May 10 2012

A helping hand

by Cathy Mellett, contributing writer, PRMC Comments (5)
General, Patient-focused, Profile

Health System volunteer reaches 16,000 hours of service

For most people, 16,000 hours would signify 8 years of full-time work. To George Lowrie, they represent the time he has spent at the Health System as a volunteer, and it hasn’t been work at all.

“I have a thing for babies. I always have,” says Lowrie, who splits his time between C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital floors 11 and 12. He holds, feeds and rocks babies, giving them the tender loving attention they need, away from home in a hospital.

“Sometimes, because of work, a parent can’t be here,” Lowrie says. “Or they’re so exhausted they have to go home.”

Before retirement, Lowrie worked in the lab of Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Max Wicha, M.D., as an organic chemist and volunteered four hours every Saturday. After retirement, he began treating his volunteer assignment like a job, coming in two days a week for 8 to 10 hours each day.

“He loves what he does and it really shows,” Tammy Kutter, administrative assistant in Volunteer Services, says. “Every once in a while he will come in and tell us about a great day he had regarding a child who he had gotten to know over many months who was able to go home. We often think about all the families’ lives he touches and how blessed they, and we, are to have come in contact with George.” Read the rest of this entry »

May 3 2012

“I understand where they’re coming from”

by Beata Mostafavi, contributing writer, PRMC Comments (3)
General, Patient-focused

Prosthetist Mark Taylor’s own bout with polio brings a special touch of care to U-M’s post-polio clinic

Once a week, University of Michigan certified orthotist/prosthetist Mark K. Taylor, MLS, C.P.O, helps treat people for a disease that was declared dead in the U.S. years ago.

Many of his patients – now in their sixties or older – were the children of the 1950’s polio epidemic.

Today they suffer from joint pain, loss of balance, fatigue and weakened muscles that hinder daily activities like brushing teeth, climbing stairs, getting into a car or walking – a phenomenon known as post-polio syndrome. The U-M Orthotics and Prosthetics Center’s post-polio clinic is among few places in the region offering highly specialized therapy for these patients.

When he was just nine months old, Mark K. Taylor, MLS, C.P.O was diagnosed with polio, which paralyzed his left leg. Now a certified orthotist/prosthetist, Taylor credits orthotic interventions for helping him maintain mobility and he helps others do the same at the U-M Orthotics and Prosthetics Center’s post-polio clinic.

Taylor, 60, brings a special passion to this rare clinic. At nine months of age, before he was even old enough to walk, his left leg was paralyzed by polio.

“People don’t realize that we are still here,” Taylor says of polio patients. “Many people are still feeling the effects of polio or are experiencing symptoms for the first time decades later.

“Polio really affected my family and I’m finding that many of my patients’ stories are similar to mine. I understand where they’re coming from and how important it is to them to maintain independence and mobility.”

The summer of 1952 was heartbreaking for Taylor’s family who lived on a farm in Southern Idaho at the peak of the U.S. polio outbreak. Not only did Taylor’s mother learn her baby boy had polio – but her husband, Taylor’s father, lost his own battle with the disease.

Taylor, who uses a brace to walk, was told at age 25 that he’d be lucky if he was still mobile at 40. But as he says “I’ve cheated that by 20 years so far,” which he credits to orthotic interventions. Read the rest of this entry »

Apr 4 2012

Helping Patients through Collaboration

by Cathy Mellett, contributing writer, PRMC Comments (0)
General, Lean

U-M’s Emergency Department, Cardiac Procedures Unit, and Livingston County EMS partner to fix nationwide EKG problem

Imagine being rushed to the hospital with chest pain, realizing that you’re having a heart attack – only to learn later that the machine monitoring your heart rate did not provide accurate readings. You want someone to fix the problem – as fast as possible.

In the case of some Electrocardiogram (EKG), or heart rate, monitors that fix came by way of a collaboration between U-M’s Emergency Department, Cardiac Procedures Unit (otherwise known as the Cath Lab) and Livingston County Emergency Medical Services.

When these three groups found that several emergency medical services EKG monitors were reporting false positives for heart attacks, they brought the problem to the table: their monthly Acute Myocardial Infarction/Quality Improvement team.

“Getting everyone involved in the process allows us to put the pieces together and ask questions when things are not making sense,” says Michele K. Derheim, MSN, RN, CNML. Derheim is director of Clinical Operations for the Cardiac Procedures Unit. “This is how we first discovered the problem with the monitor – asking questions and getting to the bottom of the problem. By doing so, we were able to raise questions with the manufacturer. They took a look at the problem and discovered our questions had uncovered an issue that needed to be solved.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 22 2012

It’s all in the Genes

by Cathy Mellett, contributing writer, PRMC Comments (4)
General, Medical School

Identifying ‘disease genes’ helps patients and families prepare

An expectant mother in her forties worries about Down syndrome. A woman whose mother and grandmother died of breast cancer wonders if she will get it. The family of a man with heart disease wants to explore how they can prevent the same fate. Our genes, after all, determine our future health to some extent. 

All of these people can benefit from genetic counseling, which translates complex medical information about heredity into understandable terms and addresses the implications for the individual and family. 

Genetic counseling is available right here at the Health System. 

“The availability of the genome sequence has revolutionized the identification of disease genes, the development of genetic tests and the provision of genetic counseling,” says Medical Genetics Counselor and Clinic Coordinator Wendy Uhlmann, M.S., C.G.C., clinical assistant professor of internal medicine and human genetics. 

Today, the Health System offers genetics services in many clinics (see sidebar). The clinics diagnose genetic conditions, provide care, assess risks and implications, determine testing options, coordinate genetic testing, identify supportive resources and provide genetic counseling. Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 15 2012

Game on!

by Beata Mostafavi, contributing writer, PRMC Comments (2)
General, Patient-focused

Geriatric Center gaming group helps members fight memory loss through laughter, trivia and Wii

It’s a workout regimen without treadmills, dumbbells and mats.

Instead, the participants who meet at the Turner Senior Resource Center every week use a stack of games like Apples to Apples, Balderdash and even Nintendo’s Wii Sports to exercise their core target area: the brain.

John Siefert, of Grand Blanc, and Laura Berg, of Ann Arbor, play a game of Connect Four during a session of Mind Works, a gaming group offered through the Geriatrics Center’s Silver Club program.

The four-year-old gaming group, Mind Works, is one of the U-M Geriatrics Center’s popular Silver Club programs and a place where members can connect socially, share laughter and have fun while fighting a serious struggle many face: memory loss.

“What we’re doing is mental gymnastics,” says regular attendee John Siefert, 68, a retired chemist for the Michigan State Police who drives from Grand Blanc each week. “When I hurt my shoulder, I went to physical therapy for help. This is helping our minds.

“And when we play games, we laugh a lot. We’re like a bunch of kids in here.”

Members, whose ages range from mid-fifties to eighties and whose diagnoses include everything from mild memory loss and cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease, gather weekly to try a new game that flexes many areas of cognitive and memory function, including short-term memory, long-term memory and motor memory. Read the rest of this entry »

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