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Notes from Dean Kelley

December – time to light the candles

t seems like only yesterday when I wrote: “Céad míle fáilte – Fáilte ar ais (Gaelic) Hundred thousand welcomes - Welcome back.”  Now it’s time to wish you Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and observe other key December dates such as Winter Solstice, Boxing Day and Universal Human Rights Month.

Time that once stretched out before us, 24/7 and full of yet to be explored opportunities and activities, is now a memory full of all we have accomplished, learned, and tried. Regardless of where we are on the path through our institution, we’ve all learned new words, made new friends, had new experiences and are different than we were back in August. The candlelight we were nurturing has grown into bright lights, chasing darkness from the corners of our being. It’s nice to look back and see how bright that light now shines. 

In this newsletter, you’ll read of our AMSA Chapter that had a spark of an idea last spring, fanned it into a flame, and delivered a superb flambé in November. I think they even surprised themselves with how fantastic a production they delivered! You’ll learn of the exploits of our third-year students as they describe their rotation experiences, wherever they might be, and how they challenge themselves and light their lamps of knowledge. You’ll catch that ‘spark’ that UNECOM students bring to whatever cause they adopt, whether it’s through the Turkey Trot, the Art Auction, or the latest student cause celebre. All are luminaries that light the way for those who follow.  

I wish you, and all you hold dear, all the blessings of the season. May you have many candles to light, celebrations to experience, and the warmth of family and friends to surround you.

It’s time to light the candles and look forward to a new year. After all, it’s December.

Patricia Kelley
Associate Dean of Students
Office of Recruitment, Student and Alumni Services

 

 

Student Profile

“The Wind Blew Eastward”: Vladislav Valtsis, MSI

here is the river, but we will not speak about that. Not how in winter the water turns black with cold, or how yellow bits of ice form scabs around the rusting bridge. In the first weeks after the accident, contaminated water drained into the greater Dnieper and poisoned the fish. But we will not speak about that.

Instead, we will talk about the pine trees turned ginger brown, the empty houses with swinging doors and trees sprouting through their roofs, and the neatly parked rows of trucks that the workers left behind when they fled. We will mention the concrete sarcophagus in the middle of it all, and how the wind blew eastward with its deadly load. Twenty years after the disaster, Pripyat remains a ghost town, and twenty years hence it may be empty still. Only the deer and the wolves have returned, and little birds that perch along the girders of the tomb.

“Get them out or they’ll die!”

Vlad Valtsis remembers very little about Kiev, or about the Ukraine in general. The city is beautiful today; there are the green and gold domes of St. Sophia Cathedral and trees that spread their shade across the streets. Vlad remembers playing in the sandbox and living in a Soviet-style apartment building on the 16th floor. His grandfather was an engineer who built bridges and was in the military, “like everyone else.” The extended family all lived together in the 2-bedroom apartment. And that’s all Vlad remembers about Kiev, because in April 1986 he and his brother became sick and the family fled to Russia.

“The wind blew eastward,” Vlad recalls, “but we didn’t find out about it until we heard on the radio from another European country. The government didn’t want us to know. My brother and I developed moderate fevers, and we became more and more ill. My parents took us to my grandmother’s brother’s house in Russia, where we recovered for two months. When we returned to Kiev, we got sick again.”

Doctors in Kiev didn’t know what to do with the little boys so sick. “You need to get them out of here or they’ll die!” one doctor said, and Vlad’s parents believed him. “It was a big decision to move,” Vlad remembers. “My parents and grandparents gave up their jobs. They sold our belongings to get money. My mother used to have a thousand books, but now just a few. We followed the path that most immigrants take: through Austria, into Italy, and then a plane to the United States. In Austria, we stayed with a family and the father took the door off the hinges to sleep on at night. In Italy, we stayed in refugee camps.” When they arrived in the United States, the family started fresh. The boys were better and did not sicken again.

Chernobyl

Twenty years have given experts plenty of time to pick apart the deadly dominoes that cascaded in the early hours of April 26, 1986. A poorly trained night crew and the faulty design of the RBMK 1000 reactor contributed to the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Kiev. A test planned during the daytime was postponed until night, leaving a skeleton crew that was unfamiliar with the intricacies of the system and oblivious to certain safety precautions.

As the test began, power in the reactor dipped beneath required levels. The RBMK 1000 reactor was built like a layer-cake tipped on its side: nuclear fuel bundles alternated like frosting between cakes of control rods that were designed to inhibit accelerated nuclear reactions. When Soviet engineers saw the power plummet, they raised control rods out of the reactor (removed the cake) to allow layers of fuel rods (frosting) to react more aggressively with each other. After a large number of safety rods were mechanically removed, the engineers lifted even more rods out of the reactor manually, leaving far fewer than the prescribed safety margin. Their goal was to raise power to a level necessary to conduct the test.

