Duke, UNC work to improve health care

Despite their bitter rivalries in all things sports, UNC and Duke University are making important strides — together — in the way of health research.

The two universities’ medical schools have collaborated for years on projects that have earned them top national rankings and more research dollars.

“We do collaborate a lot with Duke,” said Dr. Eugene Orringer, a medical professor at UNC who researches sickle-cell anemia.

“We’ve worked very hard to build those collaborations.”

Orringer is now working with his counterpart at Duke on a planning grant for a regional translation research center, which will help institutions turn research findings into actual healthcare.

The center “will help not just UNC and Duke but all area schools,” Orringer said.

It will also stay in line with the National Institutes of Health Roadmap, in which researchers are asked to apply the discoveries they make directly to human health.

Another UNC-Duke collaboration helps students improve their Spanish skills to better treat non-English-speaking patients.

“With the dramatic increase in Spanish-speaking persons in Durham and the entire United States, the need for bilingual healthcare providers has also increased,” said Emily Davies, a second-year medical student at Duke.

Davies worked with Dr. Dennis Clements last year to hire bilingual professors to teach conversational and medical Spanish to students.

Collaboration between area schools encourages productivity, Clements said.

“If two institutions have exactly the same expertise, then of course there may be competition rather than collaboration,” he said.

“Most medical schools are open to collaboration when it makes sense.”

Orringer said collaborations are also valuable because they provide researchers with more resources.

In 1995, UNC teamed with 20 medical sites to test hydroxyurea, a drug to treat sickle-cell anemia. Doctors needed to test the drug on 300 patients.

“There’s no way that any one of us could have done it on our own, because we don’t follow enough patients,” Orringer said.

“By collaborating with Duke and (19) other sites, we were successful.”

Collaboration with institutions outside the United States also exists, Clements said. He spent a year in Uganda during medical school and 1 1/2 years in Australia while getting his doctorate.

“Broader exposure to information on a topic is always beneficial,” he said. “Over time you appreciate the richness of diversity of opinion, (and) you can choose what you believe in.”

Such collaboration — and the resulting wealth of information — has propelled UNC to the top ranks of institutions nationally.

According to U.S. News & World Report, UNC ranks No. 23 among national medical research institutions. Duke ranks No. 6.

Grant money has also increased in recent years. The National Institutes of Health granted the UNC School of Medicine about $200 million in 2003. A decade ago, UNC received just $75 million.

Among states, North Carolina ranks seventh in NIH awards. In fiscal year 2003, it received almost $940 million.

Despite a wealth of grants, the state in 2004 ranked a dismal 41st in overall healthcare, according to the United Health Foundation.

“That’s pretty crummy,” said UNC medical student Hallam Gugelmann. “We may be first in basketball, but our healthcare system sucks.”

Davies said more joint projects would help improve healthcare.

“Medicine is definitely a team sport,” she said. “Collaborating with students at other medical schools will generate more ideas, energy and resources, ultimately reaching a larger portion of the community.”

But several factors hinder the process, Gugelmann said.

“Part of the reason why medical students don’t interact more is the demanding curriculum, especially at Duke,” Gugelmann said. “They cram what we do in our first three years into their first two years, so they’re stretched pretty thin.”

The age-old rivalry might also be to blame. “The competition between Duke and UNC, as absurd as it sounds, has been a barrier to interaction,” he said.

Still, Clements said researchers might not have a choice regarding collaborations in the future.

“There will have to be collaboration, as it’s increasingly difficult to duplicate rare resources.

“It’s healthy to compare notes and have health dialogue,” he said.

“We should all be looking for the right answer and something that will help patients and advance science.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.