Advances in Medicine
The University of Michigan Health System has a rich history of medical firsts and bests. Here are a few highlights.
- Pioneered the use of Retin-A to treat wrinkles
- First U.S. institution to use a fertility technique that allows some spinal cord-injured men to father children
- Pioneered the emergency use of angioplasty to help prevent heart attacks
- Developed several unique treatments for malignant brain tumors
- Performed the world's first successful lung removal
- Created the first human genetics program
- Part of a multi-center team that helped find a gene that predisposes men to prostate cancer
- Discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis, an incurable, inherited disease affecting mucus-producing glands throughout the body
- Discovered the gene for the most common and devastating form of muscular dystrophy
- Conducted the first human clinical trials of a genetic therapy for malignant melanoma
- Developed advances in tissue engineering through the creation of artificial tissue, organs and bone
- Developed innovative advances in radiation therapy, in which images from a CT-scan and MRI help create personalized treatment that make therapy more effective and less painful
- Discovered that sickle cell anemia is caused by defective genes affecting hemoglobin production
- Introduced iodine to common table salt, an innovation that eliminated goiter in the U.S.
- Developed new standards for interpreting electrocardiogram, or EKG, results. These standards are still used today.
- Established one of the first Trauma Burn Centers in the U.S.
- Performed the state's first brain-tissue graft
- A U-M physician determined that there are two classes of diabetes mellitus: Type I and Type II
- One of the first medical centers to introduce the insulin pump as an alternative delivery system for insulin
- A U-M physician developed ECMO (extra-corporeal member oxygenation) technology that supports newborns and adults who are in severe respiratory failure
- U-M researchers developed the flexible fiber-optic gastroscope for comfortable and effective diagnosis and treatment of upper gastrointestinal tract diseases
- Established the nation's first hereditary diseases clinic
- Received the only five-year $5-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop ways of transferring genes of therapeutic interest into a variety of organs
- A U-M Howard Hughes investigator conducted the world's first human gene therapy protocol for AIDS
- Created the first Geriatric Research and Training Center in the U.S. with a $6.1-million grant from the National Institute on Aging
- Purchased the first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine in Michigan
- Had the first PET (positron emission tomography) scanner in Michigan
- Established the first Multiorgan Transplant Program in Michigan
- Today, scientists in the Medical School are testing the world’s first bionic lung in research animals
- U-M Medical School researchers were the first to discover stem cells in breast cancer, the first time these master cancer cells were identified in a solid tumor. U-M researchers were also first to find stem cells in pancreatic and head and neck cancers
JAMA, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, dedicated an entire issue of its publication to the medical advances made by the University of Michigan Medical School.
Read about the important advances in medicine that the University of Michigan Health System is involved in every day.
