Princess Health and Donna Arnett, new UK public-health dean, says research is important to reducing Kentucky's huge health disparities. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Donna Arnett, new UK public-health dean, says research is important to reducing Kentucky's huge health disparities. Princessiccia

epidemiology public health research University of Kentucky

Gusty 13:00 Add Comment

Donna Arnett, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky, says research is essential to reducing Kentucky's huge health disparities, as illustrated by the recent release of data showing a wide range in life expectancy among counties.

In a UK news release and video, Arnett, a genetic epidemiologist and native of London, noted the "devastating impact" that obesity, diabetes, cancer, drug-abuse and overdose deaths have in her native state.

�Public health is at the heart of answering the challenges of those critical diseases in Kentucky, " Arnett said. "We in public health are really at the forefront of first detecting these epidemics, and then finding strategies and interventions to help eliminate those disparities.�

Arnett's passion for research began during her early career as a nurse when she was working next to a dialysis clinic at a Department for Veterans Affairs hospital and noticed that more African-American men were sent to the clinic than men of other races.

�I�ll never forget, in my hallway in this VA hospital, every day men would be coming down the hallway, and they�re almost all African American,� Arnett said. �I said, �You know, there has to be something about being African American and having kidney failure.��

This prompted her to create an informal hypothesis that this was linked to a genetic code in African American men that put them at a higher risk of kidney failure. She was right. While her original hypothesis evolved, it was validated after numerous studies.

Arnett obtained a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina and built a career in public health. She has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years, and brought three active NIH projects to UK when she became dean of the public-health college in 2015. Among other leadership roles, she has served as the president of the American Heart Association.

Serving as AHA president showed Arnett that "solving the most urgent health problems in the nation requires the collaboration among different professionals and organizations devoted to health and uniting the research efforts and knowledge of diverse investigators," and she is working to establish partnerships across the state, the UK release and video say.

"Science now is really multi-disciplinary," Arnett said, "so we have to function in a team."

Princess Health and UK pays big to settle a health-care debacle but keeps almost all details under wraps; Herald-Leader says trustees should worry. Princessiccia

Princess Health and UK pays big to settle a health-care debacle but keeps almost all details under wraps; Herald-Leader says trustees should worry. Princessiccia

hospitals Medicaid Medicare open government open records University of Kentucky

Gusty 05:37 Add Comment

"The University of Kentucky has spent more than $5 million in the last year to fix federal billing issues involving a Hazard cardiology practice it acquired three years ago, but UK officials have declined to provide documents detailing problems that led to the payments," including an audit of the Appalachian Heart Center that UK calls "preliminary" though the issue has been resolved, Linda Blackford reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Most of the money went to Medicare and Medicaid, but $1 million went to a Washington lawyer whose billing records the university largely refused to release, citing attorney-client privilege. The university's trustees were told about the matter at a dinner meeting, which the Herald-Leader said it didn't cover because the agenda for the meeting did not include the matter. UK says no minutes were taken at the meeting, normally a social event that precedes formal meetings the next day.

The Herald-Leader said it would file an appeal with the attorney general, whose decisions in open-records and open-meetings matters have the force of law unless a court rules to the contrary. �We have strong concerns about the overall lack of transparency by the university in this case,� Editor Peter Baniak said. �Records about the issues involving this clinic should be public, as should the information presented and discussion that took place in an open meeting of the board of trustees.�

In an editorial, the newspaper attacked UK officials' secrecy about the case and other health-care issues, such as appealing an AG's decision that that the Kentucky Medical Services Foundation isn't a public agency. "Their imaginative legal arguments and bizarrely incomplete responses to requests for information by the Office of the Attorney General, this newspaper and a private individual should embarrass and trouble the trustees," it said, noting that a UK official said the university paid back "more than what was required."

"Who pays an attorney $1 million to settle a dispute by paying more than was owed?" the editorial asked. "If this were a one-off we might think that UK HealthCare and KMSF, which handles billing for UK physicians, are just muddling around to avoid admitting their deal went bad. But it�s only the latest in a series of stories that indicate a pattern of secretiveness in UK�s vast health-care empire."

