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![Unidentifiable people holding hands in a circle](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/jumbo_16_9/public/2022-10/comm-invest_home_jumbo_1920x1080_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=bkqe4whv)
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![kid in corner sad with shadow of two parents holding hands on hips looking mad and room and everything is yellow and a shadow of close up of parent yelling at a child in corner](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/parent-kid-shadow-crying-orange.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=i7QEJaUX)
![PURPLE BLUE RED CELLS FLOATING](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/cells-microscopic-model-3d-render.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=CzY2A8RQ)
![friends talking outside older walking smiling](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/two-older-women-smiling-at-each-other.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=q78zgZ9z)
![navy brain on off white background with artificial intelligence lines inside with yellow highlighted areas](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/brainwithartificialintelligence.jpeg?h=ae21e8e5&itok=dgMEqD5G)
![older man with glasses standing at balcony with back to glass windows](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/senior-man-smiling-camouflage-shirt-windows.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=dlexBFMU)
![patient family and child life team member smiling and then a photo next to that one with the same worker helping someone in a wheelchair in a patient office](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/smiling-team-window-patient-provider.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=9tM51CwE)
![Samantha Fink, administrative manager at U-M Health Cardiovascular Medicine at Domino's Farms, takes a person's blood pressure.](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/comprehensive_hypertension_center_1.png?h=824bac86&itok=xY9n9dhK)
![Dr. Zhen Xu pictured on stage speaking](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/woman-speaker-glasses-orange-talking.png?h=f0fb51a5&itok=hAzQWUO5)
![Dr. Helen Morgan and RN Mindy Magee care for a newborn at U-M Health Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/maternity_0.jpeg?h=ed5954cf&itok=2MQFUdtE)
![A Michigan Medicine employee reads to a baby in the Brandon Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-11/mott_nicu_reading_3.jpg?h=048882f5&itok=bDia0O82)
![.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital aerial view](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-11/von-voigtlander-aerial.png?h=4be160bb&itok=DDHKfFZy)
![Susan and Richard Rogel pose next to a grand piano. Rogel is wearing a polo shirt with a block M.](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-10/rogel_04.jpg?h=51a72048&itok=z-28xvSR)
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Michigan Answers blend over a century of teaching, research, and patient care with a passion for transforming lives, pushing the limits of what's possible. They inspire confidence, hope, and the pathway to breakthroughs.
![Shirtless boy with hospital tube smiling and wearing large green Hulk gloves](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0007_booth_bentley_michigananswers_mott_0.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=BvKoriI7)
As Marguerita Booth had never heard of a child being born with their organs on the outside of their body. And yet as she lay in the darkened room of her first ultrasound of her first pregnancy, she was suddenly introduced to a condition that surprisingly affects 1 in every 3600 babies.
![Man shaving in front of mirror with white and blue striped shower curtain in the background](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0005_fitzgerald_kade_michigananswers_vvwh.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=I7IvilKq)
Alone. Scared. Never knowing who to trust or where to turn for help. That’s how Kade Fitzgerald of Jackson, Michigan lived the first 32 years of his life. Assigned female at birth, Kade knew at age 6 that he was meant to be a man.
![Black woman holding two sleeping babies wearing pink patterned sleepers and with nasal tubes facing each other](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0002_smith_merrick_merriah_and_melliah_michigananswers_mott_vvwh_2.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=LmPhB6ys)
Few moments eclipse the joy of discovering that you’re pregnant with twins. But for 37-year-old Merrick and 37-year-old Mychal, the news that they’d be having fraternal girls with an expected delivery date of Christmas Day 2020 made the news even more exciting.
![Little boy in green shirt and blue pants holding a blue toy airplane](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0004_hilton_carter_michigananswers_mott_0.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=7KJCt_Ny)
Carter Hilton celebrated his sixth birthday by doing what he loves most: running around his backyard, dancing with his younger brother, and being chased throughout the house by his mom. It helps that Carter is a naturally exuberant child. It also helps that Michigan Medicine performed the first in-womb spina bifida surgery in Michigan nearly four months before Carter was born.
![Black woman in white coat and wearing blue surgical gloves holding scientific instrument in a lab](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0003_nance_sierra_michigananswers_umms.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=TmkVJD0o)
Imagine two patients. Both the same age and height. The same gender and race. Both have a similar medical history. Two people, almost identical in every way. So, why does one of them, seemingly at random, develop diabetes?
![Female doctor wearing scrubs and glasses with large surgical lights behind her](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0001_valbuena_valeria_michigananswers_umms_surgery.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=wGGYyEtO)
Most aspiring physicians study medicine with the hopes of saving lives, being on the cutting edge of research, or developing the latest therapies and technologies. For Dr. Valeria Valbuena, it was all of the above, plus one additional life-affirming goal.
![Man gesturing at glass board filled with numbers with a young man standing in the background](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0000_vydiswaran_vinod_michigananswers_research.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=OXpihZzd)
What if the true power of social media isn’t found in a like, tweet or follow? For an emerging field of research taking place at Michigan Medicine, it’s the data inside social media that may have the power to give patients bigger answers and better outcomes.
![Male doctor holding tiny pacemaker in his hand](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/portrait_3_4/public/2022-10/portrait_0006_cunnane_ryan_michigananswers_cvc_1.jpg?h=f803f42f&itok=Ml7L6Hrh)
Since 1958, millions of lives have been saved by what could arguably be considered as medicine’s biggest breakthrough – the pacemaker. And while its technology has dramatically improved over the last 63 years, chief concerns regarding the pacemaker have always been that it was too big and bulky and that the wires leading from it would sometimes break. But in February of 2020, Michigan Medicine helped change all of that.
![kid in corner sad with shadow of two parents holding hands on hips looking mad and room and everything is yellow and a shadow of close up of parent yelling at a child in corner](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/parent-kid-shadow-crying-orange.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=i7QEJaUX)
![friends talking outside older walking smiling](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/two-older-women-smiling-at-each-other.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=q78zgZ9z)
![navy brain on off white background with artificial intelligence lines inside with yellow highlighted areas](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/brainwithartificialintelligence.jpeg?h=ae21e8e5&itok=dgMEqD5G)
![PURPLE BLUE RED CELLS FLOATING](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/cells-microscopic-model-3d-render.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=CzY2A8RQ)
![Samantha Fink, administrative manager at U-M Health Cardiovascular Medicine at Domino's Farms, takes a person's blood pressure.](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/comprehensive_hypertension_center_1.png?h=824bac86&itok=xY9n9dhK)
![patient family and child life team member smiling and then a photo next to that one with the same worker helping someone in a wheelchair in a patient office](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/sites/default/files/styles/card/public/2024-12/smiling-team-window-patient-provider.jpg?h=f0fb51a5&itok=9tM51CwE)