New League of Educational Excellence includes six surgery faculty members

Six faculty members from the University of Michigan Health System’s Department of Surgery were among the inaugural inductees to the U-M League of Educational Excellence.

The honor was established this year to celebrate faculty who have a passion for teaching, and who consistently share their extensive knowledge whether in the classroom, laboratory or bedside — a group committed to preparing the next generation of physicians and scientists.
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Surgery for the new century

How U-M is changing the face of postgraduate surgical training

Advances in technology mean today’s surgery trainees are being asked to learn a lot more than just anatomy and the steps of a procedure, especially given the increasing use of minimally invasive techniques. But at the same time, technology is also helping U-M faculty to innovate new methods of measuring surgical skill and outcomes in ways that may help to shape the future of surgical education. Two ongoing projects show how U-M is working to provide surgeons with unprecedented feedback.
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Medical Innovation Center to Convene Global Summit on Biomedical Innovation

U-M’s Medical Innovation Center (MIC) will host its inaugural biomedical innovation summit, “Achieving Global Biomedical Innovation for Children,” March 20-22, 2012. Global participants from industry, academia, and government will converge to hear about new pediatric device, diagnostic and therapeutic success stories; develop strategies for overcoming commercial barriers; and collaboratively design solutions to emerging pediatric clinical markets.
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Growing Replacement Parts:
U-M’s Tissue Engineering

The notion that one day scientists will manufacture new body parts in the laboratory for patients who need them still seems like the kind of futuristic musings found in science fiction movies – right alongside teleportation and invisibility cloaks. But according to Dr. Scott Hollister, U-M professor of biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, and surgery, lab-made body parts are not only possible, but their use in patients has already started and will likely accelerate in the future.
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University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center Awarded Funds to Design Pediatric Medical Devices

This week, the Food and Drug Administration awarded a two-year, $2.2 million grant to the University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center (MIC), under the leadership of pediatric surgeon James Geiger, MD. Adapting adult medical devices for use in pediatric surgeries is a common but often problematic practice across U.S. hospitals. The grant will support three of more than 40 ongoing pediatric device projects at U-M.

“This award will give us a great opportunity to meet our vision of creating a long-term sustainable effort in pediatric device development under the umbrella of the U-M Medical Innovation Center,” Geiger says. “We are humbled to receive this award.”
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Early Detection Blood Test for Pancreatic Cancer Progresses in U-M Department of Surgery

A team of U-M researchers – led by David M. Lubman, Ph.D., U-M professor of surgery, pathology and chemistry – has identified a protein that shows distinct changes in structure between pancreatic cancer, non-cancerous diseases and normal blood serum. The protein also changes from early stage pancreatic cancer to advanced disease.
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Checklists cut surgery deaths in half, study shows

Using an exhaustive hospital checklist prevents errors and cuts the risk of death nearly in half for patients who come in for surgery, researchers reported on Wednesday.

“Checklists could avert tens of thousands of surgical deaths and hundreds of thousands of serious complications every year in the United States,” Dr. John D. Birkmeyer of the University of Michigan wrote in a commentary.
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The Klein Family Fellowships in Esophageal Cancer Research

On May 31, 2007, the John A. and Carla S. Klein Family Research Professorship in Thoracic Surgery was inaugurated. David G. Beer, Ph.D., professor of surgery and radiation oncology, was installed as the first recipient of the professorship. Read entire article.

New study links African ancestry to high-risk breast cancer

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that, among women with breast cancer, 82 percent of African women were triple negative, compared to 26 percent of African-Americans and 16 percent of white Americans.Read entire article.

When a Hospital Is Bad for You

The U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings and other resources can help steer you to a top-notch hospital when a procedure or condition requires exceptional skill. For routine care, most hospitals will do a fine job. Still, “most” is not “all.” Sometimes a particular hospital can be the right choice for some patients but the wrong one for you.

Rates of post-surgical complications such as bleeding, infection, and sudden kidney failure vary surprisingly little, according to a recent study of nearly 200 hospitals across the country. What does differ are deaths from such complications, says John Birkmeyer, a professor of surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School and the study’s coauthor. Mortality rates at some hospitals in the study were almost twice as high as at others. A good hospital, says Birkmeyer, catches problems and responds quickly. What follows are five signs that you might want to think twice about the hospital you have chosen. Read entire article.