Princess Health and Princess Health andMorehead State, UK and Morehead hospital sign agreement to form Appalachian Health and Research Center.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andMorehead State, UK and Morehead hospital sign agreement to form Appalachian Health and Research Center.Princessiccia

Appalachia hospitals medical education research rural health University of Kentucky

Gusty 05:57 Add Comment

Morehead State University, St. Claire Regional Medical Center and the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Health Policy signed a memorandum of understanding April 30 to form the Appalachian Health and Research Center.

�The primary mission of the AHRC is to increase the capacity for innovative, collaborative research based out of Morehead, which directly addresses health issues faced by residents of Appalachian Kentucky and beyond,� said Dr. Michael Henson, Morehead State's associate vice president for research and graduate-school dean. �AHRC will seek to improve local educational opportunities related to health research and to facilitate the translation of research findings into local health policy.�

From left: Reynolds, Andrews and hospital CEO Mark Neff

Dr. Brady Reynolds, UK's Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Endowed Chair in Rural Health Policy and co-director of the Institute for Rural Health Policy, said, �This partnership stands to greatly increase capacity for health-related research in the Morehead area and northeastern Kentucky, with the ultimate aim of improving health and health policy in the region. Through this partnership we will be able to accomplish research and community health goals that may not otherwise be possible.�

Morehead President Wayne Andrews said the agreement will �allow us to focus on some areas of research that will help us improve the lives of the citizens in East Kentucky.� The specific AHRC goals are to:

• Create new and productive research partnerships with regional colleagues at the two universities and the hospital in the areas of health and wellness;
• Increase infrastructure for health research in Morehead and the surrounding area;
• Enhance opportunities for faculty, students, and medical residents to participate in cutting-edge biomedical research;
• Streamline the required review process for collaborative projects and increase the number of behavioral and clinical trials into which local residents and patients may be enrolled;
• Promote dialogue with the public about health, wellness and biomedical research; and
• Actively work to identify and translate specific research findings to local health policy to improve health in the region.

The research center will be housed in Morehead State's Center for Health, Education and Research, which was created in 2010 as the first such partnership involving a regional public university, a land-grant research university and a nonprofit hospital corporation. The $30 million, 90,000-square-foot facility is the largest construction project in the history of Morehead State, according to a university press release. 

Princess Health and Princess Health andUK picks new dean for College of Nursing.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andUK picks new dean for College of Nursing.Princessiccia

medical education nursing tobacco prevention

Gusty 14:17 Add Comment

A national leader in nursing education, tobacco control and health-care outreach will be the new dean of nursing at the University of Kentucky.

Janie Heath

Janie Heath, the associate dean of academic programs and endowed professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, will take over as dean at UK on Aug. 1, pending UK Board of Trustees approval. In addition to heading UK's College of Nursing, she will also hold the Warwick Professorship.

"Janie Heath has been a leader in educational, clinical and research efforts," UK Provost Christine Riordan said in a press release. "She is an ideal fit for our College of Nursing." Heath, who has been a nurse for nearly 40 years, has also worked at Georgia Health Sciences University, Georgetown University and the University of South Carolina.

Heath said, "I have known about the UK College of Nursing for a long time. I was attracted to the college's well-known strengths in advanced practice nursing and research. UK ? through its talented faculty, staff and students ? has been on the forefront of addressing major challenges in higher education and health care delivery today." (Read more)

Princess Health and U of L's Trover medical campus ranked among best for rural medicine education and addresing rural physician shortage.Princessiccia

Princess Health and U of L's Trover medical campus ranked among best for rural medicine education and addresing rural physician shortage.Princessiccia

medical education physician recruitment physicians rural health rural medicine rural-urban disparities University of Louisville

Gusty 12:54 Add Comment

The University of Louisville School of Medicine Trover Rural Campus in Madisonville was rated third best in the nation for preparing medical students to practice in rural areas, which is critical to the state since most of Kentucky's rural counties are considered to be short of health professionals.

�From the president and the deans to the individual faculty and staff, our team has proven the value of a collaboration of a rural campus and an urban university. The beneficiaries are our students and the rural Kentucky communities who receive these new doctors who are well prepared to care for them,� Dr. Bill Crump, right, associate dean for the Trover campus, said in a UofL press release.
  
The study by researchers at the University of Colorado, which will be published in Academic Medicine in August, ranked 35 programs across the nation and found that 62 percent of Trover graduates practice medicine in rural areas, says the release.

�This national recognition is the fulfillment of Dr. Loman Trover�s vision outlined almost 60 years ago of providing first class medical education in a small town with the goal of producing more physicians for rural Kentucky, and is a testament to the strong support we�ve had from the Louisville Campus over the past 15 years,� said Crump.

Nationally, there is a physician shortage in rural areas because only 3 percent of medical students report want to practice rural medicine, while 16 percent of Americans live in rural areas. This problem is especially large in Kentucky, says the release, since a majority of the state's 59 counties classified as rural are considered to be short of medical professionals..

