61 Erie County Medical CenterResearch The Cardiology Department continues to conduct a program of active research in cardiovascular disease and ECMC trauma surgeons remain actively involved in departmental research studies. ECMC’s Immunodeficiency Services Department (IDS) was created in 1988 as a research center that also provides HIV/ AIDS clinical care, psychosocial supports, and educational services to the community. The IDS Department is the designated AIDS center for Western New York. Much of the research work and clinical trials at IDS result in new therapies that directly benefit the center’s patients. In addition, IDS is also increasingly establishing links to international collaboration, both in research and education. In 1989, ECMC’s End Stage Renal Disease program opened its renovated hemodialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis units. Throughout its history, ECMC has been at the forefront of nephrology research and technology and has also played an important role in the development of modern dialysis techniques. The dialysis access program has been an active site for clinical research directed by Dr. Brian Murray with the participation of the Departments of Surgery and Radiology. National Institutes of Health- sponsored research, which uses a special device to measure the flow within a fistula or graft, was a focal point of their efforts. In a study conducted at ECMC through the University at Buffalo, Dr. James J. Reidy studied a large clinical population of patients with recurrent erosions of the cornea. Details of the epidemiology and treatment were published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology in 2001. Steven L. Dubovsky, MD, has conducted several important studies at ECMC in the field of psychiatric research. One project included a series of clinical trials for a variety of illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease, bipolar illness, depression, and schizophrenia. Some of the trials used experimental medications while others involved new indications for existing medicines. ECMC was the primary site for most of these trials. Dr. Dubovsky, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UB, has also conducted studies on bipolar mood disorder as well as trauma, disaster, and stress disorder. At ECMC, researchers studied the consequences of traumatic experiences in both early and later life while focusing on the management of disaster from an interdisciplinary standpoint. Dr. Ralph Benedict and his colleagues conducted ground- breaking research into the neuropsychological and psychiatric aspects of multiple sclerosis. The research showed deep gray matter atrophy as the primary driver of cognitive dysfunction in MS. The studies also revealed that cognitive dysfunction is the main predictor of vocational disability in MS patients. The results of a study published in 2005 in the Journal of Trauma showed that police officers not wearing seatbelts were 2.6 times more likely to die in a patrol car crash than officers who were belted. The lead author of the study was former ECMC emergency department director Dietrich Jehle, MD, who said, “More police officers died from traffic accidents than from gun- shot wounds in 2003.” The research was conducted at the UB Center for Transportation Injury Research and at ECMC In 2009, Dr. Michael A. Meyer, then chief of Neurology and Stroke Services at ECMC, developed clinical protocols with Dr. Jehle and colleagues at ECMC on the use of hypothermia after cardiac arrest to improve neurologic outcomes. Dr. Meyer also developed an abbreviated scoring system to assess acute stroke related deficits, the ECMC NIHSS Quick Assessment Tool, to help train stroke team members in the use of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. In addition, Dr. Meyer developed the use of three-dimensional reconstruction of emergent CT angiograms which led to quicker and more accurate diagnoses for acute stroke patients. A 2010 research study at UB led by Dr. Jehle found that obese people are more likely to die in an automobile crash. Researchers found that the more obese the driver, the less likely that seatbelts were used. In a companion study, they found that morbidly obese individuals are 56 percent more likely to die in a crash than individuals of normal weight. In a later study researching SUV car crashes and safety ratings, Dr. Jehle and his team of UB co-authors compared results of crashes of passenger cars and SUVs. The study found that even when the two vehicles were of similar weights, outcomes were still better in the SUVs. In 2015, Carestream, a medical imaging company, and UBMD Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine began clinical studies at ECMC on a new diagnostic imaging system used to treat orthopaedic conditions. Researchers worked to explore the benefits of using CBCT (cone beam computed tomography) technology for capturing images of patient knees, legs, feet, arms and hands. The research of Dr. Ronald Moscati, director of research at ECMC, focuses on several areas of injury prevention and management, as well as research teaching and ethics. In addition, he is the SUNY Buffalo representative on the Emergency Research Network of the Empire State, which conducts multi- center emergency department research at six sites across upstate New York.