Dory Hulse, director of communications for U.Va.’s School of Nursing, spent the weekend with the hundreds of U.Va. volunteers who helped staff the Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise, Va. The annual clinic draws thousands of people from Southwest Virginia and neighboring states seeking medical attention. This is her third and final dispatch from the clinic.
July 24, Wise — Breakfast under the stars. Lions Club volunteers are serving a hot breakfast to all of us volunteers in a buffet line on the stage at the Wise County Fairgrounds. Groggy and bright-eyed people line up for pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits with sausage gravy, fruit and juice and coffee. Other volunteers are circulating through the parking lot with food for the patients. I had to clear foggy car windows this morning, but we’re all grateful for the chilly air. Soon enough it will be hovering around 100 degrees.
At least we all slept in beds and enjoyed showers. Out in that parking lot whole families have spent the night sleeping in cars, the backs of vans and in tents. Who are they? Stan Brock, founder of Remote Area Medical, and Dorrie Fontaine, dean of the U.Va. School of Nursing, are at the gate greeting hundreds of people eager for coveted first-come, first-served numbers that will gain them admission for free health care. I circulate through the crowd with an audio recorder and camera.
Dory Hulse, director of communications for U.Va.’s School of Nursing, is tagging along this weekend with the hundreds of U.Va. volunteers who are helping with the Remote Area Medical clinic being held in Wise, Va. The annual clinic draws thousands of people from Southwest Virginia and neighboring states seeking medical attention. She has agreed to provide us with updates through the blog as she goes along.
July 22, Wise — After six hours along interstates and country roads, through undulating banks of thick kudzu and past massive coal operations, my friend and I have arrived at the Wise County Fairgrounds to join the rest of the U.Va. team of volunteers gathering and preparing for the weekend’s annual free clinic.
Some have been here since Tuesday installing wiring and computer and communications networks. A group of Air National Guardsmen are hooking up generators to supply power for lights, equipment and air conditioning. The U.Va. telemedicine department is already geared up to connect patients and on-site clinicians with specialists back in Charlottesville for consultations. Pharmacy students from Virginia Commonwealth University are sorting and bottling medications under a tent and under the watchful eye of their professor. Nursing and medical students are hauling tables and equipment to help set up operations for triage and medical care.
Dory Hulse, director of communications for U.Va.’s School of Nursing, is tagging along this weekend with the hundreds of U.Va. volunteers who are helping with the Remote Area Medical clinic being held in Wise, Va. The annual clinic draws thousands of people from Southwest Virginia and neighboring states seeking medical attention. She has agreed to provide us with updates through the blog as she goes along.
July 21, Charlottesville — Like swallows to Capistrano, flocks of people are heading to Wise this weekend for one of the largest free clinics in the country. Organizers expect to see a repeat of last year’s 20 percent increase in the number of patients who drive for hours to get what may be the only health care they’ll have all year: medical, dental, vision and hearing.
Kelleher, 28, ran collegiately at Dartmouth and Southern Methodist University, and recently made the transition to triathloning. She won her age group at Nation’s Triathlon in Washington in September, but was something of a dark horse in Saturday’s race, which featured seven of the top 10 finishers from last year, including all of the top three. Kelleher was third after the cycling portion of the race, but pulled away in the 10-kilometer run.
Unofficially, she joins the Cavalier men’s soccer team as U.Va.’s national champions so far this academic year (unofficial, as the NCAA does not sponsor triathlon). But four more spring sports teams are regarded as national title contenders: baseball, men’s tennis, men’s lacrosse and women’s rowing, all of which have been ranked No. 1 at some point this spring..
Dr. Leigh Grossman, a professor of pediatric medicine and chief of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Division at the U.Va. School of Medicine, whose own international experience started when he father took a sabbatical to India when she was a child, recently led a U.Va. medical team on a 30-day leg on the Semester at Sea voyage.
While there, she offered the following three pieces of wise advice to the voyagers, which would probably apply to anyone studying or even just traveling overseas:
International education teaches new ways to learn and to live. Put away books, electronic devices and other barriers that insulate you from others and be open to experiencing differences.
Only in retrospect will you understand how this Semester at Sea education has impacted your life. For now, just know that it will have a profound effect.
Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone and experience differences in people, places and ideas. Walk the streets, talk to people, use all your senses, because it is only then that true learning will occur.
Thomas Jefferson Awards — the highest honors given to members of the University community — were bestowed upon outgoing U.Va. President John T. Casteen III and J. Thomas Parsons, chairman of the Department of Microbiology and F. Palmer Weber Professor of Medical Research. The awards were made at this afternoon’s Fall Convocation at the John Paul Jones Arena.
The Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies, has awarded its Walsh McDermott Medal to Dr. Don E. Detmer, professor emeritus and professor of medical education in the department of public health sciences at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine.
The medal, awarded Monday at the institute’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., recognizes Detmer’s years of service to the institute. From the official press release:
For 37 years, Detmer has consistently supported, enhanced, and promoted IOM’s mission, especially its efforts to improve health care access and quality. Early on, Detmer brought a surgeon’s energy, pragmatism, and focus on results to shaping IOM studies on health care quality and medical records as an IOM policy fellow from 1972 through 1973. During that year, he was instrumental in the planning and implementation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship Program at the Institute. As an IOM member, Detmer has readily accepted visible and challenging roles, such as chairing the committee that produced IOM’s influential report on computer-based patient records. He chairs the IOM Membership Committee and, in that role, leads the implementation and ongoing development of the policies and procedures for election to the IOM. He also served as a member and then chair of the selection committee for the Cecil Awards given to IOM staff.
Richard Bonnie, director of U.Va.’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, is a previous winner of the award.
On the first day of fall, word arrives that the summer issue of Hospital Drive is now online. This is the fourth edition of the online journal, which “encourages original creative work that examines themes of health, illness, and healing.”
Dr. Jim B. Tucker, medical director of U.Va.’s Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic, a researcher at the Division of Perceptual Studies and author of “Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Past Lives,” talked about his research into the phenomenon of young children who claim to have memories of past lives on Monday’s “Virginia Insight” public radio program. Pretty fascinating stuff.
The Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies, 