�Our Trover campus is vital to fulfilling this mission and especially critical now because our state faces such a significant shortage of physicians, especially in rural areas. Dr. Crump�s leadership of the program is one of the reasons for its success. We view the program as a model that has the potential to be implemented in other areas of Kentucky,� said School of Medicine Dean Dr. Toni Ganzel.

Princess Health and Poll shows Kentucky health-care providers often fail to discuss HIV testing with patients.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Poll shows Kentucky health-care providers often fail to discuss HIV testing with patients.Princessiccia

AIDS doctors Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky HIV medical education nurse practitioners physician assistants physicians poll

Gusty 14:51 Add Comment

A new poll suggests that most Kentucky health-care providers follow guidelines for discussing HIV screening with their patients, despite the the importance of early treatment to prevent its progression to AIDS.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine HIV screenings for most patients, just 32 percent of Kentucky adults aged 18 to 64 report discussing HIV testing with their medical provider, according to the Kentucky Health Issues Poll.

About 40 percent of Kentucky adults reported they had never been tested for HIV. It�s estimated that 4,500 Kentuckians are living with HIV infection and it is estimated nationally that one in five people who have HIV do not know they do.

�It made headlines earlier this month when a little girl - the second person in history - was cured of HIV. As exciting as this development was, for most people, HIV remains a life-long condition that must be managed through medication to keep it from progressing to AIDS. The CDC�s recommendations are meant to improve the overall population health by detecting HIV so treatment can begin,� said Dr. Susan Zepeda, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which co-sponsored the poll.

�It appears that Kentucky providers are either not adhering to the routine screening recommendations or not communicating this message clearly to patients,� she said.

The poll, co-sponsored by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, was taken Sept. 20 through Oct. 14 by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. A random sample of 1,680 adults throughout Kentucky was interviewed by landline and cell telephones. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points

Princess Health and Frontier Nursing University in Hyden helps bring better family health care to rural America with distance learning.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Frontier Nursing University in Hyden helps bring better family health care to rural America with distance learning.Princessiccia

Affordable Care Act health care access health care law health reform medical education midwifery nurse practitioners nurses Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rural health rural medicine

Gusty 06:20 Add Comment

Midwives and nurse practitioners who recently graduated from Frontier Nursing University in Hyden address the unique challenges of rural areas, including shortages of health care providers, by bringing local health care to rural communities across the country. FNU was featured in a recent report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

FNU, a graduate program that offers distance education to nurses with an interest in nurse-midwifery and family nurse practitioner and women�s health specialties, aims to build a pipeline of highly educated nurses serving in rural or underserved areas, reports RWJF, one of its funders.  Many scholars and grantees sponsored by RWJF go on to spearhead projects to improve access to high quality nursing care in remote areas, the foundation says.

�We�re trying to introduce primary care providers into rural areas in such a way that they can provide high quality care and preventive services too,� says Suzan Ulrich, associate dean of midwifery and women�s health at FNU and an RWJF executive nurse fellow.

Demand for health care is rising nationwide because of an aging population that is living longer, but sicker, with multiple chronic conditions. The need for health care providers will intensify next year, when millions of new patients will become eligible for health insurance under the health-reform law.

Rural parts of the country face unique challenges and shortages of health providers, including nurses, can be particularly acute in rural areas, said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. These nurses and other providers have less access to education programs, which tend to be located in more densely populated areas. Programs that offer advanced degrees, from the baccalaureate to the doctorate, can be especially difficult to access for students living in rural areas, according to RWJF.

Identifying and educating nurses from rural areas is a key goal of FNU, which offers distance education programs that enable students to remain in their home communities and a �bridge� program that allows nurses with associate�s degrees to move more easily into master�s and doctorate programs. �These students really love where they live,� Ulrich said. �If we can educate them to stay within their communities, then those communities are going to have a provider who�s going to be there a long time." (Read more)

Princess Health and More residency placements will be needed as medical school enrollments rise, perhaps by 30 percent through 2016.Princessiccia

Princess Health and More residency placements will be needed as medical school enrollments rise, perhaps by 30 percent through 2016.Princessiccia

doctors medical education medical school physicians

Gusty 06:20 Add Comment

Aimed at addressing expected physician shortages, enrollment at U.S. medical schools is on target to increase by 30 percent by 2016, the Medical School Enrollment Survey has found.

But even if enrollment rises through expansion of medical schools and construction of new ones, "This won't amount to a single new doctor in practice without an expansion of residency positions," said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

First-year medical school enrollment is expected to reach 21,376 in 2016-17, a 29.6 percent increase over enrollment in 2002-03. Nearly 60 percent of the growth will happen in the 125 medical schools that were accredited in 2002; 25 percent will happen in schools accredited since then, and 17 percent will come from schools that are applicant or candidate schools.

The United States is facing a shortfall of more than 90,000 primary care and specialty doctors by 2020, the AAMC estimates. With medical schools stepping up, what's key is "an increase in federal funding to expand the number of residency training positions � which prepare new doctors for independent practice," research-reporting service Newswise reports.

"Otherwise it may become more difficult for medical students to complete their training and for patients to get the care they need � as our population continues to grow and age, more doctors retire, and 32 million Americans enter the health care system as a result of the Affordable Care Act," Kirch said. (Read more)