November 27, 2007

MINUTES
University of Minnesota
Academic Health Center
Deans Council
November 27, 2007

The regular meeting of the Deans of the Academic Health Center was held on Tuesday, November 27 at 3:30 p.m. in 475 ChRC.

Members present:
Frank Cerra, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences
Trevor Ames, Interim Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine
Connie Delaney, Dean, School of Nursing
John Finnegan, Dean, School of Public Health
Patrick Lloyd, Dean, School of Dentistry
Deborah Powell, Dean, Medical School
Marilyn Speedie, College of Pharmacy
Linda Watson, Director, Health Sciences Libraries

Staff present:
Terry Bock, Chief of Staff
Barbara Brandt, Assistant Vice President, AHC Office of Education
Charles Christiansen, Director, Center for Allied Health Programs
Jennifer Cieslak, Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, AHC
Mary Koppel, Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs
Beth Nunnally, Chief Financial Officer, AHC
Mark Paller, Assistant Vice President, AHC Office of Research

Guests present:
Gwen Halaas, Director, Center for Interprofessional Education
Ross Janssen, Director, Occupational Health and Safety
Mark Penn, ACE Bishop Fellow

Review and Approval of Minutes -- October 9, 2007
The council approved the minutes of October 9, 2007.

2007 FRD Grant Applicants/Recipients
Mark Paller presented the AHC Faculty Research Grants for Deans Council approval.  Six grants were approved out of a total of eighteen grants submitted.  Although the number of grant submissions has decreased, Mark stated that the grant proposals were very good and showed great collaboration.

India Log
Frank Cerra asked the Deans to review the India log and commentary.  He said there were a number of action items imbedded in this document that will be discussed at a future Deans Council meeting.

Center for Interprofessional Education
Gwen Halaas gave an update and progress report on the Center for Interprofessional Education.  She hired Susan Kostka as coordinator for the center.  The Advisory Council and Faculty Leadership Council are actively engaged and meeting regularly.  The two groups are also working together on interprofessional education.  They are developing courses (with credits), seminars, and grand rounds to provide educational experiences for students.  The Advisory Council has developed a process by which a course or educational activity would qualify as an interprofessional experience.  The center's pilot course is teambuilding.  They hope to add a health informatics course, health promotion course, and coursework from the Office of Emergency Response.  Frank Cerra stated that the AHC-Student Consultative Committee would like to be the link for the Center to the students.  Halaas said they plan to have the center website up and running by December 1.  Cerra commented that Halaas will be visiting each of the schools, and asked the deans to get the word out to their schools about the center.

Interprofessional Ethics Education
Jeff Kahn said that he has heard that many of the deans are interested in developing an interprofessional ethics course.  He stated that the Center for Bioethics will work with the appropriate deans for education in the colleges/schools along with Gwen Halaas.  They will work towards basic common principles interprofessionally, and then focus on individual areas.  Kahn will solicit appropriate names from the deans for this group.  This topic will be brought back to Deans Council in January.

OSHA
Frank Cerra stated that Ross Janssen is now in charge of the Occupational Health and Safety office system-wide.  His workplan for the first year is the AAALAC Accreditation, BSL-3 Laboratories, Workers Comp and Return to Work Programs, Bloodborne Pathogen Post Exposure Programs, Data Integration Project, Communications Plan, and Employee Health Medical Services. 

AALAC
Frank Cerra discussed the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) cited changes needed at the University.  The University needs to increase the scope and enrollment in the occupational health program for individuals who have contact with animals in the course of their work.  Additionally, the University needs to make changes to Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) processes to ensure proper oversight and support of its animal care and use program.  The changes need to be implemented by mid-December 2007.  Ross Janssen stated that the AAALAC plans to come back for a site visit. 

Affected faculty, staff, and students must complete their training requirements and cooperation is needed while they check for compliance with existing health and safety requirements.  Affected personnel will receive communications about completing training and medical requirements assigned to them.  If affected personnel decline the vaccinations, they will need to sign a waiver.  Communications to the appropriate faculty, staff and students will continue to increase until the deadline of mid-December.

The meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Anderson
Staff to the Academic Health Center Deans Council