Wayne State University School of Medicine Dean Robert M. Mentzer, Jr., M.D., recently announced the appointment of Suzanne White, M.D., as chair of the WSU Department of Emergency Medicine, effective Sept. 1. Dr. White, who joined the School of Medicine faculty in 1993 and currently serves as a professor, specializes in medical toxicology.

“Dr. White's commitment to the university combined with her skills as a leading toxicologist will serve the WSU Department of Emergency Medicine well,” Dr. Mentzer said. “I have full confidence that she is the right person to lead the department to a new level of excellence.”

The Department of Emergency Medicine has traditionally ranked among the nation's top departments in terms of National Institutes of Health funding. Dr. White's vision, however, calls for the expansion of both basic and clinical research initiatives to increase the department's external funding as well as overall grant and publication productivity.

In addition, Dr. White's plan includes strengthening the department's Continuing Medical Education program and marketing it to the local medical community. Part of this initiative will include building closer relationships with the member institutions of the Southeast Michigan Center for Medical Education and the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians.

“An indispensable current and future role filled by academic medical centers is the connection with community physicians through excellent CME offerings,” Dr. White said. “We are fortunate to have trained many of Michigan 's practicing emergency medicine physicians at the School of Medicine and therefore have a natural bond with these colleagues.”

Dr. White received her medical degree with distinction from the WSU School of Medicine after graduating with a bachelor's of science from Adrian College . She trained in the WSU emergency medicine residency program at Detroit Receiving Hospital , where she later completed a medical toxicology fellowship. During the 2003-04 academic year, she was a Hedwig van Meringen Fellow in Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine at Drexel University, in Philadelphia .

Dr. White is an expert in medical toxicology and disaster preparedness. She is project director for a $300,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a terrorism, disaster and public-health emergency curriculum.

“Detroit is high risk for terrorism with a density of vulnerable populations,” she said. “How many students in pharmacy, nursing and medicine go untrained? Yet we look to health-care professionals to take the lead when a disaster happens. Recognizing that WSU has a history of expertise in developing competencies for emergency and disaster medicine, we are filling a training gap with a five-module training program.”

Dr. White is a resident of Farmington, Mich.

 

School of Medicine mourns loss of dedicated, compassionate student

Uzoma Azuh, WSU medical student, died Sunday after fighting cancer for nearly a year. He was 23.

Since he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last September, Uzo worked tirelessly to spread the word about the importance of joining the National Marrow Donor Program. The program maintains a centralized registry of donors and matches them with those in need of bone-marrow and blood stem-cell transplants.

Unfortunately, Uzo never found his match.

"It's a really important thing, not just for me, but for other families," he told The Detroit News last month. "There's a lot of misinformation about bone marrow donation."

Last year, Uzo, a second-year student, put school on hold to undergo treatment for his cancer. He had hoped to return this fall to continue his studies and become an oncologist.

“He faced his illness as he faced every challenge in his life: with faith, courage, humility and compassion. He will be sadly missed by all of us,” said Kate Connors, his Student Affairs counselor.

Born in Nigeria, Uzo attended Riverside Secondary School, in Windsor, and earned a bachelor's of science in chemistry from Wayne State University . He graduated Magnum Cum Laude.

He is survived by his parents, Margaret and Victor Azuh, brothers Ogo and Chinye, and his grandmother Sabina Ukponu as well as friends and family in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States .

Funeral service s will be today, Aug. 17, at Parkwood Gospel Temple , 3005 Temple Dr., in Windsor. Visitation will be at 9 a.m. followed by the service at 10 a.m. Interment will be in Memorial Gardens.

Donations can be made to Uzoma Azuh's Trust Fund at Windsor Family Credit Union.

 

Dr. Chaturvedi, WSU professor of neurology, among investigators publishing findings in New England Journal of Medicine

Treating first-time stroke patients with aggressive cholesterol-lowering therapy substantially reduces risk of subsequent stroke occurrence in these patients, a new study has found. WSU School of Medicine researchers are among a group of international investigators whose discovery paves the way for a new treatment option for stroke prevention after an initial stroke has occurred, when current medical interventions are limited.

The research is published in the Aug. 10 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Seemant Chaturvedi, WSU professor of neurology and director of the WSU/DMC stroke program, is a co-investigator and co-author of the study. "The results show the benefits of statin—or cholesterol lowering-- therapy in patients with a recent stroke, and will have a significant impact on the way stroke patients are treated in the community,” noted Dr. Chaturvedi. “Significantly, this study also adds to our ability to help prevent a second stroke in our patients."

The Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels (SPARCL) study is the first large placebo-controlled prospective trial to investigate patients with prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), or “mini-stroke,” who do not have established coronary heart disease. The study enrolled 4,731 patients without history of heart disease and who had experienced a stroke or TIA within six months prior to trial enrollment. Patients who had mildly elevated cholesterol levels were treated with either the cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor, or given placebo. The patients were followed for an average of five years.

In the studied patient population, Lipitor reduced the risk for stroke by 16 percent and the risk of major coronary events by 35 percent. Eighty-five percent of the strokes in the study were ischemic, the most common type of stroke, which occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly blocked.

A separate analysis of the SPARCL data that was designed and conducted after the study ended showed that patients taking Lipitor experienced a 22 percent reduction in the risk of ischemic stroke. This secondary analysis also found that patients in the Lipitor group experienced a 2.4 percent increase in the number of hemorrhagic strokes, which occur when a blood vessel in the brain leaks, compared to patients taking placebo, at 1.4 percent. However, the number of patients in SPARCL experiencing this type of stroke was too few to be significant.

The SPARCL study results are adjusted for factors including age and gender. The dosage of 80 mg of Lipitor was well tolerated, with incidents of adverse events low. The majority, or 94 percent, of patients in the trial were already treated with aspirin or other anti-platelet therapies and 69 percent of the patients received blood pressure-lowering therapies.

The SPARCL study was funded by Pfizer Inc., which manufactures Lipitor. The study included 200 sites in the United States, Europe and Australia and was investigator-led and coordinated by an independent steering committee.

Dr. Chaturvedi is an internationally respected clinician and researcher in stroke treatment and prevention. His work has been funded steadily through National Institutes of Health and other sources. He has been named one of the Best Doctors in America and one of the Best Doctors in Detroit by the Detroit Free Press and he is an elected member of the American Neurological Association.

 

Wayne State University School of Medicine's newest students were welcomed with a week-long New Student Orientation that culminated in the traditional White Coat Ceremony Friday, Aug. 5. Dean Robert M. Mentzer, Jr., M.D., and the rest of the school's administration welcomed the freshmen at the orientation kick-off on Monday, July 31. Students were treated to tours of the school, their first rounds and entertaining scavenger hunts. On Friday, students donned the traditional short, white coat. A picnic followed.

Dean Robert M. Mentzer, Jr., recently announced the appointment of Dr. Michael L. Cher chair of the Department of Urology of the Wayne State University School of Medicine. The appointment is effective September 1, 2006.

"Dr. Cher, who has served as interim chair of urology since January, has shown outstanding leadership both as an administrator and as a surgeon-scientist," Dean Mentzer said. "His record of academic achievement and scholarship is exceptional."

A-professor of urology, pathology and the Karmanos Cancer Institute and holder of the Donald J. Jaffar Endowed Urology Research Chair, Dr. Cher is internationally known for work in prostate cancer research and his clinical activities in urologic oncology.

Dr. Cher came to WSU in 1995, after completing a fellowship in Urologic Oncology and Molecular Cytogentics at the University of California, San Francisco. He immediately established a laboratory at WSU investigating the genetic and biologic basis for the development and progression of urologic tumors, including prostate cancer. He is now recognized internationally for his research into the biology of prostate cancer bone metastasis. His high level of productivity and promise has resulted in several NIH grants as well as the Department of Defense including WSU among an elite group of 13 universities as part of the “Manhattan Project of Prostate Cancer.” The $10 million research program combines the expertise of renowned scientists in the quest to promote collaborative research with the goal to eradicate the lethal forms of prostate cancer.

Dr. Cher's research focuses primarily on dissecting the interactions between prostate cancer and bone. His work aims to explain why prostate cancer favors the bone microenvironment and to develop new treatments for bone metastasis based on biologically-defined targets. In addition to its high clinical value in treating a deadly disease, this work has contributed immensely to an important area of research focus at the School of Medicine. As a critical member of the School's comprehensive prostate cancer program, his investigative collaborations are both interdisciplinary and broad in scope.

Dr. Cher is Chief of Urology at the Karmanos Cancer Center. He manages all aspects of urologic oncology and has a special interest in minimally invasive treatments for urologic cancers including laparoscopic and image-based approaches. Dr. Cher has been a recipient of the WSU Career Development Chair Award and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute President's Achievement Award for Clinical/Translational research, among his many honors and awards. He has also served on multiple NIH grant review panels.