UK, with magnet of National Cancer Institute designation, attracts 4 researchers and their $17 million in funding from U of L

"A month after the University of Kentucky announced it is home to the state’s first National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, an internationally recognized research team studying the role metabolism plays in cancer is leaving the University of Louisville for its chief in-state rival," Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. "The four researchers . . . will bring with them more than $17 million in federal funding over five years."

UK officials told Ungar they didn't recruit the researchers, and a U of L official said the school made "a significant counter-offer." But one of the researchers told Ungar that UK offered new equipment, new laboratory space and an opportunity to work with a wider group of collaborators.

"One area the scientists have been researching is lung cancer, which strikes and kills Kentuckians at the nation’s highest rate," Ungar writes. "Their work includes a newly funded project from the National Cancer Institute on biochemistry in lung cancer." (Read more)

LaRue County High School collaborates with university and nursing home to offer nurse-aide training course

Fifteen students at LaRue County High School have signed up for a new nurse's aide class offered in coordination with Campbellsville University and a local nursing home through which students will earn a nurse certification. The class is being subsidized by the county school district.

The school board agreed on June 17 to pay $300 per student.  Although students accepted into the program will be expected to cover the remaining $200 of the course fee, grants are available to help them, and upon completion of the course, students will receive a certificate stating that they have completed some medical training, says Denise Skaggs, instructional supervisor for the school system.

"The course is titled as an SRNA (State Registered Nurse Aide) program; where students will learn skills involving senior personal care, mobility assistance, checking vitals (i.e. heart rate, blood pressure etc.) and minor medical equipment use and care," says Rebecca Roscoe of the LaRue County Herald-News.

Classes will be coordinated by Campbellsville University and held at the Brockman Center in Hodgenville and at the Sunrise Manor nursing home, where the course's required 16 clinical hours will take place, reports Roscoe. The hands-on clinical experience will be a great benefit, Skaggs said.

The idea for the course came from a survey in which 45 students expressed interest in a nursing program due to their interest in pursuing a medical career, Roscoe reports. Administrators talked to Taylor County school officials, who have implemented a similar program, to gain insight about launching their own program.  Thirty students applied and 15 students have been accepted by a review committee.

“I’m glad to see us offer something specific for our students that will help them achieve success in their future career,” Skaggs told Roscoe. “I think the program is a great addition because it speaks to our community … and now that we know the services that are available for us we want to take advantage of programs offered to benefit and increase our students success.” The program serves as a model for other public high schools to do the same.

Lexington internist, Dr. Ardis Hoven, becomes president of the AMA, the nation's largest physician organization

Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., an internal medicine and infectious disease specialist in Lexington, was installed as president of the American Medical Association at its annual meeting Tuesday night in Chicago. The AMA is the nation's largest physician organization.

Dr. Hoven is a graduate of the University of Kentucky medical school, and she has served in numerous leadership position for the AMA, including her first presidential term in 1993-94. Hoven has also served at the UK’s Bluegrass Care Clinic, which treats infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, reports Business Lexington.

The AMA is headquartered in Chicago, and since 1847 it has aimed "to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health," says its website. Furthermore, the organization's strategic focus is aligned with many of the health care issues now facing Kentucky, which are improving health outcomes, accelerating change in medical education and enhancing the sustainability of medical practice.

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

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.

Poll shows Kentucky health-care providers often fail to discuss HIV testing with patients

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

Frontier Nursing University in Hyden helps bring better family health care to rural America with distance learning

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)

Eastern Kentucky native wants to alert Appalachian women about their high rate of cervical cancer and how to prevent it

University of Kentucky physician and Pike County native Baretta Casey, right, has spent most of her career providing health care and education throughout the state, with a focus on Appalachian Kentucky. The health disparities between Eastern Kentucky and the rest of the state, especially high rates of cancer, are of "special concern" to Casey, reports Ann Blackford of UKNow.

Cancer is prevalent in her Casey's own family, and this is why she "has taken on the challenge of helping reduce cancer rates in Kentucky, especially cervical cancer and other Human papillomavirus cancers," Blackford reports. Cervical cancer rates are highest in rural and Appalachian Kentucky. According to the Kentucky Cancer Registry from 2005 to 2009, the cervical cancer rate in the region was 9.85 per 100,000 people. The state rate was 8.6. The average of deaths per year in the region from cervical cancer was 258.

"We have the tools to change these high rates and make a real difference in people's lives," Casey said. "I feel the best thing I can do for the people of Eastern Kentucky is to educate about prevention and screening of cervical cancer." Casey became the director of the Cervical Cancer-free Kentucky Initiative at UK's College of Public Health's Rural Cancer Prevention Center in 2010. Through this position, she makes connections with county health departments, community organizations and health advocacy groups that provide education and funding for cervical cancer prevention projects.

"Casey is passionate about educating people on the importance of vaccinating their children against HPV," Blackford writes. She said she wants people to look past the controversy of vaccinating their children and realize the importance of the vaccine. "The vaccine given for the appropriate reason can save a life," Casey said. (Read more)

New health law and aging baby boomers' anticipated strain on the system is about to make chronic doctor shortage worse

Kentucky's persistent physician shortage is hardly new. Almost a century ago, the Frontier Nursing Service came to Hyden on the presumption that doctors wouldn't. A report from the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2005 found that 81 of 120 of the commonwealth's counties were officially health professional shortage areas. Now comes news that areas in the United States with growing and dense urban populations are feeling the considerable pinch of also not having enough doctors to provide care.

New York Times reporters Annie Lowrey and Robert Pear report that with the expansion of insurance coverage and aging baby boomers driving up demand, we shouldn't expect the shortage to get better anywhere before it gets worse everywhere. (NYT chart)


"The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. That number will more than double by 2025," report Lowrey and Pear. "Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000." In addition, Medicare officials predict their enrollment will surge to 73.2 million in 2025, up 44 percent from 50.7 million this year because of the baby boomer demographic hitting their golden years. “Older Americans require significantly more health care,” said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. “Older individuals are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions, requiring more intensive, coordinated care.”

Medical school enrollment is increasing, but not as fast as the population. The number of training positions for medical school graduates is lagging. Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors. And about a third of the country’s doctors are 55 or older, and nearing retirement. (Read more)

University Hospital cuts contribution to U of L by half

University Hospital. Photo by Bill Luster, The Courier-Journal.

In the midst of financial woes, University Hospital gave just half of what it normally does to the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center — and is considering reducing its contribution to zero.

The hospital gave $5.5 million rather than its usual $11 million annually.

In the past, critics have asked why the hospital wasn't using the funds given to the health center to shore up its own financial problems. Dr. David Dunn, U of L's executive vice president for health affairs, said "symbiotic arrangements between teaching hospitals and health sciences centers are common across the nation, and cutting the contribution in half has meant struggles to recruit and retain physicians and nurses," Laura Ungar reported for The Courier-Journal.

University Hospital has long been looking at ways to stabilize its finances. Last year, Gov. Steve Beshear nixed plans for the hospital to merge with a Catholic health system since it would have been subject to Catholic health directives. Since, it's been looking for a new merging partner, a process that has been delayed until the end of this month. (Read more)

More residency placements will be needed as medical school enrollments rise, perhaps by 30 percent through 2016

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)