Very quickly, however, xenon gas developed in the cooling system, forming pockets of steam that became super-heated. As coolant stopped flowing, power levels surged dramatically. Surprised engineers attempted to lower control rods back between layers of fuel rods, but the channels began to melt with the heat, blocking the control rods before they could descend. Within seconds, fuel rods ruptured and sent scalding steam exploding through the reactor’s roof, blowing off the top and sending fission products into the atmosphere.

The in-rush of oxygen caused the graphite moderator in the reactor to explode, resulting in a fire that burned for nine days and sent more than 5% of the reactor’s radioactivity into the surrounding region. Pripyat, Kiev, and the greater Ukraine were covered in radioactive dust. Most of the men working the reactor received a lethal dose of radiation, as did the firefighters who responded to the inferno. Few understood the danger as invisible forces spewed from the reactor.

Nausea and Bleeding

Mild exposure to radiation results in flu-like symptoms that range from nausea and vomiting to diarrhea, fatigue, and loss of body hair. More severe exposure may induce bleeding from the mouth, under the skin, and from the kidneys. Acute exposure, according to one source, “has a high likelihood of death in hours to a few weeks. Severe diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, and coma are common at the acute level. There may be a period of several days of almost normal human activity in some cases, before acute symptoms are visible.” Before he died, one Chernobyl worker reported that the invisible radiation felt like “pins and needles” all over his body.   

Most people, of course, have little to fear in the way of radiation sickness, unless a person “is intentionally poisoned, which is uncommon,” one manual explains, or a person works in the commercial or military nuclear sectors, or - as another manual helpfully reminds us – “You can also be exposed to large doses of radiation from atomic and nuclear weapons that detonate in your geographic region.”

Vlad experienced at least mild exposure to radioactive particles that were carried on an eastward wind and settled invisibly on Kiev shortly after the Chernobyl reactor blew. Europe knew nothing of the accident until Swiss workers at a nuclear power plant began to detect radioactivity that could not be traced to their own operation. In the meantime, Soviet authorities began to acknowledge the scale of the disaster internally, first evacuating 45,000 people from the towns around Chernobyl, then removing an additional 116,000 people from the region within 30km of the site. To contain the radiation, Soviet helicopter pilots flew directly over the reactor and dropped 5000 tons of boron, sand, and concrete onto the fires raging below. A sarcophagus was formed that remains to this day, and the entire region is still a wilderness. “It is a dead zone,” says Vlad, “as though a comet hit and everything died.”

Childhood in Brooklyn

When people ask Vlad if he experiences any side effects from the radiation poisoning, he grins and says, “Yes, I glow in the dark sometimes.” Credulous classmates grow wide-eyed until they recognize his wry humor and burst into laughter. It is characteristic Vlad - dry and self-deprecating - always stated in a slight Russian accent that reminds one of fur hats and baklava.

In Brooklyn, his family settled on Argyle Street, where his grandfather worked in a grocery store moving boxes and Vlad’s parents tried to resurrect their former professions of construction worker and laboratory assistant. Their neighborhood was heavily Russian, and Vlad spoke Russian and English with ease. “You need more words to get a point across in Russian,” he says, “it is more embellished. My English teacher kept saying, ‘Stop embellishing everything!’”

His neighborhood was quiet enough, except for the ubiquitous wailing of police sirens that are the eternal white noise of Gotham. “I’d be on the phone with friends,” Vlad says, “and they would think that I was under attack or something: ‘Is your house on fire?’ they’d ask.” Nothing particularly dramatic happened, except that he saw five car crashes at the same street corner during a single month. And there was the time he visited a Starbucks in Manhattan with his friend Kenny, and one of the gothic statues from the top of the building fell in a crash – right outside the door they had just entered. Eerie. Vlad smiles unblinkingly. “If it had hit us,” he says, “we could have sued and paid for medical school!”

The Smoke Cloud Group

With a close-knit family, Vlad enjoyed adapting to the U.S. and quickly felt at home in the city. He played all the normal team sports with friends in grammar school, but his high school in Brooklyn was a different ball of wax. “I think it may have been an experimental school,” Vlad says, “I don’t really know. But they didn’t have any sports teams.” He pauses to think. “And they didn’t have any normal letter grades, either. They had ‘E’ for ‘Excellent,’ and ‘G’ for ‘Good,’ and things like that. They didn’t have study halls. ”

But high school is high school anywhere, and social stratification was alive and well in Brooklyn: “I was exposed to a lot,” Vlad says, “smoking, drugs, fights, you name it. There was a social hierarchy; you know, the popular kids and the ‘smoke cloud group’ outside and all that.” He played tennis at the Brooklyn Racket Club, which at first terrified him. “My mother wanted me to play a sport,” he recalls. “My hand was shaking and the ball was flying everywhere, but then I got better.”

