Francisco Romo-Nava MD, PhD, Associate Chief Research Officer, Lindner Center of HOPE, was granted an Emerging Scholar Travel Award for the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) 2023 annual conference. The conference takes place October 12 through 14 in Houston, Texas. The travel award allows for complimentary travel for the recipient.
Laura Nixon, CPA, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Lindner Center of HOPE has been selected as a finalist in the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2023 C-Suite Awards. The Courier’s C-Suite Awards Program honors C-level executives from companies across the greater Cincinnati region for their contribution and commitment to the community and their outstanding professional performance.
The finalists will be recognized and winners will be named on October 12th from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at an event at Renaissance Cincinnati Downtown Hotel.
All finalists can be viewed at: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/event/169007/2023/csuite-awards
Paul R. Crosby, MD, MBA, President and CEO, Lindner Center of HOPE, was selected as a member of the 2nd annual Ohio 500, a list of the most influential executives across the state, presented by Ohio Business Magazine. The Fall issue of Ohio Business Magazine will recognize awardees.
Lindner Center of HOPE has been named a finalist for Mason Deerfield Chamber’s 2023 Gems of Excellence Awards. The Community Partner of the Year Award recognizes a nonprofit or individual that demonstrates excellence in collaboration to improve the economic vitality of the community through leadership, volunteerism and partnering with Mason Deerfield organizations and businesses. Vote for Lindner Center of HOPE to win at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sv/mhzvFSt/gemsvote2023?source_id=490fda75-da0b-446b-a2fc-79522ed8ef2f&source_type=em&c=g6zL7Zdb_E6rToYL-SmymQ1DvRctpQ38zvCPurRrvqbZsKfIrCpQzw==
High Hopes Auxiliary Hosts Boost Your Mental Well-Being Live Podcast and Luncheon in Support of Lindner Center of HOPE
Boost Your Mental Well-Being Live Podcast and Luncheon will be hosted by High Hopes Auxiliary on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, 11 am to 2 pm at Kenwood Country Club. Proceeds from the event will benefit Lindner Center of HOPE’s Helping Hands Fund, ensuring the financial capacity of any person needing mental health services does not prevent the person from seeking or receiving care.
The event will offer inspiration from Michele Henning Folan, host of Asking for a Friend Podcast, as she interviews Laurie Little, PsyD, Lindner Center of HOPE Staff Psychologist and Chief Patient Experience Officer via a unique live podcast.
The event is made possible by event co-chairs, Megan Joy and Sia Ruppert and many sponsors, including Expansive Sponsors Chemed and Vitas Healthcare.
Individual tickets are $100. The event also includes a silent auction and raffle. Top auction items include:
Register at: https://lindnercenterofhope.org/news/events/boost-your-mental-well-being-live-podcast-and-luncheon/
Registration closes Friday, May 5, 2023.
Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.
Laurie Little, PsyD
Mason, OH, April 28, 2023 – Lindner Center of HOPE has named Brett Dowdy, PsyD, Chief of Psychological Services, to the role of Clinical Director of Outpatient Services and Laurie Little, PsyD, staff psychologist, to the role of Chief Patient Experience Officer.
Dowdy stepped down from the role of Chief Patient Experience Officer, a role he helped define and develop, to take on the responsibilities of leading and directing outpatient services for Lindner Center of HOPE Professional Associates.
Little has been intimately involved in the development and implementation of the patient experience initiative. Her new role will enable her to continue culture change efforts at Lindner Center of HOPE while leading a deeper dive into the Center’s values of Empathy and Excellence.
Both take on the new responsibilities with deep and wide experience.
Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.
Mason, OH, March 21, 2023 – Lindner Center of HOPE has named Jan Marhefka, MSN, RN, to the position of Chief Nursing Officer. Marhefka has been serving as Associate Chief Nursing Officer since November 2021.
As Chief Nursing Officer at the Lindner Center of HOPE, Marhefka has oversight of the Access Referral Center, the Welcome Center, Neuromodulation Center, social work, spiritual care, recreation therapy, House Supervisors, Utilization Review, Educators, Staffing Coordinator and direct oversight of both adult inpatient units.
Prior to joining the Lindner Center of HOPE, she worked in an acute medical hospital and served as Director of Nursing with oversight of the inpatient psychiatric unit, outpatient partial hospitalization program, ICU, Emergency Department and progressive care unit. Marhefka has been in management for 24 years and an RN for 31 years. She also teaches as an ad hoc professor for Miami University’s nursing program. Marhefka was named Employee of the Year at Lindner Center of HOPE in 2020.
Marhefka joined the Center in 2015 initially serving in the Manager of Quality and Compliance role. In 2018, she accepted the Manager of Inpatient Units and was promoted to Director of Nursing in 2019.
Marilyn Schwemberger, MBA, MSN, RN, retired from the role of Chief Nursing Officer at Lindner Center of HOPE earlier this month.
Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.
Mason, OH, February 22, 2023 – Lindner Center of HOPE, Chief Research Officer, Susan L. McElroy, MD, was recently named to the Research.com “Best Female Scientists in the United States 2022 Ranking” for her contributions to the advancement of science.
This was the first edition of the Research.com ranking of top female scientists in the United States and was based upon data collected from Microsoft Academic Graph. Position in the ranking is based on a scientist’s general H-index. The inclusion criteria for scholars to be considered into the global ranking of top scientists are based on the H-index, proportion of the contributions made within the given discipline in addition to the awards and achievements of the scientists. Only top 1000 female scientists with the highest H-index are featured in the ranking. Nearly 167,000 scientists were examined for the ranking.
