News Release

SEVEN DOCTORS JOIN UPMC NORTHWEST MEDICAL STAFF

Feb. 28, 2006 — Seven doctors were added to the medical staff at UPMC Northwest during 2005 and early 2006, and efforts are under way to bring more physicians here later this year.

Physicians who joined the hospital staff the past year are as follows

R. Nicholas Gramatovici, MD

Dr. Gramatovici is a board certified radiation oncologist who practices with radiation oncologist Joans Cook, MD, at UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest. Dr. Gramatovici’s special interest is intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), a powerfulne Dragun, MD, and hematologist/oncologist Nichola new cancer treatment option that now is available at UPMC Northwest.

Dr. Jansen is a board certified family practitioner with Franklin Community Health Care Associates, which also includes family practitioner R. Donald McAfee, MD. Dr. Jansen has special interests in acute care, treatment of infectious diseases, and preventive medicine.

Dr. Palermo is a general surgeon whose practice is known as Northwest Surgical Associates-UPMC. Dr. Palermo’s special interest is minimally-invasive laparoscopic surgery, which offers patients several advantages over traditional surgery including less pain, shorter hospitalization, and a faster return to normal activities.

Dr. Nat is a board certified medical/interventional cardiologist whose practice is part of the UPMC Cardiovascular Institute at UPMC Northwest. The addition of Dr. Nat and the opening of UPMC Northwest’s Cardiac Catheterization Unit allow UPMC Northwest to offer cardiac catheterization for the first time, so many patients can undergo this exam locally instead of traveling to an out-of-town hospital.

Dr. Maru is a psychiatrist and is medical director of Behavioral Health at UPMC Northwest. He provides inpatient care in the hospital’s 28-bed Behavioral Health Unit and sees outpatients at the West Unit in Franklin. His special interests include geriatric psychiatry, consultation/liaison psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and psychopharmacology.

John Graham, MD, and Richard Wacksman, MD

Dr. Graham (left), who is board certified in internal medicine, and Dr. Wacksman (right), a board certified internist/pediatrician, are UPMC Northwest’s first hospitalists (inpatient care specialists). Working in close cooperation with six UPMC Northwest staff physicians who participate in the hospitalist program, Dr. Graham and Dr. Wacksman provide all bedside care, order tests and treatments, consult with specialists, and otherwise meet patients’ needs throughout their hospitalization. When their inpatient stay ends, patients resume receiving care from their primary care physician.

Physician recruitment for 2006 is under way in several specialties including cardiology, family medicine, gastroenterology, general surgery, hospital inpatient medicine, internal medicine, medical oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics/gynecology, oral surgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, thoracic surgery, and urology. UPMC Northwest hopes to add several more doctors to its staff this year.