Considering a vocation, Vlad turned to his grandmother’s nephew, a man who held his M.D. from the Soviet Union, then earned a D.O. through NYCOM and performed his residency at Methodist Hospital. “I idolized him,” Vlad says. “He is the only one in my family who is a D.O.” Vlad’s mind is a playground for mathematics and science, and his family fostered strategy-games and mental gymnastics. “My family plays Russian rules in checkers,” he smiles, “you can go backwards: it is much faster-paced. It also helps your mind to think.” His parents encouraged strict discipline and hard work, and Vlad enjoyed studying the mechanisms of the human body in high school. “It made sense,” he recalls. “You get a taste and want to learn more. I like math because I like numbers.” Memorization of numbers comes easily for Vlad.

Vignettes From a Sardine

“The commuter-train ride to Hunter College?” Vlad asks. “A pack of sardines if you ever wondered what that feels like. You don’t need to hold onto anything; there are so many people on the 4, 5, and 6 trains. People sweat and smell in the summer. I’ll tell you something, too, I could fall asleep on the train and wake up automatically at my stop. Guaranteed.” An occasional psychotic passenger was cause more for amusement than alarm. “One man would stand like everyone else when the train moved,” Vlad recalls, “but he would dance around every time the doors opened.” It takes all kinds.

Mr. Smith was late one morning coming to Vlad’s Parasitology class. “We wondered where he was,” Vlad remembers, “then he came walking in and says, ‘A plane just hit the Twin Towers.’ They were a couple of miles away. We found out that it was a terrorist plot and they let us out early. Everyone was nervous and scared. On the train, I could see smoke rising from the Avenue M stop. People were just standing outside of stores – all ages, all races – people were crying and emotional.” The attacks on 9/11 did something the terrorists never anticipated, Vlad says, giving New Yorkers a sense of solidarity. “It brought the whole country together,” he decides.

The 2003 New York Blackout impacted Vlad personally – his electric razor stopped working mid-shave. “I thought, ‘Maybe it’s just my apartment,’” Vlad recalls, “but then the whole building was dark. The train wasn’t working, either. Then we found out that there was no power anywhere in New York City. I was scheduled to take an exam and my friend Igor said, ‘How are you going to take it? The room has no windows.’ I was upset; I was ready to take it. My Mom walked home from Bellevue Hospital over the Brooklyn Bridge in her heels. It was a unique experience.”

If You Come Here

There is the Saco River, but we will not speak about that. Not how in winter the ice forms sugar cakes on shore, or how oak trees clutch their last few leaves like twenties in a stiffened breeze. In the first few weeks of December, lights adorn the roadside spruces and angels appear near Rheault’s furniture store. But we will not speak about that.

Instead, we will talk about the medical school with its bricks and glass, the silver turrets in medieval jut, and the students and staff who make it come alive. We will talk about Vladislav Valtsis, and how he wanted a job where he would learn things daily in the context of math and science. “I liked medicine,” he says, “and I really liked the environment at UNECOM. I spoke to Steve Fosmire (second-year student) on AIM a lot, and I loved the camaraderie here. Students share info with each other. I love the philosophy of osteopathy, and I love my class.” He pauses. “I wouldn’t go anywhere else; everyone gets along really well.”

Though Vlad expected more time to relax and watch TV, he doesn’t complain. The scenery is beautiful, the small-town feel is fresh, and his close-knit class is a new morphology of family. Living in a loft in downtown Biddeford is far from Brooklyn, and even farther from Kiev, but Vlad doesn’t mind. Except for one thing. “If you come here,” he quips, “bring warm clothing. Friends tell me, ‘You’re from Russia, you should be used to the cold!’ What can I say? Cold is cold.”

Especially when the wind blows eastward. 

 - Steve Smith, RSAS 

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News and Events

Snow day forest. Photo by Steve Smith, RSAS

UNECOM AMSA Hosts Largest Regional Conference in the Nation

or only the second time in the organization’s history, an osteopathic medical school hosted the AMSA regional conference. AMSA, or the American Medical Student Association, is the largest organization of medical students in the country, and includes osteopathic, allopathic, and pre-medical students. The Region 1, 2, 3 conference included medical students from schools as far south as Virginia, west to Pennsylvania, and north to Maine, totaling twenty-five schools in all. Regional conferences, held annually throughout the country, offer an opportunity for AMSA members to meet, listen to speakers, share ideas, learn more about important issues in the health care field, and have a great time. 

At last year’s national conference in Washington, D.C., a few first year students from UNECOM got the crazy idea that we, too, could serve as host to the regional conference. After a quick vote - and well before we knew what we were getting ourselves into - UNECOM was officially listed as the potential host for the 2007 Region 1, 2, and 3 conference. Planning began in earnest last April, and with hotel contracts negotiated and speakers and exhibitors recruited, work picked up in May and June as most of the planning committee was going to be out of the area – or out of the country - for the entire summer. 

