Harvard Researchers Receive Federal Grants

Two Harvard researchers have received grants totaling nearly $3 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

R. Heather Palmer, lecturer in health services and associate dean for students at the School of Public Health (HSPH), has received a $2.5 million grant to combat the resurgence of brain damage caused by jaundice in infants.

Associate Professor of Medicine Jeffrey N. Katz was awarded $472,306. Katz, who is the co-director of the Brigham Spine Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital, will study the quality of hip replacements.

Palmer, who directs HSPH's Center for Quality Care, Research and Education, said the bulk of her grant would go towards experimenting with and implementing solutions at various hospitals and doctors offices.

"We're very excited because it's a tremendous issue," Palmer said. "It has been causing a great deal of damage--when I first started, we thought we had gotten rid of this problem, but now with early discharge, the problem is back."

She added that she was particularly pleased in receiving the grant because the jaundice problem tends to be more prevalent among babies coming from economically disadvantaged families.

Palmer said her efforts would also involve measuring the problem and examining the experience of the illness on the parents.

Though jaundice is quite common among infants, it does not usually lead to the problem she studies. Typically it is treated in time to avoid any damage.

But the increasing frequency of early discharge from hospitals is creating "a new challenge for the health care system."

"It is becoming more of an issue as babies are being released more and more early," Palmer said.

She noted a recent lawsuit against a hospital in which a baby was released early without being tested for jaundice and eventually developed major complications.

Though the problem can be genetic, Palmer said it can also occur in "normal" babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is serving as a partner in her study.