Keeping the wolf from the door
Satisfied Dentistry Customer Viola Pelfrey
Media Watch
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November 1998
Keeping the wolf from the door
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Keeping the wolf from
the door
AHC asks state for funds
to avert crisis in education of health professionals
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The $32 million request was the second largest item in a $199 million University budget proposal submitted to the Regents for review last month. The largest was $96 million to raise faculty salaries across the University. Approximately $14.6 million of the salary request would go to AHC faculty.
“The crisis in health professional education has not really occurred yet,” said Frank Cerra, VP for health sciences. “The wolf isn’t at the door, but it’s on its way.”
That wolf “is a hydra-headed creature,” President Mark Yudof told the
Regents in explaining the reasons for the AHC request. Those reasons included:
• In the next five
years, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 will reduce the amount of federal
Medicare funds for medical resident training by as much as $200 million,
AHC officials estimate. Shortfalls of as much as $100 million a year may
be incurred thereafter.
• Revenue earned by AHC faculty in private practice clinics—up to a third of which has gone to medical education and research—is on a downward spiral in part because some managed care plans will no longer pay for certain patient services. AHC administrators predict that faculty practice revenues could fall by as much as $9 million in the next five years.
• The changing health care environment will require future health professionals to know more, particularly in the areas of medical technology and business. That will drive up the cost of professional education, especially graduate medical education which now costs more than $100,000 a year.
• More clinical pharmacists
and more nurses will need to be trained to help care for the aging baby
boomer population and fill the gap in the event of a shortage of physicians.
As explained in a “Dear Colleague” e-mail message from Frank Cerra to AHC faculty, staff, and students last month, in addition to the $32 million request for education, the AHC has asked for:
• $5 million for AHC community-based initiatives in the areas of disease prevention, outcomes research, access to health information, and health sciences and agriculture collaborations.
• $1 million for a Food Animal Health Center in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
• Continued funding for indigent care, the Rural Physicians Associate Program, the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and the Biomedical Engineering Institute.
The AHC proposal also endorsed the state Department of Health’s request
for $130 million for graduate health professional education across the
state as well as $20 million from tobacco settlement proceeds for University
research on chronic and addictive conditions.
The Board of Regents will take action on the University’s request at
its November meeting. Upon approval, the proposal will be sent to
the state legislature.
| Satisfied
Customer
Viola Pelfrey has been faithful to the School of Dentistry’s clinics since she got her braces there in 1927 |
Viola Pelfrey (Photo by Richard Anderson) |
Braces, which were relatively new in 1927, were quickly prescribed for Viola. Ancestors of today's color-sparkled plastic models, these were heavy brownish wire affairs with heavy brown metal posts anchored to each tooth. For the next three years, Viola would be torn between her natural inclination to talk and smile and her desire to keep her mouth closed and her braces out of sight.
Viola and her mother made weekly visits to the clinic to have her braces tightened. Upon their return home, Viola always had soup and ice cream for lunch because her teeth ached too much to chew. After a while, she took the streetcar to the clinic by herself.
“I never felt a bit scared because everyone was so friendly,” she said. Although she saw different student dentists over the years, she came to know the dental assistants who were on staff and to think of them as friends.
Finally, when she was 15, her braces were removed for her confirmation. Even so, she remembers, she didn't smile for her confirmation photograph because she wore a retainer. Not one to throw things away, Viola still has the retainer in a trunk in the attic of her house on 17th Avenue, where she has lived since her she was seven.
After the braces came off, Viola continued to go to the clinic for dental care, even though there were dentists closer to home.
Although she now needs only routine cleanings and check-ups, Viola has had cavities filled, roots canaled, and several teeth crowned in gold at the Dental Clinic. Amazingly, she has never needed Novocain. Even in the days before high-speed drills. Even for root canals. “They tell me I have a very high pain threshold,” she says with a big smile that shows her straight teeth. Now 83, she also has all of her own teeth, an achievement she credits to the School of Dentistry. Both of her parents needed false teeth.
A contented person by nature, Viola clearly doesn’t go out of her way to make changes in her life. She lives in the same house where she lived with her parents in 1927. She has attended only two churches, both in the same denomination, both in south Minneapolis. And she and her husband, Clyde, have been married for 53 years. But she doesn’t see a doctor on a regular basis, preferring to rely on vitamins, a healthy diet, and a positive attitude. She says the reason she has stayed with the Dental Clinic for so long is because in 71 years she’s simply never been unhappy with the care.
"The students have to do the work right because the professors check it," she says.
