Provider Profile: BHS Expands Gastroenterology Care

10:48AM / Thursday, March 02, 2023Print Story | Email Story

To help meet the increasing demand for gastroenterology care in the region, Berkshire Health Systems is pleased to welcome two new gastroenterologists to Gastroenterology Professional Services of Berkshire Medical Center (BMC).

Drs. Ira Schmelkin and Mark Sterling are both board certified and fellowship trained Gastroenterologists, and both will be able to offer a wealth of knowledge and experience to their Berkshire patients.

Drs. Schmelkin and Sterling highlight the importance of screening colonoscopy, which is proven to help prevent colon cancer or to detect it in its early stages if screening guidelines are met. This year, nearly 148,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colon cancer, and the average person has 1 in 20 chance of developing colon cancer.

Dr. Schmelkin, who served as Division Chief of Gastroenterology at BMC from 2004 to 2011 returns to the Berkshires after a ten-year tenure at Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Noble Hospital and served as the chief of gastroenterology at Baystate Health. He previously worked at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, NY, and North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System, where he was in private practice. Dr. Schmelkin is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and was fellowship trained in Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital, NY. He received his medical degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo School of Medicine, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Schmelkin is an expert in capsule endoscopy (camera pills), and his clinical interests include small bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer screening, clinical research and

general gastroenterology.

Dr. Sterling came to the Berkshires after serving at Tufts Medical Center for six years, and previously served as Director of Endoscopic Ultrasound at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, MA, and as Chief of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Director of Gastroenterology Service at UMDNJ-University Hospital, Newark, NJ. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, and fellowship trained in Gastroenterology at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center/Faulkner Hospital, Boston, and in Advanced Endoscopy/Gastroenterology at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH. He received his medical degree from New York Medical College and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester. Dr. Sterling's clinical interests include diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, pancreas, and liver; Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and

Colonoscopy; endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography; endoscopic ultrasound; endoscopic dilation and small bowel endoscopy

Drs. Schmelkin and Sterling join our expert team of gastroenterology providers at Gastroenterology. Professional Services of BMC. For an appointment, ask your primary care provider for a referral.

Tags: BHS, BMC,

State Fire Marshal: New Tracking Tool Identifies 50 Lithium-Ion Battery Fires

10:35AM / Friday, April 26, 2024

STOW, Mass. — The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' new tool for tracking lithium-ion battery fires has helped to identify 50 such incidents in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine.

The Department of Fire Services launched its Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigative Checklist on Oct. 13, 2023. It immediately went into use by the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal's office, and local fire departments were urged to adopt it as well.

Developed by the DFS Fire Safety Division, the checklist can be used by fire investigators to gather basic information about fires in which lithium-ion batteries played a part. That information is then entered into a database to identify patterns and trends.

"We knew anecdotally that lithium-ion batteries were involved in more fires than the existing data suggested," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "In just the past six months, investigators using this simple checklist have revealed many more incidents than we've seen in prior years."

Prior to the checklist, the state's fire service relied on battery fire data reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). NFIRS tracks battery fires but does not specifically gather data on the types of batteries involved. Some fields do not require the detailed information that Massachusetts officials were seeking, and some fires may be coded according to the type of device involved rather than the type of battery. Moreover, MFIRS reports sometimes take weeks or months to be completed and uploaded.

"Investigators using the Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Checklist are getting us better data faster," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "The tool is helpful, but the people using it are the key to its success."

From 2019 to 2023, an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year were reported to MFIRS – less than half the number identified by investigators using the checklist over the past six months. The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors, State Fire Marshal Davine said. For example, fires that started with another item but impinged upon a battery-powered device, causing it to go into thermal runaway, might not be categorized as a battery fire in MFIRS or NFIRS.

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