To view a news report about the new hands-on, interactive health professions exhibition developed by Western Montana AHEC and spectrUM Discovery Area…

Click here http://www.kpax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11125935 !

Western Montana AHEC is recruiting a .75 FTE Adminsitrative Associate to focus in two primary areas: financial management and development of web presence and distance communication. To see the full position announcement, click here: http://www.umt.edu/jobs/STAFF/000008.html

The countdown has begun.

Hands on Health, an interactive exhibition all about the wide world of health professions, opens in less than one month.

Western Montana AHEC and SpectrUM, with generous support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, have teamed up to create a brand-new hands-on science adventure for kids and learners of all ages to explore the work of health professionals and learn about our bodies and health.

Visitors to the SpectrUM Discovery Area on the UM Campus will be able to participate in a simulated surgery, diagnose a giant runny nose, assess their own vital signs before and after shakin’ it to Dance Dance revolution, assemble the full-body x-rays of a  professional snowboarder, and much more.

Contact us — or simply stay tuned — for more information soon!

Grand Opening, September 12, 2009

The National Health Service Corps Scholars program is a prestigious and competitive award that provides tuition, fees, books, and living and travel stipends to medical professions students who commit to working a year in the National Health Service Corps,  in the areas of highest need, for each year of assistance received. President Obama has nominated a former NHSC Scholar to serve in the nation’s highest-profile health education role. For more information about the NHSC, contact the WMT-AHEC office through this website.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD – WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama turned to the Deep South for the next surgeon general, a rural Alabama family physician who made headlines with fierce determination to rebuild her nonprofit medical clinic in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. An administration official said Obama will announce the nomination of Dr. Regina Benjamin later Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the official announcement. The surgeon general is the people’s health advocate, a bully pulpit position that can be tremendously effective with a forceful personality. Benjamin has that reputation. A decade ago, the New York Times called her “angel in a white coat,” a country doctor who made house calls along the impoverished Gulf Coast, paid whatever her patients could scrounge. From those early days she has emerged as a national leader in the call to improve health disparities, pushed by the need in her own fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Ala., and its diverse patient mix — where immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos make up a growing part of the population. Her nonprofit clinic was rebuilt by volunteers after being destroyed by Katrina, only to burn down months later. Benjamin later told of her patients’ desperation that she rebuild again, recalling one woman who handed her an envelope with a $7 donation to help. “If she can find $7, I can figure out the rest,” Benjamin said last fall as she received a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” money she dedicated to finishing that job. Benjamin became the first black woman and the youngest doctor elected to the American Medical Association’s board. She also received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, and Pope Benedict XVI awarded her the distinguished service medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. Her nomination for surgeon general requires Senate confirmation.

By Robert Pear (New York Times, 5/30/09)

Two Senate committee chairmen issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they would “seek common ground on health reform legislation,” despite reports that they disagreed on the shape of a new public health insurance plan that many Democrats want to create.

The statement, by Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana, came a day after The New York Times reported that the two Democrats disagreed over the details of a government-sponsored plan. The statement did not mention the proposal for such a plan, which would compete with private insurers.

“For both of us,” the statement said, “reforming the nation’s health care system to cut cost, improve quality and provide affordable coverage remains the top priority on our two committees. We have worked together closely over many months and will continue to do so. We intend to ensure that our committees report similar and complementary legislation that can be quickly merged into one bill for consideration on the Senate floor before the August recess.”

Mr. Kennedy is chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, where he and several other liberals favor a robust public program.

Mr. Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, is trying to write a bill that could win support from all Democrats on the panel and from its senior Republican, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, who opposes the creation of a public insurance option.

If he can find a middle ground that satisfies Mr. Grassley and Mr. Kennedy on the idea of a public plan, Mr. Baucus will have performed a neat feat.

House Democratic leaders are closer to Mr. Kennedy’s position and want to create a public plan option, which is anathema to insurance companies and to many Republicans.

The proposal for a new public plan stirs political passions, in part because it symbolizes differences between Democrats and Republicans over the proper role of government in providing, regulating and subsidizing health care.

Attention

  Science and Health Enhancement Teachers!

