Clinic gets contract for X-ray research

By LYNNETTE HINTZE

The Daily Inter Lake

The Center for Asbestos Related Diseases in Libby, known as the CARD clinic, has been awarded a $199,000 federal contract to study the effectiveness of using digital X-rays in treating patients with asbestos disease.

The clinic will get about $11,000 a month for 18 months to test a new way of reading X-rays, and will work with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to produce digital copies of X-rays taken of asbestos patients.

Both sets of X-rays - digital and traditional - will be examined to determine whether the digital versions are as reliable as the traditional X-rays, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said in a press release Thursday.

The new research program stems from a trip Baucus and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt took to Libby in March. Baucus urged Leavitt to see firsthand the challenges the CARD clinic faces in treating asbestos victims.

The clinic, which now handles a patient load of 1,400 asbestos victims and is adding 15 to 20 patients a month, was originally set up with a $250,000 donation from Grace to St. John's Lutheran Hospital.

Later, the clinic separated from the hospital to form its own nonprofit corporation and has been sustained with a variety of grants and government resources.

Baucus also secured an $80,000 federal grant to help set up the clinic.

"CARD is very excited and honored to continue the collaborative efforts with ATSDR to develop and refine sensitive screening tools in the early detection and management of asbestos-related disease," clinic coordinator Kimberly Rowse said. "This is the beginning of a new horizon for CARD."

Rowse said the program will help open doors for future research to develop diagnostic tools and treatments, and someday cures, for asbestos disease.

Leavitt has committed to sending one of the federal government's top research officials to Libby in August. David Schwartz, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the research arm of Health and Human Services, will travel to Libby to meet with CARD clinic physicians and other officials on the front line of treating asbestos victims.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com