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August 31, 2009 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
President's Report: And The Band Played On
AMA Past President Talks Reform At WCMSSM
Bone Marrow Registry Drive Sept. 2
Patching Some Holes With Reform Could Open Others
WSUSOM People In The News
DMC Names Chief Of Orthopaedic Surgery At DMC
Surgery Hospital
Separated Spouses Face Earlier Cancer Deaths,
WSUSOM Part Of Study
Crain's Health Care Summit |
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President's Report: And The Band
Played On
George Shade
Jr., MD
“…And I promise you; we will have meaningful health care reform in
the United States of America...” Such have been the words of former
President Bill Clinton, former President George W. Bush and now
President Barack Obama. For the past 16 years the escalating cost of
health care in America has been the major bogie on the nation’s
radar screen. Business leaders blame it for the decline of the
American automobile industry. Government leaders blame it for the
rising national debt. The average American citizen cowers in fear of
a catastrophic illness striking his or her family and leaving it in
financial ruin. The term Health Care has almost become an oxymoron
when one considers that we appear to be suffering from that which we
embrace to make us well.
Political
activists say that we have approximately 50 million uninsured
Americans who are denied access to health care on a daily basis.
Statisticians and realists say there are only 20 million people in
the United States without health insurance. Does it really matter
whether it is 20 million versus 50 million? There still remains the
fact that a significant number of people suffer from lack of access
to care and disparity in care because they are uninsured or
under-insured. We have crossed that threshold that now threatens
public safety, economic stability and the long-term well being of
this country.
President Obama
is very ambitious in his goal to have health care reform legislation
drafted, signed and implemented during his first year in office. Men
with great ambition find that their mortal enemies are time and
skepticism. The longer it takes for an idea to be converted into
action, the greater the opportunity for the skeptics to challenge
and dismantle it. This is exactly where we now find ourselves as a
nation. We are divided along political lines, socioeconomic status,
ethnicity and geographical regions. We are even divided as
physicians based on how lucrative our particular medical specialty
has become under the current system. We decry the proposals from
organized medicine. Many shout change while others use the mantra
from the Viet Nam era--“…Hell no; we won’t go…”--along with anything
that makes us personally uncomfortable.
We have to
change. We can do so by choice or by coercion. We can do so as part
of the planning committee or as part of a herd driven by barking
dogs nipping at our feet to make us go in a direction we choose not
to. If we have problems as a profession with the current proposed
legislation, then we must make our feelings known through the local
medical societies, the American Medical Association and the American
Osteopathic Association. Read the current bills on the draft boards
of our legislative committees. Understand what they propose to do
and what in reality they have the potential to do. A choir has a
stronger voice than a soloist. Yet; that solo voice is sometimes the
best remembered of an entire performance. Contribute the strength of
your voice and your ideas because we are on stage, the performance
is live and the whole world is watching.
I end with a line
stolen from the movie, Titanic. With all opportunity for salvation
lost and the ship beginning to make its final plunge into the depths
of the ocean, the leader of the orchestra turned to his fellow
musicians and said: “…Gentlemen; it has been my pleasure to have
performed with each of you…” And then the band played on. Let this
not be the saga of organized medicine in this current health care
crisis.
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AMA Past President
Talks Reform At WCMSSM
Dr. Nielsen
stopped by the headquarters of WCMSSM Aug. 25 while on a media tour
of Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, addressing health care
reform. Fresh from an interview at a local radio station, she talked
with members of WCMSSM about the AMA’s stance on health care reform
and heard what our members had to say. Physicians in attendance were
WCMSSM President George Shade Jr., MD, WCMSSM President-Elect Cheryl
Gibson-Fountain, MD, Peter Watson, MD and Jan Caison-Sorey, MD. Dr.
Nielsen provided a review of the current discussions with the
administration and Congressional leaders. Dr. Shade presented Dr.
Nielsen with a copy of WCMSSM’s 150th anniversary book and also
relayed to her the results of a recent member survey on health care
reform.
The Michigan
visit was part of the American Medical Association’s “House Call”
program the week of Aug. 24, 2009, to clarify the facts on health
reform and make the case that reform is needed. AMA Dr. Nielsen
discussed the benefits of system improvements like expanding
coverage and eliminating denials based on pre-existing conditions.
