News Releases

The National Institutes of Health has awarded two, five-year grants to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center worth more than $5 million to prospectively study the effects of a genetic variation in organ donors that appears to contribute to survival of kidneys after transplantation. 

 The 2017-2018 Best Doctors in America database includes 312 physicians from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The Wake Forest Baptist physicians on this list work in 36 specialties; 52 of the doctors are pediatricians and pediatric specialists at Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest Baptist. 

 Wake Forest School of Medicine students will offer free screenings and health information at the second annual Boomer Share the Health Fair, which served more than 50 people last year.

The event will be held this Saturday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Thankful Community Center, 416 Thankful Church Road, in the Wilkes County community of Boomer.

 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s internationally accredited Nurse Anesthesia program is celebrating 75 years of educating students to become certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs).

Founded in 1942, the program at Wake Forest School of Medicine is the longest continually running nurse anesthesia program in North Carolina and has graduated more than 900 students.

There are 136 of them. Their average age is 24 and their experiences include professional mountain biking, missionary work, bartending, military service and oyster farming.

They’re the members of Wake Forest School of Medicine’s Class of 2021, the largest in the school’s history.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center released its fourth quarter report on operating performance and operating statistics for fiscal year 2017 (FY17) today and -stated improvements in key areas primarily driven by volume growth in the clinical enterprise in part from the expansion of ambulatory facilities and the opening of the 50-bed inpatient facility at Davie Medical Center. Improving patient access and enhancing provider throughput continue to be an ongoing focus.

 To better prepare police officers to quickly stop severe blood loss for victims of gunshot or stab wounds, vehicle crashes or other traumatic injuries,  Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is donating 100 new bleeding control kits to the Winston-Salem Police Department.

The kits contain dressings for wound packing, a hyphen seal for chest wounds and a tourniquet.

 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is honored to once again be the official medical provider of the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament, scheduled for August 19-26 at the Wake Forest University Tennis Complex.

Once again, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has been named among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Wake Forest Baptist garners top-50 national rankings in six specialties, according to the 2017-18 report, released today. They are Cancer (No. 27), Nephrology (No. 27), Geriatrics (No. 33), Gynecology (No. 33), Ear, Nose & Throat (No. 34) and Neurology & Neurosurgery (No. 37).

With the beginning of the school fall sports season right around the corner, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is providing a free booklet full of nutrition, conditioning and recovery tips, designed to help keep student athletes healthy and injury-free.

 Wake Forest Baptist July Awards and Recognitions 

African-Americans typically have worse outcomes from smoking-related cancers than Caucasians, but the reasons for this remain elusive. However, scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have taken a big step toward solving this puzzle.

Wake Forest Baptist Welcomes Wilkes Medical Center into Its Health Care Family with a Celebration for Town Leaders and Employees Expanded Clinical Services Announced at Wilkes Medical Center NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. – July 21, 2017 – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced

 A new study has found that children born extremely premature to women who are overweight or obese before the pregnancy are at an increased risk for low scores on tests of intelligence and cognitive processes that influence self-regulation and control, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. 

The newest members of Brenner Children’s Hospital enjoy active lifestyles, healthy eating, and interacting with children.

They also have paws and fur.

Brenner Children’s, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has adopted three playful yet comforting puppy mascots—Brenn, Belle and Beau. These costumed Brenner pups will work together to spread compassion, offer encouragement and educate the youngest residents of the 24 counties that the hospital serves. 

Depending on what generation you belong to, the term “improvisational dance” may conjure up images of beatniks grooving to the beat of bongos in a darkened coffeehouse or the black-clad Dieter gyrating to techno pop in a Sprockets sketch on “Saturday Night Live”. 

 Wake Forest Baptist Listed Among ‘Most Wired’ Hospitals

 Wake Forest Baptist June Awards and Recognitions 

Moderate-intensity exercise can help even extremely obese older adults improve their ability to perform common daily activities and remain independent, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Youth football teams are more frequently exposed to more forceful head impacts as they move up in age- and weight-based levels of play, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is now offering a range of wellness and medical therapies at a single patient-friendly location, providing patients the opportunity to improve health and well-being by pairing integrative medicine with their conventional treatments.

