Maryland Medical Center

A regional oncology center created by Howard County General Hospital and the University of Maryland is set to open in Columbia in October.Yesterday the University of Maryland Medical Center announced that it has finalized an agreement with Philips Medical Systems North America, a supplier of diagnostic imaging and radiation equipment.According to the April 30 agreement, Philips will provide $10 million worth of equipment to the Howard County site and to a new University of Maryland facility in Baltimore, with about a third of the equipment to be used in the Columbia center.

The Rev. Eileen C. House, assistant rector at St. James' Episcopal Parish in Lothian, died of Wegener's disease Oct. 9 at University of Maryland Medical Center. She was 51 and lived on the parish grounds. Born in Baltimore and raised in the Parkville area, she was home-schooled and attended Parkville High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola College. She was a respiratory therapist at the University of Maryland Medical Center before earning a master's degree from Yale Divinity School.

It was time for most of Baltimore's heart doctors to follow their own advice and get a cardio workout, albeit on the dance floor at the 1999 Heart Ball.Some 200 area cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, and 400 other guests, not only raised their heart rates, but $180,000 for the American Heart Association at the annual heartfelt fest, held at the Baltimore Convention Center.Jay M. Weinstein, AHA's Baltimore Division board chairman, presented the evening's two honorees, who joined the fight against heart disease from different sides of the battlefield.

A three-vehicle accident that injured three people Friday on U.S. 1 at Duckett's Lane in Elkridge closed the highway for about 30 minutes, according to Howard County police. Police said a 1990 Plymouth van driven by Barren Childs, 42, of the 1900 block of Lafayette Ave. in Baltimore was headed south at 1:15 p.m. when Childs apparently fell asleep. The van crossed the center line, sideswiped a pickup and hit a 2001 Nissan Sentra head-on, police said. No one suffered life-threatening injuries, police said.

Dr. Cyrus Lloyd Blanchard, whose pioneering techniques in ear surgery offered hope to the deaf and sufferers from tinnitus, died Tuesday of cancer at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Catonsville resident was 73.Dr. Blanchard's surgery, known as a stapedectomy, involves the removal of the stapes, a bone in the middle ear that becomes immobile because of otosclerosis, a medical condition."Thousands have benefited from this procedure," said Dr. William Gray, an otolaryngologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center who studied under Dr. Blanchard.

Dr. Merrill Jon Egorin, an internationally known cancer researcher, a founder of the University of Maryland's Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, and a co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Molecular Therapeutics and Drug Discovery Program, died Aug. 7 of multiple myeloma at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Shadyside Hospital. The former Reisterstown resident was 62. "He was a brilliant, insightful and funny man who always made me laugh.

Samuel Riggs IV, a cattle farmer, philanthropist and former Northwest Baltimore utility construction firm official, died Monday at University of Maryland Medical Center of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. He was 82. On Sept. 19, the truck Mr. Riggs was driving on Route 108 near his Olney farm hit a stopped car and then struck two trees. In 1998, Mr. Riggs gave $2.5 million to a new University of Maryland, College Park alumni center, which is slated to be constructed next year and to be named for him. Montgomery General Hospital's critical care unit is also named in his honor.

Twenty Maryland hospitals, including Johns Hopkins Bayview and the University of Maryland Medical Center, are featured in a print ad campaign by the federal government, which wants consumers to look at the hospitals' quality ratings. The ads, paid for by the national Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, are appearing today in 58 major daily newspapers, including The Sun. They cover 2,500 hospitals and promote Hospital Compare ( www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov), a government Web site that offers information designed to help choose a hospital.

George Smith, 71, one of the longest surviving kidney-dialysis patients at the University of Maryland Medical Center, died March 2 at the hospital after a long illness.Funeral services for Mr. Smith were held March 7 at the Cornerstone Church of Christ, 4200 Park Heights Ave.Mr. Smith, who lived in West Baltimore, was employed by the Barton Cement Co. for 40 years until his retirement in 1975.He had been a kidney-dialysis patient at University for 15 years, and was remembered by staff members there for his courage, patience and willingness to assist other dialysis patients.

* Dr. Rajabrata Sarkar, an expert in treating blood vessel disorders and a nationally known researcher in blood vessel growth and development, has joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as professor of surgery and head of the division of vascular surgery. He also becomes chief of vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Sarkar is a former associate professor of surgery and a vascular surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his medical degree and a doctorate in physiology from the University of Michigan Medical School.