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St. Vincent Health will close its long-term acute hospital in Lafayette in the next two months, leaving as many as 83 workers without jobs. The Indianapolis-based hospital system stopped accepting new patients last week at Seton Specialty Hospital if they require stays of 25 days or longer. The facility will close after all current patients end their stays. St. Vincent officials said they would have had to find a new home for Seton because the campus where it leased space— Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health’s Central campus—moved its operations to the Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health’s East campus, also in Lafayette, last month. St. Vincent will continue to operate its other Seton Specialty Hospital in Indianapolis. The Seton Specialty Hospital in Indianapolis has been running at higher occupancy and posting larger profits than its counterpart in Lafayette, according to St. Vincent’s annual filings with the Indiana State Department of Health.

One of three experimental drugs in Eli Lilly and Co.’s push into autoimmune medicines has flamed out. Indianapolis-based Lilly said it would end development of its lupus drug after it failed in overall results generated by two Phase 3 trials in humans. Lilly gave the drug in two doses to patients and in one of the trials, the higher dose showed a statistically significant improvement in patients compared with those taking a placebo. But the lower dose did not. And in a second clinical trial, both doses failed to show a significant benefit versus placebo. Lilly will take an accounting charge in the third quarter of as much as $75 million before taxes. In August, Lilly announced that an autoimmune drug to treat psoriasis had shown marked improvement over an existing therapy, and that Lilly would submit it to regulators for approval. Lilly is also studying a third autoimmune drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Results from that drug are expected late this year or early next year.

Community Health Network received a $3.7 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund its early intervention program to prevent suicides among Hoosiers ages 10 to 24. Over the next five years, Community will use the federal money to work with 600 primary care physicians, 13 hospitals and 11 emergency departments around the state, offering them crisis services, psychiatry services provided over the Internet, and intensive care coordination. Those providers and facilities, some of which are part of Community’s health system, will serve 5,000 Hoosiers per year. Community will also work with schools, foster care agencies, juvenile justice programs, state government agencies and others to build a statewide crisis network of people trained to identify young people at risk of attempting suicide, provide timely intervention, and quickly connect them with Community’s crisis providers.

Indiana University Health named Ron Stiver president of system clinical services, a new position from which he will oversee IU Health’s ambulatory surgery centers, home health, critical care transport, retail pharmacies, sports performance and telemedicine. Since 2009, Stiver has been IU Health’s senior vice president of engagement and strategy. He earlier served as commissioner of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Stiver earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University and an MBA from Duke University.

Dr. Alison Grant, a family physician, has joined Community Health Network in Greenwood. She completed her medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.

Dr. Anthony Arata, a family physician, has joined Community Physician Network in Indianapolis. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a medical degree from Saba University School of Medicine in Netherlands-Antilles.

Dr. Jayender Chintaparthi, an endocrinologist, has joined Community Health Network in Indianapolis. He completed his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees at Kurnool Medical College in Kurnool, India.

The Indiana University School of Medicine will receive nearly $8.5 million from the estate of the late Dr. Suzanne Buckner Knoebel, a cardiologist and longtime professor at the medical school. She died in July at the age of 87. The money will flow into two funds, one of which supports cardiovascular researchers and the other that will pay for cardiology professors to receive training in new techniques and other educational programs. Knoebel was an IU medical school professor from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. In 1982, she became the first female president of the American College of Cardiology.

The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center will receive $7.8 million over the next five years from the National Cancer Institute to support its research. The grant follows up on a previous grant in 2008 from NCI, which is one of the National Institutes of Health. NCI has designated the IU Simon Cancer Center as one of 68 cancer centers across the country that focus on the rapid translation of research discoveries to directly benefit people with cancer. Purdue University also operates an NCI-designated cancer center, although only the IU center provides care to Indiana cancer patients. The IU Simon Cancer Center includes nearly 200 researchers, who attract $61 million per year in grants.

The Indiana Family of Social Services Administration awarded Purdue Healthcare Advisors at Purdue University a $2.3 million grant to keeping helping independent, rural and urban health care providers to use electronic medical records in ways the federal government defines as “meaningful.” Purdue Healthcare Advisors started its work in February 2010 after Purdue received a $14 million federal grant authorized by the 2009 stimulus bill. Providers eligible for Purdue’s help practice in small or independent groups, or in federally qualified health clinics, community health clinics or rural health clinics.

Gov. Mike Pence named Dr. Jerome Adams to be commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health, replacing Dr. William VanNess, who announced his resignation in August. Adams is a professor of clinical anesthesia at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a staff anesthesiologist at Eskenazi Health. He plans to continue working at Eskenazi even as he serves his role as health commissioner. Previously, he was an anesthesiologist at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie and a physician rapid responder at Indianapolis Orthopaedic Hospital.