February 28, 2008
Health Sciences in brief
New HMC building honors Norm Maleng
The Metropolitan King County Council voted this month to name the new building at Harborview Medical Center in honor of former King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.
Maleng, who died last year, was a longtime advocate for Harborview.
In 1989, Maleng’s daughter, Karen, received care in the Harborview trauma center for injuries suffered during a sledding accident. Following her death, Maleng and his wife, Judy, became community ambassadors for the medical center in appreciation of Harborview’s work to save lives after devastating injuries and to help families heal following the death of a loved one.
The county council approved the request by the Harborview Board of Trustees to name the medical center’s new Inpatient Expansion Building named in honor of Maleng. When it opens this summer, the Norm Maleng Building will include eight operating rooms and additional inpatient beds, along with acute care, rehabilitation and clinic facilities.
Back, neck health not improving
Health care expenses related to back and neck problems have increased in recent years, but health outcomes do not appear to be improving, according to a UW study appearing in the Feb. 13 issue of JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.
The UW researchers examined data from 1997 to 2005 in a national survey on medical expenditures. They found that, in each year of the survey, people with spine problems reported higher medical spending than people without such problems. Inflation-adjusted medical expenditures by people with spine problems increased about 65 percent from 1997 to 2005, a more rapid increase than overall health expenditures.
The estimated proportion of people with back or neck problems who reported limitations of physical functioning increased during the surveyed years, from 20.7 percent in 1997 to 24.7 percent in 2005. Those adults reported that measures of mental health, physical function and limitations in work, school or social settings were also worse in 2005 than in 1997.
The study was led by Brook Martin, a research scientist in the UW Center for Cost and Outcomes Research, a joint venture of the School of Medicine and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
Alzheimer’s and vitamin study
Older adults who use over-the-counter vitamin E or C supplements do not reduce their risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study by UW and Group Health researchers. The results run counter to previous research, which suggested that vitamin supplements could protect against the diseases.
The study tracked nearly 3,000 Group Health members, age 65 or older, using vitamin E or vitamin C supplements over a follow-up period of more than five years. In addition to finding no protective effects from either vitamin, researchers found that the combined use of vitamins E and C, which was previously thought to offer even greater protection against the diseases, also did not reduce the risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists do not know the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Some theorized that it might be caused or exacerbated by high brain levels of free radicals, which are highly reactive molecules thought to be damaging to cells in the body. Some vitamins, such as vitamin E, can neutralize free radicals, leading to some hope that the vitamins could prevent free radical damage to brain cells.
Vitamin E had also been touted as beneficial for protecting against a wide variety of diseases, like some cancers and cardiovascular disease. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that the vitamin does not protect against those diseases.
The new study appears in the February issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. It was led by Shelly Gray, UW associate professor of pharmacy, and Eric Larson, director of the Group Health Center for Health Studies and UW clinical professor of medicine.
Science in Medicine Lecture March 12
Dr. Brian J. McMahon, research and medical director of the Liver Disease and Hepatitis Program at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, will give the WWAMI Science in Medicine Lecture at noon on Wednesday, March 12. The lecture takes place in Hogness Auditorium, A-420 HSC.
McMahon, who is also a research associate in the Arctic Investigations Program of the Centers for Disease Control, will lecture on The Epidemiology, Clinical Outcome, Prevention and Treatment of Hepatitis A, B and C and other Liver Diseases in Alaska Natives and American Indians. He will discuss the health disparity in liver diseases in Alaska Natives and American Indians (AN/AI) with emphasis on how the study of the epidemiology and natural history of diseases in the field can lead to treatment and prevention programs that can reduce the incidence of morbidity and mortality of liver diseases in AN/AI and other populations.
McMahon practices hepatology at the Alaska Native Medical Center and has collaborated with the UW in NIH-funded research on hepatitis C virus since 1995. He teaches classes on hepatitis and liver disease to first-year WWAMI students at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and in the past was the director of the WWAMI internal medicine rotations at the Alaska Native Medical Center. He is an associate clinical professor of medicine at UW and auxiliary professor of the college of arts and sciences at University of Alaska, Anchorage.
The lecture will be simulcast at the following sites: Harborview Medical Center Research & Training Building, Auditorium; VA Puget Sound Health Care System — Seattle Division, American Lake Division, and VA HSR&D Met Park; Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Conference Room G3102; and WSU Riverpoint Campus, Phase 1 Auditorium, SCLC 122.
This lecture is open to all faculty, staff and students. No registration is required. For more information, contact Vee White at veewhite@u.washington.edu or 206-543-8319