Also on Aug. 25,
Dr. Nielsen traveled to Detroit for interviews with ABC Radio
affiliate “The Paul W. Smith Show” on WJR-AM and CBS Radio affiliate
WWJ-AM. Both radio stations reach all of Michigan and parts of Ohio,
Indiana and Canada. She also met with the Detroit Free Press
newspaper editorial board.
Dr. Nielsen then
hit the road for Michigan’s capital city Lansing for a television
interview with WLNS-TV (CBS 6), and an interview with AMLansing, a
radio station serving the region.
To reach out to
physicians on the issue of health-system reform, Dr. Nielsen visited
the Michigan State Medical Society headquarters in Lansing to speak
to a standing-room only crowd of Michigan physicians. She also spoke
with Detroit-area physicians from the Wayne County Medical Society.
On Aug. 26, Dr.
Nielsen started the day in Lansing for an interview with Michael
Shiels, host of the drive-time radio program “The Big Show” on
Michigan’s talk radio network WJIM-AM. She discussed the unfortunate
passing of influential leader and long-time health reform supporter,
Senator Kennedy, and the impact on the health-reform debate.
Concluding the
Michigan House Call, Dr. Nielsen made her final stop in Grand Rapids
where she did interviews with WOOD-AM, a radio station reaching all
of central and northwestern Michigan, and with television station
WZZM-TV (ABC 13) for their 6:00 p.m. news broadcast and for “Healthy
You,” which will air this weekend.
Click here for pictures from
Dr. Nielsen's visit to WCMSSM headquarters and audio of her
appearance on WJR.
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Bone Marrow
Registry Drive Sept. 2
On Sept. 2, from
9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center, in
collaboration with the National Marrow Donor Program, will host a
donor registry drive to increase participation in the Be The Match
Registry operated by the NMDP.
Every year, more
than 10,000 Americans are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases
such as leukemia or lymphoma, and their best or only hope of a cure
is a transplant from an unrelated donor or cord blood unit. Most
people in need of a transplant -- about 70 percent -- do not have a
matching donor within their family. They depend on the Be The Match
Registry -- the world’s largest and most diverse registry of
potential volunteer adult marrow donors and donated cord blood -- to
find a matched unrelated donor. While many patients do find a
life-saving match, more donors are needed, especially those from
racially and ethnically diverse communities, to be able to help all
patients.
The Karmanos
drive will take place at in the first-floor Wertz Classroom, located
at 4100 John R (between E. Warren and Mack Avenue. Parking will be
validated for participants parking at the Karmanos Cancer Center
valet parking area only.
To be a member of
the Be The Match Registry, participants will go through a health
history form and take a swab of cheek cells. Each person’s
information is coded for confidentiality. The NMDP will contact
volunteer participants if they are a potential match for a searching
patient and coordinate further testing and information sessions.
Eligible
participants need to be between the ages of 18 and 60, in general
good health and willing to donate to any patient in need.
For more
information, call (313) 494-2809 or visit
www.BeTheMatch.org to join online.
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Patching Some Holes
With Reform Could Open Others
With
approximately 44 million Americans currently uninsured, health care
systems and providers bear much of the financial burden through
providing unreimbursed services.
The absence of
health insurance is a major impediment to receiving preventive
health care as well as other health care needs extending beyond
prevention. According to a study conducted at the Wayne State
University School of Medicine, the Karmanos Cancer Institute and
Henry Ford Health System, the success of targeted programs in
addressing some of these preventive needs may nevertheless leave
other health care needs unaddressed. Little is known about the
magnitude of the additional costs that might be incurred by
participating health systems. This study aimed to begin to
comprehend this growing problem.
To better
understand the potential financial impact health systems endure,
Robert Burack, MD, professor of the Department of Internal Medicine
at the School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute, and
Elston Lafata, MD, of the Center for Health Services Research at
Henry Ford Health System, have published an analysis in the recent
issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved,
focused on the cost of health care services provided to women
enrolled in a community-based breast and cervical screening program.
The Wayne County
Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program provides breast and
cervical cancer screening, follow-up and treatment services for
uninsured and underinsured low-income women ages 40 to 64. Developed
and funded through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early
Detection Program and the Michigan Department of Community Health,
the program is designed to provide only breast and cervical
services, and thus other types of care are not reimbursed through
the program. All clinical services are delivered by participating
health care organizations that determine which, if any, additional
services to provide to program enrollees.