Once back together on campus in August, conference organizers had a lot to accomplish with the start of the new school year. Faculty and students from UNECOM were recruited to speak and share their wisdom and talents, while physicians from across the country agreed to speak as keynotes and host breakout sessions. Casting and suturing workshops were set up, as well as an interactive OMM workshop for both osteopathic and allopathic students. By the time November arrived, a three-day schedule full of speakers, workshops, and interactive events had been completed.

This year’s Region 1, 2, 3 Conference, entitled “People Treating People,” began on the afternoon of Friday, November 9. The first keynote address was given by Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., FACOFP. Dr. Ross-Lee is currently the Vice President for Health Sciences and Medical Affairs at the New York Institute of Technology. She was the first African-American woman appointed as dean of an American medical school (Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, 1993). Dr. Ross-Lee has been appointed to several national and government advisory committees, has been the recipient of numerous awards, is very active in leadership among osteopathic physicians, and has recently been appointed as medical dean at NYCOM. 

Dr. Ross-Lee addressed the growing crowd of medical and pre-medical students gathered that Friday afternoon, speaking to the group on the challenges she surmounted to become a physician as a young, African-American female trying to break into the medical profession during the civil rights era. She spoke on health policy and the need for a change of direction and vision in the national physician workforce. Dr. Ross-Lee emphasized that medicine is not a job that you show up to each day, but a commitment to the patient to do your best. She stressed the differences between a job and a profession, and how the profession of medicine requires a life-long commitment.

The conference schedule picked up again Saturday morning with an address from Dr. Mark Publicker, director of the Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook, Maine. He oversees more than eighty physicians, eight hundred staff, and forty thousand patients. He gave inspirational anecdotes about his own experiences in medical school and throughout his training, offering advice on where to seek out direction and wisdom. Dr. Publicker’s words struck a cord with the more than two hundred students in attendance for his address.

Programming on Saturday included an array of speakers, workshops, and exhibitors. Dr. Frank Willard addressed a large crowd on mechanisms of low back pain. Dr. Marylin Gugliucci presented on the unique geriatrics research going on at UNECOM, while Dr. Matt Hand spoke about his career as a pediatric nephrologist. 

A critical aspect of the conference’s development was the level of student involvement. UNECOM’s own OMM/Anatomy Fellow, Kendra Emery, MSIV, conducted an interactive workshop on osteopathic treatment of ankle injuries. This hour-long session featured an introduction to some osteopathic techniques for both allopathic and osteopathic medical students. Several first and second-year UNECOM students served as TAs for the event, and included Ethan Abbott, Brian Rapp, Steve Nickl, Sarah White, Mike Robinson, Andrew Saluti, Mike Dominello, JP Bettencourt, Shaun Opperman, Michaela O’Rourke, Kim Tripp, Despina Hoffman, and Dante Leven. A grateful thank-you to Kendra and all those who helped make this workshop a possibility! 

Catherine Chamberlin, MSI, gave a standing-room only presentation on basic skills in wilderness medicine, which included plenty of gear so students could try some of the techniques themselves. Cathy taught wilderness medicine skills in Boulder, Colorado, for several years before joining UNECOM’s class of 2011. 

Four UNECOM students, Andrew Ray, Rob Levine, Jeremy Force, and Patrick Hohl, all gave brief presentations on what they did during the summer between their first and second-year, the last “real” summer. Pre-med and first year medical students turned out to learn more about possibilities for research here in the U.S. and medical opportunities abroad. Also, nearly 70 pre-medical students from up and down the Eastern Seaboard took charter buses down to the Biddeford campus of UNECOM to hear a presentation by the RSAS Office about the admissions process, student life, and what sets osteopathic physicians apart. Pre-med students were given tours of the Alfond Center of Health Sciences by current UNECOM students, before racing back up to Portland to re-join the Conference in time for lunch.

Since the conference was a mixture of allopathic and osteopathic students, as well as pre-medical students interested in careers in medicine, a panel of both D.O. and M.D. students was assembled to present both sides of medical education. Lacey McIntosh, MSII, and Jessica Rose, MSIII, represented UNECOM in fine fashion, while two UConn students represented the allopathic side. The panel was a great success, shedding light on the similarities and differences between the two options for medical training in this country. 

Other programming included a presentation by Helen Libby on Reiki and alternative healing techniques, Dr. Carl DeMatteo on infectious disease, Dr. Eric Reiner on interventional radiology, Dr. John Herzog on osteopathy in orthopedics, Dr. John Fox on anesthesiology, Dr. Donald Levine on diabetes, and Ken Lehman, J.D., on some legal issues for future-physicians. 