Princess Health and Public is invited to join discussion about food sustainability systems at UK April 7; will help shape UK's food-systems studies. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Public is invited to join discussion about food sustainability systems at UK April 7; will help shape UK's food-systems studies. Princessiccia

food nutrition University of Kentucky

Gusty 11:29 Add Comment

The public is invited to a discussion about sustainable food systems at the 2016 Food Studies Symposium at the University of Kentucky April 7 to "share current learning, build collaborations, identify opportunities, stimulate research and envision an interdisciplinary foods program," a UK news release says.

The panel discussion, "Building a Campus-wide, Multi-stakeholder Initiative/Program on Sustainability and Food Systems Studies: Learning from Our Leaders in the Field," will be held from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7 in the E. S. Good Barn, followed by a reception.

"Participants will help shape the future of food systems studies at the university," says the release.

Invited speakers include Peggy Barlett, faculty liaison to Emory University's Office of Sustainability Initiatives; Tom Kelly, founding executive director of the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire; and Jane Kolodinsky, former chair of the University Food System Initiative Steering Committee and chair of the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the Sustainability Challenge Grant, The Food Connection at UK and the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment. Click here for more information.

Princess Health and Did you know that smoking can lead to Type 2 diabetes?. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Did you know that smoking can lead to Type 2 diabetes?. Princessiccia

diabetes smoking University of Kentucky

Gusty 14:58 Add Comment

Smoking can lead to diabetes, and then cause more complications from the disease. So writes Dr. Laura B. Hieronymus, associate director of education and quality services at the Barnstable Brown Kentucky Diabetes Center at the University of Kentucky, in a column in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Laura Hieronymus

Smoking can cause resistance to insulin, which helps control levels of sugar in the blood. "Insulin resistance can occur if you have a family history of it, are overweight and/or have a sedentary lifestyle," Hieronymus writes. "Experts report smokers are insulin resistant and the more you smoke, the greater your chances of Type 2 diabetes. Data suggest if you smoke 16 to 25 cigarettes a day, your risk for Type 2 diabetes is three times higher than if you don�t smoke. In contrast, if you quit smoking and stay quit, your risk for Type 2 diabetes actually decreases."

If you have diabetes, smoking can make complications from it more likely, Hieronymus writes: "Damage to the blood vessels and nerves in your body is more common and often to a greater degree than if you have diabetes and don�t smoke. The heavier and the longer you smoke the greater your risk for complications. The bottom line is that smoking and diabetes are a dangerous combination. The good news is that by quitting smoking and keeping your blood glucose optimally controlled, you can greatly lower your chances for diabetes complications."

Princess Health and Co-workers with CPR and AED training save Lexington man from 'widow maker' heart attack; now he's fine and cheering Wildcats. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Co-workers with CPR and AED training save Lexington man from 'widow maker' heart attack; now he's fine and cheering Wildcats. Princessiccia

cardiovascular disease health education heart disease University of Kentucky

Gusty 07:41 Add Comment

Tim Hayden (UK photo)

This time last year, co-workers' quick actions saved a Kentucky man who suffered from a usually fatal type of heart attack because they knew how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use an automatic external defibrillator (AED). They were able to keep him alive until he could get medical help, according to a University of Kentucky news release.

Tim Hayden, a big UK basketball fan who works at Lexington's Southern Wine and Spirits, was at a work meeting last March, hoping it would end before the Southeastern Conference Tournament games started that day, when he had the heart attack.

His doctor, Adrian Messerli, director of the heart catheterization laboratory at the UK Gill Heart Institute, said it was the type of heart attack that is often called the "widow-maker" because fewer than half of its victims survive.

"Dr. Messerli told us if Tim had been at home, or if the meeting had been scheduled later, or if he'd been in his car, this type of heart attack isn't something that people typically survive," said Harold Nikirk, Southern Wine and Spirits' field sales manager and Tim's boss.

Upon realizing that Hayden wasn't just goofing off and pretending to be snoring so they would wrap up the meeting, two of the co-workers trained in CPR immediately began it. One who was trained on the AED, a portable device that checks heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm, used it.

