Michigan State University (MSU) has invested more than $400,000 in an innovative back-pain clinic for horses.

“Nobody has really focused on the back like this,” says Robert van Wessum, who heads up MSU’s McPhail Equine Back Pain Clinic. “Nobody, as far as I know, has all the tools together to do this in one facility.”

Van Wessum says specialists frequently have a difficult time diagnosing back pain in horses because the back is so complicated. Tissues, disks, joints, vertebrae and cartilage all need to be examined in order to diagnosis a problem.

“If you want to see what’s going on, you need to use quite a lot of technologies,” he says.

Van Wessum says at least 10 to 15 percent of equine lameness problems can be traced to problems in the back.

“If we did more research, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the percentage is actually higher,” he says. “People will often try to treat the lameness as a problem in the leg, when the problem is really in the back.” 

Other performance issues, such as bucking, rearing, stiffness and a general resistance to work also can be signs of a back problem, even if there are no overt signs of lameness, he says.

In the last three years, van Wessum has worked with about 500 equine back pain cases at the MSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) and reports that nearly all are now performing at their original level or higher. By opening a clinic at the VTH specifically devoted to this area, he hopes to bring this success to a wider audience.

Specialists form all over the country have visited MSU to check out the new facility.

Source: Robert van Wessum, MSU

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Lansing Community College (LCC) is launching a two-year Digital Media, Audio and Cinema Program designed to prepare students for jobs in media, movie and television production, an industry that’s expected to see substantial growth in Mid-Michigan.

“The curriculum is primarily designed to meet the needs for the way we use media these days, which is much different than in previous days,” says John Lightner, with LCC.

Though the program comes on the heels of the new statewide movie tax incentives and the announcement of the construction of a new film studio in Lansing, Lightner says the school has been trying to update its media program for years.

“What we’re trying to do is position our students to enter the industry as it exists out there,” he says. Several businesses, including Ahptic Film and Digital and the Gillespie Group, want to build a $9 million studio in Downtown Lansing.

If LCC’s program is a success, students will be prepared to take on some Lansing-based Hollywood jobs, Lightner says. LCC would like to partner with the new studio to create internship opportunities for students.

“We want to get students into the environment where they’re using equipment that we might not be able to afford, but we also want them in an environment were they’re making a major picture of some sort,” Lightner says.

LCC is investing more than $400,000 in the new program for equipment, lab and software upgrades.

“It’s going to be a fairly substantial investment,” Lightner says.

According to Lightner, several LCC students who have gone on to work in Los Angeles and New York say the new studio may encourage them to move back to Michigan.

Source: John Lightner, LCC

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here. 

As EnerFusion owners Joe Kobus and Tom Davis will tell you, everyone who travels on a plane—from laptop-toting business professionals to cell phone yapping teenagers—has a sob story about how they can never find a power source in an airport.

Two years ago, they started developing a new technology to address this problem. Now they have the “Power Dok,” which is a freestanding power station equipped with two three-prong outlets.

Power Doks look like computer servers and cost about $1 for a 10-minute charge. They will be placed near terminals and can be loacted under airport seats or at the end of each row of seats, giving travelers immediate, ample access to power.

“We’re effectively adding plugs to an area that would otherwise have to be added with a major redevelopment,” Kobus says.

Rather than pulling from the airport’s power source, each Power Dok will run on an internal battery. Kobus and Davis say they plan to have a EnerFusion location near every airport hosting a Power Dok so they can change out the batteries.

EnerFusion will introduce the Power Dok to Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport this fall.

“This is the just the beginning of something that’s really going to develop,” Davis says, noting that the Lansing’s Capital Region International Airport’s played an invaluable role in the product launch. Davis says the Capital Region International Airport is the perfect place to launch the Power Dok because the airport’s always been an innovator and hosted one of the first airlines to let users reserve tickets on the airline Web site.

“This airport has always been seen as an innovative airport and now the nation is watching Lansing as we continue to innovate,” Davis says.

Once the product pilot stage is finished, EnerFusion hopes to expand Power Dok’s presence in other markets.

Source: Denyse Ferguson, LEAP

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Members of the Greater Lansing Professional Partners Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) are on their way to Honduras to build a water distribution system for residents in San Carlos.

The engineering professionals are spending $50,000 on the three week trip. While they’re in San Carlos, they’ll create a 25,000 gallon concrete water tank for the community. The water tank is the first phase of what will be a multi-faceted project.

To complete the project, the engineers will have to install four kilometers of pipe and build a water treatment system. The entire project could take two years to complete.

The timetable "is really contingent on how quickly we can raise the money,” says Susan MacNeil with the Greater Lansing EWB.

MacNeil says more area engineering companies are focusing on volunteer-related engineering projects.

“A lot of students that graduate in engineering right now are asking—when they’re looking for jobs—they’re asking different companies what they’re doing to help people in developing companies,” she says.

Having an EWB chapter in Mid-Michigan is attractive to these students and could help keep Michigan engineering graduates in the area, she says.

“It’s definitely something students are talking about,” she says.

The Lansing EWB chapter started in 2006 and now has 20 members. MacNeil expects the chapter to continue to grow.

