med ed
A newsletter for faculty, staff, and students of the University of Minnesota Medical School

No. 374, November 2004

Editor: Kathleen Watson, M.D., drwatson@umn.edu

Editorial Assistant: Allison Campbell, aac@umn.edu

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A new chapter: Gold Humanism Honor Society

By initiating a chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the Medical School, we are recognizing humanism in medicine as equal to excellence in academics, Dean Deborah Powell, M.D., said at the inaugural ceremony Oct. 22. Arnold P. Gold, M.D., and his wife, Sandra Gold, Ed.D., attended the ceremony inducting six faculty members, eight residents, and 31 members of the class of 2005 into the Medical School's new honor society. The students were chosen by their peers, said faculty advisor John Song, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.T., for demonstrating such humanistic characteristics as compassion, integrity, excellence, altruism, and respect for others. Faculty receiving the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine awards were Morris Davidman, M.D., Elizabeth Gilles, M.D., Dwenda Gjerdingen, M.D., Maria Hordinsky, M.D., Charles Horowitz, M.D., and Kathleen Watson, M.D. Residents receiving Humanism and Excellence in Teaching awards were Christian Capitini, M.D., Peter Ching, M.D., Stella Evans, M.D., Susan Lewis, M.D., Jennifer McKeand, M.D., James Ogilvie, Jr., M.D., Randall Taylor, M.D., and Ramachandra Tummala, M.D. Students honored, of whom 10 started on the Duluth campus of the Medical School, were Carrie Alme, Paul Anderson, Lisa Barroilhet, Jori Carter, LeeAnn Decker, Megan Dell, Aaron Douglas, Celia Garner, Sraddha Helfrich, Joan Jasien, Gary Josephsen, Sean Kempke, Paul Kietzmann, Paul Kleinschmidt, Ann Knapp, Andrew Kopperud, Bradley Kuzel, Jaimee McPadden, Joylynn Miller, Laura Neumann, Joseph Novik, Jeanne Nugent, Sachin Patel, Thomas Pulling, David Quale, Elizabeth Roberts, Aaron Rutzick, Theodore Ruzanic, Stephanie Stanton, Kari Thompson, and Kevin Wergeland. The Arnold P. Gold Foundation also promotes the White Coat Ceremony; for more information, see its Web site (www.humanism-in-medicine.org).

Tonkin takes top honors in research

Paul Tonkin, now a third-year medical student, received the first place national award for medical student research for his presentation on the Effects of Rising Medical Student Debt on Residency Specialty Selection at the annual meeting of the Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Family Physicians held last month in Orlando, Fla. Please join us in congratulating Tonkin on the well-deserved recognition for his research. In addition, three other University of Minnesota Medical School students or alumni presented. The other students included D. Maggie McEvoy, who received third place national honors for her work on Physician Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Patient Weight; Gus Mellgren, M.D., now a first-year resident at the Duluth Family Practice Center, who presented a study on the alteration of stroke risk factors in an office setting; and Danielle Baker, currently a second-year medical student, who presented her study of cultural factors impacting severe nausea in Somali women in the United States.

AOA news: visiting lecturer and new members

Herb Benson, M.D., of the Mind-Body Institute, has been invited to speak by the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. Famous in the 1970s for defining the relaxation response, Benson continues to lead teaching and research into its efficacy in counteracting the harmful effects of stress. In conjunction with the Department of Medicine's Grand Rounds, Benson will lecture on Mind/Body Medicine: The Third Leg of a Three-Legged Stool at the Mayo Auditorium at noon, November 18, in Moos 2-650. Benson also will speak on the topic of The Relaxation Response---How to Counteract the Harmful Effects of Stress from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. in the Mississippi Room of Coffman Memorial Union on November 19.

Benson also will congratulate the students chosen for the AOA Medical School Honor Society at an invitation-only event 6 p.m., Nov. 18 at McNamara Center. The students chosen for the AOA Medical School Honor Society in October this year are: Yan Bakman, Lisa Barroilhet, Michael Bauman, Rondi Blomberg, Jori Carter, Christopher Choukalas, Ryan Dailey, LeeAnn Decker, Catherine Hart, Mohamed Ibrahim, Jennifer Iverson, John Jalas, Joan Jaisen, Derek Johnson, Gary Josephsen, Daniel Kuyper, Jaimee McPadden, Brook Moore, Sara Mytling, Jeanne Nugent, Paige Norwood, Thomas Opheim, Marc Osborne, Christina Paulson, Sarah Powel, Megan Shaughnessy, Joseph Signorelli, Amanda Tembruell, Kevin Wergeland, Suzanne Woodward. They join those initiated in April: Jonathan Edel, Jessica Gerwing, Paul Kleinschmidt, Tamra Knutson, Michael May, Michael Miedema, Daniel Miller, David Polga, and Katie Toft. Please join me in congratulating these outstanding medical scholars.

Benson assumes leadership role in program director association

Bran Benson, M.D., recently was elected to executive committee of the Medicine-Pediatrics Program Directors Association. The MPPDA is a professional and educational organization dedicated to improving medical training in this combined specialty and promoting the growth and development of Medicine-Pediatrics. Please join me in giving kudos to Benson.