 
In an effort to increase the number of qualified Health Science specialists in the state, particularly in smaller schools and rural areas, OPI has approved a new pathway to obtaining a Health Science license endorsement.

A Perkins Grant has been awarded and will be used by the University of Montana-Missoula’s College of Technology to develop and pilot a course in the fundamentals of health sciences and the health professions.

The course, which will be offered July 27 – 31, 2009 to up to twenty Montana science or health enhancement teachers, will include grounding in anatomy and physiology, medical math and language, and an overview of the health care field. The grant includes funds to pay all costs — tuition, travel and lodging—for at least the first ten participants enrolled in this pilot program. Additional funding may be available as well.

Participants will also complete shadowing hours at health care facilities in or near their home communities in order to gain perspective on the real-world experience of working in the health professions.
Details of this exciting opportunity are still in development, and will be announced both on the OPI website and in this e-newsletter in June.

For further information, or to express interest in participating in this health science endorsement opportunity, please contact:

Renee Harris, Health Science Education Specialist, OPI

406-444-2059

RHarris3@mt.gov

or

Grace Decker, Western MT AHEC

406-243-4746

grace.decker@mso.umt.edu

A new report from HealthReform.Gov, the official health care reform information site for the general public from the Obama administration, highlights disparities in both health care access and health outcomes in rural America. To read the report, click here: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes/

Do Face Masks Protect From Flu?

by Allison Aubrey

 

All Things Considered staffer Gabe O’Connor’s assignment for the day was to wear the mask and see if he could get any work done.

 May 4, 2009 · Masks are not a foolproof way to prevent the spread of flu bugs. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has a lot to learn about the potential effectiveness of masks in controlling swine flu. But as a precaution, experts say, the masks make sense for certain groups: people who are sick; and health care workers who are most likely to come in close contact with infected people.

To get a sense of the hassle factor involved in wearing a mask, we asked NPR staffer Gabe O’Connor, a production assistant at All Things Considered, to wear one for the day. “This could be awkward,” he said, as he donned an N95 respirator mask bought in the paint department of a local hardware store.

Getting The Right Fit

There are a few tricks to wearing a respirator mask. “Putting a mask on properly is really important,” says Urvashi Rangan, a technical expert with Consumer Reports. “You have to make sure the straps are on securely. “

Following that advice isn’t as easy as it sounds. One study found that only 25 percent of volunteers enrolled in a mask-wearing experiment were able to don the masks properly. “There were a couple of errors that were very common,” says Kristin Cummings, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “One was not tightening up the nose clip,” she says. That’s the metal strip at the top of the mask that should be adjusted to fit the contour of your nose.

Another mistake: 22 percent of people put the mask on upside down.

Your Own Jungle

“It’s incredibly hard for people to keep these on,” said Consumer Reports’ Urvashi Rangan. She says in one recent study researchers demonstrated that only about 20 percent of people are able to keep a mask on for the full amount of time specified. “That’s not a lot of people.”

“It’s really, really hot,” said O’Connor, after wearing the mask for a few hours. He said it felt like he was in a jungle, breathing in hot, humid air. It also hampered communication.

“I have to repeat myself,” he said. And he didn’t want to talk to his editor about the story he was writing because he thought he sounded like the garbled voices of the grown-ups in the Peanuts comic strip.

The Signal: Stay Away

O’Connor says that when you’re wearing a mask, people will keep their distance from you. He says he realized that when a few colleagues politely declined to join him for coffee this morning.If the threat of contracting H1N1 were higher — if there were a critical mass of people ill — O’Connor says he could see how masks would be effective in the effort to enforce social distancing. “No one comes within 6 feet,” he says.

CDC Guidance

The CDC says it does not know if masks can prevent the spread of this new H1N1 virus. “It is difficult to assess their potential effectiveness,” according to an interim recommendation.

Experts say it can’t hurt to wear one. If nothing else, it keeps you from touching your mouth and nose. “These are two great areas where this virus — or any virus — can gain access to your body,” says Dr. Gwen Huitt, an infectious disease expert with National Jewish Health in Denver.

Experts say masks are no replacement for good hygiene. As people have heard a lot recently, Huitt says, we all need to remember to wash hands frequently, and, of course, cover your cough.