Dr. McElroy is internationally known for her research in bipolar disorder, eating disorders, obesity, impulse control disorders and pharmacology. She is the author of over 600 scientific papers in leading medical journals and was the 8th most cited scientist in the world published in the fields of psychiatry and psychology since 1996. She has also authored over 150 reviews and chapters in major psychiatric textbooks. Dr. McElroy is the editor or author of 4 scientific books and serves on the editorial boards of 5 journals.
As Chief Research Officer she currently oversees multiple ongoing studies in mood, anxiety, eating and impulse control disorders, genetics and psychopharmacology.
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that less than 30 percent of the world’s researchers are women.
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Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.
Cincinnati, OH, February 17, 2023 – Lindner Center of HOPE, Associate Chief Research Officer and Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Francisco Romo-Nava, MD, PhD was named a finalist in the annual Business Courier Health Care Heroes awards in the Innovator category on February 16, 2023.
Dr. Romo-Nava serves a key leadership role in driving the efforts of The Research Institute at Lindner Center of HOPE. Not only does he manage studies sponsored by third parties, but he himself has initiated first-of-its-kind research that can significantly impact the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses.
Dr. Romo-Nava’s incredibly original ideas about the brain-body relationship and its role in mental illness is directing his research beyond just treatment to a real understanding of the path of physiology of mental illness.
He was awarded a K2 Career Development Award by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for the study of a novel approach to investigate the circadian system function and its potential as a therapeutic target in binge eating disorder. This is a highly competitive award for clinician-scientists that is part of enabling the “Neuroscience of the Body Research Program” to study the role of the brain-body communication in psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Romo-Nava’s interest in the mind-body connection – the communication between the brain and the body – has also led him to explore whether altering that communication might lead to better treatment options for patients with psychiatric disorders.
He calls his research “neuroscience of the body in psychiatric disorders,” and it led the researcher to start a study, being conducted at the Lindner Center of HOPE, to examine if electrical stimulation of the spinal cord could be helpful in treating certain psychiatric conditions, like depression.
His work on this study has earned him a United States patent and could eventually lead to easier treatment options with fewer side effects for certain patients.
Dr. Romo-Nava says this patent supports the study of a method to stimulate the brain-body communication pathways in the spinal cord by using investigational devices “no larger than a shoe box with cables and rubber electrodes.”
The brain and spinal cord are components of the central nervous system, and there are neural pathways, or tracts, that connect both. These pathways are made up of nervous tissue, including neurons and other cells, and can send information from the body to the brain or from the brain to the body.
“We think that a relatively small electrical current applied through the skin, which can barely be felt by the patient and will not hurt them, will moderate the brain-body communication neural pathways in the spinal cord and will impact certain regions of the brain,” Romo-Nava says, adding they are in the beginning stages of studying this method and are trying to determine how often and long the stimulation sessions should occur.
Romo-Nava says he thinks of the interaction between the brain and the body as a self-regulating feedback circuit that is often disturbed in psychiatric disorders.
“If we can fix that disturbance, we may be able to improve both the mental and physical health of patients,” he says, adding that the initial pilot study was funded by a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant. The foundation awards grants of the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression.
Romo-Nava says, “One of our ultimate goals is to test this out in larger clinical trials to determine the role of brain-body communication in the study of mental disorders, as well as to explore its potential as a useful therapy.”
“These are the first steps in examining this method and could be the initial steps in potentially developing a better treatment for certain patients with depression, avoiding side effects from medications and improving their overall quality of life.”
As a clinical researcher, Dr. Romo-Nava dedicates his talent and energy to the pursuit of discovering new treatment options for patients struggling with mental illnesses. He is an advocate for seeking ongoing evolution and innovation in the treatment of mental health conditions. He exudes the notion that our investment in our patients – and hope – begins with an investment in research. He is a critical leader in actively pioneering life-changing mental health research, giving rise to new and better methods to prevent, diagnose and treat mental illnesses.
The word “pioneer” accurately defines Dr. Romo-Nava, as he leads the charge in embracing the idea that there are new ways to consider the treatment of mental illnesses, we just have to imagine the possibilities.
Dr. Romo-Nava enthusiastically embraces innovation in his exploration of the causes of mental illness. His research into the application of brain-body communication in the treatment of mental illness is first of its kind and is truly innovative in the mental health arena. The use of this innovation, right here in our region, can help change the lives of those facing mental illness-thus improving the overall health and wellbeing of our community.
Dr. Romo-Nava is an outside the box thinker when it involves treatment options for patients. He understands the important role innovation plays in offering treatment alternatives to those who haven’t had great success with medications and psychotherapy.
Beyond the pursuit of new treatment options, Dr. Romo-Nava is relentless in his quest to understand the basic path of physiology of mental illness. Figuring out and understanding the mechanics of mental illness will open the doors to new treatments. He is persistent in his quest to solve this puzzle and his novel thinking will take research in directions never imagined.
Heath Care Heroes is the Business Courier’s recognition of those who have made an impact on health care in our community through their concern for patients, their research and inventions, their management skills, their innovative programs for employees and their services.
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Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.
Lindner Center of HOPE is grateful to have been named Best Medical Specialist Mental Health as part of Mason + Deerfield Lifestyle Readers’ Choice 2022.
Winners of the Reader’s Choice 2022 were recognized at a special dinner on January 27. 2023.
Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing excellent, patient-centered, scientifically-advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults and adolescents, outpatient services and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The Center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.