The study found
that nearly 50 percent of the total cost of care provided to those
enrolled in this program was uncompensated, with about 15 percent
compensated by the Breast and Cervical Program and the remainder
from other sources. Reimbursement averaged about $138 per woman per
year, however, the total cost incurred by the health system in
delivering care to these women averaged more than $1,000 per year,
of which $523 per woman was uncompensated. Dr. Burack pointed out
that based on these figures, the health system lost on average
almost $4 for every dollar reimbursed by the NBCCCP.
The NBCCDEP has
benefited tens of thousands of women each year. As successful as the
program has been in accomplishing its breast and cervical cancer
control objectives, it was not designed to meet other health care
needs of enrollees. Those health care providers who choose to
participate are then faced with the challenge of determining whether
and how to address these needs.
“This program’s
success in providing access to health care for underserved women
highlights the economic challenges of uncompensated care already
faced by health care providers serving disadvantaged communities,”
Dr. Burack said. “Until the larger issue of no or inadequate health
insurance is addressed, the unmet health care needs of the uninsured
will grow, while the capacity of already challenged safety net
providers to meet this need will decline.”
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WSUSOM People In The News
Alexandros
Tselis, MD, PhD,
an associate professor in the Wayne State University School of
Medicine’s Department of Neurology, has been appointed to the
editorial board of the Journal of NeuroVirology.
“Your integrity
and knowledge in the area of viral pathogens in the central nervous
system will greatly promote scientific achievement and excellence in
the manuscripts published in the journal,” Editor in Chief Kamel
Khalili, PhD, wrote in the notification of Dr. Tselis’s appointment
to the board.
The five-year
appointment is in recognition of Dr. Tselis’s national and
international reputation in the field, which he called “very small,
but very exciting.”
He also serves on
the editorial board of the Journal of the Neurological Sciences and
the World Federation of Neurology Newsletter.
Dr. Tselis’s
interests include infectious and inflammatory diseases of the
central nervous system, including the neurological complications of
HIV, as well as viral encephalitis and multiple sclerosis. He has
been listed in Best Doctors in America, and is vice chief of
Neurology at Detroit Receiving Hospital. In 2009 he was appointed a
fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.
Andrei V.
Tkatchenko, MD, PhD,
assistant professor of the Wayne State University School of Medicine
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, has secured a $215,000 grant
from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the
feasibility of a mouse model of myopia, an intermediate step toward
the development of drugs to combat the condition in humans.
The National Eye
Institute grant comes under the auspices of the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the national economic stimulus package
signed into law by President Barack Obama.
Myopia, or
nearsightedness, continues to pose a significant health problem with
increasing prevalence and high morbidity related to pathological
complications associated with high myopia. Dr. Tkatchenko’s
long-term goal is to characterize the genetic network that regulates
the size of the eye during postnatal development. His objective is
to develop a mouse model of myopia for further study of the
condition.
Olga Astapova, a
third-year MD/PhD
student with the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been
awarded an Individual National Research Service Award from the
National Institutes of Health.
The predoctoral
fellowship is a doctoral training grant intended specifically for
MD/PhD combined degree students. It will fund three years of her
dissertation research and the third and fourth years of medical
school.
Astapova’s
research centers on the molecular biology of diabetes. Her project
is designed to uncover key insulin resistance genes through studying
a unique and rare monogenetic form of diabetes, she explained.
Astapova, who is
in her first graduate year of training under Todd Leff, PhD,
associate professor of the Department of Pathology, is originally
from Moscow. She moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., at the age of 14, and
now lives in Detroit. The 25-year-old completed her undergraduate
studies in biochemistry at the University of Michigan.
A Wayne State
University School of Medicine researcher has secured a National
Institutes of Health grant to further research training methods that
lessen the health impacts of stress on police officers, and will
conduct that research with the Detroit Police Department.
Bengt Arnetz, MD,
PhD, MPH,
a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and director of the
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, received
$680,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for his study,
“Imagery-Based Trauma-Resiliency Training for Urban Police.”
He called this
research the first “scientific evaluation of a primary prevention
program for trauma-related mental health and behavioral effects in
high-risk professionals” in the United States. Only post-incident
programs – those initiated after an incident and after
trauma-related disorders have developed in police officers and other
first-responders -- have been scientifically assessed.
“First-responders
such as police, firefighters and soldiers play a vital role to
protect our nation and our civil society. They are potentially
exposed to numerous critical incidents, for example, threat to their
life, terror attacks, death and suffering,” Dr. Arnetz said. “These
events are well-researched and are established risk factors for
mental and somatic health consequences, including post traumatic
stress disorders, depression and anxiety. However, during recent
years there has been an increased interest as to possible effects
from sustained/chronic low-level stress among first-responders and
health and performance effects. This kind of stress, on the face not
looking that dramatic, might exert a significant toll on
first-responders.”
