Lusardi Tower Breaks Ground in Encinitas
Work to expand the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus took a major step forward when Scripps Health celebrated the start of construction of the $263 million acute care Lusardi Tower and Lusardi Pulmonary Institute. Scripps philanthropic supporters, Scripps leaders and local public officials gathered at the campus for a ceremony commemorating the groundbreaking for the three-story, 224,000-square-foot facility that will offer a broad range of patient care services. It is set to open before the end of 2025.

Scripps Among America’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

For the 15th time, Scripps Health was named one of the top employers in the nation by Fortune magazine. The 26th annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list ranked Scripps No. 95. It was the only San Diego County company to receive the honor. Reflecting the pressures that hospitals across the country have been facing from a wide range of ongoing issues, a number of health care providers that have been on the list historically dropped off this year, leaving only Scripps and two others.

Exploring AI for Physician-Patient Communications
Scripps began a pilot program using a generative artificial intelligence tool to create physician responses to patients’ electronic messages, through the use of a large language model. The AI tool combines the patient’s message with their clinical data such as current medications and recent results, then crafts a response that reads like natural language. The drafts are reviewed by the provider for accuracy and appropriateness. The goals of this approach are to allow clinicians to focus more time on patient care, while potentially reducing physician burnout stemming from administrative tasks.

Novel Shoulder Tendon Research
Scripps received a $2.7 million grant to explore the use of pluripotent stem cells to develop lab-grown tendon tissue for repairing rotator cuff injuries. Grant funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will support the initiative’s discovery phase, in which researchers will biologically engineer tendon material in the lab and conduct tendon repair in animal models. Ultimately, the new approach aims to particularly benefit older patients with large to massive rotator cuff tears. Lead investigator Darryl D’Lima, M.D., Ph.D., said finding novel biological approaches is critical, since the failure rate of conventional repair surgery for these patients is near 40%. The Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education (SCORE) at Scripps Clinic will lead the research.

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