A study of 97 youth football players ages 9 to 13 years who participated in different age- and weight- based levels over four seasons of play found that that youngsters experienced a total of 40,538 head impacts. Measures of linear head acceleration and the number of impacts per player in competition versus practice sessions differed significantly depending on the youngsters' age/weight level, as reported in the study published in the June issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma. 

Brenner Children’s Hospital, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, was named the lead agency of the year by Safe Kids North Carolina and the North Carolina Department of Insurance. The honor came during the Safe Kids N.C. Injury Prevention Conference held last month.

Brenner Children’s heads Safe Kids Northwest Piedmont, one of 45 Safe Kids North Carolina coalitions, and serves residents of Forsyth, Davidson, Davie, Stokes and Yadkin counties and the surrounding areas.

The Medical Alumni Association (MAA) of Wake Forest School of Medicine has presented its annual awards to distinguished alumni. Honored during Wake Forest School of Medicine’s 2017 M.D. Alumni Weekend activities on May 5 were:

Steven M. Block, MBBCh, FAAP, of Clemmons, N.C., Distinguished Service Award;

William R. Cowan, M.D. ’57, of Weaverville, N.C., and Louis Weinstein, M.D. ’72, of Charleston, S.C., Distinguished Achievement Award; and

Gary Poehling, M.D., and John W. Reed, M.D. ’62, both of Winston-Salem, Distinguished Faculty Award.

 Jack Vynalek enjoys hiking. In fact, he and his wife, Pam, were hiking Pilot Mountain 10 days before his heart valve stopped pumping blood through his heart. The good news is he is still around to tell the story.

“By the grace of God, it’s a miracle that I’m here, today,” said Vynalek. 

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center today announced that CEO Julie Ann Freischlag, M.D., also will serve as interim dean of Wake Forest School of Medicine for the upcoming academic year, which begins in July. 

Individuals whose insurance covered the cost of a comprehensive medical weight-loss program had one-year outcomes very similar to those of patients who paid for the treatment out of pocket, according to an observational study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has shown that aggressive lowering of blood pressure in people with hypertension reduced the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). This condition, the enlargement and thickening of the walls of the heart’s main pumping chamber, is the most common complication of high blood pressure and greatly increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.   

“Mommy, you need to come home. Daddy’s had a stroke.” That’s the phone call Sheila Allen of High Point received last April, while out of town on business. Her two young daughters had called 911 and paramedics had taken her 51-year-old husband Steven to the hospital.

As she rushed home, she found out that Steven had actually suffered three strokes – the third one as he was being loaded into the ambulance to be taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He spent more than a month in Wake Forest Baptist’s neurosciences intensive care unit, and another couple of weeks undergoing rehab at the J. Paul Sticht Center at Wake Forest Baptist.

 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center released its third quarter report on operating performance and operating statistics for fiscal year 2017 (FY17) today and reported improvements in key areas primarily driven by volume growth in the clinical enterprise with improving patient access and enhancing provider throughput continuing to be an ongoing focus.

 Wake Forest Baptist May Awards and Recognitions 

 Brenner Children’s Hospital to Hold Safe Kids Day and 10^th Annual Bike Safety Day

 Two Triad Hospitals Partner to Provide Cardiac Rehabilitation that Keeps Patients Close to Home

From the time he was born, Dylan Hill has faced an uphill battle. Born with multiple medical conditions, he had trouble breathing on his own, which caused brain damage. In addition, he was put on dialysis when he was just a month old.

Shortly before he turned 2 – after Randolph County resident Donna Hill and her husband offered to adopt him – he received a kidney transplant at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Now 11, Dylan is able to eat, talk and walk, and is testing above his grade level in some subjects.

 Wilkes Regional Medical Center Chooses New Name for its Future with Wake Forest Baptist 

 Brenner Children’s Hospital Reverified as Level I Pediatric Trauma Center

 Wake Forest Baptist Reports Record $378.1 Million in Community Benefits during 2016 Fiscal Year 

Wake Forest Baptist April Awards and Recognitions 

A closed-loop acoustic stimulation brainwave technology significantly reduced symptoms in people suffering from post-traumatic stress in a small pilot study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published in the April 19 online edition of the journal BMC Psychiatry. 

