Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wound/Hyperbaric Medicine Expert Joins ECMC Wound Center


Wound/Hyperbaric Medicine Expert Dr. Matthew D. Antalek joins panel of Physician Specialists with ECMC Wound Center

BUFFALO, NEW YORK; March 28, 2012–At just beyond the one year mark of the anniversary of the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at ECMC, the service is now identified as a Center of Excellence with the well known/respected infectious disease specialist Matthew David Antalek, D.O., becoming a leading member of the clinical team. 
Dr. Antalek previously served as Assistant Professor and Director of graduate studies in the Physician Assistant Department at D’Youville College and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine within the Division of Infectious Diseases in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences for the University at Buffalo. 
Dr. Antalek was formerly the Chief Medical Officer and Director of Medicine at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital and previously served as Medical Director of Evergreen Health Services and Site Director of Infectious Diseases at Millard Fillmore Suburban.  He is currently an Infectious Diseases Consultant in private practice. 
Dr. Antalek earned a Doctorate of Osteopathy from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury, New York.  He performed his: Fellowship in Infectious Diseases through the State University of New York at Buffalo; Internship at the Community Hospital of Lancaster, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Residency in Internal Medicine for the Millard Fillmore Hospitals, Buffalo, New York.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in General Biology from the State University of New York at Albany.  Specializing in epidemiology, internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Antalek is the recipient of numerous commendations and awards for teaching excellence in medical subjects. 
“With Dr. Antalek’s arrival, we are now able to provide a patient with every aspect of wound care.  ECMC’s wound care team includes the best specialists in vascular, surgical, podiatric medicine, and now infectious disease,” explained Elizabeth Engler, Program Director, Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at ECMC.  “As a comprehensive Center of Excellence, ECMC’s wound care service model is truly patient-centered with convenient patient accessibility and excellent care management enabling the best outcomes possible.  We anticipate that this service structure will result in increased, responsive patient referrals so wounds can be healed before more serious complications arise.”    
Dedicated in February of 2011, ECMC formally opened the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center to speed healing for trauma, surgical, diabetes and other patients with slow-healing wounds in a unique facility for Western New York.  The ECMC Wound Center, built in response to closure and consolidation of facilities at Millard Fillmore Gates Circle and ECMC, is a new, state-of-the-art center, currently with two hyperbaric chambers, expandable to house additional chambers as patient volume increases.  The Center helps wound patients before ulcers and injuries lead to amputations.  The hyperbaric chambers each hold a reclined patient who communicates by phone with a technician.  Patients can watch television and DVDs through an acrylic dome or listen to piped-in music.  A surgeon specially trained in hyperbaric healing is available for the start and end of each treatment, as well as to treat the wounds themselves. 
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves putting a patient in a pressurized chamber daily with 100 percent oxygen for a length of time over weeks, depending on the wound.  The effect of the pressure two levels below sea level is to open blood vessels, improve circulation and deliver enriched oxygenated blood to wound sites, enhancing and speeding healing.  The feeling is like an airplane descending to land.  If diabetics and trauma patients with wounds can heal faster and more effectively, short- and long-term treatment costs are less, further complications are limited or avoided, and patients can live healthier lives.  
Nearly 24 million people, 8 percent of the American population, have diabetes and 15 percent of those with the disease will develop chronic wounds. 
More information about the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at ECMC is available at 716-898-4800 and www.ecmc.edu/medicalservices/wound


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