As the conference planners started down the path towards the conference over 6 months ago, hopeful figures for attendance loomed around 150 students. With over 288 students registered for the conference at final count and an operating budget in excess of $16,000, the UNECOM-hosted AMSA Region 1, 2, 3 Conference was a huge success, and - to date - is the largest AMSA regional conference of the year.

The conference, just like the organization on campus, is completely student-run, and offers a unique opportunity for osteopathic students to interact with their future allopathic colleagues. The efforts by the UNECOM AMSA chapter are certainly something to be proud of, and a special thanks goes out to all the volunteers, speakers, faculty and staff members, and administrators (UNECOM deans contributed financially) who supported the effort and made such an incredible event possible. Nearly forty students were involved in the conference in total:

AMSA Volunteers: Brianna McDevitt, MSI, Tad Lanagan, MSII, Ahmad Yassin, MSII, Kevin Hsu, MSII, Jessica Rose, MSIII, Michaela O’Rourke, MSI, Scott Wessner, MSI, Samantha McGinnis, MSI, Susan Dadaian, MSI, Erika Line-Nitu, MSI, Rachel Kester, MSI, Yoon Cohen, MSI, Lauren Daniels, MSI, Mike Ross, MSI, Katie Stokem, MSI, Abby Roberts, MSI, Ben Seidel, MSI, Sidra Iqbal, MSI, and Marc Bouchard, MSI.

TAs: Ethan Abbott, MSII, Brian Rapp, MSII, Steve Nickl, MSII, Sarah White, MSII, Mike Robinson, MSII, Andrew Saluti, MSII, Mike Dominello, MSII, JP Bettencourt, MSI, Jessica Rose, MSIII, Shaun Opperman, MSII, Michaela O’Rourke, MSI, Kim Tripp, MSI, Despina Hoffman, MSII, and Dante Leven, MSII.

Conference Coordinators: Andy Ray, MSII, Patrick Hohl, MSII, Rob Levine, MSII, Jeremy Force, MSII, and Amanda Staples, MSII.

Thanks for all your time and effort; none of this would have been possible without such broad support!

- AMSA Conference Coordinators

UNECOM students and National AMSA officers pose for the awards ceremony at the end of the Regional AMSA Conference. UNECOM students are L-R Brianna McDevitt, MSI, Amanda Staples, MSII, Patrick Hohl, MSII (fourth from left), Andy Ray, MSII, and Jeremy Force, MSII (second from right.) Photo courtesy Andy Ray, MSII.

 

Pictures of Pickus Center for Biomedical Research Available on Web

The construction of the new Pickus Center for Biomedical Research is really taking off. To follow the progress, please go to /giving/facility.asp and click on the arrows underneath the architect's rendering. We plan to take photos every week or so until the building is completed next fall.

- Erin Peck, Associate Director for Development

 

UNE Maine Geriatric Education Center and AARP launch course to fight exploitation of older adults

UNECOM’s Maine Geriatric Education Center and AARP have launched an online course on "Observing and Addressing the Financial and Material Exploitation of Older Adults." The course was announced at a press conference at the Park Danforth living center in Portland on November 13. Financial and material exploitation occurs when there is an illegal use of a vulnerable individual's resources for another persons profit or gain.

"Con" men and women want to gain people's confidence and have them rely on their sincerity and expertise. U.S. consumers lose more than $40 billion annually to telemarketing fraud. In Maine, 40 percent of all cases of elder abuse involve financial exploitation. It is for these reasons that law enforcement agencies have traditionally been trained to recognize the signs of financial exploitation.  Now it is the health professionals’ turn. 

This online course was developed for health professionals, health professions faculty and students who want to have a better understanding of financial and material exploitation/abuse against older adults - whether committed by family members, friends, individuals in a position of trust, strangers or caregivers. 

Each module of this CME Course is approved for 1.5 Category 1B AOA, Category 1 AMA PRA Credits and UNE contact hours by the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. This course was produced through collaboration between the University of New England Maine Geriatric Education Center and AARP. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration provided partial funding for this project. Visit the UNE Maine Geriatric Education Center website for more information.

- Adapted from UNE Communications press release

 

 

Student Trustee Applications Available Soon

Applications for the student trustee position will be posted to the student trustee website shortly by UNE's Student Affairs office. It is a prestigious position that entails full voting privileges on the University’s Board of Trustees. The Student Trustee must strive to fairly represent the interests of over 3,000 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students to the Board of Trustees, advocate for student rights, and seek to facilitate communication between students and the administration. Ryan Smith, MSII, currently serves as one of the two UNE student trustees.

