The annual survey was conducted through an e-mail questionnaire between September 2008 and August 2009. Survey respondents were the primary health care decision-makers in approximately 3,975 households in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, St. Clair and Monroe counties. Based on survey results, the Karmanos Cancer Center was ranked the preferred hospital for cancer care by respondents within the overall seven-county area, as well as by respondents in Detroit’s tri-county area.

“We are honored that southeast Michigan residents continue to make the Karmanos Cancer Center their number one choice for cancer care,” said Ann G. Schwartz, Ph.D., M.P.H., interim president and chief executive officer of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and of the Wayne State University School of Medicine. “Our focus is totally on cancer treatment, research and education. We remain committed to providing the highest quality of care for our patients and offering access to the latest cancer-fighting therapies. Our cancer experts are dedicated, compassionate and relentless in their mission to find the best possible treatments for our patients and to save lives.”

This year’s National Research Corp. survey went to 250,000 households nationwide. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.2 percent at a national level. When looking at why people choose a hospital, the top three reasons were hospital participates in their health plan, reputation and their doctor’s recommendation.

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education is a consortium of colleges and universities committed to making the academic workplace more attractive and equitable for early-career faculty. COACHE gathers diagnostic and comparative data that academic administrators need to recruit, retain and develop tenure-track faculty.

Contact Kelley Skillin in the Provost's Office at ab8939@wayne.edu for further information.

Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Neurology and Molecular Medicine and Genetics, has been selected as an ambassador of the Hiller’s Good Deeds in the Making program. The program is an effort to raise funds for worthy causes through the sale of prepared foods.

Through Nov. 30, you can purchase Jeff Loeb’s Bowtie Pasta at the prepared foods counter at all seven Hiller’s Markets. All of the profits from the sales of the dish will be donated to the Hiller ALS Center at the School of Medicine.

“I hope that if people like the dish they’ll buy more and more through Nov. 30 so we can send funds to a cause that many know is near and dear to my heart,” said Dr. Loeb, who also serves as associate director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics. “The recipe is a great impromptu, no-hassle weeknight dinner or it can be part of your Thanksgiving feast, and the best part is, you’ll help me raise money to keep funding research and treatment for ALS as we work toward a cure.”

The center was established when Jim Hiller, CEO of Hiller’s Markets, pledged $1 million to establish the clinic and research center at WSU in 2007. Hiller’s mother died of complications from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The center focuses on comprehensive team-centered research and patient care while collaborating extensively with other universities and programs which also conduct cutting-edge neuromuscular research.

“I’m honored to be part of a community led by Jim Hiller, who is dedicated to supporting important causes and companies right here in Michigan,” Dr. Loeb said.

A group of Wayne State University School of Medicine students has announced the formation of the Detroit Medical Orchestra, and is seeking additional member musicians from among students, faculty and physicians connected with the school.

Michelle Ubels, a second-year medical student and former professional violinist, said the orchestra may perform two concerts a year.

“I have been discovering in my time here that there are many medical students who are experienced musicians but currently lack an outlet for their musical talent,” Ubels said. “I've realized that we may have enough musicians in the medical field in Detroit to start a medical orchestra -- a group that would allow us to play our instruments and be sensitive to our demanding medical schedules, and one that could foster a meaningful interaction between students, faculty, physicians, residents and other medical personnel.”

Several weeks ago, Ubels sent an e-mail to all the medical students to discover who had music experience. “Within 36 hours I had approximately 40 eager musicians representing almost every instrument in the orchestra,” she said.

She has also engaged a professional conductor from her former conservatory training.

The orchestra will conduct a meet-and-greet meeting Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 240 of the Mazurek Medical Education Commons. The meeting will cover logistics such as rehearsal space, a rehearsal schedule, concert venues and a vision for the organization.

The group plans to meet to read music as an ensemble the evening of Dec. 6 or 13.

If you are interested in joining the orchestra, contact Ubels at mubels@med.wayne.edu.

“Research to Innovation: New Pathways for Faculty Members” is an interactive program on technology commercialization facilitated by a panel of WSU researchers who have “been there and done that.”

Topics include “Why should I care about commercialization?,” “What can I commercialize?,” “What do you mean there's a difference between science, technology and innovation?,” “What’s my role?,” “What is the university’s role?” and “How can I work with industry?”

The session will take place at the School of Medicine in the Margherio Family Conference Center, located in the Mazurek Education Commons, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Please register in advance by logging into Pipeline, going to the Employee or Student tab and clicking on the Trainings, Seminars and Workshops button on the far right side of the screen. Scroll down to the Research category, click on the Professional and Academic Development Seminars link and select your session of interest.

In addition, mark your calendar for the next PAD seminar, “Research Education: Teaching and Learning through Research in the Laboratory,” set for Dec. 4.

Since 2007, Wayne State's offices of the Vice President for Research, Graduate School and Provost have sponsored these career development sessions twice monthly from September through June. This year, the School of Medicine’s Office of Faculty Affairs, Human Resources and Professional Development and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs are partnering with those offices to deliver the series.

To view the videos of past seminars, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu/seminars-training/seminar-series.php.

For more information about program, contact Sarah James at sjames@wayne.edu or (313) 577-8997.

Deepak Prabhakar, M.D., M.P.H., presented “Metro Detroit: Is There a Need to Bail Out the Mentally Ill?” at the conference, held recently in Honolulu, Hawaii. He noted that the correlation between socioeconomic status and the prevalence of mental illness is recognized in existing medical literature. The lower a person's socioeconomic status, the greater his or her chances are of developing mental illness. He examined the rates of mental illness in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

“There is evidence of great socioeconomic disparity among the three counties. It is interesting to see how this disparity correlates with mental illness prevalence in our local community,” Dr. Prabhakar explained. “Wayne County has a higher overall mental illness prevalence as compared to Oakland and Macomb. Wayne County adolescents have a higher mental illness prevalence compared to Oakland and Macomb. Among Wayne County adolescents, minority groups have higher mental illness prevalence as compared to caucasians.

“There is a great disparity in the prevalence of mental illnesses across metropolitan Detroit and it correlates with the existing socioeconomic disparity,” he said. “Adolescents and minorities in particular have worse outcomes.”

Dr. Prabhakar recommended the use of age-appropriate and culturally congruent programs to alleviate disparities, adding that consideration should be given to using economic stimulus funds to address the situation.

“This has the potential of bringing much-needed relief to the adolescent patients of the metropolitan Detroit area and will also help in creating jobs that would eventually become self-sustaining with time.”

Dr. Prabhakar also recently submitted a chapter for a new book, “Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases IV,” published by the Society for Quality-of-Life Studies. His chapter is titled “Mental Health Indicator Parity: Integrating National, State, and Local Data.”

The writing grew out of his 2007-2008 stint as project director of the needs assessment component of Project Transform: A North Texas Mental Health Transformation Initiative. That work resulted in the publication of “Epidemiologic Profile: Assessment of Mental Health in Dallas County,” which led the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies to invite him to contribute the chapter.

“Health is a function of the interaction of an individual’s social, genetic and physical environment,” said Dr. Prabhakar, whose area of interest is health care disparities, in particular those among minorities and children and adolescents. “Disparities exist as a consequence of the inequitable distribution of commodities, resources and political capital in American society.”