Dr. Tom Devlin, a neurologist who helped bring international attention to stroke care in Chattanooga, on Thursday revealed details about the new CHI Memorial Stroke and Neuroscience Center – which is now homebase for the neuroscience program at CommonSpirit Health, Memorial’s parent company and the second largest health system in the United States.
Devlin is the director of CHI Memorial’s neuroscience center, and along with Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center – another CommonSpirit hospital in Houston – the CHI Memorial team has created a testing hub for clinical trials that Devlin said will help fast-track new and better diagnostic tools and treatments for stroke as well as other neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Speaking at a Chattanooga Rotary Club meeting Thursday, Devlin said that being a lead center for CommonSpirit’s neuroscience program has significant implications for both the city and nation.
“We’re really going to continue to put – for many, many years – Chattanooga on the map and really affect the lives of people around the world,” he said.
Devlin had already overseen landmark clinical trials related to stroke at his former employer, Erlanger Health System, and is now leading five different clinical trials at Memorial. He said being able to leverage CommonSpirit’s network of 142 hospital systems makes it easier to get better diagnostic tools and treatments to market quicker.