Everyone in the office pitched in, Nikirk said, calling 911, waving down the ambulance and moving cars and furniture out of the way to make room for the paramedics.

"I think Tim was fortunate for many reasons," Messerli said. "He was surrounded by co-workers who knew how to perform CPR and knew how to use an AED. Those critical first steps sustained Tim until we could get him the treatment he needed."

Paramedics took him to UK, where his wife Catherine works and where Dr. Messerli was waiting for him in the catheterization lab.

"With a heart attack, especially one like Tim's, every minute literally counts," Messerli said. "We were the first hospital in Lexington to allow paramedics to bypass the emergency room and go directly to the cath lab, which buys us precious time and hugely increases the patient's chances for survival."

Hayden's co-workers created
a Heart Walk team. (UK photo)

Messerli restored blood flow by inserting two stents with a catheter and placing him in a type of medically induced coma to cool his body temperature, which is "thought to protect the vital organs from damage and improves healing," Messerli said. Tim spent three weeks in the hospital.

"What's so gratifying about Tim's case is that the healing has really been complete and absolute," he said. "When I see him in the office, he's in wonderful spirits, minimal complaints, and he's doing really well."

Since then, about a dozen of SWS's 40 staffers have received CPR certification and AED training, says the release.

They have also been honored by the Lexington Fire Department for their bravery, quick thinking and knowledge of CPR and have participated in the American Heart Association's 2015 Heart Walk on #TimsTeam and raised $3,500 on his behalf.

Princess Health and Biotech firm buys UK professor's anti-overdose nasal spray.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Biotech firm buys UK professor's anti-overdose nasal spray.Princessiccia

drugs food and drug administration heroin University of Kentucky

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Pharmacy Professor Daniel Wermeling at the University of Kentucky invented a nasal spray to fight heroin overdoses, and a biotech firm has bought the product, which may be on the market within six months, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The device "contains a single dose of a mist form of naloxone and delivers the drug in a way similar to how Flonase is used to treat allergies," Mary Meehan reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The product is on a fast track for approval because of the rising rates of heroin overdoses across the country, said UK Provost Tim Tracy, former dean of UK's pharmacy school. Wermeling doesn't know exactly when his product will be on the market, but he said the FDA approved another fast-track, anti-overdose therapy after only 14 weeks. The fast-track program speeds development of drugs to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. "Last year, 233 people [in Kentucky] died with heroin in their systems, according to the state medical examiner's office," Meehan notes.

Wermeling has been developing the project at UK since 2009 with the help of more than $5 million in federal and state tax dollars. Tracy said Indivior PLC, the spinoff pharmaceutical company that bought the nasal spray, will be able to manufacture, market and distribute the product. Right now, emergency responders and hospitals must draw naloxone, branded as Narcan, in a syringe to provide the correct dose.

Princess Health and Retired UK professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven elected first female chair of World Medical Association.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Retired UK professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven elected first female chair of World Medical Association.Princessiccia

awards elections Kentucky Medical Association University of Kentucky

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Retired University of Kentucky professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, who was the president of the American Medical Association in 2013-14, was elected the first female chair of the World Medical Association at the organization's 200th council meeting in Oslo, Norway

For the past few years, Hoven was the chair of the AMA's delegation to the WMA and will now serve as the chair of the WMA for a two-year term. WMA represents physicians from 111 national medical associations.

"I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do this," Hoven said in a UK news release. "I see myself not so much as a woman in this role but as a leader of a global organization of physicians who are working to support their peers around the the world and improve the lives of their patients."

Hoven earned an undergraduate degree in microbiology then a medical degree from UK. She finished her internal medicine and infectious disease training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now she is a member of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Hoven has received the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Kentucky Medical Association Distinguished Service Award, and in 2015, she was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni for UK. "Hoven hopes for the WMA to raise its profile internationally and increase the impact of its policies and advocacy on behalf of physicians and patients," the release says.

"I want to make our footprint bigger and our voice stronger," Hoven said.