Depending on your age, it may be hard to think of your mom, your dad, or even grandma or grandpa as an aging addict. But while many think of addiction as an affliction of youth, drug and alcohol abuse is a growing and disturbing trend among those over 50 or those considered the “young older adult.”

“Traditional” older adults (those over 65) are more likely to suffer from alcoholism or prescription medication addiction, but a different pattern is being noted in age 50-plus, or “young older adult” addiction. According to a recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) study, illicit drug use by people in their 50s increased by more than 50% – and patients in their mid-60s are being treated for heroin and cocaine addictions. As Baby Boomers age, more are turning to illicit drugs – the same drugs they turned to in their 20s.

Demographers define Boomers as someone born between 1946 and 1964, who came of age in the permissive 1960s and 70s. This segment has the largest household income of any age group, and a divorce rate that is three times higher than their parents’. In addition to their demand for quick and easy solutions, fast service and instant relief, many Boomers are confident they will continue to be “younger” at an older age. They believe “50 is the new 30” and many believe that death can be delayed until well past the age of 100. Boomers live in the age of “quick fixes” – where all their problems can be “fixed” with plastic surgery or a new pill. And, unlike today’s older adults who tend not to question authority, Boomers do and will continue to do so. Boomers have called their own shots since the 1960s and they have a strong need to be heard, and difficulty relinquishing control.

According to Carol Colleran, Hanley Center’s executive vice president of public policy and national affairs, “it is the right time for all of us in this field to start looking at where we are going and what changes, if any, we need to consider.” Colleran is the pioneer who understood the specialized needs of the older adult and has been compiling data that confirms the need to develop Baby Boomer-specific substance abuse treatment programs.

In January 2009, Hanley Center will introduce a new Baby Boomer-specific program targeted to the traditional Baby Boomer but also to the “young older adult” which can include someone as young as 42 and up to 64 years of age.

As part of on-going research into this and other addiction treatment issues, Hanley Center has initiated a landmark five-year program to explore the science of dependency. This revolutionary project brings together research partners from the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine and its Comprehensive Drug Research Center, epidemiologist Dr. Karen Dodge of the Palm Beach County Public Health Department, and researchers from the Scripps Research Institute’s Jupiter campus.

Results from this five-year Substance Abuse Treatment Outcome research project will lead to more effective treatment models, define what is recovery and validate outcomes that are dependent on certain interventions, including a continuum of care for this disease. Working collaboratively with these impressive and respected South Florida research organizations, we will use the science that is being generated, to serve the needs of individuals and our communities. This will reinforce Hanley Center’s standing as a respected leader within the substance abuse treatment industry.



Seven pediatric medical education programs at Holtz Children’s Hospital located on the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center received continued accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The Pediatric Residency received a five-year continued accreditation – the maximum granted by ACGME. Few programs receive this long-term classification. The Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship received a three-year continued accreditation and five other training programs – in Neonatology, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Pediatric Endocrinology, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Pediatric Infectious Diseases – received continued accreditation as well.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is a private, non-profit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. In order to receive accreditation, the programs must provide graduate physicians with educational experiences that offer broad exposure in the treatment of children while providing progressive responsibilities. The programs must also help physicians achieve competency in patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, communication skills, and practice-based improvement and learning techniques.

The programs are based out of Holtz Children’s Hospital. Under the leadership of Director Barry Gelman, M.D., physicians in the three-year Pediatric Residency Program train with attending physicians in many areas of the hospital, including Holtz’s new, state-of-the-art Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and its Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

“We are very proud of our programs and the dedicated staff and physicians who are the driving forces behind them,” said Dr. Gelman. “The ACGME judges programs first and foremost on the quality of the education and training. These accreditations further solidify these programs as among the best in the country. We continue to rise to the challenge of training the next generation of pediatric physicians who will care for children around the world with knowledge, expertise and compassion.”

The Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship, directed by newly appointed Sethuraman Swaminathan, M.D., also offers fellows a unique experience, including exposure to culturally diverse patients and children with a wide-range of cardiac illnesses. Additionally, fellows train with the Miami Transplant Institute at UM/Jackson.



The results of a study conducted by Gary Allen, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery at Memorial Regional Hospital, were recently published in the medical journal, Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

The study, “Intra-Operative Temperature Control Using the Thermogard™ System During Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery,” is based on 38 cases where open heart patients were randomly given either conventional warming or the Thermogard system. A special temperature control catheter inserted in the femoral vein monitored temperatures at five-minute intervals from when the patient arrived in the operating room until their departure.

“I found that by maintaining normothermia during off-pump coronary bypass surgery with the Thermogard system, we reduced metabokic derangements and improved clinical outcomes,” explained Dr. Allen. “This clearly demonstrates the safety and effectiveness of endovascular temperature control.”

In addition, Dr. Allen pointed out, endovascular warming is simple to employ and eliminates the need for uncomfortably warm operating room temperatures.

