Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Announces $5M TETF Investment In UTHSC-H Trauma Research Center
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Injury is the leading cause of childhood death and Texas is doing something about it. Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recently announced a $5 million award to help launch a trauma research center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dewhurst, left, is pictured with army trauma surgeon, Col. John Holcomb, M.D., who will lead the center which opens in September. |
Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst announced on May 6 a $5 million investment through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to launch a new trauma research center led by U.S. Army Surgeon Col. John Holcomb, M.D. The Center for Translational Injury Research (CeTIR) will open in September.
Injury is the leading cause of death between the ages of 1 and 44. Every year, injury accounts for 16,000 deaths in Texas, 160,000 deaths across the nation and 5 million deaths worldwide, the National Trauma Institute reports.
“We need better treatments for the injured -- particularly those with burns, bleeding and brain trauma,” Dewhurst said. “This new research center will build on cutting-edge research already under way at the UT Health Science Center at Houston and throughout the Texas Medical Center.”
The $5 million TETF Research Superiority Award is part of a $200 million initiative created by the Texas Legislature at the request of Gov. Rick Perry to expedite new technology development and to recruit researchers. The Office of Technology Management at the UT Health Science at Houston will receive an additional $250,000 to support the award. In addition to the TETF's investment, the UT Health Science Center, the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, and the University of Texas System Medical Foundation have pledged a total of nearly $13 million to establish the CeTIR and attract a world-class team of experts in medical research and trauma care.
“The UT Health Science Center is grateful to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House and the Legislature for this generous investment in trauma research, which will lead to life-saving treatments,” said Dr. James T. Willerson, president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston and president-elect of the Texas Heart Institute.
Holcomb’s laboratory will focus on new medical technologies based on the integration of biology and informatics to improve the diagnosis, care and survival of trauma victims. “Any progress made in civilian trauma care has direct implications for the military and vice versa,” Holcomb said.
“The Texas Medical Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System are all aggressively pursuing trauma research,” said Holcomb, who is retiring from the United States Army following a 27-year military career. “I’m proud to be a part of their efforts.”
Examples of projects that may be tackled at the Center for Translational Injury Research include studies on the impact of optimal methods of breathing support in the prehospital emergency environment, improving care of bleeding patients, developing new monitors so live-saving treatments can commence sooner and the possible use of regenerative medicine in skin replacement therapy. Much research will be conducted with Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center, a top trauma center and the home of the Life Flight aerial ambulance service.
The center will also build on existing research.
Researchers at the Medical School and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital are in the midst of a unique clinical trial to gauge the safety and potential of treating children suffering traumatic brain injury with stem cells derived from their own bone marrow. Investigators include Dr. Charles Cox Jr., The Children's Fund Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the UT Medical School at Houston, and Dr. James Baumgartner, a research collaborator at the UT Medical School at Houston. Both are members of the medical staff at Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center.
“Trauma research and trauma medicine have not been major areas of interest to the components of the health care industry that typically invest in research,” said Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick. “Many of the significant advances in trauma care have been developed by the military for the care of wounded soldiers. We now have an opportunity to build on these advances in military medicine by developing ways to use them in the management of trauma in the civilian population.”
-R. Cahill
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Duke receives Thurman Award
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Dr. James H. “Red” Duke, Jr. |
Dr. James H. “Red” Duke, Jr., holder of the John B. Holmes Professorship in the Clinical Sciences, has received the 2008 General Maxwell Thurman Award for his work in the use of advanced technologies to improve emergency medical care.
Col. Ronald K. Poropatich, M.D., a senior clinical advisor at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, presented the award to Duke April 6 at the annual meeting of the American Telemedicine Association in Seattle. The U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command award is given to a national leader who has made a substantial contribution toward the advancement of telemedicine and related medical technologies in order to improve patient care. It honors the late Gen. Maxwell Reid Thurman, who championed the advancement of lifesaving medical technologies within the U.S. Army.
