School Notes: School of Medicine
January/February 2013

Yale–New Haven Hospital acquires Hospital of Saint Raphael

On September 12, following more than a year of discussions and planning, Yale–New Haven Hospital (YNHH) officially acquired New Haven’s Hospital of Saint Raphael (HSR), resulting in one single 1,519-bed institution with two main campuses. The integration allows YNHH to provide the region with more coordinated care, to reduce redundancy of clinical services and financial investments, and to become more efficient. It also gives YNHH 511 much-needed beds and provides financial stability for the HSR campus. While volume at most Connecticut hospitals has been flat or declining over the past several years, YNHH has seen an increase, resulting in significant capacity constraints. The acquisition allows YNHH to avoid an estimated $650 million investment in a new patient tower to address these constraints. The transaction allows HSR to preserve a deeply rooted legacy as an exceptional care provider and honor its traditions, while also taking on the future as part of a nationally recognized academic medical center.

The genetics of gastric disease

In one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted, an international team of scientists, co-led by Judy H. Cho, the Henry J. and Joan W. Binder Professor of Gastroenterology and professor of genetics at Yale School of Medicine, has thrown new light on the genetic basis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a group of chronic autoimmune digestive disorders affecting 2.5 million people worldwide. The new study, which appeared in the November 1 issue of the journal Nature, links variations in 163 regions of the human genome, 71 of which are newly discovered, to an increased risk of contracting IBD. These regions showed a striking overlap with those implicated in other autoimmune diseases and suggest that IBD results from overactive immune defense systems that evolved to fight off serious bacterial infections. In IBD, the body’s immune system produces an ongoing inflammatory reaction in the intestinal tract that injures the intestinal wall, leading to diarrhea and abdominal pain. IBD patients typically require lifelong treatment with drug therapy, and often need surgery to repair tissue damage caused by the disease. Nearly 100 scientists in 15 countries contributed to the study.