Launching a new program: Achieving Competence Today

A collaborative proposal for the Achieving Competence Today program by partners University of Minnesota and Fairview-University Medical Center was one of 12 nationwide selected for funding by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its partners, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. ACT tackles the issue of institutionalizing quality and safety improvement. While most leaders of teaching hospitals agree that quality and safety need to improve, few have successfully made quality improvement an integral part of their institution's culture. ACT seeks to bridge that gap by mobilizing residents and nurse practitioners in training at the front lines of care and creating new alliances with senior management. The students take a web-based, self-directed curriculum that teaches them about the organization, design, and financing of health care. Over four weeks, they are immersed in problems culled from their patients' own experiences, using these to develop skills in health care systems and practice improvement. This learning becomes the foundation for a quality improvement plan students develop to address problems they have identified. Those involved with Minnesota's ACT program include co-principal investigators Susan Noaker, Ph.D., L.P., of Fairview and the Medical School's Kathleen Watson, M.D., along with Barbara Brandt, Ph.D., AHC assistant vice president for education, Kim Zemke, M.S., R.N. (nursing), Ron Hadsall, Pharm.D. (pharmacy), Julie Hauer, M.D. (pediatrics), Brad Benson, M.D. (med-peds), Sandy Potthoff, Ph.D. (health care administration), Alison Page, M.S.N., M.H.A. (Fairview), and Karyn Baum, M.D. (medicine).

Rural Physician Associate Program: honors and send-off

In early October, Mark Gray, M.D., of Brainerd and student Rachel Otto, who was located in Detroit Lakes, were honored by the Rural Physician Associate Program as outstanding preceptor and student for 2003-2004. The luncheon event also served as an orientation for the new RPAP class of 34 students, who are now learning from community preceptors around the state. The program welcomes back as RPAP sites both Alexandria, after a decade's break, and also Min No Aya Win clinic in Cloquet on the Fond du Lac reservation. For more information on RPAP, see its Web site (www.rpap.umn.edu).

Successful Gathering

Celebrating diversity and honoring those who promote it, more than 80 people---community physicians, faculty, students, and would-be students now in the Empowering Seminar---gathered at Coffman Union Oct. 21. Among the highlights was an awards ceremony to acknowledge individuals, departments, and organizations that have made significant contributions to promote justice in medical education and health care, to acknowledge those who have enhanced diversity in the medical school and the profession by increasing the number of underrepresented minority physicians, to acknowledge those that have made contributions to improve the quality and accessibility of health care to all communities, especially underserved communities, and to acknowledge those that have made significant contributions to better prepare premedical and medical students to participate and enhance their leadership through attending and active involvement at professional presentations and conferences. Those honored were Sara Axtell, Ph.D., and Gerald Hill, M.D., the Department of Family Practice and Community Health, the Minnesota Association of Black Physicians, and medical student Shaquita Bell, past Minnesota chapter president of the Student National Medical Association.

Sign-up begins for Medical Reserve Corps

The University of Minnesota is forming a Medical Reserve Corps through the AHC Emergency Preparedness Program. This initiative has the support of leadership from all AHC schools and Boynton Health Service. Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) are federally recognized and are designed to mobilize and coordinate volunteers in health professions in the event of a public health crisis, a natural disaster, mass clinic, or other event that requires the immediate support of health professionals. The roles of the volunteers will depend on the nature of the emergency, but could include taking medical histories, administering vaccines or medications, answering telephone hotlines, or assisting at local hospitals. Non-clinical staff may be needed as mass clinic greeters, supply and equipment monitors, or data entry and information management assistants. MRC volunteers will augment and assist medical staffs who are leading response efforts. We have witnessed first-hand how the MRC structure serves a valuable role as AHC students have assisted with the state health department influenza hotline in the last several weeks. At the University, all students, faculty, and staff in the AHC and Boynton Health Service are invited to join. More information on the MRC can be found at http://www.ahc.umn.edu/outreach/epp/mrc.html . If you are ready to join, you can access the online registration now http://mrc.ahc.umn.edu.

Duluth contributes to Heart Walk

A hardy band from the Medical School's Duluth campus raised more than $1,000 toward the University of Minnesota Duluth's total of more than $19,000 for the Heart Walk on the Lake benefit. Walkers from the Medical School Duluth included: Dean Rick Ziegler, George Trachte and his mother Frances Trachte, Les and Rose Drewes, Vicki Everett, first-year medical student Trung Nguyen and his girlfriend, Khou Xiong, Lil Repesh, and the mother-daughter team of Lori and 10-year-old Taylor Isaacson.

A doctor on the line

"Doctors on Call," a call-in television show produced by WDSE-TV in Duluth is now in its 23^rd season. Topics this month include Indigestion, Heartburn, Ulcers, Gallstones, Hepatitis & Other Abdominal Problems (Nov. 4); Cancer: Prevention, Complications & Treatment (Nov. 11); and Incontinence, Prostate and other Kidney & Bladder Problems (Nov. 18).

Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety hosts conference Nov. 15-16

Improving safety through patient empowerment, dealing with diversity issues, and educating the next generation of health professionals will be discussed at the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety annual conference Nov. 15-16 in Brooklyn Park. For details, see the Web site www.mnpatientsafety.org. Students can register at the rate of $50 a day.

Students: Are you the next Williams Carlos Williams?

Medical students are invited to submit poetry to Baylor College of Medicine's second-annual Michael E. DeBakey Medical Student Poetry Award. The contest honors pioneering surgeon Michael DeBakey, M.D., who has long advocated for the humanities to play a role in medical education. The first-place recipient will receive $1,000. Deadline is Dec. 31, 2004, with winners announced May 15, 2005. For more information, contact Kimberlee Barbour, Baylor College of Medicine, kbarbour@bcm.tmc.edu, or go to http://www.bcm.edu/pa/debakeypoetry.htm.

Students: Are you the next Rita Charon?

Medical students, put your heart in your hand and write an essay or story for the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Contest. The piece of one thousand words or fewer should be on the theme of "a medical experience that taught me about humanism in medicine." The first prize is $1,000; the deadline is Nov. 15, 2004. Get the details at www.humanism-in-medicine.org.