[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR TREATMENT OF THE HAND AND UPPER EXTREMITY AT 
                      THE UNION MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

                                 ______


                           HON. KWEISI MFUME

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 1996

  Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues an innovative organization that is providing leadership and 
direction in the care of the millions of individuals afflicted with 
hand and upper extremity disorders and injuries. Included among these 
individuals are significant numbers of military personnel who suffer 
from repetitive motion disorders, loss of extremities, and other 
dysfunctional injuries to the hand.
  The Raymond M. Curtis Hand Center at the Union Memorial Hospital has 
established a National Center for Treatment of the Hand and Upper 
Extremity. The mission of the center is the initiation of clinical 
guidelines for treatment, collection of data government, labor, and 
industry and leadership for training and research in the field of hand 
and upper extremity surgery.
  It is estimated that more than 16 million people experienced upper 
extremity injuries, accounting for 90 million days of restricted 
activity and 16 million days lost from work in a year with a total 
direct and indirect cost of $10 billion. In fact, one-third of all 
injuries, military and civilian, involve upper extremities.
  The center and its staff have long been associated with the Army 
Medical Corps and as an expression of commitment to both the military 
and the field of hand surgery, the Curtis Hand Center has trained every 
Army hand surgeon since World War II at no expense to the Department of 
Defense. Staff from the hand center also regularly speak at Walter Reed 
Medical Center in Bethesda and the Bethesda Naval Hospital.
  The national center is a cost-effective treatment for Maryland and 
the Nation. In 1992, the most frequent hand surgery procedure, carpal 
tunnel release, was performed by hand center staff at 22 percent below 
the average charge of other Maryland hosptials'. While maintaining the 
Curtis Hand Center's history of multidisciplinary cost-effective care, 
the national center will expand current patient capabilities and 
referral services to neighboring States. Outreach centers will be 
established throughout the State to provide localized care in areas not 
currently capable of treating hand and upper extremity injuries.
  The national center also will train hand therapists in an effort to 
address the shortage of these professionals. The center will train 
occupational and physical therapists and develop a curriculum for this 
training that can be replicated at hospitals throughout the country. 
The hand center's current physician training capabilities are being 
expanded, including the staff's work with the armed services, regional 
hospital and universities, and foreign hand specialists.
  At the core of the national center's work, though, is basic research 
on the future of hand surgery. Led by the hand center's research 
director, Dr. Thomas Burshart, the national center will be at the 
vanguard of research on nerve regeneration, carpal tunnel syndrome, and 
prosthetic devices.
  The hand center has received several commendations in the past from 
the National Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which praised the 
center's work and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, 
Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, which recognized 
the important work of the center in 1994. Members of the center's staff 
are in ongoing discussions with the Department of the Army and the 
Office of Defense Health Programs to explore ways in which they may 
work together to further enhance the military's specialized surgical 
capabilities.
  The center has and deserves broad-based support from all who come in 
contact with it, from the Department of Defense to other health care 
professionals to the thousands of people who have been treated there. 
It is my hope that the center will be able to continue to grow and 
prosper, as it will clearly benefit all Americans. I invite all of my 
colleagues to visit the center, and to join me in supporting it in its 
mission.

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