Effective Tuesday, April 18 at 7 a.m., temporary visitor restrictions in place at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Wake Forest Baptist Health-Lexington Medical Center and Wake Forest Baptist Health-Davie Medical Center will be lifted.

All-terrain vehicle-related injuries remain a large public health problem in this country, with children more adversely affected than adults. According to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the major risk factors for young riders also are entirely preventable. 

While most fourth-year medical students just recently learned where they will be completing their residencies, Tommy Kelsey has already spent five weeks training for his post-graduation destination – the U.S. Navy.

 Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), will speak about the opioid epidemic in America at Wake Forest School of Medicine, which is part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, at noon on Monday, April 10.

Wake Forest Baptist Institute Leads Effort to Advance Manufacturing of Regenerative Medicine Therapies WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 31, 2017 – The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) is leading a five-year, $20 million effort to apply advanced manufacturing to rege

 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center today was acknowledged for its leadership and commitment to provide quality, equitable and inclusive patient- and family-centered health care to all.

As little as 10 minutes a day of high-intensity physical activity could help some children reduce their risk of developing heart problems and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, according to an international study led by a researcher at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

For the second straight year, four flight paramedics with AirCare Critical Care Transport Services at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have won a national competition of professional emergency medical services teams.

Roger Horton, NREMT-P, Barry McMillian, NREMT-P, Robert Coleson, NREMT-P, and Justin Bowers, NREMT-P – all of whom are stationed at the AirCare base at the Elkin Municipal Airport in Surry County – placed first in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) 2017 Games Advanced Clinical Competition, held in Salt Lake City at the end of February. The competition attracted 24 teams from across the country and around the world.

Youth football organizations can benefit from the presence of a certified athletic trainer at their practices and games, according to an anecdotal report by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

 Wake Forest Baptist Holds Free Document Shredding Event April 1

Research Uncovers Potential Health Risks of Travel to Mars WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 8, 2017 – Sending a manned mission to Mars requires more than a powerful launch rocket. Prep work also includes learning how a three-year space flight could affect the human body. With funding fro

In medieval Europe, when astrology and blood-letting were frequently employed in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, one therapy for rabies was to place some pieces of hair from the rabid dog onto the victim’s bite wound.

 To protect the health of patients, their loved ones and the medical staff, at 7 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will implement temporary visitor restrictions that will remain in effect through the remainder of the flu season.  

Listen up ladies. Women simply don’t metabolize alcohol in the same way as men. It’s called the telescoping effect.

Dolores Van Vorst loves to cook. From cheesecake to the special cookies for her grandchildren and great grandchildren, there is no recipe she is not willing to tackle.

But late last year, the 79-year-old Salisbury resident could tell that something was zapping her energy. She became tired easily and often felt dizzy.

The device, called the Absorb GT1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold System, was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It is the first fully absorbable stent for the treatment of coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease.

Wake Forest Baptist is the first hospital in the region to offer this groundbreaking treatment.

 Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center today announced Julie Ann Freischlag, (pronounced FRY-shlog), M.D., as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Freischlag joins the medical center on May 1 and succeeds CEO John D. McConnell, M.D., who last year announced that he would transition to a new position at the Medical Center, after leading it since 2008.  

Evan and Emily Moon are proud of their love story. After meeting at a Colorado hospital where they both worked as nurses, they soon became best friends. That friendship led to marriage and eventually to Wake Forest School of Medicine. Evan graduated from the school’s Nurse Anesthesia Program in 2016, and Emily will graduate from the program in August.

If the last blast of winter has you longing for sun-soaked beaches in tropical locales, be sure to stop at the drug store for sunscreen and insect repellant before leaving for spring vacation. 

If your eyes feel like the Sahara desert or your vision seems blurrier than usual, don’t panic. It may just be seasonal dry eye.

Recognizing that having an MRI can be stressful for patients, Wake Forest Baptist Outpatient Imaging has opened a new space with custom features designed to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety. 

 Share the Health Fair to Offer Free Screenings and Other Services