CARBONDALE-- Twenty-five area students from the class of 2018 began training in August at the SIU School of Medicine. The students participated in a white coat ceremony that welcomed them into the medical profession.

During the ceremony, students received their first coat from the president of the schools alumni society, Dr. James Cunnar, a family medicine physician in Naperville and a 1994 graduate. The schools alumni society provided the coats. Students also received a lapel pin that reads Compassion, Respect and Integrity from the SIU Foundation.

Dr. J. Kevin Dorsey, Ph.D., dean, provost and a 1978 graduate of the school, welcomed the students, and Dr. Debra Klamen, associate dean for education and curriculum, read the Hippocratic Oath. Students were presented by Dr. Wesley Robinson-McNeese, associate professor of internal medicine and medical humanities, executive assistant to the dean for diversity and a 1986 graduate.

Dr. John Mellinger, professor and chair of the Division of General Surgery, gave the keynote speech. He received the schools 2013 Humanism in Medicine Award.

Most of the students are from the southern two-thirds of the state, said Dr. Erik J. Constance, associate professor of internal medicine, associate dean for student affairs and admissions and a 1988 graduate. The class has 44 men and 28 women.

LocalSIU School of Medicine students are:

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Local students receive white coats

There was a point when Gary Phillips didnt think he needed to graduate from Wharton.

A pre-med student at Penn in the 1980s, Phillips dropped the Wharton half of his College and Wharton dual degree in order to graduate in three years in 1987.

A year later, Phillips began studying medicine at the School of Medicine and was later presented another option: the chance to study in Wharton again, this time on an MBA track.

Phillips, still interested in business, saw the opportunity and took it. In 1991, he graduated from Wharton with an MBA. The following year, he received his M.D. from the Universitys medical school, graduating from Penns M.D./MBA program.

Today, Phillips is not a practicing doctor, although he keeps his license active. Instead, Phillips is the senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, where he is responsible for strategy, mergers, acquisitions and other financial matters.

Phillips admits that he doesnt need his M.D. to work in his current role. But for him, as with many other graduates of Penns M.D./MBA program, it was still a worthwhile pursuit.

I feel like Im good at what I do in part because of the M.D.

In a society where health care and business are becoming increasingly intertwined, recent research has demonstrated there are benefits to having both a business and a medical background. In a paper to be published in September 2014, researchers at Wharton and the Perelman School of Medicine have found that Penns M.D./MBA program had a positive effect on the careers of its alumni.

Having both an M.D. and an MBA allows you to wear multiple hats and see unique perspectives, and theres really a need for people with that kind of training, explained Mitesh Patel, an author of the paper who also graduated from the dual degree program.

With the health care reform debate emerging into the national spotlight notably with the changes brought on by the Affordable Care Act business is playing a larger role in the medical field.

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In a shifting healthcare landscape, two degrees may be better than one

The St. Louis County medical examiner, whose office performed the first autopsy on Michael Brown, is a Jefferson City native and Jefferson City High School graduate.

Dr. Mary Case is the chief medical examiner for St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties. She also is co-director of the division of forensic pathology and professor of pathology at St. Louis University.

I had good memories of high school, she said in a phone interview this week. I feel like I got an excellent education there. I made lots of friends, and many of those friends are still friends today. My best friend is from high school and college.

Her office was thrust into the national spotlight after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Working on such a high-profile case hasnt affected her office, she said. Despite an increase in calls from reporters, it hasnt added much work.

We didnt know at the beginning that it was a high-profile case, she said. It was a very important case. It was a police shooting, as we refer to these cases.

For her office, however, it was a fairly routine case the type of case they might see twice a month, she said. She said her office does its job to provide answers for both sides, in such instances.

Case clarified that, contrary to media reports, she did not perform the autopsy on Brown. It was done by a member of her staff who was on-call at the time. But, she said: I stand firmly behind the job that was done here.

She said she takes no offense that her office isnt the only one to conduct autopsies in such cases. We have the initial jurisdiction, and once we have done our job, the body goes to the family, and if there is an interest in doing further autopsies, that is not looked upon by medical examiners as, Well, you didnt do a good job. Theres something suspicious about what you did.