To get an idea of what the application will look like, take a look at last year's materials on the soon-to-be-updated site: /studentlife/trustee/

 

New Academic Facility to be named for Peter and Cécile Morgane

Please join me in extending a heartfelt thank you to Peter Morgane, Ph.D., faculty member, researcher and generous supporter. In his honor, the University's Board of Trustees recently approved the naming of our planned new academic facility, Peter and Cécile Morgane Hall. Peter's gifts over the past year make him one of the largest individual donors in UNE's history. His affection for the university is matched by our appreciation for what he is enabling us to do for our faculty and students. Peter is a true scholar-philanthropist and he inspires as he shares his talents and treasure with us.
 
Peter and Cécile Morgane Hall will be the first all-academic facility to be built since the Alfond Center. It will include undergraduate classrooms and teaching laboratory space for expanded sections of biology and chemistry, and will be built on the University Campus across the parking lot from Marcil Hall. Construction is due to begin Spring 2008 with occupancy planned for fall semester 2009. For a view of the new building, see /giving/morgane/
 
A researcher and professor of pharmacology in UNE's College of Osteopathic Medicine, Peter has provided the University with tremendous support during the past year in memory of his late wife Cécile. His gifts will be used to help fund the Pickus Center for Biomedical Research as well as the new academic facility. Peter has been overwhelmingly generous, and as one of our own, his gifts mean a great deal to our students. The dedication of Peter and Cécile Morgane Hall will ensure the legacy of his commitment to teaching and scientific research at the University.  

- Danielle Ripich, Ph.D., President of UNE

 

 

UNECOM hosts seminar on health insurance reform in Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont

UNECOM’s Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research is hosting a seminar on Health Insurance Reform in Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont on December 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The seminar will be held in Ludcke Auditorium on UNE’s Westbrook College Campus on Stevens Avenue in Portland. The program is for state legislators, health officials, private sector health organizations, and consumers active in timely access to quality health care.

The seminar is a follow-up to last year’s seminar on state approaches to expanding access to health insurance coverage. This year it will focus on each state’s recent experience and future plans for program sustainability, affordability of insurance, access to primary care, administrative efficiencies to control costs and enrollment trends.

Speakers include Trish Riley, director, Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance, Maine; Susan Besio, Ph.D., director of health care reform implementation, Vermont; Rosemarie Day, deputy director and chief operating officer, Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, Massachusetts, and more.
 
The seminar will provide a unique opportunity to disseminate and discuss information on current policies and programs that expand health insurance in Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Policy makers, health providers and consumers from all over New England will learn about the different ways states are trying to improve access to care for populations that are uninsured and/or underserved. Additionally the seminar will cover the concerns of the business community on expanded health coverage though state policy initiatives.
 
Seminar sponsors include UNECOM’s Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Maine Health Access Foundation, Maine Medical Association, Maine Osteopathic Association, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Maine State Chamber of Commerce, New England Healthcare Institute and Market Decisions.

- Adapted from UNE Communications press release

 

 

UNE explores feasibility of establishing a dental college

The University of New England has sent a letter of intent to plan to the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Higher Education Council to explore the feasibility of establishing a new College of Dental Medicine.
 
With no dental school currently located in northern New England, the University is exploring the possibility of such a program, and would be looking for partners and significant funding to determine its ability to launch this critical health education program.
 
The Maine Department of Labor 2006 Healthcare Occupations Report indicated that ensuring an adequate supply of dentists in the near future will be difficult. UNE President Danielle Ripich, Ph.D., said, “With such a critical shortage of dental professionals in Maine and northern New England, we feel a college of dentistry is absolutely vital to providing oral health care in the region.”
 
The University of New England is well positioned for a dental college with its emphasis on health education and an already established medical college and dental hygiene program. President Ripich said, “At UNE we have the ability to build upon our successful dental hygiene program, which is already helping to provide much-needed oral health care to underserved populations - it’s a natural fit.”
 
The University of New England has Maine’s only medical school, as well as healthcare programs including dental hygiene, nursing, nurse anesthesia, physician assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work and health services management, and a new pharmacy school to start fall 2009.

- Adapted from UNE Communications press release

 

Notice of Locker Room Closure on Selected Dates

Please be advised that the Men’s and Women’s Locker Rooms will be closed to the general public on the dates and times listed below.

I realize that this may be an inconvenience for the campus community and others who use the Campus Center. This is not our intent. We have explored various options other than shutting down the locker rooms, but those are options are not feasible at this point.

The dates and times of closure are as follows:

Saturday...December 1...Men’s Locker Room:  11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday...December 5...Women’s Locker Room:  4:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 

Wednesday...December 5...Men’s Locker Room:  6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. 

Saturday...December 8...Women’s Locker Room:  11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.    

Saturday...December 8...Men’s Locker Room:  1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.    

Tuesday...December 11...Women’s Locker Room:  4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.    

Tuesday...December 11...Men’s Locker Room:  6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.    