Source: Susan MacNeil, Greater Lansing EWB

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

The Lansing-based Michigan Nonprofit Association received a $25,000 grant from the DTE Energy Foundation to help other nonprofits with mergers, alignments and organizational issues.

“In the face of every tightening budget and the rapid growth of nonprofits, these types of alignments are even more important,” says Michigan Nonprofit Associatio's President and CEO, Kyle Caldwell.

Caldwell says when nonprofits merge, they frequently can’t figure out how to transfer organizational roles.

“It’s hard work,” Caldwell says about merging nonprofits. “It’s always difficult to merge, not just the operational part of two organizations, but the cultures. It’s the cultures that take up the most amount of energy. You can put governance policies in place, but really, culture takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and continuing attention.”

The Michigan Nonprofit Association is one of 10 nonprofits that received the DTE Energy Foundation’s 2008 Achieving Excellent Award.

"The DTE Energy Foundation believes that nonprofit organizations that strive to maximize their time, money and efforts should receive praise, gratitude and support. That is why we created the Achieving Excellence Awards in 2003 and have presented more than a million dollars toward recipients since then," says Fred Shell, DTE Energy Foundation president.

Source: Kyle Caldwell, Michigan Nonprofit Association

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

Several years ago, in an effort to better monitor medical records, the country started moving from a paper-based medical records system to an electronically based medical records system.

However, the system is not uniform, requires doctors to enter duplicate information and hasn’t done much in the way of improving the medical system, says Rae-Claire Johnson. Johnson is the founder of CareCk, a Mid-Michigan-based medical records company that could revolutionize the medical records industry.

Johnson has created a bio-ID system that would give patients and their doctors access to medical records via a patient’s thumb print. Every time the patient sees any doctor for any ailment, their vitals, medicine, procedures and treatments would be logged in the system, preventing patients and doctors from filling out redundant paperwork.

The system also crosschecks current medications with new prescriptions and warns the patient and doctor about any potentially hazardous combinations.

“We know who you are electronically,” Johnson says. “We know who rendered care and we’ve simplified data input by providing a very easy way to document the encounter. It will take a doctor less than 1.5 minutes to document your information.”

The big draw to the system is that it has the potential to save lives and money. Sixty-one cents of every health care dollar goes to overhead, fraud, abuse and administration, Johnson says. Increasing efficiency within the system will greatly increase the amount of money actually spent on patient care.

“In Lansing, we expect the community—if everyone is on the system—the community should see a $180 million savings in health care expenses every year,” she says.

Johnson, who is based out of Florida, initially decided to launch CareCk in Lansing because it’s close to her family. However, she says the area gives her access to several large health care companies. She is looking for office space and working to get 75,000 pledges from potential clients by this fall.

Source: Rae-Claire Johnson, CareCk

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.

As of June, 179 students had enrolled in the Biorefinery Training program, which is a Michigan State University (MSU) alternative energy program sponsored by the Mid-Michigan Innovation Team (MMIT) and the U.S. Department of Labor.

The program aims to develop the area’s alternative energy sector, including preparing workers for jobs in a bio-based economy. The week-long training sessions have been held at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) in Edwardsville, Illinois, but the Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville is now hosting the training.

Michigan Brewing Company uses cooking oil to make diesel. Students learn about this process, observe the process and then work through the process themselves. Paul Hunt, MSU’s associate vice president for research, says the majority of the students in the classes have a manufacturing background and are looking for ways to carry their manufacturing background into the new economy.

“That group certainly exists,” Hunt says. “Some folks are individuals who are interested in biodiesel as a personal entrepreneurial activity, and some folks are those who are thinking about investing in biodiesel and want to understand the process.”

Hunt notes that this course is the result of organizations, such as Prima Civitas and Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), that are trying to creating collaborations between higher education and the private sector to keep the state’s workforce in the area.

Source: Paul Hunt, MSU

Ivy Hughes, development and news editor, can be reached here.

With text messaging, email and social networking groups, staying connected is extremely easy, but it’s not very personal. During the past couple of months, networking groups have been popping up in the Mid-Michigan area to put a little face-to-face recognition back into communication.

This month, four tech-savvy women from the Lansing area will host the area’s first “Tweet Up.” A Tweet Up brings together fans of Twitter, a Web-based communication tool that solves the problem of long emails and multiple texts by giving co-workers, family and friends real-time updates.

Tweet Up organizers include Kasey Anderson with Donovan & Smith Marketing and Media, Betsy Weber and Jennifer Middlin with Techsmith, and Julielyn Gibbons with Progress Michigan.

“With everyone just signing on in droves right now, it just seemed like the right time,” Anderson says. 

The Mid-Michigan Tweet Up really extends beyond Mid-Michigan. Anderson says the networking event will likely include Tweeters from West Michigan as well. Detroit already has a Tweet Up group.

“It looks like it’s going to be a pretty big event,” Anderson says. “It’s more or less a mixer. It gives people an opportunity to meet face to face. Really the point is to get people together in the area who are just really jazzed about technology and social media.”

The first Tweet Up will be at Dublin Square in East Lansing July 31. For more details, click here.

Anderson says the group will have a Ning site soon.

Source: Kasey Anderson, Donovan & Smith Marketing and Media

Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.