Viola now visits the clinic every four months to have her teeth cleaned. She and Clyde, also a patient, take the bus rather than the streetcar, and their destination is a little different than in 1927. While Viola has lived in the same place for 71 years, the dental clinic has moved three times. It’s now located in Moos Tower, a modern steel-and-concrete structure at Delaware and Harvard streets, about a block away from the original site.
The clinic itself is still a large room, but dividers between chairs give patients a little more privacy than they had in 1927. Viola misses watching what’s happening on either side of her, but says most of the other changes have been for the better. The reclining vinyl chairs are much more comfortable than the hard wooden ones of the 1920s.
“They’re just beautiful, and so comfortable you could go to sleep in
them,” Viola says. “And I just love the water drills,” she adds, her eyes
lighting up.
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| Abbreviations:
Ch. = Channel Ch. 5 = KSTP Ch. 2 = KTCA Ch. 9 = KMSP Ch. 4 = WCCO-TV Ch. 11 = KARE-11 AP = Associated Press MPR = Minnesota Public Radio UPI = United Press International Thanks to a recommendation by David Dunn, surgery, the governor
declared Oct. 23 “Dr. C. Walton Lillehei Day” in Minnesota. This
recognition of Lillehei’s 80th birthday was mentioned in the Star Tribune.
On Oct. 22, Malcolm Blumenthal, medicine, talked to Ch. 4 about
food allergies that cause weight gain. In a Wall Street Journal story that
ran Oct. 20, Steve Schondelmeyer, pharmacy, talked about direct-to-consumer
drug advertising. The University's Cancer Center recently hosted
a traveling virtual reality machine that simulates cancer fatigue. This
unique event was covered during Oct. 20 news broadcasts on Chs. 4 and 5.
One of the participants featured in the news stories was Sue Mitchell,
obstetrics and gynecology. According to a School of Public Health study
that ran in the Oct. 19 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, women are still the
chief meal planners in families. Pi-Nian Chang, pediatrics, discussed
the state coalition on fetal alcohol syndrome in MedFax on Oct. 19. The
Oct. 17 Star Tribune highlighted a study by Larry Kushi, public
health, in which he used on-line surveys to investigate eating habits.
Katherine
Johnston, AHC chief financial officer, described efforts to share the
cost of research and education at Fairview-University Medical Center in
the Oct. 16 issue of CityBusiness. Appearing in several recent stories
was Gregory Plotnikoff, medicine. The first was an Oct. 14 Ch. 5
story about the power of prayer in medicine. He was featured in an Oct.
14 story by the Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal on snack foods which are
said to have healing qualities. Also running this story was the Oct. 6
New Haven Register. Finally, Plotnikoff appeared on Ch. 11 Oct. 10 talking
about flu remedies. The availability of UMPhysicians through the State
Health Plan made news Oct. 13 and 14 on WMNN, Metro News Networks, and
in the Star Tribune. The story also ran in the Oct. 19 MedFax. A finding
by David Sherman, microbiology, received the attention of UPI, Chs.
4 and 11, WCCO and WMNN, and KPNX-TV in Phoenix Oct. 13, 14, and 15. Sherman
discovered a potential new source of antibiotics. Oct. 13 stories in the
Pioneer Press and Star Tribune, and on the UPI news service, and an Oct.
19 story in MedFax mentioned the connection between Louis Ignarro,
winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, and the U. Ignarro received his
Ph.D. in pharmacology from the U. Yusuf Abul-Hajj, pharmacy, talked
about the performance-enhancing drug used by professional baseball player
Mark McGwire on Ch. 5 Oct. 5 and 13. Seasonal affective disorder was the
topic when Paula Clayton, psychiatry, appeared on Ch. 11 Oct. 13.
An Oct. 12 Pioneer Press story on cookbook author Natalie Dupree quoted
Paul
Yakshe, medicine. Dupree is leading a campaign to educate the public
about acid reflux. A husband-wife kidney transplant performed by
Arthur
Matas and John Najarian was featured on the front page of the
Oct. 11 Star Tribune. A presentation to the board of regents by Frank
Cerra, Sr. VP for health sciences, captured the interest of the
Star Tribune and Pioneer Press Oct. 9 and 10, and MedFax Oct. 19. Cerra
was speaking about this year's AHC legislative package.
Jeff Miller,
medicine, was on Ch. 4 Oct. 9 describing the Cancer Center's breast cancer
vaccine research. A controversial new technique that transfers the DNA
from an infertile woman into an egg that is then fertilized was the topic
of discussion on an Oct. 9 WCCO radio program that featured Jeff Kahn,
bioethics. Discussing the 40th anniversary of the cardiac pacemaker on
Ch. 5 Oct. 8 was David Benditt, medicine.
