; Nemours Children’s Clinic, Jacksonville; and Wolfson Children’s Hospital has been awarded a three-year accreditation renewal by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). The foundation awarded the accreditation renewal after thorough site visits at all collection, transplantation and laboratory facilities at the three locations. The joint program was created in 2001 to allow for greater collaboration in physician and staff expertise, research and clinical protocols.  Since it was established, the combined program has transplanted patients with a variety of illnesses including leukemia, neuroblastoma, sickle cell disease, bone marrow disorders, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, brain tumors, Ewing’s sarcoma and amyloidosis. “We are excited to receive this accreditation. It is a welcome recognition and ‘badge of honor’ for our program. It also informs and assures our patients, referring physicians and insurance companies of the highest standards of patient care and laboratory practices in our program,” said Vivek Roy, M.D., hematologist/oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida and medical director of the adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. Click here to read the entire news release. To hear more from Dr. Roy, click on the video below.  Journalists, this video is also available in the downloads below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrBkkdDEdw

For the past eight years, Nicole Dehn, 30, has had pangs of sadness whenever she passes a small grove of trees on the road near her Jacksonville, Fla., home. The trees are a constant reminder of the day epilepsy took her freedom. http://youtu.be/FN7WbRTdD5Q Nov. 14 2005. It’s the day Dehn had a seizure while driving. Her car came to rest in the median atop the shrubbery. “The trees are slanted and one is totally flat. Riding by it… it’s like a slap in the face every time,” says Dehn, who, though unharmed, lost her driving privileges. The seizures began when she was 6 months old. They got progressively worse.  Typically, medication can control seizures in most people with epilepsy. But for about 30 percent of patients, they aren't effective or are intolerable. Over the years Dehn tried various drugs and treatments, even having a device implanted in her brain in an attempt to control the seizures. Nothing seemed to work.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced the appointments of Dr. Bernardo Fernandez, Dr. Enrique Ginzburg, and Dr. Sarvam TerKonda to the Florida Board [...]

Two dynamic lecturers highlighted March 2013 events on the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida supporting the "RACE: Are We So Different?" exhibit at [...]

  Mayo Clinic has partnered with the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) and the Jacksonville Civic Council to bring [...]