Volume 27 • No. 8
Ongoing turnaround efforts result in staff reductions at SHC
New ethics policies provide guidance in tough patient-care situations
Sibley named new medical director of clinical labs
New chief of otholaryngology heralds era of expansion for ENT programs
Below are selected highlights of recent medical research
conducted at Stanford Medical Center.
Detailed news releases are available on the Internet at
http://mednews.stanford.edu
TRAFFIC SAFETY. A study by researchers at Stanford and the University of Toronto found that vigilant traffic law enforcement may result in fewer fatal car crashes. The research team examined the records of drivers in Ontario, Canada, and found that receiving a traffic ticket reduces a driver's risk of dying in a crash by 35 percent in the weeks following the citation. The study data also suggest that one life is saved for every 80,000 tickets issued, one emergency department visit is prevented for every 1,300 tickets, and $1,000 in societal costs is saved for every 13 tickets. The results by Robert Tibshirani, professor of health research and policy at Stanford, and his colleagues in Canada were reported in the June 28 issue of The Lance.
AVIATION SAFETY. A study by researchers at Stanford and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System found that pilots who take nicotine or an Alzheimer's disease drug called donepezil fly better than those in a control group, while those who consume alcohol do much worse. Martin Mumenthaler, a senior research scientist in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and colleagues reported their findings in the July issue of Neuropsychopharmacology. The research, which used a flight simulator to test how the drugs affected pilot skill, was conducted at the Stanford Aviation Laboratory.
ONE DRUG, TWO CONDITIONS. Medical center researchers have found that a drug used to treat high blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes may also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. If larger studies confirm these results, the drug, rosiglitazone, may be a good choice for patients with type 2 diabetes who require additional medications to prevent heart attacks. The researchers - James W. Chu, adjunct clinical investigator at Stanford and director of the Diabetes Center at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and emeritus professor of medicine Gerald Reaven - gave rosiglitazone to 29 people, of whom 14 had type 2 diabetes and 15 were insulin-resistant but didn't have diabetes. After three months, the participants showed significantly lower levels of certain molecules indicating the presence of inflammation, including C-reactive protein, a powerful predictor of cardiovascular risk. Chu and Reaven reported the results in June at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans.