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JC natives office at center of teens autopsy

Theres Money in the Middle

Welcome to what economists now call the middle skills jobs gap, where theres a dire need for people to fill jobs that require workers with more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree.

Some 69 million people work in middle-skills jobs, representing about 48 percent of the U.S. labor force. That about squares with South Carolina, wheremiddle-skills jobs account for half of all jobs, according to figures from the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

And yet, as baby boomers retire, the middle is also shrinking. According to the Harvard Business Review, as many as 25 million, or 47 percent, of all new job openings from 2010 to 2020 will fall into the middle-skills range.

In other words, theres a great demand for people to fill solid, reliable and well-paying jobs that only require a high-school degree and some additional training of one to two years.

At Midlands Tech, a one-year certificate program runs an average cost of $5,000 for tuition and books; the cost is about $7,500 for a year and a half diploma program, and about $10,000 for a two-year associates degree. Scholarship assistance may be available through either a federal Pell grant (about $5,500 a year) depending on need or S.C. Lottery Tuition Assistance ($2,000), which is available to most applicants. Hot Fields: Health Care, Advanced Manufacturing, IT and Energy Midlands Technical College President Sonny White says there are as many as 12,000 jobs in the Midlands in four cluster areas of health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology and energy.

The boom in middle-skills jobs is reflective of what has long been an economic reality: a four-year college degree no longer guarantees a job. Thats part of the reason, White says, why 80 percent of his students start at age 25 or older. Theyve either gone to college and quit or stuck it out and found their diploma just didnt have that much purchasing power in the modern job market.

Among the top middle-skills jobs in the Midlands, White cites the boom in information technology jobs, particularly ones necessary to Columbias booming insurance industry.

A job as a web developer, network analyst or network administrator requires a two-year associates degree, and generally pays between $35,000 and $100,000 annually. The job prospects are outstanding in our area, White says.

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Windows to New Worlds

Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 4:21 pm | Updated: 4:27 pm, Tue Aug 26, 2014.

FREEPORT - Keith Stoddard hasnt watched a whole lot of field hockey, but hell be cheering on the Freeport High School alumni team on Sept. 6, when they take on the high school varsity in the annual Falcon Pride fundraiser.

Stoddard, who is fighting stage 4 lymphoma, will see a lot of his Freeport class of 1990 classmates that day, as well as his sister, Ellen Golding, who played the sport and graduated the following year. The game and the event to follow at Bucks Naked BBQ and Steakhouse in Freeport highlight the effort that Falcon Pride is making to help Stoddard with his medical expenses. The Gray resident, a carpenter who has two daughters, is going through chemotherapy, and doing part-time office work while he undergoes treatment.

It means a lot, Stoddard said Aug. 15, as he and his girlfriend, Amanda Kesseli, met at Bucks Naked BBQ with Falcon Pride, a group of field hockey players and their friends who went to Freeport High in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Im not used to getting help from other people, so its kind of weird for me.

The Falcon Pride fundraising effort for Stoddard already has started, as the group seeks auction items and donations. Those interested can contact Becky Daniel at rebeccadan@atmsn.com, 865-0645 or see the Falcon Pride Facebook page. On Aug. 20, the group held a Bike Night fundraiser for Stoddard, which included 50-50 drawings, a donation bucket and live music, at Bucks Naked BBQ.

The big event is the alumni game at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6, followed by the auction and 50-50 drawing, at Bucks.

Stoddard, who learned in April that he had the disease, is optimistic he will recover.

I have chemo every three weeks, he said. I think its going to be fine.

Falcon Pride is putting on the events on the heels of a tough few weeks. Members learned that one of their teammates, Lisa Marie Waterman Granville, of Durham, died at the age of 43 on Aug. 11 from mesothelioma. The first Falcon Pride fundraiser two years ago netted $4,400 to help Granville.