Jeff Kahn’s Oct.
7 “Ethics Matters” column on CNN Interactive focused on parents who deny
medical treatment for their children. A School of Public Health effort
to survey uninsured Minnesotans and to improve access was highlighted in
the Oct. 6 Money magazine. John Wagner, pediatrics, was quoted in
an Oct. 6 Family Circle article on one of his patients. Nelson Rhodus,
dentistry, discussed a disease that causes dry mouth. He appeared on the
new national PBS health program "Health Diary" Oct. 4 on Ch. 2 and Oct.
6 on Ch. 17. Also on that program was Roby Thompson, orthopedic
surgery, who was featured in a story on a young girl's fight against bone
cancer. The release of Alexander Wagenaar's survey on teen drinking
received national coverage Oct. 4-6, including stories in USA Today, Star
Tribune, KCAL-TV (Los Angeles) and KPDX-TV (Portland), and interviews on
CNN and PBS’s Lehrer News Hour. Wagenaar, public health, found that Americans
support stricter limits on teen drinking. The Oct. 5 Los Angeles Times
cited a Medical School study on postpartum depression.
Sharon Norling,
obstetrics and gynecology, was quoted on CNN Interactive Oct. 5 in a story
about hormone replacement therapy. Also quoted on CNN Interactive Oct.
5 was James Moller, pediatrics. Moller was part of a story about
genetic tests for heart problems. A School of Public Health finding that
flu shots can reduce hospitalization rates was cited in the Seattle Times
Oct. 4. This study was also mentioned on CNN Interactive Oct. 4 and 13.
Patrick
Redig and Frank Taylor of the Raptor Center were quoted in an
Oct. 4 Star Tribune article about an injured osprey hawk that was rehabilitated
at the center. Courtney Fletcher, pharmacy, described a new drug
for adult and pediatric HIV patients on Ch. 5 Oct. 2. An Oct. 1 Ch. 11
story on women who go into early labor included an interview with
Virginia
Lupo, obstetrics and gynecology. Bruce Cunningham, surgery,
was quoted in an Oct. 1 Star Tribune article describing how to find a plastic
surgeon. The October issue of Minnesota Physician mentioned several AHC
faculty: Ashley Haase, microbiology, regarding the U's participation
in the Great Lakes Center for AIDS Research; Ancel Keys, retired
professor of public health, for receiving an award from the International
Olive Oil Council; John Nyman, public health, who suggested specialist
care costs less; and Steve Miles, bioethics, who wrote a column
about non-profit organizations owning for-profit organizations.
Mary
Jo Kreitzer, nursing, was featured in an Oct. Mpls./St. Paul magazine
article on complementary therapies. Mark Mahowald, neurology, talked
about kids who suffer from sleep disorders on Ch. 5 Sept. 30. A Sept. 29
Pioneer Press story on the use of alternative therapies at Children's Hospital
featured a quotation from Greg Plotnikoff, medicine. Anne Joseph,
medicine, was named to the panel formed to administer the state's tobacco
settlement, a fact mentioned in a Sept. 29 Pioneer Press article.
Quoted in the Sept. 29 Thrive (New York) magazine article on chronic illnesses
and eating disorders was Dianne Neumark-Sztainer.
Julie Anne
Winfield, dermatology, was quoted in the Sept. 29 Naples (FL) Daily
News article on how to baby your newborn's skin. The Sept. 28 St. Louis
Post Dispatch highlighted the University's rural health network program,
launched to help expand access in rural areas. Sr. VP for health sciences
Frank
Cerra was quoted in a Sept. 28 CityBusiness article on the creation
of the National Institute of Health Policy. Arthur Matas,
David
Sutherland, John Najarian, and David Dunn made news as
the University and the Fairview Health System celebrated the 5,000th kidney
transplant and 35 years of transplantation Sept. 25. The story was covered
by Chs. 4, 5, 9 and 11, WCCO and KSTP radio, MPR and WMNN, “Almanac,” and
the Pioneer Press. A quotation from Dunn was part of the University's 60-second
public service announcement that aired during the Gopher football game
on WCCO radio Oct. 10. Aaron Folsom, public health, was quoted in
the Sept. 24 Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and St. Louis Post Dispatch regarding
his findings on heart disease treatment and prevention efforts. The finding
that the rate of heart attacks is on the rise in black men and women was
mentioned on World African Network Online Sept. 24. Bean Robinson,
public health, was quoted in a Sept. 24 Chicago Tribune article on home
parties that feature sexual products. The Sept. 24 Star Tribune ran an
article by Steve Miles, bioethics, and his daughter. The story
discussed their recent trip to Bosnia.
—Teri Charest
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