News Briefs

Center for Rural Health Receives $1.6 Million for Health Information Technology

The Center for Rural Health has received a $1.6 million federal grant to help small, rural hospitals implement electronic medical records systems. 

     The grant will be used to form a regional health information technology (HIT) network.  The Center for Rural Health is partnering with the North Region Health Alliance, a 20-member health cooperative representing primarily rural hospitals in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota to form the network.  

     The overall project goal is to implement electronic medical records that are usable by all the participating facilities.  During the 18-month project, the group will implement electronic medical records beginning with one small, rural hospital.  Using what is learned from that implementation electronic medical records will be added to two more rural hospitals.

     Electronic medical records are a digital form of medical record and an efficient tool for transferring information between health care providers, decreasing medical errors and improving accuracy and security of medical records. 

     “We expect to see electronic medical records providing new opportunities to improve patient care and clinical staff productivity,” explained Marlene Miller, the project’s co-director at the Center for Rural Health,

     A federally supported study of Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) found that only 20 percent of CAHs nationally had some form of electronic medical records.  In North Dakota, while 68 percent of CAHs budget for HIT, only 16 percent have a formal HIT plan and only 11 percent used electronic medical records. 

     “It is vital that we broaden the use of high-tech information systems to improve the quality and efficiency of health care,” said North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad. “And North Dakota is leading the way with the development of the HIT network. This is an investment that will save both money and lives.”

Mohr Appointed to Commission

Thomas Mohr, Ph.D. ‘86, professor and chairman of the Department of Physical Therapy at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has been appointed as a commissioner on the panel that accredits physical therapy programs nationwide. Mohr will serve a four-year term on the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) Central Panel. He was appointed to the six-member group by the board of directors of the American Physical Therapy Association.

     Mohr has taught physical therapy at UND since 1978 and has served as department chair since1993.

Fargo Physicians Accept New Roles on Medical School’s Southeast Campus

Two Fargo physicians will assume the duties of Bruce Pitts, M.D., who has announced his resignation as associate dean and director of graduate medical education at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Southeast Campus, based in Fargo.

Pitts is leaving his part-time position with the school to take on the full-time role of executive vice president for clinical services at MeritCare Health System, where he has served as a senior executive since 1997.

           Julie Blehm, M.D. ‘81, an internist and geriatrics specialist,

has been appointed associate dean for the Southeast Campus of the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She will continue her practice with MeritCare Health System in Fargo. A 1981 graduate of the UND medical school, she is board-certified in internal medicine and geriatrics. An associate professor of internal medicine, she directs the school’s internal medicine residency outpatient clinic in Fargo.

     David Theige, M.D. ‘85, a hospitalist with MeritCare Medical Group, will assume the role of assistant dean for graduate medical education at the UND medical school, overseeing residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry and general surgery and a one-year transitional program. He will continue to practice at MeritCare Health System in Fargo.

Amundson Completes National Committee Work

Mary Amundson, M.A. ‘95, assistant professor at the Center for Rural Health, has just completed serving an appointed four-year term on the National Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages. This committee provides advice and recommendations on a broad range of issues dealing with

programs and activities associated with Title VII programs.  Included in these Health Resources Services Administration programs are Area Health Education Centers, Health Education Training Centers, Geriatric Education Centers, Geriatric Academic Career Awards, Quentin N. Burdick Program, Chiropractic Demonstration Projects, and Podiatric Residency Training in Primary Care Program.

Burns to Serve on National PA Accreditation Commission

Elizabeth Burns, M.D., M.A., professor of family and community medicine at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has been appointed to a second term on the national commission which accredits physician assistant programs throughout the United States.

     In January, she begins a three-year term on the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. (ARC-PA), and has been elected secretary for the ARC-PA, a position on the executive committee. She was nominated by the American Medical Association to serve on the ARC-PA.

     Burns also recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Marygrove College in Detroit, MI. The award recognizes graduates’ outstanding contributions in professional, educational or artistic endeavors; community service; political action, social justice or volunteer activities, or to Marygrove College. Burns graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Marygrove in 1972.

     Burns, who joined the UND medical school in 2002, is director of the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Region VIII Demonstration Project.  She is also the medical director of UND’s physician assistant program through which students earn the Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree.

Dr. Rick Vari Named Interim Director of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach

Dr. Richard Vari has been named interim director of the Office of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences, effective Oct. 1. He continues in his current position, associate dean for medical education at the school.

       Vari replaces Dr. Wayne Bruce who recently resigned. Bruce served the UND medical school since 1975 when he was appointed director of the clinical laboratory science program.

     Vari joined the UND medical school in 1993 as a member of the physiology faculty. He has been instrumental in designing and implementing the patient-centered learning curriculum at the school.