Duke, founder and medical director of Life Flight at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, was commended for his work as one of the principal architects of the U.S. Army’s DREAMS (Disaster Relief and Emergency Medical Services), which integrates real-time video processing and wireless communications technology to link remote medical experts with trauma and disaster victims for triage. This technology was used to help patients who were stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and it was utilized again to assist victims of Hurricane Rita who were injured in rural areas of Texas and Louisiana.
Duke is the second UT faculty member in recent years to be presented the General Maxwell Thurman Award. Dr. S. Ward Casscells, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, was the vice president for biotechnology at the UT Health Science Center when he received the award for his work with DREAMS in 2004.
“Dr. Duke is recognized as an international leader in trauma and medical education,” said Dr. Richard Andrassy, chair of the Department of Surgery, the Denton A. Cooley, M.D., Chair in Surgery and the Jack H. Mayfield, M.D. Distinguished University Chair. “He has made tremendous contributions first to the development of Life Flight and now to advanced telecommunications. This expedites and upgrades the care of patients in the field and forwards military maneuvers. That both Dr. Duke and Dr. Casscells, as professors at UT Medical School at Houston, have received the Thurman Award for the efforts on the DREAMS project is an outstanding tribute recognizing their important contributions.”
-M. Raine
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MSRDP meeting: Practice plan “in right direction”
Gross charges, revenues, and clinical faculty salaries are up, reported Angela Hintzel, executive director of finance, at the Medical Service, Research and Development Plan (MSRDP) Board of Directors meeting April 21.
The faculty practice plan, which includes UT Physicians and MSRDP, is posting a positive margin of $3.6 million as of the end of March. This number includes $800,000 in upper payment limit funding from the state to cover Medicaid reimbursements.
Over the past year, gross charges are up 9 percent and faculty salaries are up 11 percent.
“Without including UPL, net patient revenue is up almost 19 percent,” Hintzel said, adding that the net collection rate is down slightly – 86 percent from 87 percent.
“The practice plan is certainly doing quite a bit better than it has in awhile,” said Dr. James Willerson, president of the UT Health Science Center.
MSRDP is the “trust fund” for the university’s clinical services, and its board members are the Medical School’s department chairs and at-large members, who are elected by the faculty. UT Physicians is the business arm of the practice plan.
Dr. Brent King, executive vice dean for clinical affairs, presented proposed changes to the MSRDP bylaws. “UT System wants to make the plans more consistent across the health components,” he said.
The proposals include changing the composition of the structure of the MSRDP board, creating a new committee – the faculty compensation advisory committee, and new rules regarding professional fees.
“The new bylaws will be distributed for vote after we receive clarification on some issues,” King said.
Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo said the direction the group practice is heading is the right one, with charges $25 million ahead and collections $2.7 million ahead of budget.
“We are experiencing a change in culture with a focus on quality, safety, and service to lead health care delivery,” Dean Colasurdo said. “We will consolidate strategies around capital and resources and seek opportunities.”
Services for women, children, and the neurosciences will be expanded around the city, Dean Colasurdo said. “We are also looking at a clinical integration between family practice and internal medicine and piloting a hospitalist program at LBJ Hospital.”
The future construction and growth at UT Professional Building will be driven strategically by volume, he added.
“Marketing will be embraced as we seek to share with the community who we are and what we do,” he said.
Andrew Casas, vice president and chief operating officer of UT Physicians, reported that gross charges are up 12 percent in the UT Physician clinics, with collections up 10 percent from last year.
He added that otorhinolaryngology and cardiothoracic and vascular surgery would be moving to Memorial Hermann Plaza in December 2008.
Dr. Steve Brown, associate dean for Harris County programs, said a search for a new LBJ Hospital administrator is continuing and a 36,000 square-foot extension to the emergency center will break ground in October.
“We have also reduced the surgery wait time at LBJ from six to eight months to six to eight weeks,” he said.
President Willerson closed the meeting, saying that the sole presidential finalist, Dr. Larry Kaiser, “is going to be a great president.”
The next MSRDP meeting is set for 4 p.m. July 21 in MSB 2.103.
-D. Brown
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