UW School of Medicine Online News 4-25-08

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University of Washington School of Medicine

Online News

Vol. 12, No. 17
April 25, 2008
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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm

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This week’s news:

* Grants from Life Sciences Discovery Fund to support research at the UW and other organizations around Washington state

* Life expectancy stagnated or worsened for large segment of American population in the 1980s and 90s, health metrics researchers find

* Edward Walker transitioning out of position as medical director of UW Medical Center to start Healthcare Leadership Development Program at UWMC

* UW School of Medicine Colleges program being emulated by other medical schools

* Nominations now being accepted for Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows

* UW Medicine board members honored by Seattle-Northwest Chapter of National Association of Corporation Directors


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LIFE SCIENCES DISCOVERY FUND GRANT WILL SUPPORT CREATION OF GENETIC MEDICINE INSTITUTE

Washington state's Life Sciences Discovery Fund last week awarded five grants totaling $22 million to several research organizations around the state, including funds to create a new UW institute aimed at translating human genetic research into clinical advances. The other four projects also have connections to the UW and the School of Medicine.

The new institute at the UW, the Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine, will be supported by a $5.3 million, four-year grant from the fund. The institute is a collaborative effort between researchers at the UW, Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, Group Health, and local biotechnology companies. It will facilitate the design, development and execution of translational genetic studies that bridge the gap between basic-science research and clinical studies at academic institutions and biotechnology companies.

More specifically, the goal of the institute's research will be to prevent illness and speed recovery by identifying which patients are at high risk for disease or best-suited to a specific treatment. Gail Jarvik, the Arno G. Motulsky Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences and head of the Division of Medical Genetics, will lead the institute. It will include several UW researchers in the Departments of Genome Sciences, Pediatrics, Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Biostatistics.

Another grant from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund will support a program at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the UW to create new proteomics technology for identifying blood protein biomarkers associated with liver disease. The project is aimed at finding biomarkers, or particular proteins, that signal the early signs of chronic liver disease, which can be caused by the hepatitis C virus.

Most cases of chronic liver disease are not diagnosed until late in its progression, and diagnosis is done through liver biopsy, an invasive and costly technique. Earlier identification of the disease could help make treatment more successful and less costly. The research program will be led Richard Smith at PNNL, in Richland, Wash., and will include a collaboration with Michael Katze, UW professor of microbiology and leader of the UW's Center for Functional Genomics, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In addition to the genetics institute and proteomics center, the new round of grants from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund will support other projects, including:
* A phase 1 cancer clinical trials program to test new cancer-fighting drugs. The program will be led by Martin Cheever, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW professor of medicine.

* A brain imaging center for infants and children, for the study of the mechanisms and problems in early learning and brain development. The project is led by Patricia Kuhl, UW professor of speech and hearing sciences and adjunct professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery. Kuhl is the co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.

* A program in autoimmune disease intervention, to apply previous research in genetics and immunology to the treatment of autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and lupus. The program will be led by Gerald Nepom of the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason. Nepom is an affiliate professor of immunology at the UW.


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LIFE EXPECTANCY INEQUALITIES IN THE UNITED STATES WORSENED OVER THE 80S AND 90S

Life expectancy is no longer improving for some of the worst-off counties in the United States, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard, the University of California-San Francisco, and the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The findings appeared this week in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

Researchers analyzed death rates in all counties of the United States from 1961 to 1999, using data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the national census. From the 1960s to the early 80s in the United States, overall life expectancy increased and death rates dropped.

However, the researchers found that between 1983 and 1999, the death rate among women in many of the worst-off counties actually increased, mostly due to chronic diseases related to smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity.

The researchers also found that the inequality of life expectancy between different counties in the United States has deepened. From 1961 to 1983, as overall life expectancy improved and death rates dropped, the differences in death rates between different counties also decreased. But beginning in the early 80s, the differences between counties began to increase, and the worst-off counties either saw death rates level off or even begin to increase. The shift was primarily caused by a slowdown or halt in the reduction of deaths from cardiovascular disease, even while deaths from that cause were dropping significantly in other counties. The worst-off areas also saw an increase in diseases like lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and diabetes for the overall population, and an increase in HIV and homicide among men.

UW researcher Christopher Murray, professor of global health and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, co-authored the study. The full text of the study is free and available to all through PLoS Medicine, part of the open-access Public Library of Science family of journals. The article is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/5wrv5c


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WALKER TRANSITIONING OUT OF MEDICAL DIRECTOR POSITION AT UWMC

Edward Walker, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is transitioning out of his position as the medical director of UW Medical Center. Walker, who has served as medical director for the past five years, will become associate medical director of physician development, effective July 1.