Doctors Make Patient-centered Learning Focus of Presentation and Article

The value of the patient-centered learning (PCL) approach used at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences in promoting humanism and professionalism has received recognition at a national level recently.  Rosanne McBride, Ph.D., and Charles E. Christianson, M.D., Sc.M., of the Department of Family and

Community Medicine presented a poster entitled, “A case-focused patient centered curriculum: generating critical substrates for learning humanistic values at student, faculty and institutional levels,” at the Arnold Gold Foundation symposium “How are we teaching humanism in medicine and what Is working?” in Chicago in September 2007. 

The Arnold Gold Foundation is a leading force supporting humanism in medical education.  

      McBride and Christianson, along with Richard C.Vari, Ph.D., Linda Olson, Ed.D., and H. David Wilson, M.D., also published a paper in the November issue of Academic Medicine exploring the role of the PCL?prodess in promoting institutional  change to support the values of professionalism.

Web Exclusive:

Click here to read their paper.

Neuroscientist’s Research Nets $700,000 for Study Related to Alzheimer’s Disease

A UND neuroscientist has received a grant totaling nearly

$700,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study Alzheimer’s disease.

      Colin Combs, Ph.D. associate professor of pharmacology, physiology and therapeutics, received an RO1 award from the National Institute on Aging, a division of NIH, to study a particular mechanism in the brain which could play a role in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

     The four-year grant allows Combs to continue research, using mice, aimed at identifying a target for a specific mechanism he’s developed that shows potential to stop or slow the inflammatory changes in the brain which are believed to be involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

     Combs, who joined the UND medical school in 2000, has been studying the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases for about 18 years. He is a member of an initial group of researchers in the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), funded through a five-year, $10.3 million grant from the NIH beginning in 2002. The five-year renewal of the COBRE grant, funded with $10.1 million from NIH, was announced by the UND medical school last month.

UND Researchers to Study HIV-Dementia, in Collaboration with Johns Hopkins University Medical School

Dr. Jonathan Geiger, professor and chair of pharmacology,

physiology and therapeutics at the UND of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received funding from Johns Hopkins University medical school and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for studies related to the dementia that afflicts patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The studies, analyzing new methods and mechanisms that may be targeted to help treat HIV-dementia, will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Norman Haughey, principal investigator on the two grants and assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.

     The five-year grants, totaling $2,325,000 from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Mental Health, will fund studies aimed at deepening scientists’ understanding of the mechanisms which lead to dementia in HIV/AIDS patients. Designated as RO1 grants, they are among the most highly ranked grants awarded by the NIH.

     “Due to the increased effectiveness of treatments that have been developed for HIV, patients with this disease are living longer and the incidence of HIV-dementia has decreased,” said Geiger, a co-investigator on these grants.

     “However, because people living with HIV/AIDS are living longer, and are exposed to a number of other disorders and the ingestion of various drugs of abuse including alcohol, the prevalence of HIV-dementia is increasing,” he said. “This underscores the importance of studying this form of dementia which is the most common form found in persons under 40 years of age.” “It’s important to identify new therapeutic interventions designed to improve, or prevent further decline in, brain function because current treatments have had limited success,” he added.

     “Our goal is to investigate underlying mechanisms in HIV dementia and to identify effective interventions against the neurological complications experienced by HIV-infected individuals,” Geiger said. 

     The NIH grant projects are titled: “Dysfunctions of Sphingolipid and Sterol Metabolism in HIV-Dementia” and “Interaction of Alcohol with HIV Proteins.”

NIH Funds Project to Improve Diagnosis of Eating Disorders

Researchers in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the UND  School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute (NRI) in Fargo have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance the understanding of eating disorders among health professionals.

     Drs. Stephen Wonderlich and James Mitchell, who each hold

the title of Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at UND, have received $110,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for a project aimed at furthering the scientific understanding of eating disorder diagnoses. Dr. Ross Crosby, clinical professor of clinical neuroscience at the UND medical school and director of biomedical statistics and methodology at NRI, will also serve as a consulting statistician on the project.

     With grant support, they plan to convene a series of meetings of a group of leading researchers in the field to clarify "the next generation of eating disorders diagnosis," Wonderlich said. The group will conduct scientific studies to improve the classification of symptoms and characteristics of eating disorders by professionals who treat these very serious mental health and medical disorders.

Rural Health Policy Summit

(left to right) Dr. Frank Cerra, senior vice president, University of Minnesota Academic Health Center; Kristin Juliar, director, Montana Office of Rural Health; and Brad Gibbens, associate director, University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health were keynote speakers at the first Upper Midwest Rural Health

Policy Summit held in Crookston, MN. on August 17.  The summit focused on the future of rural health care policy and had more than 140 participants.