We really do want to focus on Keith, because he is our candidate this year, said Becky (Curtis) Daniel. Our hearts are heavy for Lisa.

The rest is here:
Falcon Pride: Fun game, serious cause

IT was a night of reconnecting with old friends and refreshing new networks for the alumni of the University of Auckland at the New Zealand High Commissioners Residence in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

With support from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and Education New Zealand, the University of Auckland hosted an evening reception for about 90 of its Malaysian alumni.

The alumni were honoured to be joined by His Excellency David Pine as well as key staff from the university Faculty of Business dean Professor Greg Whittred and Alumni Relations and Development director Mark Bentley.

More importantly, the alumni and guests at the reception also had the opportunity to meet one of the universitys Distinguished Alumni Award recipients Dr William Tan, who was the nights key guest speaker.

A neuroscientist and accomplished sportsman, who has competed in many international games including the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, the 2007 World Games and the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Dr Tan gained three degrees from the University of Auckland a Master of Philosophy (Medical Science), a Master of Health Science, and a PhD in Paediatrics.

Dr Tan was a Harvard University Fulbright Scholar and an Oxford University Raffles Scholar.

He then became the first person outside of the United States to be offered the prestigious opportunity to train at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.

He is now a resident physician at the National Cancer Centre in Singapore.

During the reception, Dr Tan spoke highly of the Auckland University, commending it for hospitality and providing him with the opportunity to pursue his interest in science and medicine with the best people in the field including Distinguished Professor Sir Peter Gluckman and Professor Bob Elliot.

The desire to know more and to delve into the brain system brought me to the University of Auckland. In my research, I had found that the best place where the best research was happening was at the University of Auckland Medical School. I then won a scholarship from Singapore and was privileged to be accepted in to the university, Dr Tan explained.

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Auckland University alumni meet inspirational Paralympian

Posted on August 22, 2014

Dr. Elson Floyd

YAKIMA, Wash. On Monday, Washington State University President Elson Floyds daughter gave birth to his granddaughter, Victoria. He used the occasion Thursday at the Yakima Rotary Club to talk about one of his biggest projects to date at the helm of WSU.

Floyds daughter and granddaughter had accessible and immediate medical care, he said, but the same cannot be said for many Washingtonians.

We were able to go 10 minutes and she was at the hospital and her (OB/GYN) was right there with her at the same time, Floyd said. But then, I reflect on the fact that in a great number of our counties, one would have to go 40 minutes or more to see a primary care physician.

With the shortage of primary care doctors in rural communities a major issue, WSUs chief reassured Rotarians many of them Cougars that the Pullman school is working to reverse the status quo.

And Floyd believes that to make any dent in the problem, a new medical school is needed on WSUs Spokane campus.

WSU and its rival, the University of Washington, continue talking on how to proceed with the proposal, a difficult discussion since UW officials have spoken against another publicly funded medical school. WSUs medical school would be only the third medical school in a five-state region, encompassing Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Floyd described his discussions with UW as very, very intense. He told Rotarians that the state can no longer rely on just one public institution for more doctors. Yakimas Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences is the only other medical school in the state, but it is privately funded.

There is room and space for us to consider a third model a third model that is much more community-based and more collaborative, he said.

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Exec talks up need for WSU medical school in Spokane

The leader of a forward surgical team in Afghanistan. A developer of tactile books for visually disabled children. A casting editor for Top Chef. An internationally acclaimed concert violinist. A software developer for a defense company.

These individuals and their classmates, a total of 144, whose experiences are just as diverse, participated in the White Coat Ceremony in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theater on August 15, as members of the Class of 2018 of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The class was selected from a pool of 4,201 applicants, up from the previous years pool of 4090, according to Charles Severin, associate dean for medical education and admissions. It includes 126 residents of New York State and 18 from out of state. Thirty are UB graduates.

Most students majored in a scientific field but others majored in art history, accounting, performance studies, African and African American studies, anthropology and environmental studies, among others.