Thomas Staiger, associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and senior associate medical director of UWMC, will serve as interim medical director for the hospital during the search for a new medical director.

In his time as medical director, Walker has helped develop innovative strategies for training physician leaders within and outside UW Medicine. Walker, who is also a professor of health services, plans to create a Healthcare Leadership Development Program at UWMC in partnership with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine. The program will focus on research and teaching in areas of competency and teamwork for physicians and administrators, both locally and nationally.


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UW SCHOOL OF MEDICINE COLLEGES PROGRAM BEING EMULATED AROUND THE COUNTRY

The UW School of Medicine's Colleges program, which divides each class of medical students into smaller educational units and partners each student with a faculty mentor, is being emulated by other medical schools around the country. The University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School is the latest to adopt a system based on the UW's Colleges program. The UT-Southwestern program was featured in a recent column in the Dallas Morning News, available here:
http://tinyurl.com/4jmphp

Other medical schools have emulated the program or contacted the UW Colleges for advice on how to start a similar program, including Johns Hopkins, Stanford, the University of California-San Francisco, UC San Diego, and the University of Arizona. Stanford is starting a similar program next fall, and the Johns Hopkins program is under way.

The UW Colleges program's main goals are to provide an integrated medical school curriculum of clinical skills and professionalism, teach a course on the introduction to clinical medicine, and to provide each student with a consistent faculty mentor throughout the student's medical school career. Upon starting the M.D. program at the UW, students are assigned to one of the six colleges: Big Sky, Columbia River, Denali, Rainier, Snake River, or Wind River. Each college has a total of about 150 students, and each student is matched with a faculty member responsible for mentoring about six students in each year, for a total of 24 to 30 students per College faculty member.

More information about the Colleges program is available here:
http://courses.washington.edu/colleges/


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NOMINATIONS BEING ACCEPTED FOR GILLILAND AWARD

The UW School of Medicine is accepting nominations for the Bruce C. Gilliland Award for Excellence in Teaching of Residents and Fellows. The award recognizes outstanding teaching in graduate medical education in any specialty and at any training site in the UW system. Nominations are due by 5 p.m. on May 5.

The award is named for the late Bruce Gilliland, professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and professor of laboratory medicine. He was known for his skill and compassion as a clinician, his many contributions to the field of rheumatology, his service as an administrator in the School of Medicine, and for his dedication to teaching of residents and fellows.

Candidates for the award must be actively engaged in clinical and didactic training or in the implementation of graduate medical education curriculum. The candidate must show evidence of excellence over time and must have served for at least three years within UW Medicine as a teacher of residents and fellows. Nominations can be submitted by faculty, residents, and fellows in UW Medicine Graduate Medical Education programs. More information about the award and instructions on nominating a teacher can be obtained through the UW Medicine Office of Graduate Medical Education, 206-543-6806, or online at:
http://uwmedicine.washington.edu/Education/ResidenciesAndFellowships/

The recognition will include a monetary award, which will be placed in an academic account for the recipient. For people interested in contributing to the award fund honoring Gilliland, contact Dan Peterson at UW Medicine Development, dcpeters@u.washington.edu or 206-543-8207.


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UW MEDICINE BOARD MEMBERS SALLY JEWELL AND GERALD GRINSTEIN HONORED FOR LEADERSHIP

Two members of the UW Medicine Board have been recognized for their outstanding work by the Seattle-Northwest Chapter of the National Association of Corporation Directors. Gerald Grinstein, former CEO of Delta Air Lines, received a lifetime achievement award from the chapter. Sally Jewell, president and CEO of REI, Inc., received an award for not-for-profit director of the year.

Grinstein served as chair and CEO of Western Airlines before it merged with Delta, and as chair and CEO of the railroad company Burlington Northern Inc. He was a partner in the law firm Preston, Thorgrimson, Ellis and Holman, and served as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and administrative assistant to former Sen. Warren G. Magnuson. Grinstein has served on many boards, including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Foundation, and the UW Board of Regents.

Jewell worked in executive leadership in the banking industry before joining REI, a national retail cooperative with 3 million members. The company is a leader in the outdoor retail industry, an active promoter of environmental stewardship in local communities, and one of FORTUNE magazine's 100 best companies to work for. She also serves on the UW Board of Regents, and on the boards for the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Initiative for Global Development.


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Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu

Online News is copyright 2008. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.

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