henry ford health

(Henry Ford Health System) Transplant patients who develop head and neck cancer are more likely to be non-smokers and non-drinkers, and less likely than their non-transplant counterparts to survive past one year of diagnosis, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

The CMIO for inpatient services for Henry Ford Health System discusses the Michigan system's decision to hold off on applying for meaningful use funding in 2011, and what that means for its long-term vision of connecting clinical goals with IT support.

April 15, 2011. Podcast running time: 3:58 (link to podcast).

(Henry Ford Health System) Ten years ago, the first robotic assisted surgery for prostate cancer in the United States took place at Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Institute.Today, the majority prostate of cancer surgeries are done robotically.

At Henry Ford alone, more than 6,000 procedures have been performed during the past decade.Next week, the international leaders in the field will meet at the world's largest medical robotic conference Jan. 13-16 at the Wynn Las Vegas.

(Henry Ford Health System) The race of liver donors may affect recurrent hepatitis C in patients after liver transplant, according to a study by Henry Ford Hospital.

"Patients receiving white cadaveric donor grafts had significantly more aggressive recurrent hepatitis C than those receiving grafts from African-American donors regardless of recipient race," says Matthew Moeller, M.D., gastroenterology fellow at Henry Ford and lead author of the study.

"This difference was especially marked in African-American recipients and persisted on multivariate analysis."

(Henry Ford Health System) For pancreatic cancer patients unable to undergo surgery -- the only known cure for this form of cancer -- a highly targeted cancer radiation therapy may help slow cancer progression and lessen disease symptoms, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.Called stereotactic body radiotherapy, the study found it was able to delay pancreatic cancer progression locally, on average, by almost six months.

(Henry Ford Health System) Patients admitted to the hospital for the common bacterial skin infection cellulitis should be treated as a first line of defense with the potent antibiotic drug vancomycin rather than other antibiotics such as penicillin, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

(Henry Ford Health System) Head and neck cancer outcomes associated with race may be more closely linked to social and behavioral factors than biological differences, especially for African-Americans, according to a new Henry Ford Hospital study.

Researchers found that while those who self-reported to be African-American are at greater risk for late stage cancer, there was no correlation between patients' genetic ancestry and cancer stage or survival.

(Henry Ford Health System) A MRSA infection with a reduced susceptibility to the potent antibiotic drug vancomycin is linked to high mortality, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.Researchers found that patients who contracted a MRSA infection with heteroresistance, called hVISA, stayed in the hospital longer, were more likely to have the infection return after 90 days, and were twice as likely to die from it after 90 days than patients who do not have hVISA.

(Henry Ford Health System) Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital may have found a better way to prep patients for colonoscopy procedures so they no longer need to drink a gallon of prescribed fluids prior to the procedure.

The study found that patients who took a pill that is FDA-approved for chronic constipation as part of the colonoscopy prep only needed to drink half of the liquid previously required to cleanse the bowels.

(Henry Ford Health System) Physicians at Henry Ford Hospital have found that infection with the hepatitis C virus increases the risk for developing kidney cancer.Using administrative data from more than 67,000 Henry Ford Health System patients, physicians found that over the period 1997-2008, 0.6 percent patients with hepatitis C infection developed kidney cancer whereas only 0.3 percent patients without the disease developed kidney cancer.