Health

Michigan State University wants the public’s opinion about whether blood samples taken from newborns should be used in other research.

Every newborn baby in Michigan has spot of blood taken from its heel. The blood is screened for genetic or metabolic diseases.

The state has samples stored in its bio-bank dating back to 1984.

Ann Mongoven is an assistant professor in MSU’s Center for Ethics and the Humanities in the Life Sciences.

She says the proposal raises ethical questions.

The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a $3.5 million grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure to study breast cancer and racial disparity. The money will help develop more effective treatments for an aggressive form of cancer called triple-negative breast cancer, which disproportionately affects African American women.

Max Wicha is director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

The reason it’s important is that we know that African American women who have breast cancer do worse than Caucasian women. Some of these differences are due to access to care and socioeconomic factors, with African American women having less access to the latest treatments.

Wicha says the three-year grant is a statewide collaboration.  Researchers are working with a hospital in Ghana, Africa to look at African women who are also affected by this breast cancer. 

-Traci Currie - Michigan Radio Newsroom

A pilot with the Monroe County sheriff's office spotted many marijuana plants Saturday while flying over two corn fields in Milan Township, 60 miles west of Detroit.

Deputies counted 55 mature plants worth at least $25,000. The discovery is under investigation.

Federal drug agents from Toledo, Ohio, are also part of the case.

Michigan’s pharmacists are encouraging people to clean out their medicine cabinets.    

Paul Jensen is the president of the Michigan Pharmacists Association. He says  old, out of date, unused prescription drugs are increasingly being abused by teenagers.  

“The majority of people who abuse a medication…a prescription medication…it comes from somebody they know.   Quite often out of the medicine cabinet in their own home."

Michigan pharmacies collected more than a thousand pounds of prescription drugs in the first year of their ‘drug disposal’ program. Jensen is hopeful that amount will increase this year.

Registered nurses who work at the University of Michigan Health System and their supports say they will march to the University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting today at 2:30 p.m. They will start at the Michigan Union and "proceed to the Fleming Adminisration Building" (distance - about a block).

The Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) says the University of Michigan nurses have been working without a contract since July 1.

From an MNA press release:

Despite another profitable year and an increase in patients, UMHS have thwarted reasonable contract negotiations with the system’s 4,000 registered nurses by proposing cuts that would make it even more difficult for them to maintain patient care and safety.

The University has issued a statement in the past saying they "prefer not bargain in the media" and  "respectfully disagree" that proposed labor changes would have a negative effect on patient care.

Issues being debated include pay increases, health insurance, and benefits.

Gov. Rick Snyder wants people in Michigan to do more to promote their own health. He also outlined policies he’d like to see legislators pass to help lower health care costs and improve access.

Snyder says he wants Michigan to create a health care exchange: a place where individuals can compare health care insurance.

The new federal health care law mandates states create their own exchange, join a regional one or wait until the federal exchange is in place.

“Having the idea of having an exchange done right is a good idea and my view is Michigan should establish one. We shouldn’t wait and say the federal government is going tell us it’s their exchange.”

Snyder wants to reform the state’s health code, improve health care for veterans and children with autism. He also wants to reduce regulations on health care professionals.

A program that’s showing signs of progress in reducing low birth weight and infant deaths among African-Americans is getting a major vote of confidence. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded a $4.5 million grant to a program in Grand Rapids called Strong Beginnings.

The program has reduced the number of black infant deaths in Grand Rapids by more than 20 percent in five years. 

Peggy Vander Meulen is executive director of Strong Beginnings.