Friday...January 4...Men’s and Women’s Locker Rooms:  4:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Saturday...January 5...Men’s and Women’s Locker Rooms:  11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday...January 8...Women’s Locker Room:  4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday...January 8...Men’s Locker Room:  6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Tuesday...January 15...Women’s Locker Room:  4:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday...January 15...Men’s Locker Room:  6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Saturday...January 19...Women’s Locker Room:  11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.    

Saturday...January 19...Men’s Locker Room:  1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Saturday...January 26...Women’s Locker Room:  11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.    

Saturday...January 26...Men’s Locker Room:  1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday...February 12...Women’s Locker Room:  4:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Tuesday...February 12...Men’s Locker Room:  6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Saturday...February 16...Women’s Locker Room:  11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.    

Saturday...February 16...Men’s Locker Room:  1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday...February 20...Women’s Locker Room:  4:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday...February 20...Men’s Locker Room:  6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

- Kim Allen, Director of Athletics

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Current Students

Sailboats in Rockland Harbor, Maine.

New Frontiers in Public Health: The Future of Smoking Cessation

o single product kills more people and definitively causes chronic disease and morbidity in many others. It has been part of American culture for many years but slowly - ever so slowly - we gain new ground in protecting public health and reducing health care expenses by limiting smoking. Smoking is the number one cause of cancer death - Lung Cancer. For the vast majority of lung cancers, survival is bleak and there is no cure; even screening is ineffective. After a seven-year decline in smoking-rates, starting in 1997, smoking rates are now flat. How did we drop the ball?

As a result of the master settlement agreement with Big Tobacco, various states and the public got smart and launched a landmark anti-smoking ad campaign. The campaign was highly successful, and states funded this through a massive windfall of settlement dollars they had received from Big Tobacco, originally intended to partially reimburse them for the expenses incurred in taking care of sick smokers. Many states squandered this money. Funding for comprehensive tobacco control and prevention programs is down over 20% in only four years. Current data recently released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm this hypothesis.

We are nowhere near our goal of reaching a percentage of cigarette smoking adults of 12% or less by 2010. Currently, nearly 21% of U.S. adults are smokers, with the highest percentage of those being individuals who live in poverty with only a high school education or GED. In this group, rates of smoking approach 30%. To offset the loss of smokers in the U.S., tobacco companies have relentlessly plowed money into advertising in overseas markets, and now nearly 1/3 of the world's population are smokers.

Big Tobacco could not have been more pleased. Although they have launched half-hearted attempts to encourage smokers to quit, and to limit exposure to teens and children, this approach threatens their livelihood, their very business model. Cigarettes are still sold front-and-center in grocery stores, in convenience stores, in discount stores, etc. The product placement is deliberate: grocery stores, discount stores, and convenience stores receive a cheaper rate on the purchase of cigarettes when they give them prime placement at the front of their stores. This practice is termed “discounting,” and according to the CDC, cigarette companies increased marketing expenditures in the period from 1998 to 2005 from approx $7 billion dollars to $13 billion dollars.

81% of these marketing expenditures were in the form of discounting or giving grocery stores and gas stations a discount when they placed their cigarettes in a featured position. As cigarette manufacturers have passed on the cost of the settlement agreement to consumers in the form of higher prices - usually disguised as a price increase at the same time as an excise tax increase - they continue to lure smokers with free-pack incentives and other schemes.

In strictly financial terms, the re-sale value of a smoker’s house and car are less than the equivalent house and car of a non-smoker. Smokers incur higher cleaning and painting costs when trying to mask the oxidative damage of cigarette smoke on walls and upholstery. Smokers pay substantially more for life insurance, and marginally more for health insurance. Homeowners insurance companies have higher rates for smokers because they are more likely to burn their house down. More recently, some state governments have been charging a penalty fee to employees who smoke, and employers as diverse as Scott's Miracle Grow to Union Pacific Railways to Alaska Airways will no longer hire employees who smoke. It seems that in the near future the only jobs for smokers will be in the tobacco industry.

The CDC estimates the economic impact of smoking at $167 billion annually. A recent study by Frank A. Sloan et al of Duke University published in "The Price of Smoking," quantifies the cost per pack of cigarettes at $40, and the total cost per male smoker to be $220,000. Assuming a family of four –  at the 2007 federal poverty guidelines of $20,650 for a family of four - the cost of smoking represents nearly ten years of wages.

The cost to states for incarcerated individuals who smoke is even more pronounced. These individuals are provided with "second" cigarettes, or those not fit to be packaged in a retail box, and are sold these cigarettes at a reduced cost. The states then pick up the cost of caring for these prisoners and their smoking-related illnesses.

