President Irvin Reid announced a series of Wayne State University grants, called Targets of Opportunity, to stimulate increased interdisciplinary research and attract additional support from outside the University. Through this program, Mark Evans, MD, was awarded $1 million for human genetics research, and Michael Massanari, MD, is co-investigator on an information technology grant which has been awarded $600,000.
The human genetics program, conceived by Dr. Evans, will establish a campus wide, comprehensive research program that addresses the most current issues in the field. "WSU already has national prominence in fetal therapy, bone marrow transplantation, immune diseases, cancer, and molecular toxicology, which are areas closely aligned with genetic factors of disease, prevention and potential gene therapy for diseases," Dr. Evans said. "We propose to expand these prominent research programs through an interdisciplinary enhancement of human genetics research."
The program will address six key areas which include: developmental genetics and fetal therapy; genetic screening, biostatistical studies and community-based research; neuroimmune diseases; vascular diseases; and social science implications of genetic technologies. Focusing on those areas will allow the program to have a significant practical impact on fetal therapy and cancer biology, Dr. Evans said, helping to better determine the epidemiology of genetic diseases--and making it easier to spot them and treat them.
Dr. Massanari, director of the Center for Healthcare Effectiveness Research is one of several co-investigators working with principal investigator Marietta Baba, PhD, chair of anthropology. Together, they are studying and developing "Advanced Information Technologies in Industrial, Healthcare and Community Contexts."
The researchers will study how information technology affects the people who use it and what effect technology has on productivity, quality and other outcomes. The healthcare portion of the grant, led by Dr. Massanari and his team, relates to an information delivery system which will be used across The Detroit Medical Center. The researchers will evaluate how users relate to the system and measure health and economic outcomes.
"We really want to understand the impact this information system will have on economics, effectiveness and quality of healthcare," Dr. Baba said.