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Show jveHsity A&E Opinion Sports Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Baffling, so beautiful! Lone-driver discrimination Another stinker "Howl's Moving Castle" delivers peerless animation and a nearly indiscernible story. Ed Stevenson thinks carpool lanes create dangerous situations and are a waste of space on congested freeways. Real Salt Lake puts another goose egg on the Scoreboard in a 3-0 loss to San Jose. o fU t a h ' s I n d e p e n d e n t S t u d e n t Voice Today's weather Sunny/Windy SEE MORE ON PAGE 2 Since 1890 MER UTAH CHRONICLE U joins PolyHeme team Monday, J u n e 20, 2005 Vol.115 No. 15 University Hospital to use new blood transfusion alternative t Catherine Callister Chronicle Writer As part of a nationwide study; the University Hospital Air Med, LDS Hospital Life Flight, and other local emergency services will begin using PolyHeme, a blood substitute made from the hemoglobin of donated blood, in trauma patients. The reason for the shift is that PolyHeme can be given to any trauma patient, regardless of blood type. "PolyHeme is compatible with all patients. It can be transported to the scene and given immediately," said Dr. Stephen E. Morris, director of Trauma at the U Hospital. Instead of having to first determine a patient's blood type and then supply him or her with compatible blood, medics can immediately provide PolyHeme, saving precious seconds in which oxygen, carried by blood, is deprived from the patient's brain and other vital organs. "Many patients we've taken into the hospital couldn't survive because they couldn't get oxygen to their organs," said Fire Chief Van Summers of the West Valley City Fire Department. Unlike human blood, which has to be matched to a specific blood type and must be used within 35-40 days, PolyHeme can be given to anyone and has a shelf life of more than 12 months. The manufacturers of PolyHeme reported that in previous studies it was proven safe and effective. "We are now at the point (in the study) that we can include not only researchers as major participants, but the entire population," Morris said. Because those who will receive Polyheme will usually be unconscious and, as a result, unable to give their consent before receiving the product, the See P O L Y H E M E Page 3 Stephan Morris, trauma director at University Hospital, holds a sample of PolyHeme, a new blood substitute for trauma patients, Tuesday at University Hospital. The new synthetic blood product is in its third trial and will probably replace saline in the trauma unit. National grant boosts medical informatics program Katie Trieu Chronicle Writer The U will soon join Columbia, Johns Hopkins and the University of Washington at the forefront of disease control. On July 1, the U's medical informatics program will receive 21 percent, or $776,000, of a $3.68 million grant given by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. "Historically the U has had very strong subprograms in genetic epidemiology and clinical informatics (information at the point of care)," said Dr. Shannon Sims, a third-year doctoral candidate in medical informatics. "The grant will help to develop one of the other sub-areas of medical informatics: public health." The money will be disbursed to the U over a four-year period and will be used specifically to fund research and education for graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students. In a six-line review, the National Institutes of Health stated reasons why the U was chosen, which included strong department leadership, experience in the field and a history of teaching public health informatics. According to Reed Gardner, professor of medical informatics and former chairman of the department, the U has been a leader in medical informatics since the 2002 Olympics. "For the Olympics, we looked at bioterrorism and infectious disease spread," Gardner said. It was one of the nation's first all-encompassing looks at bioterrorism. The unique medical network in the Salt Lake Valley also contributed to the U being chosen from 11 other institutions competing for the grant, Gardner said. He estimates that 50 to 60 percent of the medical business in the Salt Lake Valley is done through Intermountain Health Care, providing an already-linked network of hospitals. Through a partnership with IHC and the U medical program, the medical informatics research group has attained roughly 70 to 75 percent of the clinical data available on people living in the state of Utah, Gardner said. Gardner also said that the U's portion of the grant would allow better information-sharing and would make data available in real time. See INFORMATICS?^ 3 Sean MaNen, a University of Tennessee student working an internship in Utah, huffs up a trail near the U last week during a late-evening ride after work. "This place is an awesome place to mountain bike," Mailen said, noting the beauty and unique access to trails. Mailen also said he bikes nearly everyday after work and on weekends, typically riding the Bonneville Shoreline north trail, a trail that contours along the foothills behind the U, once or twice a week. For maps and more detailed information about bike trails in Utah, visit www.utahmountainblklng.com. U gets $2.5 million for research to fight bioterrorism Caitlin York Chronicle Writer Last June, Colorado State invited the University of Utah to be a part of a $40 million, six-state grant to help prevent infectious disease and bioterrorism. One year later, the U is receiving $2.5 million from the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases to fight bioterrorism. The money from both grants will help U researchers study diseases such as West Nile virus and hantavirus, in order to prepare for an outbreak and prevent infection, said Jill Trewhella, chemistry professor special projects director at the U. The U will distribute the money among the College of Pharmacy, the human genetics department and other departments studying general medicine. The human genetics department will focus its research on humans' susceptibility to certain diseases. "From this we will find why humans can't resist infection and how to treat the patients if they do become infected," Trewhella said. Some of the money will go toward bringing Who's afraid of Bobby Fischer? Student wins recent chess tournament Emerging from six years of retirement in the chess world, U student Joshua Coon dominated the Susan Polgar chess tournament held at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School early this month. Winning all five of his matches, Coon had a large enough lead over the competition that he didn't have to play a sixth game. "I did well. I made some mistakes, but luckily was able overcome those," Coon said. Each game had a two-hour time limit. Coon only went the distance once, and his shortest match used 15 moves. Coon began playing chess at the age of 12. Over the next six years he was one of Utah's best young chess players, winning the middle-school and high-school championships. Although Coon left the world * competitive chess at \ of con- centrate on other endeavors, chess remained a big part of his life. "I still played on the Internet quite a bit and read a lot of books about chess," Coon said. The recent tournament victory jumped Coon's chess rating by more than 112 points. Coon, a graduate student in the physics department, said he en", joyed competing in the tourna* ment and is considering partici\[ "~j pating in future events. • / Patrick Muir the vaccines and diagnostics from the lab to clinics in the near future," said Steve Kern, assistant professor and interim chair of pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical chemistry. "No work is currently being done at the U with the vaccines, but through research we will be able to develop those vaccines to treat patients," Trewhella said. The information gathered by researchers will be used to teach medical students and future scientists about diseases that could be involved in acts of bioterrorism. see BIOTERRORISM page 3 : Professor Olafsson named eye doctor of the year The Utah Optometric Association named U assistant professor of ophthalmology Harald Olafsson as its Optometrist of the Year on June 4 at the association's annual conference in Park City. Olafsson's peers nominated him for the honor due to his work at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center south of campus and as director of the Moran Eye Center's contact lens department. "The feeling that you were selected and nominated by peers is award enough," he said. For the past 20 years, Olafsson has been on the clinical executive board and has served as the chief of optometry at the VA Medical Center. Olaffson's passion for helping military personnel began after a three-year stint at a NATO hospital in Belgium where he was the only eye doctor. "It was so intense—not just eyeglasses. I had to handle eye injuries and weird eye conditions," he said. Not interested in full time service, but having enjoyed his experience, Olafsson decided to stay in the reserves and is now a lieutenant colonel. Besides his position at the VA and teaching at the U, Olafsson maintains assistant adjunct professor status at the Southern California College of Optometry, Pacific University College of Optometry and Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He has also served as a trustee and president of the Utah Optometric Association. [ I The American Optometric Association will also re cognize '.Olafsson at its national conference'later this year. . -.- . Andrei Kirk |