Minnesota - May 2014 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees welcomed Armando Codina and Diana Taylor as new members at ...

Philanthropic effort supports patient-inspired innovations ROCHESTER, Minn. — To accelerate the pace of research, solve unmet needs of patients and improve the quality of health care, Mayo Clinic today announced a philanthropic campaign to raise $3 billion by Dec. 31, 2017, strengthening Mayo’s strategic priorities in patient care, research and education. “Reliable funding is the biggest barrier to advance medical breakthroughs that can benefit patients suffering from diseases,” says John Noseworthy, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO. “Traditional funding sources, such as federal grants, cannot cover the cost of discovering cutting-edge science and implementing those solutions in clinical practice.” A focal point for the campaign is biomedical research. For example, funding will allow scientists and researchers to apply healthy tissues to regenerate and cure diseased organs; find trusted answers on diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease based on an individual’s genome and harness Mayo’s collective knowledge to improve the cost-effective delivery of quality health care.

Findings indicate significant advancements in the management of diabetic kidney transplant patients https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HySh85IZS5E ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that the five-year survival of diabetic kidney transplant patients is now on par with the five-year survival of nondiabetic kidney recipients. These new findings are published on the Kidney International website and will also be printed in a future issue of the journal. The study findings represent significant improvements in the management of kidney transplant patients who have diabetes and pre-transplant consequences of diabetes such as heart disease and high blood pressure. The study also suggests that improvements in patient management post-transplant have resulted in significant declines in subsequent cardiac events and a reduction in infections. Prior to 2004, the five-year mortality rate of diabetic kidney transplant patients was more than double that of nondiabetic kidney recipients. To arrive at these latest findings, a Mayo Clinic research team led by Fernando Cosio, M.D., medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation, analyzed the experiences of 1,688 kidney recipients, including 413 with diabetes prior to transplant between 1996 and 2007.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — New research from Mayo Clinic shows that implementing a uniform method to care for lower-risk cardiac surgical patients improves outcomes, reduces patients’ time in the hospital and lowers overall per patient costs by 15 percent. The study is published in the May issue of Health Affairs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7zJv1NemII Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Cook are available in the downloads. “In the high-acuity, full-service hospital, individual clinical judgment remains key, and some medical care demands this,” says David Cook, M.D., a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and primary author of the study. “But if this philosophy is applied universally, the same medical problem could be approached in 10 different ways by 10 different physicians, leading to unwarranted variability in costs, quality and outcomes.”

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A recent Mayo Clinic Proceedings article links some nerve damage after hip surgery to inflammatory neuropathy. Historically, nerve damage from hip surgery has been attributed to mechanical factors caused by anesthesiologists or surgeons, such as positioning of the patient during surgery or direct surgical injury of the nerves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyNOqN7N76c&hd=1 In this study, researchers examined patients who developed inflammatory neuropathies, where the immune system attacks the nerves, leading to weakness and pain. Inflammatory neuropathies may be treated with immunotherapy. “Neuropathy after surgery can significantly affect postsurgical outcomes,” says Nathan Staff, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist. “The good news is that if we’re able to identify patients experiencing postsurgical inflammatory neuropathy, rather than damage caused by a mechanical process, we may be able to provide treatment immediately to mitigate pain and improve overall outcomes.”