Some students have earned master's degrees in fields ranging from public health to business administration, from music to nutrition. The students have won an impressive array of awards, including Howard Hughes Medical Institute scholarships, the Merck Award for Scholastic Excellence, a Gates Millennium Scholarship from the United Negro College Fund, a National Institutes of Health Diversity Grant and memberships in Phi Beta Kappa.

Many have assisted in medical clinics in Haiti, Peru, Belize, Darfur, Uganda, Kenya, Cambodia, Ecuador and many other countries.

During the ceremonys Calling of the Class, students were called to the stage and presented with their coats, while their hometowns and undergraduate institutions were announced. Students received their coats from medical school administrators including Severin and Michael E. Cain, vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB medical school, who gave the students his traditional counsel about the white coat: You have earned the right to wear it. Now you must earn the right to keep it.

The ceremony is the symbolic rite of passage shared by medical students across the U.S. to establish a psychological and unwritten ethical contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine. But it has a surprising history, according to the keynote address by Helen Cappuccino, assistant professor of surgery and assistant professor of oncology, Breast Surgery Division, Department of Surgical Oncology, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and an alumna of the UB medical school.

She noted that until the latter part of the 19th century, physicians traditionally wore black to reflect the somber nature of their work.

In those days, she explained, calling a physician to a loved ones bedside was a prelude to death.

The rest is here:
Diverse student experiences are celebrated at medical school white coat ceremony for Class of 2018

IT was a night of reconnecting with old friends and refreshing new networks for the alumni of the University of Auckland at the New Zealand High Commissioners Residence in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

With support from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and Education New Zealand, the University of Auckland hosted an evening reception for about 90 of its Malaysian alumni.

The alumni were honoured to be joined by His Excellency David Pine as well as key staff from the university Faculty of Business dean Professor Greg Whittred and Alumni Relations and Development director Mark Bentley.

More importantly, the alumni and guests at the reception also had the opportunity to meet one of the universitys Distinguished Alumni Award recipients Dr William Tan, who was the nights key guest speaker.

A neuroscientist and accomplished sportsman, who has competed in many international games including the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, the 2007 World Games and the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Dr Tan gained three degrees from the University of Auckland a Master of Philosophy (Medical Science), a Master of Health Science, and a PhD in Paediatrics.

Dr Tan was a Harvard University Fulbright Scholar and an Oxford University Raffles Scholar.

He then became the first person outside of the United States to be offered the prestigious opportunity to train at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.

He is now a resident physician at the National Cancer Centre in Singapore.

During the reception, Dr Tan spoke highly of the Auckland University, commending it for hospitality and providing him with the opportunity to pursue his interest in science and medicine with the best people in the field including Distinguished Professor Sir Peter Gluckman and Professor Bob Elliot.

The desire to know more and to delve into the brain system brought me to the University of Auckland. In my research, I had found that the best place where the best research was happening was at the University of Auckland Medical School. I then won a scholarship from Singapore and was privileged to be accepted in to the university, Dr Tan explained.

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Site Last Updated 2:02 am, Saturday

VOL. 129 | NO. 164 | Friday, August 22, 2014

The 24-unit Macon Homes section 8 apartment complex at 500 N. Claybrook St. in Midtown has sold for $800,000.

A recently formed limited liability company called Crosstown Macon Homes LLC bought the 17,820-square-foot, three-building multifamily property in an Aug. 20 warranty deed from Macon Homes Ltd.

The seller had acquired the property in 1981 for $191,000.

Built in 1950, the Class D apartment complex sits on 1.2 acres along the east side of North Claybrook Street where it bends west into Forrest Avenue. The Shelby County Assessor of Propertys 2014 appraisal is $411,300.

No financing was associated with the transaction, but the seller did quitclaim the property to Crosstown Macon Homes on the same date.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Daily News staff

The Economic Development Growth Engine of Memphis and Shelby County tweaked the tax incentives for an expanding trucking company.

The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes incentive, or PILOT, awarded to North Carolina-based less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. last year had to be adjusted after the company said it would create fewer jobs in the ramp-up period but increase capital spending and wages.

Excerpt from:
MERI Receives $150,000 Grant