A Wayne State University study to determine how often ambulances are used for non-emergency situations has been funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation. Recent reports suggest that EMS providers believe that about one-third of ambulance transports are non-emergencies. Such inappropriate use may lead to slower responses to true emergencies.

Robert Zalenski, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine and internal medicine, received a $10,000 Physician Investigator Research Award for the project. He will study what happens to patients in light of an EMT’s decision to use ambulance transport as well as how insurance coverage affects the decision to transport patients.

Down’s syndrome can now be diagnosed during the first 10 to 13 weeks of pregnancy. A new diagnostic method developed by Wayne State researchers and physicians allows prenatal diagnosis earlier than ever before and with greater accuracy.

This new procedure combines two steps to test for Down’s syndrome. First, pregnant women have a blood test to detect the presence of pregnancy-associated plasma protein (PAPP-A), which could indicate whether or not the fetus has a genetic abnormality. Second, trained technicians use ultrasound results to measure a fold in the neck of the fetus. A thickened fold may indicate Down’s syndrome.

Wayne State University/Hutzel Hospital is the only site in Michigan to participate in this study, which is funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Corporate perspective on healthcare costs

Dr. Myers describes how Ford Motor Company is investing in the creation of a quality health care consortium.

Corporations spend big money on health care, but they don’t want to buy it by the piece; they want to buy health care as a package. This was the message delivered by Woodrow Myers, Jr., MD, director of health care management for the Ford Motor Company, at a Wayne State University lecture in November, 1999.

"We need to re-engineer our health care delivery system," said Dr. Myers, who is responsible for providing healthcare benefit packages for all active and retired Ford employees and their dependents. Just as Ford redesigned the process for auto manufacturing, it hopes to increase the quality of its healthcare package by creating non-traditional relationships with its health care suppliers who will share in the risks and rewards of newly designed healthcare plans.

In the same year that Ford Motor Company spent $1.2 billion in steel, it also spent approximately $1.6 billion in health care for its employees. As an associate professor of internal medicine and emergency medicine at WSU, Dr. Myers understands the medical and corporate sides of escalating health care costs, but he believes businesses need to invest in finding a better way to reduce these costs.

Scientists try to ease embargo against Cuba

A group of American scientists adopted a resolution urging the United States government to consider easing the 38-year economic embargo against Cuba, which includes severe restrictions on the sale of medicine.

Rodrigo Andrade, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, was a member of the group that met in Havana, Cuba, at an October meeting entitled, "Clinical and Basic Neuroscience: A Dialogue with Latin America." Here, scientists shared information about research trends and new findings in diseases of the brain. They also discussed Cuban discoveries, including a meningitis vaccine, which was blocked from the United States for three years as part of the embargo.

"We believe that the interests of public health require us to work together and to remove these barriers to scientific inquiry that can benefit all humankind," Dr. Andrade said.

The bioengineering center’s improved equipment allows for advanced testing of vehicle safety and impact injury.

With the addition of a Hyge deceleration sled, the bioengineering research center at Wayne State University can offer specialized auto crash simulations and advanced vehicle safety and occupant performance safety studies.

The improved sled was donated by Chrysler Corp., and other companies have provided additional funding and services for additional research components. The powerful equipment is capable of testing payloads as heavy as sport-utility vehicles. It uses crash dummies to gather data to improve the design of automobile air bags, side-door padding, headrests, skid-steer loaders and other devices that may reduce injury.

Such studies in trauma mechanics have been performed in collaboration with the WSU School of Medicine since 1939, when Drs. Gurdjian and Lissner first studied skull fractures. Since then, WSU researchers have contributed to many safety improvements including helmet design, standards for sports equipment, development of the collapsible steering column and the three-point safety belt.

Cancer prevention center opens at Somerset

The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center has opened a cancer screening site at Somerset Collection South in Troy, Mich. The 2,000-square foot center is Michigan’s first and only permanent cancer screening center to be located in a retail shopping complex.

Currently, the services provided are for breast cancer, but eventually, counseling and screening will be available for lung, prostate and gastrointestinal cancer.

Somerset donated the square footage in a partnership with Karmanos to raise awareness of cancer prevention and prompt early detection.

Analyzing breast fluids can reveal risk factors for breast cancer, and now there is a non-invasive way to collect those fluids, reported Wayne State University’s Chandice Covington at the 10th International Congress on Women’s Health Issues. Covington is an associate professor of nursing, who has developed a procedure to extract breast fluid using a plastic syringe and specially designed suction cup. A patent for the device is pending.

Covington said past breast fluid collection methods were painful. The new device allows fluid to be easily extracted and tested for carotenoid, an anti-cancer marker. If successful, these trials could provide new ways to assess breast cancer risk factors.

The J.P. McCarthy Cord Stem Cell Bank will be established at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, with the help of a $1 million gift from the J.P. McCarthy Foundation.

The bank will store donated umbilical blood from newborns for use in bone marrow transplants for young and small-size patients, including those diagnosed with life-threatenening blood disorders.

This is the first non-profit facility in the United States to focus primarily on securing blood type matches for cancer patients from minority populations, and only the second non-profit bank in Michigan to store cord blood.

Covington said past breast fluid collection methods were painful. The new device allows fluid to be easily extracted and tested for carotenoid, an anti-cancer marker. If successful, these trials could provide new ways to assess breast cancer risk factors.