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MADISON - When a painful back disorder sidelined a Broadway dancer, he thought he would never dance again.

 

Fortunately, he learned of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, where Tom Zdeblick, MD pioneered a minimally-invasive technique to repair such problems through a tiny incision and get patients back to normal quickly.

 

"I was able to put the dancer's spine back where it belongs," says Dr. Zdeblick, chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. "He returned to dancing on Broadway, and he and his wife now run a dance company."

 

From the common to the complex, there is no spinal problem that cannot be treated at UW Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wis. As one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, UW Health is a recognized leader in developing cutting-edge technologies and treatments.

 

The new Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research on the University of Wisconsin campus will combine virtually every medical discipline under one roof, enabling researchers to work more closely together, sharing information for the ultimate benefit of patients.

 

 

Neuroscience researchers at UW Health are working on exciting new techniques aimed at stimulating parts of the brain to reconnect after a stroke. Meanwhile, bioengineers are working with neurosurgeons and neurologists on ways to allow patients to control a computer through brainwaves.

 

"This could have applications for restoring vision and movement," says stroke expert Robert Dempsey, MD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery.

 

UW Health provides a full line of surgical and medical approaches to ease the difficulties of living with epilepsy. We're participating in a clinical trial involving NeuroPace, a device that delivers periodic bursts of electricity to the brain to help control epileptic seizures.

 

"We have an extensive surgery program that includes pediatric and adult patients with seizures that cannot be controlled with medications," says epilepsy specialist Thomas Sutula, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurology.

 

 

Being a world-class research and teaching hospital means doctors and patients have access to promising treatments not available elsewhere. That's one reason why 30,000 cancer patients come to the University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center annually.

 

"We generally have about 250 clinical research protocols going on at any given time," says George Wilding, MD, director of the UW Carbone Cancer Center. "Last year, we put about 1,600 patients on clinical trials. We provide patients and their families with hope."

 

The UW Carbone Cancer Center has one of the most active drug development programs in the country. Scientists are using new molecular imaging technology to test drugs at the molecular level, providing crucial information faster, which means more efficient treatment.

 

 

UW Health is also paving the way for innovative treatments for heart disease, from preventive measures to a highly successful transplant program and possible cures for the most serious conditions.

 

For example, researchers are working on ways to convert skin cells into stem cells and, hopefully, heart tissue.

 

"We might eventually be able to use this tissue to replace damaged heart muscle," says Matthew Wolff, MD, Tuchman chair of cardiology and chief of cardiovascular medicine at UW Hospital and Clinics.

 

Indeed, UW Health is where world-class clinical research intersects with clinical care, to create medical innovations of the future.