With this grant,
Dr. Arnetz hopes to replicate a study he conducted among police
officers in Sweden. In that study, he found that organizational
factors, productivity performance assessment systems, organizational
change, lateral expansion of job duties – including jobs for which
first-responders were not trained -- were stressful.
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DMC Names Chief Of
Orthopaedic Surgery At DMC Surgery Hospital
The Detroit
Medical Center (DMC) has named Stephen E. Lemos, MD, PhD, Chief of
Orthopaedic Surgery at DMC Surgery Hospital. Dr. Lemos will assume
this new role, effectively immediately.
Dr. Lemos joined
the DMC in 2006, specializing in complex repairs and procedures in
elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles. Previously, Dr. Lemos
practiced at the prestigious Lahey Clinic in Boston from 2000 to
2006. He holds an MD and PhD from University of Wisconsin and
completed a fellowship at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los
Angeles. A renowned orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine
specialist, he has worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles
Lakers, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. He is now team
physician to the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Pistons and Detroit Shock.
“Dr. Lemos has
distinguished himself in the field of orthopaedics and sports
medicine,” said Michael Lacusta, President, DMC Surgery Hospital.
"As a leader in sports medicine in the region, I am confident Dr.
Lemos will build an extraordinary department, based on the highest
standards of patient care and service."
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Separated Spouses
Face Earlier Cancer Deaths, WSUSOM Part Of Study
Cancer patients
who are separated from their spouses at the time of their diagnosis
do not live as long as widowed, divorced and never married patients,
according to a new study to be published in CA, the journal of the
American Cancer Society.
Andre Konski, MD,
MBA, MA, professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation
Oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, took part
in the study and co-wrote the article with a group of researchers
led by Gwen Sprehn, PhD, of the Indiana University School of
Medicine Department of Neurology.
Dr. Konski, chief
of Radiation Therapy at the Barbara A. Karmanos Cancer Center, said
the study’s results suggest that the stress associated with marital
separation may compromise an individual’s immune system and lead to
a greater susceptibility to cancer.
Research has
shown that personal relationships play a significant role in
physical health, Dr. Konski said. Many studies focusing on cancer
prognosis have found that patients who are married live longer than
those who are single.
“This study
should help us understand the role of how important social support
is for the cancer patient and how it impacts outcome of cancer
therapy,” Dr. Konski said.
The researchers,
Dr. Konski said, believe the stress of separation may compromise the
immune system and thus create greater vulnerability to cancer. “The
reason is unclear, but I have written a couple of papers showing
that unpartnered male patients do worse in head an dneck cancer and
metastatic prostate cancer,” he said. “The reason is unclear, and
could be related to reduced support while going through treatment.”
“Patients who are
going through separation at the time of diagnosis may be a
particularly vulnerable population for whom intervention could be
prioritized,” Dr. Sprehn said. “Identification of
relationship-related stress at time of diagnosis could lead to early
interventions that might favorably impact survival. Ideally, future
research will study marital status in more detail over time and also
address individual differences in genetic profile and biomarkers
related to stress, immune and cancer pathways in order to determine
mechanisms which might underlie this possible critical period for
cancer pathogenesis.”
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Crain's Health Care
Summit
Crain's Health
Care Leadership Summit
Thursday, Oct.
15, 2009
Hospital
trustees, physicians, researchers, administrators and business
leaders will gather Oct. 15 to tackle health-care issues and
opportunities in Southeast Michigan. Some of the region's top names
in health care will participate in a unique on-stage discussion.
Breakouts will cover such topics as reducing cost and medical
errors, electronic medical records, federal stimulus dollars,
patient-centered homes, health care as an economic driver and new
ideas for handling uninsured people. A luncheon program will honor
Crain's "Health Care Heroes."
Date: Thursday,
Oct. 15
Time: 8 a.m. - 5
p.m.
Tickets: $50
Luncheon ONLY
$149 Full Day
Conference (Includes 1 yr. subscription to Crain's Detroit Business
$140 each for
groups of 5 or more (for group tickets call 313.446.1652)
Location: Rock
Financial Showplace, 46100 Grand River, Novi, MI. 48374
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