Here are the finalists in the 2014 Health Care Heroes Innovation category.

Honors an individual or team behind a new scientific discovery, procedure, treatment or device that can save lives or improve the quality of life for a large number of people.

Laura Harris

TITLE: Practice owner, ophthalmologist and surgeon

ORGANIZATION: Cataract Consultants

WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “Laura Harris, M.D., FACS is a fellowship trained ophthalmologist and one of the leading cataract surgeons in North Carolina.

Dr. Harris has worked as a cataract, corneal and refractive surgery specialist in Wilmington, NC since 1998. She founded Cataract Consultants, PA in 2008 and has an all-women staff of 7.

Dr. Harris is a Health Care Hero because she is a brilliant surgeon who is consistently pioneering new technologies and treatments for her patients in southeastern North Carolina. Last year, Dr. Harris pioneered the use of CentraSight in North Carolina. (Editor’s note: Harris and Edward Paul, see right, worked on the same team with CentraSight.) She and her team are the only physicians in NC to offer this new telescopic lens implant surgery for people suffering with advanced macular degeneration.

On February 26, Dr. Harris implanted the smallest medical device ever approved by the FDA into the eye of a patient with cataracts and glaucoma − the first such surgery to be performed at [Novant Health] Brunswick Medical Center. Area residents now have access to some of the nation's most advanced ophthalmology treatments and surgical techniques for eye disease and low-vision. Instead of traveling to Duke or Chapel Hill, more and more patients are traveling to Wilmington for advanced eye care.”
 

Kevin Hodge

TITLE: Chief transport RN-operations manager

ORGANIZATION: AirLink/VitaLink

WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “Kevin Hodge is the epitome of a selfless and humble caregiver whose actions consistently push quality health care forward. As the Chief Transport Nurse and Operations Manager of New Hanover Regional Medical Center's AirLink/VitaLink Critical Care Transport Team, Kevin has demonstrated leadership, dedication and excellence in patient care for the past decade.

Kevin has coordinated and performed numerous free outreach education sessions for EMS and hospital providers throughout Southeastern North Carolina. He has helped with the design and implementation the NHRMC Time-Sensitive Illness and Injury training program, which provides education on clinical best practices and standard protocols to hospital emergency departments throughout the region.

Kevin's greatest achievements, however, have been though his tireless efforts to improve the outcomes of patients experiencing ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions, or STEMI, heart attacks. A strong believer in standardizing care and the development of best practices, Kevin helped to design and implement a process to teach healthcare providers the most efficient process to move patients experiencing a STEMI quickly and efficiently toward definitive care.”
 

Edward Paul Jr.

TITLE: Practice owner, low vision specialist and medical innovator

ORGANIZATION: Landfall Eye Associates

WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “Dr. Paul is redefining optometric care for low vision patients and developing therapies and treatments that not only give patients back their ability to see, but give them a renewed sense of hope and quality of life.

Unfortunately, there are very few low vision specialists available to treat patients, and the need is great. Dr. Paul is one of only 30 eye physicians in the United States to be selected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Low Vision Specialists.

Dr. Paul is uniquely qualified to evaluate and help patients suffering from low vision. Typically these patients have been told be their doctors that there is ‘nothing more that can be done.’ Dr. Paul assists these patients through a unique combination of traditional and alternative medicine.
In 2013, Dr. Paul was responsible for making Wilmington the first and only community in the state in which patients could receive CentraSight a revolutionary new treatment program using a tiny telescope that is implanted inside the eye to improve vision for patients with the end-stage, advanced macular degeneration.

To date, the medical team has performed 7 surgeries and is evaluating another dozen potential candidates.”