The dual combination of smoking and birth control puts women at increased risk for fatal blood clots - deep vein thrombosis that can travel to their heart and produce instantaneous death. This is especially true in women over the age of 30. Smoking is a cause for a range of cancers including esophageal, larynx, stomach, cervix, bladder, lung, pancreatic, kidney, and leukemia.

It is clear that in an era of health care crisis, one of the simplest things that we can do to improve the health of Americans is to reduce the smoking rates and make it easier for current smokers to quit. There is no excuse for the 20.3% decrease in funding for state programs that aid in tobacco control and prevention. Considering that it takes the average smoker eight attempts at quitting before reaching long term cessation from nicotine, every attempt must be made by the states to limit opportunities for smokers to relapse.

It seems the next logical step for the states is to limit access to cigarettes by requiring grocery stores to sell them through the pharmacy right next to smoking-cessation aids. The state and federal governments could also encourage pharmaceutical companies to sell smoking-cessation products at convenience stores and in dose packs similar to a pack of cigarettes. Currently, smoking-cessation aids can only be purchased in a one-month supply, and this represents a financial burden for smokers who may be at or below the poverty line. The state could also provide a bonus for stores that sell more smoking-cessation products than cigarettes in a given month. States should impose a tax on retailers who insist on placing cigarettes in the front of their store in a "featured" position; equal to, or greater than, the amount of the discount that the retailer receives from the tobacco companies.

States need to be innovative in targeting populations of individuals who smoke the most. These could include contractors, truck drivers, fast food employees, grocery store check out clerks, etc. States could design ingenious programs whereby representatives show up at unpredictable intervals with a breath test, and those enrolled participants who pass the test are immediately awarded a cash prize or gift certificate. This is an example of a variable ratio reward system that is very powerful in shaping behavior. You never know exactly when and how much you will receive for a reward. This is much like the reward system that smokers are looking for when they light a cigarette. They know that the nicotine from the cigarette will reach their brain in approximately six seconds.

Physicians could order a free range of smoking-cessation materials from the CDC and have these materials displayed in their waiting rooms. The materials would include some of the same types of ads used by tobacco companies. CDC posters feature notable celebrities who pledge not to smoke, or who discuss their struggle to stop smoking. Innovative videos and DVDs discuss the tobacco chemist-turned-science teacher and his struggle to bring the inside story of the tobacco industry. This story was featured in the hit movie "The Insider," with Russell Crowe and Al Pacino. Another DVD showcases how tobacco companies place their products in popular movies, and also details the history of paying top actors and actresses to smoke.

Other simple strategies involve physicians discussing their concerns with managers of local grocery and convenience stores that they frequent. Grocery stores are increasingly trying to become more health-conscious in hopes of luring affluent shoppers who will purchase organic products. Margins on these products are high, and the success can be illustrated by Whole Foods and Wild Oats grocery stores, which are rapidly expanding; both have soaring stock prices, and neither sells cigarettes.

In summary, our approach to smoking-prevention must not only include support materials for smokers who wish to quit, but must also design our community in ways that make it easier to be a non-smoker. We must continue to design the sale and delivery of cigarettes in such a way so that minors are discouraged from buying cigarettes.  We must make it just as easy for a smoker to purchase a patch or another piece of nicotine-replacement therapy as a pack of cigarettes. We must provide a vast array of complementary and alternative therapies including hypnosis, support groups, etc. to aid the smoker who wishes to quit. Through media and advertising, we must discuss the reality of smoking - a lifetime of chronic diseases; malignant mesothelioma and other cancers with bleak chance of recovery; wrinkled skin; poor oral hygiene; and, finally, lost wages and higher cost of living.

- Dan Sheps, MSII

 

MSI students (in red) leap off the line of scrimmage against MSII students (green) at the Annual Sports Medicine Club Chili Bowl flag football game. Photo by Earl Han, MSI.

 

Wodowski Awarded Procter & Gamble COMLEX PE Scholars Grant

Stephanie Wodowski, MSIV, was selected to receive one of ten $1,000.00 Procter & Gamble COMLEX PE Scholars Grants for 2007. This grant was established to provide monetary aid to help defray the costs involved in taking COMLEX-USA Level-2-PE Exam. The goal of this grant is to promote education within the osteopathic profession.

 

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Maine Times

Buoy by Biddeford Pool, Maine.

City of Biddeford applauded in recent edition of the Boston Globe: Click here for article.

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Photo Albums

Footbridge over the Royal River, Yarmouth, Maine.

Chili Bowl Pics by Earl Han, MSI

AMSA Conference Photos, courtesy MSIIs Andy Ray and Patrick Hohl

Turkey Trot Pics by Steve Smith, RSAS

SOMA Impromptu Hotdog Eating Contest

 

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Please send comments, suggestions, submissions, or warm chocolate chip cookies to Steve Smith at ssmith12@une.edu