Provider Profile: BHS Expands Gastroenterology Care

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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.




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Residents Oppose Battery Energy Storage in Southeast Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Fifteen community members attended last week's Conservation Commission meeting to speak against a proposed battery energy storage system on Williams Street.

A Stonehenge Road resident called it an "accident waiting to happen" and said, "None of us want 60 Teslas parked in that goddamn spot." 

Fires, flooding, and noise interruptions are collective concerns. More than 170 people in the southeast Pittsfield neighborhood signed a petition against it.

On Thursday, the commission continued a notice of intent application from Brattle Brook LLC to construct a storage system, or BESS, at 734 Williams St., behind the Pittsfield Cooperative Bank.

Chair James Conant clarified, "we will have multiple meetings on this because it's contentious and it's difficult."

BlueWave Solars' Michael Carey, storage development and senior director, and Jesse O'Donnell, an engineer with Weston & Sampson, presented to the commission.

"We are in a time when we are putting in a lot more solar, a lot more wind power, a lot more renewable energy, into our grids nationwide and in Massachusetts, in particular," Carey said.

"In order to continue that and to continue to build a resilient grid in a world with more electric vehicles, big screen TVs, heat pumps, we need to add storage infrastructure to help balance the grid to make sure we have enough power on-site as needed."

He said the site was selected as a "good place" for a battery energy storage project.

"The interconnection points here in these power lines on William Street, it's a place that needs a battery like this," Carey said.

"Those wires get physically hotter at certain times a day, certain times a year. Our battery will actually draw power during those times to help stabilize things. It's in a place that is on a commercially zoned lot that is next to some other commercially zoned lots."

Work is proposed within the bordering vegetated wetland buffer zone. Carey explained that the BESS was moved east so that it is farther from homes and closer to the buffer zone after discussions with abutters.

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