The results of Dr. Allen’s study were originally presented at The World Society of Cardio Thoracic Surgeons Congress in Greece in May, 2008.



Daren D. Grosman, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Leukemia & Lymphoma Program

When Dr. Daren Grosman’s medical training took him to Boston for six years, his heart for cancer patients remained in South Florida, drawing him back eventually as a hematologist/oncologist at the Memorial Cancer Institute and then as the director of its Leukemia & Lymphoma Program, based at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines.

Dr. Grosman has made his mark in the four years since he assumed that role, developing a complete inpatient and outpatient program to provide specialized care for anyone with leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma. Then, at the start of 2007, the Memorial Cancer Institute opened Broward County’s only Bone Marrow Transplant program at Memorial Hospital West. Nearly twenty patients have already received successful transplants.

Dr. Grosman and his colleagues are committed to providing access to the latest in innovative cancer care. To that end, they have established an affiliation with the world-renowned Mayo Clinic to provide access to clinical trials for Memorial Cancer Institute patients right here in South Florida.

After receiving his medical degree and PhD in molecular biology from the University of Miami, Dr. Grosman went to Boston where he was a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School and completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. During this time, Dr. Grosman was actively involved in clinical and basic science research in blood cancers and bone marrow transplantation.

Dr. Grosman is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and American Board of Internal Medicine. He has subspecialty board certification in hematology. Dr. Grosman is a past recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Young Investigator Award and is the immediate past President of the Southern Florida chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.



Honesty, integrity, and ethics are the three guiding principles that drive Jose Carreras to excel professionally and personally. As the COO and vice president of ProMD Practice Management, Carreras has always been aggressively motivated to lead and succeed.

Under his guidance, Carreras has helped his South Florida practice management company develop a niche in improving a medical practice’s operations. His firm distinguishes itself from other billing companies by examining an office’s operations from a total management perspective as well as combining billings and collections with practice operations.

“We provide ala carte billing services for physicians using their own practice management system,” says Carreras, “as opposed to a billing company that makes you use their system. While this makes it more efficient for the billing company because they’re using the same system for all clients, we don’t believe that it’s the best for the doctor because that doctor doesn’t own his data.”

Usually a doctor has two choices: to do billings and collections internally to maintain control or outsource the work and lose control of the data. ProMD provides the best of both of these worlds because physicians can still outsource billings and collections to a company which has this expertise without giving away control.

“We’re going to do it using that doctor’s practice management system,” says Carreras, “by tapping in remotely through the Internet into that doctor’s system. At anytime that doctor can audit us. If at any point, they’re not happy with us, the data remains in their system. So every month we really have to prove our worth to every doctor to whom we provide a service to because we can easily be terminated. With a regular billing company, it would hurt the day-to-day operations if he or she had to change it.”

By providing billing and collection services with an operations perspective, ProMD is not just collecting data; it is also identifying trends and looking at maximizing the performance from an operations standpoint.

“We provide practice assessments where we perform an operational assessment of an existing practice to identify strengths and opportunities,” says Carreras. “If the physician is not satisfied with our findings and recommendations, we do not charge for the assessment.”

ProMD uses benchmarks to evaluate a Practice’s performance established by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

“We want to ensure that we meet and surpass the industry’s benchmarks in billings and collections,” says Carreras. “As of today, our collection rates are over 90% in 6 months and over 95% in over 9 months. Both surpass the industry standards.”

Those who know Carreras shouldn’t be surprised by his firm’s success. Success follows him wherever he goes. In fact, in 2006, he was nominated and selected Best Practice Administrator by the readers of the Florida Medical Business Journal.

Carreras attributes his values, drive, and determination to his professional background and education. He has been involved in the healthcare industry since 1982. He started out at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he remained for 11 years. During his tenure there, he earned his bachelor’s degree and then a master’s in healthcare administration, where he was on the national dean‘s list throughout the program.

“My master’s degree, combined with my hands-on management experience, has made me the type of manager which I am today,” says Carreras. “I try to instill in my managers the same management techniques I learned to create a culture in the company that looks after our employees and makes them feel that they have ownership of the products and services that we provide.”

During his second phase of his career, Carreras helped manage medical centers. Later he went to work for United Healthcare in its Sunrise office as its director of operations overseeing its claims resolution unit, the provider appeal unit, and risk arrangements. Carreras then went to work for the private sector as a practice administrator for South Florida Prenatal Medicine for six years before ProMD was spun off from this organization.

“We pulled out the management component of the medical practice and created a management company which was ProMD,” says Carreras.

Ask Carreras about his career influences, and he quickly credits ProMD’s founder, Dr. Jorge Gomez.

“His vision inspires me to grow as a professional and to grow ProMD because he was the visionary of ProMD,” says Carreras. “We are where we are today because of his vision of providing an innovative, proficient and focused company that has the best interest of maximizing the physician’s practice performance and profitability.”